Gran Canaria exceeded my expectations, but it was my stay at a five-star resort that really took my breath away and reminded me of my favourite Disney movie. But one thing shocked me
The terracotta walls served as the perfect backdrop for pictures
Gran Canaria is one of the underrated gems of the Canary Islands – often overshadowed by its sister island and party hotspot Tenerife – but now that I’m on the lookout for a trip with a slower pace, mentions of Gran Canaria being a slice of luxury and less than four hours away finally swayed me.
The island is the third-largest of the Canaries and boasts a rural and mountainous terrain. My hotel for the four-day trip was nestled high in the mountains, with a view of the sea and a rooftop pool, meaning I could sunbathe from sunrise to sunset with uninterrupted rays (I was, of course, wearing a high level of SPF and made sure to top this up regularly).
The Salobre Hotel Resort & Serenity, a five-star hotel, served as my residence during my time in the south of Gran Canaria and proved to be a perfect base, roughly 10 minutes from the beach via shuttle and half an hour away from the picturesque Puerto de Mogán.
The modern-Mediterranean aesthetic was right up my street
My hotel had a view of the sea and mountains
The drive up to the hotel delivers breathtaking views of Gran Canaria’s landscape, the lone drive feels like a trip along the Route 66 and prepares you for a stay filled with rest, relaxation and peace. As I got closer to the hotel, scenes of vivacious green lawns and palm trees serve as the ideal golfing environment.
For fans of Disney’s critically acclaimed High School Musical trilogy, you’ll find yourself in a real-life version of Lava Springs, from High School Musical 2. I could’ve sworn Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) was belting Bet On It on the other side of the gold course.
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The Salobre Hotel’s terracotta, limewash walls and modern-Mediterranean aesthetic oozed wellness and luxury. The entire place felt airy and tinged in sunset, providing the perfect backdrop for pictures.
Rooms for two come with more than enough space to help you feel at home and come fitted with a panoramic shower and bath room and 80 per cent cotton bedding and hypoallergenic feather pillows. Salobre understand the importance of sleeping well and with views of natural landscapes and the golf course just outside my balcony, it’s no surprise that I only had sweet dreams.
The rooftop pool area is low-lit at night for the best view of the stars
The food, served at the Sens restaurant and rotating between global cuisines from Italian to Chinese on a daily basis, and the Be Aloe Spa, which boasted an infinity pool, oxygen therapy booth and a Finnish sauna, were commendable to say the least.
The only thing that really caught me by surprise was the five-minute walk from the hotel lobby to my room, but I guess that highlights just how spacious the hotel is.
A highlight of my stay had to be an evening under the stars by the hotel’s Sunset bar. The area is purposefully low-lit, to ensure the best view of the stars above. If you’re over the loud, bold parties of the summer and need a place to settle and recenter, I highly recommend Gran Canaria’s Salobre Hotel Resort.
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DARTH Vader’s lightsaber has been sold for £2.7million — making it the most expensive Star Wars prop in history.
The fake weapon, made from an old flash camera attachment, beat pre-sale expectations by £100,000.
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The lightsaber used by Star Wars villain Darth Vader has been auctioned off for £2.7 millionCredit: Rex
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An old British press camera flash handle was modified to make the propCredit: SWNS
It was famously used in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back in the battle where baddie Vader chops off Luke Skywalker’s hand — then reveals that he is, in fact, his opponent’s father.
Brandon Alinger, of auction house Propstore in Los Angeles, said: “The result marks a landmark moment for the entire world of film collecting.”
“To see a Star Wars lightsaber – the symbol of one of cinema’s greatest sagas – become the highest-valued piece of the franchise ever sold at auction is incredibly special.”
He added: “It speaks to the enduring cultural power of Star Wars and the passion of fans and collectors who see these artifacts as touchstones of modern mythology.”
The 1ft (32cm) green lightsaber was used in scenes by Darth Vader actor David Prowse and stunt performer Bob Anderson.
In the pre-auction process it was described as “one of the most significant cinema artefacts ever.”
Other items sold on Thursday night included the Spider-Man suit worn by Tobey Maguire in the 2002 superhero film, which went for $289,800 (£214,000).
Harrison Ford‘s eight-foot bullwhip, belt and whip holster from Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989) beat its pre-sale estimate to sell for $485,100 (£360,000).
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The lightsaber is the most expensive Star Wars prop ever to be soldCredit: Alamy
Dave Prowse dead – Darth Vader actor who played Luke Skywalker’s father in Star Wars dies after short illness, aged 85
Warner Bros. Discovery has joined a key copyright infringement case that could test the legal bounds of using artificial intelligence to create digital replicas of well-known characters.
The company on Thursday filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court against AI company Midjourney Inc., alleging its image generator produces blatant rip-offs of Warner’s well-known and copyright-protected characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Scooby-Doo.
With the suit, Warner Bros. Discovery joins a legal fight brought in June by Walt Disney Co. and Comcast’s Universal Pictures. The Disney and Universal lawsuit marked the first salvo by major studios to elevate the legal struggle over AI-enabled intellectual property, calling it content theft.
The addition of Warner Bros. Discovery could boost Disney’s and Universal’s case. The three entertainment industry leaders control much of the most valuable intellectual property in Hollywood.
Disney’s stable includes Star Wars, Woody the Cowboy, Winnie the Pooh, the Simpsons and Disney princesses. Universal boasts such beasts as the Hulk, Shrek and the Minions.
Warner Bros. controls characters from DC Comics , Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera .
It sued on behalf of Warner Bros. , DC Comics, Turner Entertainment Co., Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., and the Cartoon Network. The company, which asked for a jury trial, is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction.
The companies allege the four-year-old San Francisco firm Midjourney, which has millions of paid subscribers, built its business off decades of hard work by Hollywood artists, writers and studios.
Midjourney, on its website, describes itself as “an independent research lab exploring new mediums of thought and expanding the imaginative powers of the human species.” Midjourney offers its subscribers use of an image generator to create high-resolution digital depictions, including famous characters like Batman.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Universal allege that Midjourney trained its generative AI programs by using their copyrighted works. They contend that Midjourney-enabled creations are almost identical to their original copyrighted cartoons. Warner Bros.’ lawsuit included side-by-side renderings of its characters and Midjourney’s reproductions to illustrate the identical details, such as the color of Scooby-Doo’s collar and fur.
Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The heart of what we do is develop stories and characters to entertain our audiences, bringing to life the vision and passion of our creative partners,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement. “Midjourney is blatantly and purposefully infringing copyrighted works, and we filed this suit to protect our content, our partners, and our investments.”
Warner Bros. Discovery pointed to the value of its franchises, including its DC Comics movies. Films featuring the DC Extended Universe, which were released from 2018 through 2023, generated more than $7 billion in global ticket sales. Each film earned an average of $479 million, the lawsuit said.
“Only Warner Bros. Discovery has the right under U.S. Copyright law to build a business around reproducing, preparing derivative works, distributing, publicly displaying, and performing images and videos featuring its copyrighted characters,” the company said in its lawsuit.
Such exclusive rights and protections allow Warner Bros. Discovery and other studios to make massive investments in content, the lawsuit said, adding: “That is the cornerstone of the U.S. Copyright Act.”
Disney and Universal applauded Warner Bros. for joining their legal battle.
“Disney is committed to protecting our creators and innovators, and we’re pleased to be joined by Warner Bros. Discovery in the fight against Midjourney’s blatant copyright infringement,” Disney said in a statement.
Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring: Last RitesCredit: PA
FOR over a decade, the Conjuring franchise has been scaring us silly with its “true stories”.
But this will be the final haunted hurrah from parapsychologists Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson).
The married couple are as devoted to keeping bad spirits at bay as they are each other.
The film begins with a flashback to 1964, where a haunted mirror causes Lorraine to go into early labour.
The birth is traumatic and the demon that wants to get her young baby, Judy, almost wins, with the tot being stillborn.
Evil presence
But after begging the Lord to make the baby breathe, Lorraine wins that battle and we see the loving family grow up with happiness around them.
All while ghostbusting, of course.
But demons don’t rest and Judy, who has visions like her mum, often feels that she is being watched.
Fast-forward to 1986 and the Warrens are retired due to Ed having a heart condition.
But that pesky mirror turns up again, this time in the family home of the Smurls in Pennsylvania.
There are some seriously creepy goings-on and this is a demon not to be messed with. The Smurls have been so violently attacked by a powerful evil presence that they all live in terror.
Spooky Rhode Island home that inspired movie The Conjuring hits market for $1.2million after owners see ‘ghosts’ inside
As usual in these films, what you don’t see is far more terrifying than what you do.
Every usual horror trope is thrown out with a vengeance. But hey, if it ain’t broke. . .
And it certainly feels like it’s not, as my palms grew clammy and heart rate shot up countless times.
The performances by Farmiga and Wilson are as extraordinary as always, bringing believable calm to the roles.
The climax of the supernatural events includes daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) and her boyfriend Tony (Brit actor Ben Hardy), are both tense and unsettling.
Directed by Michael Chaves, who was also the director for the three previous entries in the franchise, the film has a hand-held camera effect that tunes into the 1980s feel very well indeed.
There’s also a nice rounding off at the end with some familiar faces that superfans will appreciate.
A spine-tingling finale to a series of films that will likely haunt generations of fans to come.
ON SWIFT HORSES
(15) 119mins
★★☆☆☆
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Will Poulter as Lee and Daisy Edgar-Jones as MurielCredit: PA
THIS odd beast of a film from Daniel Minahan is adapted from Shannon Pufahl’s 2019 novel.
It opens with Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her soon-to-be husband, Lee (Will Poulter), chasing the Californian dream after his return from the Korean War.
Their plans for a fresh start are almost derailed by the arrival of Lee’s magnetic younger brother, Julius (Jacob Elordi), who departs for Las Vegas the next day.
There, Julius finds work in a casino and falls into a secret romance with his charismatic coworker, Henry (Diego Calva).
Back in California, Muriel begins her own double life, gambling at racetracks and discovering an unexpected passion with her neighbour, Sandra (Sasha Calle).
On paper, this is rich material, but on screen, Minahan never quite delivers the goods.
The film certainly looks the part – Andre Chemetoff’s cinematography bathes everything in a golden haze – but beneath the gloss there isn’t enough here to truly hold it together.
In the end, On Swift Horses aspires to be a sweeping saga in the vein of East Of Eden, but it never gets out of a slow trot.
All style, with little substance.
LINDA MARRIC
THE COURAGEOUS
(12A) 83mins
★★★★☆
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The Courageous is an honest portrait of survival, love, and dignity
JASMIN GORDON’S debut feature film is an honest portrait of survival, love, and dignity.
Set against the beautiful landscape of Switzerland’s Valais region, it follows Jule (Ophelia Kolb), a rebellious single mother of three who refuses to give up on her family despite poverty, past mistakes and the indifference of the welfare system.
Kolb, best known for the hugely popular series, Call My Agent!, gives a career-defining performance. She captures Jule’s contradictions with remarkable depth.
Gordon directs with sensitivity, as she blends social realism with poetic imagery in a film that never feels needlessly moralising.
Her film never resorts to cliché or sentimentality; instead, it shines a light on the often invisible battles of the working poor in a modern Swiss society where destitution is often a taboo subject.
This is a powerful, heartfelt drama about love, resilience, and the complexity of being a flawed human.
Gordon’s sensitive direction and Kolb’s mesmerising performance combine to create a film that is both socially aware and profoundly moving.
It may be her first ever feature, but Gordon has made a film that feels both mature and hugely engaging.
The Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission inquiry into alleged violations of child privacy laws.
The settlement, disclosed Tuesday, covers videos that Disney uploaded to YouTube that were not properly marked as children’s content. That lapse allowed the videos to become targets for online advertising, drawing the attention of federal regulators.
The company said the violations did not occur on Disney-owned platforms.
“Supporting the well-being and safety of kids and families is at the heart of what we do,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement. “… Disney has a long tradition of embracing the highest standards of compliance with children’s privacy laws, and we remain committed to investing in the tools needed to continue being a leader in this space.”
A MUM bought Apple AirTags to keep her children safe at Disneyland – only for it to ‘ironically’ leave her daughter in hospital after swallowing the battery.
Lisa Marie says she purchased four of the tracking devices to ‘keep her children safe’ during a family trip to the theme park, but they ended up causing more harm than good.
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The mum originally bought the AirTags to keep her kids safeCredit: Kennedy Newsand Media
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The four year hold was hospitalised after swallowing the button batteryCredit: Kennedy Newsand Media
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The AirTag passed through naturally after four days of stressCredit: Kennedy Newsand Media
After realising the AirTags were broken during the holiday to the popular resort in Anaheim, California, US, in April, Lisa had stored them away in the glovebox of her car while she waited to get them repaired.
But the mum-of-four was left ‘terrified’ when her daughter Lily Grace made a ‘gulping sound’ from the back of the car on May 23 – and she realised that she’d swallowed one of the batteries.
The four-year-old was rushed to hospital where an x-ray scan revealed that the coin-sized battery had already reached her bowel.
The family faced an agonising four-day weight for Lily to pass the battery in her bowel movements – with her three siblings left ‘fearing she was going to die’.
Button batteries can cause significant damage to the lining of the child’s oesophagus or bowel – in some cases it may have burned through the lining completely to form a hole.
In 2020, two-year-old Johnathan Huff tragically died in Greensboro, North Carolina, after swallowing batteries from a remote control, which burned through his internal organs.
Thankfully Lily was left with no lasting side effects and was able to pass the battery naturally.
Lisa says she had repeatedly warned her children of the dangers of button batteries over the years, with the latest warning issued just two weeks prior to the incident.
In a social media post, Lily says her greatest fear had been a child swallowing a button battery so had repeatedly warned her children of the dangers of them over the years.
She goes on to admit the ‘irony’ of the batteries coming from Airtags she had bought to try to keep the kids safe.
iPhone owner admits ‘I’m actually scared’ after pop-up appears on Lock Screen – Apple reveals urgent steps if you see it
The stay-at-home mum is now urging other parents to ‘throw away’ items containing button batteries.
Lisa said: “I bought the Apple Airtags to keep my kids safe. Disneyland is scary so I bought them to track my kids.
“The things that I thought would keep my kids safe are actually what caused harm.
“The AirTags weren’t working so I put them into our glove box so that we could take them to the Apple Store.
“I never ended up finding one so we came back home and I forgot they were there. I thought I’d eventually get them fixed.
“I didn’t think that my daughter would go into the glove box, let alone open up the Airtags and find a button battery and swallow it.
“She was sat in the back of the car and she made a big gulp sound and told me she’d swallowed a quarter.
“Me and my husband were like what do you mean? Why would you swallow a quarter?
“It was crazy to us that anyone would do that but when she started making sounds, all I thought it my head was that it was a button battery.”
Lisa and her husband Markus, 48, originally from the US but now living in Vancouver Island, Canada, rushed Lily to hospital where an x-ray scan revealed there was a button battery in her bowel.
She didn’t require surgery but the family faced an agonising four-day wait for the button battery to pass through in her bowel movements.
Lisa said: “As a mum, when we figured out it was a button battery I was like okay, her whole insides are burned out. I was on the bathroom floor of the hospital crying.
“It was very emotional and my husband had to dress up in surgery scrubs to see if they could scope it out.
“They couldn’t because it had gone to her bowels already – it was good that it was moving.”
They were then sent home and told to wait four days for things to progress.
“I was giving her laxatives and all kinds of things to try and get this thing out of her.
“I had her on trampolines, on a vibration plate, eating prunes, everything,” she said.
Finally, it did come out, but the emotional toll was a lot for the family.
“I didn’t sleep. It was awful. It was really hard, the other kids were like ‘I hope Lily doesn’t die’.
“I wouldn’t want that to happen to anybody else. It was very scary.”
Lisa is now urging other parents to throw out toys containing button batteries.
Lisa said: “If you have any toys that have button batteries in them then throw them out, get rid of them.
“The hard thing I’ve had is people buy gifts for the kids [which contain button batteries] so they keep showing up in my house.
“It’s like a nightmare that won’t go away. Really educate your kids. Just know that you’re never safe – be over cautious.”
Emily, who plays Sarah Stratton, told the Radio Times: “I’m really proud of the Rivals gang because, throughout my life, I haven’t felt safe all the time, and we’re all so respectful of each other.
“We have to do a lot of sexual scenes and we’re very looked after — it’s a really positive thing.”
Emily, who is now engaged to materials scientist Dr Alistair Garner, launched her acting career 18 years ago with small parts in dramas including ITV’s Heartbeat.
Emily Atack says stripping for Rivals and playing naked tennis ‘was liberating’
She then made her breakthrough as Charlotte Hinchcliffe in The Inbetweeners, which ran from 2008 to 2010 on Channel 4 and is one of Britain’s best-loved comedies.
She also appeared in Only Fools And Horses prequel comedy Rock & Chips on BBC One in 2010, the 2013 gangster film Get Lucky and the 2016 movie remake of Dad’s Army.
Aug. 11 (UPI) —Disney‘s ESPN and Fox Corp. on Monday announced the two rivals are joining forces to offer a streaming service to consumers as a bundle for $39 per month starting Oct. 2.
The services can be downloaded on devices, including cellphones and tablets, and can be accessed on smart TVs and gaming consoles.
With viewership declining on TV, including cable, media companies have turned to streaming services as a way to boost viewership and revenue. CNBC reported that sports is a way to accomplish this.
Last week, both companies announced their services — ESPN’s Direct to Consumer Unlimited Offering and Fox One — will launch on Aug. 21 before the college football and NFL seasons.
But the bundle won’t be available until October.
ESPN’s separate service will cost $29.99 month and Fox’s will be $19.99.
Also, ESPN will offer a bundle with Disney’s other streaming services, Disney+ and Hulu, for $35.99 per month.
Besides events, both companies present sports news.
The ESPN service will include live sports and programming from its TV networks, including ESPN2, the SEC Network, the ACC Network, as well as Disney-owned ABC.
ESPN also reached an agreement last week with the NFL to acquire the NFL Network, including the Red Zone.
And ESPN last week signed a deal with the WWW for U.S. rights in 2026 to its biggest wrestling events, including WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam.
In all, ESPN/ABC cover 47,000 live events each year, as well as studio shows and original programming.
ESPN and ABC sports include Monday Night Football, college football and basketball, NHL, NBA, Major League Soccer, golf, tennis and motorsports.
In addition, an enhanced app will integrate game statistics, betting information, fantasy sports, multi-view options and a “personalize SportsCenter For You,” the company said.
Fox’s parent company offers Tubi and Fox Nation. Fox’s sports networks include FS1, FS2 and the Big Ten Network.
The company said Fox One won’t have original content.
Last week, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Disney CEO Bob Iger said during earnings calls that they were considering offering bundle services.
Fox Sports’ coverage includes NFL, college football and basketball, Major League Baseball, FIFA World Cup, Major League Soccer, motorsports, WNBA, LIV Golf and boxing.
Three other media companies offer sports: Comcast’s NBC, Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT and Paramount Skydance’s CBS.
NBC, which has the rights to the Olympics, has Peacock streaming, and CBS offers Paramount+, services that include sports. TNT doesn’t have a specific app but its services can be bundles with other apps.
On Monday, Paramount announced plans to televise UFC events starting next year.
It was bound to happen sometime. This year, the most important Hollywood movie of the key summer season didn’t start its quest for world domination in movie theaters. It came out on Netflix.
“KPop Demon Hunters,” the cartoon musical about a girl group using catchy tunes to keep evil at bay, has become a viral phenomenon since it launched on the streamer June 20. With 210 million views globally so far, it’s the most watched animated movie ever on Netflix, and is expected to soon top “Red Notice” as the company’s most popular film.
That should be no surprise at this point. Unlike many previous widely watched Netflix movies, “KPop” — produced by Culver City-based Sony Pictures Animation — has penetrated the cultural zeitgeist, leading to gushing from millennial parents’ group chats including mine, chart-topping songs and, of course, memes galore.
To keep the momentum going, Netflix took the unusual step of putting the movie in theaters weeks after its streaming debut.
“KPop Demon Hunters” sing-along screenings played in more than 1,750 locations domestically to packed houses, with more than 1,150 sold-out showings, though it did not play in AMC cineplexes. It was the No. 1 movie in theaters, scoring in the ballpark of $18 million in ticket sales, according to industry sources, enough to top the third weekend of Zach Cregger’s horror hit “Weapons.” Netflix released the sing-along version of “KPop Demon Hunters” for streaming on Monday.
Netflix, as is its typical practice, did not report actual box office grosses, so the counts for its first No. 1 box office hit aren’t official. Nonetheless, theater operators were clearly relieved to have the movie, even if for only two days. The August box office doldrums are in full swing, with little to cheer about from the traditional studios.
The summer blockbuster season is expected to end with about $3.5 billion in total revenue from the first weekend of May through Labor Day, according to analysts, which would be either roughly flat or slightly down from last year’s thin slate. More than $4 billion is considered normal or healthy by pre-pandemic standards.
The biggest hit this summer was Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch,” a live-action remake that collected $422 million in the U.S. and Canada and more than $1 billion globally. Last summer, two movies topped $600 million: Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Marvel’s “Deadpool & Wolverine,” both of which were Disney titles.
Netflix has had a tense relationship with the theatrical business since it first got into making movies. The company puts movies in cinemas for limited runs as part of marketing efforts, awards campaigns and as a way to appease filmmakers who prefer the big-screen experience. Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos earlier this year called the theatrical business “outdated” for most people, citing weak box office numbers after the COVID-19 closures.
Indeed, theatrical attendance has shrunk even more than the top-line revenue figures suggest, with shortfalls partly papered over by increases in ticket prices over the years.
When Scott Stuber ran Netflix’s film business, he pushed the company to do more with theaters because auteur directors wanted it. The film side is now run by Dan Lin.
People who advocate for the multiplex keep hoping that some event will persuade Netflix that its theory is wrong — that something like the “KPop Demon Hunters” screenings or next year’s Imax rollout for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “Narnia” project will prove that Sarandos is mistaken and theatrical windows will actually benefit Netflix beyond using them as promotional ploys.
Rivals say their movies do better on streaming services when they’re already theatrical hits, a theme repeated by the new owners of Paramount who are trying to grow their direct-to-consumer business.
But if anything, Netflix is digging in.
The company sees the success of “KPop,” along with the recent release of “Happy Gilmore 2,” as proof that movies can resonate culturally without theaters and the massive advertising budgets necessary to open a film on 4,000 domestic screens. The Adam Sandler-starring sequel scored 46.7 million views in its first three days on the service and set a Nielsen record for the most-watched streaming movie in a single week.
Netflix has long faced skepticism from Hollywood over its film business, which can put up big viewership with movies like “Red Notice” and “The Adam Project” that seem to vanish from audiences’ consciousness without a trace.
We kind of already knew that movies, particularly animated musicals aimed at kids, could find a big audience online without being a theatrical smash. “Encanto,” released in November 2021 during the pandemic and the Bob Chapek era, did paltry box office by modern Disney standards but became a phenomenon when its Lin-Manuel Miranda-penned songs took off on social media.
When kids latch onto something, they watch it repeatedly, and they don’t care if it’s been in theaters or not. If the movie is good and relevant to them, it can work regardless of the release strategy.
Would “KPop Demon Hunters” have worked if it had been released in theaters exclusively? Who knows. If it had opened to modest box office results, as animated original movies tend to do lately, it would have immediately been written off as a disappointment. Instead, it stayed on the Netflix top 10 lists for weeks and climbed the Nielsen rankings because of word of mouth.
Part of its success is that the movie feels very “now,” whereas animated films sometimes aim for timelessness. It’s culturally specific, with universal themes (friendship and young people’s need to belong) that have powered Disney blockbusters for decades. A colleague of mine aptly described it as a sort of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” meets “Frozen.” Its music is current and rides the wave of everything influenced by South Korean pop culture.
Will it have the enduring influence of the “Frozen” franchise or “Moana,” movies that started primarily as properties for girls but became touchstones for a broader audience? Perhaps not, but it does give Netflix another data point to validate its streaming movie strategy.
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Even $3-trillion Apple isn’t immune to streaming inflation.
Apple TV+, home of series including “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso,” is raising its subscription price by $3 to $12.99 a month, following the lead of other streamers chasing better returns.
Finally …
Read: I’m listening to the audiobook of Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus’ “Fahrenheit-182.” A must for this San Diego native.
SOME people enjoy netball or cross-stitch, but my hobby is booking holidays – and I’m really good at it.
I know a lot of people hate searching for a family holiday, working out what resort is best and whether it’s good value for money, but I enjoy it and it can save you A LOT of money.
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Helen says family holidays are her favourite hobby.
I treat it like a sport, and as a family of four, with two children aged 8 and 5, we have been on some brilliant budget breaks.
There is no better feeling than getting a really great deal for a week in the sun, and I’ve got some great tips to help you do the same.
I go through the flights, hotels and dates with a fine-tooth comb, working out little ways to save.
It’s even easier to do this at the end of the school holidays or in the shoulder season, such as the October half term, because there are some great deals around.
I have been doing this since my early 20s, after picking up the habit from my dad – back then, the best bargains were on last-minute deals.
We used to pack our suitcases, and my dad would be on the phone to Teletext Holidays, nabbing a same-day bargain.
His greatest achievement was booking a flight that had already started boarding. Although we’d never be able to do that now.
However, it’s still a thrill when you lock in a trip for a bargain price. It makes the holiday instantly better.
Sometimes it’s a small saving, like finding a cheaper airport transfer and saving £20, but sometimes my research pays off, saving hundreds, and nowadays it all adds up.
Getting a package deal
Last year, I got my biggest saving yet on a family holiday to Greece.
The Peloponnese penninsula – an underrated Greek holiday destination
By booking everything individually, instead of going for a package deal, I saved over £1000 – which was a third of the price.
I couldn’t believe it!
Having just moved house, we hadn’t booked anything for the summer, hoping to utilise the garden.
But the end of term was approaching, and after months of grey skies and drizzle, I decided we needed a proper holiday.
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Dad, Simon, on pool duty with the kidsCredit: Helen Wright
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The best deals were in Greece.Credit: Louis Apostolata Island Resort
Heading first to a popular holiday provider, I browsed the best deals across all six weeks of the kids’ school break.
I didn’t have a set departure airport or destination in mind, and I kept the dates and length of time we’d be away flexible, which meant I had a wide range to choose from.
The deal was pretty good. Flights from London, a week’s half-board in a four-star resort, a suitcase each and transfers to and from the airport in Greece for £3400.
But, since we hadn’t planned on a summer holiday, it was still over budget.
That’s when I started looking into each aspect separately. I discovered that instead of flying with the designated airline, we could fly with Ryanair for half the cost.
Flights were £140 return on the budget airline.
Since we didn’t need four suitcases, we just booked one between us for the week, immediately saving another £150 on the Ryanair flights.
Going onto the hotel’s own website, I noticed that I could book directly with them, and the price was coming up a lot less.
They also had an offer on a room upgrade if you signed up for the mailing list. We actually ended up with a nicer room while paying less.
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Louis Apostolata had a great dealCredit: Louis Apostolata Island Resort
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Helen’s family ended up getting two trips for almost the same amountCredit: Helen Wright
The only thing that wasn’t covered was transfers. On the package deal, a coach transfer was included, but it also stopped at a number of other hotels.
When I looked it up, a taxi to the resort was only £80 return.
However, even with this on top, we still saved a whopping £1001 on the whole trip, which in total cost £2300.
We used the money we saved to book a weekend in Disneyland Paris in October.
Again, I booked everything separately, using the Eurotunnel to drive to France and booking a hotel close to the theme park with 2-day tickets for just £440 for all of us.
Our trip only cost £1300.
After saving money on our Greece trip, I told people that Disneyland only cost us £300!
Book carefully
My advice would be to always book with reputable suppliers, because you could end up forking out more if they are not legitimate.
If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.
I do like DIY holidays, but I am not against booking a package deal, and sometimes they are so good, I can’t beat them.
Our favourite places to shop for a package holiday are Jet2holidays and TUI.
Booking a package means you get extra protection for your holiday through regulators like ABTA, ATOL and ABTOT.
This means you’ll get your money back on all aspects of the package in the event of any holiday disasters, like flight cancellations or issues at the hotel – which I wouldn’t have had with my DIY version.
For peace of mind, some people prefer to pay extra and not have to think about that, but massive holiday disasters are rare so I am happy to take the risk.
People in L.A. and New York better get ready for a sea of ESPN red on their morning and evening commutes.
Walt Disney Co.’s is backing the Thursday launch of its sports media unit’s direct-to-consumer streaming app with a major advertising campaign aimed at captive audiences in their cars and on the railway tracks.
The aggressive four-week push is aimed at telling consumers that ESPN — long one of the pillars of the cable television business — will be available for the first time without a pay TV subscription.
The service, a major initiative since ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro took over the Disney unit in 2018, is a response to the growing number of consumers who are bypassing cable and satellite for streaming video platforms. The trend has decreased the number of pay TV homes receiving ESPN, which is a major source of revenue for the company.
ESPN ad on a Cadillac SUV used for Lyft.
(ESPN)
Consumers can subscribe to the new ESPN streaming app for $29.99 a month. Households already paying to receive ESPN channels through cable or satellite can sign up at no additional cost, enabling up to five people to stream the service on mobile devices and internet-connected TV sets.
“We designed our campaign exactly as we designed our product, which is to serve sports fans anytime, anywhere,” Jo Fox, executive vice president of marketing for ESPN, said in a recent interview. “So we want to make sure we are showing up in as many places as possible.”
The advertising campaign that starts Thursday will feature Lyft-operated Cadillac SUVs wrapped in the company logo and the promotional campaign’s tagline “All of ESPN. All in One Place.”
The vehicles will be concentrated in high-traffic areas near sporting events in Los Angeles and New York, where the U.S. Open tennis tournament will soon begin. The ESPN brand name and logo will also appear on the Lyft app and maps.
Mass transit users won’t be left out, as ESPN will take over the E Line of the New York City subway that travels from the World Trade Center to Queens. The exterior of the train cars will be covered with logos while more specific ad messages will appear on the inside.
The public address announcements at the Spring Street subway station — located near Disney’s downtown Manhattan headquarters — will be delivered by ESPN’s voluble $20-million-a-year man Stephen A. Smith, the co-host of “First Take.”
Signage will also take over electronic screens in New York’s Moynihan Train Hall and Port Authority Bus Terminal and billboards along L.A.’s Sunset Boulevard and adjacent to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
ESPN’s campaign will go beyond the major media centers on the coasts. The streaming service will be featured on TV screens in the home entertainment sections in 4,000 Walmart stores across the country.
ESPN also has a deal with Samsung, which will offer free yearlong subscriptions to the streaming service to customers who purchase a QLED 4K TV at Best Buy or Samsung.com. Best Buy stores will feature the ESPN app in stores as well during the promotion.
ESPN has already been touting its streaming service on air and in paid TV media buys with commercials featuring actor and WWE star John Cena. Cena will soon be an ESPN fixture as the streaming service becomes the new home of major WWE events such as WrestleMania and Royal Rumble, starting in 2026.
The ESPN app will include a number of features that will complement the live sports offerings. Fans will be able to create their own personalized “SportsCenter,” which will use artificial intelligence to provide a short personalized highlight program geared to the user’s favorite teams and events.
NBC Sports pioneered the customized highlight show on its Peacock streaming platform during the 2024 Summer Olympics, using the voice of Al Michaels. The voices of ESPN “SportsCenter” hosts will be used on “SportsCenter for You.”
The app will also offer stats, betting, commerce and fantasy sports information alongside the live game coverage shown on ESPN channels.
Movies from India’s prolific film industry have found success on the world stage before.
“RRR,” an over-the-top Telugu-language action film, energized audiences in the U.S. and elsewhere a few years ago, even scoring a history-making Oscar for its original song “Naatu Naatu.” Hindi screenings have long drawn crowds to American multiplexes.
But the filmmakers behind “Ramayana” — an upcoming two-part epic based on one of the most important ancient texts in Hinduism — have something more ambitious in mind.
The massive productions — each estimated to cost $200 million to $250 million — are aimed not merely at an Indian audience, nor are they meant to appeal primarily to Hindus, who number an estimated 1.2 billion globally, according to Pew Research Center.
Rather, the goal is to turn “Ramayana,” with its grand-scale adventure story and high-tech computer-generated effects, into a full-blown international blockbuster, filmed specifically for Imax’s giant screens in what is intended to be the largest-ever rollout for an Indian film, according to its backers.
Executive Namit Malhotra — who is financing and producing the project through his firm Prime Focus — set the bar high in a recent interview with The Times, comparing his film to the likes of James Cameron’s “Avatar,” Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” and the movies of Christopher Nolan.
While Hollywood studio bosses talk about reaching all four demographic “quadrants” (men and women, young and old) with their tentpole movies, Malhotra wants to draw two additional categories: believer and nonbeliever. For such a so-called six-quadrant movie to work, to use Malhotra’s terminology, it would have to succeed in the U.S.
“In my mind, if people in the West don’t like it, I consider that as a failure,” Malhotra told The Times recently. “It is meant for the world. So if you don’t like it, shame on me. We should have done a better job.”
Poster art for the upcoming film ‘Ramayana.’
(DNEG)
It’s a major gamble for Malhotra, who founded Prime Focus in Mumbai in 1997. The firm expanded significantly when it acquired British effects house Double Negative, and rebranded as DNEG. Malhotra owns nearly 68% of the parent company, Prime Focus Ltd.
He’s going to great lengths to make sure his big bet pays off. DNEG, headquartered in London with offices in India, Los Angeles and elsewhere, is handling the visuals. The firm has produced special effects for global studio features for years, creating Oscar-winning work for such movies as Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” and Nolan’s “Tenet.”
“Ramayana” is directed by Nitesh Tiwari, the man behind 2016’s “Dangal,” the highest-grossing Bollywood film ever, including huge sales in China. Hans Zimmer and prolific Indian musician-composer A.R. Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”) are collaborating on the score, while the visual effects and production design team includes veterans from “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Avengers: Endgame” and the “Lord of the Rings” franchise.
The success of “RRR,” which told the story of two Indian legends with larger-than-life abilities fighting British imperialism, is one reason Malhotra is confident that “Ramayana” might connect with Westerners more familiar with the Bible and “The Odyssey” (the subject of a much-hyped 2026 Nolan film) than with Hindu mythology. U.S. cinephiles have in the past embraced mythical Asia-set films such as Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Life of Pi.”
So why not “Ramayana?”
After all, family, good vs. evil and personal striving are all key themes that transcend national borders.
“Emotions are universal,” said Tiwari in a video call. “If the audience connects with you emotionally, I think they will connect with the whole story. Emotions have powers to travel across boundaries.”
Filmed entirely on soundstages, the first part of “Ramayana” is scheduled to hit theaters next year, with a significant push from Imax. “Part 2,” currently in production, is planned for 2027. Each part is timed for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. The films do not yet have a U.S. distributor.
This comes as Imax has beefed up its clout as what is increasingly seen as a linchpin component for the release of big-screen movies, not just for Hollywood spectacles but also, lately, for local language films. Imax showcased just a handful of Indian movies on its screens in 2019, according to Chief Executive Richard Gelfond. Last year, the company played 15.
So far this year, international films made in their local language have accounted for more than 30% of Imax’s total global box office revenue, Gelfond said. Much of that tally came from “Ne Zha 2,” a Chinese-produced animated film that grossed roughly $2 billion worldwide, mostly from its home country.
As such, Gelfond has high hopes for “Ramayana.” “Judging from what we’ve seen, this has all the elements to be a global success,” Gelfond said.
At its core, “Ramayana,” based on the epic poem from thousands of years ago, tells the story of Hindu deity Rama, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and his quest to rescue his love Sita from the demon king Ravana.
A three-minute teaser trailer introduced the concept, emphasizing the big names attached (including actors Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana), displaying some “Game of Thrones” opening credits-style visuals and conveying the tale’s historical importance. “Our truth. Our history,” reads the onscreen text. The video has 9.4 million views on YouTube.
“Ramayana” is a quintessentially Indian story. It has been adapted for stage and screen before, perhaps most notably as a series for Indian TV in the late 1980s.
For the new version, Malhotra wants to eliminate any language barriers. DNEG is using syncing technology from its Brahma AI unit to seamlessly present the film in local languages for international audiences. In the U.S., for example, the movie will screen in English.
“It’s a global film from the day we start,” he said. “I’m not trying to make it to appease Indian people in India. … If you go and watch ‘Ramayana’ and your family watches it, and people in India watch it, what’s the difference? It should speak to you like any other film.”
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Ryan Faughnder delivers the latest news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production — and what it all means for the future.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Stuff we wrote
Number of the week
Airing election misinformation continues to be expensive for cable news networks.
Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election that aired on the right-wing news channel.
The network announced the settlement with the voting equipment maker Monday but did not apologize for its reporting.
Fox News settled a similar case with Dominion in 2023 for $787.5 million after it aired incorrect election claims. Newsmax is much smaller than Fox, which continues to battle a lawsuit from another voting machine company, Smartmatic.
Streaming is getting closer to another major milestone. According to Nielsen’s the Gauge report, streaming services accounted for 47.3% of U.S. TV usage in July, compared with 22% for cable and 18.4% for broadcast. That’s what happens when there’s new “Squid Game” on Netflix and there’s not much on regular TV.
Finally …
Listen: No Joy, “Bugland.” Excellent ’90s-style rock.
Marvel fans say this blockbuster was their best movie of 2025 and you’ll soon be able to stream it at no extra cost
Disney+ will soon be streaming one of the best comic book movies of the year at no extra charge.
The film is currently available to rent or buy at home, though you’ll still have to pay up to £13.99 on platforms such as Apple TV, Prime Video and Sky Store.
Thankfully, there’s not long to wait until Disney+ users will be able to stream the film whenever they want without paying anything on top of their monthly subscription.
Comic book fans have called it one of Marvel Studios’ best blockbusters in years – and, no, it’s not the recently released The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Instead, we’re talking about Thunderbolts*, which is set to debut exclusively on Disney+ on Wednesday, 27th August.
Starring Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Sebastian Stan, the film follows an unlikely team of heroes and villains from across the Marvel universe who reluctantly team up to protect the Earth from a dangerous and unpredictable new threat.
Superhero fans have called Thunderbolts* Marvel’s best movie in years(Image: MARVEL STUDIOS)
Pugh returns as Yelena Belova, the new Black Widow, an elite mercenary who is struggling to find her place in the world when the enigmatic Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) entrusts her with an important but suspicious new mission.
Following a period of disappointment for the superhero franchise, both box office and critical, Marvel fans were pleasantly surprised when Thunderbolts* burst onto the big screen back in April.
One five-star Google review described the film as an “absolute gem of the superhero genre”.
“If you’re looking for a fresh, high-octane adventure with a unique twist, Thunderbolts is exactly what you’ve been waiting for,” they went on to promise.
“This story is a masterclass in reimagining the traditional superhero team-up, featuring a lineup of antiheroes, former villains, and morally ambiguous characters who are forced to work together for a common cause.”
Someone else gushed: “Thunderbolts* was an incredible surprise. This movie fixes so many of the problems that recent MCU projects have suffered from.
“It actually feels like one director was in charge of this, not a committee of executives. The humor also feels natural, not forced.
Florence Pugh shines as Marvel’s new Black Widow Yelena Belova(Image: MARVEL STUDIOS)
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Disney+ has added La Liga football to its line-up, with fans able to stream the games with a Disney+ subscription from £4.99
“Which makes everything better. It doesn’t feel like this movie was reworked and reshot a thousand times. The characters are also great. Every actor is doing their absolute best and their chemistry is great.”
Another die-hard fan raved on X: “Had the time of my life with #thunderbolts! One of the best mcu projects in recent years.
“The movie does an outstanding job of exploring its themes surrounding mental health. I absolutely love [the] team and their dynamic, I cared so much about all of them. Easy 10/10.”
And a final viewer admitted: “Shocked how good THUNDERBOLTS* is. Putting emphasis on the character work and practical action makes this feel like the old Marvel that had us for a decade plus.
“Wish we’d gotten this sooner. Helps that this dysfunctional team has chemistry too.”
Will you be checking out Thunderbolts* for the first time or giving the film a much-deserved rewatch next week?
Thunderbolts* will be available to stream on Disney+ from Wednesday, 27th August.
Walt Disney World Resort, Florida is a family favourite, but social influencer Alex Dobson has dropped a video expressing his thoughts on the park – and it’s gone viral in just a day
A ‘real review’ of Walt Disney World, Florida has dropped online, with over 2k likes in less than a day(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
It’s estimated that just under 1 million UK visitors travel to Orlando annually, with 80% of those visiting ‘the most magical place of earth’. However, while Disney World and Disney Land are widely loved by children and held with a fierce nostalgia by many parents (and non-parents), the reality can sometimes prove to be less than dreamy.
What’s more, one viral video recently popped the Mickey-ears shaped bubble with one deft swipe. Alex Dodman is a social influencer with roughly 450,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram.
The father-of-three is famous for his ‘real reviews’ of family days out, attractions and holidays, as well as viral trends and cultural events – and now his spotlight is firmly on the Disney resort.
Just under 1 million UK visitors are welcomed to Florida by Minnie and co every year(Image: getty )
Opening the review with a wry, “It’s almost like we’ve been programmed to think that this is the most magical place on earth”, while filming a motorway gantry leading into the theme park that proclaims the very same, Alex boldly claims that “it’s probably the most overpriced tourist p**stakes in history”.
As many a parent who’s been through the Disney World machine will attest to, the resort is not cheap. A Disney World holiday for a family of four from the UK, including flights, can range from around £6,500 to £15,000 or more, depending on the various packages.
And the repeated financial roundhouse kicks are not entirely conducive to a happy holiday between married people, either, with Alex saying it’s likely they’re going to “pretend they’re having a good time posting about it online, when in reality they’ve probably argued about 1,000 times, been on the brink of divorce, and each child has had an overstimulated meltdown every half an hour”.
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According to the influencer: “A ticket to get in here for the day for two adults, two kids and a baby was $709 and because I actually wanted the kids to go on a ride this time, I got some lightning Lane tickets for three rides for an extra $136… How is this even allowed?”
‘Main Street’, the thoroughfare with full view of the Disney Castle, is one to swerve, says Alex.
Not impressed with people that “pretended to cry when they first saw the castle”, he cracked on to the rides – saying that “having some lightning Lane tickets did work well”.
He was less than impressed with the rides themselves, saying the ‘Barnstormer’ “lasted for 25 seconds”, ‘Peter Pan’s Flight’ was “basically pitch black” and ‘It’s a Small World’ was “everyone’s favourite nightmare”.
Main Street, Walt Disney World Resort “feels like every person on the planet stopping to take a photo in front of a pretend Castle”, says Alex (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Conceding that he did understand why “this place is some people’s happy place”, Alex reflected that the ‘trap’ may lie in the fact that Brits have travelled all the way to Orlando.
For that reason, it’s tempting to give in to the cost to embrace a “once in a lifetime” trip. However, he went on to say that: “There’s no way you can enjoy this without having in the back of the mind how utterly screwed you’re being done by Disney”.
Summing up, Alex considered the pay off of such a pricey trip, saying: “Did the kids enjoy it? Yeah. But we also went to Clearwater Beach for the weekend, and they said they had a better time jumping in the sea there, which was free”.
He added: “However you chop it up, it’s way too expensive.”
Alex was baffled by adults that went to Disney World solo (Image: Getty Images)
Comments to the video were mixed, with some wholeheartedly agreeing and others fiercely defending the place that they deeply love.
Many pointed out that Alex’s big mistake was not booking park hopper tickets that make the experience a whole lot more affordable. Doing more research could have helped him to avoid the busiest queues, too.
One follower helpfully supplied: “Yeah, feels like you need so much insider knowledge to not be stung so much with Disney. Park hopper tickets are a better and cheaper option. Staying at Disney property helps for costs with parking for free and dining plans.”
Another person was keen to help too, saying: “Disney World takes a lot of research to do it well and paying for lightning lanes on these type of rides shows you didn’t complete basic training in Disney world trip planning. I think it’s to do with having really little kids too it’s so much fun in the bigger better rides with older kids”.
One poster was relived that they weren’t missing out, saying: “Thank you for blessing us poor who can’t get there that we aren’t depriving our kids and ourselves of the most magical experience on earth”.
And one full-blown fan was clear where her loyalty lay, expressing: “I’m in the Disney cult. Please don’t save me if I blink. They can take my hard earned cash from me so I can walk down that busy street, get tears in my eyes and reminisce of days gone by. “
It’s been a dramatic couple of weeks in the wide world of sports rights, as media companies locked down a slew of deals that remake the way that fans watch their favorite athletic competitions.
On Monday came a big one: David Ellison, the new owner of Paramount, came into the ring punching hard with a $7.7-billion deal for the streaming and TV rights to UFC matches. In the seven-year pact with UFC owner TKO Group Holdings, the Ellison-led Paramount will pay an average of $1.1 billion annually — about twice what Walt Disney Co. was paying to air the mixed martial arts league on ESPN.
It’s a signal that Ellison is willing to spend big bucks on content that he and his fresh executive team think will make Paramount+ a more formidable competitor to Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, HBO Max and others. Paramount+ will have the rights to stream 13 marquee “numbered” UFC events and 30 fight nights, while certain numbered events will be simulcast on the company’s broadcast network, CBS.
Now those sightings of the tech scion-turned Hollywood mogul speaking with President Trump at UFC fights make even more sense, as do Ellison and Paramount’s recent peripheral dealings with superagent Ari Emanuel, TKO’s executive chair. In a key part of the deal, UFC will move away from showcasing fights through its pay-per-view model, which should dramatically increase the reach of a sport with strong appeal among young men.
The deal is also the latest sign that the streaming wars are far from over, at least when it comes to sports broadcasts. Last week, the NFL inked a deal to take a 10% stake in ESPN as part of a complex arrangement that will give Bob Iger-led Disney control of the NFL cable properties, including the NFL Network and the linear RedZone channel. The ESPN stake is estimated to be worth more than $2 billion.
This highly anticipated blockbuster deal further aligns the financial interests of the most powerful TV sports brand with what is by far the nation’s most popular sports league, which accounts for the vast majority of most-watched programs every year. The agreement is part of Iger and ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro’s strategy to bulk up the content offering available through the network’s upcoming stand-alone streaming service, which will cost $30 a month when it launches later this month.
Separately, ESPN is staying in business with TKO, having agreed to pay $1.6 billion over five years to stream WWE events including WrestleMania, Royal Rumble and SummerSlam. Analysts say that should ease some of the pain of losing UFC to Ellison and Paramount. The WWE events are moving to ESPN’s service from their current streaming home, NBCUniversal’s Peacock. Disney’s fees will be nearly twice those of NBCUniversal.
Disney will use the new ESPN service to make its wider streaming offering more attractive, bundling it with Disney+ and Hulu.
All this is happening amid a broader overhauling of the sports media landscape in the streaming age that has made life more confusing for fans as fewer people subscribe to all-in-one cable and satellite TV bundles.
NFL games, for example, run on a broad array of streaming services, including Paramount+, Prime Video (for Thursday night games), and, in the case of Christmas Day matchups, Netflix. The league, which has significant leverage, is widely expected to exercise its option to renegotiate media rights deals starting in 2029.
Apple is expected to win the rights to Formula One racing telecasts, adding to its sports portfolio that includes MLB games and Major League Soccer. The NBA last year got itself a big pay bump, securing media rights deals with NBCUniversal, Amazon and Disney worth $77 billion over 11 years.
As these shifts take place, the media industry is about to go through a major test: How many people are willing to pay for a lot of — but not all — the sports content they want to watch, and what will they be willing to fork over?
The entertainment and media companies say they are aiming these services at cord-cutters and cord-nevers, people who don’t pay for a more-or-less traditional package of TV channels but still want to watch sports.
The question is whether such people actually exist.
Despite its branding power and its significant share of sports rights, ESPN’s direct-to-consumer app will have limited appeal. Many analysts estimate that the offering will attract 2 million subscribers in the short term.
For most of the kind of dedicated sports fans who might be interested in streaming ESPN, a digital bundle such as YouTube TV ($83 a month) probably makes more sense than cobbling together individual brands.
Recognizing the limitations, the media companies are taking another stab at consolidating their sports streaming offerings at a discount. On Monday, Disney and Fox Corp. said they would offer a bundle of the ESPN streamer and the new Fox One — which includes live sports, news and entertainment — for $40 a month. On its own, Fox One will be priced at $20 a month.
A previous attempt at a more inclusive offering — a proposed joint venture called Venu Sports from Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery — was abandoned after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the media giants in an antitrust lawsuit from FuboTV. The saga ended up with Disney making a deal to take a 70% stake in Fubo and merge it with its Hulu Live TV service.
But the question for all services and mini-bundles remains the same: Who are they really for?
Newsletter
You’re reading the Wide Shot
Ryan Faughnder delivers the latest news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production — and what it all means for the future.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Stuff we wrote
Number of the week
Filmmaker Zach Cregger won the weekend with his acclaimed new horror movie “Weapons,” which topped expectations with $43.5 million in ticket sales through Sunday in the U.S. and Canada.
Cregger’s follow-up to his surprise hit “Barbarian” is the latest win for Warner Bros., marking six successful openings in a row (after “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “F1 the Movie” and “Superman”). Not bad, considering the studio’s leaders were rumored to be on the chopping block earlier this year.
Doing solid business was Disney’s “Freakier Friday,” a body-swap comedy sequel reuniting Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan more than 20 years after the first one, itself a remake of a 1976 movie. The new installment opened with $28.6 million domestically.
After this and “The Naked Gun,” I’m certainly not going to declare that Hollywood big-screen comedies are back, but the genre is not completely lost either, as long as there’s intellectual property attached.
Finally …
Watch: Marc Maron has a new HBO stand-up special, “Panicked.” As always, it’s funny, acerbic, insightful and sometimes deep.
Listen: On Aug. 14, the estate of Woody Guthrie will release a collection of home recordings, including a version of “This Land Is Your Land” and his take on “Deportee.” Absolutely fascinating.
The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm have settled a lawsuit brought by “The Mandalorian” actor Gina Carano, who alleged she had been wrongfully terminated from the show and discriminated against because of her social media posts.
Carano and Disney each separately confirmed the settlement Thursday, with Carano calling it the “best outcome for all parties involved.”
“I hope this brings some healing to the force,” she wrote in a post on X. “I am excited to flip the page and move onto the next chapter. My desires remain in the arts, which is where I hope you will join me.”
She also thanked X owner and billionaire Elon Musk, who funded her lawsuit against Disney, calling it a “Good Samaritan deed” from someone she had never met.
A Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that the company looked forward to “identifying opportunities to work together” with Carano in the “near future,” now that the lawsuit was concluded. The company did not disclose the conditions of the settlement.
“Ms. Carano was always well respected by her directors, co-stars, and staff,” the spokesperson said. “She worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect.”
The settlement comes a little more than a year after Carano sued Burbank-based Disney, Lucasfilm and Huckleberry Industries after she was dismissed from the Disney+ series. Carano, who portrayed former Rebellion soldier Cara Dune for two seasons, had been criticized for several controversial social media posts.
In one now-deleted post, she implied that being conservative today was comparable with being Jewish during the Holocaust. Critics had also called out posts in which she falsely claimed voter fraud affected the results of the 2020 presidential election, derided pandemic-era mask mandates and made fun of stating people’s pronouns.
Her social media postings ignited a firestorm of controversy, with critics calling for her to be fired from the series, while her supporters urged others to cancel Disney+ instead.
In 2021, a Lucasfilm representative said in a statement that Carano was not currently employed by the “Star Wars” production company, and that there were “no plans for her to be in the future.” The statement also called her posts “abhorrent and unacceptable.”
Carano claimed at the time that she had been promised a role in the now-shelved “Star Wars” spinoff “Rangers of the New Republic.” In her lawsuit, she said she was “targeted, harassed, publicly humiliated, [and] defamed” for making “political statements that did not align with what [Disney] believed was an acceptable viewpoint.”
She had been seeking more than $75,000 in damages and to be reinstated in her role in “The Mandalorian.”
Actress Gina Carano, Lucasfilm and its parent company Walt Disney Co. have settled the federal lawsuit filed in which Carano claimed that, in 2021, she was wrongfully terminated from her role in “The Mandalorian” after she expressed her conservative political views on social media.
The settlement details have not been made public, but Lucasfilm released a statement praising Carano’s on-set professionalism and expressing the hope of “identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future.”
I am here to beg everyone to remain calm and avoid using the four Cs: cancel culture (is this the end of it?) and corporate capitulation (is this another example of it?)
No and no.
Cancel culture has long been an amorphous and often recklessly applied term, used to describe a litany of events, including but certainly not limited to male predators losing their jobs, students protesting their school’s choice of graduation speakers and outrage over J.K. Rowling’s stance on transgender women.
Recently, however, it has taken a far more concrete shape that looks astonishingly like the White House where President Trump continues to literally cancel all manner of things, including U.S. membership in the World Health Organization, the regulatory power of the Environmental Protection Agency and huge portions of Medicaid. Recently, he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after the bureau documented weaker than expected numbers for July and downward revisions for the previous two months.
Corporate capitulation, too, is alive and well, with law firms, universities and media companies falling like dominoes before Trump’s lawsuits and threats of defunding. Last year, Trump sued ABC and its parent company Disney for defamation after anchor George Stephanopoulos wrongly stated on air that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping E. Jean Carroll — Trump had been found civilly liable of sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll. Disney settled for $15 million, paid to Trump’s presidential foundation and museum.
Even more troubling was Paramount Global’s decision to pay a $16-million settlement in what many consider a frivolous lawsuit brought by Trump against “60 Minutes.” After late-night host Stephen Colbert called the move a “big fat bribe” designed to ensure Paramount’s recent acquisition by Skydance, CBS, which is owned by Paramount, announced that “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” was being canceled due to financial considerations.
So while it is tempting to see Disney settling with Carano as a piece of a larger and very worrisome whole, particularly when Elon Musk financed her lawsuit, it was in fact simply the right thing to do.
Carano is a former mixed martial artist turned actor who has been vocal about her support for conservative causes and President Trump. In 2020, she had caught some flack for posting “beep/bop/boop” as her pronouns in her Twitter bio, which some took as her way of mocking trans people. She denied this, changed her bio and expressed support for the trans community.
There were also posts that criticized masking policies and shutdowns during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as one calling for an investigation into voter fraud after the 2020 election.
But it was a repost on Instagram that cost her her job — in February 2021, she reposted a famously horrific image of a half-naked Jewish woman fleeing from a mob with a moronically simplistic message about divisive politics: “Most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”
Landing just a month after then-President Trump sent an armed mob to attack the Capitol in the hopes of overturning an election he refused to believe he had lost, the post, which appeared to compare MAGA supporters in 2021 America with Jews in Nazi Germany, sparked #FireGinaCarano.
And that’s exactly what Disney did. Calling her posts “abhorrent and unacceptable,” Lucasfilm excised her character from “The Mandalorian” and canceled an upcoming spinoff in which she was to star. Her talent agency, UTA, dropped her and Hasbro canceled a line of toys based on her “Mandalorian” character.
It was an overreaction that smacked of fear and pandering. I do not agree with the sentiments Carano expressed in her posts, but compared with the blithely toxic abuse regularly used on social media, they are relatively benign, based far more on genuine ignorance — most people are in fact aware of the vicious antisemitism leveraged by the Nazis as well as their institutionalized tactics of fear — than anything else.
Of course, those who attempt to be politically provocative on social media (and reposting a photo of a victimized Jewish woman in such context is the definition of political provocation) cannot then feign shock and dismay when people are provoked, especially at a time when far-right tweets, including the president’s, had led to a violent attack against lawmakers. (Hence the irony of Musk’s support — the platform he renamed X was in large part built on its ability to harness all manner of just and unjust hashtag campaigns.)
But as my colleague Robin Abcarian noted when Carano filed her lawsuit in 2023, the social media mob’s decision that a woman, who was far from a household name, deserved to lose her livelihood, and more important, Lucasfilm’s agreement with that decision, was extreme.
Bad publicity is never good for an entertainment property and whether it was explicit in her contract or not, Carano did represent, to a certain extent, “The Mandalorian,” Lucasfilm and Disney. Unfortunately, the entertainment industry’s increasing reliance on social media has created a world in which actors and other creative types are expected to amass millions of followers on platforms that tend to reward the outspoken and outrageous over the thoughtful. Encouraged to reveal themselves “authentically,” stars can find themselves prodded by fans to comment on current events and excoriated when they refuse or respond in a way that certain followers consider insincere or politically incorrect.
Telling people to stay off social media is not the answer; neither is regulation by hashtag campaign.
While Carano’s case is certainly reflective of many perils that face us at the moment, the fact that she reached a settlement, including an apparent promise of more work, is not a sign of further deterioration.
The fear that our cultural landscape is being attacked by political forces that would strangle the notion of free speech and competing ideologies is real and justified. But in this case, the capitulation came not when Disney and Lucasfilm decided to settle with Carano, but when they fired her in the first place.
The Avengers will soon be assembling for a much younger demographic.
Disney Jr. plans to expand its collaboration with Marvel, announcing a new series launching in 2027 titled “Marvel’s Avengers: Mightiest Friends.” It’s a partnership that began in 2021 when Disney Jr. premiered “Spidey and His Amazing Friends,” the first full-length Marvel preschool series, and has expanded to include the upcoming “Iron Man and His Awesome Friends.”
“Disney Jr. are the pros at this age group,” says Brad Winderbaum, head of Marvel Studios television and animation. “‘Spidey and His Amazing Friends’ was our first shot at giving little kids a front-row seat to the Marvel Universe.”
Currently in its fourth season with two additional seasons already greenlit, “Spidey” has been wildly successful. It’s the first Disney Jr. series to run for more than five seasons and is the second most popular streaming series (after “Bluey”) for children ages 2 to 5, according to Nielsen.
“The success of ‘Spidey’ really confirmed we were onto something and proved the demand for superhero stories designed specifically for this age group,” says Alyssa Sapire, head of original programming and strategy at Disney Jr. “It fueled this broader strategy with Disney Jr. and Marvel.”
There’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and now there will be the Marvel Preschool Universe. “Marvel’s Avengers: Mightiest Friends” will feature kid versions of all the MCU characters including Spidey, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Black Panther, Thor and, for the first time, Black Widow. “Avengers are the ultimate learning to play nice story,” Winderbaum says. “It’s endless fun to watch Thor, Widow, Hulk and Cap learn about teamwork. That’s always a fundamental lesson for that group whether it’s in the features or the animated shows.”
Young viewers will get a sneak peek of what’s to come with two “Marvel’s Spidey and Iron Man: Avengers Team Up!” specials. The first 22-minute special premieres Oct. 16 and finds Spidey, Iron Man and all the Avengers stopping Ultron and Green Goblin from their nefarious plans. Another special, this one Halloween-themed, will debut in fall 2026.
“These characters are so timeless and have appealed to audiences across generations,” says Harrison Wilcox, who executive produces all the Marvel preschool series. “What is most important to us is to tell fun, relatable, positive stories that families can enjoy together.”
To that end, next up for Disney Jr. and Marvel is “Iron Man and His Awesome Friends” which will premiere Aug. 11 on Disney Jr. and stream on Disney+ on Aug. 12. Tony Stark and his alter ego, Iron Man, were the natural choice for the next MCU character to get the preschool treatment. “‘Iron Man’ was the film that launched our studio,” Winderbaum says. “We love the idea that a young audience who wasn’t around in 2008 can be introduced to Marvel through a character at the core of Marvel history.”
This series finds Tony Stark (Iron Man) and his best friends Riri Williams (Ironheart) and Amadeus Cho (Iron Hulk) working together to solve problems, like a villain intent on stealing everyone’s toys.
“Tony Stark is very relatable and aspirational,” says Wilcox. “He didn’t stop until he found a way to protect the entire universe. We wanted three kids that were distinct from each other but also shared some certain qualities. They’re all very intelligent. They’re all tech savvy. They all want to use their brains to make the world better.”
The trio works out of Iron Quarters (IQ) with Vision as their de facto supervisor. “We thought it would be nice to have someone who could sort of act as the caretaker of our kids,” Wilcox says of including the beloved android in the series. “We wanted our audience to know that these characters were loved and supported. Even though they have superpowers, someone’s looking out for them.”
Each superhero also brings something new for the young audience to connect to. One thing that will separate the upcoming “Iron Man” series from “Spidey” is that Iron Man doesn’t have a secret identity. Everyone knows Tony Stark is Iron Man. “We saw there was this differentiation we could really lean into,” Sapire says. “They’re real kids who use their ingenuity and smarts for the good of the community.”
When bringing these characters to the under 5 set, every detail matters. “Even in this Marvel superhero space, we’re always tapping into that preschool experience,” Sapire says. “We take the responsibility to entertain naturally curious preschoolers very seriously. When we have their attention, we want to honor that time with them with stories that inspire their imaginations and bring that sense of joy and optimism.”
They approach the legendary Marvel villains with care as well. “Iron Man” features Ultron (voiced by Tony Hale), Swarm (Vanessa Bayer) and Absorbing Man (Talon Warburton). “You have to make sure the villain is not sympathetic,” Wilcox says. “But also not frightening. We rely heavily on our partners at Disney Jr. for that and their educational resource group, which provides us a lot of feedback to make sure our preschool audience is engaged in the story and they feel the stakes of the story, but they are still watching in a comfortable space.”
While all the series remain true to the overall MCU, they don’t get too tied up in what is and isn’t canon. “These shows are about what makes each character tick, more than the lore that surrounds them,” Winderbaum explains.
And, like in the movies, the superheroes will make mistakes. “Marvel does not put their characters up on a pedestal,” Wilcox says. “We want our characters to reflect real people in the real world. So that’s always been important to us is that there’s a certain level of relatability. Everyone can see a part of themselves in a Marvel hero and learn and grow just like our characters do.”
Aug. 6 (UPI) — ESPN announced Wednesday that it has made a non-binding agreement with the National Football League to acquire the NFL Network and some of its other media assets.
The announcement said ESPN, owned by the Walt Disney Company, bought the assets for a 10% equity stake in ESPN.
Other assets included in the purchase are NFL’s RedZone Channel and NFL Fantasy, which are owned and controlled by the league.
The NFL also will continue to own and operate some of its media businesses, including NFL Films and NFL.com.
The two companies also are entering into a second non-binding agreement, under which the NFL will license to ESPN certain NFL content and other intellectual property to be used by NFL Network and other assets.
“Today’s announcement paves the way for the world’s leading sports media brand and America’s most popular sport to deliver an even more compelling experience for NFL fans, in a way that only ESPN and Disney can,” said Bob Iger, CEO of Disney. “Commissioner Goodell and the NFL have built outstanding media assets, and these transactions will add to consumer choice, provide viewers with even greater convenience and quality, and expand the breadth and value proposition of Disney’s streaming ecosystem.”
“Since its launch in 2003, NFL Network has provided millions of fans unprecedented access to the sport they love. Whether it was debuting Thursday Night Football, televising the Combine, or telling incredible football stories through original shows and breaking news, NFL Network has delivered. The Network’s sale to ESPN will build on this remarkable legacy, providing more NFL football for more fans in new and innovative ways.”
ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro said he’s excited about the acquisition.
“This is an exciting day for sports fans. By combining these NFL media assets with ESPN’s reach and innovation, we’re creating a premier destination for football fans. Together, ESPN and the NFL are redefining how fans engage with the game — anytime, anywhere. This deal helps fuel ESPN’s digital future, laying the foundation for an even more robust offering as we prepare to launch our new direct-to-consumer service.”
ESPN is 80% owned by ABC, an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, and 20% by Hearst.
The agreements are subject to approval from NFL owners and government regulators.
On Tuesday, Fox announced the streaming service Fox One will go live Aug. 21 ahead of NFL season. The streaming service will broadcast some NFL games.
Continued growth in streaming subscriptions and strong domestic tourism to its theme parks propelled Walt Disney Co.’s fiscal third quarter earnings, even as its theatrical results dipped, the company said Wednesday.
The Burbank media and entertainment giant reported $23.7 billion in revenue for the three-month period that ended June 28, up 2% compared with the same quarter a year earlier. Earnings before taxes totaled $3.2 billion, 4% higher than a year ago . Earnings per share were $2.92, up from $1.43 last year.
“We are pleased with our creative success and financial performance,” Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger said in a statement. “With ambitious plans ahead for all our businesses, we’re not done building, and we are excited for Disney’s future.”
The company’s entertainment division, which includes its studios, Disney+, Hulu and linear television business, reported $10.7 billion in revenue, 1% higher than a year earlier. Its operating income, however, totaled $1 billion, down 15% compared with the previous year. That was the result of lower results in content sales and licensing, which includes theatrical distribution, and linear television.
Disney’s content sales and licensing unit reported revenue of $2.3 billion, up 7% compared with a year ago , but recorded a loss of $21 million in operating income. The company attributed that to lower theatrical distribution results during the third quarter of this year, when it released Disney and Pixar’s original animated film “Elio,” which struggled at the box office, as well as Marvel Studios’ “Thunderbolts*,” which received strong critical reviews but had a middling commercial performance.
The earnings only captured part of the theatrical results for the live-action adaptation of “Lilo & Stitch,” which would go on to gross $1 billion in global box office revenue. The quarterly earnings were also negatively impacted by the comparison to last year’s “Inside Out 2” box office performance.
Disney’s linear networks including ABC and the Disney Channel continued to struggle, reporting revenue of $2.3 billion, down 15% compared with last year. Operating income fell 28% to $697 million. Part of that decline was due to the lower international results stemming from the company’s Star India merger.
Still, Disney’s streaming business saw gains during the third quarter, posting a 6% increase in revenue to $6.2 billion and operating income of $346 million, compared with a loss of $19 million a year earlier.
The company now has 183 million Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions.
Disney’s theme parks also boosted revenues, despite concerns about a drop-off in international tourism to the U.S. fueled by trade tensions. The experiences division, which includes the Disney theme parks, cruise line and Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii, reported revenue of $9.1 billion, up 8% compared with the previous year. Operating income rose 13% to $2.5 billion.
Disney said visitors spent more at the parks during the third quarter, and that its domestic parks and experiences operating income increased 22% to $1.7 billion.
Disney’s sports unit, which includes ESPN, reported revenue of $4.3 billion, down 5%, due to higher programming and production costs for the NBA and college sports rights and the lack of NHL Stanley Cup Finals rights, which Disney has every other year. Operating income was $1 billion, up 29% from last year.
