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.
Sandra Smester Telemundo hires the TV Azteca exec to oversee all programming for the Spanish-language NBCUniversal network. Sylvester Stallone, Irwin Winkler Who wins by reviving a decades-old fight between the Rocky star and producer over ownership? Stallone’s public swipes don’t appear to have had any deal impact. Perry Sook TV giant Nexstar, which snapped up The Hill and is seeking to buy The CW, gives its CEO a multiyear extension through March 2026. Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah Warner Bros. scraps the $90 million feature Batgirl from the Bad Boys for Life filmmakers that had been greenlit during the AT&T ownership era. Showbiz Stocks $22.30 (+22.5%) PINTEREST (PINS) The social photo company saw its share price jump after Elliott Management disclosed a major stake, praising its “significant potential for growth”…
For much of Hollywood, things are looking rough right now. Streaming subscriptions seem to be stalling, with Netflix reporting subscriber losses for the second straight quarter (the first time that’s happened) and NBCUniversal’s Peacock flat on growth quarter-to-quarter. Advertising is in worse shape, with Apple, Roku, Snap and Meta seeing a slowdown in spend and NBCU CEO Jeff Shell telling analysts that, indeed, the market is “choppy.” But as bad as things appear in the core media business models of subscriptions and ads, there is another area that seems to be booming, with no sign of slowing down soon: live events and theme parks. And companies that have this revenue stream may be able to ride its wave until the choppiness elsewhere subsides. Consider NBCU, which reported its Q2 results…
Roku was particularly impacted by the advertising slowdown, which also has hurt other ad-reliant companies such as Snap and Meta. The downturn hurt Roku’s second-quarter revenue and caused the company to pull its full-year guidance because of the uncertain economic environment. To make up for its pressured margins, the Anthony Wood-led Roku said July 29 it would slow its rate of hiring and pull back on operating expenses. This includes its content spend, the bulk of it made up of third-party licensing, but which also includes investment in its Roku Originals channel. These are some of the only levers that the company can pull, analysts say, as it waits for an improvement in the broader economy. The previous quarter created somewhat of a perfect storm for Roku, according to MoffettNathanson…
This is a David Zaslav mandate.” That’s how one insider explains HBO Max’s decision to cancel its family-focused comedy Gordita Chronicles a month after the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed platform dropped the full season of the Sony TV series. The decision marked a loud news alert to the industry that under WBD honcho Zaslav, the streamer would be exiting the live-action kids and family programming arena as part of the exec’s mandate to cut billions of dollars from the newly merged company’s bottom line. Gordita Chronicles, like the Head of the Class remake from Ted Lasso cocreator Bill Lawrence and the Lena Dunham-produced Generation, was canceled after one season. All three shows were part of a push by HBO Max to add programming in the kids and family space that would…
8 episodes 1.11B minutes viewed Reviews for the Chris Pratt-led The Terminal List were not great, but that didn’t seem to deter Prime Video users, who spent more than a billion minutes watching the eight-episode series over its first three days of release. The show didn’t come in as high as the similarly binge-released Reacher (1.84 billion minutes) in February but was above the tally for the season three debut of The Boys (949 million) in June. It ranked third among all streaming series for the week of June 27-July 3, behind Netflix hits Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy.…
The family box office used to be reliable, but then the COVID-19 crisis shuffled theatrical schedules, and now studios are trying to figure out to what degree parents and kids are willing to return to the multiplex after having easy access to product at home. Earlier in the summer, progress was made: Universal and Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru opened to a dazzling $107 million, a pandemic-era best and almost matching the $115 million launch of the first Minions in 2015. To date, Gru has grossed more than $710 million globally. Then came a setback. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank bombed, and Warner Bros.’ star-packed DC League of Super-Pets limped to a $23 million domestic debut over the July 29-31 weekend (prerelease tracking had warned that the…
