General
Kennedy Center Honors Go to ‘Sesame Street’ and Earth, Wind & Fire
Nancy Coleman, The New York Times
The R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire, the actress Sally Field, the singer Linda Ronstadt and the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas will receive Kennedy Center Honors in December for their lifetime achievements in the arts, the cultural center announced on Thursday. “Sesame Street,” which is celebrating 50 years on the air this year, will also receive an award, making it the second time the Kennedy Center is bestowing the honor on a work of art rather than an individual.
Comic-Con is not just about comic books anymore. That feels like a loss — and a win
Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times
With custom-built pop-ups that mirror scenes from movies and high-rise hotels transformed into giant billboards for upcoming TV shows, Hollywood looms large in the heart of San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter during Comic-Con.
As America Debates Abortion, Hollywood Seeks the Realities
Cara Buckley, The New York Times
At a recent conference outside Los Angeles, a national women’s rights lawyer stood before a select group of Hollywood heavyweights to issue a demand and a plea. With a woman’s right to choose in jeopardy, the lawyer, Fatima Goss Graves, said, more abortions should be portrayed in narratives onscreen.
Hunger Games Ride Anchors Edgy, New Adult Theme Park in China
Christopher Palmeri, Bloomberg
The Hunger Games has sold over 100 million books and nearly $3 billion in movie tickets, but the tale of children fighting to the death in a dystopian world doesn’t immediately lend itself to kid-friendly theme-park attractions. That’s why the developer of Lionsgate Entertainment World, Hong Kong real estate giant Lai Sun Group, is targeting a different audience.
Film
As MoviePass Fades, Theaters Fall In Love With Subscription Services
Rebecca Rubin, Variety
MoviePass may be cratering, but movie theater subscriptions are here to stay. AMC and Cinemark already operate their own online ticketing services.
Can ‘The Farewell’ Be the Indie Hit This Summer Desperately Needs?
Jeremy Fuster, The Wrap
Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” may be the one movie this summer that can end what has been a drought for indie films at the box office. Last year, the documentaries “RBG” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” and Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” became indie successes.
Producer Sues Warner Bros. Over ‘It’ Film Adaptations
Gene Maddaus, Variety
A producer who developed the original “It” TV miniseries sued Warner Bros. on Thursday, alleging the studio breached his contract by making the films “It” and “It Chapter Two” without him.
Behind Elizabeth Gabler’s New Deal With Sony, HarperCollins
Tatiana Siegel, The Hollywood Reporter
For the next phase in her career, former Fox 2000 president Elizabeth Gabler had to choose between her onetime bosses at the Century City studio: Tom Rothman (now running Sony Pictures) and Jim Gianopulos (Paramount). The book-savvy exec opted for a multiplatform production deal with the former.
What Disney Risked to Make ‘The Lion King’ in 1994
Jason Bailey, The New York Times
Few animated films have charged onto the screen with the confidence of Disney’s 1994 smash “The Lion King.” Eschewing opening titles, a giant red sun rising over the Serengeti filled the screen, as the soundtrack blasted the majestic opening song, “The Circle of Life.”
Television
The CrazySexyDumb Cast Of ‘Love Island’ Draws Youngish Blood to CBS
Anthony Crupi, AdAge
Someone now long dead once observed that the English and Americans are two peoples divided by a common language, which is a rather clever way to say that while a shared tongue facilitates our longstanding alliance, it also makes it a lot easier to argue with each other.
Ted Danson-Tina Fey Comedy Gets Straight-to-Series Order at NBC
Rick Porter and Lesley Goldberg, The Hollywood Reporter
NBC is putting together two of its comedy icons, Ted Danson and Tina Fey, for its next series.
CBS-Viacom Combination Would be TV Ad Leader
Jon Lafayette, Broadcasting & Cable
Whatever the merits at this point of putting together CBS and its sibling Viacom, combining the media companies would create a leader in the national TV advertising business. According to an analysis by Standard Media Index, CBS and Viacom combine for a 20.2% share of all national TV ad revenue this TV season.
Technology and New Media
Netflix’s Next Big Market Is Crowded With Cheaper Rivals
P R Sanjai et al., Bloomberg
Netflix Inc., whose shares are taking a massive hit after it reported the worst drop in U.S. users since 2011, is looking for new subscriber growth in India, a rapidly expanding streaming market. Trouble is, so are a raft of ambitious local players with cut-rate programming packages.
Jon Wax Joins Amazon Studios as Head of Genre Programming
Elaine Low, Variety
YouTube’s head of scripted programming Jon Wax is joining Amazon Studios as its head of genre programming, Variety has learned. Wax will take up the position recently vacated by Sharon Tal Yguado.
After ‘Friends’ and ‘The Office’ Megadeals, Stars Want Their Slice of Streaming Money
Bryn Elise Sandberg, The Hollywood Reporter
Word that The Office and Friends will be leaving Netflix for Comcast and WarnerMedia’s forthcoming streaming services came as little shock to the industry — but what did raise eyebrows were the hefty price tags attached to the deals. With NBCUniversal’s direct-to-consumer platform paying $500 million for exclusive streaming rights to The Office for five years and WarnerMedia ponying up $425 million to move Friends to its HBO Max service for the same length of time, the high valuations were a welcome surprise to several creatives.
Netflix’s Tight-Lipped Culture Makes It Hard to Avoid Surprises
Kamaron Leach and Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg
Netflix Inc.’s biggest earnings surprise in years sent the shares plummeting on Thursday. It also left analysts and investors wondering why they were caught so off guard.
It’s Alive! Facebook’s Surprising Video Standout Is A Horror Movie Startup
Dawn Chmielewski, Forbes
Like a proud parent, Jack Davis has covered the refrigerator in his Wilshire Boulevard office with artwork. But these aren’t crayon-drawn stick figures of Mom and Dad.
Inside ‘Orange Is the New Black’s’ Unlikely Journey to Become Netflix’s Most-Watched Original
Elaine Low, Variety
Before “Netflix and chill” entered the cultural lexicon, before the streaming platform won its first Emmy, before it started inking deals with major showrunners, Netflix in the early 2010s was testing out a hypothesis about the public’s appetite for premium-quality television shows on the internet.
Netflix’s results and executive comments show it’s just another media company — not a pay-TV killer
Alex Sherman, CNBC
As Netflix’s stock soared over the past couple years, investors and consumers wondered how to think of the company’s long-term role in the media ecosystem. The latest quarterly results should make it easier to define Netflix, but the answer may not be as ambitious as some had hoped.
Why Consumers Are Already Losing in the Streaming Wars
Brian Steinberg, Variety
Big media has inadvertently come up with a way to lasso cord-cutters. As Walt Disney, NBCUniversal and AT&T’s WarnerMedia work furiously to stand out in the streaming-video arena, they are betting heavily on something that rivals like Netflix and Amazon can’t produce: decades of hit TV series to which the old-school entertainment companies ultimately control the rights.
Five Times Spotify Has U-turned on Its Content Strategy
Tim Ingham, Rolling Stone
Daniel Ek is a changed man. As the Spotify founder revealed at Helsinki’s Slush conference in 2016, over the first 10 years of him building Spotify, he underwent a dramatic personal evolution.
Britain’s two biggest broadcasters are teaming up on a Netflix rival
Ryan Browne, CNBC
British broadcaster ITV announced Friday that its upcoming streaming service with the BBC will launch at the end of the year and cost just £5.99 ($7.50) a month. Called BritBox, the planned streaming platform is a partnership between the U.K.’s two largest broadcasters, and will see them take on Netflix and its dominance in online entertainment.
The surprise Emmy nods for “Schitt’s Creek” are also a win for Netflix
Sarah Todd, Quartz
Schitt’s Creek is the ultimate Canadian TV show: kind-hearted, goofy, and generally content to fly under the international radar. The show, a riches-to-rags tale of a family of four who lose their fortune and are forced to build new lives in a small and decidedly unglamorous town, was always a hit in Canada, and has several Canadian Screen Awards under its belt.
Opinions, Editorials, Perspectives and Research
Netflix, Welcome to Ratings Hell
Tara Lachapelle, Bloomberg
The TV-network giants went through ratings hell. It’s time for Netflix’s own version of that.
Netflix is losing beloved shows, subscribers, and confidence
Julia Alexander, The Verge
Netflix reported earnings on Wednesday night, and the results were disastrous. The company saw its first major loss in US subscribers last quarter, and a mere 2.7 million paid customers added globally, nearly half of what was forecast.
From ‘Shang-Chi’ To ‘Birds Of Prey’, Asian Americans Are More Than Ready For Their Close-up In Superhero Movies
Dino-Ray Ramos, Deadline Hollywood
We are days away from Marvel taking the coveted dais of Hall H to give us news on what we hope is Phase 4 of their wildly expansive — and box office record-breaking — Marvel Cinematic Universe. Arguably one of the most anticipated announcements is who would be playing the lead in Shang-Chi, which will be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Dave Callaham (both of Asian heritage).
Now the hard part: Why Netflix’s toughest days are still ahead
Dylan Byers, NBC News
Netflix is about to come to terms with an age-old truth of show business: Content is king, and no company has a monopoly on great content. For nearly a decade, Netflix has experienced rapid subscriber growth thanks in large part to its revolutionary distribution model, which gave consumers direct access to a vast library of licensed content — and, over time, original movies and shows — through the internet for a small monthly fee.
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