Disney Mulls Selling Indian TV & Streaming Business — WSJ

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Hannah Berner grew up dreaming of being a professional tennis player before becoming a viral sensation with comedy bits like “Han on the Street.” Nimesh Patel turned his experience with being diagnosed with testicular cancer into a heralded comedy special, “Lucky Lefty.” And Kurtis Conner was working at Starbucks when a frequent customer encouraged him to get into comedy. These were among the hilarious, surprising and touching revelations that emerged when Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch for 2023 were celebrated with a panel discussion and cocktail reception sponsored by Cohen Gardner LLP at last week’s Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This contains spoilers from “Barbie” which is now playing in theaters. The yellow dress Margot Robbie’s wears in Barbie’s final scenes was designed to represent change, says the film’s costume designer Jacqueline Durran. By the end of the Greta Gerwig blockbuster, Barbie has been transformed by the Real World. She’s become flat-footed, broken the patriarchy and all zen has been restored in Barbieland.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic One of the questions raised by Taylor Swift’s recent single “Karma” is whether the titular force is something that can be, like, aggressively courted. And, if so, is writing out $100,000 bonus checks to one’s tour truck drivers a form of metaphysical insurance payment? These are the deep thoughts that may woozily cross your mind on the Eras Tour, as the clock nears midnight while Swift is bringing things to a close by performing “Karma” at the end of a 3-hour-and-25-minute marathon set. It’s a weird, funny finale that leaves an audience with the idea that virtue is even better than revenge, or that maybe these can amount to the same thing.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer In her most forceful comments to date about the Hollywood strikes, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass called Friday on the unions and studios to reach a deal “immediately” to get the industry back to work. Bass, who has largely remained on the sidelines thus far, said she is willing to get personally involved to help bring the strikes to an end.

Before she was the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was featured in several raunchy sex scenes in popular television shows, including "90210." However, cast members of the reboot appear to have brushed off Markle’s racy role and said her cameo in 2008 was barely noticed on the show. "I don’t think any of us really remember at all," Shenae Grimes-Beech admitted on the "Scheananigans with Scheana Shay" podcast. "It was such a blip on our radar." The "90210" reboot included 119 episodes, and Grimes-Beech explained that they filmed "one scene at one time," so it was difficult to recall all the guest stars on the series.

Lisa Vanderpump‘s husband is facing a major legal battle from the landlords of the now-shuttered Pump!

It sounds like Tom Brady and Irina Shayk nearly got away with a low-key NYC date night late last month… but not quite!

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Disney didn’t let the SAG-AFTRA strike get in the way of its “Haunted Mansion” world premiere. None of the stars of the movie were expected to be in attendance, including LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, Daniel Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hasan Minhaj, Marilu Henner and Lindsay Lamb all observing the SAG-AFTRA strike. The studio still rolled out the red carpet at Disneyland in Anaheim Saturday night. Director Justin Simien told Variety he was “sad” his cast couldn’t attend, but understands why and supports the actors walkout. Later in, he gave a shoutout to the cast while introducing the movie.

"Guardians of the Galaxy" star Sean Gunn blasted Disney CEO Bob Iger over comments that the executive made about the Writer's Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)  strikes. Shortly before SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA on strike Thursday, Iger, 72, made an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" during which he said that the pending actors union strike would have a "very, very damaging effect on the whole business." "It will affect the economy of different regions, even, because of the sheer size of the business.

Disney CEO Bob Iger recently sat down with CNBC for an interview during which he shared his views on the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Fran Drescher is opening up about the SAG-AFTRA strike and how long it might go on.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has said the company will be pulling back on creating new Star Wars and Marvel content.The announcement comes on the back of the company’s attempts to cut costs, having seen a number of their recent films, from Marvel to animation, underwhelm at the box office.“You pull back not just to focus, but also as part of our cost containment initiative. Spending less on what we make, and making less,” Iger told CNBC on Thursday (July 13).Iger said that many of the decisions were made to prop up the company’s flagship streaming service, Disney+, and attract more customers.The Disney CEO went on to note that an influx of new Marvel content, both on the big and small screens, had “diluted focus and attention”.“It had not been in the television business at any significant level, and not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of TV series,” said Iger.

Even the staunchest fans of the Marvel and “Star Wars” franchises must admit keeping track of all the respective movies and TV series can be a slog.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher railed against Disney CEO Bob Iger during an interview with Variety on the strike picket lines outside of the Paramount Pictures studio lot. In a July 13 interview with CNBC’s David Faber out of the Sun Valley Conference, Iger said WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikers were not being “realistic” with their demands. “I found them terribly repugnant and out of touch. Positively tone deaf,” Drescher said when asked about Iger’s comments. “I don’t think it served him well. If I were that company, I would lock him behind doors and never let him talk to anybody about this, because it’s so obvious that he has no clue as to what is really happening on the ground with hard working people that don’t make anywhere near the salary he is making. High seven figures, eight figures, this is crazy money that they make and they don’t care if they’re land barons of a medieval time.”

Well, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav already put his foot in his mouth responding to the WGA writers’ strike, so now it’s Bob Iger‘s turn.

With poor box office numbers so far for Pixar‘s “Elemental” and James Mangold‘s “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,” Disney sees itself in the middle of its worst theatrical slump in a long time. And it arguably started back in March with “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania,” which made less than $500 million worldwide and suffered the steepest second-week drop at the domestic box office of any Marvel film.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said Marvel Entertainment, whose acquisition in 2009 was a signature deal of Iger’s first stint atop the company, was unfairly “taxed” during the company’s frenzy to supply Disney+ with fresh content.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Disney CEO Bob Iger is citing the studio’s output increase for Disney+ as one reason for “some disappointments” as of late. Speaking to CNBC’s David Faber at the Sun Valley Conference, Iger admitted the studio screwed with audience expectation by offering up so much streaming content. The negative impact of that has been commercial disappointments in theaters, be it “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” not even getting past the $500 million worldwide or disappointing openings for summer tentpoles “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” “There have been some disappointments we would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better,” Iger said. “It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been.”

Ellise Shafer During an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday morning, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the writers and actors unions going on strike in Hollywood are not being “realistic” with their expectations. Speaking to CNBC’s David Faber from the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, Iger commented on the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike and imminent decision for SAG-AFTRA to join them. “It’s very disturbing to me. We’ve talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we’re facing, the recovery from COVID which is ongoing, it’s not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption,” Iger said. “I understand any labor organization’s desire to work on behalf of its members to get the most compensation and be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver. We managed, as an industry, to negotiate a very good deal with the directors guild that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this great business. We wanted to do the same thing with the writers, and we’d like to do the same thing with the actors. There’s a level of expectation that they have, that is just not realistic. And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger said the linear TV business “may not be core” to the company, and efforts are under way to explore a number of strategic options for them.

Bob Iger is staying with Disney.