Fox Settles Defamation Case for $787M; Netflix Adds 1.75M Subs, Shutters DVD Biz; Sheen and Lorre Reunite for Max Comedy; 'Mrs. Davis' Review

[View on web]( [New reader? Subscribe]( April 19, 2023 What's news: Jonathan Majors has been dropped by his management firm and PR team. Pixar's Elemental will premiere at Cannes. ABC renews Will Trent. The Phantom of the Opera made a record $3.7m in its final week on Broadway. Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves are set to star in Aziz Ansari's new film. Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is three hours and 26 minutes. — [Abid Rahman]( Fox, Dominion Settle Defamation Case for $787M ►No media trial of the century, alas. Fox Corp. has settled the high-profile defamation case brought against it by Dominion Voting Systems, effectively putting an end to the suit. In a press conference Tuesday after court was adjourned, Dominion’s lawyer said the settlement was for $787m and that it represented “accountability.” A source familiar with the terms said they did not dictate an on-air apology from Fox News. [The story.]( —Vote of confidence. Legendary Entertainment has secured a significant line of credit with JPMorgan to help it continue producing movies and TV series. The Dune producer says it has inked a five-year, $800m credit facility being led by the bank, replacing a previous 2018 credit facility that the independent entertainment firm had signed with JPM. The deal is a vote of confidence in the company as the lending market begins to tighten amid a challenging macroeconomic environment and rising interest rates. [The story.]( —Details emerge. Frank Ocean’s Coachella performance had to be adjusted last minute because the singer injured his ankle during rehearsals, a source told THR's [Mesfin Fekadu.]( Ocean’s headlining set on Sunday night was delayed by an hour and his performance was cut short. But a source close to the situation says he suffered an ankle injury in the week leading up to the festival and that “production was adjusted according to doctors’ advice.” [The story.]( —Heading to France. Disney and Pixar’s Elemental is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Peter Sohn's animated movie will bow out of competition on May 27, ahead of its release in U.S. theaters on June 16. Elemental is the fourth feature film from Pixar to be presented in Cannes after Up, Inside Out and Soul. [The story.]( —Lucrative send off. The Phantom of the Opera went out on a high in its final week of performances on Broadway, bringing in an all-time record of $3.7m, playing to a capacity of 101.46 percent and with the average ticket price hitting $287.07. The musical, which had been running on Broadway for 35 years, played its final performance on April 16, in an evening of celebration and spectacle with a red carpet, appearances by original cast members, creator Andrew Lloyd Webber and producer Cameron Mackintosh. [The story.]( Netflix Adds 1.75M Subscribers During Q1 ►Growing again. Netflix, reporting its earnings for the first time without former co-CEO Reed Hastings, started the year by adding 1.75m subscribers, bringing up the total number of global subscribers to 232.5m. The subscriber growth represented a 4.9 percent year-over-year increase compared to the disastrous Q1 of 2022, when the streamer lost subscribers and set off a domino effect of sorts for other media companies that had, up until that point, gone all-in on streaming. [The results.]( —Crackdown cometh. Netflix will begin rolling out paid sharing in the U.S. and other countries in the second quarter of this year, the streaming giant announced Tuesday. In January, Netflix confirmed that it would be cracking down more broadly on password sharing. The crackdown began in earnest in early February, with Netflix rolling out paid sharing plans in Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Portugal. [The story.]( —"We could probably serve our members better than most." A day after the industry’s writers overwhelmingly voted to authorize a potential strike, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos weighed in on how the streamer might fare if a work stoppage does become a reality. Sarandos said the streamer's large number of upcoming international shows means in the worst case scenario "we do have a pretty robust slate of releases to take us into a long time." [The story.]( —"Driving folks to a theater is just not our business." During Tuesday's earnings call, Sarandos also reiterated Netflix's stream-first strategy for its films despite rivals pushing more product into theatrical. The exec says the streamer is happy with its current model of making movies for its subscribers and that it doesn't intend to follow Amazon and Apple in embracing a traditional theatrical model. [The story.]( —"We just didn’t see this bug in internal testing." Also on Tuesday, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters addressed the debacle of attempting to stream live the reunion for season four of Love Is Blind. The exec revealed a technical bug was responsible for the delay, however, he stressed that the company has the infrastructure needed to do live broadcasts in the future. [The story.]( —End of an era. Twenty-five years after the company was founded, Netflix says it will wind down its legacy DVD-by-mail business. Yes, the red envelopes will soon be no more. In a FAQ and a blog post on its website Tuesday, Netflix says it will ship out its last DVD on Sept. 29, 2023. The DVD division has shrunk over the years — it had $146m in revenue in 2022, and $183m in revenue in 2021, down from $239m in 2020. [The story.]( Tribeca 2023 Lineup ►Stellar names. The Tribeca Festival has revealed its feature narrative, documentary and animated film lineups. The selection consists of a number of actor-directed titles, including the world premieres of David Duchovny’s Bucky F*cking Dent, Michael Shannon’s Eric LaRue, Chelsea Peretti’s First Time Female Director, John Slattery’s Maggie Moore(s), Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater’s Downtown Owl and Jennifer Esposito’s First Kill. [The lineup.]( —Next up. Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves are set to star in Aziz Ansari's new feature film. The comedian will write, direct and star in Good Fortune. Lionsgate is behind the comedy, which will begin filming next month in Los Angeles, with plot details being kept under wraps. Anthony Katagas, Alan Yang and Ansari will produce. Brady Fujikawa and Jon Humphrey will oversee for the studio. [The story.]( —Let’s-a-go! The Super Mario Bros. Movie has smashed all manner of records as it raced past $700m in worldwide ticket sales on Monday. THR's [Pamela McClintock]( looks at how fast the movie will join the billion-dollar club at the global box office and what the final tally could be. [The box office report.]( —A monster! Pamela also reports that the official running time of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is three hours and 26 minutes. From Apple Original Films, the Western crime drama, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, is one of the longest Hollywood movies in modern times, according to data from Comscore. Scorsese’s last film The Irishman was actually three minutes longer, but the 2019 Netflix movie didn’t get a full-blown theatrical release unlike Killers. [The story.]( Sheen and Lorre Reunite for Max Comedy ►Hell has frozen over and the pigs are flying. Rather incredibly, Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre are set to work together again. Sheen will have a recurring part on Lorre’s Max comedy How to Be a Bookie, starring comedian Sebastian Maniscalco. The reunion will come 12 years after Sheen’s scorched-earth departure from CBS’ Two and a Half Men in 2011. Sheen has since expressed regret for his actions and said he hoped to make amends with Lorre. [The story.]( —Strong performer. ABC has handed out a second-season renewal for its drama series Will Trent, starring and produced by Ramón Rodríguez. The drama based on Karin Slaughter’s book series was originally ordered to pilot last year with a cast contingent order. After 35 days of viewing across linear and digital, Will Trent ranks as ABC’s No. 1 drama among total viewers with 9.9m and a 1.65 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. [The story.]( —Back for more. Peacock is returning to Love Island after ordering the first spinoff series for the international reality TV phenomenon. Love Island Games from ITV Entertainment is set to premiere this fall and will bring together popular islanders from the U.S. version and other international iterations of the show for a second shot at love. A premiere date has not yet been set. [The story.]( Jonathan Majors Dropped by Manager, PR Team ►Facing charges. Jonathan Majors is no longer repped by management firm Entertainment 360 and the PR firm The Lede Company, with the moves coming as the actor faces criminal charges. Majors was arrested in New York on March 26, after a woman sustained injuries in what police described as a domestic dispute. He was charged with two counts of assault in the third degree, aggravated harassment in the second degree, attempted assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree. The actor, through an attorney, has denied wrongdoing. [The story.]( —"The LAPD has presented a case." Sexual assault allegations against Armie Hammer stemming from a 2021 LAPD investigation are under review by the Los Angeles District Attorney. Hammer has not been charged in the case and lawyers for the actor declined to comment on the DA review, but Hammer previously denied the allegations through a 2021 statement to THR from his legal rep, Andrew Brettler. [The story.]( —Two complaints. A new media report links F. Murray Abraham’s exit from Mythic Quest with sexual misconduct allegations made against the actor during his time on the Apple TV+ series. According to the report, Abraham's departure ahead of the comedy’s third season followed at least two complaints about his alleged behavior. The Oscar-winning actor last played the character C.W. Longbottom in the season two finale, which aired in June 2021. [The story.]( Michelle Yeoh 'Star Trek' Movie Set at Paramount+ ►"I’m beyond thrilled to return to my Star Trek family." Star Trek: Section 31 is finally happening, but not as a series (at least, not yet). Paramount+ has ordered Section 31 as an original movie, with Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh set to reprise her role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, a character she played in Star Trek: Discovery. The project will be written by Craig Sweeny and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, both Discovery veterans. [The story.]( —By Grabthar's hammer! Galaxy Quest is going from a fictional series to an actual TV series. Paramount+ is teaming with its studio counterpart, Paramount Television Studios, for a live-action adaptation of the 1999 cult favorite sci-fi spoof. The project is in the early development stages and a search is underway for a writer to pair with Mark Johnson, the Breaking Bad alum who exec produced the film and is returning for the scripted update. [The story.]( —Mine that IP. AMC Networks is developing a third series to run alongside Interview With the Vampire and Mayfair Witches in what the company is calling its "Anne Rice Immortal Universe." The potential show would focus on the secretive Talamasca organization introduced on screen via the Mayfair Witches character Ciprien Grieve. The Blind Side filmmaker John Lee Hancock will serve as showrunner and writer on the project. [The story.]( TV Review: 'Mrs. Davis' ►"Bracingly, deliriously original." THR's [Angie Han]( reviews Peacock's Mrs. Davis. Betty Gilpin plays a nun who partners with a cowboy (Jake McDorman) to battle a seemingly all-powerful AI in a sci-fi-action-adventure-thriller-drama-comedy from Tara Hernandez (The Big Bang Theory) and Damon Lindelof. [The review.]( —"A gritty change of pace for the director." THR's chief film critic [David Rooney]( reviews Guy Ritchie's The Covenant. Dar Salim stars as a military interpreter whose heroic efforts to deliver Jake Gyllenhaal’s injured U.S. Army sergeant to safety put him on the Taliban’s most wanted list. [The review.]( —"Keri Russell anchors what may be Netflix's quintessential 'gourmet cheeseburger.'" THR's chief TV critic [Dan Fienberg]( reviews Netflix's The Diplomat. The eight-episode series from creator Debora Cahn centers on the newly installed American ambassador to Great Britain. [The review.]( In other news... —TV ratings: [NBA Playoffs begin with 12-year highs]( —Illumination’s [Chris Meledandri to receive CinemaCon’s Award of Excellence in Animation]( —Amelia Brown [named new CEO of Fremantle UK]( —Allen Media Group [names Princell Hair president of Allen Media Broadcasting]( —Artist [Lauren Halsey signs with WME]( —Torture Museum [makes Hollywood debut]( —[Carol Locatell]( Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning actress, dies at 82 What else we're reading... —Katie Warren has a must-read expose on the alleged mental anguish and terrible conditions some Love Is Blind contestants were subjected to by the show's producers [[Insider]( —Zoe Williams looks into how Drew Barrymore became a viral sensation and chat show queen [[Guardian]( —Jeff Weiss has a wonderful profile of rap legend Suga Free [[LAT]( —With Twitter seemingly in a death spiral, Willy Staley takes stock and looks at how the social media platform broke our brains [[NYT]( —Molly Jong-Fast writes that it's time for Dianne Feinstein to resign [[VF]( Today... ...in 1947, Allied Artists and producer-director Roy Del Ruth unveiled the holiday-themed film It Happened on 5th Avenue in theaters. The title went on to earn an Oscar nomination in the writing category at the 20th Academy Awards. [The original review.]( Today's birthdays: Ali Wong (41), Mia Serafino (34), Hayden Christensen (42), Simu Liu (34), Kate Hudson (44), Tim Curry (77), Ashley Judd (55), Catalina Sandino Moreno (42), Oksana Akinshina (36), Jennifer Taylor (51), Blitz Bazawule (41), Wyatt Cenac (47), Ruby Wax (70), Peter Chung (62), Marta Milans (41), Matthew Sato (22), James Scully (31), Tony Plana (71), Victoria Yeates (40), Sebastian De Souza (30), Michael Bacall (50), Nicoletta Braschi (63), Marta Cunningham (52), [Qiu Yuen]( (73), Arshad Warsi (55), Michael Dowse (50), You Ge (66), Sabrina Jalees (38) Lary Simpson, who executive produced the 2002 feature Bad Company, which starred Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock and was developed by the famed production company that his late brother, Don Simpson, had launched with Jerry Bruckheimer, has died. He was 77. [The obituary.]( Do you have THR's next big story? 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