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.
Dave Green The Coyote vs. Acme director had his John Cena-starring film shoved into Warners’ vault, then hastily taken back out after protests. Now, is there a buyer for the title? Robert De Niro A jury decides he’s not liable for misconduct against his ex-assistant, but his firm has to pay $1.26 million — and he can’t claw back those 5 million frequent flyer miles, either. Emma Tammi As Five Nights at Freddy’s crosses the $250 million mark globally, the director kicks off a new potential horror franchise for Blumhouse and Universal. Adam Aron The AMC Theatres chief’s $23.7 million pay gets voted down by shareholders. It’s a symbolic move (he still gets paid) but shows discontent among retail investors. Showbiz Stocks $24.40 (+1.6%) PENN ENTERTAINMENT (PENN) The casino company…
In the final days of the SAG-AFTRA contract negotiations, when pressure was closing in on the guild to end what had been a crippling, nearly six-month work stoppage, union president Fran Drescher was holding on to an unusual demand, one that most guild members knew nothing about. Drescher wanted a fund over which SAG had broad discretion to redistribute money among its members. “She wanted her Robin Hood fund,” one studio source says. SAG’s tentative agreement with the AMPTP includes the unorthodox new streaming fund, which is designed to share the wealth among more actors — even those who aren’t working on the shows and films that generated it. The fund’s unusual structure has raised questions for guild members and studios about fairness, legality and the principle that Hollywood is…
Directors Guild No success-based residuals, but a 21.5 percent increase in fixed residuals for TV series and a 34 percent rise for feature films for SVOD services. Overall gains include a 76 percent jump in foreign residuals (in line with other guilds). Writers Guild Writers on movies or seasons of TV that reach the equivalent of 20 percent of a streamer’s domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of an exhibition year get a new, success-based residual. If the film or show hits that benchmark, scribes get a 50 percent bonus on top of their fixed residual. SAG-AFTRA Uses the same 20 percent success threshold as the WGA. Doubles the fixed residual and includes a distribution fund that will pay 75 percent of the bonus to performers on projects that…
I’M GLAD THE STRIKES ARE FINALLY OVER, BUT I FEEL MISUNDERSTOOD. I MEAN, sure, I pull down tons of cash to stonewall and bulldoze artists on behalf of multinational media giants who want to protect their many billions of dollars in beautiful, beautiful profits. And I get that a certain amount of public condemnation and mockery comes with the gig (yes, I’ve seen your mean tweets and memes and yes, I hope all of you die). But before I crawl back into my office in the bowels of a Sherman Oaks shopping mall, before little ol’ Carol is gone and forgotten for the next three years (or at least until next summer, when I get to work on IATSE), I’d like all of you to know that I am a…
WINNERS LINDSAY DOUGHERTY The tough-talking, hard-charging, tattooed Hollywood Teamsters boss leads with her own brand of feminine energy. It was her assistance in directing her drivers to respect the WGA’s picket lines that was key in shutting down productions and making the town quickly understand labor’s 2023 solidarity. Now, she’s got momentum as the clock ticks on her own union’s contract expiration in July. DAVID ZASLAV While the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO was an early strike villain thanks to his nine-figure payday in 2021, the strikes may have set him up for a new lucrative pay package in the company’s next proxy filing. In March, WBD’s board changed Zaslav’s bonus pay to be based on free cash flow. A side effect of the strikes? A ton of free cash flow…
On Oct. 28, TMZ was first to report Matthew Perry’s drowning death. The media outlet, which over the past two decades has become a byword for hard-edged celebrity coverage, cited law enforcement sources and ran a redacted audio clip it’d obtained of a dispatcher communicating with emergency personnel before running photos of the actor’s stricken parents arriving at his home. The site has been renowned and reviled for such lightning scoops. Its casualties include Todd Fisher, who has uniquely experienced its force as a merciless reaper. TMZ broke the news of the death of his sister Carrie. Then, the next day, it was first to report that his mother, Debbie Reynolds, had been transported from his home, where she’d been discussing funeral plans for Carrie, to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center because…
