Get the inside conversation in your inbox
Matthew Belloni, Eriq Gardner, Julia Alexander, Kim Masters & Scott Mendelson
•
Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday
An essential, insider-friendly Hollywood tip sheet from Matthew Belloni, who spent 14 years in the trenches at The Hollywood Reporter and five before that practicing entertainment law. What I’m Hearing also features veteran Hollywood journalist Kim Masters, as well as a special companion email from Eriq Gardner, focused on entertainment law, and weekly box office analysis from Scott Mendelson.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
Matthew Belloni
•
September 12, 2022
Stallone’s Reality Bites & More Netflix Drama
A ‘Kardashians’-style unscripted show following Sly’s family (and his unfolding divorce) is the latest in a series of surprising, revenue-generating maneuvers for the ‘Rocky’ star as he re-capitalizes on his fame. Plus news on the latest Netflix re-org and seven questions about the Emmys.
Matthew Belloni
•
September 9, 2022
The Book of Reed Hastings, Revisited
Two short years ago, the Netflix visionary and chief corporate philosopher wrote a business memoir extolling all the qualities that made his company totally unique, different, and special. So what happens when his stock tanks and he’s taking pages from everyone else’s playbook?
Matthew Belloni & William D. Cohan
•
September 5, 2022
Netflix’s U-Turn & The Next CNN Purge
The real conversation inside Hollywood and Wall Street about Reed and Ted’s ad-tier about-face, Zaslav’s narrative heel-turn, Chapek’s ESPN dilemma, and the long arm of John Malone.
Matthew Belloni
•
September 2, 2022
The Tendo Exit and the New Netflix
Back in 2018, Sarandos pitched Nagenda on the promise of building out a spare-no-expense team to focus only on making great studio-style movies, and running it with autonomy—the Netflix culture. Then the Great Correction happened.
Matthew Belloni
•
August 29, 2022
Worry, Darling. Worry a Lot.
Is Olivia Wilde’s recent P.R. train wreck the result of sexism, or various unforced errors, or is it simply a near-term headache that will be absolved after her film Don’t Worry Darling proves that she was a media genius all along?
Matthew Belloni
•
August 26, 2022
The Messy Rebirth of MoviePass
The original pennies-for-dollars, money-incinerating subscription phenomenon was literally too good to be true. But the inevitable failure of MoviePass also opened the door to a genuinely transformative idea: moviegoing as a service. All it needed was a better business model.
Matthew Belloni
•
August 22, 2022
Cinemapocalypse Now
After an awful August, this year’s box office will likely finish at about $7 billion—up from last year, but about a third less than in 2019. A third. For movie theaters, the only solution is full-scale reinvention, meme-stock nonsense, or, as is increasingly common, Chapter 11.
Matthew Belloni
•
August 19, 2022
Zaslav’s Hamptons-Hollywood Vanity Project
Since taking over WBD in April, David Zaslav has run the company like a cost-cutting vigilante… until it comes to an odd gangster movie project written by his Hamptons buddy, Nick Pileggi.
Matthew Belloni
•
August 15, 2022
A Manifesto to Save Movie Comedies
The raunchy, Apatowian films that dominated the mid-2000s box office and spawned a generation of comedy stars have gone the way of iPods and skinny jeans. Critics blame everything from Covid to cancel culture, but the real culprit is more insidious: an economic landscape that rarely rewards risk-taking. One producer has some ideas to fix it.
Matthew Belloni
•
August 12, 2022
The Return of Bob Greenblatt?
The legendary television executive just wrote a memoir about the hits he made and the networks he ran, but two years after his messy WarnerMedia ouster, the book might be a prelude to his own next moves.
