DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

[bryaalre]

I am as pessimistic as it gets on box office 'The Marvels' did $6.6m in previews so... yeah. This one seems to be well rec'd so hoping for a win on the balance sheet.

Compared to War, it looks to be seeing a large decline in Asia, maybe a small decline in Europe, so it needs to do well here and so far so good. Would love to see it end over $150M domestically.

 

[RivShore]

'The Marvels' did $6.6m in previews so... yeah

Well, that's depressing................................................

 

[RivShore]

On the competitor front - Sony, which I also own, hit an 18 month low today. They had held up very well being an arms dealer, while the streamers fought the war and got beat up, but now they a sliding too. Mostly due to the bid for Paramount I would assume....just another example of industry issues.

 

[wabbott]

https://deadline.com/2024/05/box-office-kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-1235911118/

‘Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes’ Orbits $52M-$55M Opening – Friday PM Box Office Update
By Anthony D'Alessandro - Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
May 10, 2024 - 2:51pm PDT

FRIDAY AFTERNOON: Knock on wood, but this summer release looks to be meeting its tracking projections. Wes Ball’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes from 20th Century Studios, the first Apes release under the Disney empire, is looking at $21M-$22M today (which includes previews) for a what is looking like a $52M-$55M opening at 4,075 theaters. Tracking saw it around $50M.

Also, the opening is in the vicinity of the first and third chapter of the previous millennium trilogy: 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($19.5M Friday, $54.8M 3-day) and 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes ($22.1M Friday, $56.2M 3-day). RT Audience sentiment is still at 82%.

The rest of the top five is as follows:
2.) Fall Guy (Uni) 4,008 theaters, Fri $3.6M, 3-day $14.5M, -48%, Total $50.5M/Wk 2
3.) Challengers (AMZ) 2,609 theaters, Fri $1.55M, 3-day $5M, -34%, Total $38.3M/Wk 3
4.) Tarot (Sony) 3,104 theaters, Fri $1M, 3-day $3.4M, -48%, Total $12M/Wk 2
5.) Godzilla x Kong (WB/Leg) 2,531 theaters, Fri $700K, 3-day $3M, -34%, Total $192.3M/Wk 7

UPDATED, AFTER EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Studios’ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes filed $6.6M in previews per Disney. As we told you, $1.6M of that comes from Wednesday night fan screenings, hence Thursday’s $5M ties with the preview cash of the franchise’s previous chapter, War for the Planet of the Apes.

That preview number is above Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire ($4.7M) which saw a $45M 3-day opening, and it’s under the $7.2M posted by Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which turned in a $60.4M domestic start.
The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is playing in 4,075 theaters on all premium screens including 40 Imax, 950 PLFs, 300 Dbox/4D Motion screens and 90 Screen X locations.
Rest of the week is as follows:

1. Fall Guy (Uni) 4,002 theaters, Thu $1.5M (-8% from Wed), Total $36M/Wk 1
2. Challengers (AMZ MGM) 3,477 theaters, Thu $897K (-5%), Wk $11.5M, Total $33.3M/Wk 2
3. Star Wars – Phantom Menace (Dis) 2,700 theaters, Thu $347K (-19%), Wk $10.5M/Total $484.9M lifetime/Wk 1 re-release
4. Tarot (Sony) 3,104 theaters, Thu $466K (+7%), Wk $8.5M/Wk 1
5. Godzilla x Kong (Leg/WB) 2,884 theatres, Thu $233K (-14%), Wk $5.7M, Total $189.3M/Wk 6

EXCLUSIVE: Sources tell us that 20th Century Studios’ Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is off to a good start with previews around $6.5M. That’s comprised of Thursday night money which began accruing at 3PM and around $1.6M from Wednesday fan shows that began at 7PM.

We’ll know tomorrow AM if it’s the best Thursday night ever for an Apes movie besting 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes which did $5M on its preview night before a $22.1M Friday and $56.2M opening. This Wes Ball directed PG-13 sequel takes place 300 years after the events of Matt Reeves’ War for the Planet of the Apes.

Already, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes‘ Thursday has bested that of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ which did $4.25M before minting a $27.6M Friday and massive 3-day of $72.6M, still a record domestic debut for the Apes‘ franchise.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ is 82% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics and 82% with RT audiences.

Tonight’s results are a bit of fresh air next to the $3.15M Wednesday and Thursday previews of Universal’s Fall Guy last weekend which fizzled with a $27.7M opening. While fans always populate Thursday night shows, hopefully Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes at a 2 hours and 25 minutes running time can hold it together throughout the weekend.
Hands down tonight, it’s the best preview cash for a Ball movie, beating all of his Maze Runner titles.

 

[HokieRaven5]

Tracking about the same as War for the Planet of the Apes after Friday. $22.2M reported so far.

https://deadline.com/2024/05/box-office-kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-1235911118/

If it matches War (2017) it still winds up being about 1M less tickets sold for the opening weekend for Kingdom vs how the movie going business was prior to Covid.

 

[clarker99]

Tracking about the same as War for the Planet of the Apes after Friday. $22.2M reported so far.

https://deadline.com/2024/05/box-office-kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-1235911118/

If it matches War (2017) it still winds up being about 1M less tickets sold for the opening weekend for Kingdom vs how the movie going business was prior to Covid.

1m less tickets. No worries.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.latimes.com/entertainme...ional-amusements-sony-ellison-skydance-apollo

Behind Shari Redstone's failed comeback story for Paramount - Los Angeles Times
5/11/2024
by Meg James

It was supposed to be a blockbuster Hollywood comeback: Shari Redstone, who had long struggled to prove herself, was determined to orchestrate a dramatic turnaround of her family’s lagging entertainment company, Paramount Global.

“We are on the ascent ... reaching for new heights,” Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder and non-executive chairperson, confidently told investors in February 2022 during a virtual event from a soundstage in Queens, N.Y.

Rather than leading Paramount to reclaim its place among industry titans, Redstone’s tenure atop the company has been marred by miscalculations and setbacks. She’s trying to sell the company known for its fabled film studio, the venerable CBS broadcast network, TV stations and cable channels.

But Redstone’s willingness to hand Paramount to tech scion David Ellison in a complicated two-phase transaction has infuriated investors, caused months of tensions in the boardroom and contributed to the ouster of Chief Executive Bob Bakish, according to knowledgeable people who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Now the sale could be derailed.

“In 41 years of being in business, I’ve never seen a scenario quite like this,” said John W. Rogers Jr., founder and chairman of Ariel Investments, one of Paramount’s largest shareholders, in an interview.

How did Redstone and Paramount get into such a jam?

“It’s just been one terrible decision after another,” said corporate governance expert Nell Minow.

Years of under-investment, mismanagement, a titanic shift in audience behavior, a shotgun marriage of Viacom and CBS five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic and a costly push into streaming have diminished the standing of the once-formidable Hollywood player, according to interviews with media industry executives, company insiders and financial experts.

Paramount’s stock has plunged 60% since Redstone’s upbeat assessment in early 2022. (Shares closed at $13.05 on Friday, virtually unchanged.) Shareholders have bolted, including legendary investor Warren Buffett, who this month acknowledged that buying Paramount stock (63 million shares) was a mistake, saying: “We lost quite a bit of money.”

Four Paramount board members are exiting next month. And with Bakish out, three top creative executives are running Paramount in an awkward “Office of the CEO” power-sharing arrangement that is likely a stop-gap until the company is sold.

Adding to the uncertainty: the 30-day exclusive negotiating period with Ellison’s Skydance Media and its partners, Redbird Capital Partners and KKR, expired earlier this month without a deal, despite a last-minute sweetener.

Now, Paramount’s independent board members are considering a $26-billion offer — nearly half of that in cash — from rival suitors Apollo Global Management and Sony Pictures Entertainment, which would take the majority stake of the proposed venture.

The Sony-Apollo bid also is controversial. It would face regulatory hurdles, including foreign ownership rules that likely prevent Sony from owning CBS and its stations, that could drag out the process for months. Should the bid succeed, analysts anticipate the company would then be carved up.

The film studio probably would be absorbed by Sony’s Culver City operations, rolling the ending credits for the Melrose Avenue fortress famous for such iconic films as “The Godfather,” “Terms of Endearment” and “Top Gun.” Massive layoffs surely would follow. And cable TV channels such as Nickelodeon and MTV could be jettisoned.

That deal also could crumble; Sony and Apollo want to study Paramount’s financial picture before going forward.

Redstone, who declined to comment for this story, is said to be open to other combinations that would drive shareholder value.

But she has wanted Paramount to remain a stand-alone enterprise and is fighting to preserve the legacy of her family and her late father, Sumner Redstone.

It might be too late. Despite enormous sway through her family’s ownership of 77% of Paramount’s voting shares, Redstone’s hand has been weakened by events, most of which were beyond her control.

The road to the sale was paved by years of Redstone family dysfunction and an increasingly challenging landscape for traditional media companies.

Paramount, like Viacom before it, has long relied on its hugely profitable cable channels filled with inexpensive fare. Think “The Osbournes,” “Jersey Shore,” and “Tosh.0.” A decade ago, its cable channels operated with profit margins around 40%, but the shift to streaming has decimated that business, according to a knowledgeable executive not authorized to comment.

Most young adults no longer watch MTV or Comedy Central. They click on Netflix, which has transformed the business, helped in part by Viacom. A decade ago, Viacom executives eagerly licensed their shows, including Nickelodeon cartoons, which helped the streamer get established with consumers — and eventually devour their own business.

As the industry shifted, Viacom’s former chief prioritized stock buybacks instead of investing in content, longtime executives said.

Complicating matters, Sumner Redstone’s health was in a precipitous decline, and he was tussling with his daughter.

Shari Redstone was convinced that Viacom was being mismanaged. But her attempts to gain a bigger role in her father’s life or at Viacom were repeatedly rebuffed by the mercurial mogul, his live-in girlfriends and even Viacom’s top brass.

In 2014, Sumner Redstone offered his daughter $1 billion for her then-20% stake in the family’s Massachusetts-based holding company, National Amusements Inc., which holds the voting stock in the public entertainment company. But the deal hinged on her relinquishing her right to succeed him as chairman of Viacom and CBS Corp., which were then separate companies. She refused.

“Your grandfather said that I’ll be chair over his dead body,” Shari Redstone fumed in a July 2015 email to her youngest son.

The episode echoed a skirmish in 2007, when the elder Redstone faxed a letter to Forbes magazine to publicly vent his frustrations with his daughter and her ambitions: “While my daughter talks of good governance, she apparently ignores the cardinal rule of good governance that the boards of the two public companies, Viacom and CBS, should select my successor.”

He ended the letter with a humiliating barb, saying that while he gave stock to his daughter and son, “It is I, with little or no contribution on their part, who built these great media companies with the help of the boards.”


Despite the barbs, Shari Redstone worked in lockstep with her father during the 2008 financial crisis, when his investments soured, nearly imperiling National Amusements. And she came to his rescue in late 2015 after he expelled his girlfriends from his Beverly Park mansion.

Sumner Redstone’s life was in tatters; then 93, he was losing mental capacity. In court documents in 2016, he acknowledged that he had lavished homes and gifts on two female companions worth more than $150 million.

The situation was so dire that the billionaire had to borrow $100 million from National Amusements to cover tax obligations for the gifts.

He died in August 2020. In recent court filings, Shari Redstone and another co-executor of the tycoon’s trust said they were prepared to settle his personal estate, which consisted of $2.9 million in cash, his coin collection, cemetery plots near Boston and 305 shares of Hanover Insurance Group common stock.

The family’s wealth has long been tied to its Paramount shares. And huge federal tax obligations are looming.

Ownership of the Paramount shares was transferred to Shari Redstone upon her father’s death, creating tax liabilities that exceed $200 million, knowledgeable people have said. Modest payments must be made each year until the bill reportedly comes due in 2034, according to one person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Another incentive to sell Paramount: The family’s debt-laden National Amusements has been strapped for cash. National Amusements runs a regional chain in the Northeast of movie multiplexes, an expansion of the business started by Sumner Redstone’s father, Mickey, in the 1930s. Like other theater owners, it has been walloped by COVID-19 pandemic closures and a slow-to-recover studio release schedule.

Last year’s strikes by Hollywood writers and actors exacerbated delays in movie releases.

Paramount, the smallest of the major media companies, posted a $417-million loss in the first quarter and has $14 billion in debt. It also faces an upcoming deadline to renegotiate a pivotal TV channels distribution deal with Charter Communications.

Last May, Paramount slashed dividend payments to shareholders in an effort to improve cash flow and attract new investors, but the move backfired, causing the stock to crater.

The dividend cut devastated National Amusements. Under pressure to meet its debt obligations, NAI last May accepted a $125-million equity investment from Chicago banker Byron Trott of BDT Capital Partners, an affiliate of his merchant bank, BDT & MSD Partners, which works with high-net-worth families. Trott has been advising Redstone on the sale.

Some shareholders privately grumble that Redstone is selling Paramount at a low because of NAI’s financial woes. However, others argue that it’s time to exit because the business is under such strain.

Beyond industrywide challenges, Paramount’s troubles have been deepened by leadership problems, with Bakish drawing particular scrutiny, insiders say.

Bakish was Shari Redstone’s choice to run Viacom in 2016, after a calamitous period marked by lawsuits and a purge of top managers and board members aligned with her father.

The 20-year Viacom veteran had been running its international TV business, selling its programming, including “SpongeBob SquarePants,” overseas. Redstone touted Bakish’s people skills and his business acumen.

Then, Redstone’s goal was to quickly merge Viacom with CBS, but she faced resistance from CBS’ then-chief Leslie Moonves, who felt the merger would be a disaster that saddled the stronger CBS with Viacom’s weaker assets. It wasn’t until a year after Moonves departed amid resurfaced allegations of sexual misconduct that Redstone achieved her goal of uniting the two halves of her father’s empire.

Three months later, the pandemic hit.

Viewers’ migration to streaming accelerated, prompting Paramount and other media companies to double down on building their own streaming platforms. Former Paramount executives questioned the logic, noting that Viacom’s TV arsenal was largely made up of inexpensive reality fare, kids shows and topical programming such as Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” — not the type of prestige dramas that cost $15 million an episode.

Paramount had a surprise hit in Taylor Sheridan’s western drama “Yellowstone” for cable’s Paramount Network, so it spent wildly to churn out pricy prequels in the Sheridan universe. And “Yellowstone” streams on NBCUniversal’s Peacock.

Paramount has lost more than $3 billion on its push into streaming since early 2022, filings show.

Last year, Comcast Corp. executives had conversations with Bakish about joining forces in streaming, three people close to the situation said. They discussed uniting their two streaming services, Peacock and Paramount+, to better compete against Disney+ and Netflix. But Comcast wanted controlling interest and the talks stalled.

Shari Redstone was focused on Ellison, excited by his vision and the prospect of a younger mogul taking over.

Redstone, 70, also has told friends and colleagues she wants to devote more time to personal causes, including fighting antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas militants on Israel.

But Paramount’s shareholders were furious.

“The Ellison deal feels like this ham-fisted merger,” said shareholder Tim Johnston of Pasadena. “Ellison would take control of National Amusements from Shari, and she gets paid this whopping premium and gets to walk off into the sunset.”

The rub for many shareholders, including Johnston, was the deal’s second phase. The plan was for Paramount to issue new shares to absorb Ellison’s Skydance, a small company valued at $5 billion, into Paramount. That would have diluted the stakes of other investors.

“It felt like they were in such a rush to do the deal with Skydance that it was like a panic situation,” said Rogers, the Ariel Investments chairman. “And it came at a time when the business was finally starting to recover.”

Investors, including Rogers, have been disappointed with Paramount’s management over the past year. Standard & Poor’s downgraded Paramount’s credit to “junk” status in March. Opportunities to sell key assets, including the BET cable channel and the premium Showtime cable network came and went without a deal, weakening Bakish’s position.

His willingness to entertain offers other than Skydance’s was the final straw, knowledgeable people said.

“But the independent committee of trustees is doing what’s right for all shareholders and living up to their fiduciary responsibility in a conscientious way,” Rogers said. “I’m optimistic. I think logic and common sense will prevail.”

The Sony-Apollo deal could gain momentum before the company’s annual shareholders meeting in early June. Redstone also could wind down her family’s holdings by selling a big stake, or all of National Amusements.

“What Shari should do is take her money and go start something new herself. She should not keep trying to re-create the deal she thought she should have gotten from her father,” Minow, the governance expert, said. “She’s still trying to prove herself to her dad.”

 

[wabbott]

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/...d-business-it-hasnt-9fa2d855?mod=hp_lead_pos5

Streaming Was Supposed to Rescue the Ailing TV Ad Business. It Hasn’t.
Brands turn to retailers, Google, Meta and TikTok for additional reach

By Suzanne Vranica
May 12, 2024 - 5:30 am EDT

When Mondelez sought to promote a limited edition of its Oreo cookie earlier this year, it did something that would have been unthinkable not that long ago: It didn’t spend a dime advertising on TV.

The snack company had a simple reason for that decision. The people it was looking to reach—Gen Z members, multicultural audiences and households with children—aren’t watching enough television.

“You have no single shows pulling together a big enough audience like ‘Friends’ or ‘Seinfeld’ used to do,” Jonathan Halvorson, Mondelez’s global senior vice president of consumer experience, said of the current state of TV. And streamers such as Netflix aren’t a perfect alternative: Their nascent advertising platforms charge too much and don’t yet reach enough people, he said.

The maker of Ritz crackers and Sour Patch Kids candy is spending about 15% of its U.S. ad budget on TV this year, down from 42% three years ago. Halvorson said an additional 9% is going to streaming, meaning that more than three-quarters of its ad spending will go elsewhere.

To promote its new Oreo Space Dunk, Mondelez turned to social-media sites such as Instagram and TikTok, Halvorson said. It also relied heavily on ads that appear where people already are in a shopping mood: the websites of large retailers, including Amazon and Walmart.

The move marks an important inflection point. TV commercials have long stood as the cornerstone of modern advertising. This dominance was owed, in part, to TV’s capacity to reach vast and diverse audiences through ads that leverage sound, sight and motion to evoke emotional responses.

These vast audiences aren’t tuning in anymore.

“There is no longer that single lever you can pull,” said Vinny Rinaldi, Hershey’s U.S. head of media and analytics, referring to the role that television once played in advertising. The chocolate giant said the share of advertising dollars it spends on TV fell to about 30% from roughly 80% in five years.

Brands have been preparing for the inevitable decline of television for years, but many had held out hope that the rise of ad-supported streaming TV would plug the gap. So far, that isn’t happening.

“A lot of people think streaming might be a salvation,” said ad analyst Brian Wieser. “But no, all of TV is in secular decline.” Excluding political advertising, marketers are expected to spend over $60 billion, combined on traditional and digital television in the U.S. this year, down from more than $64 billion five years earlier, according to Madison and Wall, Wieser’s firm.

Despite the sharp drop in TV ad spending, Mondelez and Hershey remain far-bigger believers in TV advertising than the industry as a whole. The share of their ad budgets that the candy makers will spend on TV and streaming this year trumps the 17% that all marketers are expected to spend in the U.S. this year, according to GroupM data.

Today, companies “have to build reach across multiple platforms,” said Rinaldi, who cited YouTube and Meta—the parent of Facebook and Instagram—as the next best ways to reach large audiences.

The scale of television’s reach remains a major selling point for entertainment titans as they present their programming plans for the coming TV season to advertisers—a process known as the “upfronts,” which begins in earnest on Monday in New York City.

Network owners will host star-studded presentations that tout their new TV shows and streaming offerings, while Billie Eilish is expected to star in YouTube’s pitch to brands. Netflix will let advertisers participate in an interactive experience at New York’s Chelsea Piers, and upfront newcomer Amazon.com will entertain brands at Pier 36.

One of the few things that still brings large numbers of viewers in front of their TV is live sports, which accounted for 96 of the 100 most-watched broadcasts last year, according to Nielsen.

That, in turn, has made advertising during live sporting events more expensive. And a larger amount of sports content is being watched on streaming platforms instead of TV every year, as tech giants such as Amazon and Apple nab exclusive rights to more games. Traditional TV conglomerates are preparing to launch a joint streaming platform dedicated nearly entirely to sports.

“It is now clear that outside of sports advertising, there should no longer be expectations of a recovery for linear TV advertising,” analyst Michael Nathanson wrote in a recent note to investors.

Brewer Molson Coors said it went from spending about half of its TV advertising money on sports programming five years ago to roughly 80% this year, even if these ads are more expensive.

“Sports seems to be holding its own, and audience ratings in some cases are going up,” said Brad Feinberg, Molson’s North America vice president of media and consumer engagement.

The brewer said it spent about 40% of its U.S. ad budget on traditional TV in 2023, compared with 50% five years ago and about 85% in 2013. Although streaming services such as Paramount+, Peacock, Netflix and Hulu have picked up some of these TV-ad dollars, Molson Coors shifted a larger portion of that money to digital channels such as Instagram and Snap, Feinberg said.

The streaming landscape remains “too fragmented,” Feinberg said. Another problem: Streaming audiences won’t tolerate as many ads as they do on traditional television.

Seemingly every major streaming service launched an ads-supported tier over the past year and a half, vastly expanding the inventory of commercials that can run on these platforms. But many of them have promised to limit the commercial interruptions on their services. Wieser estimated that commercials take up about four minutes per hour on some premium streaming platforms, compared with about 14 minutes for some TV networks.

“No matter how much streaming grows, it can never make up for the lost linear ad inventory so long as ad loads remain light and consumers exhibit preferences for ad-free options,” Wieser said.

In the U.S., only 7.5 million Netflix subscribers—or 10% of its U.S. customer base—paid for the ad-supported version of the platform in the first quarter, according to a joint analysis by Antenna and Wieser. The streaming platform with the biggest advertising reach currently is Amazon’s Prime Video, which recently defaulted its entire user base to the ad-supported version.

Many brands have also been turned off by the high ad prices that many of the premium streaming services charge. Streaming ads often are three times as expensive and up to twice as expensive as ads running during entertainment programming on cable and broadcast TV, respectively, according to ad buyers and advertisers. The streaming prices are declining amid growing competition between ad-supported services, they said.

Complicating matters further for marketers: Some streaming platforms measure viewership and ad performance differently. What’s more, advertisers often can’t find out where their commercials ran, a risky proposition for brands that typically want to stay away from content they deem unsuitable.

Digital players including YouTube, Meta and TikTok and retail juggernauts such as Amazon and Walmart have emerged as the main beneficiaries of streamers’ failure to grab all the ad dollars that left traditional TV.

Fast-food giant Taco Bell has been shifting more of its TV-ad dollars toward social-media advertising, predominantly TikTok, because users on the platform engage with ads and content online.

The one-way communication of TV, where brands talk to consumers about something, doesn’t work as well anymore, said Taco Bell Chief Marketing Officer Taylor Montgomery.

Taco Bell wants its ads to generate a two-way dialogue, with consumers going to social media to post and comment on videos about products they like or join in on the discussion.

Mondelez’s Halvorson said the company will spend roughly 20% of its U.S. ad budget this year on “retail media,” a category that includes the ad platforms of retailers. Their growing popularity is fueled by the troves of data that retailers have about their customers’ shopping habits and their ability to easily measure when an ad has led to a sale.

Ad spending in the U.S. retail media sector is expected to overtake traditional TV ad spending next year, according to GroupM.

Microsoft significantly pulled back from traditional TV advertising last year, partly because the tech giant was seeking to save money to fund its expansion into generative artificial intelligence and decided to lean more heavily on digital ads that offer better ad measurement, according to people familiar with the matter. Microsoft declined to comment.

Halvorson said the decline in TV ad spending would happen even faster if longtime advertisers weren’t getting significant discounts for their TV ads, the result of grandfathered agreements reached decades ago that give them an incentive to keep buying TV commercials.

If Mondelez was forced to buy ad time in the U.S. at current pricing levels, Halvorson said: “We’d be out.”

Write to Suzanne Vranica at Suzanne.Vranica@wsj.com

 

[HokieRaven5]

Around $130M estimates globally for Kingdom, $56.5M domestically

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-box-office/

 

[wabbott]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/m...lanet-the-apes-box-office-opening-1235896572/

Box Office: ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Climbs Higher to $58.5M U.S. Opening, $131.2M Globally

The second event pic of summer 2024 came in ahead of expectations — along with scoring the second-best domestic debut of the series — as 'The Fall Guy' continued to struggle.

by Pamela McClintock
May 13, 2024 - 7:35am PDT

Wes Ball‘s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes brought some much-needed heat to the early summer box office with a domestic debut of $58.5 million and $72.7 million overseas for a global start of $131.2 million. That’s ahead of Sunday’s estimates of $56.5 million in North America to make the movie the third-best opening of the year to date domestically, as well as the second-best launch of the series.

The 20th Century and Disney event pic came in ahead of expectations domestically after Universal’s The Fall Guy — the first film of summer 2024 at the box office — left nerves frayed across Hollywood after opening to a disappointing $27.7 million over the May 3-5 frame. Tracking had suggested the action comedy, starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, would at least start off in the $32 million to $35 million range, which was already a subdued number.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes‘ performance is being fueled by a strong turnout by both younger and older males, as well as an ethnically diverse audience. One surprise: It received a B CinemaScore from audiences despite plenty of glowing reviews by critics. Studio insiders aren’t overly concerned about the CinemaScore, noting that 85 percent of moviegoers gave it an A or a B. This suggests that a vocal minority dragged down the overall score by giving it a C or lower. And exit polling by PostTrak shows both general audiences and kids and parents giving the fourquel four out of five stars. Good word-of-mouth helps to explain why Sunday traffic was so much stronger than expected.

The pic is the fourth title in the rebooted series that began with the James Franco and Andy Serkis starrer Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 and cost a net $160 million to make before marketing, which is notably less than the cost of the last two titles.

Overseas, where the series has always been a big draw, Kingdom took in a solid $72.7 million overall. It did big business across Latin America but struggled in some European countries (sunny skies kept moviegoers in the U.K. outside). And China was a mixed blessing. While coming in No. 1 with $11.4 million, the movie’s potential was impacted by competition from a trio of local titles. Excluding China, Ball’s movie boasts the second-highest opening of the series behind the 2017 threequel.

Franchise fatigue is always a concern, but Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was able to come in ahead of the $56.3 million domestic opening of the last installment, 2017’s War of the Planet of the Apes, no small feat, not adjusted for inflation. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, released in 2014, opened to a franchise-record $72.6 million. In 2014, Rise debuted to $54.3 million domestically.

Kingdom did huge business in Imax and other premium formats, which collectively accounted for 41 percent of the opening gross.

Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand and William H. Macy lead the latest installment. Set 300 years after the events in 2017’s War of the Planet of the Apes, Ball’s movie follows a group of young apes who question the authoritarian rule of the ape who has taken the place of Caesar. Along their journey, the apes bond with a young human.

The Fall Guy placed second domestically with an estimated $13.7 after tumbling 51 percent for a 10-day total of $49.7 million. Universal had hoped for a decline of 50 percent or less (as with Apes, those numbers could shift when Monday actuals are released).

More women did turn out to see Fall Guy in its sophomore outing and made up 53 percent of Friday’s audience in a win for Universal’s post-release marketing push focusing on the film’s rom-com action storyline. However, hopes are ebbing that the movie will grow its audience to the needed levels.

Overseas, The Fall Guy earned $9.4 million from 80 markets for a tepid foreign tally of $54 million and $103.7 million globally.

Zendaya-starrer Challengers, from Amazon MGM Studios, is holding at No. 3 in its third weekend. It’s dipped a narrow 38 percent to an estimated $4.7 million for a domestic total of $38.4 million through Sunday. It also continues to serve up solid numbers at the foreign box office, where it grossed $4.2 million from 63 markets for a cume of $30.6 million and $68.7 million globally. Warner Bros. International is handling the movie offshore per its ongoing deal with MGM.

Screen Gems and Sony’s Tarot placed No. 4 with an estimated second-weekend gross of $3.4 million for a tepid 10-day domestic tally of $12 million after falling 47 percent. Its global total stands at $20.2 million against a net reported budget of $8 million before marketing after earning another $3 million overseas for a foreign total of $8.2 million.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire rounded out the top five all the way in its seventh frame with $2.6 million, enough to push it past the $190 million mark domestically for Legendary and Warner Bros. Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 also cleared the $190 mark as both hope to reach the $200 million milestone.

The weekend’s other new nationwide offering, Not Another Church Movie, wasn’t even able to crack the top 10. The movie, from Briarcliff, opened to a mere $335,000 from 1,108 theaters. That’s among the worst starts ever for a movie going out in more than 1,000 cinemas.

The summer box office brings the release of John Krasinski’s IF next weekend. The Paramount family film, starring Ryan Reynolds, opened early in France and Belgium this weekend, grossing a promising $3.6 million.

Alcon and Sony’s Memorial Day event pic The Garfield Movie is also opening early offshore, albeit on a much larger scale. It grossed $11.8 million from 22 markets this weekend for an early foreign total of $36 million. Alcon produced and funded the family film.

 

[wabbott]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sony-pictures-nearly-doubles-income-072205094.html

Sony Pictures Nearly Doubles Income in Q4 to $196 Million Driven by More Theatrical Releases
by Alexei Barrionuevo
Tue, May 14, 2024, 2:22 AM CDT

Sony Pictures Entertainment, a division of Sony Group, reported a near doubling of profit in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2023, on sales that increased 13.5% to $2.6 billion in dollar terms.

Here is a snapshot:
Operating Income: $196 million in Q4, up 98% from $99 million in the prior-year period.
Sales: $2.6 billion in Q4, up 13.5% from $2.29 billion

FY 2023 Sales: $9.46 billion, about flat from $9.54 billion in FY 2022 due in part to a weakening yen

The company said that Sony Pictures’ fiscal year 2023 sales, on a Japanese yen basis, grew 9% due to more theatrical releases and the impact of foreign exchange rates. The result was offset in part by a decline in the number of TV program deliveries.

Operating income for 2023, on a yen basis, was essentially flat compared to fiscal year 2022, Sony said, due to an increase in marketing costs from releasing more films, which was offset somewhat by the increase in the number of sales.

The Hollywood strikes had a negative impact on profitability totaling an estimated 18 billion yen ($115 million) caused by changes in film release schedules and delays in the delivery of TV programs. “We believe the negative impact of the strikes on profitability will peak in FY2024.”

For the full fiscal year 2024 the company said it had incorporated 34 billion yen ($217 million) of strike impact into its forecast.

Sony noted plans to release tentpole films in 2024 including the “Bad Boys” sequel, “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and “Kraven the Hunter.”
Sony and Apollo Global Management have made a joint bid of $26 billion to acquire Paramount Global. The Paramount board of directors ended exclusive talks with Skydance Media for the production company founded by CEO David Ellison to acquire Paramount.

The board’s special committee, charged with exploring strategic alternatives for Paramount, has since opened talks with Sony and Apollo about their offer.

In after-hours trading shares of Sony Group were essentially flat.

The post Sony Pictures Nearly Doubles Income in Q4 to $196 Million Driven by More Theatrical Releases appeared first on TheWrap.