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☆ Apple's advertising business is expanding into new areas this year such as TV. Here are 14 behind-the-scenes Apple executives building its advertising empire.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Right now its roughly $5 billion-in-revenue ads business largely consists of search ads sold within the App Store. We asked more than a dozen advertising industry insiders and former Apple advertising staffers to identify the most important executives building Apple's advertising business. Teresi's ascent coincides with the explosive growth of Apple's ad business in recent years. A former Yahoo and Quantcast staffer, Crawford first joined Apple in 2011 to work on global operations for iAd. Lauren Fry - Apple TV+ ad salesApple hired Fry, a TV and video ad sales veteran, in February this year, The Information reported.

☆ '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.

☆ Movie theaters aren't dying — they're evolving
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

As the space contracts, cinema operators are investing in the basics, improving sounds, picture quality and seating as well as in bolstering its food and beverage offerings, events and alternative programming. While cinema operators are pleased that studio production has increased, they are no longer taking audiences for granted. Over the last few years, movie theater operators have been removing traditional digital projectors and installing laser units, citing cost savings over time and a better picture quality for moviegoers. Many theater operators told CNBC they are planning similar upgrades to sound systems, saying they have partnered with companies like Dolby to bring quality speakers into their auditoriums. So far in 2023, that premium ticket average is higher — $17.33 each — because so many moviegoers saw Disney's "Avatar: The Way of Water" in premium formats and 3D.

☆ Disney’s New ‘Ant-Man’ Movie Brings in Over $100 Million on Opening Weekend
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Robbie Whelan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Paul Rudd continues his role as Ant-Man in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.’Ant-Man often bests his enemies by shrinking to the size of an insect or growing as tall as a skyscraper, as the situation demands. The character’s ticket sales seem to be supersizing with each new movie that comes out. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” from Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel Studios, overcame middling reviews from critics to earn $104 million in domestic ticket sales in its debut, making it the third-highest grossing February release ever, after the 2016 superhero comedy “Deadpool” and Marvel’s 2018 blockbuster “Black Panther,” according to box-office tracker Comscore.

☆ Marvel's 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' scores $104 million during domestic debut
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Paul Rudd is Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, alongside Johnathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in "Ant-Man and the Wasp in Quantumania." Disney and Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" scored an estimated $104 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend. "Quantumania's" domestic haul is nearly double what the first standalone Ant-Man film opened to in 2015 and marks the 31st consecutive MCU release to debut at number one at the domestic box office. Internationally, "Quantumania" took in $121 million, bringing its estimated global haul for the three-day spread to $225 million. "'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' sets into motion what looks to be week after week of solid moviegoing and creates momentum for a solid summer movie season."

☆ Why is Universal making a live-action 'How to Train Your Dragon'? These charts may explain
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In this article CMCSA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTStill from Universal and Dreamworks' "How to Train Your Dragon 2." For the last decade, the Walt Disney Company has been transforming its classic animated features into live-action theatrical and streaming features. Earlier this week, Universal said it would be doing the same for one of its own animated franchises: How to Train Your Dragon. What is, perhaps, most notable about Disney's live-action remakes is how much of the ticket sales were generated from international markets. This is something Universal is likely also keyed into when creating the live-action version of "How to Train Your Dragon."

☆ AMC Theatres shouldn't be charging more for the best seats — it should be getting rid of the empty ones
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AMC Theatres announced this week that it would charge more for the best seats in its auditoriums. Here's what it looks like on the AMC Theatres website for a screening at a New York City location:What the new seat pricing looks like on the AMC Theatres website. "This new initiative by AMC Theatres would essentially penalize people for lower income and reward for higher income." AMC's seat-pricing plan isn't going to help the theatrical business. Patrick Corcoran, spokesman for the National Association of Theatre Owners, told Insider in September.

☆ Movie theaters get creative with food and drink as they struggle to fill seats
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Noah Sheidlower | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

At many movie theaters, popcorn and soda appear alongside flatbreads, lobster grilled cheese and elaborate cocktails. "It is things like concessions and how that fits into a broader movie theater experience that really are things that movie theaters need to focus on and hammer in," Gallinari said. AMC Entertainment , the world's largest movie theater chain, exited its third quarter with more than $5.3 billion in debt. According to data from research firm EntTelligence, the average medium popcorn at domestic movie theaters is $8.14, while a medium drink runs for $6.20. "With movie theaters and concessions already having a reputation for being overpriced, being subject to the wills of the market in that way can really work against the movie theater's favor," Gallinari said.

☆ More than half of all 'Avatar: The Way of Water' tickets have been for 3D showings
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

For comparison, all other movies released in 2022 — not including "The Way of Water" — saw less than 14% of ticket sales from premium showings, averaging $15.76 a ticket. Bolstering box office numbers for the film is the push from Disney and Cameron for 3D showings. Since its release, the "Avatar" sequel has seen more than 56% of its tickets sold for 3D showings. The original 2009 "Avatar," which is the top grossing film of all time, also did well with 3D and premium tickets. To be sure, "The Way of Water" has not reached its historic box office just because of surcharges for 3D and premium format screenings.

☆ Your local Regal theater could be saved, as the company looks for a buyer amid bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Cineworld is looking to sell its remaining US-based Regal locations, it said in a filing this week. The company has reached out to 30 potential buyers, including many competitors. Locations that have already been closed will not be part of the sale, a Cineworld lawyer told Insider. Those assets include US-based Regal theater locations. Cineworld said in the filing that it has reached out to 30 potential buyers, including "many" of its competitors.

☆ James Cameron has now directed three of the five biggest movies of all time, as 'Avatar: The Way of Water' passes 'Avengers: Infinity War'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

"Avatar: The Way of Water" is now the No. It surpassed "Avengers: Infinity War" with a box office total of $2.055 billion worldwide. 1), and "Avatar: The Way of Water." "The Way of Water" surpassed "Avengers: Infinity War" on Wednesday to become the No. "Obviously, I'm not going to be able to make 'Avatar' movies indefinitely, the amount of energy required," Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter in November.

☆ How 'Skinamarink' made $1.5 million on a $15,000 budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Noah Sheidlower | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

In this article AMCX Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTA still promo for the film Skinamarink. Coutesy: Bayview EntertainmentExperimental horror film "Skinamarink" has been all the buzz on social media for months — and now it's a sleeper hit at the box office. Much of these sales come from the most wide-released horror films that had budgets between $16 million and $35 million. Independent horror films are released every week, and it's very difficult to stand out among these releases, he said. Still shot from the film "Skinamarink".

Box office receipts can rise as much as 75% in the weeks following a best picture nomination, according to Comscore data. The distributor, United Artists Releasing, planned the release strategy to coincide with this week's Oscar nominations, with the hope the movie would benefit from a box-office bounce. "Tar," a best picture contender starring Cate Blanchett as a manipulative orchestra conductor, will expand to 535 theaters from 100. 'NOT LOOKING GREAT'Even legendary director Steven Spielberg has had trouble drawing crowds to best picture nominee "The Fabelmans," his autobiographical story about family strife and anti-Semitism he faced as a teenager. Warner Bros is re-releasing the film in movie houses this weekend after it landed eight Oscar nominations including best picture and best actor.

☆ Streaming services are spending bank on big-budget movies. That's not buying Oscar nods.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Streaming services came up short at this year's Oscar nominations, announced on Tuesday. This year, it only has 15 — nine of which were for its one best-picture contender, "All Quiet on the Western Front." But the nominations also reflect the shifting streaming priorities for media and tech companies coming out of the pandemic. Only one of those four movies got an Oscar nomination — an adapted screenplay nod for "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in "Killers of the Flower Moon," an Oscar contender for next year.

☆ 'Avatar: The Way of Water' is the third James Cameron movie to gross $2 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Disney 's "Avatar: The Way of Water" has topped $2 billion at the global box office, making it the third James Cameron film to reach this benchmark. As of Sunday, "The Way of Water" had tallied $598 million from domestic ticket sales and $1.426 billion from foreign markets. "The film has now joined that very exclusive box office club and has made it look almost effortless," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. As the industry rebounds, films like "The Way of Water" have proven that moviegoers are eager to return for big blockbuster spectacles. Correction: This story was updated to reflect that "The Way of Water" is the third James Cameron movie to gross $2 billion at the global box office.

☆ Box office haul for 'Avatar: The Way of Water' tops $2 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Lisa Richwine | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Director James Cameron arrives at the world premiere of 'Avatar: The Way of Water' in London, Britain December 6, 2022. "The Way of Water" debuted in late December, 13 years after the original "Avatar" introduced the lush world of Pandora and became a worldwide phenomenon. Box office sales for "The Way of Water" totaled $2.024 billion on Sunday, according to Disney estimates. Roughly $1.4 billion of ticket sales have come from international markets outside the United States and Canada. A third "Avatar" movie, which Cameron has already filmed, is scheduled to debut in December 2024.

☆ '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.

☆ Disney's Marvel movies are returning to China after almost four years with 'Black Panther' and 'Ant-Man'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will open in China on February 7, roughly three months after its global debut, while “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” will open on February 17, Marvel Studios announced on Chinese social media Tuesday. Since then, Marvel’s last eight movies have not been shown in the country, though that will drop down to seven with the upcoming “Black Panther” release, Dergarabedian said. Stars of Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" attending the film's European premiere in London on Nov. 3, 2022. “This likely played a part in this welcome shift in playability for Marvel films in the country.”China’s box office generally rakes in billions of dollars a year. That put North America’s box office ahead once more in 2022, generating more than $7.5 billion compared with China’s $4.4 billion, according to Comscore data.

☆ 39 more Regal theaters are closing in the US amid bankruptcy. See the full list.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Travis Clark | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Over three dozen Regal Cinemas locations in the US are expected to close. Cineworld detailed the plan to reject the leases starting February 15 in a new bankruptcy filing on Tuesday. Regal is the second-largest cinema chain in the US, behind AMC, with over 500 theaters. The company's plan to close locations during its bankruptcy is fairly routine. Cineworld filed for bankruptcy at a time when the larger theatrical industry is struggling to fully rebound from the pandemic.

☆ The company Walgreens uses to target shoppers with ads on digital cooler doors is expanding its screens to more in-store locations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Cooler Screens, which provides in-store ad screens on cooler doors, has detailed expansion plans. Cooler Screens, the company that provides "smart" digital advertising screens on refrigerator doors in Kroger, Walgreens, and Circle K locations, said Tuesday that plans are underway to extend its network to more screens at different areas inside stores. Cooler Screens currently offers a digital merchandising platform that brightly displays the products that sit inside a retailer's cooler units and additional advertising space. A slide from a Cooler Screens ad sales pitch deck, showcasing its plans for additional in-store billboards. Cooler Screens has raised more than $100 million in funding from investors including Verizon Ventures, Microsoft's M12 venture fund, and GreatPoint Ventures.

☆ I saw 'Last of Us' on a big screen. Here's why more blockbuster TV shows should be shown in movie theaters.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

More blockbuster TV shows like "Last of Us" should be shown on the big screen. It raised the question: Should more TV shows be put on the big screen? That event earned nearly $5 million, according to Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt. The airings earned $2 million from just 205 theaters, according to The Los Angeles Times, and the episodes had already aired on HBO. Meanwhile, blockbuster shows like "House of the Dragon" and "The Rings of Power" had premiered on the small screen.

☆ 'Top Gun: Maverick' and Disney were the box office leaders in an otherwise soft 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

"Top Gun: Maverick" was the highest grossing theatrical release in 2022, but its $719 million haul wasn't enough to make its studio, Paramount , ruler of the domestic box office. It also accounted for more than half of Paramount's overall domestic haul for the year. Other releases, including "The Lost City," "Smile," "Scream" and "Sonic the Hedgehog 2," pushed Paramount's 2022 box office to around $1.3 billion, the third-highest haul for studios, Comscore reported. Ultimately, "Maverick" represented around 10% of the total $7.5 billion in domestic ticket receipts collected last year. While the "Top Gun" sequel topped the charts as the highest-grossing film of the year, it is Disney that ultimately wears the 2022 box office crown.

☆ I pay $30 a month for a 'season pass' to a dine-in theater chain that is strict about not talking and texting, because I can't stand the experience at normal theaters anymore
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I subscribe to its Alamo Season Pass, a subscription that lets you see a movie a day for $30 a month. The Alamo Season Pass lets me see one movie a day for $30 per month. Alamo DrafthouseI subscribe to its Alamo Season Pass, a membership that lets me see one movie a day for $30 a month. I chose Alamo Season Pass last year, after realizing I was going there quite a bit for all the reasons I mentioned and would save money that way. For instance, you can only get a ticket with your Season Pass within seven days of your screening.

☆ China continued to reject Marvel movies in 2022, and the country's box office plummeted 36%
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

China's box office dropped 36% in 2022 compared to the previous year. Chinese film officials also continued to reject many Hollywood releases, particularly Marvel movies. China's box office dropped 36% to $4.35 billion in 2022, according to Deadline, which cited figures that China's Film Administration released to state media. The 2022 North American box office rose to an estimated $7.5 billion, according to Comscore, a 64% increase from the previous year. To make matters worse for its box office, China also didn't have a local smash hit last year, like it did in 2021 with "The Battle at Lake Changjin."

☆ Warner Bros. Discovery signs audience measurement deal with startup Nielsen rival VideoAmp
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Discovery has signed a deal with VideoAmp to measure its audience as an alternative means of data for advertisers, the companies announced Tuesday. Firms like Nielsen and VideoAmp offer audience estimates and data that TV networks and streamers use to sell slots for commercials. The merger between Discovery and Warner Media closed in 2022, amassing a portfolio of TV networks including the Discovery Channel, TLC, TNT, TBS and others. The merged company plans to roll out a revamped streaming platform in the spring, combining its Discovery+ with Warner's HBO Max. "Traditional media measurement has not kept pace with how consumers are engaging with streaming and linear content.

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