Sean Gunn Says He Gets 'Almost None' of the Streaming Revenue for His 'Gilmore Girls' Role as Kirk

AMC Entertainment set a new post-Covid record for global admissions revenue this past weekend with Barbie and Oppenheimer leading a charge that drew 7.8 million moviegoers to theaters.

Naman Ramachandran Robert Blair, president, Warner Bros. Discovery international TV distribution, is departing the company after 25 years. His position will not be replaced. In an internal memo to staff, seen by Variety, Gerhard Zeiler, Warner Bros. Discovery president, international, wrote: “Last year, we unveiled a new org structure for international, which we believed best positioned us for success at that time. But we also acknowledged that in an ever-changing industry and market, we would need to continue to evolve in a thoughtful and strategic way, along with the climate around us. Seven months into 2023, although we remain confident about our trajectory as a business, we are at another inflection point, and one where the global economy has not rebounded as quickly as we had hoped.

James Gunn is clarifying some rumors about the DC development slate starting with Superman: Legacy and a potential Justice League live-action film under his direction.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Unless you’ve been trapped in a plastic toy box, there’s no escaping the Barbie-core movement that’s sweeping the globe — and potentially contributing a nationwide shortage of the color pink. The marketing department at Warner Bros. has been working in overdrive to entice the masses for Greta Gerwig’s cotton candy-colored fantasy “Barbie,” which has been all but inescapable this summer. A key factor has been a dizzying array of partnerships with products that range from a bright fuchsia Xbox (for STEM Barbie) to this $1,350 Balmain cropped hoodie (for Disposable Income Barbie). And that’s only scratching the surface of the brands that helped propel the movie to cultural touchstone status before arriving in theaters on July 21. In Malibu, there’s a real-life Barbie Dreamhouse that’s bookable through Airbnb. There’s also a themed boat cruise that’s setting sail in the Boston area.

Quentin Tarantino was spotted at a screening of Barbie in Los Angeles this weekend.The film came to cinemas on Friday (July 21), with huge anticipation around its release alongside Oppenheimer.On its first weekend, Tarantino was among millions to flock to see Greta Gerwig’s film and was spotted buying his ticket at the box office and then settling in to the screening by fans, who have shared photos online.Get a glimpse into Tarantino’s big day out below. It’s not clear whether he did the so-called ‘Barbenheimer’ double though.A post shared by IndieWire (@indiewire)As the films’ first weekend comes to a close, Barbie is currently set to outpace Oppenheimer at the box office.The films have been the subject of particular attention for coming out on the same day, with many people attempting to see both in the space of 24 hours.As things stand, Greta Gerwig’s comedy is set to bring in $110million (£86.6million) at the US box office this weekend, over twice the expected takings of Christopher Nolan’s biopic about the creator of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer is expected to gross $50million (£38.8million).Barbie’s current takings mean it will break the record for the highest-opening film in the US by a female director. Wonder Woman previously held the title, bringing in £103million(£89.1million) in 2017.Warner Bros confirmed yesterday (July 21) that Barbie had earned $22.3million (£17.3million) in box office previews – the highest figure of any film this year.

Barbie is currently set to outpace Oppenheimer at the box office over the two films’ shared opening weekend.The films have been the subject of particular attention for coming out on the same day, with many people attempting to see both in the space of 24 hours.As things stand, Greta Gerwig’s comedy is set to bring in $110million (£86.6million) at the US box office this weekend, over twice the expected takings of Christopher Nolan’s biopic about the creator of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer is expected to gross $50million (£38.8million).Barbie’s current takings mean it will break the record for the highest-opening film in the US by a female director. Wonder Woman previously held the title, bringing in £103million(£89.1million) in 2017.Warner Bros confirmed yesterday (July 21) that Barbie had earned $22.3million (£17.3million) in box office previews – the highest figure of any film this year.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Toronto Film Festival is at a critical moment after three difficult years following the COVID-19 pandemic, but “the festival will take place,” says Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF. TIFF has typically been a star-studded affair and staple of awards season. However, what the red carpets at the gala premieres and tribute ceremonies that have gone to significant A-listers like Kate Winslet will ultimately look like, remains unknown. The longtime festival director doubled down on moving forward with this year’s festival, whether the big stars are in attendance or not. This comes amid ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that have halted the Hollywood industry, putting the remaining months of movies and TV shows into unknown territory.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” is now playing in theaters nationwide, but one if its most emotional scenes might not have made it to the big screen had the filmmaker not held her ground against studio executives. In several interviews before the comedy’s theatrical release, Gerwig revealed that it was suggested she cut out the scene where Barbie (Margot Robbie) meets an elderly woman on a bench and tells her she’s beautiful. “I love that scene so much,” Gerwig told Rolling Stone. “And the older woman on the bench is the costume designer Ann Roth. She’s a legend. It’s a cul-de-sac of a moment, in a way — it doesn’t lead anywhere. And in early cuts, looking at the movie, it was suggested, ‘Well, you could cut it. And actually, the story would move on just the same.’ And I said, ‘If I cut the scene, I don’t know what this movie is about.'”

At its Max streaming event earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed a new era is coming for Harry Potter fans. The company announced a TV series based on all seven books about the boy wizard written by J.K. Rowling. See below for the most current answers to the most important questions about the project.

BreAnna Bell White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will be honored with Outfest’s Inaugural Achievement Award for Press and Media, the nonprofit announced on Friday. The award presentation will take place on closing night of the 41st Outfest Los Angeles Summer Festival, which is presented by Genesis Motor America and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Achievement Award is a high honor within the organization and acknowledges the LGBTQ+ community’s presence in the media. “Outfest is thrilled to recognize the continued contributions of Karine Jean-Pierre for her barrier breaking and historic achievement in Press and Media,” Outfest board co-president Nii-Quartelai Quartey said in a statement. “Throughout her career, the Black and LGBTQ+ community has been reminded of what is possible. Our fellow Americans have been reminded of our humanity and inherent dignity. Our Outfest Press Fellows have been inspired.”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor There’s a moment in “Barbie” where Ryan Gosling, who plays the wickedly funny and insecure manchild, Ken, steps off the screen and yells, “Sublime!” It might be the most extraordinary Oscar-worthy clip of a person not to be seen on screen. “Barbie,” the new meta-comedy from Warner Bros, which also acts as an infomercial for Mattel, finally lands for audiences and could be one of the leading comedy films seeking Oscar recognition by year’s end if Academy members can take it seriously. Gosling’s iconic turn, at least, is worthy of best supporting actor recognition. Commercial comedies, particularly those without the added “dramedy” sub-qualifier, have faced difficulty landing Academy recognition for decades (i.e., Vince Vaughn in “Wedding Crashers”). However, a promising trend has been seen in the last few years with acting nominees like Robert Downey Jr in “Tropic Thunder” (2008), Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids” (2011) and Maria Bakalova in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” (2020) landing comfortably in their respective fields. Gosling could join the ranks.

The much-anticipated Barbie film finally hits cinema screens today (Friday, July 21) - and keen-eyed moviegoers who also know their Love Island contestants might spot a familiar face while they're enjoying the summer blockbuster. Chris Taylor, who appeared on the ITV dating show's fifth season, makes a cameo which is understood to have come about all because of the film's star.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The sequel to Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic “Dune” may be riding a sandworm all the way to 2024. Amid two contentious Hollywood labor strikes, Warner Bros. Film Group is strongly considering pushing the Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya tentpole to next year, three individuals with knowledge of discussions told Variety. The film is a co-production with Legendary Entertainment and both parties must agree on a new release date, said one insider. Legendary has yet to be approached by WB about a move, they added. Another source familiar with Warner Bros. said that releases are moving forward as originally planned and no formal discussions have been had, but noted that the duration of the union battles are completely unpredictable.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Josh Hartnett revealed to Playboy magazine in 2015 that he talked with Christopher Nolan about taking on the role of the Caped Crusader in the director’s “Batman Begins,” which launched Warner Bros.’ billion-dollar grossing “Dark Knight” trilogy. How far did those talks go before Nolan settled on Christian Bale instead? In a new interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Nolan confirmed talks with Hartnett took place, but his casting never got too serious. “No, it never got that far,” Nolan said when asked if he screen-tested Hartnett for the role of Batman. “I met with Josh and if I recall, he was a young actor whose work I was very interested in,” Nolan added. “I had an initial conversation with him but he had read my brother’s script for ‘The Prestige’ at the time and was more interested in getting involved with that. So it never went further than that.”

Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion is coming to Hulu. Ahead of the series’ season finale on Disney+, the first three episodes, “Resurrection,” “Promises” and “Betrayed” will begin streaming tomorrow July 21 through Thursday, August 17 on Hulu.

Disney CEO Bob Iger already made his perspective clear about the ongoing guild strikes last week before the SAG-AFTRA one commenced. Now it’s Netflix CEO’s Ted Sarandos‘ turn.

Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network production workers are attempting to unionize with The Animation Guild (TAG).

J. Kim Murphy Bron Studios, the Canadian finance and production company that emerged as a media force in 2017 and has backed awards favorites like “Joker,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Licorice Pizza” and commercial plays like “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” “The Mule” and “65,” has filed for bankruptcy. Co-founder and CEO Aaron L. Gilbert disclosed the news in a statement on Wednesday, penning a letter to the banner’s “friends, partners, team members and backers.” “Having explored many options for many months, BRON had no choice but to take this step in light of its financial circumstances. The last few years have been incredibly difficult for BRON, and things have only gotten more complicated over these past months,” Gilbert shared, citing the COVID pandemic and both the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes as insurmountable headwinds for the company’s continued operations. The exec also stated that the company would not be doing press.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed Hollywood’s dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes alongside the release of the company’s Q2 earnings results Wednesday. Sarandos said: “Let me start by making something absolutely clear: This strike is not an outcome that we want. We make deals all the time. We are constantly at the table negotiating with writers with directors with actors and producers with everyone across the industry. And we very much hoped to reach an agreement by now. So I also want to say, if I may, on a personal level, I was raised in a union household. My dad was a member of IBEW Local 640, he was a union electrician. And I remember his local because that union was very much a part of our lives when I was growing up. And I also remember on more than one occasion, my dad being out on strike. And I remember that because it takes an enormous toll on your family, financially and emotionally. You should know that nobody here, nobody within the AMPTP, and I’m sure nobody at SAG or nobody at the WGA, took any of this lightly. But we’ve got a lot of work to do there. There are a handful of complicated issues. We’re super committed to getting to an agreement as soon as possible, one that is equitable, and one that enables the industry and everybody in it to move forward into the future.

EXCLUSIVE: Tomii Crump has joined Creative Artists Agency as an agent in its Nonfiction Television department.  

Oppenheimer” and 89% and 8.2/10 for “Barbie“), Hollywood is looking at a skewed rerun of another box office showdown from July 2008.Fifteen years ago, Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” broke the opening weekend record with $158 million, but Meryl Streep’s “Mamma Mia!” also nabbed what was at the time the largest Friday-Sunday debut ever ($28 million) against a $100 million-plus opener. History may be repeating itself, with Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” looking to clear triple digits right as Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” hopes to open on par with the over/under $50 million launches of “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk.” The record set in 2008 against a Nolan epic may be set again this weekend *by* a Nolan epic.

Netflix stands to benefit from the dual strikes underway in Hollywood while competitors like Disney and Apple will get “weaker,” in part because of the streamer’s vast international production pipeline, a top media-stocks analyst said Wednesday on the brink of earnings season.“The strike plays to their advantage,” Michael Nathanson, founding partner of SVB MoffettNathanson, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I’ve not been a Netflix bull, but their setup for this quarter and the next 12 months is incredibly strong.”Co-host Andrew Ross-Sorkin seized on that notion, seeking to clarify whether Nathanson meant Netflix would get stronger merely relative to its competition – or if it could help the streamer overall. The answer seemed to be: a bit of both.“I think relative, clearly, right?” Nathanson said.

Stephen Rodrick Fran Drescher is on a hero’s journey.  I know because she told me.   We talked on Monday for about an hour as the actors’ strike moved into a second week. So far, it’s been very dramatic. Last Thursday, Drescher gave her version of Shakespeare’s Henry V’s St. Crispins Day speech with “we happy few” replaced by all American workers via “I think that the whole world is looking at us right now, because human beings in all different walks of life are being replaced by robots.” The speech launched a thousand labor-supporting memes and left reporters wondering if “The Nanny” was the new Norma Rae. Drescher carried the mojo into the first day of picketing on Friday when she called Disney CEO Bob Iger a medieval land baron for discourse launched from his Sun Valley Summer Camp. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) seized on the SAG-AFTRA strike in an online conversation with President Fran Drescher on Tuesday evening, as they both bashed Bob Iger and other CEOs, and made the case for why the actors’ walkout should be of concern of all workers.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “Masters of the Universe,” a live-action movie based on He-Man and a slew of other popular Mattel toys, is officially dead at Netflix, according to multiple Variety sources. Insiders said that close to $30 million has already been spent on development costs and the cash that’s been shelled out to hold on to talent – like previously announced lead Kyle Allen and the film’s heatseeking directing duo Adam and Aaron Nee (“The Lost City”). Other knowledgable sources estimate all-in costs for development at twice that figure. The latest headaches for He-Man and friends only further complicates the property’s torturous journey to the screen, one that goes as far back as 2007. It’s a long road that’s crossed through two other studios, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures, and countless writers and directors like Jon M. Chu and McG. The latest implosion at Netflix, according to five individuals with knowledge of the project, was over budget concerns.

The entertainment industry is heading for change as Hollywood actors join writers on the picket line.  

EXCLUSIVE: Marie Moore will be leaving her post as SVP Communications working across multiple Warner Bros. Discovery ad-supported TV networks and streamer Max. Her last day will be Aug.4.

Editor’s note: Jesse Andrews is author of the novel Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which is one of five books pulled from the library shelves of high schools within the purview of Tallahassee, Florida-based Leon County Schools superintendent Rock Hanna, after the Leon County chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty petitioned the schools to remove the book because of the frank depiction of sex and gender identity issues. The others include Push, the Sapphire-penned book that inspired the film Precious;Doomed by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk; Lucky by Alice Sebold; and Dead End by Jason Meyer. Still being scrutinized is an autobiography of tennis great Billie Jean King, because it discusses her sexuality. This has been an ongoing theme precipitated by policies passed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative Republicans. DeSantis is running for president and probably figured to ride his brawl with Disney into the White House, until Bob Iger began pushing back in ways that have cost revenue and investments it planned for the state of Florida, where Disney is its largest taxpayer and employer. What’s it like to see your book banished for, as Moms for Liberty argued in its email to the school board, violate state law and subject school district personnel to potential felony prosecution and litigation? Here, Andrews — also a screenwriter whose credits include co-writing with Mike Jones Pixar’s Luca — explains it all.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Barbenheimer” is officially here, and the battle between the bomb and the bombshell is about to ignite the box office. Greta Gerwig’s cotton candy-colored “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie as the plastic, fantastic doll, is expected to generate a huge $95 million to $110 million from 4,200 North American theaters over the weekend. Given the omnipresence of “Barbie” (the marketing is practically inescapable, with enough memes and marketing tie-ins to last a lifetime), initial estimates are all over the place. Warner Bros. is projecting a more conservative $75 million to start, while rivals and exhibitors believe the PG-13 movie could make as much as $140 million between Friday and Sunday.

On the edge of what is bound to be the domestic box office’s third $200M+ weekend thanks to Barbie and Oppenheimer, the motion picture industry’s fret is whether the great post-pandemic moviegoing rebound is about to screech to a halt due to the SAG-AFTRA strike and actors prohibited from promoting.

Sabbatical Entertainment Sets Distribution Partnership With V Channels Media

Naman Ramachandran TNT Sports went live on Tuesday across the U.K. and Ireland, replacing BT Sport. The rebrand was revealed earlier this year as part of the Warner Bros. Discovery joint venture. TNT Sports is already used as WBD’s sports brand in Latin America and the U.S. TNT Sports will present the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Heineken Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. In addition, the Olympic Games Paris 2024, grand slam tennis tournaments, including the Australian Open and Roland-Garros and cycling grand tours, including the Tour de France, will be available.

Marvel Studios’ intergalactic extravaganza “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is soaring into the streaming universe!

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Christian Bale is probably not going to play Batman again after “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises.” The Oscar-winning actor told ScreenRant last summer that he would only play Batman for a fourth time if Christopher Nolan was directing, but Nolan doesn’t appear to be interested in returning to the comic book genre. YouTuber HugoDécrypte asked Nolan point blank if he would make “another superhero movie.” Nolan bluntly answered, “No.” The question came during a speed round in which HugoDécrypte also asked the “Oppenheimer” filmmaker if he “could make a TV show one day.” Nolan also answered “no.” The director wasn’t as definitive when asked if he would want to direct a “Star Wars” movie. Nolan passed on giving an answer.

The story of how “Minx” Season 2 was moved to Starz is almost as interesting as the content in the actual show. You see, after Season 2 had been shot, Warner Bros.

removed his interview from the social network on Friday “because it did not note that the residuals Gunn was referencing are paid by the studio [Warner Bros. Discovery] and not the streamer, Netflix” — a move Gunn said was “absolutely absurd.”“I never even used the word ‘residuals’ in my interview. The point I was making is that we don’t see any residuals for number of views on Netflix.