Netflix, Disney, Max and More Team to Form Streaming Innovation Alliance Lobbying Group

Mattel beat Wall Street expectations in the third quarter for revenue and adjusted earnings per share, thanks in large part due to the successful release of Barbie in July.

EXCLUSIVE: Emelia Hartford, actor and well-known figure in the automotive industry, has signed with CAA for representation.

EXCLUSIVE: Randy Kiyan, the talent and literary manager most recently serving as the head of literary at Luber Roklin Entertainment, today announced the launch of his own management company, Ronin Entertainment.

Endeavor Group said today it has initiated a formal review to evaluate strategic alternatives for the company.

Capitalizing on the anticipated big screen fever of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, we are hearing heavy buzz this morning that AMC‘s next big concert film is Beyonce: Renaissance World Tour, which has been another hard-to-get-live event ticket this past year in addition to Swift.

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.

Andrew Wallenstein President and Chief Media Analyst While “Barbie” may have been a huge opening salvo in Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz’s plan to turn toy brands into media IP, it’s just the beginning of a versatile long-term strategy that will extend far beyond the cinema to TV and gaming for the likes of “Monster High” and “Hot Wheels.” That was Kreiz’s message at his keynote Q&A at the Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit last week in Los Angeles, where he celebrated the big win the Warner Bros. movie delivered for the toy company’s iconic doll — but put it in a broader context.

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. 

Major studio streamers are among the inaugural members of a new trade group devoted to advocacy for federal and state policies that impact their services.

Emiliano De Pablos European production-distribution giant Studiocanal is teaming with Spain’s Mr. Fields and Friends and Bambú, both led by producer Ramón Campos, on dramatic comedy “Rondallas,” written-directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (“BlueDarkAlmostBlack,” “Cousinhood,” “Seventeen”).

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached a tentative agreement with the major Hollywood studios to end their strike!

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.