Latest Business News
Microsoft Game Developer Union Reaches Deal On How AI Can Be Used In Workplace
As Microsoft’s first U.S. union and the tech giant continue to negotiate over a first labor contract, the parties have reached a tentative agreement on one of the agreement’s most important articles, covering the use of artificial intelligence. The union at video game developer ZeniMax Studios (The Elder Scrolls Online, DOOM: Eternal) has cinched a […]
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Broadway Grosses Were Down Last Season, But the Audience Was Younger, More Diverse
In the 2022-2023 Broadway season, the first full season since theaters were closed due to the pandemic, audience numbers were down by 17 percent from 2018-2019, according to a study released Monday by the Broadway League. This came as the season included high-grossing shows, such as Sweeney Todd, starring Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford and […]
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Paramount Deal Chatter Puts Hollywood M&A Back in Wall Street Spotlight
What a difference a few days can make. Hollywood studios’ push to turn their streaming business profitable, the acceleration of cord-cutting, the writers and actors strikes, as well as a weak advertising market, have been at the forefront of investors’ minds all year. But just before the end of 2023, industry deal chatter has moved […]
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Chris Hemsworth Banner Pacts With Ben Affleck, Matt Damons’ Artists Equity
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity banner has formed a partnership with Chris Hemsworth’s Wild State, which will see Artists Equity producing film and television projects from the Thor actor’s banner. Wild State, which Hemsworth heads with partner Ben Grayson, was founded in 2022 and has credits that include the Hemsworth-fronted Extraction 2. A […]
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CBC to Cut 600 Jobs Amid Advertising Headwinds
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has announced it expects to cut around 600 jobs as it deals with lower advertising revenue and competition from U.S. digital giants. Canada’s pubcaster said it faces a $125 million budgetary shortfall likely to be offset with programming cuts and layoffs. “These pressures are a result of the same structural factors […]
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Japan’s Toho Buys 25 Percent Stake in Fifth Season for $225M
Japanese studio Toho has taken a $225 million stake in Fifth Season, the U.S.-based independent studio known for producing Apple TV+’s hit series Severance and Max’s Tokyo Vice. The new partners unveiled the deal Monday, saying it will allow Fifth Season to “continue expanding its broad slate of premium content.” Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM […]
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Beverly Hilton Reaches Deal With Hotel Workers’ Union, Averting Picket During Golden Globes
Just in time for Monday’s Golden Globe nominations, the Beverly Hilton has reached a tentative agreement with the hotel union Unite Here Local 11. The union announced the provisional deal, which makes the historic property the first Beverly Hills location to reach a 2023 agreement with the powerful Southern California and Arizona union, on Friday […]
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Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters Set for $40M Paydays in 2024, as Company Overhauls Exec Pay
Netflix is overhauling the way it pays its top executives after shareholders rejected its CEO pay earlier this year … but co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are still in line for big paydays next yar. The company said Friday that it had approved target compensation packages worth $40 million for Sarandos and Peters for […]
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Directors Guild Reaches Tentative Agreement on New Commercial Contract
The Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative agreement with the Association of Independent Commercial Producers on a new three-year national commercial contract, the union announced on Friday. The 19,500-member union’s national board of directors unanimously approved the deal, which has been sent to members for ratification. Members have until Dec. 26 to vote […]
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Terrence Howard Sues CAA Over ‘Empire’ Salary
Terrence Howard is suing CAA for an alleged conflict of interest in the agency’s dealings over his compensation on Empire. In the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, Howard alleges his agents who packaged the deal with Fox prioritized the interests of themselves and the show’s producers, which it also represented, by […]
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Stock in Paramount Global Pops on Takeover Speculation
Stock in Paramount Global popped on Friday on speculation David Ellison’s Skydance Media and RedBird Capital are eying a potential takeover of Sheri Redstone’s controlling stake in the Hollywood conglomerate. Representatives for private equity giant RedBird Capital had no comment on Wall Street chatter around a possible transaction that could see the private equity giant […]
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Marvel Settles Fight Over Spider-Man, Doctor Strange Rights
It looks like Marvel won’t be bringing its battle over the rights to Spider-Man and Doctor Strange into the new year. Attorneys for the company and the estate of Steve Ditko on Wednesday notified the court that they’ve reached an amicable settlement and expect a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice to be filed in the […]
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Employment in Hollywood Rebounds Post-Strikes, But Still Below 2022 Peak
The end of the Hollywood strikes caused employment in the sector to surge in November, but while the business is back, new data shows that there are still more than 25,000 fewer people employed than there were a year ago, suggesting that a return to normal could take longer than people think. The U.S. Bureau […]
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“Red Carpet, Not Red Tape”: How Saudi Arabia’s Neom Media Hub Is Pitching Producers
Neom is a burgeoning production and creative hub in northwestern Saudi Arabia featuring the largest soundstages in the country. It is also the biggest purpose-built production facility in the region, with four stages currently operational and six more scheduled to go online by mid-2024, including a volumetric stage that captures three-dimensional space and video that […]
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Walter Boxer, Longtime United Artists Executive, Dies at 99
Walter Boxer, who spent more than four decades as a charismatic, globe-trotting executive with United Artists, has died. He was 99. Boxer died Nov. 29 in hospice care in West Hollywood following a series of strokes, his nephew Lawrence Wolinsky told The Hollywood Reporter. Boxer, who spoke four languages, started out at UA in 1955 […]
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Netflix, Adam McKay Sued for Copyright Infringement Over ‘Don’t Look Up’
In 2012, William Collier self-published a dark comedy novel called Stanley’s Comet. It focuses on the discovery by a low-level NASA scientist of a giant comet on a collision course with Earth. Initially, the government is skeptical of whether it will make impact but eventually plans a nuclear strike, which, for political reasons, is aborted. […]
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