Top News:
Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Moana 2 took $221M in the US during the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, including $135.3M from Friday to Sunday, breaking all the Box Office records — The Walt Disney Animation sequel sailed into history with a Thanksgiving haul of $221 million, the biggest five-day opening of all time, among numerous other milestones.
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CNBC, Wall Street Journal, MediaPost, Benzinga, The Wrap, Daily Mail, Deadline, Just Jared, Business Insider, SlashFilm, Forbes, Media Play News and Los Angeles Times
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Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
How Disney's Moana, which wasn't a big hit at its 2016 launch, became a top streaming movie in every year from 2020 to 2024, per Nielsen, with 1B+ hours watched — We've now watched ‘Moana’ for more than 1 billion hours. How did it become the No. 1 movie in streaming history?
John Jurgensen / Wall Street Journal:
Paramount co-CEO Chris McCarthy aims to revitalize Showtime by using successful formulas like Yellowstone from Paramount+ and investing in high-profile projects — Before a new owner takes over, the TV brand once known for ‘Billions’ and ‘Homeland’ is working to come up with new marquee hits
Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
How YouTuber Ms. Rachel, whose baby-focused educational videos get 100M views, has attracted huge interest from toy companies and publishers before the holidays — About a year and a half ago, Laura Henderson, a toy company executive and 38-year-old mother in Toronto, was at the tail end of maternity leave with her second child.
Discussion:
@dru.bsky.social
Columbia Journalism Review:
A Tow Center analysis finds ChatGPT was partially or entirely incorrect in 153 out of 200 quote citations whether or not publishers allowed OpenAI's crawler — ChatGPT search — which is positioned as a competitor to search engines like Google and Bing — launched with a press release …
Discussion:
MediaPost, @christinkallama …, @glynmoody@mastodon.social, TechCrunch and Business Insider
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Documents: in 2023, LeBron James' Springhill lost $28M on $104M in sales; the production company aims to be profitable in 2024, after its merger with Fulwell 73 — Film and TV businesses started by celebrities have raised lots of money. What's missing are profits — I changed my mind about the newsletter.
Discussion:
@howielongshort, @lucas_shaw and @ddiamond
New York Times:
Trump says he plans to nominate Kash Patel as FBI director; Patel vowed last year to “come after” journalists who “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections” — President-elect Donald J. Trump turned to a firebrand loyalist to become director of the bureau …
Discussion:
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Feven Merid / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with journalism professor Stephen G. Bloom on working in Brazil as a young reporter, the history of expat English-language papers in the country, and more — A conversation with the author of The Brazil Chronicles — In 1979, at the age of twenty-eight, Stephen G. Bloom set …
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
NBC says the 2024 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade drew a record 31.3M viewers, up 10% YoY, on NBC and Peacock; streaming hours on Peacock grew 26% YoY — The holiday also brings big audiences for NFL games and NBC's National Dog Show telecast. … NBC says 31.3 million viewers watched …
Discussion:
The Ankler, TV Insider, @jbflint, @brianstelter, Media Play News, Daily Mail, The Desk, The Wrap, Will Coss on LinkedIn, Variety, TVLine and Deadline
Josh Taylor / The Guardian:
Meta says it will require advertisers globally to get verified before running financial service ads targeting Australian users, starting in early February 2025 — Exclusive: Businesses to require financial services license number to post Facebook ads, while individuals will need government-issued ID
Discussion:
Reuters, Mediaweek and The Canberra Times, more at Techmeme »
Melanie Goodfellow / Deadline:
France says global streamers invested €974.6M in French film and TV shows from 2021 to 2023, after the country introduced investment obligations in 2021 — France has published its most comprehensive study to date detailing the impact of investment obligations introduced …
Scott Jennings / @scottjenningsky:
Conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings says he is joining the LA Times editorial board, as owner Patrick Soon-Shiong works to add “balance” to the board — It's true - I've accepted @DrPatSoonShiong invitation to join the editorial board of the @latimes. I've written columns for the paper over the last few years and was honored to do so under such a storied and important masthead. I love newspapers and believe in strong journalism
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