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.
Adam Aron The AMC Theatres chief scores a coup by nabbing distribution for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert film, beating out interested studios including Paramount. Bob Iger Of all the headaches the Disney CEO has right now, a major carriage dispute with Charter that blacks out ESPN is testing the mogul’s dealmaking prowess. Idris Elba The actor’s star power elevates Hijack to a spot on Nielsen’s streaming charts — the first Apple TV+ show other than Ted Lasso to rank on the list. Tony McNamara In a surprise move, Hulu axes one of its signature shows, the creator’s The Great, after three seasons as a critical favorite but no appearances on Nielsen’s streaming chart. Showbiz Stocks $439.88 (+5.2%) NETFLIX (NFLX) The streaming giant has reportedly been pushing for the studios…
In addition to the chaos of the strikes, Hollywood is facing a moment of reckoning after some of the costliest franchise installments in history were washed out to sea at the 2023 summer box office, while such original fare as Barbie and Oppenheimer created a surprise cultural tsunami. A box office aficionado would have to go back years, if not decades, to find another summer where two of the five top-grossing movies in North America were fresh and original nonfranchise tentpoles. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie tops the 2023 season with a current domestic haul north of $600 million and more than $1.34 billion worldwide for Warner Bros. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, from Universal, has earned more than $300 million domestically and nearly $800 million globally. Then there’s Sound of Freedom, the indie…
WINNERS ↑ SOUND OF FREEDOM The indie film from Angel Studios arrived out of nowhere to earn north of $180 million domestically, putting it at No. 6 on the list of topgrossing summer films, ahead of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and the latest Mission: Impossible feature. BARBIE Greta Gerwig’s fresh, feminist take on the doll came in 187 percent ahead of the previous recordholder for a toy-to-movie adaptation (The Lego Movie). That’s on top of other records Gerwig smashed, including the top-grossing solo female director of all time. OPPENHEIMER No one could have foreseen that this three-hour biopic would become Christopher Nolan’s biggest film in more than 50 overseas markets when factoring in current exchange rates and excluding unreleased territories. (It’s No. 3 in North America, behind…
On Aug. 17, days after its strike passed the 100-day mark, the WGA West issued a call for lawmakers and regulators to look into the deals of three Hollywood giants: Netflix, Disney and Amazon. “Pay and working conditions for writers have become so dire, and media conglomerates so unresponsive, that 11,500 writers went on strike,” stated the WGAW report. “Without intervention, these conglomerates will seize control of the media landscape, and the streaming era’s advances for creativity and choice will be lost.” For decades, competition enforcers essentially rubber-stamped many so-called vertical mergers — the combination of firms in different parts of a supply chain, rather than direct competitors — under the theory that they lower production costs and ultimately lead to lower prices for consumers. This changed under the Biden…
When Mark Thompson was hired as CEO of The New York Times in 2012, he knew that he was facing skepticism from within the storied news organization, wary of the TV executive coming in with a mandate to transform its business. “An outsider has many disadvantages, but one advantage is a ‘cold eye,’ ” Thompson recalled in a case study for the global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in August 2020, shortly after his departure from the Times was announced. “In this case, I took the job because, besides all the problems and the difficulty of change in a legacy media organization, I thought there was also immense potential.” Now, Thompson will bring that “cold eye” to CNN, where he was named chairman and CEO on Aug. 30. As with…
When The Other Black Girl hit bookshelves June 1, 2021, it was already a phenomenon. The manuscript went through a 14-way auction, eventually landing at Atria for a seven-figure deal — and an adaptation was already in the works at Hulu after a similarly competitive bidding war. The novel became an instant New York Times best-seller. Zakiya Dalila Harris wrote the thriller (her first) from her own experience as one of two Black people on her floor of the Penguin Random House offices, where she worked as an assistant editor. The book’s protagonist, Nella, is drawn to new hire Hazel in hopes they can bond over racism at the fictional Wagner Books before realizing that Hazel is involved in a cult-like group that attempts to brainwash Black women in the…
