HOLLYWOOD
Matthew Belloni
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May 13, 2022
Bob Chapek’s Hail Mary
Disney’s subscriber growth is holding up, but the playbook has changed and Chapek lags in the metric Wall Street now wants—actual revenue. With the goalposts of success moved and added pressure on Marvel and the rest, the embattled C.E.O. is making bold promises and writing checks his company may not be able to cash.
Eriq Gardner
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May 9, 2022
Copyright Law Is a Joke—Literally
For years, streaming services ignored joke writers when clearing rights, until a cartel of comedians (yes, really) filed a potentially transformative lawsuit. Lawyers for Pandora say it’s a conspiracy.
Matthew Belloni
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May 9, 2022
The Netflix Crisis Is Bad, But Not That Bad
Yes, layoffs are coming. Chatting with people around Hollywood, you’d think Netflix is going out of business. But those 220 million subscribers don’t have much to worry about—for now.
Matthew Belloni
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May 6, 2022
Tom Cruise Might Barely Recognize This Movie Business
The new Top Gun is not competing against theatrical releases so much as shorter windows and new streaming drops. Should Cruise be scared Thetan-less, or will these fresh strategies save the movies?
Eriq Gardner
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May 2, 2022
The Hollywood A.I.-I.P. Supernova
Will the robots replace us all one day? Who knows, but chances are they will eventually learn how to create a superhero movie. Ergo, the start of one of the great legal debates in Hollywood history.
Eriq Gardner
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May 2, 2022
Netflix’s Hollywood Red Line
As Hollywood grapples with the gritty new economics of streaming, industry dealmakers are closely watching whether Netflix will ever pull the ripcord on its singular refusal to provide backend comp.
Matthew Belloni
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May 2, 2022
One Sign Netflix May Be Up Schitt’s Creek
A year or two ago, Ted Sarandos might have paid the $1.2 million an episode to keep the popular comedy as part of his spend-all, be-all strategy. Now, with Netflix’s valuation cut by two thirds, it’s a different calculus.
Matthew Belloni
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May 2, 2022
The Chinese Had One Note on Spider-Man
Sony Pictures drew the line at editing out the Statue of Liberty (yes, really), as Hollywood studios reconsider acquiescing to Chinese censorship of American movies.
Matthew Belloni
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April 29, 2022
Zaslav’s Hatchet Man Makes His Move
Redundancies alone won’t solve Warner Bros. Discovery’s $3 billion fiscal problem. Thus arises a more complicated and anxiety-inducing question: Who gets the chop? C.F.O. Gunnar Wiedenfels is starting to drop hints.
Eriq Gardner
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April 25, 2022
Inside HBO’s Lakers Headache
NBA legend Jerry West is demanding a retraction over Winning Time and is hinting at a lawsuit. He’d probably lose, but an industry-shaking upset could depend on… Netflix.
Matthew Belloni
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April 25, 2022
Golden Globes Charities Want the Show Back
Matthew Belloni
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April 25, 2022
Have Movie Theaters Gotten Their Mojo Back?
The Great Netflix Correction is forcing Hollywood to rethink the “all-in” strategy for streaming. It’s not nearly a full reversal of fortunes, but it’s definitely a vibe shift.
Matthew Belloni
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April 22, 2022
Netflix’s Post-Crash Identity Crisis
Everyone in Hollywood knew that Reed and Ted were due for a correction, sooner or later—but they were happy to take their checks in the meantime. Now, to get back on top, Netflix may have to become more like the traditional rivals it set out to disrupt.
Eriq Gardner
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April 18, 2022
Hollywood’s Marvel-Disney Horror Story
Fifty years ago, Washington created a legal time bomb that allows the creators behind everything from Robocop and Beetlejuice to The Avengers multiverse to terminate their copyright grants and renegotiate. Welcome to the I.P. apocalypse.
Matthew Belloni
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April 18, 2022
Rupert’s Age, Apple/NFL & The Bomb of the Pandemic
What I'm hearing about an M.I.A. Murdoch, the possible home of Sunday Ticket, Jeopardy’s Mike Richards, the future of WarnerMedia’s TV assets, and more.
Matthew Belloni
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April 15, 2022
The Studios’ Next Ticking Timebomb
In this era of skyrocketing I.P. value, a quirk of copyright law is suddenly a massive business, giving creatives (and their heirs) behind properties like Robocop a surprising weapon to take power back from studios.
Julia Alexander
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April 14, 2022
Dear Zaz, Read This Before the “Synergies” Start…
The streaming wars are, simply put, a race to own the best content and have the strongest pipes to distribute it (along with all the financial engineering and tax avoidance befitting a media behemoth, naturally). Here are my four predictions for how David Zaslav can take Warner Bros. Discovery from No. 3 to No. 2—or even higher.
