As movies and shows like "Super Mario Galaxy Movie," "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" and "Fallout" prove Hollywood has finally figured out how to successfully adapt video games -- after years of failure so deep a "video game movie curse" moniker was coined -- the makers of those games are in disarray. - The Wrap (MSN)
The trial of the lawsuit brought by 12 state attorneys-general seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is now scheduled to start next March 2. The problem: Paramount will owe a fee to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders of $7 million per day from Oct. 1 until the deal closes. - Variety
“The Walt Disney Co. has sold its 50% equity stake in A+E Global Media to Hearst for $1.2 billion in cash, ending the joint venture that was first created in 1984. The deal will see Hearst take full control of the media company formerly known as A+E Networks, which owns brands like A&E, History and Lifetime.” - The Hollywood Reporter
“Brett Morris, the CEO of World 1, wants you to watch his ‘Microsports,’ which he describes as ‘entirely original sports where world titles are won or lost in 30 seconds.’” - The Hollywood Reporter
As strong as Jeopardy! remains on broadcast, rapid changes to the television business have demonstrated how quickly viewing habits can shift and why studios and platforms need to constantly rethink how they connect with audiences. - Vulture (MSN)
A powerful one-two punch from “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” has fueled the biggest collective weekend in box office history, with roughly $430 million across all movies in the marketplace. - Variety
Once The Odyssey zapped onto IMAX screens on July 17, "the cultural spillover into games was immediate." 10 days later, Ubisoft's 2018 ancient Greek adventure Assassin's Creed: Odyssey had nearly doubled its active player count, swelling from an approximate total of 122,000 players to 233,000 across platforms. - GamesRadar
A new lawsuit claims Netflix did not safeguard an as-yet-unreleased Nicolas Cage WWII movie, which allegedly was just sitting around on a hard drive until somebody stole it. - Rolling Stone
“The idea with the channels seems to be that making the secret, private shame of scrolling into a collaborative activity will give it a new place in the home.” - The Atlantic
Er … not really. "Moviegoing used to be a matter of habit meeting spontaneity. … Today, patrons generally plan their cinema visits in advance, and the question of what to see has collapsed into the question of whether to go at all.” - The Atlantic
This guy started practicing Spider-moves and parkour as a kid, hoping he’d one day get to do stunts for Spider-Man movies … and that has paid off in a big way. - BBC
It’s a weird reversal of most of recent history. "Angst over the increasing prevalence of ‘dramedies’ has long been a part of the conversation, but usually on the comedy side of the debate” (See: The Bear). - Vulture
"During that time, it reached over 5.9 million accounts and accumulated over 143,000 likes.” Whoops. However: “The leak is unlikely to slow down the box office juggernaut, which is already shattering records.” - The Verge
Since January 2022, subscription streaming services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ have been required to invest 20% of their annual French revenue in local film and television production under France’s implementation of the European Audiovisual Media Services Directive. - Variety