Issue March 10, 2021 - The Hollywood Reporter (2024)

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in this issue

THE REPORTHeat IndexJay-ZThe mogul sells a majority stake in music service Tidal — acquired for $56 million in 2015 — for $297 million to pay firm Square. He will keep shares and join the board.Adam SilverThe NBA commissioner’s bet on an All-Star game this year, on March 7, doesn’t pay off, with ratings falling 19 percent from 2020 to 5.94 million total viewers.Jennifer SalkeThe Amazon Studios chief’s Coming 2 America nabs the top streaming viewership debut for a film in the past year, above Wonder Woman 1984, per Screen Engine/ASI.Cliff MarksThe president of National CineMedia, the largest theater advertising network in the U.S., sees quarterly revenue fall 89 percent year-to-year to $15.7 million amid closures.Showbiz Stocks$79.66 (+15.2%) VIACOMCBS (VIAC)CBS’ blockbuster interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, combined with the launch of…1 min

THE REPORTWill Hollywood Require COVID-19 Vaccinations for Workers?If, a year ago, there had been a guarantee that by March 2021 there would be three COVID-19 vaccines being administered to millions daily, Hollywood would have been overjoyed. When cinemas started closing stateside and film and TV studios told workers to stay home, few allowed them-selves to think of this moment, much less plan for it. Take the action plan titled “The Safe Way Forward,” which was put together by most of the industry’s guilds and unveiled in June. It spells out diligent use of personal protective equipment, strictly enforced testing regimes and quarantines, but doesn’t address what happens when vaccines arrive on the scene. Now, as more workers are vaccinated over the next few months and as the main return-to-work agreement between employers and labor unions, inked in…6 min

THE REPORTObamas’ Film Label Makes Unexpected New BuysSince forming production label Higher Ground in 2018, Barack and Michelle Obama have brandished a golden touch when it comes to documentaries, having backed last year’s Oscar winner American Factory and this year’s shortlisted contender Crip Camp.But a pair of recent moves by the company raised eyebrows around town. On Feb. 17, Higher Ground and Netflix acquired the 9/11 drama Worth, a film that debuted at Sundance 2020. And on March 4, the former president and first lady teamed with Netflix to release the Kevin Hart comedy Fatherhood, a project whose theatrical plans with Sony were scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Worth buy was a head-scratcher given that the Michael Keaton starrer wasn’t exactly in demand. “It had no buzz when it debuted and has sat on the shelf…2 min

THE REPORTSurge Pricing for Tix: New Norm in China?When China’s theatrical sector roared back during the recent Lunar New Year holiday, hitting a record $1.2 billion in ticket revenue in a single week, a new strategy played a surprising role: surge pricing.During 2019, the last full year of normalcy before the pandemic, a ticket to the movies in China averaged 37.2 Chinese yuan ($5.70 at current exchange rates). During this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, average ticket prices rose to 48.9 yuan ($7.50) — and those were just the nationwide averages. An opening-weekend ticket for the holiday’s most popular titles, such as Wanda’s comedy Detective Chinatown 3 or Beijing Culture’s family film Hi, Mom, was selling for as much as 150 yuan ($23) in the busiest commercial districts in some cities. Exhibitors’ pricing moves were decisive in driving…2 min

THE REPORTHollywood Quietly Cashed in on Wall Street Trading FrenzyOne month before “meme stocks” like GameStop and AMC Entertainment took flight in January and captured the public imagination with retail-trader-versus-hedg-fund storylines, manyof the world’s biggest entertainment giants were the beneficiaries of a nine-figure windfall driven by online enthusiasm. Per filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ViacomCBS netted $213 million, Discovery Inc. saw a gain of $126 million, AMC Networks saw gross proceeds of $96 million, and Comcast has sold $15 million (so far).The stock that delivered the windfall? FuboTV, led by CEO David Gandler and executive chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr., which was trading at less than $10 per share after its October IPO but later skyrocketed, hitting a peak of $62 per share Dec. 22. Thanks to lucky timing, many entertainment firms cashed out to the tune of…4 min

THE REPORTTheaters Bet on Family Films Amid ReopeningJoe Masher, the COO of midsize exhibitor Bow Tie Cinemas, says he noticed that families from New York City — where movie theaters were closed for nearly a year, until March 5 — had been flocking to the circuit’s locations in Connecticut and New Jersey that were able to reopen in recent months amid the pandemic. “It’s amazing how many people were coming from the city,” says Masher, who is in charge of the New York chapter of the National Association of Theatre Owners.Family movies have been the surprise box office success of the pandemic, with Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods: A New Age the strongest case in point. Croods 2, which debuted in those cinemas that remained open over Thanksgiving, outdid Warner Bros. and DC’s superhero sequel Wonder…2 min

Issue March 10, 2021 - The Hollywood Reporter (2024)

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