The Grinch Source: Universal Studios It’s human nature for a new year to bring optimism and hope. For executives, investors and employees in the entertainment and telecommunications industries, 2024 is set to disappoint. Maybe that’s too grinchy. Some things will get better. The actors’ and writers’ strikes are over. The 2024 U.S. presidential election should … Read more
Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler star as Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray Baird in Lionsgate’s “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” Lionsgate This year’s Thanksgiving box office was both feast and famine for the theatrical industry. Lionsgate’s “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” had a solid second week run in cinemas, … Read more
Elon Musk lashed out at large advertisers and Media Matters, a media watchdog group, on Friday after several major brands decided to pause spending on X, the social media platform he owns and runs as CTO. Musk wrote late Friday night, “The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear … Read more
Apple CEO Tim Cook looks on following a conversation on mental health, during a spousal program on the last day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week at Apple Park in San Francisco, California, on November 17, 2023. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images Apple and Disney have paused online advertising campaigns on … Read more
Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a fireside discussion on artificial intelligence risks with Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, not pictured, in London, UK, on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. Sunak convened this week’s AI summit in an effort to position the UK at the forefront of global efforts to stave off the … Read more
LOS ANGELES — Disney earnings topped expectations thanks in part to profit at ESPN+ and continued growth at theme parks, but a decline in ad revenue weighed on the top line. Disney also said it plans to continue to “aggressively manage” its cost base, increasing its cost-cutting measures by an additional $2 billion to a … Read more
A Roku Inc. remote in an arranged photograph in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, U.S., on Sunday, May 2, 2021. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Media stocks popped on Thursday as Roku’s 30% rally lifted the entire sector. Wall Street celebrated the streaming device company’s third quarter-report Wednesday, in which Roku reported strong trends in content … Read more
Rafael Henrique | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images Disney said Wednesday that it had agreed to buy Comcast’s one-third stake in streaming service Hulu, a long-expected outcome. Disney said it expects to pay Comcast’s NBCUniversal about $8.61 billion by Dec. 1, reflecting the guaranteed minimum value of $27.5 billion for the streaming service … Read more
A scene from the film “Five Nights at Freddy’s” Universal Pictures If anything was going to topple Taylor Swift at the box office, it had to be a killer animatronic bear, right? “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the new Universal-Blumhouse horror offering set in an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese-type kids’ pizza parlor, scored an estimated $78 … Read more
Bob Iger, CEO, Disney, and Brian Roberts of Comcast Getty Images Comcast and Disney have hired investment banks to value Hulu, the next step in what’s been a nearly five-year process to put the streaming service under one owner. Comcast, which owns one-third of Hulu, has hired Morgan Stanley, and Disney, which owns the other … Read more