The Hollywood Reporter

the hollywood reporter

Matthew Belloni EDITORIAL DIRECTORAlison Brower DEPUTY EDITORIAL DIRECTORShanti Marlar EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTORTom Seeley DEPUTY EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, DIGITAL MEDIASudie Redmond EXECUTIVE MANAGING EDITORStephen Galloway EXECUTIVE EDITOR, FEATURESJennifer Martin Laski PHOTO & VIDEO DIRECTORJeanie Pyun DEPUTY EDITORErik Hayden NEWS DIRECTORLacey Rose EXECUTIVE EDITOR, TELEVISIONDavid Katz EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ARTICLESEDITOR-AT-LARGE Kim MastersFILMDEPUTY FILM EDITOR Tatiana Siegel • SENIOR FILM WRITERS Borys Kit, Pamela McClintockTECH EDITOR Carolyn Giardina • STAFF WRITER, FILM Mia Galuppo • INTERNATIONAL FILM EDITOR Deborah YoungTELEVISIONTELEVISION EDITOR, EAST COAST Marisa Guthrie • TELEVISION EDITOR, WEST COAST Lesley Goldberg • SENIOR WRITER, TELEVISION Michael O’ConnellTELEVISION WRITERS Rick Porter, Bryn Elise Sandberg • MEDIA & POLITICS WRITER Jeremy BarrREVIEWSREVIEWS EDITOR Jon Frosch • CHIEF FILM CRITIC Todd McCarthy • CHIEF TELEVISION CRITICS Tim Goodman, Daniel Fienberg • CHIEF THEATER CRITIC David RooneySENIOR EDITOR…

heat index

FilmDisney ‘Hangover’ After Endgame, 2020 is less certain for investors. p. 12DigitalNetflix PollWhat it would take for subscribers to cancel. p. 16Kenya BarrisThe showrunner will star in his first Netflix show, Black Excellence, and nabs a Black-ish renewal from ABC and a pickup for its second spinoff, Mixed-ish.Taylor SwiftThe pop star’s new single, “Me!,” fails to unseat Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” on the Billboard Hot 100, settling for No. 2 in its first full week.Billy BushWhat Access Hollywood tape? The embattled host will return to TV this fall to anchor a new version of Extra called Extra Extra.Adam FogelsonThe STX film chief weathers another U.S. bomb with his UglyDolls animated tent pole, which opened to a dismal $8.6 million, and scathing reviews for cheer-leading comedy Poms.Showbiz Stocks↑ $82.76…

upfront evolution: inside tv’s platform-agnostic approach

Ad buyers at TV’s upfronts can be forgiven for asking: Who are all these people? Storming Manhattan stages beginning May 13 when the networks present their fall slates will be an almost entirely new cast of executives. To differentiate themselves from digital disrupters, they’ll likely pitch the promise of data-driven accountability to clients and a premium content environment that can’t be matched by big tech.WarnerMedia will hold its first-ever upfront with a “blue carpet” featuring its new AT&T-installed leadership team including Bob Greenblatt. A new, bulked-up Disney — thanks to more than $71.3 billion in assets from 21st Century Fox — will forgo separate presentations for ABC and ESPN and instead combine all of its networks for one event. At a slimmed-down Fox, where Fox News is now the biggest…

‘we want to be firmly in both worlds’

From left: Susan Wojcicki touted 2 billion YouTube users in 2019;Jonah Peretti boasted of BuzzFeed Motion Pictures’ video ambitions in 2015.Four years ago, there was palpable excitement at the Digital Content NewFronts as executives at such would-be revolutionary businesses as BuzzFeed, Vice Media and Maker Studios boasted about how they were building brands that would someday rival those on TV. Events haven’t exactly played out that way.This was especially apparent when digital executives trekked to gloomy New York during the first week of May for a noticeably slimmed down NewFronts showcase. YouTube was still there, with CEO Susan Wojcicki touting 250 million hours streamed on TV sets each day. But companies like Maker, Fullscreen and Machinima that once commanded prime slots were absent, having been swallowed whole by their big-media…

big 5 status check: cbs minus les, fox’s new day

New entertainment president Karey Burke’s early pickups (Mixed-ish, Stumptown) speak to a desire to promote women. She also wants to better position D.J. Nash’s A Million Little Things and is likely to sacrifice ABC’s Shonda Rhimes-branded “TGIT” Thursday block to do so.Co-presidents Paul Telegdy and George Cheeks may keep the status quo given that the network is No. 1 among adults 18-49 in all of TV. Still, there’s one glaring need: comedy. Rookies I Feel Bad and Abby’s flatlined and The Good Place’s end is in sight.New Fox CEO Charlie Collier’s network will debut with a big bet on live programming with mid-season surprise hit The Masked Singer expected to join a plethora of sports in the fall. Throw in animation on Sundays and Fox has little shelf space, aside…

peak disney? entering 2020, ‘they’ll eventually feel a hangover’

Conventional wisdom may hold that the Walt Disney Co. has been firing on all cylinders, with its $71.3 billion partial merger with 21st Century Fox closed, streaming service Disney+ on pace to launch Nov. 12 and Avengers: Endgame rewriting the record books. But there are signs that a perfect storm of (gasp!) mediocrity for the $240 billion conglomerate may be on the way thanks to digital investments and the film calendar — at least for the short term.Disney CFO Christine McCarthy disclosed May 8 that the creation of Disney+ and ramp-up of ESPN+ will dent operating income to the tune of about $460 million in the current quarter alone. The company intends on spending about $2.5 billion on original and licensed content for Disney+ in fiscal 2020, rising annually to…