After pulling back the curtain on its data for the first time last year, Netflix quietly dropped the insights for the second half of 2023 yesterday, publishing the second What We Watched report. The exhaustive viewing updates, far bigger troves than the company's weekly Top 10 lists, are released twice a year. According to the report, audiences watched 90B hours of Netflix content from July to December 2023, which is on par with the first half of the year. The top-ranking title in the latest report is apocalyptic film Leave the World Behind with 121M views. Big TV hits included One Piece (71.6M), Who is Erin Carter? (50.1M) and Lupin (49.7M) and Sex Education (46.3M). The report encompasses Netflix’s entire catalog, listing thousands of titles. As ever, Deadline has delved deep, examining the powerful performance of animation in the streamer's top 100, the relatively poor performance of sports content, numbers on HBO's licensed originals and a surprise German smash. >>>See The Data |
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'Inside Out 2' Set To Rule Summer - Disney/Pixar's Inside Out 2 came on tracking and sources are saying it’s bound to be the highest opening at the domestic box office year-to-date, inching out Dune: Part Two ($82.5M) and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire ($80M). >>>Estimates Megaspending Moviemakers - Last week in Cannes, critics, friends, family and fans finally got a look at the utopian fever dream titled Megalopolis, for which Francis Coppola put $120 million of his own money on the line. But one long-term participant in Coppola's dramatic career was a non-presence in Cannes: George Lucas. Next year, the bearded, silver-haired Lucas will open his own self financed mega-production. >>> Peter Bart's Column 'Fellow Travelers' Script - Deadline’s It Starts on the Page features standout limited or anthology series scripts in 2024 Emmy contention. In the forward to his script for the premiere, “You’re Wonderful,” show creator Ron Nyswaner reveals the questions planted in the episode as well as the central question of the series. >>>Read It ElectionLine Podcast - Deadline’s Ted Johnson and Dominic Patten speak with Anthony D’Alessandro in Cannes about Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, which premiered this week. Also, how social media took a standard FBI form on the use of force related to a search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and morphed it into a conspiracy theory. And a look at how literally everything went wrong this week with the media rollout of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's call for elections on July 4. >>> Listen |
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In an interview at Deadline's Cannes Studio, Zoe Saldaña dove into her process, how she landed her role in Emilia Perez via Zoom and how the film was a breath of fresh of air in between back-to-back Avatar movie shoots. Her biggest anxiety wasn’t so much the singing and dancing in Emilia Perez, but “keeping up with Karla [Sofía Gascón, who plays a cartel lord]. "She was playing these two characters, she surrendered so much...I wanted to make sure that they she could lean into me,” Zoe says. >>>Watch The Interview |
| Exclusive With a new last name, Naomi is stepping into the spotlight. Ever Carradine has been promoted to a series regular for the upcoming sixth and final season of Hulu’s flagship drama The Handmaid’s Tale. Exclusive Lorenza Izzo (Hacks) has landed the female lead role in Prime Video's El Gato (w/t) opposite Diego Boneta. The show, based on the comic book series El Gato Negro by Richard Dominguez, was ordered to series in February. Exclusive Dove Cameron (Schmigadoon!) and Avan Jogia (Orphan Black: Echoes) have been set to topline Obsession, a thriller series produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Atomic Monster, which was ordered at the end of last year. Dexter: Original Sin (previously known as Dexter: Origins) has cast the Morgan family: Patrick Gibson (Shadow and Bone) will play a young Dexter Morgan; Golden Globe-winner Christian Slater will play his dad Harry Morgan; and Molly Brown (Senior Year) will play Dexter’s younger sister, Debra Morgan. |
| More News ⛰️ Paramount Global and Charter Communications have reached a multi-year carriage renewal. The resolution follows months of speculation and fills in a key blank in Paramount's ongoing efforts to explore a sale of all or part of the company. The renewal includes Paramount’s full linear network portfolio and also boosts distribution of Paramount+ and other streaming services across Charter systems. 🌍 Universal Pictures has announced a new original event film created and directed by Steven Spielberg set for May 15, 2026. Uni always had the weekend reserved for an event title. No rival wide entries have staked out the same date as of yet. 🎥 Laura Linney (Ozark), Ben Semanoff (Ozark) and Justin Kurzel (Macbeth) round out the director lineup for Netflix‘s upcoming limited series Black Rabbit , starring and executive produced by Jude Law and Jason Bateman. Each is slated to helm two episodes of the 8-episode series. 📈 Lionsgate blew past Wall Street’s expectations for the March quarter, its fiscal fourth, on a few key metrics from revenue to adjusted EPS and operating income, as library sales and ramped-up content deliveries helped propel TV profits by 83%. |
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Obituaries 🕯️ Morgan Spurlock, the documentary filmmaker best known for his 2004 breakout Super Size Me, died Thursday at his home in New York of complications from cancer. He was 53. Through his company, Warrior Poets, Spurlock produced or directed nearly 70 film and TV titles. He collaborated with his brother, Craig Spurlock, on several documentary projects, including Morgan Spurlock Inside Man and 7 Deadly Sins. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas, and generosity," Craig Spurlock said. "The world has lost a true creative genius and a special man.” 🕯️ Patrick Gottsch, who founded The Cowboy Channel in 2017, died on Saturday, May 18 at the Fort Worth Stockyards. He was 70 and no cause was given. 🕯️ 2024 Entertainment & Media Deaths Photo Gallery |
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On the Radar Fri - Furiosa opens Sat - Palme d'Or announced Sun - French Open tennis tournament begins Mon - Memorial Day |
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"Love's Heavy Burden" - Jamie Lloyd’s stark, modern-dress production of Romeo & Juliet starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers as the tragic star-crossed lovers opened Thursday at the Duke of York’s Theatre. And, yes, Holland's girlfriend, Zendaya, was there. |
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