Ryan Faughnder

1 month ago | latimes.com | Ryan Faughnder

The first quarter of 2025 has been bleak for the movie theater business. The year that many analysts thought would be the one when the film business got back on track has been a bust so far, with few hits and plenty of flops. As of Sunday, movies have generated $1.34 billion in the U.S. and Canada this year, down 7% from the same period in 2024, according to Comscore. March has been particularly weak. The month is expected to end down 50% year over year.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Ryan Faughnder

When Paramount+ launched in 2021, there were plenty of reasons to believe the service with the self-proclaimed “mountain of entertainment” would end up relegated to the bunny slopes. The company was late to the direct-to-consumer game and had suffered from chronic underinvestment. Its legacy media brands, including MTV and Comedy Central, had lost their edge.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Ryan Faughnder

The longtime head of one of Hollywood’s most prominent talent agencies is passing the baton. Jeremy Zimmer, 66, is stepping aside as chief executive of Beverly Hills-based United Talent Agency and will be replaced by UTA veteran David Kramer, who is being promoted from president. The transition has been long in the works, with Kramer, 56, as Zimmer’s chosen successor for years.

1 month ago | latimes.com | Ryan Faughnder

It only took five years for Hollywood to back track on its big diversity push after the racial reckoning that followed George Floyd’s murder by police in Minneapolis. In the weeks since President Trump retook office, entertainment and media companies, like much of corporate America, have quickly moved to water down and dismantle efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion — or DEI — both internally and in the content they produce.

1 month ago | hastingstribune.com | Ryan Faughnder

LOS ANGELES - Sean Baker, the now four-time Oscar-winning filmmaker behind best picture champion "Anora," made the most of the moment when he accepted the trophy for directing. Speaking to his Hollywood peers from the movie business' biggest stage, he gave an impassioned testimony for the importance of the theatrical moviegoing experience, which, as he rightly pointed out, is "under threat" in the age of streaming.