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.
Jim Bankoff The mogul guides Vox Media and Group Nine to a merger, potentially building a digital media (and advertising) juggernaut when the deal closes in 2022. André Nemec Despite hype, Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop adaptation, led by the showrunner, garnered mixed reviews and was canceled less than a month after its debut. Jen Friedman NBCUniversal taps the former Blackstone and Obama administration official to lead global communications after former chief Hilary Smith takes a new corporate role. Johannes Roberts Sony’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City helmer saw the film fizzle so far at the box office with $30 million worldwide, trending as the lowest-grossing franchise title. Showbiz Stocks $174.33 (+1.4%) APPLE (AAPL) Strong demand for the latest version of the iPhone boosted the tech giant’s fortunes as it…
When Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story opened to a dismal $10.6 million at the domestic box office over the Dec. 10-12 weekend, Hollywood was despondent. The next question: How quickly will the musical go to streaming if it doesn’t rebound in theaters? West Side Story is hardly the only film caught in the crosshairs of a dramatically altered landscape that has seen the theatrical marketplace become a shell of itself because of the pandemic, at least for anything that isn’t a superhero movie or a film like Free Guy that can rally younger male moviegoers in the 18-to-34 age group. Every studio is now having to figure out how early to send a movie to a streaming service to boost subscribers or to premium VOD. Before the pandemic, theater owners…
What will be the first big court decision of the new year? For the entertainment industry, that could be coming from, of all places, the government’s antitrust case against Facebook. The Federal Trade Commission is challenging Facebook’s past acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and alleging the social media giant engaged in an illegal “buy-or-bury” scheme to beat out competition after failing to innovate. A federal judge may take up whether the government waited too long to sue to unwind Facebook’s buying spree, but part of what makes this case provocative for Hollywood (and elsewhere) is a question being presented about whether FTC chair Lina Khan should have recused herself. In a recent briefing, the FTC argued that even if Khan had “prejudged” facts and issues before voting in favor of…
Jason Derulo was frosting some cookies. He just didn’t know how to decorate them. So he turned to his viewers. “Should I decorate them with an ornament? A present? Or a snowflake?” he asked. The singer-songwriter was live on Twitter on Nov. 28, selling Kitchen Aid mixers and Keurigs as part of a livestream shopping event the platform hosted with Walmart. The merging of shopping and TV is not new — the Home Shopping Network was founded in 1982, after all — but the emergence of social platforms and the ease of one-click buying through PayPal, Apple, Instagram and TikTok have transformed the experience to allow for seamless interactivity, unusual entertainment concepts and fewer “Call now!” hard sells. In addition to Twitter, companies like TikTok, YouTube and NBCUniversal have been…
Nearly a year ago, TikTok unveiled its Black creatives program, a three-month incubator in partnership with Charles D. King’s Macro media company, to support an inaugural class of 100 creators and propel their careers forward. Since then, creators have attended town halls and meetings with TikTok and entertainment industry execs and received training on topics like how to turn their platforms into brands. In November, TikTok and Macro said they were awarding 10 Black creators $50,000 grants each to pursue a larger project and help cover the costs of equipment, staffing and other resources. Jason Linton, who goes by @dadlifejason on TikTok and has 11.6 million followers, is a recipient of one of the grants and says he was grateful the incubator brought him together with other Black creatives. “We…
In 2014, when Warner Bros. drafted LeBron James to star in its Space Jam sequel, the film was tailored to appeal above all else to the mighty Chinese market. After all, James was a huge commodity in the basketball-obsessed country, where his signature Nike sneakers are made. Along the way, the future Hall of Famer avoided poking the China bear, even if it meant drawing outrage when he criticized Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey in 2019 for tweeting his support for Hong Kong protesters, calling him “misinformed” — a notable move given James’ vocal stance on police brutality issues and former President Trump’s socalled Muslim travel ban. At the time, videos of police crackdowns on Hong Kong’s pro-Democracy movement were circulating widely while it was well reported that more than…
