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Business Mayor
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Mayor
‘Mission Impossible' and ‘Lilo & Stitch' lift hopes for summer box office
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Media myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Movie fans flocked to see Disney's Lilo and Stitch and the eighth instalment of Paramount's Mission: Impossible franchise, giving Hollywood hope for a return to box office growth after years of disappointment. Cinemas in North America raked in more than $260mn through Sunday, setting a record for Memorial Day bank holiday, considered the start of the US summer movie season. The performance marked a 20 per cent improvement from last year's dismal showing, one of the worst Memorial Day weekends ever. The strong weekend results come ahead of what many expect will be a strong slate for the summer and the rest of the year. This summer has a number of anticipated films, including F1 , starring Brad Pitt and produced by Apple, in June, followed by Warner Bros' Superman and Disney's Fantastic Four in July. 'This isn't a one-hit wonder of summer movie seasons,' said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at Comscore. 'The slate is there this year.' Already, the North American box office is up 21 per cent from a year ago, thanks to A Minecraft Movie , Captain America: Brave New World and the breakout hit Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler. This is a significant shift from the trend in recent years, when a patchy release schedule owing to Covid-19 disruptions and the 2023 Hollywood strikes left cinemas with a dearth of new films for weeks at a time. There is a healthy supply of non-franchise films scheduled for the summer season, including Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme, released on Friday and Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing in August. Recommended Two other sequels, Wicked Two and the third instalment of James Cameron's Avatar , will be released at the end of the year. Lilo & Stitch took in $145.5mn over three days and is expected to hit $183mn for the holiday weekend, making it the best performing movie of the weekend. The movie, about a lonely Hawaiian girl and an alien, also opened in first place worldwide, taking in $341mn, Comscore estimates. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, starring Tom Cruise, broke a record for the nearly 30-year-old franchise, earning $63mn through Sunday and an estimated $77mn for the holiday weekend. The US box office is likely to return to growth this year after shrinking in 2024, analysts at Bank of America said in a recent research report. Studios are becoming more cost-conscious, with marketing campaigns shrinking from six to nine months to three months, while poorly performing films are being moved to streaming services more quickly. 'This is a dream scenario after a tumultuous few years' for cinemas, Dergarabedian said.
Business Mayor
18-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Efune launches fresh Telegraph bid with Brexiter businessman Hosking
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Media myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. New York Sun owner Dovid Efune is launching a fresh effort to buy the Telegraph with backing from multimillionaire Brexit backer Jeremy Hosking and former UK chancellor Nadhim Zahawi in what has been dubbed a 'British bid' for the newspaper. UK-born Efune was in exclusive talks to acquire the newspaper from Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI until December, and has since remained in discussions with bankers on the deal despite the lack of guaranteed funding. Efune's attempts to secure money for his bid from US funds failed, leaving RedBird boss Gerry Cardinale to try to take full control by buying out IMI. But Efune has now secured financial backing from Hosking, a British investment executive, according to two people familiar with the matter. Hosking donated heavily to the Reclaim and Conservative parties in the past, as well as to Vote Leave before the 2016 Brexit referendum. Zahawi, who was involved in RedBird IMI's move to take control of the Telegraph last year, has also backed Efune's bid, adding rightwing political support. Aryeh Bourkoff at LionTree, who is advising Efune, has spent time in the UAE in the past talking to IMI, the Abu Dhabi investment group that controls the Telegraph alongside US-based Redbird, according to people close to the situation. A person with knowledge of Efune's latest offer described it as the 'British bid' as 'the vast bulk of the funding comes from Brits and Efune himself is obviously British'. They added: 'Jeremy Hosking is a major backer, as is Nadhim Zahawi.' Efune will travel to London next week for meetings about the deal, they said. Hosking has already met senior Telegraph management, according to a separate person with knowledge of the situation. On Saturday, a person familiar with Efune's plans told the Financial Times that he 'has been working quietly over the past months and has now secured commitments from a group of backers amounting to a significant bulk of the equity capital required'. Hosking told the FT: 'I fully support the Efune bid as they are appropriate owners of this British asset, and have already offered financial backing. If it succeeds I am confident I will be significantly involved.' Zahawi declined to comment. RedBird IMI did not respond to requests for comment. Many in the industry had assumed that Cardinale has the advantage in the battle for control of the Telegraph. He has also held talks with other UK-based investors and media groups, including Lord Rothermere's group that owns Telegraph rival the Daily Mail. The dealmaking saga began two years ago when Lloyds Banking Group seized control of the Telegraph after the Barclay family, which had owned it since 2004, left the bank with unpaid debts. RedBird IMI took control of the media group for about £550mn but its bid to convert this into full ownership was blocked by the then-Conservative government owing to concerns about a foreign state-backed fund owning an influential newspaper. The UK government this week confirmed plans to increase the cap on foreign state ownership of British national newspapers to 15 per cent, meaning that IMI could in future retain a small stake in a Cardinale-led group.
Business Mayor
10-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Elton John and Dua Lipa urge Starmer to back UK artists in AI copyright row
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Media myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Sir Paul McCartney, Richard Curtis and Dua Lipa are among the 400 top musicians, artists and media executives who have written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer seeking support to protect copyright from being ripped off by artificial intelligence tools. The letter calls on Starmer to next week back an amendment to a bill introduced by Baroness Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer, that would give transparency and protection over whether artists' work is being used to train AI models. Kidron's amendment would make tech giants tell copyright owners which individual works — from music and books to films and newspapers — they have used to train their AI models. This would allow companies and artists 'to hold AI firms accountable for the mass theft of creative works that continues to take place', the letter says. The letter also has support from Coldplay, Sir Elton John, Russell T Davies, Antony Gormley and top executives from news groups such as the Telegraph and The Times. The Financial Times has also signed the letter. Baroness Beeban Kidron says the UK creative industries 'must not be sacrificed to the interests of a handful of US tech companies' ©The amendment to the Data (Use and Access) Bill was this week defeated in the House of Commons, but will be voted on again in the House of Lords on Monday. The government has made its own amendments that would guarantee an economic impact assessment of different options, while ministers are retreating from a previously 'preferred' position that would have meant that creative industries would need to opt out from their work being scraped by AI. Read More Welcome to slop world Officials insist all options are on the table following the end of a consultation into various proposals earlier this year. However, executives are still concerned that tech groups will ultimately be allowed to override copyright rules unless the government provides legislative backing guaranteeing transparency and protection. The letter warns that if artists are forced to give away their work, the UK 'will lose an immense growth opportunity . . . and with it our future income, the UK's position as a creative powerhouse, and any hope that the technology of daily life will embody the values and laws of the UK'. The use of the data bill is the latest attempt by the creative industries to protect their copyright from being used by AI groups without attribution or payment. Kidron said the UK creative industries 'must not be sacrificed to the interests of a handful of US tech companies'. She added: 'The UK is in a unique position to take its place a global player in the international AI supply chain, but to grasp that opportunity requires the transparency provided for in my amendments, which are essential to create a vibrant licensing market.' Lord Kevin Brennan of Canton, former MP and Labour Peer, said: 'We cannot let mass copyright theft inflict damage on our economy for years to come.' The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
