Paramount+ Becomes New Pay One TV Window For New Paramount Theatrical Releases Starting In 2024

Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania: Transformania has been granted an April 3 theatrical release date in China. Sony last summer licensed the fourth installment in the successful franchise to Amazon worldwide, but retained China rights.

In a move that was expected to happen, Universal has announced that they’re halting their theatrical releases in Russia given the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ellise Shafer The Walt Disney Company announced on Monday that they will be pausing all theatrical releases in Russia, including that of “Turning Red,” which premieres March 11.“Given the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the tragic humanitarian crisis, we are pausing the release of theatrical films in Russia, including the upcoming ‘Turning Red’ from Pixar,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We will make future business decisions based on the evolving situation.

As the surge of Covid infections in December and January due to the Omicron variant continues to recede, media and entertainment companies are starting to update their return-to-office plans.

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What happens when 1800 Tequila and livestream shopping platform NTWRK come together? The innovative partnership will see the limited release of 10 custom letterman jackets and pins.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorShares of Paramount, the new corporate name of ViacomCBS, took a dive after the media conglomerate told Wall Street that it was more aggressively equipping itself for battle in the streaming wars.The stock was down more than 15% in premarket trading Wednesday, coming a day after Paramount’s 2022 investor day presentation that detailed revised financial forecasts including a bigger capital outlay for its streaming strategy, led by Paramount Plus.Investors were apparently unnerved about the heavier investment Paramount plans to make in the streaming biz — it plans to boost spending on streaming content to $6 billion by 2024, versus $4 billion previously — and the resulting hit to profitability. Bank of America Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich downgraded her rating on the stock, from “buy” to “neutral,” and cut her 12-month price target on the stock from $52 to $39 per share.SEE ALSO: As ViacomCBS Becomes Paramount, an Energized Company Solidifies Its Streaming Playbook“We commend management for taking a bold approach, but near-term headwinds will drive Y/Y declines in CY22 and CY23 OIBDA [operating income before depreciation and amortization] and pressure already depressed FCF [free cash flow] levels,” Reif Ehrlich wrote in a note to clients.In reporting Q4 2021 results, the company said Paramount Plus netted 7.3 million new subscribers to stand at 32.8 million at year end.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorIn their last outings as leaders of ViacomCBS, the executive team led by Shari Redstone and Bob Bakish finally started to sound like they have a solid plan to compete in streaming.On the day ViacomCBS unveiled its corporate rebrand to Paramount, starting as of Feb. 16, the company put on a nearly three-hour virtual presentation for investors that demonstrated how much its operations have been turned inside out to focus on streaming growth opportunities.

The CFO of ViacomCBS, soon to be known as Paramount, said Tuesday that the company is looking hard for “efficiencies” at its traditional businesses to divert as much cash it can to streaming, where investment will hit an estimated $6 billion in 2024.

ViacomCBS unveiled a slew of new news Tuesday during an investor day presentation that followed the release of the company’s fourth-quarter earnings.

Yellowstone is the crown jewel in the newly rebrand Paramount Global but the Kevin Costner-led series lives on streaming in the U.S. with rival Peacock.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterParamount Global (formerly known as ViacomCBS) expects to direct-to-consumer content spending to increase to more than $6 billion in 2024, the company revealed Tuesday during its Q4 earnings and streaming investor day presentation.This is a jump from its previous guidance, which was that Paramount expected streaming content spend to exceed $5 billion 2024, including $4 billion of expenses associated with its DTC services. In 2021, Paramount spend $2.2 billion on direct-to-consumer content.Additionally, Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra said that the company formerly known as ViacomCBS is increasing its DTC revenue goal to over $9 billion for 2024.

It has been an anomaly — two of the ViacomCBS’ most prized current IPs and top basic cable series, Yellowstone and South Park, are streaming outside of the company’s ecosystem, on NBCUniversal’s Peacock (Yellowstone) and HBO Max (South Park). One of the two will be rectified after the end of HBO Max’s current mega, five-year domestic deal.

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish said the company now anticipates 100 million streaming subscribers in 2024 – well above a previous forecast of 65M-75M, after record ads in the fourth quarter and amid a rebranding of the company to Paramount – (officially ‘Paramount Global’ but the company prefers to be called just ‘Paramount’.)

“As we’ve known with Nickelodeon’s long-standing success, the kids and family audience is incredibly loyal, and we see that on Paramount+ as well, with kids and family ranking as one of the strongest genres on the service in terms of both engagement and subscriber acquisition,” said Robbins. “So as they stay for our shows and look for even more of them, we’re doubling down on giving them what they want by expanding the universes of the characters they love the best.”

ViacomCBS is rebranding to become Paramount Global, effective Feb. 16, the latest giant pivot in a rapidly transforming media and entertainment landscape. It’s the name of the company’s storied studio and its centerpiece streaming network Paramount+, which launched in March of 2021.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorViacomCBS will change its corporate name to Paramount as of Feb. 16, calling the move an effort to adopt “an iconic global name” to reflect the conglomerate’s increasingly worldwide focus.The company’s shares will trade on the NASDAQ index under the ticker symbol PARA (for Class B common shares), PARAA (for Class A common), and PARAP (for Class A preferred).The moniker makeover was announced Tuesday by ViacomCBS chair Shari Redstone and president-CEO Bob Bakish in a memo to staffers.