Paramount's 'Mean Girls'
Scott Mendelson January 14, 2024
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.
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 1, 2024
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.
Margot Robbie in 'Barbie'
Scott Mendelson December 18, 2023
As the industry takes stock of a year that will fall short of $9 billion at the domestic box office, here are 10 rules that can help executives decide what movies to make.
Brie Larson in 'The Marvels.'
Matthew Belloni November 19, 2023
In a perverse side effect of the streaming age, Hollywood seems unwilling to call a flop a flop. Instead, the question of what is “profitable” or “value-additive” has become convoluted—especially if it involves a pure-play streamer or a Scorsese movie.


The Brie Larson-led ‘The Marvels’ vastly underperformed Disney’s hopes at the box office.
Matthew Belloni November 13, 2023
When did Marvel lose its automatic connection with casual movie fans, and what can Disney do to get audiences excited again about superhero films?
In December, Lina Khan’s FTC seemed to put the kibosh on the Microsoft-Activision deal, but Wall Street is now growing optimistic that it might close.
Eriq Gardner April 10, 2023
An insider reading of the hottest M&A topics: Hulu, Activision, Illumina, and more.
When Victoria Alonso’s employment agreement was last renegotiated, Disney found out she was producing a side project, Argentina, 1985, for Amazon Studios.
Matthew Belloni March 27, 2023
Ignore the self-righteous press: Victoria Alonso’s public crusade for a payout from Disney is nothing more than a money fight. And perhaps, in the grand tradition of Michael Eisner, a brand-building opportunity for whatever comes next.