LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – K-Pop band BTS roared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in the United States on Monday, becoming the first Korean pop act to debut at No. 1. “Dynamite,” the first all-English language single from the seven-member boy ba... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – French media conglomerate Vivendi (VIV.PA) and activist fund Amber Capital – the two biggest shareholders in French company Lagardere (LAGA.PA) – said they would go to court over Lagardere’s refusal to hold a special shareholders meeting. The... More »
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish President Michael D. Higgins joined a virtual celebration of Van Morrison’s 75th birthday on Monday, namechecking U.S. civil rights champion John Lewis and author James Baldwin in a spoken-word rendition of one of the Northern Irishman... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Notting Hill Carnival, a highlight of the British summer, may have been cancelled this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a couple of colourful individuals on Monday were determined to bring some festival spirit to west London’s quie... More »
(Reuters) – Lady Gaga dominated the MTV Video Music Awards show on Sunday, with a series of visually arresting outfits, masked performances and four wins, including artist of the year. Gaga, who went into the show sharing a leading nine nominations with Ariana... More »
(Reuters) – The MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) were held as a mostly virtual event on Sunday, with some performances in front of a limited audience at locations in New York City. Following is a list of winners in key categories: VIDEO OF THE YEAR The Weeknd – “... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S streaming giant Netflix is ramping up its mobile-only subscription plans in Southeast Asia and expanding local content, senior executives told Reuters, just as arch-rival Disney arrives in the fast-growing market. The world’s biggest ... More »
(This August 13 story corrects to show that 2019 and 2020 H1 results are based on different accounting standards in paragraph 3, changes percentage change to profit figure in paragraph 1) By Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) – Big Hit Entertainment, the management lab... More »
SARAJEVO (Reuters) – The Sarajevo Film Festival will be launched entirely online on Friday after a spike in coronavirus cases forced organisers to cancel plans to stage Europe’s first in-person movie fair since the outbreak of the pandemic. Just ten days ago a... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – This year’s Notting Hill Carnival will swap the streets of West London for computer screens around the world, as the event turns online-only due to the coronavirus pandemic, streaming hours of music and performance. Held at the end of August... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A new “Star Wars” holiday special produced with Legos will debut on Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ streaming service in November, the company said on Thursday. The special will feature Rey and other characters from the most recent “Star Wars”... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – MTV has abandoned the idea of holding its Video Music Awards show at an indoor venue in New York because of the complications of the coronavirus epidemic. The VMA show on Aug. 30, which traditionally features live performances from musi... More »
(Reuters) – AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc said on Thursday it expects all its international theaters to resume operations in the next two to three weeks, while two-thirds or more of its U.S. theaters are set to reopen later this month. Movie theaters across t... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Jennifer Grey, the actress who starred opposite Patrick Swayze in romantic drama “Dirty Dancing,” will appear in a sequel to the classic 1987 movie, the studio behind the film announced on Thursday. Grey also will serve as an executive ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Singer-actress Selena Gomez has been cooking up a storm during the coronavirus lockdown and is now ready to share her hilarious and sometimes embarrassing efforts with the rest of the world. “Selena + Chef,” a 10-episode unscripted seri... More »
(Reuters) – Eleven years after the sudden death of actress Natasha Richardson, her husband Liam Neeson and their son have found renewed healing in their first film together, “Made in Italy.” “Reading the script was like, what? This is so weird. Like, surely Mo... More »
(Reuters) – Actor Wilford Brimley, best known for his roles in the Oscar-winning movie “Cocoon” and “The Firm” has died at the age of 85, U.S. media reported. Utah-born Brimley found his way into the film industry through stunt work around horse riding, before... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British filmmaker Alan Parker, director of movies ranging from “Bugsy Malone”, a gangster comedy featuring children armed with machineguns that fired cream, to the tense prison drama “Midnight Express”, died on Friday aged 76. Parker, who al... More »
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc said on Friday that its users in the United States would be able to view and share official music videos on its platform, in a move to better compete with Alphabet Inc’s video platform YouTube. Facebook, which had 2.7 billion monthly a... More »
(Reuters) – Jazz artist Gregory Porter, whose new single “Concorde” is an ode to space exploration, is set to perform on Thursday as part of a ceremony marking the launch of NASA’s next generation rover that will search for signs of habitable conditions on Mar... More »
(Reuters) – Regis Philbin, a familiar face to TV viewers as an energetic and funny talk and game show host who logged more hours in front of the camera than anyone else in the history of U.S. television, has died aged 88, People magazine said on Saturday, citi... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Taylor Swift on Friday won some of the best reviews of her career with an album produced entirely during the coronavirus crisis that breaks new ground for the Grammy-winning artist. “Folklore” features the 30-year-old singer, who began ... More »
SHANGHAI/SEOUL (Reuters) – Some K-pop stars’ accounts have been blocked from view on TikTok’s China equivalent Douyin, Reuters’ checks showed on Friday, days after South Korea’s media regulator slapped fines on the short-video app for data privacy noncomplianc... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood increased the numbers of gay and bisexual characters in movies in 2019, but most of them had only fleeting screen time and there were no transgender characters at all, according to a survey released on Thursday. The Studio Res... More »
(Reuters) – American actress Kelly Preston who has appeared in films including “Jerry Maguire” and “Twins”, has died aged 57 after battling breast cancer for nearly two years, her husband, John Travolta, announced in an Instagram post late on Sunday. “It is wi... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A little-known member of one of rock ‘n’ roll music’s royal families, Benjamin Keough, grandson of the late Elvis Presley and only son of the “The King’s” daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, has died aged 27, her spokesman said on Sunday. The... More »
(Reuters) – The Dalai Lama made a bid for music chart stardom on Monday, his 85th birthday, with the release of an album of mantras and teachings. “Inner World” kicks off with the track “One Of My Favourite Prayers” and continues with the exiled Tibetan spirit... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer whose haunting scores to Spaghetti Westerns like “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” helped define a cinematic era, has died, his lawyer said on Monday. He was 91. Morricone had bro... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Elton John on Monday became the second artist to be honoured by Britain’s Royal Mint with a commemorative coin paying tribute to the decorated British singer-songwriter. The coin, designed by artist Bradley Morgan Johnson, depicts John’s dis... More »
ROME – Ennio Morricone, whose scores for movies such as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, “The Mission” and “Cinema Paradiso” made him one of the world’s most famous and prolific screen composers, has died, ANSA news agency said on Monday. He was 91. ANSA said... More »
PRAGUE (Reuters) – A Czech film festival disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic unveiled a scaled-down programme of movies on Friday with an opening ceremony in an empty auditorium and a star-free red carpet. The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, central a... More »
CARACAS(Reuters) – With Venezuela now three months into a coronavirus quarantine that has kept children locked indoors, music and art teachers and storytellers are for the first time moving their classes online. The change is an uphill battle in the South Amer... More »
(Reuters) – Broadway theaters will remain closed through Jan. 3, 2021, industry group the Broadway League said on Monday, extending their coronavirus-related shutdown for another four months. The New York City theaters, which went dark in mid-March, had previo... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Soundtracks from the golden age of Italian cinema are to be made available to a new generation of music and film lovers under a new partnership between Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sugar, Italy’s leading independent label. More than 2,000... More »
(Reuters) – AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc said on Monday it has delayed the reopening of its theaters in the United States by two weeks to July 30. The world’s largest movie theater operator said that the date aligns with the release of Disney’s “Mulan” and C... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – There won’t be any moshing going on, but entertainment company Live Nation Entertainment are rolling out a series of gigs across the UK where fans can be together to get their fix of live events from the safety of their own designated area. ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “American Idol” winner Kelly Clarkson, actor Zac Efron and British star Benedict Cumberbatch are among celebrities who will be getting a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 2021. Shia LaBeouf, Missy Elliott and “American Pie” singer-son... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Filmmaker Ava DuVernay is urging writers, dancers, poets and other artists to help make the names of abusive police officers as well known as their victims. Media company ARRAY, founded by DuVernay, has launched the Law Enforcement Acco... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Many directors would have been devastated when their plans to show their first feature at the Cannes Film Festival were wrecked by the spread of COVID-19. But Lebanon’s Jimmy Keyrouz said he took heart from the themes of his movie “Broken Ke... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Filming the sequel of James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar” will bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars to New Zealand after it ended its coronavirus outbreak, the film’s producer told media as production resumed on Monday.... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bob Dylan gave a glimpse into his song-writing process, commented on the death of George Floyd and said in a rare interview published on Friday that he wished he had written the Rolling Stones ballad “Angie.” Dylan’s wide-ranging conver... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – “The world is full of idiots,” said ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, as he condemned critics of the Black Lives Matter movement and voiced his support of the worldwide protests against racism and police brutality. “The solidarity that we see in the ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Dancers from Britain’s Royal Ballet have made a short film in which they perform in London’s deserted streets to the sounds of The Rolling Stones, a project designed to highlight the plight of the arts during the global coronavirus pandemic.... More »
(Reuters) – Actress Cate Blanchett suffered an accident with a chainsaw during the coronavirus lockdown with her family, she revealed during a podcast. The Oscar-winning star of films like “Blue Jasmine” and “Aviator” gave no details about the mishap but said ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – London’s world-famous Abbey Road Studios reopened on Thursday after closing its doors during the coronavirus lockdown for the first time in its 90-year history. Celebrated for recording the likes of Edward Elgar, The Beatles and Lady Gaga, t... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – The chariots of 1959 epic “Ben Hur” and the yellow brick road of 1939 fantasy “The Wizard of Oz” are back on the big screen in Japan as cinemas begin reopening from the coronavirus crisis with a slate heavy on Hollywood classics. James Dean s... More »
(Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) top streaming executive, Kevin Mayer, will leave the entertainment and theme parks giant to become the chief executive officer of TikTok, the popular video app owned by China’s ByteDance Technology Co, the companies said on... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – American jazz singer Melody Gardot is inviting musicians around the world to play along digitally on her new album to overcome the solitude and financial strain of coronavirus lockdowns. For the song “From Paris with Love” on her new album, G... More »
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – He rose from South Africa’s poorest province to become one of the world’s most successful DJs, entertaining millions in dance clubs all over the globe, but the COVID-19 lockdown has got DJ Black Coffee wondering about the future of the... More »
OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) – On stage in an empty auditorium, backed by starry lights, Patrick Kabre plucks his electric guitar and sings through a microphone to an audience many miles away. Kabre is contributing to COVID-Live, a series of sessions by musicians bro... More »
BOGOTA (Reuters) – This time there are no lights, cameras, dressing rooms or the hundreds of people who usually crowd a film shoot. There is just a mobile phone, a tripod, a bathroom and “Action!” Colombian director Harold Trompetero, who has directed 21 films... More »
(Reuters) – Country music star Keith Urban performed a surprise live show at a drive-in movie theater in Nashville in a test drive for how concerts might look in the era of social distancing. Urban, on stage with just one other musician, played at the Stardust... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Fans may have to wait until the fall for the “Friends” reunion special as HBO Max executives are holding out hopes of filming it before a live audience rather than shooting the much-anticipated get together remotely with stars under qua... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jerry Stiller, who played two of American television’s most cantankerous fathers on the sitcoms “Seinfeld” and “The King of Queens,” has died aged 92, his son Ben Stiller said on Twitter on Monday. “I’m sad to say that my father, Jerry Sti... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Taylor Swift on Thursday revived her feud with her former record company, complaining that the release of a 2008 collection of recordings for a radio show was “tasteless.” “I want to thank my fans for making me aware that my former reco... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Whitney Houston is headed back to the big screen in a feature film about the singer’s life that took her to the heights of fame but ended in drug addiction and tragedy. Taking its title from one of Houston’s biggest hits – “I Wanna Danc... More »
(Reuters) – AT&T Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will make its HBO Max streaming service free to some customers when it launches on May 27. The HBO Max app will be pre-loaded on the AT&T TV set top box. HBO Max will also be included with the AT&T Internet 10... More »
TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia’s National Ballet, the former Soviet country’s famous folk dance ensemble, started giving lessons online after the group’s popular dance schools closed their doors due to the coronavirus. Around 5,000 kids and teenagers, who used to... More »
(Reuters) – AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (AMC.N), the world’s largest movie theater operator, said on Friday it has enough cash to withstand a global suspension of operations until a possible partial reopening of its locations in July. The company said it wa... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – San Diego Comic-Con, an annual celebrity-studded showcase of superhero films and pop culture, has been canceled for the first time in its 50-year history due to the global coronavirus outbreak, organizers said on Friday. Comic-Con had b... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian brothers Nikita and Egor Zigura work on their sculpture of a giant fingerprint as art enthusiasts look on via a live-streaming internet link and make bids for the developing work. The online auction is part of a new “Stay Art Home” s... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Artist Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to The Beatles’ hit song “Hey Jude” sold for $910,000 on Friday, nine times its original estimate, auction house Julien’s Auctions said. A vintage bass drumhead with The Beatles’ logo that was use... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sketch show “Saturday Night Live” is returning to U.S. television with a new, remotely produced show this weekend, broadcaster NBC said on Thursday. The network said the satirical show, which shut down production in mid-March because of... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian ballet dancers on partial lockdown have begun giving performances at home to keep fans engaged online after theatres across the country closed their doors due to the coronavirus. Seven dancers from the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Pet... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Grammy-winning singer John Prine, who wrote his early songs in his head while delivering mail and later emerged from Chicago’s folk revival scene in the 1970s to become one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, died on ... More »
SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Bosnia’s most popular band, Dubioza Kolektiv, invites its audience to “stay connected and disinfected” during a weekly “Quarantine Show” online to cheer up fans locked in their homes due to the coronavirus. Bosnia, like most states in Euro... More »
(Reuters) – Country music stars will come together on Sunday with acoustic performances recorded from their homes for a televised special that will replace the annual Academy of Country Music Awards, which were canceled due to the global coronavirus outbreak. ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co will release the live-action epic “Mulan” in movie theaters in July and Marvel’s “Black Widow” in November, the company said on Friday as it reshuffled a schedule disrupted by the global coronavirus outbreak. Among other ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The release of the much anticipated movie sequel to “Top Gun” has been moved to December, Paramount Pictures said on Thursday, the latest disruption in the movie industry caused by the coronavirus epidemic. “Top Gun: Maverick,” starring... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Fans of musical theatre forced by the coronavirus pandemic to stay at home will be able to watch some of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most popular shows for free on Youtube every week. The series, entitled “The Shows Must Go On!”, will kick off on ... More »
(Reuters) – Netflix Inc led rivals YouTube, Amazon Prime and Disney+ with over 59 million installs in the first quarter of 2020, but more time was spent on YouTube’s Kids service as usage boomed following the shutdown of thousands of schools in March. YouTube,... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) Disney+ content will be available for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa on regional pay television and online streaming service provider OSN from April 9. Dubai-headquartered OSN has signed a “long-te... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Billie Eilish sang on her sofa, Elton John played a keyboard belonging to his children, and the Backstreet Boys sang in harmony from five locations as dozens of musicians put on a fundraiser for the warriors against a coronavirus. Those... More »
WARSAW/KRAKOW (Reuters) – Poland’s Krzysztof Penderecki, one of the world’s most celebrated composers, died on Sunday at the age of 86, his family said. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bob Dylan on Friday released a 17-minute song inspired by the assassination more than five decades ago of U.S. President John F. Kennedy – the influential singer’s first original music since 2012. Dylan, 78, announced the release of “Mu... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish opera singer Placido Domingo said on Sunday he had tested positive for coronavirus and had gone into self isolation with his family. “We are currently all in good health but I developed a cough and a fever and decided to get tested, ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Movie studios Walt Disney and Universal Pictures said on Thursday they were suspending the release of box office data because of the closure of movie theaters in multiple countries in a bid to contain the coronavirus. The decision follo... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The Cannes Film Festival, the world’s largest, was forced to postpone its latest edition in May due to the spread of the coronavirus, organisers of the annual event on the French Riviera said on Thursday. The postponement follows weeks of spe... More »
(Reuters) – Abigail Disney, grand daughter of Walt Disney Co’s co-founder Roy Disney, slammed a Twitter post showing a huge crowd at Sunday night’s showing of ‘Happily Ever After’, a fireworks show in Florida’s Magic Kingdom theme park. “Are you … kidding me??... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – Much of public life in the United States essentially ground to a halt this week. In the entertainment world, theme parks shut down, Broadway went dark, studios pulled major tentpoles from their release calendar, and virtually all H... More »
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The filming in Mexico of a big budget Steven Spielberg-produced Amazon mini-series, starring Spanish actor Javier Bardem, has been suspended due to concerns about the coronavirus, according to a letter sent to cast and crew on Friday an... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. theater operators moved to prevent the spread of coronavirus and reassure audiences ahead of a weekend with options ranging from satirical thriller “The Hunt” to Pixar animated adventure “Onward” and faith-based film “I Still Belie... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – Universal and Blumhouse’s “The Invisible Man” materialized at the top of box office charts after debuting to $29 million in North America over the weekend. “The Invisible Man” is Universal’s latest attempt to remake its classic mon... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – A drama film shot in secret to evade government censorship that highlights the moral dilemmas faced by those caught in the web of Iran’s capital punishment machine won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear award on Saturday. “There Is No Ev... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Roman Polanski cast a shadow over France’s Cesar Awards on Friday even as he won best directing for his film “An Officer and a Spy,” with several women in the audience walking out in protest at honoring a man facing rape accusations. The Fren... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Filming of Netflix Inc’s big-budget Dwayne Johnson movie “Red Notice” had been scheduled to move to Italy in the coming weeks, but producers now are exploring other locations due to the coronavirus outbreak in the country, a source clos... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Mad Mike” Hughes, a self-styled explorer and daredevil bent on proving that the earth is flat was killed over the weekend when his homemade rocket crashed in the California desert over the weekend. “Michael ‘Mad Mike’ Hughes tragically... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – After a close box office battle, Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” pulled ahead of Disney and 20th Century’s “The Call of the Wild” on North American charts. The two movies had been in a tug-of-war for first place. Heading into the ... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – Paramount’s family film “Sonic the Hedgehog” ignited over Presidents Day weekend with $57 million in North America and $100 million globally, the best showing ever for a video game adaptation. “Sonic” is expected to earn $68 millio... More »
(Reuters) – At the heart of Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape trial is a power dynamic between a producer of some of the biggest culture-defining films of the past 20 years and two women who accuse him of abusing that stature by sexually assaulting them. Weinst... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Parasite,” a dark social satire from South Korea, won the Oscar for best picture on Sunday, making history as the first film in a language other than English to claim the movie industry’s highest honor. “Parasite,” about the gap betwee... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean social media erupted in celebration on Monday after the dark comedy “Parasite” became the first non-English language movie to win the Best Picture award, already having netted three other Oscars in a historic first for the countr... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s parliament will soon begin debating a sweeping new bill that proposes corporate tax cuts and seeks to make internet giants pay more taxes, as part of a wider plan to simplify laws and boost investments in Southeast Asia’s bigges... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – At an Oscars ceremony nearly devoid of acting nominees of color and lacking any women among the contenders for best director, it fell to an Asian filmmaker and his cast to bring diversity to the American film industry’s highest honors. ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “American Factory,” a Netflix film from Barack and Michelle Obama’s nascent production house chronicling what happened to a group of Ohio autoworkers laid off during the 2008 recession, won the Oscar for best documentary feature on Sund... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Academy Awards, the highest honors in the movie industry, were handed out on Sunday at a ceremony in Hollywood. Following is a list of winners in key categories: Best Picture “Parasite” (Neon) Best Actor Joaquin Phoenix – “Joker” Be... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Three-year-old independent film distributor Neon upstaged the traditional Hollywood studios and streaming giant Netflix Inc on Sunday to grab the coveted best picture Oscar for South Korean have-and-have-nots tale “Parasite.” The movie ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Renee Zellweger was crowned best actress at the Oscars on Sunday for her portrait of Hollywood legend Judy Garland in “Judy,” a biographical drama exploring the singer’s personal and professional turmoil at the end of her life. It marke... More »
LOS ANGELES, (Variety.com) – Box office newcomers “Rhythm Section” and “Gretel and Hansel” fumbled as “Bad Boys for Life” remained champions during a painfully slow Super Bowl weekend. Football’s biggest matchup is usually a slow time at movie theaters since S... More »
(Reuters) – British actress Imelda Staunton will play an older Queen Elizabeth in the final season of award-winning television series “The Crown,” the show’s creator said on Friday. The Netflix series about the British royal family will end after five seasons ... More »
