Is the binge better? Or is it OK to let episodes marinate for a week before returning to a story? When Netflix first dropped entire seasons, it blew everyone's mind. But now, perhaps, the choices are simply "one more set of storytelling tools — like shooting in front of a studio audience, or not — creatively suited to different...
Start with an "electrostatic disinfectant sprayer," add in a seat buffering system, and don't forget prepackaged condiments for your popcorn. (But ... what about air flow and vaccine requirements? Hm.) - Variety
The effort, dubbed the Hollywood Skyway, would have cost the studio an estimated $100 million. The tramway would have taken visitors on a six-minute ride more than 1 mile up the back of Mt. Lee to a new visitors center near the sign, with pathways to a viewing area. - Los Angeles Times
For the first time ever, subscriptions to streaming services surpassed one billion, reaching 1.1 billion globally. At the same time, box office receipts plummeted because movie theaters across the world were closed for a significant part of 2020. Global ticket sales tapped out at $12 billion, with North America accounting for $2.2 billion of that haul. (2019 saw $42...
"We are treating the event as an active movie set, with specially designed testing cadences to ensure up-to-the-minute results, including an on-site COVID safety team with PCR testing capability. There will be specific instructions for those of you traveling in from outside of Los Angeles, and other instructions for those of you who are already based in Los Angeles."...
Amitabh Bachchan, who's been a superstar in India for 50 years, has campaigned for years for the preservation of film from Indian cinema's early history, which goes back to 1931 for talkies and 1913 for silent movies. Some 80% of Bollywood's output from 1931 to 1950 is lost or unavailable to the public, and out of more than 1,100...
The U.S./Canada box office market was down 80% in 2020, to $2.2 billion, while tickets sold were down 81% to 0.24 billion. Still, that was offset by home and mobile entertainment, which increased to $30 billion, up 21% from a year earlier. The number of online video subscriptions increased 32% to 308.6 million. - Deadline
Among other things, the IT Rules 2021 require social media platforms to deploy AI-based technology to identify sexually explicit content, trace the originator of encrypted messages, introduce a “voluntary verification system” for its users, and hire local teams to respond to both Indian users’ and government's complaints about content. Regulations for platforms with more than 5 million users will...
Far from the WASP families in suburban homes seen in Father Knows Best and Leave It To Beaver (and The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family and on and on), The Goldbergs — created by its star, Gertrude Berg, who also wrote every episode — featured a thoroughly Jewish immigrant couple and their American-born children in a Bronx tenement....
"The blueprint for the plan, which is called 'The BBC Across the U.K.,' commits at least an extra £700 million ($978 million), cumulatively, across the country by 2027/2028. … The expansion also includes the relocation of 400 positions, with half from BBC News and the other half from radio. Around 200-300 new roles in local content journalism will also...
The No. 1 circuit’s Burbank location sold out 22 of its 32 showtimes, while Century City sold out 18 of its 30 showtimes yesterday. Remember, capacity is capped at 25%. But still, a good start as the motion picture industry looks to get the No. 1 box office market back in business. - Deadline
The "Icarus of subscription services" seemed too good to be true when it started selling $9.99-a-month memberships that would let you see a movie in a theater literally every day — and so it was. The more customers it got, the more cash it hemorrhaged, and it died a long, humiliating death over the course of 2019. But this...
In Sub-Saharan Africa there are and have been numerous impressive filmmakers, but only Nigeria and South Africa have fully developed industries in which films can be funded, shot, edited and gotten to a wide public, all domestically. But the continent is full of growing markets that Netflix would like to enter, the company has plenty of money to fund...
"U.S. video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are looking to the Indian market to power their global growth. But their shows are facing the wrath of Hindu nationalists, often linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP, which wields increasing clout over what is acceptable entertainment. Now, the government has stepped in, raising fears about...
While Britain hasn’t seen the cash influx — about $2 billion — that streaming and traditional media companies have spent snapping up the American podcasting companies in recent years, listening numbers here have surged. Nearly a fifth of the British adult population, more than 10 million people, now regularly listen to podcasts; entertainment and tech companies, investors and advertisers...
