‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Sold 22 Million Copies in 2023: Warner Bros. Discovery Games Boss Talks Year’s Top-Selling Title and What’s Next (EXCLUSIVE)

Sundance Film Festival premiere. It’s an interesting home for the documentary, because Reeve experienced his greatest commercial success playing the Man of Steel in the first four Superman movies, which Warner Bros. produced.

EXCLUSIVE: In a deal that when closed will be worth $15 million, Warner Bros Discovery has emerged as frontrunner to land the Sundance buzz title documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, sources said. The inspirational film is about the late actor best known for playing the Man of Steel. Docu’s focus is on how he found strength and purpose through activism after he was paralyzed in an equestrian accident. I believe that puts the film in precedent setting territory for a docu launched at Sundance. Numerous bidders have been in the mix, but I hear it’s likely to land at the home of the Superman film franchise.

Warner Bros. Discovery through the streaming wars.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Discovery Channel’s hit franchises, like “Gold Rush” and “Deadliest Catch,” featured plenty of blood and sweat. But where were the tears? That’s something Howard Lee immediately began asking, upon taking control of the network at the end of 2022. After Lee was handed the keys to Discovery that December, “I spent my entire Christmas vacation devouring, scrutinizing, every single Discovery Channel show and familiarizing myself with it, like a fanboy.

And just like that, Netflix is close to tying up another major content licensing deal.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The long-awaited “Squid Game” Season 2 is set to premiere later this year. Netflix announced the-second season debut plans in a letter to shareholders Tuesday, writing: “Looking ahead, despite last year’s strikes pushing back the launch of some titles, we have a big, boldslate for 2024.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery is asking high school students across the U.S. to “Say Yes to the Prom” for the 12th year in a row with its initiative that will give 1,500 juniors and seniors from underserved communities a chance to put together a complete prom look, courtesy of Macy’s and Men’s Wearhouse.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Channing Dungey first joined Warner Bros. TV Group as chairman in late 2020 — right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made for an interesting first year on the job. Then came the Warner Media-Discovery merger in 2022, and the restructuring that came with it.

Palworld has sold five million copies in three days, despite increasing concern over potential AI use in the game.The title launched in early access on January 19, and since then, it has shot up in Steam charts to the point it had more concurrent players than games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Call Of Duty.Those users don’t include the number of players who are playing the game through the Xbox Game Pass release, and neither do the five million copies sold, meaning that the actual total number of people who have downloaded the game and played it could be much higher.The conversation around Palworld, however, isn’t focused on sales. It’s instead focused on similarities that beasts in the game have to popular Pokemon characters, and the fact that the company openly released a title in early access last year named AI: Art Imposter which uses artificial intelligence in gameplay to generate images.Several posts have circulated on X (formerly Twitter) showing similarities between Pokemon creatures and Palworld creatures, with previous comments from the CEO of Pocketpair discussing AI art, and specifically how to use AI art in order to create new Pokemon, leading people to wonder if the game used the technique at all.There’s currently no confirmation as to whether or not there’s any credibility behind these claims, however.

Naman Ramachandran Warner Bros. Discovery, the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Pitch International have signed a package of rights that will see them broadcast live international cricket hosted in India on its linear and digital platforms, TNT Sports and Discovery+, for the next five years.

After a 2023 upfront season marred by the WGA strike, Warner Bros. Discovery is first out of the gate to declare a return engagement this spring at New York’s Theater at Madison Square Garden.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor In an era when advertisers can buy digital inventory at any time they wish, does the media industry still need an “upfront” sales session? Warner Bros. Discovery believes it does. The media conglomerate said Thursday that it plans to hold a presentation for advertisers at 10 a.m.

EXCLUSIVE: UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer is expected to hail the biggest selling film of 2023 being “made and recorded in Hertfordshire – not Hollywood” at a glitzy parliament reception hosted by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) tonight.

Harry Potter games following the success of Hogwarts Legacy.Speaking to Variety in a new interview, Haddad stated that not only was an already announced game based on the wizarding sport Quidditch in beta testing but that a “series of other things” are also in development which “will let the fans be part of this world and stories and characters in deeper and deeper ways.”Haddad spoke on the upcoming Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, stating that they don’t have any “particular announcements on exactly how and when [the Quidditch game] is going to come to the market, but we are working to get it designed in a way just to delight fans.”He also spoke very briefly about the message that Warner Bros Discovery is giving to the gaming division, stating that they keep emphasising the “importance of franchises”.“There’s a unique and important games have in keeping our franchises relevant, resonant and exciting because there’s plenty of fans and plenty of people consuming content where games are their starting point, it’s their preferred form of content,” he explained.NME reviewed Hogwarts Legacy when it was released, stating that it was “fun and managed to get a lot of things right”, but that the game already felt “somewhat dated”.“It’s a stunning way to experience Hogwarts and the surrounding area and is probably the best representation for fans of the universe, regardless of the medium. Honestly, this is an exceptional piece of fan service and a loving recreation that for performance reasons and dated design, doesn’t quite come together,” our review read.In other gaming news, the face model for Mary Jane Watson in Marvel’s Spider-Man has called out the fanbase for harassing her.

Canal+ Group and Warner Bros Discovery have announced the renewal of their exclusive premium pay TV agreement for Warner Bros Pictures films.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros. Discovery corporate communications chief Nathaniel Brown is exiting the company. CEO David Zaslav announced the news in a memo to staff Friday.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A huge virtual world based on “Ready Player One,” a story set in a future where people enter into a virtual-reality simulation to escape the real world, is coming soon to a real (but, you know, virtual) platform near you. Futureverse, an AI and metaverse technology and content company, announced the formation of Readyverse Studios, a studio co-founded with Ernest Cline, the novelist and creator of “Ready Player One,” and Dan Farah, producer of the 2018 Warner Bros.

EXCLUSIVE: Production is about to be underway on Warner Bros/Vertigo/Legendary’s feature take on Mojang/Microsoft’s Minecraft in New Zealand, and sources are telling us that Jack Black is joining the cast of the Jason Momoa led movie.

Stacey Dooley has hailed 2023 as the "best year" after welcoming her "showstopper" daughter Minnie. Ahead of welcoming in the New Year, the TV presenter and journalist, 36, took to Instagram to share a snap of an envelope which read "Minnie's Mum and Dad". It was placed on the floor with a brown parcel that had pink rope tied around it in a sweet bow.

SATURDAY AM: Refresh for updates Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and he’s delivering the motion picture industry a $9 billion-plus year at the domestic box office; a feat many thought was unimaginable with the lack of a mega-tentpole over the holiday with a Q4 impacted by the double strikes. But it was a diversified crop of family and adult films which got us there including the Warner Bros.’ trifecta of Wonka (which is leading the 4-day New Year’s Box Office with $33M), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (4-day $26M) and The Color Purple ($16.2M 4-day); as well as adult movies like The Boys in the Boat ($11.6M 4-day) and even YA romantic comedy, Anyone But You ($11.3M 4-day). As we told you last week, 2024 is bound to shed about $1 billion for an $8 billion take due to a lower inventory of wide releases and Q1 sans several tentpoles.