Max Adding Live Sports Tier; $10 Monthly Service Will Be Included At No Charge For Existing Subscribers Through Next February

BreAnna Bell ABC‘s “The Golden Bachelor” seems to have reenergized “The Bachelor” audience as the show opened to solid ratings on Thursday night, delivering the strongest debut performance from a “Bachelor” franchise series since 2021. Produced by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in conjunction with ABC, the more mature take on the dating show debuted to an audience of 4.36 million total viewers.

It’s staffing season in September. A number of new series picked up right before or during the writers strike are assembling their writers rooms. And, picking up where they left off, a number of writers rooms that were either shut down or delayed by the WGA strike in May are ramping back up and are expected to be up and running early next week.

was unceremoniously shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav last year, and actor Henry Cavill was fired from the role of Superman shortly after.

Just as studios were quick to start suspending overall and first-look deals just days after the start of the WGA strike, several began to restore suspended pacts right after the strike ended Wednesday morning.

During an interview with GQ, director Martin iScorsese revealed that Warner Bros. asked him to alter the ending of his film The Departed so that a sequel could be birthed.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Warner Bros Discovery’s JB Perrette warns that the global streaming market faces pain and consolidation over the next three to five years, but he says that the merged group has what it takes to be among the big five groups that pull through. And, to win the war of attrition and consolidation, WBD may choose not to fight every battle. Perrette, WBD’s CEO and president of global streaming and games, said that the company’s Max streaming product is to be rolled out in a largely pre-determined sequence, one that arrives in Latin America and Europe before arriving in parts of Asia. But, speaking on Wednesday at the APOS conference in Indonesia, Perrette said that in some markets Max may never happen, and that WBD may favor local partnerships instead. “If we think we’re going to have success and profitability, if our market differentiation is viable enough to make a go of it and have a profitable business over a three-to-five year timeline [then we will launch Max.] If the answer is ‘no’ because the market has ARPUs that are just too low or it is way over-served by a ton of other players, who are spending on a ton of content and losing a ton of money, we may say this is not the right time,” said Perrette. “If we think we can be successful based on the three metrics that we have [profitability, market share and scale] then, yes, great, we’ll go and figure out how best to tackle it.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Naked Attraction, a British reality series that features a form of full frontal nudity, has been making headlines after it was added to streaming service Max.

Following the massive success of its live-action Barbie, Mattel Films has tapped Robbie Brenner as President. She had been Executive Producer of Mattel Films since 2018.

EXCLUSIVE: Theresa Caputo, star of long-running TLC series Long Island Medium, has a new show on a new home.

Not wasting any time, just a couple of minutes after the WGA announced that the strike is ending, Bill Maher revealed that his Real Time will return this week. It will be the first late-night show to come back.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A new trade group — the Streaming Innovation Alliance — brings together Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and other players to promote their interests to politicians and government entities. It marks the first time competing streaming-video providers have banded together in a unified lobbying front.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events.

While a fairly quiet frame overall, there were some significant milestones this international box office session. To wit: New Line/Warner Bros’ The Nun II topped the $200M mark worldwide and Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan became the highest-grossing Bollywood movie ever in India, overtaking the star’s earlier 2023 movie, Pathaan.

Negotiations between the WGA and studios CEOs on a deal to end the nearly five-month long writers’ strike look within sight.

WGA and Hollywood’s major studios are in the final phase of hammering out a three-year contract that will bring an end to one of the longest strikes in Hollywood history. Legal representatives for labor and management were said to be huddling on the fine print of language in complicated contract issues such as the use of generative artificial intelligence and groundbreaking elements for the WGA’s minimum basic agreement, such as a formula for a minimum staff guarantee for episodic TV and a “success-based” residual from subscription platforms that is designed to funnel more money into the WGA’s pension and health funds. The nitty gritty details of the terms around the AI proposal has been one of the final hurdles to overcome, multiple sources said.

Screenwriter David S. Goyer dropped some insider information on a new episode of the.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director David S. Goyer is the co-architect of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy. The director recruited Goyer to help him flesh out the story and co-write 2005’s “Batman Begins,” before Nolan and his brother Jonathan penned the scripts for 2008’s “The Dark Knight” and 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises” based on stories cracked by Goyer.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Max fans who don’t relish the idea of coughing up $9.99 per month more to access the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streamer’s upcoming live sports tier might not realize that they’ve been making out like bandits with seemingly “free” sports content on other platforms for years, according to WBD global streaming chief JB Perrette.

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. Less than two months after its release in theaters, “The Meg 2: The Trench” is diving into the streaming world. The big-budget sequel arrives on Max on Sept.