The main takeaway from NetflixSecond quarter earnings are business… good.

correct. The core business of a large media and entertainment company is fine.

Netflix added 5.9 million subscribers in the quarter, a sign that its primary initiative for 2023 — cracking down on password sharing and launching a cheaper $6.99 per month ad category — is bringing in new subscribers. Netflix added 1.2 million subscribers in the US and Canada in the quarter — its biggest regional quarterly gain since 2021.

This is not the story for the rest of the media industry. Disney And Warner Bros. Discovery The year was spent cutting content from streaming services to avoid paying waste and saving on licensing fees. Both companies have laid off thousands of employees over the past 12 months to boost free cash flow. Paramount Global And ComcastBoth NBCUniversal affiliates said that 2023 would be the largest annual loss ever for their broadcast businesses.

Meanwhile, Netflix boosted its free cash flow estimate to $5 billion for the year. Previously, the company had estimated it would have $3.5 billion in revenue, but strikes by actors and writers would reduce spending on content. This means that Netflix will actually get more money than you previously thought.

In the next quarter, Netflix expects subscriber gains to be around 6 million again. The company said revenue will accelerate in the second half of the year as it sees the “full benefits” of its password-sharing campaign and steady growth in its ad-supported plan.

In the past year, Netflix’s rating has dropped 60% as subscriber counts have stalled. The company spent a significant amount of time on earnings conference calls focusing on and explaining its new video game business, which was introduced in mid-2021, to help kick-start a new growth narrative.

This quarter’s shareholder letter barely addresses video games.

Why? Because unlike the rest of the media industry, Netflix doesn’t need a new narrative. The old one still works. The flow is increasing. Stacks of liquidity are on the rise. The announcement excites investors. Netflix has a steady pipeline of international content and a deep library to outpace the extended writers and actors strike.

“The lack of references to video games in the shareholder letter suggests advertising is the shiny thing that dominates most of the company’s focus,” said Ross Bennis, an analyst with research firm Insider Intelligence.

Shares of Netflix fell 5% after hours. That’s more of a symptom of profit-taking after Netflix’s big gains this year (up more than 62% as of Wednesday’s close) than anything to chafe in its preliminary quarterly numbers.

After a sharp fall last year, the company is back on track. And you didn’t even need to switch trains.

Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this article.

Companies and industries have ups and downs. Old media industry in a valley.

The first half of 2023 was a huge disappointment for media executives who wanted this year to be a rebound from a terrible 2022, when a slowdown in subscriber flow slashed ratings. NetflixAnd DisneyAnd Warner Bros. Discovery And Paramount Global to almost half.

Instead, investors are once again excited about Netflix’s future prospects as it cracks down on password sharing, which could lead to tens of millions of new sign-ups. Shares of Netflix have soared in the past five months, outperforming the S&P 500.

Meanwhile, the old players couldn’t get out of their own way.

“When it rains, it rains,” said Rich Greenfield, media analyst at LightShed. “It just keeps getting worse.”

It’s been a bumpy ride for Disney CEO Bob Iger since he returned to lead the company late last year. Disney It recently finished laying off 7,000 employees. Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy stepped down last week. The company is pulling programming from streaming services to save money. Its animation business is in serious trouble, with its latest Pixar movie, “Elemental,” scoring the studio’s lowest opening weekend gross since the original “Toy Story” premiered in 1995. Stock has struggled in the past five months.

Paramount Global It cut its dividend last quarter as broadcast losses peaked this year and a weak advertising market exacerbated the ailing cable network business. Wells Fargo issued an analyst note Friday saying the company’s bull case and bear case are the same: selling for parts. Said Warren Buffett, perhaps the most famous investor in history CNBC said the Paramount streaming show “Basically, it’s not good for business.”

NBCUniversal weathered the storm better, shielded by its parent company, Comcast, which derives its revenue from its cable and wireless assets. The above errors have also been taken advantage of. MSNBC has become no. 1 cable news network this month for the first time in 120 weeks, ousting Fox News amid coverage of former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment. The Super Mario Bros. Universal’s Movie is the year’s biggest box office hit, yet stocks haven’t moved much.

All of this is happening with an expanding strike of Hollywood writers playing out in the background with no end in sight. Writers know that the longer the strike lasts, the greater the pain will be inflicted on the media companies, who will eventually run out of content already written. Zaslav recently gave a commencement speech at Boston University and was drowned out in boos and cheers of “pay your book.”

This week may bring more bad news. Film and TV actors are set to join the writers’ strike unless they reach an agreement with Hollywood studios by Friday.

Greenfield said the beneficiaries of shutting down work in Hollywood will likely be YouTube, TikTok and Netflix, which continue to produce international content not affected by the strike.

Legacy media may get a small respite if advertising jumps back up as the 2024 US presidential campaign heats up. But there is still little evidence that investors will reward media companies simply for cutting costs. There is currently no solid growth narrative for legacy media, and merger prospects are murky as regulators block media-adjacent deals like Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision and Simon & Schuster’s proposed Penguin Random House purchase.

The industry has just concluded its annual advertising gala in Cannes, France. Old media executives still shell out company dollars for a yacht lounging trip and rosé drinking. The background was as beautiful as ever.

But the scene is bleak.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of CNBC.

WATCH: Mark Reid, CEO of WPP, on the state of the advertising market, from Cannes Lions 2023

Hollywood producers have a tentative deal with movie and TV directors, but that doesn’t mean we should expect surprising writers’ strike decisions or talks with the actors’ union.

On Sunday, the Directors Guild of America and the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance provisionally agreed to a three-year contract that would provide the 19,000-member union with pay and benefit gains, increased global broadcast residuals and protections against the use of artificial intelligence.

The DGA contract is set to expire on June 30. The union will present the proposal to its members on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Writers Guild of America is entering the second month of its strike. Likewise, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are on the verge of authorizing a possible strike should negotiations falter. Those talks begin on Wednesday.

The WGA has been on strike since May 2, shutting down dozens of TV and film productions as talks with producers stall.

actually Netflix The start of production for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things has been postponed. Warner Bros. discovery “Game of Thrones” prequel “Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Night of the Hedge” locked her writers’ room, and Disney And Marvel’s Thunderbolts and Blade films have paused production.

During the recent writers’ strike in 2007 and 2008, which lasted 100 days, the studio’s deal with the DGA pushed writers back to the negotiating table. That may not be the case this time around, though.

“We congratulate the DGA Negotiation Committee for obtaining a deal that they will recommend to their National Council for approval and which they will then presumably send to their members for ratification,” the WGA Negotiation Committee wrote in a note to members on Sunday.

The committee said it would not comment on the deal points of the new DGA contract and noted that its negotiating positions remain the same.

“Last week we sent out an email about how AMPTP’s divide-and-conquer strategy didn’t work this time,” the memo read. “AMPTP will not be able to negotiate a book deal with anyone but us.”

The committee also said it stands in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA during the completion of the strike vote on Monday.

Representatives for SAG-AFTRA did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The WGA memo mirrors comments made by WGA negotiator Chris Keyser on Friday, when he provided a public update a month after the strike via YouTube.

“Any agreement that puts this city back in business goes directly through the WGA, and there’s no way around that,” he said.

Keyser also expressed that the WGA strike was indeed “extremely effective in harming businesses”, noting that the work stoppage, along with the public picketing, demonstrated the union’s determination to get “the contract we deserve”.

In the DGA agreement, managers received pay increases starting at 5% in the first year, an increase in tailings from the flow and a guarantee that AI could not replace the duties performed by members.

Artificial intelligence has been a major concern for writers’ and actors’ unions, who see their jobs as particularly vulnerable to this new technology.

The WGA and SAG-AFTRA are both seeking protection against the use of artificial intelligence in their negotiations, as well as increased compensation for streaming content. The WGA is also seeking minimum staff for television writers’ rooms and more competitive minimum payments for the work.

WGA is less concerned about being replaced by AI systems and more concerned that production companies will exploit these technological tools to cut writers’ salaries.

SAG-AFTRA has acknowledged that AI technology can have its benefits in the industry, but wants to ensure that any use of AI to duplicate an actor or create a new performance is done with the consent and payment of the actor. The Syndicate has similar guardrails when it comes to taking computer-generated images.

Indeed, some performers, such as James Earl Jones, have already agreed to have their voices reproduced for posthumous use. Jones, 91, voiced Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and has sought to exit the role. Jones was compensated and technology was used to bring Vader’s iconic voice to Disney+’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

The Actors Guild has also been vocal about its negotiations for the benefit of all of its members, not just the big stars. Health coverage, compensation and waste are top priorities for tens of thousands of workers.

SAG-AFTRA’s vote for permission to strike ends Monday at 8 p.m. ET.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance.

humble as it may be, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav this week proved he’s definitely a name-dropper.

Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled its new streaming service on Wednesday, which includes a host of shows from HBO Max and Discovery+. It will be released on May 23 in the US, later this year in Latin America, and in the rest of the world in 2024. It will be called Max — sans HBO.

On a surface level, Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision to ditch the HBO Max name is a logical marketing choice. In depth, it begins to feel like a microcosm of the existential tension that lies at the heart of the company – and the media industry more broadly.

The company is trying to compete with Netflix And Disney Being the winner of the live stream, while at the same time pushing a message of financial discipline that lowers the priority of your streaming subscriber additions. It’s a matter of quality versus quantity, and Warner Bros. Discovery tries to play both sides.

said JB Perrette, the company’s president of broadcasting, during a presentation presenting Max on Wednesday in Burbank, Calif.

Perrett on Wednesday explained why Warner Bros. Discovery has removed the HBO part of the name from the new service. He said HBO is synonymous with adult entertainment, and Max will tend to offer programming for children and families.

“We all love HBO,” Perrett said. “It’s a brand built over five decades to be a trendsetter in adult entertainment. But it’s not exactly a place where parents can easily drop their kids off. Not surprisingly, the category hasn’t met true potential on HBO Max.”

Warner Bros. Discovery executives felt that the HBO name actually limited the streaming service’s audience because it intimidated potential audiences. They also felt that the HBO brand could be diluted by the influx of reality TV shows on Discovery that are set to join the platform, such as “Dr. for conversation over the water cooler in the office.”

“HBO is not television. HBO is HBO. It has to stay that way,” Perrett said at the event. “We would not drive it to its breaking point by forcing it to assume the full scope of this new content proposition had we kept the name in the service brand. By doing so, we will upgrade and better showcase our unrivaled suite of other content and branding services that will be key to expanding The scope of attractiveness of this improved product.

The company’s logic is rational. HBO appeals to a certain audience, but it also doesn’t appeal to a certain audience. HBO fans aren’t going to unsubscribe from the service in response to Max’s name, but some folks who used to be intimidated by HBO may now just subscribe to the adult brand due to the flood of obvious HBO content coming to the service.

When HBO Max initially launched, executives at AT&T and WarnerMedia assured subscribers that this new app was, first and foremost, the home of HBO. Now, about 80 million subscribers later, this point is less important. Those who want HBO already know where to find it, and HBO Max will simply switch to Max on most platforms.

Broadcasting is entering its “teenage” years, Perrett said, and Max as a name makes more sense to continue adding subscribers globally in a world of declining growth.

That would be the end of the story if Warner Bros. did. The stated goal for Discovery was to increase (no pun intended) the number of subscribers who signed up for the Max.

That was every media company’s goal when Zaslav agreed to merge Discovery with WarnerMedia in 2021. But according to Zaslav, that’s no longer a priority.

“I’d rather have 100 million subscribers or 150 million subscribers and be really profitable than try to scale to get too many and end up losing money,” Zaslav told CNBC’s Julia Burstein after the presentation on Wednesday. “We take a look at what people are watching on Max and we can see exactly what they like and don’t like. And some of the things they don’t watch, we can put on AVOD for free.” [advertising-supported video on demand] And some of the things they don’t watch, we can keep non-exclusively on Max, but we can also sell to others.”

“We’re relentlessly focused on creating great content and monetizing in every way we can,” he said.

With a new broadcast strategy — and Max at the center — Warner Bros. Discovery hedges its bets.

The company maintains Discovery+ for customers who are happy to pay $5 or $7 just for Discovery programming. Perrett said the company “doesn’t want to leave any lucrative subscribers behind.”

Zaslav also hinted at Warner Bros. The free, ad-supported Discovery service, which the company said is coming later this year.

Warner Bros. Discovery could have worked for HBO Max, too. For customers who wanted both Discovery+ and HBO Max, it could have offered a bundle at a discount. That’s been the strategy for Disney, which offers bundled ways to mix and match Hulu, ESPN+, and Disney+.

Instead, the company has loaded up one service with everything it has, which may also eventually include some news from CNN and sports like NBA or NHL games. Zaslav said Wednesday that he would get more details on that “in the coming months”. Don’t forget, Zaslav killed CNN+ as a standalone broadcast option last year after about a month in existence.

Warner Bros. Discovery is building the Max as a one-size-fits-all option that has a scale to go around in an ever-increasingly fast post-cable world.

But Zaslav also tells investors it’s okay to limit Max’s growth. It is more important for him to make money than to compete with Disney and Netflix to become the largest streaming operator in the world.

It’s a delicate balance: DisneyAnd Paramount Global, ComcastNBCUniversal and even Netflix They are all fighting the same forces. Investors have shifted the spur-of-the-moment growth-at-all-costs narrative in the past year, halving the valuations of many media and entertainment companies.

What is happening now is, in essence, a hedge. The media industry knows that broadcasting is the future, but growth has slowed. Zaslav defended the value of the traditional pay-TV package while criticizing the former WarnerMedia system’s profligate spending on broadcasting. He’s trying to give investors a new reason to get excited about Warner Bros. Discovery. That message, Zaslav hopes, is to generate free cash flow.

“In the end, I’m the free cash flow guy,” Zaslav said Wednesday. “We want great talent, but in the end, if we don’t make sign-up money, if we don’t have any ARPU… [average revenue per user]We don’t help ourselves and we don’t help shareholders.”

There are some signs that he could be on to something. Warner Bros. Discovery shares are up nearly 50% this year after falling nearly 60% last year.

But when you take a two-part name — HBO and Max — and keep just Max, the implication is “big” over “quality.”

That was the AT&T message. It wasn’t Zaslav’s message yet.

WATCH: The full CNBC interview with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav

Disclosure: CNBC’s parent Comcast owns NBCUniversal and co-owns Hulu.

Activist investor Nelson Peltz spent about 30 minutes Thursday morning talking with CNBC’s Jim Cramer and David Faber in a wide-ranging interview about why he wanted to acquire Disney Board seat.

But his argument barely touched on what must be his strongest point — Disney’s continued failure to plan for CEO succession.

Peltz referenced his box office slideshow about Disney’s failures under former CEOs Bob Iger and Bob Chapek. He said if he had to boil the presentation down to its core, it would center around Disney’s poor share performance and Trian’s record on value creation. Trian noted that Disney’s share price peaked in 2021 but is currently trading near an eight-year low. The stock rose about 3% on Thursday.

But Disney’s poor performance in 2022 reflected an industry-led recession Netflixstunted growth. Disney’s stock price rally in 2021 resulted from the same phenomenon – investors charging for streaming services with huge subscriber growth. Disney and Netflix are both down about 38% over the past 12 months. Other media stocks fell more. Paramount Global Shares fell 45%. Warner Bros. Discovery Shares are down nearly 50% since AT&T merged WarnerMedia with Discovery on April 8.

Peltz blamed Disney CEO Bob Iger and its board for overpaying 21st Century Fox in 2019 for the company’s decision to shed its dividend during the pandemic. But asking for a seat on the board based on Iger’s track record in making acquisition decisions won’t win over many investors. Iger’s string of deals during his tenure as CEO — acquiring Pixar, LucasFilm and Marvel — ahead of Fox were some of the best acquisitions in the history of the media industry.

Trian also noted Disney’s “flawed direct-to-consumer strategy” in the dossier “despite generating similar revenues as Netflix and having a significant IP advantage”. Netflix launched its streaming business years before Disney+ debuted in 2019. Naturally, Netflix is ​​ahead of Disney (and every other streaming service) in terms of profitability and free cash flow generation.

Peltz plans a proxy battle and it shouldn’t be a stronger argument for shareholders about Iger’s performance as CEO. Instead, it has to do with the Board’s continued failure to plan for a post-Iger world. Iger developed a history during his initial 15-year tenure as CEO of chasing down potential successors, including Jay Rasullo, Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer. When he quit his job as CEO in 2020, he failed to leave the company outright, setting up an 18-month period where his chosen successor, Chapek, felt undermined by his presence.

Iger is now back, and the Disney board has tasked him with finding a successor in the next two years. Egger’s track record indicates that succession planning is the one area where he really struggles.

“Historically Iger has dominated the succession process, but it shouldn’t be Iger’s choice, it’s the board’s choice,” said Charles Elson, founding director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. “Disney has left itself open to activist interference because it has had governance issues with succession for nearly 25 years.”

Part of Trian’s presentation to investors is the succession issue, but it doesn’t come up until slide 27 of the 35-slide presentation. Most of Peltz’s argument rests on Disney’s underwhelming stock performance, the decision to cancel the dividend, how the Fox deal didn’t work out, how a hypothetical deal for Sky (one that never happened in reality) wouldn’t have worked, and Trian’s history of boosting share value. He also told CNBC that Disney either needed to take over Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu or “get out of the streaming business.”

Disney is addressing last year’s stock slump by bringing back Iger, a CEO who is well respected by employees and investors alike. Disney will also have a new CEO soon. Peltz’s argument that Egger needs Trian’s strategic decision-making help after only a few months of returning to the job can prove challenging.

It’s much easier to explain that Disney’s board of directors and Iger consistently got it wrong with succession planning. In his presentation, Trian said that Disney’s shareholder engagement process was “among the worst (if not the worst) of all the companies we’ve dealt with.”

Disney likely wouldn’t want Peltz on the board because it would force the issue of succession, limiting Iger’s ability to remain CEO for longer than two years. As Trian noted in his presentation (on slide 28), the Disney board extended Iger’s retirement date five different times between October 2011 and December 2017.

Perhaps Peltz needs to hone his message to focus on that.

Watch: Disney is more than just a media company, says Trian’s Nelson Peltz

This year’s Thanksgiving box office was feast and famine Walt Disney.

While Black Panther: Wakanda Forever added $64 million to its domestic tally within the five-day time frame, Disney’s latest animated feature Strange World failed to entice moviegoers, bringing in just $18.6 million between Wednesday and Sunday. A dismal $11.9 million. For the traditional three-day opening.

This is the worst three-day opening for a Disney animated film since 2000’s “The Emperor’s New Groove,” which grossed less than $10 million during its debut, according to data from Comscore.

The double weekend comes as CEO Bob Iger returns to the helm of the company, promising to restructure Disney in a way that puts creativity first. Iger is expected to expand on those plans during the company’s city council meeting on Monday.

Thanksgiving week is usually a solid time at the box office. In the past decade, excluding 2020 and 2021, the five-day spread of Thanksgiving—which consists of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the Sunday—has resulted in more than $250 million in ticket sales each year.

This year, the domestic box office for Thanksgiving brought in about $121 million. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” topped the group, while “Strange World” took second place. All other films, incl Sony “Dedication,” Disney and Searchlight’s “The Menu,” Warner Bros.“Black Adam” and universal The Fabelmans made just under $10 million each.

Not in the mix Netflix “Glass onion.” Streamers refused to share box office receipts for the latest Rian Johnson movie, even though it’s believed to have grossed between $13 million and $15 million over the five-day period.

While Strange World outperformed a number of other films this weekend, its muted opening raises concerns about Disney’s animation strategy and whether Iger will be able to right the ship.

Former Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who took over for Iger as the pandemic began in early 2020, made a series of decisions that alienated the company’s creative leaders in the wake of closing movie theaters.

To start, he reorganized the company to direct creative decisions through a single CEO, rather than each studio, taking power away from the people responsible for Disney’s biggest blockbusters.

Chapek then chose to release a number of Pixar and Disney Animation films directly on the company’s streaming service instead of in theaters. This was in part because, at the time, children weren’t vaccinated and families were avoiding theatres, but also to try to bolster the Disney+ library with new content.

These decisions led to a lot of confusion for audiences when the Disney animated films were shown theatrically. These moviegoers are either not aware that the movie is coming to market or they think it is coming to Disney’s streaming platform.

This happened when Disney released “Lightyear” in cinemas in June. Whereas the previous two Toy Story films each opened to more than $100 million domestically, Lightyear only raked in $50 million in ticket sales during its debut.

This strategic decision is compounded by the fact that family films have been in short supply at the box office in the wake of the pandemic. This means that there are fewer opportunities for studios to market movie trailers to their designated audience in movie theaters and must rely more on television and digital advertising.

“There’s no doubt that an overall slow market and lack of capacity to build awareness for ‘Strange World’ hurts its potential to follow in the tradition of Disney’s animated feature film series during that all-important weekend in theaters,” said Senior Paul Degarabedian. Media analyst at Comscore.

Disney has long held the Thanksgiving box office crown, with films like “Frozen 2,” “Coco,” “Moana,” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet” leading the pack in the past decade.

Even “Encanto,” which was released during last year’s Thanksgiving frame, managed to take in more than $27 million during its three-day opening and more than $40 million over the entire five-day weekend.

Perhaps, “Strange World” will follow a similar path to “Encanto” and get more attention from families once it’s added to Disney+.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal distributed The Fabelmans.

Warner Bros. Discovery The company reported third-quarter earnings Thursday, missing analyst expectations, as it felt the effects of a tough advertising environment and costs associated with its post-merger restructuring.

Here’s what the company had compared to analysts’ expectations, according to Refinitiv:

• he won: $9.82 billion vs. $10.36 billion expected

The company reported a loss per share of 95 cents, citing macroeconomic headwinds, particularly in advertising.

Shares were down about 2% after hours Thursday, after dropping 5.6% to $11.97 during the regular trading session.

Warner Bros. The discovery is the result of a merger between WarnerMedia and AT&T’s Discovery, which was completed earlier this year. Since the merger was completed, the company has been in the midst of significant cost-cutting measures, such as laying off employees and pulling content from streaming service HBO Max.

“While we have a lot of work to do and there are some tough decisions still to be made, we are fully convinced of the opportunity ahead,” CEO David Zaslav said in the company’s statement Thursday.

Later, on an earnings conference call, he added, “Indeed, we see this as a meaningful opportunity, one we’ve taken wholeheartedly to look inside each of our businesses and see what works, what doesn’t, is it properly structured, and does it get appropriate resources.

Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery’s valuation was nearly halved as Wall Street lowered its forecast for global streaming subscriber growth. Streaming services are vying for subscribers, with industry giant Netflix losing customers earlier this year and unveiling an ad-supported tier at a cheaper cost.

The company said it added 2.8 million direct-to-consumer customers in the third quarter, bringing its total global subscribers to 94.9 million. Revenue from the direct-to-consumer segment fell 6% to $2.3 billion, as it saw a decline in licensing and distribution revenue.

In late October, the company said in public filings that it estimated it would book $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion in pre-tax restructuring fees during the third quarter. The restructuring is expected to be largely complete by the end of 2024, and will incur approximately $3.2 billion to $4.3 billion in total pre-tax restructuring charges.

Meanwhile, the slowdown in advertising has been hitting media companies.

Revenue in the network television segment fell 8% to $5.2 billion. The sector was particularly affected by the 11% drop in advertising revenue.

Industry peer Paramount Global reported earnings on Wednesday, and it also missed analyst estimates as television and advertising revenue fell.

This is an evolving story. Check back for updates.

Black Adam stormed into theaters this weekend, raising $67 million domestically. It’s the first movie since then Disney and Marvel Studio’s Thor: Love and Thunder in July to bring in more than $50 million during its debut.

The Warner Bros. The film also marks the biggest domestic opening for star Dwayne Johnson as a leading man.

The studio reported Sunday that premium formats, including IMAX, Dolby Cinema and big screen cinemas, made up about 33% of the film’s domestic ticket sales. These tickets are often more expensive than those sold for traditional shows and indicate that the audience is looking forward to watching the big movies on the largest screen possible.

This is a good sign for the film industry, which has seen attendances shrink during the pandemic and is currently dealing with a huge shortage of new movie releases. As of last Sunday, the 2022 box office was less than a third of wide releases compared to 2019 levels, and that has resulted in a 30% drop in total box office revenue, according to data from Comscore.

“Black Adam” is one of only four major releases coming to theaters before the end of the year. And the other films are all Disney films: “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (November 11), “The Strange World” (November 23), “Avatar: Water Road” (December 16).

Cinema owners hope films like “Black Adam” will continue to drive traffic to theaters beyond their opening weekend.

The Television Academy handed out the fortune during the 74th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday night, handing out 24 awards to more than a dozen different programs.

HBO’s The White Lotus took home the most awards during Primetime with five awards, including Outstanding Limited Series. It was closely followed by AppleTV+’s Ted Lasso, which took home four titles, including Outstanding Comedy Series.

Emmy voters have also rewarded titles like “Squid Game” on Netflix and ABC’s Abbott Elementary.

HBO has the highest number of wins, taking home 11 Primetime Emmys, including the Outstanding Drama Series for “Succession.” Its closest competitors were Disney and Apple, each with four wins. Netflix took home three.

“Saturday Night Live” cast member Kenan Thompson hosted the party on NBC and the Peacock streaming service from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

While the ceremony usually airs on Sundays, NBC also has the rights to broadcast National Football League matches on Sunday nights, so it chose to show the award winners on Mondays.

Directed by writer and director Mike White, “The White Lotus” has won several awards. Other winners include Michael Keaton for Dopesick, Jan Smart for Hacks, Jennifer Coolidge for The White Lotus and Julia Garner for Ozark.

Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Abbott Elementary”) won Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, becoming the second black woman in the history of an Emmy to win in that category. Jackie Harry was awarded the “227″” award in 1987. Hwang Dong-hyuk, “Squid Game”, was the first South Korean to win for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. And at the age of 26, Zendaya from “Euphoria” was the youngest person to win the Outstanding Actress Award twice.

Amanda Seyfried won for her role as Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the infamous Theranos, in The Dropout.

“Succession” has 25 nominations, the most, while HBO’s “Ted Lasso” and “The White Lotus” each have 20 nominations. This was followed by Hacks’s Hacks and Only Murders in the Building – each with 17 nominations – and HBO’s Euphoria, which caught 16.

The Television Academy did not separate out awards by network this year. In the past year, there has been some minor controversy over how the nominations are sorted, as many networks also have streaming services. While it seemed appropriate to group network shows and broadcast shows from the same company together, some in the industry felt they should be considered separate distributors.

The 2022 box office hit is a Hollywood underdog story that comes alive.

Although available movie content in theaters is down nearly 40% compared to 2019, annual ticket sales are down nearly 30%, according to data from Comscore.

Audiences are back in movie theaters in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and are spending more than ever on tickets and popcorn. However, the lack of consistent theatrical releases will greatly impact the industry during the crucial final months of the year.

As it stands, there are currently only four potential releases that will hit theaters before the end of December:

• Warner Bros. “Black Adam” – October. 21
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” from Disney and Marvel Studios – November. 11
• Disney Animation Strange World – November. 23
• Disney: The Way of Water’s Avatar – Dec. 16

In 2019, there were nearly two dozen blockbuster-style films on the calendar for the last four months of the year, including “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”.

“Now we’re seeing that as we go into the fall we’ve kind of stalled again, and a lot of that actually falls into the unresolved pandemic issues,” said Shawn Robbins, Senior Media Analyst at BoxOffice.com.

These issues include production shutdowns that delayed film shooting and pressure on the role of visual effects to complete projects on short deadlines.

There is no doubt that moviegoers are interested in returning to movie theaters. Movies like Top Gun: Maverick, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, “Jurassic World: Dominion” and “Thor: Love and Thunder” brought audiences back together. However, with fewer films from all budgets on the list, there are fewer opportunities for studios and movie theater operators to attract customers to the big screen.

“For me, the question now is, when can we go back to watching more of those movies like ‘Everything Everywhere Every Time’ and ‘Elvis’ and ‘The Black Phone?'” Robbins said. ‘, noting that there is potential for some smaller movie releases such as ‘Lyle and Lyle Crocodile’, ‘Amsterdam’ and ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ to achieve stronger-than-expected ticket sales. Universal’s Halloween Kills will be shown in theaters and at Peacock on October 14.

“The hope is that it will happen later in the fall and during the holidays,” he said. “But it will already be 2023 at this point before there is some consistency on a monthly basis again.”

This is why many studios have turned to content libraries, and films previously released in theaters, to lure people back to movie theaters. Disney has already brought the previous Star Wars “Rogue One” movie back into theaters and has plans to relaunch the original “Avatar” at the end of September. Sony, too, is in the midst of releasing an upgraded version of “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

Rereleases are nothing new in the industry, especially when it comes to major anniversary milestones for popular and iconic features, but 90% of those shows are scheduled through Fathom Events, not the studios themselves, according to data from Comscore. Fathom is a joint venture of AMC, Regal, and Cinemark that brings old titles back to cinemas for limited entries.

Fathom’s upcoming annual shows include the 40th anniversary of “Star Trek: Wrath of Khan,” the 10th anniversary of “Pitch Perfect,” the 40th anniversary of “Poltergeist” and the 60th anniversary of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The company also releases a list of Halloween titles in October, including 1932’s “The Mummy,” 1935’s “Frankenstein’s Bride,” 1954’s “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” and 1943’s “Phantom of the Opera.” Plus, it’ll celebrate the anniversary. The 25th anniversary of “Scream 2” and the 30th anniversary of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”.

Fathom is also working with Universal to release three Judd Apatow films ahead of the romantic comedy “Bros,” which hits theaters on September 3. 30.

Re-releases of “Forget Sarah Marshall,” “Train Wreck,” and “Knocked Up” are set to begin in September. 19, with pre-recorded introductions directed by Nicholas Stoller and co-stars Billy Eichner and Luke MacFarlane.

Action movies dominated the box office in 2022, so counter-programming like this romantic comedy could entice demographics that weren’t eager to return to movie theaters or bring back customers looking to enjoy a different genre on the big screen.

These re-releases allow cinemas to obtain additional content and market “Bros” to the public, said Ray Nat, CEO of Fathom.

Likewise, Disney hopes that the re-release of “Avatar” at the end of September will attract fans and boost interest in the upcoming sequel, “The Way of Water.”

“The box office is currently at over $5.3 billion so far, which is significantly higher than the last two years at this point, but naturally down from 2019 and 2018,” said Paul DeGarabedian, Senior Media Analyst at ComScore.

With big blockbusters like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in November, and obviously, “Avatar: The Way of Water” in December, among others, the industry is likely to end up with a projected 2022 domestic box office production of around $7.5 billion. ,” he said. “This is frankly a great result for an industry that saw 2020 levels at just $2.3 billion and 2021 that ended up at $4.6 billion.”

Dergarabedian and Robbins noted that 2023 has a much stronger slate of films, both in terms of number of films and variety of content. With more films coming out and getting more frequent, the domestic box office in general is expected to make a stronger recovery.

The 2022 box office lost “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” which was scheduled for December 3. 21, last month when Warner Bros. Discovery pushed the film to March 17, 2023. It replaced Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which will now arrive on Christmas Day in 2023.

“The first quarter is full of big films that should create momentum leading to a strong summer next year,” said Durgarabedian.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.