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HOLLYWOOD

In the wake of Vision Pro’s launch, Apple is gearing up to essentially give away new V.R. cameras to as many curious creators as possible to accelerate the adoption of what Apple is calling “immersive video.”

Apple’s V.R. Catch-22

Almost everyone seems to agree that mixed reality devices, like Apple’s new Vision Pro headset, will anchor entertainment platforms of the future. But which comes first, the users or the content?
Julia Alexander • January 24, 2024
Eriq Gardner • January 22, 2024
A ‘Times’ Leak Saga for Our Times
The New York Times covered the Trump tax return saga when the leaker, Chaz Littlejohn, was charged in September—but since that initial story, the paper has basically ignored their source and his predicament.
Anticipating the legal denouement of a vexing legal soap opera featuring Trump, Ken Griffin, a modern Snowden, and The New York Times.
Matthew Belloni • January 22, 2024
Apple’s Quest to Revolutionize the Home Theater 
The new Apple Vision Pro headset is displayed during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 05, 2023 in Cupertino, California.
Tim Cook’s fancy new $3,500 V.R. headset, which I recently (reluctantly) sampled, may seem like a gimmick—until you imagine the future of at-home theatrical. Take Steven Soderbergh’s latest movie as an example.
Taylor Swift celebrates with fans during the AFC Wild Card Playoffs between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 13, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Julia Alexander • January 17, 2024
Peacock’s Pyrrhic NFL Victory
NBCU may be proudly boasting that 23 million people tuned into Peacock’s exclusive broadcast of the Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game. But sports fans aren’t always sticky streaming customers, and success is rooted in what happens after the game is over.
fugees singer Pras Michel
Eriq Gardner • January 15, 2024
A Fugee’s Legal Reunion
Another surprising bend in Pras Michel’s tragic quest to reclaim his name, and $75 million, in the face of seemingly endless legal woes.
Paramount's 'Mean Girls'
Scott Mendelson • January 15, 2024
Hollywood’s Dude Slump
Following the so-called #Barbenheimer phenomenon, the only big-deal domestic hits in the last five months of 2023 were female-driven or female-skewing films. Too bad Hollywood is still betting on male-dominated superhero I.P.
Jon Feltheimer, Rachel Zegler and Tom Blyth at the premiere of "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" held at TCL Chinese Theatre on November 13, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Matthew Belloni • January 15, 2024
Lionsgate’s Long, Long Road to a Lifeline
An executive shake-up comes amid C.E.O. Jon Feltheimer’s latest play to make the ‘Hunger Games’ outfit more attractive to a buyer like Netflix or Apple. But is anyone in the market for a slimmed-down studio, and how do you solve a problem like Starz?
From left: Lindsay Dougherty, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Meredith Stiehm, Matthew Loeb, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, and moderator Matt Belloni speak on the A.I. Goes to Hollywood panel at the 2024 Labor Innovation & Technology Summit in Las Vegas.
Matthew Belloni • January 12, 2024
The Workers of Hollywood See A.I. Fights Ahead 
For the first time since the strikes of 2023, the leaders of five major entertainment unions come together to debate the artificial intelligence threat, what they gained (and didn’t) by shutting down the industry, and the roadmap for negotiations in ’24: “Nothing is off the table.”
Tom Cruise and Miles Teller attend the Global Premiere of "Top Gun: Maverick" on May 4, 2022, in San Diego, California.
Matthew Belloni • January 12, 2024
‘Top Gun 3’ Takes Flight at Paramount
Even as Tom Cruise sets a “strategic partnership” with Warner Bros., he may not be available until well into 2025 or 2026.
When Young Sheldon debuted on Netflix in December as part of a “co-exclusive” arrangement between the streamer and the show’s owner Warner Bros., it scored 963 million minutes watched in its first week, and doubled to 1.8 billion minutes in the second—some 20x the minutes watched on Max the week before.
Julia Alexander • January 10, 2024
The Fallacy of the Streaming ‘Co-Exclusive’
Examining the trendy, largely one-sided economic arrangement pervading the streaming space.
Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs arrives to Gillette Stadium before the game against the New England Patriots on December 17, 2023 in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Matthew Belloni • January 8, 2024
24 Surefire, 100 Percent Probable Hollywood Predictions for 2024 (Part 2)
Lots of Zaz hypotheticals, a Kelce career opportunity, re-bundling woes, and Apple’s put-up-or-shut-up moment.
'The Color Purple'
Scott Mendelson • January 8, 2024
The Color Purple Question
Is it fair to quantify the commercial value of a prestige film that disappoints at the box office without considering a potential streaming license as part of its gross?
Jenna Ortega at the photo call for "Wednesday" held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on April 29, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
Matthew Belloni • January 5, 2024
24 Surefire, 100 Percent Probable Hollywood Predictions for 2024 (Part 1)
Declining budgets, a potential Imax sale, more agency consolidation, a Netflix film reckoning, Fox’s humbling, Jenna Ortega’s rise and exit, and other hypotheses for another wild year in the entertainment business.
In the last few years, Amazon not only acquired the rights to Thursday Night Football, it also made major sports rights acquisitions in almost a dozen other countries, including the U.K., Brazil, and Australia.
Julia Alexander • January 3, 2024
Amazon’s Wide World of Sports
Amazon may have entered the entertainment business to sell more toilet paper and toothpaste, but it definitely sees local sports as a way to serve ads and hawk merch.
CAA leaders Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett, and Kevin Huvane pulled off a coup in getting French billionaire François-Henri Pinault to buy out TPG’s stake in the agency.
Matthew Belloni • January 2, 2024
Hollywood’s Scrooge of the Year​​
It’s not the Villain of the Year award, but it’s a no less prestigious honor: This year’s inaugural Scrooge of the Year award goes to CAA leaders Bryan Lourd, Richard Lovett, and Kevin Huvane.
Timothée Chalamet, Denis Villeneuve and Zendaya promote the upcoming ‘Dune: Part Two’ during the Warner Bros. Pictures presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners, on April 25, 2023, in Las Vegas.
Scott Mendelson • January 2, 2024
Is 2024 Really the Box Office Year From Hell?
Actually, the overall 2023 domestic box office was down just 20 percent (sans inflation) from 2017, despite 32 percent fewer movies, with a per-film average gross of $15 million, the highest since the Avatar-inflated 2009-10 calendar years. Maybe theaters just need more movies.
Ynon Kreiz, Chairman and CEO, Mattel Inc., speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference on October 19, 2021 in Beverly Hills, California.
Matthew Belloni • December 29, 2023
Is a Bob Iger Successor Hiding in Plain Sight?
Ynon Kreiz, the veteran executive who restructured Mattel and bet its future on the Barbie movie (and the tenuous I.P. business), has the experience and momentum to be a potential replacement for Bob Iger, despite a checkered past with Disney. At the very least, Kreiz is the Hollywood Hero of the Year.
Shari Restone’s media empire is worth more broken up into its constituent parts.
Julia Alexander • December 26, 2023
Paramount’s Sale, YouTube’s Trojan Horse & Netflix’s Next Gamble
News, notes, predictions, and cautionary tales for the streaming industry in ’24.