President Donald Trumps sudden announcement on Sunday that he intends to impose a 100 percent tariff on movies produced abroad jolted advocates who have been working for months to return more film and television production to California. Between the Stay in LA coalition, the Hollywood guilds, the state legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom, production insiders thought they knew the players...

Sonys VFX firm Pixomondo is set to open a new LED volume stage in Langley, British Columbia, outside of Vancouver. The virtual production facility for in-camera visual effects, to open May 26, will be launched and run by PXO Clara, the Game of Thrones VFX houses LED volume division. The new Vancouver virtual stage will measure50 feet in diameter, 23...

How will the founder of The Awl make a mark at CNN? The cable news network said Tuesday that it had hired Choire Sicha, the creator of the New York-based culture website which published daily ruminations on city weather under a motto of Be Less Stupid, to lead its new effort at editorial features. Sicha, who most recently was editor...

Disney CEO Bob Iger has signaled the Hollywood studio will produce even more original local and regional content overseas to grow its streaming platforms business worldwide. The third pillar of growth is the investment in content, particularly outside the United States, where we know that we need to invest more in local content, and weve already started that process, Iger...

Disney CEO Bob Iger says get your (movie theater) popcorn ready. On a Wednesday morning conference call with media analysts, Iger sung the praises of Disneys upcoming theatrical-release calendar. I have a lot of confidence that are upcoming slate, Iger said. He then pretty much listed all of them out individually. Iger said he has personally seen the live-action Lilo...

Netflix is planning a major overhaul of its home page on TV sets, as it continues to push into areas like games and live events. The company says that the new home page will roll out to users in the next few weeks and months, depending on location. This is not the first change weve made to our home page,...

After more than eight years under the same roof, Starz and Lionsgate are officially separate companies once more. Starz completed its split from the studio on Wednesday and will begin life as a standalone public company when markets open, trading shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Shareholders of Lionsgate, which acquired Starz in late 2016, overwhelmingly approved the separation in...

The Walt Disney Co. is bringing a new Disney theme park and resort to Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The new destination will be the companys seventh global resort, and will be its first in the Middle East, with Disney CEO Bob Iger framing it as authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati in a statement. In an interview with...

The Walt Disney Co. blew past Wall Street earnings expectations in its latest quarter, the companys fiscal Q2. The company delivered revenue of $23.6 billion, up 7% from a year prior, and operating income of $4.4 billion, an improvement of 15% from a year earlier. Every division: Entertainment, sports and experiences, beat expectations, with streaming driving particular growth in the...

Hollywood should have seen this coming. After starting trade wars over cars and steel, solar panels and washing machines, Donald Trump has added movies to the list. POTUS announcement on Truth Social on May 5 that he plans to slap a 100 percent tariff on films coming into our country produced in foreign lands has sent shockwaves through the global...

Trumps plan to Make Hollywood Great Again by imposing a 100 percent tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands has left the industry with more questions than answers. Like: huh? Or: is this even legal? And our personal favorite: what about TV? WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!, Trump ranted...

Good Night and Good Luck, starring George Clooney, brought in $4,003,481.50 on Broadway last week, becoming the first play to surpass $4 million in a single week. The play also broke its own record, yet again, as the highest grossing play in Broadway history. The milestone came as the production, which is playing the Winter Garden Theater, received five Tony...

Comcasts cable TV spinoff company now has a name: Versant. The new venture, first unveiled last year, will include most of Comcasts cable TV assets, including USA, Syfy, E!, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen and Golf Channel, as well as some digital businesses like Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes. Versant will be led by CEO Mark Lazarus, CFO and COO Anand Kini, and...