The Hollywood Reporter

Brett Mahoney & Courtney Kemp The showrunner and franchise creator of Starz’s Power series led Power Book II to the cabler’s biggest bow: 5.8 million multiplatform viewers over three days. Zachary Levi After his Shazam! sequel flailed in its box office debut with a $30 million bow, the actor ignited a firestorm with theories on how the plot was hampered by DC infighting. Christopher Landon Netflix’s horror comedy We Have a Ghost, from the director, tops Nielsen’s latest most streamed movie chart with 930 million minutes of viewing. Lindsay Lohan & Jake Paul The actress and influencer are among the latest charged by the SEC for touting cryptocurrencies “without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so.” Showbiz Stocks $4.47 (+5.7%) AMC ENTERTAINMENT (AMC) The original “memestock,” GameStop, beat its quarterly earnings estimates, sending shares for other memestocks including AMC skyward. $8.75…

In big tech, data is currency, and TikTok is printing money. Once known for viral dance videos, the platform has built itself into a digital advertising juggernaut. The app has more than 150 million monthly users and 5 million businesses it can harvest information from to sell ads, it disclosed March 21. Competitors are reeling to catch up, copying its video features. But national security concerns grounded in TikTok’s data privacy practices as well as the potential for the Chinese government to influence the content users see on the platform are jeopardizing its lucrative business. The company says that the Biden administration is demanding that its Chinese owners sell their stakes or potentially face a U.S. ban on the app. By banning the platform, the government risks prioritizing alleged national security…

As major media companies downsize in search of better profit margins, a recurring theme has been a focus on an advertising downturn. In recent months, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has called the ad market “very weak” and NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell deemed it “shallow,” while Paramount topper Bob Bakish described it “cyclically tough.” But the difficult ad environment obscures a silver lining: Despite the tough macro environment, the sports ad business is still booming. Look no further than Fox’s broadcast of the Super Bowl in February, when 30-second ads sold for north of $7 million, with the network expecting a record ad haul. Or the NCAA March Madness Men’s Basketball Tournament, which Bloomberg Intelligence estimates will bring in $1.2 billion in ad revenue for partners Warner Bros. Discovery and…

The Actors’ Equity Association is forming its own political action committee. The union that represents more than 51,000 stage managers and actors will be launching the PAC in the first week of April, with the goal of contributing money to federal candidates who support Actors’ Equity priorities. These include more arts funding, expanded health care coverage, protecting the right to organize and specific entertainment legislation such as the Performing Artists Tax Parity Act, which raises the income ceiling for artists to deduct certain performance-related expenses. The PAC will be a separate organization from the union and contributions will be voluntary (and not taken out of dues paid to the union). It joins a few other entertainment unions with PACs, including the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the American Federation…

If artificial intelligence evangelists’ predictions pan out, generative AI systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E are set to transform Hollywood by developing and writing scripts for the next hit TV show, “diversifying” casts with AI-generated actors and generating imagery across multiple mediums, practically instantly, for a fraction of the cost of a real, human artist. But how long will it take for the vision to meet reality — and can a select group of companies, similar to the rise of Facebook and social media — be trusted to herald the way? Driving much of the current conversation around AI innovation is OpenAI, the AI research company behind ChatGPT with both nonprofit and for-profit arms. Major tech companies like Google and Microsoft have invested hundreds of millions into AI companies, including OpenAI.…

For studios, the best part about shooting in New Mexico might be how much it looks like Texas. That’s why Taylor Sheridan’s Hell or High Water filmed in New Mexico, as did Walker: Independence, King Rex and other projects looking for generous tax incentives to shoot in the state, as well as desert valleys and wooded mountains that mimic the Lone Star State. Texas is flanked by states known for offering robust tax credits to lure film and TV productions. In 2022, Hollywood projects pumped more than $1.5 billion into the economies of New Mexico, Louisiana and Oklahoma, much of it for titles set in Texas but unable to shoot in the state due to its middling incentive program. Now, Texan lawmakers are looking to court Hollywood. A bill introduced in…