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.
Guy Moot As catalog sales heat up, the Warner Chappell Music chief lands David Bowie’s entire publishing library — songs from 26 albums — in a $250 million deal. Michael Eisner The former Disney chief sells Topps Trading Cards to rival Fanatics after the latter poached a lucrative MLB contract away from Topps, which had rights for 70 years. Justin Smith & Ben Smith The Bloomberg Media CEO exits, then nabs the star New York Times columnist for a new media venture bankrolled by former Atlantic owner David Bradley. Ellis Jacob Canada’s largest theater chain, Cineplex, led by the CEO, takes a hit as Ontario’s local government indefinitely shutters exhibitors amid an omicron variant case surge. Showbiz Stocks $25.64 (+3.4%) AT&T (T) The telecom sold its Xandr ad business to Microsoft…
Hollywood studio executives breathed a sigh of relief in October and November when overall moviegoing comfort levels hit an average 76 percent, the best of the COVID-19 era. While consumers ages 35 and older still were more nervous than their younger counterparts, progress was being made. Yet those comfort levels plummeted 10 points to 66 percent by Christmas — the lowest since August, during the delta wave — as COVID-19 cases spiked again due to the omicron variant, according to National Research Group, which polls moviegoers on a weekly basis. The box office recovery was again in peril. Sure, December superhero blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home did huge business — the box office now belongs to males ages 18-34 — and families turned up for Sing 2. But adult-skewing fare…
Source: Comscore, Jan. 1, 2021-Jan. 2, 2022. *Still in release Thanksgiving provided the starving specialty box office with a needed feast when Licorice Pizza posted a stellar per-location average of $86,289 from four theaters in New York City and Los Angeles. For decades, art house distributors have relied on what’s known as a “platform” release to grow their films slowly before expanding nationwide. The pandemic eradicated this practice — until now. United Artists Releasing and MGM decided to take a chance on just New York and L.A. for Licorice Pizza. The plan worked, and the film entered the top 10 when expanding weeks later into 786 theaters over Christmas. “It was definitely a risk,” says UAR distribution chief Erik Lomis. In late October, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch opened in…
In the days before the U.S. premiere of The Matrix Resurrections in San Francisco on Dec. 18, rumors began swirling that the movie was part of a new trilogy. There were whispers that back-to-back shoots could happen and that a spinoff series based on a character named Bugs, a breakout in the movie played by Jessica Henwick, was in the works for HBO Max. However, HBO Max insiders insist no series is in development. And movie sequels to the Warner Bros. reboot may prove glitchy as well. Sources tell THR that star Keanu Reeves does not have sequel options, and it’s unclear if director Lana Wachowski wants to make more. It’s no surprise that Warner Bros. and sister company HBO Max may be downplaying such speculation: Matrix Resurrections, which reportedly…
BEST PICTURE Spider-Man: No Way Home On the heels of its opening (second best of all time), this critically acclaimed superhero flick (94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) became 2021’s top-grossing film domestically and passed $1 billion worldwide. Now, as THR first reported, it will get a best picture Oscar push. Don’t Look Up Adam McKay’s star-studded dark comedy bowed on Netflix on Christmas Eve and was slammed by critics (55 percent on RT) but is huge on the service (Netflix says it’s No. 1 in 88 of the 89 countries in which it’s available). Licorice Pizza After debuting to huge per-theater numbers in limited release, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest opened wide but grossed just $2.3 million and was slammed for a recurring bit mocking a character’s accent (with one Asian-American…
Deal of the Week On the first business day of 2022, AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron shared his New Year’s resolution with his Twitter followers. “If we can, in 2022 I’d like to refinance some of our debt to reduce our interest expense, push out some debt maturities by several years and loosen covenants,” he wrote. The fact that AMC has an improving financial position after nearly two years of a global pandemic is something of a miracle in and of itself. A year ago this month, the movie theater company was reeling from the pandemic, facing potential bankruptcy, and its stock was trading at $2 a share. And then it became a meme. Online traders gathering on platforms like Reddit and TikTok embraced the company’s stock, and propelled its…
