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Roku will stream 'John Wick 4,' 'Borderlands' and other Lionsgate films for free
Roku has signed a multiyear deal with Lionsgate Films that will allow it to stream upcoming blockbusters like 'John Wick 4' and 'Borderlands' for free.
Netflix is acquiring the rights to Roald Dahl's books
Netflix is acquiring the Roald Dahl Story Company (RDSC) and rights to the author's entire catalog.
Amazon nabs worldwide rights for 'Coming to America' sequel
Amazon just secured the worldwide rights to Paramount Pictures’ Coming 2 America — the sequel to the popular 1988 comedy film starring Eddie Murphy.
Netflix is testing a linear-style TV channel in France
The beauty of Netflix is that you can watch anything anytime you want, but what if you don’t feel like making a decision? That’s the idea behind Direct, a new linear-style channel that Netflix is testing in France.
Films won’t have to screen in theaters to qualify for this year's Golden Globes
With movie theaters closing amid the coronavirus pandemic, studios are sending theatrical releases to streaming or skipping theater reveals altogether. That's forcing the entire industry to adapt, and today, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced that it will temporarily consider films for the Golden Globe Awards even if they don't first screen in a theater.
Movies Anywhere will let you share purchases with friends
Chances are you're already sharing streaming recommendations with friends who are staying at home to socially distance themselves. Now, Movies Anywhere wants to make it a little easier to share actual movies. The service, which syncs up your purchased films across platforms like iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play and Vudu, is launching a new feature called Screen Pass that will let you temporarily share your purchased movies with friends and family, The Verge reports.
Netflix and Nickelodeon team up to take on Disney+
Nickelodeon and Netflix just announced a multi-year deal to produce original animated content based on the Nickelodeon library and new characters. The details are still vague, but the companies have previously worked together to bring us Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus and Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling and promised a "reimagined," live-action Avatar series.
A 'Hocus Pocus' sequel is in the works for Disney+
Variety reports Disney is developing a sequel to its 1993 comedy Hocus Pocus for its upcoming Disney+ streaming service. The original starred Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy as a trio of sisters that were captured and executed in 1693 for practicing witchcraft in Salem, Massachusettes. The sisters come back 300 years later when they're brought back to life by a family that moves from the east coast city to California. At the moment, there's no word on whether the three stars will reprise their roles, though Variety notes Workaholics writer Jen D'Angelo will pen the sequel's script.
Disney is tweeting everything that's coming to Disney+
The Disney+ launch is less than a month away, and the streaming service is busy drumming up nostalgia in an attempt to hook users. Today, it started a massive tweet thread sharing "basically everything" coming to Disney+ on November 12th.
Apple will reportedly release movies in theaters before streaming them
Apple intends to play nice with Hollywood and cinema chains by releasing films in theaters before streaming them on its Apple TV+ service, according to the WSJ. By doing so, it would be taking a different tack from Netflix, which normally requires theater chains to release movies at the same time it's streaming them. That attitude has put off some producers and directors, including Steven Spielberg, who said that Netflix shouldn't get a crack at Oscars since its films get minimal theater runs.
Rotten Tomatoes will verify ticket buyers for audience ratings
Rotten Tomatoes has revealed its latest effort at fending off trolls who send user ratings on a movie plummeting before anyone has even seen it. A new-look Audience Score includes ratings from those who can prove they bought tickets for a film. These verified ratings will be the default Audience Score on a movie's page, though you can toggle to a score that includes non-verified ticket buyers by clicking a "more info" option.
MoviePass Films signs Bruce Willis for three-movie deal
Despite the ongoing financial troubles plaguing the company and fraud investigations abound, the production arm of MoviePass has signed up Bruce Willis for a three-film run, according to Deadline. The first film of the agreement is called Trauma Center and will start shooting February 2019 in Miami.
Sinemia brings back debit cards following complaints over fees
As MoviePass began to flounder amid mounting money woes, changing its model every few weeks and introducing new restrictions like surge pricing and limits on what films customers could see on any given day, rival Sinemia began to turn some heads. It offered a number of different plans, as opposed to MoviePass' one, and while it cost a little bit more, the company claimed its model supported stability, something that MoviePass customers no longer had. It even began to offer an unlimited plan just after MoviePass disbanded its own. But over the past few months Sinemia customers have begun to complain about the service's fees, discontent that even led to a lawsuit. Now, Sinemia is making some changes that will give users the option of purchasing tickets without fees.
Giphy’s film festival turns GIFs into art
As I made my way into the Metrograph movie theater in New York City, I felt like I was attending a screening for the Tribeca Film Festival. There was a red carpet, people posing for professional photographers, an official film guide and, of course, drinks and popcorn. This isn't quite what I expected when I learned I'd be attending Giphy's first Film Fest. If that name sounds like an oxymoron, the event was a showcase of 118 videos of 18 seconds or less from five different categories: narrative, animated, stop-motion, experimental and wild card. Considering that most of my GIF consumption happens on a laptop or phone, I wasn't expecting this big a to-do.
The latest Spike Lee Joint is all about Uber drivers
Uber apparently has a lot of money to fight an ongoing public relations battle. The beleaguered ride-sharing company has enlisted... wait, what? Spike Lee has directed and produced five new short films (also called commercials) for Uber called, wait for it, Da Republic of Brooklyn.
MoviePass CEO is unsure if it will offer a movie-per-day plan again
MoviePass is having a rough time of it. The company's too-good-to-be-true offer of one movie per day for $10 subscription model brought it 500,000 subscribers in one month, but MoviePass' finances show that the startup is struggling while still being dogged by its CEO's comments around tracking his customers. Recently, the company downgraded its available new subscriber plans to a three-month, $30 "limited time" offer that includes four movies per month and a three-month trial of iHeartRadio premium. It seems as if this offer now has no limit; CEO Mitch Lowe told The Hollywood Reporter that he was unsure if the movie-per-day plan would even return as an option. "Do you think you will go back to a movie a day?" a THR reporter asked Lowe at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. "I don't know," he responded.
Roku’s free movie channel arrives on Samsung smart TVs this summer
Last year, Roku launched a free, ad-supported film channel available to those with a Roku player, stick or TV in the US. Now, the company has announced that The Roku Channel will be available as an app on select Samsung smart TVs this summer. The channel's selection includes content from studios like Lionsgate, MGM and Sony Pictures Entertainment as well as films from Roku channel publishers such as Popcornflix and American Classics. The selection updates every month.
Skywalker Sound and the challenges of making audio for VR films
Lauded Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu, best known for his work on movies such as Birdman and The Revenant, last year nabbed a "special" Oscar award for his VR exhibition Carne y Arena. The virtual reality project, dubbed Flesh and Sand in English, takes viewers into a world where they can experience what it's like to be an immigrant trying to cross a border. As much as visuals were important to tell this story, one of Iñárritu's focus was to also to create the most immersive sounds -- which can be complicated when going from traditional film to a completely new medium like VR.
James Cameron-led 'Terminator' sequel will hit theaters July 2019
1984 marked the year that James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton became superstars with The Terminator. Thirty-three years later, all three of them are back for more in a sequel that Cameron has said will take place directly afterTerminator 2: Judgement Day, skipping all the sequels that have come out since then. The untitled sequel, with Deadpool's Tim Miller as director, is part of a planned trilogy and a July 26th, 2019 release.
Hollywood can't blame Rotten Tomatoes for recent flops
A recent New York Times article highlighted a growing Hollywood industry trend -- if a film does poorly at the box office, blame Rotten Tomatoes. The website, which aggregates movie reviews and assigns a percentage score with anything 60 or above labeled "Fresh" and anything scoring lower labeled "Rotten," is catching a lot of flack for disrupting ticket sales and tanking films. But Yves Bergquist, the director of the Data & Analytics Project at USC's Entertainment Technology Center decided to throw some data at the issue and see if those claims hold up.
