Imax Q1 Revenue Drops 9%, Earnings Beat Wall Street Estimates on Lift From ‘Dune 2’

Meghan Markle's former Suits co-star Wendell Pierce dished out some stern advice to the Duchess before she tied the knot with Prince Harry. The Duchess of Sussex was best known for her role as Rachel Zane, and Wendelle starred as her on-screen father Robert Zane.The actor shared his heartfelt words during her last day on set. "It was the last night of working and I said, 'Meghan, your life is going to change, and you're going to be in a bubble,'" he recounted.

EXCLUSIVE: Emily The Criminal, the 2022 crime thriller starring Aubrey Plaza, is the latest movie set to be turned into a television series.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Internet-TV provider Fubo dropped all Warner Bros. Discovery networks from its lineup, alleging that the media company was seeking “above-market rates” and refused to license Turner Sports networks separately. In a statement Tuesday, Fubo said it attempted to renew its Discovery content agreement with WBD for networks including Discovery, HGTV, Food Network and TLC.

Amazon beat Wall Street forecasts for profit and revenue in the first quarter as advertising continued to grow at a healthy clip.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon raked in $11.82 billion in ad revenue for the first quarter of 2024, topping analyst expectations, fueled by the ecommerce giant’s move to serve advertising by default in Prime Video in multiple markets. Advertising sales for the quarter were up 24% year over year and marked a new Q1 record. The revenue beat Wall Street expectations for the quarter of $11.7 billion, according to StreetAccount.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The recent broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII boosted Paramount Global‘s first quarter of 2024, stabilizing advertising revenue at its TV operations, as the company’s streaming operations added more than 3 million subscribers and cut losses there by more than 40%. Overall, Paramount narrowed its first quarter operating losses while seeing a 6% uptick in revenue, due in large part to audience and advertiser interest in its Big Game presentation, which set a new viewing record.

George Cheeks, Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy, the Paramount Global executives chosen to occupy the Office of the CEO as a replacement for the departing Bob Bakish, sought to reassure Wall Street on Monday that they have a plan.

SM Cinema, the largest exhibitor in the Philippines, and IMAX have pacted for a significant expansion to their longstanding partnership with 10 IMAX with Laser systems in the market. The deal more than doubles IMAX’s footprint in the market and will bring the IMAX experience to three new locations, as well as seven IMAX with Laser upgrades to existing systems across the SM Cinema network. 

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, had a pay package worth just over $20.2 million in 2023, while Roku’s media boss, Charlie Collier, received $6.8 million in salary. Wood’s compensation last year included salary of $1.2 million, stock awards worth $7.57 million and stock option awards ​valued at $11.43 million.

Top movie theater circuit AMC Entertainment offered investors a preview of its first-quarter financial results late Friday, with key metrics coming in ahead of Wall Street expectations.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, had a compensation package worth $35.47 million in 2023, as he saw his pay rise 11% from the year prior. Roberts, who oversees the cable giant and NBCUniversal, last year had a salary of $2.5 million, stock awards worth $15 million, stock options worth $9.2 million and a $8.55 million cash incentive bonus. In 2022, his compensation totaled about $32.1 million.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube keeps eating up more share of the advertising pie: The Google-owned video giant posted $8.1 billion in ad sales for the first quarter of 2024, its highest Q1 total to date. The figure for YouTube ad sales, up 21% year over year, was announced as part of parent company Alphabet’s Q1 earnings. Wall Street analysts expected YouTube’s ad revenue for Q1 to come in at $7.72 billion, according to StreetAccount.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Roku reported its first-quarter 2024 earnings Thursday, revealing the company reached 81.6 million active accounts, an increase of 1.6 million from the previous quarter, and streaming hours rose to 30.8 billion, up from 29.1 million in Q4 2023. Wall Street forecast a loss per share of 61 cents on $848.62 million in revenue, according to analyst consensus data provided by LSEG, formerly Refinitiv. Roku reported adjusted loss per share of 35 cents on $882 million in revenue (+19% year over year).

Comcast reported first quarter results that outpaced Wall Street expectations, with Peacock reaching 34 million subscribers but posting higher programming costs.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ari Emanuel, in his capacity as CEO of TKO Group Holdings — the parent company of UFC and WWE — had a compensation package last year that hit nearly $65 million. TKO granted Emanuel, who also is CEO of Endeavor, a base salary of $911,538, plus a $24 million cash bonus and stock awards worth $40 million in 2023, per a regulatory filing by TKO. All told, the exec’s pay package totaled $64.91 million.

EXCLUSIVE: Horror film Stream, from the producers of the breakout Terrifier franchise, has secured an August 21 U.S., Canada and Mexico theatrical release via Iconic Events Releasing.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok says it’s going to block accounts from appearing in its algorithmically generated For You feed if they repeatedly post content that runs afoul of its updated eligibility standards. As part of a larger update to its community guidelines, TikTok is updating its For You eligibility standards.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Wall Street is betting that Netflix‘s stream machine continued to fire on all cylinders coming into 2024. After netting a whopping 13.1 million new subs in Q4, Netflix is riding a wave of momentum that continues to be buoyed by the paid-sharing strategy, as it converts password borrowers into paying members, according to analysts.

Peter Phillips has called it quits with his girlfriend.

Michaela Zee A new “Heroes” reboot series is in development from creator Tim Kring, Variety has confirmed. The reboot, titled “Heroes: Eclipsed,” is set years after the events of the original 2006 superhero series, as new evolved humans are discovering their powers.