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.
Over the past quarter-century, for better or worse, one law has played an outsized role in the vibrant internet we know today. Yet amid the fallout of the Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6, calls to reform Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act have grown louder. Some lawmakers complain about the spew of hatred and legion of disinformation. Others detest the power of Big Tech to choose whose voice is loudest on platforms seen as akin to town squares. Politicians on both sides of the aisle hold up a repeal of Section 230 as the appropriate response to everything from the Capitol insurrection to the suspension of Donald Trump’s Twitter account two days later. Unfortunately, a Section 230 repeal won’t be enough to achieve what some political leaders…
Chloé Zhao The director’s Nomadland gains awards season momentum, adding top honors from the National Society of Film Critics and the Gotham Awards to its accolades. Suzanne Scott As the Capitol Hill riot leads TV news, the Fox News chief’s network falls 24 percent from its ratings average and trails CNN and MSNBC in primetime. BTS The band’s single “Dynamite” rules the Billboard Global 200 for a fourth week, with 55.6 million streams and 18,000 sold from Jan. 1 to 7, per MRC Data. Roger Goodell The NFL commissioner saw Wild Card weekend game ratings tumble 18 percent year-to-year, on top of the regular season finishing lower, as the league gears up for the Super Bowl. Showbiz Stocks $621.49 (+1.5%) CHARTER (CHTR) The cable giant led an investment into measuring…
The Warner Bros. business affairs department did not have a very relaxing holiday break. The group was working through the end of the year with the aim of placating big-name talent that was kept in the dark about the Dec. 3 reveal outlining plans for the entirety of the studio’s 2021 slate to be released day-and-date domestically in theaters and on HBO Max. One such negotiation was with Denzel Washington, who leads The Little Things, out Jan. 29, the first of the 17 titles to be released under the day-and-date HBO Max model. Washington’s feature contract is said to be a $20 million fee plus backend, leading insiders to assume he will be netting a far bigger payday than the $10 million that Gal Gadot received as Wonder Woman 1984…
Movie theater chains are staring down an unprecedented crisis, as pandemic shutdowns are forcing operators in some areas to close while awaiting local authorities’ COVID-19 guidance. So it was no surprise that when Marcus Corp. — the fourth-largest circuit in the U.S., with 1,110 screens in 17 states — reported its latest financials on Nov. 3, CFO Doug Neis told investors the pandemic had led to “the two worst quarters we’ve ever experienced in our 85-year history.” Marcus stock fell 58 percent in 2020, while shares of the nation’s largest chain, AMC, dropped 71 percent and rival Cinemark’s closed off at 49 percent. But Wall Street observers are notably bullish on the Wisconsin-based Marcus when a pandemic recovery arrives, given its tradition of conservative financial management. The Marcus Corp., which…
With COVID-19 cases showing no sign of abating, organizers of Hollywood awards shows and global film festivals are grappling with whether to postpone or scuttle their planned industry events. On Jan. 5, Sundance opted for a version of the latter by canceling its Los Angeles-area drive-in screenings because of a spike in COVID-19 cases in Southern California. That move came on the heels of the Grammys’ postponement of its Jan. 31 ceremony. The SAG Awards, which are scheduled to take place March 14 — the same date now claimed by the Grammys — may be the next to move, sources say, while the Feb. 28 Golden Globes are a question mark. When Sundance pulled the plug on its planned outdoor screenings, it caught some filmmakers off guard. The festival sent…
Without Hollywood blockbusters, movie ticket sales at the foreign box office reached a mere $10.2 billion in 2020, a precipitous 70 percent behind the average of the three previous years, according to the entertainment research firm Gower Street. In fact, the top performer in more than a quarter of the 79 markets surveyed by Gower were 2019 holdovers. North American ticket sales hit an estimated $2.27 billion last year for a global total of around $12.4 billion to $12.6 billion. Final numbers are still being tallied, but China’s status as the top market is assured at roughly $3 billion. Generally, the Asia-Pacific region made a far faster recovery than other parts of the globe. Between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, its ticket sales accounted for more than 77 percent of…
