Business Features
Who’s Really Going to Run Paramount?
The deal that is expected to install Skydance chief David Ellison as chairman, CEO and hopefully savior of Paramount Global is a labyrinth of entities, trusts and transactions. Also potentially complicated, assuming the deal closes sometime next year, is the question of control. Skydance sources say 41-year-old David will select the board and run things […]
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How Late Night TV Is Downsizing
Do late night talk shows have a future? A couple of decades ago the question would have been crazy, given their young audience and pop cultural relevancy. But with the world of entertainment shifting to an on-demand streaming world, late night — perhaps more than any other entertainment TV format — has struggled to adapt. […]
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‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Rings of Power’ Facing Epic Headaches
Call the banners and muster the dragons, there is trouble in the kingdoms! HBO’s big-budget fantasy epic House of the Dragon and Amazon’s even bigger-budget fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are encountering a hailstorm of catapulted projectiles. For Rings, the issue is familiar. The $715 million series — which […]
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Meet the New Cool Kids of Indie Filmmaking
Last year, Sundance was the first in-person version of the festival since the pandemic forced the bastion of American independent filmmaking online for two years. It also acted as the unofficial debut for 2AM, the upstart production and management outfit headed by Christine D’Souza Gelb, producer David Hinojosa and manager Kevin Rowe. At the festival, 2AM […]
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The Hollywood Labor Chief Pay Chart: Top Union Leaders’ Compensation Revealed
2023 proved to a be a landmark year for Hollywood labor as actors and writers called a historic double strike in the name of reshaping a transforming industry. As that battle was waged over issues like AI and compensation in the streaming age, chief negotiators for the striking unions, as well as the directors’ union, […]
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How ESPN Is Dramatically Rewriting Its Streaming Playbook
Walking around ESPN’s sprawling campus in Bristol, Connecticut, visitors will find the sports giant’s mission statement at almost every turn. On walls, in windows, in the cafeteria: “Serving sports fans. Anytime. Anywhere.” It’s a humble slogan for the biggest brand in sports media, and arguably one of the biggest brands in all of sports, but […]
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California vs. the World: The Race to Nab Film and TV Productions
Last year, New York dispersed about $124 million in tax credits to various entities belonging to Paramount Global as a reward for 10 projects that were shot in the state. Those productions — which encompassed an array of feature films, TV series and even a talk show, including Clifford the Big Red Dog, Blue Bloods and […]
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Will a ‘Rush Hour’ Sequel Resurrect Brett Ratner?
In July, Lionsgate executives gathered for a routine greenlight meeting. On the agenda, however, was not a typical project. The studio was looking at Rush Hour 4, the long-talked-about next installment in the action comedy franchise. In different times, it might seem like an attractive idea for Lionsgate — which has an interest in building franchises […]
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As AI Encroaches on Hollywood, Animators Say This Is An Existential Moment
Jeanette Moreno King’s daughter is 17 and wants to eventually work in animation. As the president of The Animation Guild — a union that represents more than 5,000 artists, writers, technicians and production workers who have been credited on Kung Fu Panda 4, Wish and other recent releases — Moreno King, you might think, would […]
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Once a Cash Cow, Cable TV Is Now Roadkill. Is a Fire Sale Next?
In September 2022, a few months before he unexpectedly returned to The Walt Disney Co., Bob Iger warned that “a world of hurt” was coming to the linear TV business. Sitting on stage at The Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom, Iger told his interviewer, Kara Swisher, that “Linear TV and satellite is marching towards a great […]
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Jeff Shell’s Past Lingers Over Paramount’s Future
Is there a path back? That still stands as an unanswered question in the wake of the #MeToo tsunami that swept Hollywood starting with the downfall of Harvey Weinstein in 2017. And it presented with specific, thorny facts — accompanied by a cloud of nebulous rumors — as Skydance moves closer to sealing a deal […]
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“Our Billion-Dollar Olympic Lab”: What NBC Is Taking From Paris to L.A.
The Paris Olympics have put NBC and its employees in a mighty good mood. Walking through NBC Sports’ headquarters midway through the games, one could almost feel the energy and good vibes. And not just because of the live music and s’more-making in fire pits by the Eiffel Tower. No, not that Eiffel Tower. In […]
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