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Following the events of "John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum" (2019), "Chapter 4" sees Wick take his battle against the criminal High Table organization global. Check out the trailer for 'John Wick: Chapter 4'Keanu Reeves reprises his role as legendary hitman John Wick. "John Wick: Chapter 4" also features Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Shamier Anderson, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, and Ian McShane. In addition to standard showings, "John Wick: Chapter 4" is playing in IMAX and Dolby Cinema for premium prices. Keanu Reeves in "John Wick: Chapter 4."

☆ Miramax launched a film development team to resurrect its blockbuster-rich heyday. But a string of key departures has hobbled the vision and frustrated some Hollywood creatives.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Miramax built out a film development team early in the pandemic to bring in new projects and filmmakers. "He's the perfect leader to take the Miramax film team into this next chapter." Hammer's credits as a production executive include "Last Vegas" and "Inside Llewyn Davis." The first source said the film development team had worked to turn the company's reputation around by emphasizing relationships with respected filmmakers. But this person and an independent producer familiar with the Hollywood landscape, agreed that Miramax is no longer a top player in film development.

The latest sequel, "John Wick: Chapter 4," hits theaters on March 24. Since 2014, the first three "John Wick" movies have accumulated a collective worldwide box office gross of over $587 million. If you're looking to catch up on the franchise before seeing "John Wick: Chapter 4" in theaters, you're in luck. The first three "John Wick" movies are all available to stream, rent, or purchase online. Where to watch 'John Wick' moviesThough "John Wick: Chapter 4" will be exclusive to theaters when it premieres on March 24, you can watch the first three "John Wick" movies at home right now on Peacock.

☆ 'The Wire' star Lance Reddick dies from natural causes, publicist says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Diana Dasrath | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Lance Reddick attends the LA Premiere of Lionsgate's "Angel Has Fallen" at Regency Village Theatre on August 20, 2019 in Westwood, California. "The Wire" star Lance Reddick, 60, died Friday, his publicist said. Police were called to the actor's home in the Valley Village neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, around 9:30 a.m."Acclaimed actor Lance Reddick passed away suddenly this morning from natural causes," his publicist Mia Hansen said. The movie's stars were in the midst of a press tour for "John Wick: Chapter 4" ahead of its release in theaters on March 24. He is survived by his wife, Stephanie Reddick, and children Yvonne Nicole and Christopher Reddick.

☆ 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' box office suffered steep decline in second week
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

That's the sentiment from box office analysts after the Marvel Cinematic Universe's latest film "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" saw the sharpest decline in ticket sales from opening weekend to second weekend in franchise history. To be sure, "Quantumania" is one of the worst reviewed Marvel films, with a 48% "rotten" critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. "Thor: Love and Thunder," "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and "Spider-Man: No Way Home," a co-production with Sony , all saw second week drops in excess of 67%. The film also has more counter-programming than other Marvel films released in the last few years. He pointed to "Violent Night" and "M3gan," in addition to "Cocaine Bear," as films that have outperformed expectations at the box office.

☆ What Rom-Coms Teach Us About Love, Life and Meg Ryan’s Hair
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Tala Safie | Alexis Soloski | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

THE ENDThank you for playing,Photo credits: Sony Pictures (“Jerry Maguire”); Universal Pictures (“Love Actually,” “Marry Me,” “Notting Hill,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Along Came Polly,” “Bridesmaids”); 20th Century Fox (“Say Anything,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” “There's Something About Mary”); Columbia Pictures (“50 First Dates,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Hitch,” “The Holiday,” “The Wedding Planner,” “Cruel Intentions”); Miramax (“Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “Kate & Leopold,” “She’s All That”); MGM (“Licorice Pizza”); TriStar Pictures (“Sleepless in Seattle”); Warner Bros. (“You've Got Mail,” “Crazy, Stupid, Love”); Lionsgate (“Shotgun Wedding”); New Line Cinema (“Monster-in-Law”); Buena Vista Pictures (“Pretty Woman,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” “High Fidelity”); Disney (“The Princess Diaries”); Focus Features (“Deliver Us from Eva”); Paramount Pictures (“How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”). A quiz by Tala Safie and Alexis Soloski. Produced by Sean Catangui, Amanda Webster, Alicia DeSantis and Lorne Manly.

☆ Why Hollywood's tech evangelists are bullish on NFTs and Web3 storytelling, even after the FTX scandal tarnished blockchain's rep
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Amid the FTX scandal and declining NFT sales, Web3 chatter has grown quieter in Hollywood. But proponents of NFTs and Web3 storytelling are betting on the tech's entertainment potential. Hollywood's evangelists of Web3 — the decentralized, blockchain-based future of the web that includes crypto and NFTs — were out in full force. She has worked to distance the creative and storytelling potential of NFTs and other blockchain-based technologies from the cowboy rep of the digital currency world. "I'm excited about moving Web3, blockchain technologies past sort of the hype cycle that we've seen with digital collectibles and NFTs," Greg Reed, Universal Pictures' VP of technology partnerships, told Variety.

☆ Michael Jackson's nephew to play 'King of Pop' in biopic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Danielle Broadway | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LOS ANGELES, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The late pop singer Michael Jackson will be portrayed by his 26-year-old nephew, Jaafar Jackson, in the biographical movie “Michael," the Lionsgate studio said on Monday. "Michael" will explore “the complicated man who became the King of Pop,” Lionsgate said in a statement. The Jackson family denied those accusations and the Michael Jackson estate won its appeal that year. Jaafar Jackson is the son of Michael Jackson’s older brother, Jermaine Jackson, who is also a singer and producer. “Jaafar embodies my son," said Michael Jackson’s mother, Katherine Jackson, in the news release.

☆ 10 things about ancient Egypt that movies and TV got wrong, according to an expert
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Carter Thallon | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Movies and television shape what people think about ancient Egypt. Here are 10 things that "Moon Knight", "The Mummy", and others got wrong and one they got right. When it comes to ancient Egypt, they can draw the portrait of pharaohs ruling Egypt with an iron fist, cruel torture, and wicked booby-trapped pyramids. "All of the sarcophagi that I've seen in Egypt were made of stone," said Browder, an author of several books on ancient Egypt. The curse that set Imhotep on his murderous path in "The Mummy" has no historical basisIn "The Mummy," Imhotep was mummified alive.

☆ Read the 15-page pitch deck that raised $6 million for StoryCo, a blockchain-based platform that links Hollywood creatives directly with fans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

StoryCo founders Justin and J.P. Alanis are part of a wave of entrepreneurs building blockchain-based storytelling platforms. StoryCo raised a $6 million seed round from Web3-focused VC firms and Hollywood insiders. In other words, Hollywood studios have been gatekeepers to content — and profits — for far too long. StoryCo is one of several startups that see blockchain and Web3 technology creating big new opportunities for TV and film creatives. Passholders will have access to a project's treasury, which will include NFT sales, IP licensing revenue, and royalties.

☆ 'M3gan' is setting the stage for a big year for horror movies at the box office
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

UniversalA fashion-forward, murderous doll is ringing up big bucks at the box office. It's the latest success in a string of lucrative theatrical runs for the horror genre. Additionally, fewer theatrical releases have resulted in a smaller overall box office in the last year. The domestic box office reached $7.5 billion in 2022, better than $4.58 billion collected in 2021, but down around 34% compared to 2019. Its newest installment in the Scream franchise took in $81 million in the U.S. and Canada and $137 million worldwide.

"Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" is now available to stream on Netflix. Serving as a sequel to the 2019 film "Knives Out," "Glass Onion'' features the return of detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig). Check out the trailer for 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'Daniel Craig reprises his role as keen investigator Benoit Blanc. How to watch 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'You can watch "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" at home exclusively on Netflix. Is 'Glass Onion' a sequel to 'Knives Out'?

☆ Three Marvel sequels are the most anticipated movies of 2023, according to Fandango
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

A trio of upcoming Marvel movies − the newest installments of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man and Ant-Man franchises − are the top three most anticipated films for 2023, according to a new survey by Fandango. Many of the most-anticipated films are prequels, sequels or films otherwise connected to a well-known franchise. 2023's Top 10 Most-Anticipated Movies Across Categories 1. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" (Universal )Among the top 10 overall most anticipated films, only "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" isn't part of an established movie series. Last year, 80% said they wanted to see a minimum of five movies in theaters.

☆ The biggest media targets and buyers in 2023, as speculation swirls around Disney's next move under CEO Bob Iger and how Warner Bros. Discovery can shed debt
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Lucia Moses | Claire Atkinson | Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Continued pressure to get bigger has big media companies in Hollywood looking to scale up. Media bankers and investors predicted to Insider that dealmaking will rebound in 2023 as companies big and small size up their options for possible tie-ups. Pressure on big media companies to get bigger hasn't gone away. Apple: Could eye a big content prizeTim Cook. Paramount's library could help a streaming company bulk up its content; Netflix for one has explored Paramount's studio business before.

☆ 1 in 5 studio films included an LGBTQ character in 2021, GLAAD report finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Sixteen of the 77 films released by those studios (20.8%) featured 28 LGBTQ characters, the report found. That percentage is down slightly from 2020, during which 10 of the 44 theatrical releases (23%) featured 20 LGBTQ characters, according to the report. Of the 16 films that included LGBTQ characters in 2021, 11 films (69%) included gay male characters, four (25%) included lesbian characters and two (13%) included bisexual characters, according to the report. For the second year in a row, GLAAD found that there were zero LGBTQ characters with disabilities or LGBTQ characters living with HIV represented in the year’s films. The majority of the 28 characters, 17, received fewer than five minutes, and six of those characters received less than a minute of screen time.

☆ Jennifer Lawrence sparks backlash by falsely claiming to be the first woman in the lead of an action movie
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Jennifer Lawrence is sparking backlash after falsely claiming to be the first woman in the lead of an action movie. Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games." Others said while Lawrence's comment was technically incorrect, she accurately pointed to a larger issue of gender bias in Hollywood. "It is untrue that no one had ever put a woman in an action movie before Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games," Franklin Leonard, producer and founder of "The Black List," a platform for film and TV writers, said in a tweet. "It is absolutely true that Hollywood had and has a real bias against women driven action movies because of this ridiculous belief about who identifies with whom."

☆ From Apple and Disney to Warner Bros. Discovery, here's the 2023 media deal outlook for Hollywood's biggest companies, according to 13 bankers and industry experts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Lucia Moses | Claire Atkinson | Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

☆ The 'Knives Out' sequel 'Glass Onion' could have been a box-office hit — if Netflix had let it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Analysts say Netflix's "Glass Onion" could have been a box-office hit with a bigger release. Last year, Netflix scooped up the rights to two "Knives Out" sequels for over $400 million, Deadline reported at the time. The streaming service released the first sequel, "Glass Onion," in 600 theaters over the weekend, and it will play for one-week only, before debuting on Netflix on December 23. During its latest earnings call in October, co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended Netflix's release strategy, downplaying the potential that it expands its theatrical output. "We're in the business of entertaining our members with Netflix movies on Netflix," he said.

☆ I got my big break as a Lionsgate screenwriter after I moved 2,000 miles from Hollywood. Here's how I made connections and worked my way up from security guard to my dream career.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Ken Miyamoto | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Ken Miyamoto was a security guard at Sony, and worked his way up to story analyst for the studio. In 1996, I took one University of Wisconsin screenwriting class, and that was the extent of my screenwriting education. I moved to California from Wisconsin with my wife in late 1999 to pursue a career in screenwriting. The apartment was way overpriced and much smaller than others we looked at, but we signed the lease that day. Lastly, don't write for free.

☆ New 'Dangerous Liaisons' TV series 'a prelude, origin story', makers say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Hanna Rantala | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The new TV series sees the passionate love affair of protagonists Marquise de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont turn sour in pre-revolutionary Paris. "It is a prelude to what we see later with the book and the Malkovich version," Australian actor Nicholas Denton, who plays Valmont, told Reuters. The details made Warner wonder who the marquise, who goes by Camille and is played by Australian Alice Englert in the series, was before. "As key as discovering the way into Camille was the way into Valmont, that meant that you can understand his behaviour. The 8-episode first season of "Dangerous Liaisons" premieres on LIONSGATE+ on Sunday.

☆ Meet 9 top media bankers transforming the M&A landscape and driving deals for Warner Bros. Discovery, Legendary, Amazon, and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

2022 kicked off with some huge transactions, from AT&T's WarnerMedia spin-off to private equity scooping up content players. Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, and Diamond Sports Group both recently tapped big banks to explore their options. Not surprisingly, WarnerMedia was at the heart of the richest transaction fee waterfall for big banks in 2022. Moelis and LionTree were just tapped to help figure out what's next for Sinclair's Regional Sports Networks, Diamond Sports Group, while Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, also hired Moelis to shop the production company, according to Variety. There's lots of dry powder still in private equity, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, co-founder and co-president at investment bank Moelis, told Insider.

Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesBenefits of bundlingFor consumers that buy many streaming services already, purchasing a bundle of them for a discount would be an instant money saver. For corporations, pushing together streaming services reduces the number of people who cancel each month, known in the industry as churn. But those companies also offer their own competing streaming services – The Roku Channel, Prime Video and Apple TV+, respectively – which could deter broader partnerships. Wireless companies already offer promotional pricing to streaming services as sign-up bonuses. From the standpoint of niche services, Peacock hasn't come to them with a coherent strategy, according to several people familiar with the talks.

☆ Meet 9 top media bankers transforming the M&A landscape as streaming video reshapes entertainment
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

2022 kicked off with some huge transactions, from AT&T's WarnerMedia spin-off to private equity scooping up content players. Company valuations are set to fall back to earth in 2023, and private equity and strategics are lying in wait. Not surprisingly, WarnerMedia was at the heart of the richest transaction fee waterfall for big banks in 2022. Joshua Grode's Legendary Entertainment, backed by Dalian Wanda and now Apollo Group, which took a stake in the studio in January. There's lots of dry powder still in private equity, Navid Mahmoodzadegan, co-founder and co-president at investment bank Moelis, told Insider.

☆ Lions Gate focusing on spinning off studio business over Starz
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Actors and staff pose as they arrive for the world premiere of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2" in Berlin, Germany, November 4, 2015. REUTERS/Fabrizio BenschSept 28 (Reuters) - Lions Gate Entertainment Corp (LGFa.N) said on Wednesday it was focusing on spinning off its studio business first, even as it explores alternative options for its cable and streaming division, Starz. The company's film and TV studios have an extensive library, with hits such as "Hunger Games, "The Expendables" and "Mad Men". "As negotiations progress, we have increased our focus on the possibility of spinning our studio business, creating a number of financial and strategic benefits." Lionsgate also announced it would rebrand its international streaming service, Starzplay, to Lionsgate+ in 35 countries.

☆ Lionsgate leaning toward spinning off its studio business instead of Starz
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Alex Sherman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Lionsgate is leaning toward spinning off its studio division rather than its Starz cable and streaming unit, according to people familiar with the matter. Lionsgate is engaged in talks with multiple potential partners about selling a stake in the studio business, said the people. Those talks are likely to more quickly reach a deal Lionsgate is comfortable with than for Starz since there's more robust interest, the people said. The studio business produces films and TV series, and includes a library of more than 17,000 titles, such as "The Hunger Games," "The Expendables," and "Mad Men." "As negotiations progress, we have increased our focus on the possibility of spinning our studio business, creating a number of financial and strategic benefits," Lionsgate said in the filing.

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