Disney Mulls Selling Indian TV & Streaming Business — WSJ

Brittney Griner is sitting out the Phoenix Mercury’s game against the Indiana Fever on Tuesday, August 1.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Disney opened “Haunted Mansion” in the heat of summer and months removed from the spookiest time of year. Whether the release date is connected, ticket sales were veering on scary as the comedic thriller debuted in third place to a lackluster $24 million. Competition was heightened as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” remained unexpectedly strong in their sophomore outings, collecting a combined $140 million over the weekend.

A shopkeeper is set to become a millionaire thanks to a loophole after selling a lucky $1billion Powerball ticket. Raul Nabor Herrera changed the life of one of his customers when he sold the historic winning slip on Wednesday.

We knew Warner Bros’ Barbie and Universal’s Oppenheimer were going to be big, but not this big.

Mandy Moore might be a household name, but that doesn’t mean she’s making a ton of money when fans stream her past work.

With poor box office numbers so far for Pixar‘s “Elemental” and James Mangold‘s “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,” Disney sees itself in the middle of its worst theatrical slump in a long time. And it arguably started back in March with “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania,” which made less than $500 million worldwide and suffered the steepest second-week drop at the domestic box office of any Marvel film.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Disney CEO Bob Iger is citing the studio’s output increase for Disney+ as one reason for “some disappointments” as of late. Speaking to CNBC’s David Faber at the Sun Valley Conference, Iger admitted the studio screwed with audience expectation by offering up so much streaming content. The negative impact of that has been commercial disappointments in theaters, be it “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” not even getting past the $500 million worldwide or disappointing openings for summer tentpoles “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” “There have been some disappointments we would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better,” Iger said. “It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been.”

Naman Ramachandran Disney releases “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” were locked in a near dead heat at the U.K. and Ireland box office, with the animated elements edging out the veteran archaeologist. “Elemental” debuted with £3.049 million ($3.876 million), according to numbers from Comscore. In its second weekend, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” whipped up £3.046 million ($3.873 million) for a close second and now has a total of £13.1 million. If looking at weekend numbers alone, Harrison Ford’s last adventure as the man in the hat won the race as the “Elemental” numbers include “limited secret sneak previews from across the market,” according to Disney.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, has passed £2 billion ($2.7 billion) in sales and nudged up profits to £240 million, but an advertising downturn is hitting its channels and streaming business. The corporation unveiled its annual report for 2022/2023 on Tuesday amid an ongoing presenter scandal that’s kept the BBC in national headlines since July 6. A planned virtual briefing with top brass was largely taken up by questions about the BBC’s handling of a complaint against one of its presenters, who remains unnamed due to privacy concerns. While BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell was meant to brief select press about the annual report, this was canceled due to the wider scandal, which saw director general Tim Davie take the brunt of questions from journalists.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Jo Ling Kent is jumping to CBS News after spending the last several years with rival NBC News. Kent will join CBS News as its senior business and technology correspondent, and will start reporting for all CBS News programs and venues later this summer. She is expected to cover everything from global economics to personal finance and consumer trends to the Federal Reserve and the World Bank. “Jo Ling has reported on artificial intelligence’s impact on our lives, viral disinformation, social media privacy issues, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global supply chain,” saidNeeraj Khemlani, co-president of CBS News and Stations, in a prepared statement. “She’s also led investigations into the conditions of workers at Amazon’s warehouses and Facebook’s impact on the 2016 elections. We look forward to having her on our team.”

Zorro Days” in the park, where actors from the popular Disney-produced “Zorro” television series (Guy Williams, Gene Sheldon, and Henry Calvin) would greet guests and perform in wild west stunt shows. At the time the memo was sent, the movie was scheduled to hit theaters in 2010. A vast and varied array of options were presented, ranging in ambition and complexity.

No matter Harrison Ford’s age, he’s still outrunning boulders and cracking his whip.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director A July 2000 clip from “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” has gone viral on social media for featuring the eponymous late night host making a joke to Harrison Ford about the actor playing Indiana Jones when he’s 80 years old. That panned out to be somewhat true in the recently-released “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which opened in theaters just a few weeks before Ford turns 81 years old. “People will never get tired of that genre,” O’Brien told Ford at the time. “When you’re 80 you could just do ones where they bring the treasures to you.” Ford burst into laughter, with O’Brien adding that an “Indiana Jones” movie starring an 80-year-old Harrison Ford could be titled, “Indiana Jones and the Comfortable Bed.”

Tom Cruise has no intention of slowing down.

Disney has been the Teflon movie studio, remarkably adept at withstanding the tectonic changes impacting the film industry, and well fortified by its arsenal of key properties such as Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar. But this year, the long-reigning titan of the box office has shown cracks as four of its biggest releases from those brands and others have struggled in theaters. There was the dispiriting release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” a rare Marvel movie to likely lose tens of millions in its theatrical run; “The Little Mermaid,” a remake of the 1989 classic that fell drastically short of expectations; “Elemental,” an original story that tried and failed to recapture Pixar’s magic; and most recently “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” a nearly $300 million investment in one of cinemas’ most venerable franchises, which no longer appears to have the same hold on today’s audiences. On paper, these films seemed like they had all of the makings of huge hits, but somehow the Disney sparkle was lacking this time, in terms of filling movie theater seats.

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” made a disappointing debut at the box office.

J. Kim Murphy “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is staying in line with some tempered box office expectations, still tracking to fall in line with estimates that had pegged the film with an opening between $80 million and $85 million through the Fourth of July holiday. The Harrison Ford finale earned $11.8 million on Monday, pushing its domestic total to $71 million. Unlike some other holidays, Independence Day isn’t exactly the largest box office booster — with families hitting the beach, barbecuing red meat and waiting for fireworks, filmgoing isn’t exactly at the top of the agenda for most Americans. Rather, it’s the time off around the Fourth that can offer some extra lift to studio tentpoles.

Refresh for chart…On the bright side for Independence Day bomb Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, its first five days at the box office of $82M aren’t as bad as Paramount/Skydance’s Terminator Genisys.

Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny has been described as “horrifying” by fans online.The IJ Adventure Outpost account on Twitter, which is an unofficial blog on the latest news about the action-adventure movie franchise, shared photos purporting to show the mask worn by stunt performers while filming the latest instalment.While many agreed that the mask is realistic, others pointed out how “creepy” it is – some even likening it to “the new Michael Myers” due to its skin folds.“That’s horrifying,” wrote one Twitter user beneath IJ Adventure Outpost’s photos. “Definitely looks like something from Dawn of the Dead…,” said another.This is my sleep paralysis demon— Mr.

Naman Ramachandran Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office with £7.1 million ($9 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The release marked the fifth biggest opening weekend for a film in 2023 in the territory, including previews, with a market share of 43%. In its fifth weekend, Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” racked up a further £1.5 million in second place, taking its total to £25.9 million. Universal’s “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” debuted in third position with £885,056. In its sixth weekend, Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” earned £837,859 in fourth place for a total of £25 million.