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☆ 'Avatar' sequel eclipses $1 billion at global box office, even with Covid weighing on China business
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water" has passed the billion-dollar mark at the global box office, but sluggish sales in China could weigh on the film's final haul. Worldwide ticket sales for the Disney film now stand at $1.03 billion, the combination of $317 million in domestic sales and $712 million from international markets. That places the film among the top five fastest movies to reach $1 billion in box-office sales. Still, industry experts are concerned by muted ticket sales from China. Through Tuesday, China has accounted for just $108 million in ticket sales for the film.

☆ Hollywood had a weird year. Here's what it should learn for 2023 and beyond.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Hollywood and movie theaters can learn a lot from hits like "Top Gun: Maverick" and others. Still, looking at what has been released can teach Hollywood some lessons for the coming year and beyond. In 2020 and 2021, Disney had released Pixar movies straight to Disney+, so maybe families have been trained to wait to watch Disney animated films at home. A recalibration of its strategy — keeping movies in theaters longer — could be needed to make moviegoing more appealing. It cost just $15 million to make and earned $85 million globally, $62 million of which was in the US.

☆ Hits Like ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Buoyed 2022 Movie Box Office, to a Point
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Robbie Whelan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Total domestic box office grosses through Christmas show an increase of 68% from 2021, but are still off by roughly a third compared with 2019. The combined superpowers of the Batman, Doctor Strange, the Minions, Maverick and Na’vi warriors couldn’t save Hollywood from a lackluster 2022 box office. Once the new year arrives, the domestic box office total for 2022 will likely come in at around $7.35 billion, Comscore said. Total domestic box office grosses through Christmas of this year represent an increase of 68% over 2021, when many theaters remained closed and audiences were largely still apprehensive about returning to theaters for fear of Covid-19. But 2022 grosses are still off by roughly one-third compared with 2019, the last prepandemic year, when the total North American box office totaled $11 billion.

☆ 'Avatar: The Way of Water' makes more money in its first 10 days than the original film, suggesting the sequel has 'staying power'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Avatar: The Way of Water took more at the box office in its first 10 days than the original film. On its opening weekend, the sequel failed to live up to studio expectations for ticket sales. The $253 million box office take suggests the film will maintain momentum into the new year. "Avatar" made $212.7 million in its first 10 days in 2009 and went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, taking more than $2.9 billion. The sequel is estimated to have made $56 million in North America over the weekend, compared with $134 million on the opening weekend – lower than the $150 million to $175 million projections.

☆ ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ nears $900 million globally
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Sarah Whitten | Whitten Is A Social Media Writer For Cnbc. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Disney and James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” snared an estimated $56 million during its second weekend in theaters, a 58% drop from its debut. A decline in ticket sales is common for blockbuster titles, with most seeing a 50% to 70% slip. Box office analysts noted that cold winter weather and storms during the Christmas weekend likely led to slower ticket sales domestically. Additionally, international ticket sales continue to thrive. “The Way of Water” has generated $855 million in global ticket sales since its Dec. 16 release — $254 million domestically and $601 million from international markets.

☆ 'Avatar: The Way of Water' nears $900 million globally, boosted by international ticket sales
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Disney and James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water" snared an estimated $56 million during its second weekend in theaters, a 58% drop from its debut. A decline in ticket sales is common for blockbuster titles, with most seeing a 50% to 70% slip. Box office analysts noted that cold winter weather and storms during the Christmas weekend likely led to slower ticket sales domestically. Additionally, international ticket sales continue to thrive. "The Way of Water" has generated $855 million in global ticket sales since its Dec. 16 release — $254 million domestically and $601 million from international markets.

☆ 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.

☆ 'Avatar: The Way of Water' opens to $134 million, just missing box office expectations
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Internationally, "Way of Water" tallied $300.5 million, bringing the film's opening weekend haul to $434.5 million. The Chinese box office contributed around $265 million to "Avatar's" global tally a decade ago, but the market has grown significantly since. Since cinemas reopened in the country, it has been one of the fastest markets to recover and generate box office success. Box office analysts aren't concerned with the movie's smaller-than-expected domestic box office, particularly because of how it has played internationally. "It's premature to qualify the film's degree of success at this stage, especially with Cameron's history of long runs at the global box office," Robbins added.

☆ ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ gives James Cameron his first $100 million domestic debut
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —The highly anticipated “Avatar: The Way of Water” took in $134 million at the US box office, giving director James Cameron his first $100 million opening weekend — despite falling short of analyst predictions. “Avatar: The Way of Water” has so far earned $435 million at the global box office. Though Cameron hasn’t revealed exactly how much it cost to make the “Avatar” sequel, one answer isn’t in doubt: a lot. In 2009, “Avatar” earned $77 million in its opening weekend and collected 80% of its gross from 3D showings. “The Way of Water” notched the second highest all-time IMAX global opening weekend and the biggest IMAX December global opening ever.

☆ 'Avatar: The Way of Water' makes $17 million in Thursday previews, driven by big 3D sales
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

James Cameron's "Avatar: The Way of Water" snared $17 million during its Thursday night previews on its way towards a $175 million opening weekend. Premium formats will be a big factor in the film's opening weekend and its overall box office run. EntTelligence estimates that for "The Way of Water" 3D tickets will average around $16.50 each while 2D will cost around $12.50 a piece. Meanwhile, in Asia-Pacific, which includes Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, 39% of box office receipts were for these more expensive showings. The film had incredible staying power at the box office, running in theaters through August 2010, a staggering 234 days.

☆ 'Avatar: The Way of Water' could be heading for a $175 million box office opening
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, "Avatar: The Way of Water" tells the story of the Sully family. It's been more than a decade since James Cameron's "Avatar" shattered box office records. The movie, which opens this week, is set to snare between $150 million and $175 million domestically during its opening weekend. While the first movie only opened with $77 million in 2009, "Avatar" had unparalleled staying power at the box office. "In the big picture, I'd expect a leggy box office run whose story won't be told on opening weekend alone," said Shawn Robbins, chief media analyst at BoxOffice.com.

☆ Gen Z loves Minions, horror and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The short answer: Minions and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, according to new data from decision intelligence company Morning Consult. Minions, Minions, Minions"It might not be too much of a surprise that Gen Z is all over social media," said Saleah Blancaflor, the business of entertainment reporter at Morning Consult. "Minions: The Rise of Gru" is the sequel to the 2015 film, "Minions," and spin-off/prequel to the main "Despicable Me" film series. Those films, and even a lot of the Marvel movies, came out a little bit before Gen Z was starting to come to age." They like to be scaredIn addition to enjoying comedy content, Morning Consult determined that Gen Z likes horror movies significantly more than the general public.

☆ Tumblr Shoots for a Comeback With Users and Advertisers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Wireless company Verizon Communications Inc., which bought Yahoo in 2017, saw Tumblr users nosedive when it banned adult content, including nudity, in 2018. Tumblr users in the past month have depicted anthropomorphized versions of the Tumblr and Twitter logos, for example, having a quasiromantic relationship. And in April, it introduced Tumblr Blaze, which offers users, including brand accounts, wider exposure for their posts. Advertisers that create custom campaigns using the parlance popular among Tumblr users to appeal to particular communities usually see the best engagement, according to Tumblr’s chief marketing officer, Matthew Ryan. Some of the most active advertisers on Tumblr are movie and television studios that create Tumblr campaigns for die-hard fans of genres or series, Mr. Ryan said.

☆ 'Avatar: The Way of Water' is set to crush the box office. It won't be enough to salvage 2022 for theaters.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

"Avatar: The Way of Water" is on pace for a solid box-office debut. "This is great news for theaters that have been looking for a proper blockbuster to take us out of 2022 and into 2023 with some much-needed box office momentum." Its box office dropped just 2% in its second weekend, for instance. Comscore is projecting the US box office to end the year with $7.2 billion — a vast improvement from last year's $4.5 billion, but still far below the $11 billion-plus that the US box office totaled every year from 2015 through 2019. There have been 37 fewer wide releases in theaters through December 5 this year than in 2019, Dergarabedian said.

☆ 13 behind-the-scenes executives leading Apple's $5 billion advertising division
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Right now its roughly $5 billion-in-revenue ads business largely consists of search ads sold within the App Store. It's been a big year for Apple's ad division. 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 digital advertising veteran — having held senior roles at Yahoo, Quantcast, and Adobe — Teresi joined Apple in 2012 as vice president for its iAd division.

☆ Disney is in an animation slump after 'Strange World' and 'Lightyear' flopped. Bob Iger may have the magic touch to turn it around.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Disney's "Lightyear" and "Strange World" have flopped at the box office this year. Its latest animated movie, "Strange World," opened over the Thanksgiving weekend with $18 million over the five-day holiday in the US. This year was the first real test of the pandemic era to see if Disney's animated films could attract large swaths of consumers to theaters. In 2020 and 2021, Disney's animated movies either went straight to Disney+ or received a hybrid release on streaming and in theaters. But this year, Disney's movies have typically been released in theaters for 45 days before debuting on the streaming service.

☆ Disney is the biggest winner — and loser — at the Thanksgiving box office
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

This year's Thanksgiving box office was both feast and famine for Walt Disney . The week of Thanksgiving is typically a robust time at the box office. This year, the domestic Thanksgiving box office tallied around $121 million. The streamer declined to share box office receipts for the latest Rian Johnson film, although it is believed to have tallied between $13 million and $15 million during the five-day stretch. These decisions have led to a lot of confusion for audiences when animated Disney films have been released theatrically.

☆ Thanksgiving used to be a movie feast. This year? Slim pickings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Frank Pallotta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —Thanksgiving weekend has historically offered a cornucopia of films, letting moviegoers get out of the house and kick back after eating copious amounts of turkey, mashed potatoes and pie. The North American box office has few new films this weekend that are likely to draw tons of moviegoers. Another Disney film, Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” is now in its second week and is set to win the holiday weekend with around $40 million domestically. For example, films like “Creed,” “Moana,” and “Knives Out” opened on Thanksgiving weekends and did well. As for Thanksgiving, Dergarabedian hopes that as the theater industry normalizes, the holiday will make a comeback.

☆ How Cyber Monday surpassed Black Friday to become the biggest shopping event of the holiday season
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Cyber Monday is the biggest holiday-shopping day of the year by sales, outpacing even Black Friday. But the shopping holiday wouldn't have been what it is today without retailers eager to make it a success. That year, shop.org, NRF's online arm, issued a press release in November declaring: "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year." "This year, online retailers will be capitalizing on the increased traffic by offering special promotions and discounts." In five years, it had gone from obscurity to the highest-grossing shopping day of the holiday season.

☆ Can Bob Iger fix Disney?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Frank Pallotta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

But If anyone can bring back the magic to the Walt Disney Company, the company believes Bob Iger may be uniquely qualified to do it. StreamingIn a shocking move, Bob Iger is returning as Disney's CEO. Disney’s streaming service — which includes ESPN+, Hulu and most importantly, Disney+ — had been the most vital part of the company’s vast media kingdom. In its statement reintroducing Iger as CEO, Disney said he was “uniquely situated to lead the company through this pivotal period.”Iger was instrumental in forming the modern Disney. With the media industry in turmoil, Disney hope Iger is up to the tall task of righting its ship.

☆ How BlackBerry moved from iconic cellphones to cybersecurity
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Liam Mays | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The phones were well-known for having a tactile keyboard and for BlackBerry's advanced cybersecurity — often favored among businesses and governments. "Currently, BlackBerry has two main business units, a cybersecurity business unit and an IoT business unit within the cybersecurity business unit," said Charles Eagen, chief technology officer of BlackBerry. Its cybersecurity unit focuses on securing things such as smartphone applications and mobile banking websites. Its internet of things unit focuses on the communication of technology within connected and autonomous cars. However, BlackBerry does face competition in the cybersecurity industry, and in 2021 its revenue from cybersecurity was $500 million.

☆ Facebook's pivot to short-form video is a drag on BuzzFeed's revenue
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Elizabeth Pham Janowski | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Buzzfeed's ad revenue was flat year-over-year but ad revenue on its own properties grew. Facebook's shift to vertical video is causing issues for BuzzFeed, a publisher that has long relied on the platform to drive video views. The drop in Facebook traffic contributed to a big 32% year-over-year decline in time spent watching Buzzfeed's video content, according to Comscore. At the same time, Facebook is contributing less to BuzzFeed's revenue. Growth in ad revenue from BuzzFeed's owned and operated properties offset some of the declines on third-party platforms.

☆ 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' eyes $180 million opening weekend, highest November debut ever
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Disney and Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" snared an estimated $180 million during its domestic debut, earning it the record for the biggest opener in the month of November and the second-highest opener of 2022. "Wakanda Forever" is estimated to pull in 12.7 million patrons this weekend, according to data from EntTelligence. Only Marvel's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" has pulled in more moviegoers, bringing in 13.7 million during its opening weekend in May. If "Wakanda Forever" sees a surge in ticket sales Sunday, it could surpass that figure. Like "Black Panther," "Wakanda Forever" features a predominately Black cast, but it also has several Hispanic actors.

☆ 'Black Panther: 'Wakanda Forever' aims to recreate blockbuster magic. Disney and theaters are counting on it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Frank Pallotta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

If early projections and ticket sales are any indication, it appears “Wakanda Forever” will be just that. Why “Wakanda Forever” matters to theaters"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" is set to be one of the biggest films of the year. “Every blockbuster counts more than ever for movie theaters right now.”Why does it matter how “Wakanda Forever” does this weekend? Why “Wakanda Forever” matters to Disney"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" could break records this weekend. The performance of “Wakanda Forever” likely won’t move the needle on Disney’s stock, given that investors remain heavily focused on the company’s streaming endeavors.

☆ 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' aims to break box office records this weekend
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The long-awaited sequel to 2018's smash hit "Black Panther" isn't just another Marvel film. "Wakanda Forever" has a chance to not only be the biggest opener in 2022, but also the highest ever opener of the month of November. Box office analysts and theater operators are expecting African American and Hispanic moviegoers to flock to cinemas this weekend. Like "Black Panther," "Wakanda Forever" features a predominately Black cast, but it also has several Hispanic actors. According to Comscore, 37% of the opening weekend audience for "Black Panther" was Black, accounting for more than double what the demographic usually represents for other Marvel films.

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