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.
Michael Patrick King The And Just Like That showrunner steers the Sex and the City franchise to new relevancy and nabs a season three order from Max. Will Ferrell/Jamie Foxx Yes, Strays could’ve been helped by the duo’s star promo power if not for the strike, but still, the Uni film managed to gross only $8 million in its domestic bow. Travis Scott The rapper’s Utopia tops the Billboard 200 chart for the third week in a row with 124 million-plus streams of the album’s 19 songs, per Luminate data. Scooter Braun What’s going on with the power manager’s firm? Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber are all reported to be seeking new reps as damage control begins. Showbiz Stocks $322.46 (+0.54%) MICROSOFT (MSFT) In an attempt to get…
During Disney’s most recent quarterly earnings call, on Aug. 9, CEO Bob Iger waited until the end of his opening remarks to drop the hammer: His company’s streaming business was introducing price increases. Big ones. The monthly cost of the Disney+ and Hulu ad-free tiers would be rising by nearly 30 percent, or $3. For a company desperately trying to turn its money-losing streaming business into a moneymaker, the pivot marked a critical strategic shift in its path to profitability. However, Iger added that “maintaining access to our content for as broad an audience as possible is top of mind for us, which is why pricing for our stand-alone ad-supported Disney+ and Hulu offerings will remain unchanged.” Price hikes are never subtle, but the move by Disney was the latest…
As the fall broadcast season approaches without a resolution of the writers and actors strikes, conventional wisdom suggests the networks may dial up their reality TV programming, just as they have during past strikes. But this time around, the unscripted genre is at an inflection point as it grapples with labor issues and NDAs. Real Housewives alum Bethenny Frankel is encouraging reality performers to strike in solidarity and suggesting that they consider unionizing, while her lawyers are teeing up a fight with NBCUniversal on behalf of a so-far nameless coalition of cast and crew from Bravo, E! and CNBC series over alleged “grotesque” mistreatment and “draconian” nondisclosure agreements. The two efforts have a theme in common — compensation and working conditions on reality series — but they don’t immediately seem…
For nearly 20 years, Karla Ortiz has worked as a concept artist, bringing to life an entire universe of characters in projects like Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Thor: Ragnarok. She’s credited with coming up with the main character design for Doctor Strange in her own blend of impressionist and magic realism styles honed by decades of practice. She was horrified to learn last year that her work at the forefront of multibillion-dollar franchises is being used to train generative artificial intelligence systems without her knowledge or consent. Imitations of her work are now floating all across the web. Her name has been fed into Midjourney, an AI art generator, more than 2,500 times to create art that looks like hers. She’s been paid nothing. “You work your entire…
As a Democrat who works in professional politics, I live in a perpetual state of worry — an occupational hazard that became more acute in 2016. Ever since Jan. 6, 2021, many of us added a new fear to our lists: election interference. Ahead of the 2022 midterms, teams of lawyers, election experts and grassroots organizers in D.C. prepared for increasing threats to the administration of the election. As an adviser to former President Barack Obama, I attended briefings, strategy sessions and tabletop exercises designed to mitigate and overcome those risks. Against that backdrop, in the spring of 2022, executive producer Frank Rich asked me if I would advise the Succession writers on political storylines in the fourth season. I had worked in politics for 20 years, including in Congress…
Media and entertainment giants have wrapped up their latest earnings parade, which highlighted advertising challenges and cord-cutting problems. But these four companies have emerged with wind at their backs from Wall Street analysts, who have made their case for which firms are well-positioned for the second half of this year. Comcast The cable titan and owner of NBCUniversal and European pay TV powerhouse Sky scored with better-than-expected results across various units, but especially with lower-than-projected subscriber losses and improved profitability in its core cable broadband business. Goldman Sachs analyst Brett Feldman maintained his “buy” rating on Comcast shares after the company’s second-quarter earnings report and call while raising his stock price target by $6 to $51 (it closed at $45.86 on Aug. 21). Bank of America’s Jessica Reif Ehrlich also…
