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.
Walking around ESPN’s sprawling campus in Bristol, Connecticut, visitors will find the sports giant’s mission statement at almost every turn. On walls, in windows, in the cafeteria: “Serving sports fans. Anytime. Anywhere.” It’s a humble slogan for the biggest brand in sports media, but ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro argues it is “more relevant today than it’s ever been.” Sports is undergoing a generational transformation, with viewership fragmenting and cable TV declining. “If you drill down a bit, what we’re really saying [with the mission statement] is that we need to be everywhere,” Pitaro says, citing streaming, of course, but also TikTok, YouTube and other platforms. And so ESPN is pivoting, with Disney CEO Bob Iger telling Wall Street that “building ESPN into the preeminent digital sports platform” is one of…
Tim Burton Warner Bros. rolls the dice on bowing his Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in Venice and scores with critics and festival audiences, buoying box office prospects for its Sept. 6 bow. Edgar Bronfman Jr. His $6 billion bid for control of Paramount seemed like a serious overture — briefly — but Skydance’s offer ultimately swayed the special committee. Tom Ortenberg As his Briarcliff Entertainment nabs hot-button Trump film The Apprentice for an Oct. 11 release, the exec has a shot to ride a polarized election to box office and awards buzz. Channing Tatum & Zoë Kravitz The star couple couldn’t reel in audiences to Amazon MGM’s Blink Twice, which bowed with $7.3 million and a B- CinemaScore rating. Showbiz Stocks $38.20 (+0.2%) FOX CORP. (FOX) With the presidential election in high…
Studios have voted — and the decision is unanimous. For the first time anyone can remember, the box office marquee notably will be devoid of new all-audience releases the weekend following the 2024 presidential election. The first and second weekends of November have become fertile ground in terms of launching a movie before the year-end holiday glut begins. But the noise from this year’s Kamala Harris-Donald Trump race is expected to be so loud that distributors are staying on the sidelines when it comes to tentpoles. That noise could make it tough to promote a film opening during the Nov. 8-10 weekend, since the airwaves will be flooded with political ads in the preceding weeks. Sources also note that ad rates are expected to be inflated by 30 percent to…
Last year, Sundance was the first in-person version of the festival since the pandemic forced the bastion of American independent filmmaking online for two years. It also acted as the unofficial debut for 2AM, the upstart production and management outfit headed by Christine D’Souza Gelb, producer David Hinojosa and manager Kevin Rowe. At the festival, 2AM premiered productions that included Celine Song’s Past Lives and competition title The Starling Girl, while clients screened feature debuts like A.V. Rockwell’s One Thousand and One, which went on to win the fest’s top prize. “It was our first real Sundance back, and our client of this tiny company, this little thing we’ve been building in the pandemic, wins the grand jury prize,” D’Souza Gelb remembers of the moment. 2AM was brainstormed in 2020,…
Brooke Shields was elected president of Actors’ Equity in late May and now heads the union of more than 51,000 actors and stage managers on Broadway and nationwide. It’s the first union position for the longtime actress, who is largely known for her work onscreen but also has appeared five times on Broadway. Now, a few months in, Shields spoke with THR about why she chose to add the role — an unpaid, volunteer position — into the mix of her busy life, which includes a new business, new book and acting gigs, and her priorities for her four-year term. What was your rationale for running? Mine goes back to having been a member for decades. The support and resources that were personally provided for me by the ensemble, by…
Mike Flanagan built his reputation by freaking out audiences. With a string of horror hits on TV (Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher) and in film (most notably adaptations of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game), the writer-director also forged a lucrative career. He understands his lane — that his track record was a major factor in Amazon signing him to a choice overall deal and in Jason Blum partnering with Flanagan to revive the ailing Exorcist franchise — but he recently found himself feeling the pull to make something unexpected: a sentimental film with an extended dance sequence. The Life of Chuck, his third King adaptation, services that impulse. But to deviate from his bankable genre and make an intimate…
