Archives for July 2021

Disney, citing the ongoing coronavirus threat, ultimately decided to release several major movies simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access. It used the strategy in May for “Cruella,” which starred Emma Stone and took in $221 million worldwide. (Disney has kept Disney+ revenue for “Cruella” a secret.) On Friday, Disney will give the same treatment to “The Jungle Cruise,” a comedic adventure that stars Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson. It is not known if Ms. Stone, Ms. Blunt or Mr. Johnson renegotiated their contracts with Disney as a result.

In December, WarnerMedia kicked a hornet’s nest by abruptly announcing that more than a dozen Warner Bros. movies — the studio’s entire 2021 slate — would each arrive in theaters and on HBO Max. The decision prompted an outcry from major stars and their agents over the potential loss of box office-related compensation, forcing Warner Bros. to make new deals. It ultimately paid roughly $200 million to thwart the rebellion.

The deeper question is this: If old-line studios are no longer trying to maximize the box office for each film but instead shifting to a hybrid model where success is judged partly by ticket sales and partly by the number of streaming subscriptions sold, what does that mean for how stars are paid — and where they make their movies?

The traditional model, the one that studios have used for decades to make high-profile film deals, involves paying small fees upfront and then sharing a portion of the revenue from ticket sales. The bigger the hit, the bigger the “back end” paydays for certain actors, directors and producers.

The streaming giants have done it differently. They pay more upfront — usually much, much more — in lieu of any back-end payments, which gives them complete control over future revenue. It means that people get paid as if their projects are hits before they are released (or even made).

Ms. Johansson’s suit also took direct aim at Bob Chapek, Disney’s chief executive, and Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chairman, by citing the stock grants given to them as rewards for building Disney+, which has more than 100 million subscribers worldwide. “Disney’s financial disclosures make clear that the very Disney executives who orchestrated this strategy will personally benefit from their and Disney’s misconduct,” the complaint said.

According to the suit, Ms. Johansson’s representatives approached Disney and Marvel in recent months with a request to renegotiate her contract. “Disney and Marvel largely ignored Ms. Johansson,” the suit said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/business/media/scarlett-johansson-black-widow-disney-lawsuit.html

Other co-workers suggested she “hook up” with them, she said, and regularly commented on her appearance over the years. Ms. Welch, 52, also said she had been repeatedly passed over for promotions in favor of less qualified men.

She did not report the incidents, she said, partly because she did not want to admit to herself that her gender was a “professional liability” and she loved her work. But by 2016, she said, her doctor had persuaded her to leave because the stress was hurting her health.

Until the lawsuit came out, Ms. Welch said, she thought her experience was unique at the company. “To hear that it’s at this scale is just profoundly disappointing,” she said.

Addressing the former employees’ accusations, Activision said that “such conduct is abhorrent” and that it would investigate the claims. The company said it had distanced itself from its past and improved its culture in recent years.

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which protects people from unlawful discrimination, said it did not comment on open investigations. But its lawsuit against Activision, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also spared little detail. Many of the misconduct accusations focused on a division called Blizzard, which the company merged with through a deal with Vivendi Games in 2008.

The lawsuit accused Activision of being a “a breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women.” Employees engaged in “cube crawls” in which they got drunk and acted inappropriately toward women at work cubicles, the lawsuit said.

In one case, a female employee died by suicide during a business trip because of the sexual relationship she had been having with her male supervisor, the lawsuit said. Before her death, male colleagues had shared an explicit photo of the woman, according to the lawsuit.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/technology/activision-walkout-metoo-call-of-duty.html

“Sometimes I think about the list of things that the newspaper covered,” Mr. Rauck said. “Not necessarily in a story, but that it checked off — sharing local sports news, seeing little Janie’s name in the paper, pictures of local things.”

He added, “We didn’t have Nextdoor or Facebook.”

Even before Alden became its owner, The Blade-News endured significant cutbacks.

The austerity measures — which included moving its journalists to the office of The Capital Gazette, its sibling publication in Annapolis — were put into place as more readers chose to get their news online. That shift meant the industry could no longer rely on its traditional source of cash, print advertising.

Over the last 15 years, more than one quarter of newspapers, mostly weeklies like The Blade-News, have gone out of business, according to a University of North Carolina study. Alden and other hedge funds have bought struggling papers, seeing them as undervalued assets that can be made profitable after further cutbacks.

Donovan Conaway, the primary reporter at The Blade-News and the writer of the article on the Bowie police officer accused of theft, said in an interview that he would continue to report on Bowie whenever there was “a major crime, a big event.” His work will appear on the Capital Gazette site.

Three years ago, another Blade-News reporter, John McNamara, who worked out of The Capital Gazette’s office, was one of the five people killed in the shooting there. On July 15, Jarrod W. Ramos, a disgruntled reader who had pleaded guilty, was found to have been sane and therefore criminally responsible for the attack.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/business/media/alden-tribune-newspapers.html

The growth of audio originals marks a shift in how authors and publishers view the form, which was once regarded as an appendage to print, rather than its own medium. But as audio sales have continued to grow year after year, publishing companies have found themselves scrambling to meet demand.

“Audio listeners are so voracious, they listen to so much, we have to keep supplying content for them,” said Lance Fitzgerald, vice president of content and business development at Penguin Random House Audio.

Publishers have also started to test the market for stand-alone audio. Penguin Random House, which Crown is an imprint of, has around a dozen original audiobooks in development. The company’s recent audio-only works include “All Rise,” Nick Offerman’s comedy special; “Getting Started With Sourdough,” by Chad Robertson and Jennifer Latham of Tartine Bakery; stories set in the Star Wars universe; and a project with Steven Rinella, the host of the Netflix series “MeatEater.”

Another major publisher, Hachette, has produced several successful audio originals, including works by the singer and songwriter Billie Eilish and the leadership coach Roger Flax. Macmillan has been experimenting with its own podcasts and is developing an audio original with the indie pop duo Tegan and Sara.

But the audio-only approach poses challenges, and most authors and publishers are proceeding cautiously. Without a print counterpart that’s displayed in stores, it can be hard to get such titles in front of consumers, unless the author has a large and loyal following.

“There is an advantage when there are multiple versions out at once. You’re going to get more people talking about it and evangelizing,” said Mary Beth Roche, the president and publisher of Macmillan Audio. “In general, we feel like unless there’s something uniquely aural about the experience, if it deserves to be in audio, it deserves to be in print.”

For Larson, the audio format offered a way for him to break into new territory. He said he’s open to releasing “No One Goes Alone” as a book, though there are currently no plans for a print edition.

“Right now, it is what it is,” he said. “I’m very pleased to call it a day with an audio original.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/29/books/erik-larson-audiobook-no-one-goes-alone.html