Eriq Gardner • December 11, 2024

Netflix’s First Jury Trial & CNN’s Defamation Danger

A suite of cases involving Netflix, TikTok, and CNN hint at the future of First Amendment litigation under Trump 2.0.

Scott Mendelson • December 10, 2024

The Post-Thanksgiving Cop-Out

The long green tail of ‘Wicked’/‘Moana 2’ helped break more box office records this weekend, proving that the public was still primed and ready to fill seats the week after Thanksgiving. Too bad the studios lack the courage to give them something big to see.

Matthew Belloni • December 6, 2024

How to Spin the Decay of a P.R. Firm

It was telling to see the parent company of what’s now called R&CPMK sue a group of defectors on Thanksgiving eve—the latest sign that the Hollywood talent P.R. business isn’t what it used to be, and neither is PMK.

Eriq Gardner • December 4, 2024

ScarJo’s A.I. Legacy

Scarlett Johansson’s legal dustup with OpenAI last May opened the gates for voice-stealing claims from other actors. Now the fate of an entire entertainment sector may hinge on a pair of imminent decisions.

Scott Mendelson • December 3, 2024

The Lessons of Wickana

Five sure-fire takeaways from the largest Thanksgiving box office on record, including Disney’s resurgence, the reframed success of ‘Gladiator II,’ and a new weekend calibration for ‘Wicked: Part One.’

Scott Mendelson • November 26, 2024

The Wicked & The Damned

It was no #Barbenheimer, but if the moviegoing trends of Thanksgivings past are prologue, Wicked: Part One and Gladiator II will have strong second weekends behind a strategic post-holiday push.

Matthew Belloni • November 22, 2024

Prima Donna

Donna Langley’s NBCUniversal anointment gives her full greenlight authority for movies, NBC, Bravo, and Peacock. It also ends a power struggle with fellow executive Mark Lazarus, now riding an ice floe of cable networks into uncertain seas.

Eriq Gardner • November 20, 2024

Netflix’s Paternity Test

Here’s an unscripted plot twist: Netflix has become a villain in its own documentary film, about a fertility specialist who secretly inseminated his patients, after disclosing the names of the doctor’s children without their consent. A lawsuit, now headed to a jury trial, raises the provocative question: Did they have a constitutional right to remain private?

Scott Mendelson • November 19, 2024

‘Red One’ & The New Arithmetic of Flops

The Rock’s kidnapped Santa caper sure looks like a $253 million Christmas catastrophe for Amazon MGM Studios. It also represents the peril of a certain kind of genre and a limit to its star’s bankability.

Matthew Belloni • November 15, 2024

Bob Iger’s Netflix Moment

Disney’s C.E.O. has come roaring back from billions lost on streaming to project major profits and 10 percent margins as the onetime “terrible” business shows signs of life for everyone. If only TV wasn’t losing money faster.

Eriq Gardner • November 13, 2024

The Reskinning of an ‘ER’ Reboot

Warner Bros. TV has fired back at Sherri Crichton’s lawsuit over Max’s new medical drama, ‘The Pitt,’ which she claims is little more than an ‘ER’ knockoff. Max claims that Sherri is trying to monopolize the medical genre. But it’s not that simple.

Scott Mendelson • November 12, 2024

Thanksgiving’s Refreshingly Old-School Box Office Battle

For the first time since ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ opened days before ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet,’ in 2018, this year’s mid-November box office slate will mimic the pattern from the prior two decades. Everyone should win.

Matthew Belloni • November 8, 2024

Why Hollywood Executives Are So Giddy About Trump 2.0

Unlike in Trump’s first term, when entertainment became ground zero for the #Resistance, it feels like the industry—at least the business side of it—is gonna try to make nice to avoid issues with M&A and regulation, which is both sad and a reality of doing business when the president has become so openly vindictive, transactional, and unchecked.

Matthew Belloni • November 5, 2024

Paramount’s Deal Dance, Costner’s Hubris & Clint’s Revenge

News and thoughts from my notebook on Bob Iger's campaign no-show, Amazon's post-election nail-biter, and initial takeaways from a key SEC filing in David Ellison's takeover of the Redstone empire.

Scott Mendelson • November 5, 2024

Rise of the Reasonably Priced, Moderately Successful Blockbuster

As it turns out, avoiding monstrous budgets and not always swinging for the fences can be a solid way to make money on a mid-sized global hit like ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ or ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’—with or without China’s occasionally significant (but far less reliable) returns.