| | | | | | What's news: Netflix will stop reporting quarterly subscriber numbers starting in Q1 2025. Sony has been in touch with Apollo about making a joint bid for Paramount Global. Telemundo is restructuring its entertainment studios. Netflix has ordered a fifth — and final — season of The Witcher. CBS has renewed Elsbeth. — Abid Rahman
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Taylor Swift Releases Surprise "Double" 'TTPD' Album ►It's here. Taylor Swift is taking fans on a journey of the stages of grief and heartbreak in her new album, The Tortured Poets Department. On Thursday night, the singer-songwriter revealed the album, which features 16 songs. Two tracks are collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + The Machine. There are also four bonus tracks, “The Manuscript,” “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog” that are featured on different vinyl versions of the album. The story.
—"It’s a 2am surprise." Taylor Swift surprised fans with a secret “double album” expansion of The Tortured Poets Department early Friday morning. The expansion, released two hours after the initial album, features 15 more songs titled The Anthology. Swift wrote on Instagram. “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours." The story. |
Netflix Adds 9.3M Subs In Q1 ►On the up and up. Netflix reported its Q1 earnings Thursday, adding 9.3m subscribers and expanding its lead as subscription streaming TV’s dominant platform. The company now has 269.6m global subscribers. The streaming giant reported revenue of $9.4b and operating income of $2.6b for Q1, both up substantially from a year earlier. The results.
—Flex. Netflix will stop reporting quarterly subscriber numbers starting with its Q1 2025 earnings, as the company says it’s more focused on other metrics. Additionally, the streaming giant said Thursday that it would stop reporting average revenue per member, which it refers to as ARM. The company had already stopped providing guidance on paid membership numbers starting in 2023. In the company’s earnings report, Netflix said the decision came amid rising profit numbers. The story.
—Coining it in. In 2023, the then-newly named Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters saw his total target compensation package grow to $40m, up from $26m the prior year. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos brought in $49.8m in 2023, with a base salary of $3m, $28m in stock awards, an annual bonus of $16.5m and all other compensation totaling close to $2m, down from $50.3m the prior year. The story.
—Big finish to 2024. Netflix is gearing up for a huge second half of this year. On Wednesday, Sarandos teased a host of marquee series set to debut in the last six months of the year, including returning series Squid Game — the streamer’s biggest series of all time — and The Night Agent, the final season of Cobra Kai, and new seasons for Outer Banks, Emily in Paris and Ryan Murphy’s Monster anthology. Among the new series are Peter Berg’s American Primeval, limited series Senna and an adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s novel The Perfect Couple. The story. |
L.A. Production Sees Sluggish Rebound From Strikes ►Not great. Filming in Los Angeles has been slow to bounce back after production in the region was decimated by Hollywood’s historic season of strikes. The main reason for the sluggish rebound: A double-digit drop in television shoots compared to the same period last year. The report from FilmLA reflects the first full quarter after the resolutions of the strikes. The film office said that the three-month period from January to March saw 6,823 shoot days, representing a roughly 9 percent decline year-over-year and more than a 20 percent decline from the five-year average. The story.
—In the mix. Amid Paramount Global's exclusive talks with David Ellison’s Skydance and Gerry Cardinale’s Redbird Capital, another potential buyer group is considering its own moves. Executives at Sony Corp., including Sony Pictures chief Tony Vinciquerra, have been in touch with Apollo Global Management about making a joint bid for the entertainment company. Apollo had previously made a $26b offer for Paramount, inclusive of equity and debt, though it was reportedly dismissed. But partnering with Sony would likely eliminate any cash or financing concerns. The story.
—"We are doubling down on our commitment to serve the Latino community." Telemundo is restructuring its entertainment studios in an effort to produce more scripted content for its platforms. The new structure will see the Spanish-language media company merge its linear and streaming studios into one combined unit called Telemundo Studios. The move unifies the streaming studio, which was launched in 2021, with the more traditional studio business under a single roof. NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises chairman Luis Fernandez unveiled the new structure Thursday. The story. |
'Fallout' Renewed for S2 by Amazon ►It’s official. The Amazon Prime Video's sci-fi action-comedy Fallout will return for a second season. The streamer renewed the series based on the popular Bethesda Softworks game franchise and adapated by showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner and produced by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. Fallout has given Prime Video a welcome buzzy boost, premiering to some of the platform's best reviews ever, averaging a 94 percent average positive critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. The story.
—The end nears. Netflix has ordered a fifth — and final — season of The Witcher. The streamer also noted that season four, which will see Liam Hemsworth taking over the role of Geralt from Henry Cavill, has begun production. The final two seasons will film back to back. The fourth and fifth seasons will adapt the last three books in Andrzej Sapkowski’s series: Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow and Lady of the Lake. The story.
—No-brainer. CBS is adding to its already extensive list of series renewals for the 2024-25 season. The latest pickup for the network is Elsbeth, the Columbo-esque Good Wife offshoot starring Carrie Preston as the title character, lawyer-turned-investigator Elsbeth Tascioni. The series has performed well over its first few episodes, ranking as the second most watched newcomer on the broadcast networks this season. The story.
—Bidding war! Fleishman Is in Trouble author Taffy Brodesser-Akner is adapting her upcoming book Long Island Compromise for Apple TV+. Following a multiple-platform bidding war, Apple has landed the rights to develop the dark family drama for television. As she did with Hulu’s Fleishman, Brodesser-Akner will adapt her novel (due July 9 from Random House) for Apple and exec produce alongside Susannah Grant, Sarah Timberman, and former HBO chief Richard Plepler and his Eden Productions. The story.
—Heavy hitters. The Tribeca Festival has revealed its 2024 TV lineup, with the June event featuring the world premiere of the Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Apple TV+ legal thriller Presumed Innocent. Other world premieres include Hulu’s Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer, executive produced by Dakota and Elle Fanning, exploring Dr. Ann Burgess’ investigations; and the MGM+ docuseries, Hollywood Black, about the Black experience in the entertainment industry, executive produced by Justin Simien and featuring Issa Rae, Lena Waithe, Ryan Coogler and Ava DuVernay. The story.
—Maxing out. Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV posted Max’s best streaming numbers to date for its premiere week. The docuseries, which streamed on Max concurrent with its on-air premiere on ID, had 1.25b minutes of viewing for the week of March 18-24. That’s the largest weekly total for any series on Max in the nearly four years of Nielsen’s streaming rankings, edging out the 1.19b for The Last of Us in early 2023. Netflix’s 3 Body Problem grabbed the overall No. 1 spot for the week, racking up 1.37b minutes over its first four days. The streaming rankings. |
New Rom-Com Wave Is Big on Imagining Real-Life Offline ►"There’s been no dearth of rom-coms in the last 10 years. They’ve just all been on streaming." Is the rom-com genre back? Has it ever left? For THR, Erin Carlson writes that the debate sidesteps the enduring appeal of those movies: They offer a new generation a window into a world that doesn’t revolve around smartphones or social media. The analysis.
—"A searing vision of then, and now." With Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, THR movie critic Sheri Linden writes that the Palme d'Or winner is still hauntingly relevant as a portrait of surveillance, privacy, power and the dangers of action without reflection. The critic's notebook.
—"The retirement idea has always seemed ill-fitting." For several years now, Quentin Tarantino has been adamant that he plans to make a single 10th and final movie. The auteur revealed that his final film will now not be The Movie Critic, after abandoning the project this week. THR's James Hibberd wonders whether Tarantino would have abandoned the movie if there wasn’t so much riding on it, and more broadly suggests his ten and done approach is flawed. The story.
—"The compellingly packaged cowardice of Civil War." For THR, Eisa Nefertari Ulen offers her take on Alex Garland's much-talked about A24 thriller Civil War. Eisa writes that despite the film's sheen of boldness, it cowers in fear from the divisions that surely inspired the movie in the first place, missing an opportunity to say something important. The analysis. |
Film Review: 'Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver' ►"More of the same, which wasn't good to begin with." THR's Frank Scheck reviews Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver. Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae and Anthony Hopkins are among the stars of this follow-up to the director's space saga for Netflix. The review.
—"Has no problem chewing what it bites off." Frank reviews Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's Abigail. Criminals get more than they bargained for when they kidnap the daughter of an underworld figure in the new Radio Silence film featuring Alisha Weir in the title role and co-starring Dan Stevens and Melissa Barrera. The review.
—"Rarely magical." THR's Angie Han reviews The Roku Channel's The Spiderwick Chronicles. Adapted from the books, the adventure centers on a trio of adolescent siblings who must save their town from a ravenous ogre, starring Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, Christian Slater, Joy Bryant and Mychala Lee. The review. |
Thank Pod It's Friday ►All the latest content from THR's podcast studio.
—TV's Top 5. THR's Lesley Goldberg and Dan Fienberg break down the latest TV news. This week's episode begins with the headlines, including news on Tyler Perry, For All Mankind, The Witcher, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Oldboy, Travis Kelce, Don Johnson, The Gates and The Talk. There's a segment on the state of broadcast TV, and another on the crowded pilot season. And in Critic's Corner, Dan reviews Netflix’s Baby Reindeer , Max’s Conan O’Brien Must Go, Hulu’s Under the Bridge, HBO’s The Jinx Pt. 2 and Tubi’s Big Mood. Listen here.
In other news...
—M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap trailer features Josh Hartnett as a serial killer at a concert
—Transformers One: Paramount reveals new release date and official trailer
—GMA3 co-host Dr. Jennifer Ashton to leave ABC News to launch wellness company
—Disney publicist Marshall Weinbaum departs for Netflix’s awards team
—Rupert Everett honored at Lovers Film Festival in Italy
—Kevin Hart and his Hartbeat banner signs with WME
—Samantha Davis, actress and co-founder of Little People U.K. with husband Warwick Davis, dies at 53
—Barbara O. Jones, Daughters of the Dust actress, dies at 82
—Dickey Betts, Allman Brothers Band co-founder and legendary guitarist, dies at 80
What else we're reading...
—Greg Braxton spoke to Pulitzer Prize-winning war photographer Carolyn Cole about what Civil War gets right — and wrong — in its depiction of journalists operating in perilous conditions [LAT]
—Erica Orden and Ben Feuerherd report that in the first week of Donald Trump’s criminal trial, the former president had to endure people insulting him, without being able to hit back [Politico]
—25 years after the Columbine school shooting, Brian Stelter looks at why the massacre was a turning point for America [VF]
—Raffaele Huang and Aaron Tilley report that the Chinese government has ordered Apple to remove WhatsApp from the App Store over cybersecurity concerns over Meta's apps [WSJ]
—Here's your Friday list: "Every Spike Lee movie, ranked" [Forbes]
Today...
...in 1947, Allied Artists and producer-director Roy Del Ruth unveiled the holiday-themed film It Happened on 5th Avenue in theaters. The title went on to earn an Oscar nomination in the writing category at the 20th Academy Awards. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Tim Curry (78), Ashley Judd (56), Hayden Christensen (43), Kate Hudson (45), Simu Liu (35), Ali Wong (42), Blitz Bazawule (42), César Charlone (66), Qiu Yuen (74), Wyatt Cenac (48), Catalina Sandino Moreno (43), Jennifer Taylor (52), Elinor Donahue (87), Kelen Coleman (40), Tony Plana (72), Scott McCord (53), Patrick Gibson (29), Masha Mashkova (39), Ignacio Serricchio (42), Victoria Yeates (41), Mayko Nguyen (44), Marta Milans (42), Oksana Akinshina (37), James Scully (32), Mia Serafino (35), Sebastian De Souza (31), Shannon Lee (55), Alexis Thorpe (44), Hugh O'Conor (49), Michael Bacall (51), Matthew Sato (23), Harry McEntire (34), Dennis Dun (72), Catherine Lloyd Burns (63), Nicoletta Braschi (64), Ruby Wax (71), Michael Dowse (51), Peter Chung (63) |
| Roger Dicken, the Oscar-nominated British special effects artist, sculptor and model maker known for his work on Alien and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, has died. He was 84. The obituary. |
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