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Shortly after Amazon’s May 26 announcement that it was buying MGM in a deal valued at $8.45 billion, Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke and her boss Mike Hopkins held a town hall with employees from the Hollywood studio. “They expressed how good this will be for Prime customers and growing their entertainment portfolio,” says one person who attended the virtual session. “And they intend to do theatrical. How this plays out relative to which titles is unclear.” Afterward, MGM Motion Pictures chairman Michael De Luca and his top lieutenant, Pam Abdy, made calls to producers informing them that “it was business as usual,” per several sources. That is, until a regulatory review is finished and the Source: deal closes sometime next year, possibly in the first quarter. Until then, the film…
Emily Blunt & John Krasinski The Quiet Place Part II’s respective star and director win big on a theatrical debut as the sequel nets $57 million over the four-day holiday weekend, a pandemic best. Chris Cuomo After apologizing for putting CNN staff “in a bad spot” by advising his governor brother, colleague Jake Tapper tells The New York Times: “That was not a fun day.” Nicole Clemons The Paramount TV Studios president will add oversight of streaming service Paramount+’s originals in an upcoming restructure at ViacomCBS. Suzanne Scott The Fox News CEO loses two politically moderate voices as Juan Williams exits regular appearances on The Five and Democratic contributor Donna Brazile jumps to ABC News. Showbiz Stocks $32.04 (+135.4%) AMC THEATRES (AMC) The sale of $230 million in stock to Mudrick Capital only sent AMC’s…
Amid a wave of M&A fever, will Amazon’s $8.45 billion takeover of MGM prompt its Silicon Valley rival Apple to refresh its shopping list to include a Hollywood studio? The iPhone maker already has a giant footprint in entertainment through its services division — which includes Apple TV+, Apple Music, the App Store, iCloud and more. Its revenue topped $16.9 billion in the first quarter, up from $13.3 billion in the year-ago period, and boasts 660 million paid subscribers in total. And CEO Tim Cook has described streamer Apple TV+’s ambition “to be one of the most desired platforms for storytellers,” singling out comedy series Ted Lasso, drama The Morning Show and the miniseries Defending Jacob as its titles with “significant buzz.” But the streamer is seen by some Wall…
With inflation hitting the U.S. economy at large, Hollywood is feeling the impact of it on its film and television production. The rising demand and sluggish supply of building materials is hampering the entertainment industry’s ability to build movie and TV sets within budget. “In the last three months, the cost of materials have shot through the roof,” says Doug Jeffery, founder of 41 Sets, a boutique shop that has constructed sets for several commercials as well as Sony and CBS projects. Jeffery notes that a sheet of plywood was $20 or $30 in recent years but is now roughly three times as much. And it’s not just lumber: Everything from steel to glass to paint has jumped in price in recent months. Rising prices are forcing producers and executives to…
In the early morning darkness of July 10, 2019, on a bare-bones outdoor interview set constructed on the side of a road in Sun Valley, Idaho, Discovery CEO David Zaslav laid out the case for the M&A frenzy that would hit the entertainment business nearly two years later.“[Streaming] is going to be a street fight,” Zaslav told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin when asked about WarnerMedia’s just-announced-at-the-time plans to launch HBO Max. “Each of those players that are chasing that ball — chasing scripted movies and scripted series — they are chasing IP, and none of them have enough.” Two years later, and Zaslav is about to take control of HBO Max himself as part of an IP-driven megadeal that will see WarnerMedia and Discovery merge. During a press conference announcing the…
Last summer, after the killing of George Floyd, I received an email from Austin Winsberg, my showrunner on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Austin loves to draw on the actors’ real lives while creating the show, so, true to form, he asked me what intersections there are between me and my character, Simon — and what would I like to see in this season. There was a dissonance inside of me when reading the email because I didn’t know how honest to be. After all, Simon is a Black man in a predominantly white space, and so am I. Would they be open to having a series of uncomfortable conversations? Here I was, in the midst of all these police killings in the Black community. And, because of COVID, I was locked…
