With Egypt's once-dominant industry stagnating under the Sisi dictatorship, the government led by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is dropping lots of money to fill that void, building soundstages and film schools, launching a star-studded movie festival, and even directly funding productions. - The New York Times
As the nation’s big media companies look to woo new viewers trying to pick their way through a dizzying number of streaming outlets, news divisions are signing up for the battle. - Variety
More than ever before, both in blockbusters (Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eternals) and prestige pictures (Nightmare Alley, The French Dispatch), casts are being packed with as many above-the-title names as possible. Just now, there are sound business reasons for doing that. - The New York Times
Worldwide box office is $1.05B which makes Sony’s No. 2 film of all time, behind only Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.13B). No Way Home is also the No. 1 title of the year worldwide — and one of the only movies of the modern era to ever reach $1B without China. - Deadline
What’s become clear is that the skill set that led to big-tent triumph on the app in 2019 and 2020 is, by and large, sized to the medium. Given more room to breathe in other formats, most of TikTok’s superstars are still figuring out how to create beyond the phone. - The New York Times
Welcome to element philosophy. Scriptwriters use them to tell their story, composers sprinkle scores full of sleighbells and producers use them to influence us to buy a ticket. “Element placement” dictates our emotional rollercoaster journey... - The Conversation
"Partisans on either side looking for affirmation of their stance will be disappointed. … Neither condemning nor condoning his actions, the film offers what may be the clearest image of the archetypal cop's self-perception as the only one willing to do the dirty jobs holding America together." - The Guardian
Recent rereleases of films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Jaws have led the board to reconsider those titles in the light of what they vaguely call “changing attitudes”. - The Guardian
"The media-measurement giant informed TV networks and other clients Wednesday that it has, since September of 2020, undercounted so-called 'out-of-home' audiences — the people watching programs in offices, bars, hotels and other places — for national TV programming." - Variety
A YouGov poll of 1,000 Americans found that roughly 56% of 18-to-44-year-olds weren't deterred by the new, rapidly spreading coronavirus variant, with only between 20% and 27% actively deterred. That latter figure among those aged 45 to 64 is 39%, with another 37% neutral. - The Hollywood Reporter
2022 will be a chapter marked not only by bilateral friction between the two superpowers, but by the Chinese film industry’s decoupling from the broader global film industry as a whole, as the country turns inward under President Xi Jinping. - Variety
The reversal of fortunes in China has begun to accelerate in the past year. In 2021, just 25 U.S. movies were released theatrically in the country, many of which were minor indie titles instead of studio tentpoles. By contrast, some 45 Hollywood movies were shown on Chinese screens in 2019. - The Hollywood Reporter
Those ways aren't pretty: incels glommed onto the "red pill" idea; "free your mind" has been adopted by far-right populists; "post-truth" is now regularly applied to today's media environment; deepfake videos resemble the way Morpheus's group hacked the matrix. - BBC
He achieved quite a lot — far more than he, or skeptical observers, expected: rejuvenating the animation studios; acquiring Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox; opening major theme parks in China; pioneering in direct-to-consumer distribution; increasing Disney's stock value by 400%. - Variety
Biden is blazing a path that will make it harder for large internet service providers to exert their market control. The point of net neutrality is to force ISPs like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to treat internet traffic equally. - CNBC
