Disney Reportedly Exploring Strategic Options in India, Including Potential Sale or Joint Venture

UPDATE: In the first sign of this being correct, the release date for “Poor Things” changed from September to December 8. Even as the fall film festivals begin announcing their lineups of star-studded features and studios continue to release trailers for films coming later this year, there’s a ton of uncertainty regarding the release schedule for the rest of 2023.

Eros International Media, per a Reuters report quoting government officials. Variety reached out to Eros for comment but had not received a reply by press time. The ministry investigation follows an examination into the company’s accounts by financial market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). That resulted in an interim order in late June and the banning of two Eros executives. The June order, which probes Eros’ financial practices in forensic detail for the period 2012-13 to 2019-20, found that the company, which was in the business of producing and distributing films, had advanced funds to 19 entities said to be for film production. Some $153 million of the amounts transferred to these companies was “untraceable.” Film rights were neither created nor the funds returned to Eros. Approximately 94% of this figure was subsequently written off by Eros. The order concludes that of the untraceable amount, approximately half was “siphoned off/diverted by Eros.”

Naman Ramachandran Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” are attracting a record number of punters back to the cinemas in the U.K. and India. In the U.K. the Vue cinema chain said that it witnessed its biggest weekend in four years and second biggest weekend in history by admissions, with “Barbie” on track to become the biggest film of 2023, ahead of “Super Mario Bros.” Vue saw more than a fifth of its customers booking tickets to see both films. Over 2,000 sessions sold out for “Barbie,” delivering the largest ever opening weekend for an original, non-franchise film for the U.K. and Ireland market box office.

Korean content accounted for 50% of SVOD viewership and 42% of freemium viewership across Asia in the first half of 2023, according to a report released by Media Partners Asia (MPA). 

EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media has picked up North American rights to the sports documentary Big Crow from director Kris Kaczor, slating it for release on VOD platforms on August 1. 

Naman Ramachandran India’s media and entertainment industry is expected to reach $73.6 billion by 2027 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.48%, says consultancy firm PwC’s “Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2023-2027” report. In terms of growth percentage, streaming leads the way with revenue surging 25% in 2022 to reach $1.8 billion. The market will continue to grow at 14% CAGR to produce revenue of $3.5 billion in 2027. This will be driven by the competitive SVOD sector, which accounted for 78% of sector revenue in 2022, the report says, adding that while subscription service revenues will expand at 13% CAGR to reach $2.6 billion, ad-supported services (AVOD) will grow at a higher rate, albeit from a lower base.

Thania Garcia Ahead of Lil Baby‘s “It’s Only Us” tour start date in Texas next week, the Atlanta-based rapper has removed 10 cities from the original 32-stop lineup with little explanation. The Kid Laroi has also been pulled as a supporting act, though GloRilla, Gloss Up, Rylo Rodriguez and Hunxho are still set to perform. The nationwide arena tour, produced by AG Entertainment Touring and Mammoth, will no longer be hitting Phoenix, San Diego, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Denver, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Louisville — all of which were a part of the tour lineup that was announced earlier this year. (Tickets for those dates went on general sale on April 13.)

Naman Ramachandran India is on track to be the international production hub for global reality formats “Survivor” and “Temptation Island,” Banijay Asia CEO Deepak Dhar has confirmed. Dhar had revealed nascent plans for this late last year to Variety and they are now well into fruition. “Survivor” has had more than 50 international versions and “Temptation Island” more than 20. “Significant progress has happened in the last six to seven months in setting up the runway to really pave a lot of productions to happen in India, both reality and scripted. Reality is something that we’ve been pushing, because of the might of our Banijay Group catalog formats – shows like ‘Survivor’ and ‘Temptation Island.’ We are on the verge of setting up a ‘Temptation Island’ hub and ‘Survivor’ hub and a whole lot of the Banijay Group companies would come film here,” Dhar told Variety.

Oliver Stone said Friday he was shocked to hear that the stars of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer had walked out of its London premiere the day before as SAG-AFTRA officially declared strike action.

Naman Ramachandran Six teams owned by top global sporting bodies are participating in the inaugural Major League Cricket (MLC) tournament in the U.S., which kicked off on Thursday. The Los Angeles Knight Riders team is owned by Shah Rukh Khan’s Knight Riders Group, which also operates teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Caribbean Premier League and the U.A.E.’s International League T20 (ILT). The MI New York team is owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Mumbai Indians, which also operates a team in the ILT. The Seattle Orcas is owned by the GMR Group, which also has IPL and ILT teams. India’s Chennai Super Kings IPL franchise owns the Texas Super Kings, while the San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom are owned by Australia’s Cricket Victoria and Cricket New South Wales respectively.

Helen Mirren dedicated a Jerusalem Film Festival life-time achievement award to actors around the world on Thursday, just an hour before a looming SAG-AFTRA strike was made official.

With poor box office numbers so far for Pixar‘s “Elemental” and James Mangold‘s “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny,” Disney sees itself in the middle of its worst theatrical slump in a long time. And it arguably started back in March with “Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania,” which made less than $500 million worldwide and suffered the steepest second-week drop at the domestic box office of any Marvel film.

Disney is reportedly considering its strategic options in India — and could sell its streaming and TV business there.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Disney CEO Bob Iger is citing the studio’s output increase for Disney+ as one reason for “some disappointments” as of late. Speaking to CNBC’s David Faber at the Sun Valley Conference, Iger admitted the studio screwed with audience expectation by offering up so much streaming content. The negative impact of that has been commercial disappointments in theaters, be it “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” not even getting past the $500 million worldwide or disappointing openings for summer tentpoles “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” “There have been some disappointments we would have liked some of our more recent releases to perform better,” Iger said. “It’s reflective not as a problem from a personnel perspective, but I think in our in our zeal to basically grow our content significantly to serve mostly our streaming offerings, we ended up taxing our people way beyond — in terms of their time and their focus — way beyond where they had been.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger said the linear TV business “may not be core” to the company, and efforts are under way to explore a number of strategic options for them.

Raise your glass for Vanderpump Rules as the Bravo reality series has scored its first two Emmy nominations in its ten-season history.

With summer in full swing, Mancunians are looking for delicious ways to entertain themselves and that's where Zouk Restaurant can confidently join the conversation.

Naman Ramachandran Disney releases “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” were locked in a near dead heat at the U.K. and Ireland box office, with the animated elements edging out the veteran archaeologist. “Elemental” debuted with £3.049 million ($3.876 million), according to numbers from Comscore. In its second weekend, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” whipped up £3.046 million ($3.873 million) for a close second and now has a total of £13.1 million. If looking at weekend numbers alone, Harrison Ford’s last adventure as the man in the hat won the race as the “Elemental” numbers include “limited secret sneak previews from across the market,” according to Disney.

Naman Ramachandran Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has released an action-packed teaser – described by the producers as a ‘prevue’ – for his upcoming film “Jawan” (“Soldier”). The film has Khan playing a dual role and features him in several avatars – as a soldier, a bandaged avenger, and also in a bald persona. The teaser features Tamil-language cinema stars Nayanthara (“Annaatthe”), Vijay Sethupathi (“Vikram”) and teases a special appearance from Deepika Padukone (“Pathaan”). The cast also includes Sanya Malhotra (“Kathal: A Jackfruit Mystery”) and Priyamani (“The Family Man”). “Jawan” is directed by Atlee, known for his three back-to-back Tamil-language blockbusters “Theri” (2016), “Mersal” (2017) and “Bigil” (2019), all starring Vijay. It is produced by Gauri Khan for Red Chillies Entertainment and features music by hitmaker Anirudh Ravichander (“Thiruchitrambalam”).

Zorro Days” in the park, where actors from the popular Disney-produced “Zorro” television series (Guy Williams, Gene Sheldon, and Henry Calvin) would greet guests and perform in wild west stunt shows. At the time the memo was sent, the movie was scheduled to hit theaters in 2010. A vast and varied array of options were presented, ranging in ambition and complexity.