The all-new Hollywood Reporter offers unprecedented access to the people, studios, networks and agencies that create the magic in Hollywood. Published weekly, the oversized format includes exceptional photography and rich features.
On June 18, as a chant of “CNN sucks!” broke out across a crowded arena in Orlando, CNN anchor John Berman interrupted the network’s live coverage of Donald Trump’s 2020 kickoff event to reveal a change in programming plans. “Within two minutes, he did talk about the economy,” Berman told viewers. “But, within four minutes, it was attacks on the media.” The network broke away. For some who decried CNN’s tendency to broadcast candidate Trump’s 2016 campaign rallies live and unedited, the decision to cut away from President Trump’s latest MAGA-fest was a welcome one. But then, exactly one month later, the network turned the lineup draw for the July 30 and 31 Democratic primary debates into a dramatic, hourlong live television event that was aggressively marketed as “The Draw.”…
Lil Nas X With its 17th week atop the Billboard Hot 100, the rapper’s collaboration (with Billy Ray Cyrus) breaks the record for the longest No. 1 stay in the chart’s 60-year history. Katy Perry The pop star loses a years-long copyright lawsuit over her 2013 hit “Dark Horse” after a jury concludes the song infringes on a Christian rap tune. Paula Kerger The longest-serving head of PBS renews her contract with the public broadcaster for five more years, through 2024. Robert Evans The longtime producer exits his deal at Paramount Pictures, the studio with which he has been closely associated for more than a half-century. Showbiz Stocks $146.39 (+1.2%) WALT DISNEY CO. (DIS) Its film studio sets a new yearly record of $7.67 billion — in just seven months…
MoviePass may be on its last legs, but its legacy lives on. The last of the largest U.S. theater circuits, Regal Cinemas, unveiled its subscription plan July 29, and it’s more aggressive than those of AMC Theatres and Cinemark, allowing “members” to see as many titles as they desire. But the verdict is out on whether these plans will pay off. Analyst Eric Handler of MKM Partners prefers Cinemark’s: Members get one ticket a month, plus deep discounts. “Cinemark will make money every single time,” he says. “For AMC and Regal, you want people to go to the movies, but you don’t want them to go too much. If they go more than three times a month, you are losing money.”…
After years of breakneck growth, China’s film sector is in the grips of a contraction. Among the 12 most influential publicly traded film companies in the country, all but one said in July earnings reports that they expect profits to fall or crash into the red. The carnage includes a 55 percent to 65 percent profit decline at Wanda Film Holding Co., a profit crash of more than 200 percent at pioneering studio Huayi Brothers Media, and even a 253 percent slide into losses at Beijing Culture, the hit-making studio known for all-time box office champion Wolf Warrior 2. Last year’s abrupt crackdown on tax evasion in the industry — which ensnared actress Fan Bingbing — has been followed this year by an aggressive tightening of censorship control, leading to…
When Rich Paul met LeBron James at the Akron-Canton Airport back in 2002 — Paul was 21 and James was a teenager heading to Atlanta for the NCAA Final Four — he probably never imagined that someday he’d represent James in NBA deals worth $342 million and counting. Seventeen years later, with 23 NBA players at his Klutch Sports Group, Paul is breaking into the Hollywood firmament via an investment from UTA and the newly created position of head of UTA Sports. It’s an effort by the Jeremy Zimmer-led agency to establish a sports business amid a content arms race that is looking to athletes as creators. The deal gives UTA an on-court business to the tune of $1 billion in contract value as well as instant credibility in athlete…
CAA SPORTS It reps more than 2,000 active athletes for $2.35 billion in commissions in 2018. Its football deals alone — led by agents Todd France and Tom Condon — amounted to $4.1 billion. WME AND IMG WME has forged deals for LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill Entertainment and for Stephen Curry and Jeron Smith’s Unanimous Media at Warner Bros. and Sony, respectively. IMG is a leader in the lucrative athlete endorsement and sponsorship sector with star clients including Novak Djokovic (who netted $30 million in endorsement earnings this year), Serena Williams ($25 million) and Jordan Spieth ($29 million). UTA SPORTS The newly formed unit under Klutch Sports founder Rich Paul reps James and 22 other NBA players on the court.…
