Latest news with #Burbank-based
Los Angeles Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Disney takes preschool hit ‘CoComelon' away from Netflix
Walt Disney Co. has secured the exclusive streaming rights to the children's TV series 'CoComelon,' according to people familiar with the matter, taking one of the most popular kids' programs in the world away from Netflix. Starting in 2027, Disney+ will have every season of 'CoComelon,' a compilation of nursery rhymes for toddlers, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing a deal that hasn't been announced. The Burbank-based movie, TV and theme-park company will pay tens of millions of dollars annually for the rights, one person said. 'CoComelon' has been one of the most-popular kids' programs in the world for almost a decade. Its flagship YouTube channel has 193 million subscribers and averages more than 2 billion views a month, according to Social Blade. It was the second-most-watched program on Netflix in 2024, trailing only the 'Bridgerton' shows. The series adds to an already strong lineup of kids' programming on Disney+, which is home to the most-watched preschool show on streaming, 'Bluey,' as well as classic Disney films and TV shows. Disney had three of the most-watched preschool shows in the U.S. in the first quarter of this year with 'Bluey,' 'Spidey and his Amazing Friends' and 'Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.' Former advertising executive Jay Jeon created the YouTube channel in 2006 to entertain his child and sold it to U.K.-based Moonbug Entertainment in 2020. Moonbug was later acquired by Candle Media, an independent media firm led by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs. Moonbug, which declined to comment, will continue to post videos of 'CoComelon' on YouTube while Disney+ will be the exclusive paid streaming home. The popularity of 'CoComelon' on Netflix has waned over the last 12 to 18 months. While the show was the fifth most-watched program in all of streaming in 2023, it didn't appear in the top 10 last year. Viewership has declined by almost 60% over the last couple of years. Netflix will continue to be the home of 'CoComelon Lane,' an original series, as well as 'Blippi,' another property owned by Moonbug. Disney has been the biggest brand in kids' entertainment for a century, producing beloved characters such as Mickey Mouse and the Little Mermaid. But many of the most popular new properties for kids began outside of Hollywood. Bluey, for example, is from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and BBC Studios. Disney is placing renewed emphasis on kids' programming as it competes with Netflix and YouTube, which is the most popular video service in the world, especially with viewers under age 30. Disney+ had 126 million subscribers at the end of March, up 1.4 million from the three previous three months. In addition to 'CoComelon,' Disney is licensing several seasons of 'Little Angel' and a couple seasons of 'JJ's Animal Time,' two other Moonbug shows. 'Little Angel' will remain available on YouTube, Netflix and Amazon. Streaming services that once focused primarily on signing up new customers are increasingly occupied with keeping customers for as long as possible. The longer that subscribers stay with a service, the less likely they are to cancel and the more valuable they are to advertisers. Kids' programming drives a lot of engagement for streaming services. It accounts for about 15% of all viewing on Netflix, the company said last week. Netflix closed 2024 with more than 300 million paid subscribers. On May 19 the company announced an agreement to begin carrying new and old episodes of the children's classic 'Sesame Street' and also has the hit kids' show 'Gabby's Dollhouse.' 'CoComelon' will arrive on Disney+ the same year that a movie based on the property will be released in theaters by Universal Pictures. Shaw writes for Bloomberg.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A courtside lounge? Dynamic ticket pricing? UCLA hopes new sports ventures will pay off
Solving UCLA's deepening athletic department financial crisis might require a Disneyesque plot twist, so why not let a Disney guy take a crack? Daniel Cruz was brought in from the Burbank-based media and entertainment giant last fall to work some magic with a college operation in need of new concepts. Six consecutive years of running in the red has led to a staggering $219.5-million deficit that won't be wiped away with the waving of any wand. Advertisement One solution might be surprisingly simple: Give the fans what they want, and they'll keep coming back. That's why Cruz has spearheaded efforts to overhaul the school's ticket operations and build a courtside lounge inside Pauley Pavilion, not to mention maximize revenue from a planned field-level club at the Rose Bowl. They're all measures intended to enhance the fan experience and build brand loyalty. 'Essentially, what I'm trying to do is just trying to set us up for success and do things differently,' said Cruz, UCLA's new deputy athletics director and chief revenue officer, 'because the old way of how college athletics normally conducts business, it's not working.' Read more: 'How does this thing not sink?' UC regent Bob Myers questions UCLA athletics' finances Advertisement As part of a partnership scheduled to be announced Tuesday, UCLA is switching from its longstanding in-house ticketing agency to Elevate, which will modernize operations and build a customer database that allows more targeted marketing. Elevate will handle both primary and secondary ticket sales, preventing unaffiliated brokers from undermining sales and devaluing tickets. There's also going to be dynamic pricing that will allow lower prices for less desirable games, something that was impossible under the school's previous antiquated system. 'It's going to be huge because we are now professionalizing how we go to market, how we price things,' Cruz said. 'I get a lot of complaints from fans that they think ticket prices are too high for certain games and they may be right, so how do we pull those levers to make it accessible on games that it's not full, so we can get people in?' A new field-level club in the south end zone of the Rose Bowl could create heavy demand at a stadium that is routinely less than half full. The club, set to open in time for the 2026 season, is expected to host a restaurant-bar setup that will allow fans to walk onto the field, watch players come out of a nearby tunnel and grab something to eat before returning to a section of 1,200 plush, extra-wide seats. The Rose Bowl is planning to build a new field-level club for fans attending UCLA football games. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) The Rose Bowl has agreed to foot the estimated $20-million construction cost and let UCLA keep the premium seating ticket revenue, Cruz said, as part of a mutually beneficial arrangement. The stadium will utilize the club for other events that it hosts such as concerts. Advertisement Given that the Rose Bowl has kept all of the existing suite revenue for UCLA games as part of its lease agreement with the school, the new arrangement could be considered something of a coup for the Bruins. Another revenue opportunity involves a massive stage on the north side of the stadium overlooking the adjacent country club that will allow UCLA to bring in DJs and musical acts for pregame festivities. UCLA will sell cabana space, food and premium parking to provide a tailgate experience for both football fans and others who just want to have a good time. Read more: Rose Bowl improvements: Eye on the future while preserving the past 'How do we attract fans who maybe don't normally come to a football game, right?' Cruz said. 'It's a whole-day experience — come, enjoy concierge service with your friends, enjoy a great football game and that atmosphere that we're trying to generate.' Advertisement Additional revenue has already been raised from sponsorships involving players wearing UCLA uniforms as part of new co-branded advertisements; for example, star center Lauren Betts is featured in multiple billboards for La Victoria salsas and sauces. Cruz also has plans to elevate the fan experience at Pauley Pavilion. He wants to use the existing infrastructure to create a courtside donor lounge that could be in place before the start of next season. The lounge, which would provide a more upscale experience than the Pavilion Club, could come with a naming-rights deal and a membership fee for high-level donors. There's also been discussions about revamping the Pavilion Club to provide more segmented experiences; perhaps one section would cater to young alumni with a DJ and open bar while another would serve other alumni who want a more relaxed atmosphere where they can catch up with friends over a pregame meal. 'That's a really big room, so how do we cut that up and divide that to make a better experience for everybody?' Cruz said. 'We've got so many folks that we're trying to cater to and I want to be sensitive to that and I want to create an experience for them that makes it so they want to come back.' UCLA students cheer during a men's basketball game against USC at Pauley Pavilion on March 8. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) One development that could be a season away would certainly please fans who have groused about too many empty seats in the lower level being shown on television. Cruz said he wanted to flip the lower-level stands and team benches to the seating configuration that existed before the Pauley Pavilion renovations, allowing the students who pack their section to be showcased on broadcasts. Advertisement 'That section is always full of students,' Cruz said. 'We could be playing Idaho State and it's full with students all the time, so the rest of the country needs to see that.' Why not just move the TV cameras? Cruz said it would cost $6 million to transfer all the wiring and fiber optics built into the current platforms that were specially built for the cameras. Men's basketball coach Mick Cronin and Cori Close, his women's basketball counterpart, have agreed to the potential move, Cruz said, as have the fans he's canvassed about switching seats. In the meantime, UCLA is partnering with a global sports and entertainment company to improve the in-game experience for fans, including new ways to keep the energy flowing during timeouts while the Bruins are in the midst of a big run instead of relying on scoreboard ads and awkward silences. Advertisement Read more: 'A makeup call.' UCLA athletic department financial challenges traced to legacy deals Cruz said he's converting some of his department's marketing staff into fan experience specialists to improve fan retention. 'How do we create an experience where it's like, man, that was fun, I want to come back?' Cruz said. 'That leads to more revenue and it also leads to a larger pathway for our alumni and students to make them want to come back. How do we create that cycle of, yeah, they care, they want us here, and I want to come back?' If winning is the greatest promotion in sports, Cruz is trying to show that listening may not be far behind. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
19-05-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
A courtside lounge? Dynamic ticket pricing? UCLA hopes new sports ventures will pay off
Solving UCLA's deepening athletic department financial crisis might require a Disneyesque plot twist, so why not let a Disney guy take a crack? Daniel Cruz was brought in from the Burbank-based media and entertainment giant last fall to work some magic with a college operation in need of new concepts. Six consecutive years of running in the red has led to a staggering $219.5-million deficit that won't be wiped away with the waving of any wand. One solution might be surprisingly simple: Give the fans what they want, and they'll keep coming back. That's why Cruz has spearheaded efforts to overhaul the school's ticket operations and build a courtside lounge inside Pauley Pavilion, not to mention maximize revenue from a planned field-level club at the Rose Bowl. They're all measures intended to enhance the fan experience and build brand loyalty. 'Essentially, what I'm trying to do is just trying to set us up for success and do things differently,' said Cruz, UCLA's new deputy athletics director and chief revenue officer, 'because the old way of how college athletics normally conducts business, it's not working.' As part of a partnership scheduled to be announced Tuesday, UCLA is switching from its longstanding in-house ticketing agency to Elevate, which will modernize operations and build a customer database that allows more targeted marketing. Elevate will handle both primary and secondary ticket sales, preventing unaffiliated brokers from undermining sales and devaluing tickets. There's also going to be dynamic pricing that will allow lower prices for less desirable games, something that was impossible under the school's previous antiquated system. 'It's going to be huge because we are now professionalizing how we go to market, how we price things,' Cruz said. 'I get a lot of complaints from fans that they think ticket prices are too high for certain games and they may be right, so how do we pull those levers to make it accessible on games that it's not full, so we can get people in?' A new field-level club in the south end zone of the Rose Bowl could create heavy demand at a stadium that is routinely less than half full. The club, set to open in time for the 2026 season, is expected to host a restaurant-bar setup that will allow fans to walk onto the field, watch players come out of a nearby tunnel and grab something to eat before returning to a section of 1,200 plush, extra-wide seats. The Rose Bowl has agreed to foot the estimated $20-million construction cost and let UCLA keep the premium seating ticket revenue, Cruz said, as part of a mutually beneficial arrangement. The stadium will utilize the club for other events that it hosts such as concerts. Given that the Rose Bowl has kept all of the existing suite revenue for UCLA games as part of its lease agreement with the school, the new arrangement could be considered something of a coup for the Bruins. Another revenue opportunity involves a massive stage on the north side of the stadium overlooking the adjacent country club that will allow UCLA to bring in DJs and musical acts for pregame festivities. UCLA will sell cabana space, food and premium parking to provide a tailgate experience for both football fans and others who just want to have a good time. 'How do we attract fans who maybe don't normally come to a football game, right?' Cruz said. 'It's a whole-day experience — come, enjoy concierge service with your friends, enjoy a great football game and that atmosphere that we're trying to generate.' Additional revenue has already been raised from sponsorships involving players wearing UCLA uniforms as part of new co-branded advertisements; for example, star center Lauren Betts is featured in multiple billboards for La Victoria salsas and sauces. Cruz also has plans to elevate the fan experience at Pauley Pavilion. He wants to use the existing infrastructure to create a courtside donor lounge that could be in place before the start of next season. The lounge, which would provide a more upscale experience than the Pavilion Club, could come with a naming-rights deal and a membership fee for high-level donors. There's also been discussions about revamping the Pavilion Club to provide more segmented experiences; perhaps one section would cater to young alumni with a DJ and open bar while another would serve other alumni who want a more relaxed atmosphere where they can catch up with friends over a pregame meal. 'That's a really big room, so how do we cut that up and divide that to make a better experience for everybody?' Cruz said. 'We've got so many folks that we're trying to cater to and I want to be sensitive to that and I want to create an experience for them that makes it so they want to come back.' One development that could be a season away would certainly please fans who have groused about too many empty seats in the lower level being shown on television. Cruz said he wanted to flip the lower-level stands and team benches to the seating configuration that existed before the Pauley Pavilion renovations, allowing the students who pack their section to be showcased on broadcasts. 'That section is always full of students,' Cruz said. 'We could be playing Idaho State and it's full with students all the time, so the rest of the country needs to see that.' Why not just move the TV cameras? Cruz said it would cost $6 million to transfer all the wiring and fiber optics built into the current platforms that were specially built for the cameras. Men's basketball coach Mick Cronin and Cori Close, his women's basketball counterpart, have agreed to the potential move, Cruz said, as have the fans he's canvassed about switching seats. In the meantime, UCLA is partnering with a global sports and entertainment company to improve the in-game experience for fans, including new ways to keep the energy flowing during timeouts while the Bruins are in the midst of a big run instead of relying on scoreboard ads and awkward silences. Cruz said he's converting some of his department's marketing staff into fan experience specialists to improve fan retention. 'How do we create an experience where it's like, man, that was fun, I want to come back?' Cruz said. 'That leads to more revenue and it also leads to a larger pathway for our alumni and students to make them want to come back. How do we create that cycle of, yeah, they care, they want us here, and I want to come back?' If winning is the greatest promotion in sports, Cruz is trying to show that listening may not be far behind.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Production Assistants, Seeing Work Dwindle, View a Union as Their Future
On a scale of 'highly valued' to 'thankless,' the roles that production assistants play on film and television sets can swing towards the latter. Delivering lunch, escorting cast members, managing background actors, maintaining radio equipment — it's all in production assistants' repertoires, with the general expectation being that, as entry-level workers in a cutthroat creative industry, they are eager to please as they work lengthy hours for around minimum wage. But one group believes longstanding norms around these roles can and should change. For a bit less than a year, Production Assistants United has been taking steps to unionize these workers nationwide with the backing of Burbank-based LiUNA Local 724, which represents electricians, plumbers and carpenters on Hollywood productions. Organizers are aiming to increase wages, enshrine turnaround times and provide access to union health benefits — in other words, to give these workers some of the same benefits as their union colleagues on set. More from The Hollywood Reporter Writers Guild West Staff Union Voluntarily Recognized Cinematographers Guild Elects John Lindley Its National President SAG-AFTRA Launches Influencer Committee Amid Further Push Into Creator Economy It's a bold move at a time when U.S. production is lagging and set jobs are harder to come by than they were during the Peak TV boom times. Union organizing always involves a level of risk, which early-career workers might be less eager to undertake when times are tough. That hasn't deterred Production Assistants United and LiUNA Local 724, which are pushing ahead and making a bid for further visibility with a rally on Sunday at IATSE Local 80's Burbank headquarters. Clio Byrne-Gudding, one of the group's L.A.-based organizers, says they want Sunday's event to send the message that 'this isn't just an ambitious and kind of underdog movement, but is actually legitimate. It's real.' Echoes Alex Aguilar, LiUNA Local 724's business manager, 'We're here and we're not going away.' Still, the effort faces an upward climb. Starting as a grassroots group spurred to action by the 2023 writers' and actors strikes, the next year Production Assistants United set out publicly to unionize all types of production assistants, assistants and production secretaries for narrative film and television across the U.S., a group they currently estimate numbers more than 10,000 people. Their bid to represent this sprawling group only got more difficult once it became clear over the course of 2024 and into 2025 that production wasn't going to be roaring back in the U.S. post-strikes. According to the latest report from L.A.'s film office, production days on location decreased more than 22 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared with an already meek period in 2024. 'This is definitely the biggest challenge I've ever faced,' admits Aguilar, who says that effort has received backing from Local 724's Washington, D.C.-based umbrella union, which has devoted financial, organizational, training and education resources. 'But I'm up for it. And I think so is our organizing committee.' So far organizers have broken up their undertaking by region, with an early focus on the film hubs of Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Atlanta, including their surrounding areas, as well as Texas. They debuted union authorization cards — which labor groups use to demonstrate the level of support they enjoy within a particular workforce — in February. The group plans to target studios in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers individually once they decide they have majority support amongst that company's production assistants. That's been a moving target. Production assistants' top issues, in this particular political climate, have shifted from higher pay to having reliable work, says L.A.-based organizer Nalani Rodgers. The state of the business has also complicated matters. Sometimes when organizers make cold calls to production assistants, their effort is received like a service organization, says Byrne-Gudding. 'They're like, 'Oh, it's so great what you guys are doing,' when in fact the only way that this is going to happen is if they take action,' they say. 'Which is kind of a difficult thing to communicate to someone because times are so hopeless right now.' During this period of industry pessimism, the group has placed an emphasis on emboldening production assistants and teaching them more about labor organizing. As they're calling workers and visiting them on sets prior to call times, they're trying to instill the idea of 'these productions cannot be run without you,' says L.A.-based organizer Ethan Ravens. The group also made fiery speeches at Sen. Bernie Sanders' and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour stop in Los Angeles on April 12, portraying production assistants as essential but downtrodden workers for some of the U.S.' biggest corporate players, including Apple and Amazon. 'We're organizing not just to fix one job but to transform the entire industry for future generations of workers,' Ravens said in his speech. Sunday's rally will likely tap into some of the same themes — of channeling the leverage that production assistants have on sets and building a brighter future for Hollywood workers — while also demonstrating that the movement has the support of other Hollywood labor organizations. So far, Teamsters Local 399 leader Lindsay Dougherty, Writers Guild of America West board member Adam Conover and SAG-AFTRA secretary-treasurer Joely Fisher have been announced as speakers. Will production assistants embrace the call to start making moves at such a challenging moment? The answer will become clearer over the next few months, with attendance at Sunday's event in L.A., and at satellite events in Chicago and New York City, serving as a key bellwether. Says Aguilar, 'It's never the perfect time to organize. You just have to organize.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Los Angeles Times
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
What Ryan Coogler's ‘Sinners' success does and doesn't mean for Hollywood
Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' represents many things that moviegoers and people who work in the entertainment industry say they want more often. It's an original film with a big movie star and a singular director who was able to wrangle lots of money and freedom from one of the industry's biggest studios. Most importantly, it's a hit. The $90-million horror film starring Michael B. Jordan grossed $48 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada ($63.5 million, including international box office) during its opening weekend, exceeding expectations and unseating 'A Minecraft Movie' from the top of the charts. The back-to-back success of 'Minecraft' and 'Sinners' has given Warner Bros. studio chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy some breathing room as they try to lead the storied Burbank-based studio through a daunting recovery period following flops including 'Mickey 17' and 'Joker: Folie à Deux.' It's a bright spot for an industry that has been struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, even as Broadway and concerts bounce back. 'Sinners' has stellar reviews, an 'A' CinemaScore (the first for a horror movie) and viral momentum online, so it should have a long and healthy run. And yet some film business insiders have been acting less than enthused, driving people including Ben Stiller to critique trade coverage that described the results as anything less than a resounding achievement. A widely shared Vulture article from last week highlighted the unusual nature of Coogler's pact for the film. In the midst of a bidding war between multiple studios, Coogler's reps demanded a significant budget, final cut and a percentage of the theatrical box-office gross (as opposed to having to wait for the studio to break even). Those are favorable terms for a filmmaker these days. But the most interesting element, previously reported by Puck, was that the rights to the picture are set to revert to Coogler after 25 years. Senior executives at rival studios, speaking anonymously to Vulture, sounded the alarm that this will catch on, with one saying it set a 'very dangerous' precedent that 'could be the end of the studio system.' That's a bit hyperbolic. These types of deal terms are not necessarily unheard of, but they are quite rare. For 'Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood,' Quentin Tarantino got Sony Pictures' Tom Rothman to agree to a deal that would send the copyright back after 30 years, a model inherited from the 'Pulp Fiction' director's Miramax and Weinstein Co. days. But two examples hardly make a trend. Even if asking for rights reversion becomes more prevalent, that perk would likely be reserved for the most exceptional filmmakers. Coogler has a track record of commercial and critical success, parlaying his 2013 Sundance Film Festival breakout 'Fruitvale Station' into the heavyweight class of franchise directors with 'Creed' and 'Black Panther.' Selling tickets while keeping your artistic identity is a rare feat, and Warner Bros. naturally wants to be in business with Coogler, not to mention his frequent collaborator Jordan. If the studio is willing to overpay, there's good reason to. It's clearly a testament to the value of talent such as Coogler and Tarantino (a two-time Oscar winner). Coogler himself told Indiewire that he wouldn't necessarily demand to take back the rights on future titles, but that for a movie like 'Sinners,' about Black men starting their own business in a sharecropping community, it made sense. (Warner Bros. retains first and last right of negotiation to distribute 'Sinners' after the 25-year mark, according to a studio source.) Further, giving up the rights to a film after 25 years might not be as much of a sacrifice as it seems, according to insiders who spoke to The Times. Yes, film libraries have value and drive steady revenue. They're often a major factor in the valuations of acquisitions including Amazon's purchase of MGM Studios and Skydance's takeover of Paramount. That's not nothing. But the added financial value of a movie is usually marginal after a quarter-century has passed. In a streaming era that's largely about attracting and retaining subscribers, a few older movies are unlikely to move the needle. If you open up Netflix, for example, how many of the featured film titles are more than 25 years old? There are plenty of older series that streamers covet, but shows such as 'Seinfeld' and 'Friends' have hundreds of episodes that keep viewers coming back. One producer who spoke anonymously estimated that movies tend to monetize most of their value within five to 10 years. Nonetheless, Coogler's deal may be the latest sign of a broader change in media and entertainment. Former studio executive Doug Shapiro argued in a social media post that, as technology disrupts the industry's 'intermediaries' such as studios, record labels and publishers, more bargaining power is shifting toward top talent. The practice of allowing rights to go back to top-tier artists after a certain amount of time is already well established in the music industry, and has spread beyond just the biggest acts, said Bill Hochberg, a veteran music and media lawyer at Raines Feldman Littrell LLP in Los Angeles. But don't expect it to become the norm anytime soon for movies, where there's more at stake financially. 'Rights reversion has become common in the music industry for recording artists, who often have leverage to get their rights back after a few years, and so it's not surprising to see this trending for A-list film talent,' Hochberg said. 'It shows how the music biz is sometimes a step ahead of the film biz. But I think it will be some time before the film industry adopts rights reversions as broadly as the music business has.' For Warner Bros., neither 'Sinners' nor 'Minecraft' solve all of the company's problems, but they each help the studio regain its footing after a rough few months. Warner Bros. said it was the first time since 2009 that two movies from the same studio grossed more than $40 million on the same weekend (using numbers not adjusted for inflation). The biggest test for the Warner Bros. regime will come with July's release of 'Superman,' written and directed by DC Studios co-head James Gunn. The company also has to worry about Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming Leonardo DiCaprio film 'One Battle After Another,' which carries a reported $130 million production budget before marketing costs. But if franchise-type films like 'Minecraft,' 'Superman' and 'The Batman' keep working, it gives De Luca and Abdy the ability to take more chances on filmmaker-driven projects. You know, the types of films everyone complains that Hollywood doesn't make anymore. This TV series about Jesus is making millions — at the box office. 'The Chosen,' a TV series about the life of Jesus Christ, has attracted Christians and non-churchgoers alike. Now in its fifth season, it has made a splash debuting on theatrical screens. Netflix posts strong earnings despite economic headwinds. Some analysts believe Netflix will weather any pullback in the advertising market caused by global trade disputes. Disney's parks are its economic engine. Tariffs could put a damper on it. Already facing a new rival theme park in Orlando, Fla., Disney must now contend with a more difficult economic environment that could dampen attendance. CBS wins a temporary reprieve in 'Wheel of Fortune,' 'Jeopardy' fight with Sony. A judge previously ruled that Sony Pictures Television could take over distribution of the lucrative game shows. Will Trump's tariffs crash TV's spring ad-selling party? The timing of an economic downturn could lead to companies cutting their ad budgets. On-location production was up 7% from a year ago last week, but still down significantly from 2023. I didn't go to Coachella this year, but I am bingeing our coverage, including these photos.
