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☆ Media insiders react as CNN's embattled CEO steps down: 'The only person who hates bad press more than Chris Licht is ... David Zaslav.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

CNN CEO Chris Licht stepped down on Wednesday following a damning profile in The Atlantic. "The only person who hates bad press more than Chris Licht is ... David Zaslav," said one ex-CNN staffer. CNN CEO Chris Licht has stepped down after a damning profile in The Atlantic signaled the end to a tumultuous 14 months on the job. Licht stepped into the role in April 2022 after the merger that formed Warner Bros. David Zaslav, the head of the parent company, and John Malone, a big investor, have very specific *editorial ideas for how news should work.

Persons: Chris Licht, David Zaslav, Jeff Zucker, Licht, Oliver Darcy, Brian Stelter, Jamie Stelter, Brian, Kara Swisher, " Swisher, CNN's, Zucker, Glenn Greenwald, Edmund Lee, weren't Licht's, Greenwald, Lee, John Malone Organizations: CNN, Morning, Warner Bros, Wall Street Journal, NY1, Tech, New York Times Locations: Trump

Hong Kong/Seoul CNN —“The Little Mermaid” has bombed with moviegoers in China and South Korea amid racist critiques in some quarters over the casting of Black actress Halle Bailey as main character Ariel. Disney’s live-action remake has made only $3.6 million in mainland China since opening there on May 26, according to Box Office Mojo. In South Korea, “The Little Mermaid” has grossed $4.4 million since May 24. Halle Bailey in 'The Little Mermaid.' Ariel and Prince Eric in a scene from 'The Little Mermaid.'

Persons: Halle Bailey, Ariel, Disney’s, Bailey, “, ”, Rob Marshall, ‘ Let’s, ’, Fans, Prince Eric, Maleficent ’, Paul Dergarabedian Organizations: Seoul CNN —, Office, Korean Film Council, Global Times, Disney, Hollywood, Halle, United, Comscore Locations: Hong Kong, Seoul, China, South Korea, United States, Comscore, ”, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, Finland, United Arab Emirates

☆ 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' opens to $120.5 million, second-highest debut of 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Spider-Man returned to the big screen this weekend, webbing up an estimated $120.5 million at the domestic box office. Sony's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," the much anticipated sequel to the Academy Award-winning "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," had the second-biggest opening of 2023, just behind Universal's "Super Mario Bros. The film also marks the third-best opening weekend for any Spider-Man film, animated or live-action. The film has secured $186.2 million in domestic ticket sales and stands at $326.7 million globally. Additionally, Disney's "The Boogey Man" opened to $12 million in domestic ticket sales and Universal's "Fast X" added $9.24 million in ticket sales over the weekend, bringing its domestic haul to $128.4 million.

Persons: Universal's, Mario, Paul Dergarabedian, Shawn Robbins, Robbins Organizations: Academy, Mario Bros, BoxOffice.com, Disney, Guardians, Galaxy, Comcast, CNBC Locations: EntTelligence, NBCUniversal

☆ How AI is transforming Hollywood
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Julia Boorstin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow AI is transforming HollywoodOn April 28, 2023, Senior Media and Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin took a deep dive into how VFX company Deep Voodoo has pioneered new visual replacement AI tech.

Persons: Julia Boorstin Organizations: Hollywood, Senior Media, Tech

☆ How AI is changing the medical field
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Julia Boorstin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailHow AI is changing the medical fieldOn May 18, 2023, Senior Media and Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin reported on how Artificial Intelligence has been changing the medical field – including making surgical techniques, medicinal development and cancer detection more efficient than ever before.

Persons: Julia Boorstin Organizations: Senior Media, Tech, Intelligence

☆ Congress takes on the AI boom
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Julia Boorstin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCongress takes on the AI boomOn May 16, 2023, Senior Media and Tech Correspondent Julia Boorstin reported on the topics that were projected to be discussed at Congress' AI hearing focused on privacy, technology and legislation surrounding the recent AI boom.

Persons: Julia Boorstin Organizations: Senior Media, Tech

☆ 'Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3' had best second weekend box office hold for MCU in 5 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In its second week in theaters, the director's "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. Most blockbuster films' ticket sales drop between 50% and 70% from the opening weekend to the second week. It is the third-best second week fall of any MCU film since 2008, just behind "Thor," which slipped 47.2% during its second week in 2011. For comparison, the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" film tallied $773.3 million globally during its run in 2014 and "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. The strong box office for "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol.

☆ Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3' kicks off summer movie season with $114 million opening
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Disney and Marvel Studio's "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. It also fell short of the $146.5 million "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2" collected in 2017. "'Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. The release of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.

☆ CNN's Oliver Darcy says he requested $1,000 on Venmo from Tucker Carlson, who he says made a bet that Darcy would lose his job
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

CNN journalist Oliver Darcy tweeted that Carlson had allegedly lost a $1,000 bet between them. Carlson called Darcy to say the CNN reporter would lose his job at the cable network, Darcy said. Oliver Darcy claimed on Tuesday that Tucker Carlson called him last year, betting $1,000 that the CNN reporter would meet a similar fate to the one he had met on Monday. "He vowed to Venmo me $1,000 if I still was employed by CNN a year later. Following over a decade at Fox News, Carlson was let go by the network 10 minutes before it released a statement.

Giant screen options include pioneer IMAX and various premium large formats (PLF) created by theater chains. For Missouri-based B&B Theatres, about half of a multiplex's grosses now come from premium formats, compared with 30% before the pandemic, said Chief Content, Programming and Development Officer Brock Bagby. B&B operates 531 screens in 14 states and offers large format screens with heated recliners, 270-degree Screen X screens, immersive audio and MX4D seats timed to rumble with the action. "Post-COVID, our premium screens are selling better than ever," Bagby said. As a sign of its importance, Universal's Orr and other studio distribution executives said they consult Gelfond about IMAX screen availability before setting movie release dates.

☆ MoviePass has landed a deal with Walmart to sell subscriptions in stores across the country
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Jason Guerrasio | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

MoviePass will be available at Walmart, several sources familiar with the deal told Insider. MoviePass relaunched last year in beta form and plans to be available to all customers by the summer. MoviePass will have displays in Walmart stores across the country where its subscription cards will be available for shoppers, sources said. No details were given to Insider about what the offer on the MoviePass Walmart cards will be, or when the cards will be available in stores. "This is a huge win for MoviePass and for the theatrical movie business," Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Insider.

☆ Netflix's paid sharing plan will kickstart the advertising tier: Macquarie's Tim Nollen
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailNetflix's paid sharing plan will kickstart the advertising tier: Macquarie's Tim NollenTim Nollen, Macquarie Group senior media analyst, and CNBC's Julia Boorstin join 'Power Lunch' to discuss Netflix's advertising business, how the password crackdown would work, and how much money is to be made.

Fox agreed to a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday. But a senior media executive told Insider that insurance typically handles these types of payments. Fox Corp. had nearly $4.1 billion of cash on hand, according to comments made in February by company CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Fox Corp., which also owns assets such as the broadcast network and streamer Tubi, has a market capitalization of $17.61 billion as of Tuesday. In 2017, Fox also agreed to a $90 million "derivatives" settlement against company officers over sexual harassment issues at Fox News, according to Reuters.

☆ Vox Media announces new hosts of iconic Code Conference after Kara Swisher’s departure
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN —Vox Media is gearing up for its first Code Conference without Kara Swisher at the helm. The invite-only event, which attracts top technology executives and journalists, will be hosted by The Verge Editor-In-Chief Nilay Patel, Platformer founder Casey Newton and CNBC senior media and tech reporter Julia Boorstin, Vox Media told CNN on Wednesday. Swisher, the journalist who co-founded the news-making conference with reporter Walt Mossberg and hosted it for the past two decades, will still participate in the conference, albeit in a less outsized role. “This year, there will be more to discuss than ever,” Jim Bankoff, chief executive of Vox Media, told CNN. “Code will build on Kara’s legacy, and we’ll continue to evolve the conference to best serve its audience.

☆ Tech employees should expect more debloating even after 330,000 jobs got wiped
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter have collectively chopped around 70,000 staff — but ongoing concerns about profitability and over-hiring means they could slim down more. Google and Amazon should cut more jobs: analystsAnalysts note that Google, for example, added around 71,000 employees in the past three years. They say Meta has seen "limited impact on its growth" after laying off around 25% of its workforce since November. The bank's analysts say that profitability per employee at Amazon excluding its warehouse workers — a measure of its efficiency — is "significantly below peers." With less cash available, cuts will likely persist and workers in tech should brace for more instability this year.

☆ More movies, more variety, more money: The box office is catching up to pre-Covid levels
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

For nearly three years, the domestic box office has been chasing the highs of the pre-pandemic era, hoping that blockbuster franchise films would fill seats and sell popcorn. It was the second-highest box office year with $11.4 billion." Since movie theaters reopened to the public in late 2020, the domestic box office has steadily recovered, generating significantly higher ticket sales each year. Last year, the box office reached $7.5 billion, up 64% from the $4.58 billion in ticket sales seen in 2021. Industry analysts attributed the smaller box office to a more limited inventory of theatrical releases, not a general disinterest by consumers to return to cinemas.

☆ UFC merger beefs up WWE's leverage in media rights negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Networks and streaming services need to get ready for a media rights smackdown. UFC should also benefit ahead of 2025, when its U.S. media rights deals come up, including with Disney's ESPN. "I think everything is up for grabs with these media rights deals. During his time with CAA, he had formed a relationship with McMahon during a recent round of TV rights negotiations for WWE. It will also work for UFC negotiations, he noted.

☆ Apple's streaming service is starting to get serious, says Needham's Laura Martin
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailApple's streaming service is starting to get serious, says Needham's Laura MartinLaura Martin, senior media analyst at Needham joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss her thoughts on why the firm says there would be upside for Apple if it buys Disney using shares.

☆ It's wild that Western governments have decided that TikTok might spy for China. The app hasn't helped itself.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

TikTok denies it feeds user data to China, but the drip-drip of revelations hasn't helped. The suspicion is that TikTok's owner ByteDance is in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party and shares data about Western users with China. TikTok has maintained the app doesn't spy on individuals, and has pointed to the steps it's taking to hive off user information. FCC commissioner Brendan Carr responded to Bertram asking if "any member of the CCP accessed non-public US or EU user data from inside China." US social-media services normalized the aggressive harvesting of user data, and routinely hand over information to international governments.

☆ Studio A24 captures Oscar spotlight with big wins for best picture, acting
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

LOS ANGELES, March 13 (Reuters) - Independent studio A24 was the big winner at Sunday's Academy Awards, taking nine awards out of its 18 nominations, including best picture and all four acting prizes. The studio's "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won seven Oscars, the most of the evening, including best picture. However, Brendan Fraser took the best actor prize for A24's "The Whale," which also won for best makeup and hairstyling. Not since the heyday of Miramax in the 1990s has an independent studio garnered such attention, talent and box office success, entertainment industry insiders say. EVERYTHING EVERYWHEREThe first film A24 produced and financed, together with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, was “Moonlight,” which won the Oscar for best picture in 2017.

☆ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ studio A24 captures Oscar spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

LOS ANGELES, March 10 (Reuters) - A24, the independent studio behind such films as “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and "The Whale," is poised to dominate this year’s Academy Awards, eclipsing Hollywood’s established studios and awards-hungry streamers that are spending millions on Oscar campaigns. Not since the heyday of Miramax in the 1990s has an independent studio garnered such attention, talent and box office success, entertainment industry insiders say. EVERYTHING EVERYWHEREThe first film A24 produced and financed, together with Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, was “Moonlight,” which won the Oscar for best picture in 2017. The studio has garnered 53 Oscar nominations in less than a decade, including best picture nods for “Lady Bird, “Minari” and “Room.”A24's film slate has grown at the pace of its cash flow - starting with three movies in 2016 to 15 in 2022. This year, it’s on track to produce about 15 films for theatrical release, eight documentaries and 10 television shows.

☆ The Oscar box office bump is shrinking
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The winner of the best picture award at Sunday's Oscars may not get a box office bump for taking home the night's biggest prize. The result has been a smaller bump in box office at the time of nominations and a significant surge in streaming demand. For 2014's "American Sniper," 99% of its box office ticket sales came after its nomination, a whopping $346 million. This year, all of the best picture nominees saw less than 13% of revenue from post-nomination box office except for one. "For decades, we've seen contenders pick up extra box office ticket sales once the picture nominations were announced.

☆ MediaMath seemed destined for a $1B fairy-tale exit. Instead, most early investors got nothing.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

At its Halloween party in 2015, the adtech startup MediaMath seemed on the brink of greatness. The machine-learning revolution that took over the financial industry was finally happening in marketing, and many industry insiders considered MediaMath to be the hottest adtech company of the time. "We never came close to consummating such a deal with MediaMath nor entertained the purported valuation," said a representative for Singtel. The Trade Desk, the most comparable independent DSP company to MediaMath, was riding high after its 2016 initial public offering. The quasi-equity agreement was structured to protect Searchlight if MediaMath didn't perform to certain quotas or if things went south financially.

☆ '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.

☆ It takes more than content to compete in streaming, says Needham's Laura Martin
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailIt takes more than content to compete in streaming, says Needham's Laura MartinLaura Martin, senior media analyst at Needham, joins 'The Exchange' to discuss Netflix expanding into sports, the bull case for Warner Brothers Discovery and valuation potentials in streaming.

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