21st Century Fox Agrees to Higher Offer From Disney

 Disney CEO Bob Iger with Fox’s Rupert Murdoch in a picture distributed by Disney in December, around the time a deal between the two companies was first announced. Photo: Disney

Disney to pay more and add a cash component; Fox calls pact superior to Comcast’s bid

by Keach Hagey and Erich Schwartzel

Walt Disney Co. DIS 0.99% raised its offer to purchase most of 21st Century Fox FOX 7.25% to more than $71.3 billion in cash and stock, topping an unsolicited offer from rival Comcast Corp. CMCSA 1.77% and escalating the bidding war for the coveted media properties.

Disney’s new offer is far higher than its original deal, $52.4 billion in stock, and surpasses Comcast’s all-cash offer of roughly $65 billion. In addition to having the higher offer, Disney said it also has the regulatory advantage over Comcast in winning a company to help it fight back against new-media competitors like Netflix Inc.

Fox, in a news release, said the new Disney deal “is superior to the proposal” made by Comcast earlier this month. A Comcast spokeswoman had no immediate comment
Disney and Comcast are battling for prized media assets including the Twentieth Century Fox film and TV studio; U.S. cable networks FX and regional sports channels; international assets such as Sky PLC and Star India; and Fox’s one-third stake in the streaming service Hulu.

Fox and Disney were negotiating terms of an amended agreement over the weekend and had the outlines of a deal by Tuesday, though they were nailing down details like the mix of cash and stock, a person close to the situation said.

Disney submitted its bid Wednesday ahead of a Fox board meeting in London, another person familiar with the situation said. Fox Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger met to discuss the new pact.

Disney agreed to pay Fox shareholders roughly 50% in cash and 50% in stock. If the current deal closes, Fox shareholders would own 19% of the combined company, compared with 25% under the old deal.

Some observers have said it might make sense for Disney and Comcast to divide the Fox assets among them, but Mr. Iger said that idea is a nonstarter. “We have an agreement in place with [Fox] that precludes that,” he said on a conference call Wednesday.

Disney also has time on its side, Mr. Iger said, because the company’s deal with Fox has undergone several months of regulatory review. “We believe that we have a much better opportunity, both in terms of approval and the timing of that approval, than Comcast does,” he said.

The CEO also highlighted how Fox’s programming would boost his company’s efforts to launch a Disney-branded streaming service next year and directly compete with Netflix. “Direct-to-consumer distribution has become an even more compelling proposition in the six months since we announced the deal. The consumer is voting—loudly,” he said.

Content Creation

As tech firms have increasingly plowed money into original content, Hollywood has been scrambling to keep up

*Compound annual growth rate †Assumes 60% of FOX’s TV and cable content spending in the pro-forma Disney company, as well as 100% of 20th Century Fox and 100% of Hulu. Note: Production and programming costs are estimated based on company documents, reported operating expenses associated with marketing and overhead and proxy-based calculations.

Source: RBC Capital Markets; Graphic by Hanna Sender / The Wall Street Journal.

The fight for Fox is part of a scramble by media, telecom and cable companies to get bigger as the superpowers of the technology industry have disrupted old ways of doing business.

Neither proposed deal includes Fox News, Fox Sports 1, the Fox broadcast network or its television stations. In either scenario, those assets would be spun off into a new company, for the moment dubbed “New Fox.”

On a per-share basis, the new Disney deal values the Fox assets being acquired at $38 a share, compared with Comcast’s offer of $35 and Disney’s original offer of $29.54, based on the last trading day before it was announced.

The fight for Fox is part of a scramble by media, telecom and cable companies to get bigger as the superpowers of the technology industry have disrupted old ways of doing business.

Neither proposed deal includes Fox News, Fox Sports 1, the Fox broadcast network or its television stations. In either scenario, those assets would be spun off into a new company, for the moment dubbed “New Fox.”

On a per-share basis, the new Disney deal values the Fox assets being acquired at $38 a share, compared with Comcast’s offer of $35 and Disney’s original offer of $29.54, based on the last trading day before it was announced.

On Wednesday, Fox’s class A shares rose 7.5% to $48.08, and Comcast shares added 1.8% to $33.39.

Disney shareholders didn’t appear to mind stomaching the higher price as the stock rose 1% to $107.15, but some analysts said the move was foolish. “We didn’t like the deal at the prior price, and we like it substantially less now,” said Doug Creutz of Cowen & Co. The analyst said a Disney-Fox tie-up isn’t the way to win the direct-to-consumer fight.

A continuing bidding war between Disney and Comcast could be a strain on both companies’ balance sheets. Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said the company no longer expects to complete a $20 billion share repurchase announced with the initial deal in December.

Fox’s board and shareholders have had to weigh a number of factors as they measure the offers, including their structure. More stock in the deal has tax advantages for shareholders.

These tax advantages might be particularly large for Fox shareholders, such as the Murdoch family, who have held Fox’s stock for a long time and thus face a potentially large capital gain to pay taxes on if it is sold for cash. Rupert Murdoch and his family have a 17% economic interest in 21st Century Fox. 21st Century Fox and Wall Street Journal-parent News Corp share common ownership.

Disney said the stock part of the deal is expected to be tax-free to 21st Century Fox shareholders.

Other shareholders, particularly the large institutional shareholders that are Fox’s biggest investors, may care less about taxes.

People close to Fox have said that the Murdochs are looking for the best financial deal and are working in the best interests of all shareholders.

As a result of the new Disney offer, Fox postponed the special meeting of shareholders it had originally scheduled on July 10 to “a future date.”

Disney’s offer puts a “collar” on the stock portion, saying Fox shareholders would receive Disney shares equal to the $38 price so long as Disney’s stock price is between $93.53 and $114.32.

Regulatory hurdles have been a consideration. The Justice Department would have to sign off on either deal, and Fox cited regulatory concerns among its reasons for rebuffing Comcast’s initial approach.

However, last week, a judge struck down the Justice Department’s attempt to block AT&T ’s acquisition of Time Warner Inc. Comcast believes the court’s approval of a “vertical” merger between a distributor and a content company should nullify Fox’s regulatory concerns, since a Comcast-Fox tie-up would have similar characteristics, people close to the cable giant say.

Mr. Iger said Wednesday that he still believed a “vertical” merger of the kind Comcast proposed for the Fox assets faced regulatory headwinds.

—Austen Hufford and Dana Mattioli contributed to this article.

Donnie Most & Anson Williams Join Marion Ross to promote her new book.

 Don Most with Anson Williams.

What a day! Was at Rockefeller Center with Anson Williams after doing the “Today Show” with Megyn Kelly. We were there to help Marion Ross promote her new book. Tonight is my show at “The Iridium Jazz Club.” #HappyDaysAndNightsInTheBigApple

How Much Does Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Make for One Movie?

Dwayne Johnson, the former pro wrestler, is a rare breed in the entertainment business, a truly bankable movie star. Photo: Mario Anzuoni/REUTERS

A rarely-seen Hollywood term sheet shows Hollywood’s newest superstar will command more than $20 million—plus a cut of profits

By Ben Fritz
In an age when bankable global movie stars are rare and original ideas that can compete with franchise-driven blockbusters are even rarer, “Red Notice” hit Hollywood like a body slam.

The planned action movie starring Dwayne Johnson attracted some of the highest bids of any new movie project in Hollywood in years, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Ultimately Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures bought “Red Notice” based on a 30- to 40-minute pitch, agreeing before the script had been written to make it at a cost of up to $160 million and to pay Mr. Johnson more than $20 million, these people said.

The Wall Street Journal obtained a copy of a term sheet for “Red Notice,” providing a rare level of financial insight into what one of Hollywood’s few remaining global superstars can command for himself and those involved in a film he commits to make.

Pay Day

In a proposal for the in-development movie ‘Red Notice’ that closely mirrored the final deal, Dwayne Johnson would earn $22 million to star, plus profit sharing or bonuses for its performance at the box office.

Salaries

Dwayne Johnson  $22 million

$1 million social-media support*

$21 million base pay

Rawson Marshall Thurber $13.75 million†

$750,000 rewrites

$8 million to direct

$5 million to write

Producers $3.8 million

Profit share‡ 50% of profit shared by talent

Johnson 30%

Thurber 10%

Producers 10%

Box-office bonuses‡

$25 million

For each $25 million world-wide box office after movie grosses 2.5 times its budget

$1 million each Johnson, Thurber and producers

Note: Final terms were close to but not identical to those in this proposal, according to people with knowledge of the deal. *Creating and sharing promotional content for social-media platforms †Maximum salary. If writing is shared, salary is reduced by $500,000. Rewrites are up to $750,000 ‡Profit participation and box-office bonuses are "against" each other. The talent gets one or the other, whichever is bigger.

“The terms were very aggressive,” said an executive at a studio that bid unsuccessfully on “Red Notice.” Instances when a studio would pay such generous terms these days are “very rare,” he added.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, bidding wars for hot, original ideas were common, as were $20 million-plus paychecks for A-list stars such as Julia Roberts and Will Smith. That has cooled, however, as studios focus on making movies off the franchises they already control, such as Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel, Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and Fox’s Avatar. In addition, fewer stars can draw audiences to virtually any film by their name alone, resulting in reduced paychecks.

Among the rare recent exceptions are stars tied to popular franchise characters, like Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man.

Mr. Johnson, 45 years old, a charismatic muscle man who rose to fame in professional wrestling as The Rock, has reached the pinnacle of the movie business. His recent hits include “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” “San Andreas” and several “Fast and Furious” sequels. His only recent miss was “Baywatch.”

He will star in “Rampage,” a film set for release in April that is adapted from a videogame, and July’s action film “Skyscraper.”

He has agreed to fit “Red Notice” into his busy schedule by late 2019, which means it could be released in 2020.

Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber pitched his original idea for “Red Notice,” an international cat-and-mouse thriller for which few plot details could be gleaned, to Mr. Johnson over dinner last year in Vancouver, British Columbia, while the pair were making “Skyscraper,” said a person close to the film. Mr. Thurber directed Mr. Johnson in the 2016 comedy “Central Intelligence.”

In February, Mr. Thurber, producer Beau Flynn and an executive from Mr. Johnson’s production company, Seven Bucks, took their pitch to numerous studios. After all expressed interest, they sent a term sheet detailing their financial requests.

Universal didn’t agree to all of the points on the document obtained by the Journal but was close on most, said people with knowledge of the deal.

The term sheet calls for Mr. Johnson to be paid $22 million and 30% of the movie’s profits or box-office bonuses at key benchmarks—whichever number is higher. If the film is a blockbuster like “Jumanji,” which has grossed $922 million world-wide, that could add tens of millions to his paycheck.

Mr. Thurber would receive more than $12 million to write and direct and 10% of the profits or the same box-office bonus as Mr. Johnson.

The producers, including Mr. Flynn and companies controlled by Messrs. Johnson and Thurber, would receive $3.75 million and the same additional payments as Mr. Thurber.

Among the studios interested in “Red Notice” were Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, Sony Picture Entertainment, and Netflix Inc. Because Netflix movies don’t earn much box-office revenue and it doesn’t share profits, the streaming company likely would have had to pay more than $200 million for “Red Notice,” said a person close to the film.

Legendary Pictures is expected to co-finance the film, reducing Universal’s risk, but also its potential profits.

Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com

Ryan Murphy Inks Giant Deal With Netflix

Robert Tratechenberg

by  Nellie Andreeva
Another mega TV producer is leaving a longtime studio home to head to Netflix. In what is believed to be the biggest TV pact ever, Ryan Murphy, an Emmy, Golden Globe and Peabody Award-winning producer, director and writer, has signed an overall deal with Netflix, which could reach as high as $300 million, sources said. It starts July 1.

Under the five-year agreement, called “the deal of a lifetime for an artist of a lifetime” by one industry insider, Murphy and his Ryan Murphy Productions will produce new series and films exclusively at Netflix. Murphy is moving to Netflix, which also is home of top broadcast drama showrunner Shonda Rhimes, after a long stint at 20th Century Fox TV. He was one of the biggest names on the talent roster of the studio, which is poised to become part of Disney as part of the proposed acquisition, making his departure a blow to the combined entity.

Netflix

“Ryan Murphy’s series have influenced the global cultural zeitgeist, reinvented genres and changed the course of television history. His unfaltering dedication to excellence and to give voice to the underrepresented, to showcase a unique perspective or just to shock the hell out of us, permeates his genre-shattering work,” said Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix.

From Nip/Tuck – our first licensed series – to American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson and American Horror Story, we’ve seen how his brand of storytelling captivates consumers and critics across the globe. His celebrated body of work and his contributions to our industry speak for themselves, and we look forward to supporting Ryan in bringing his broad and diverse stories to the world.”

Netflix and Disney-Fox were among a slew of suitors for the prolific writer-producer-director, whose current deal with 20th Century Fox TV expires this year. The streaming giant had aggressively pursued him and already had gotten in the Ryan Murphy business by outbidding other SVOD/premium buyers twice to snag both of hisstreaming series, Ratched and The Politician.

“The history of this moment is not lost on me,” said Murphy. “I am a gay kid from Indiana who moved to Hollywood in 1989 with $55 dollars in savings in my pocket, so the fact that my dreams have crystallized and come true in such a major way is emotional and overwhelming to me. I am awash in genuine appreciation for Ted Sarandos, Reed Hastings and Cindy Holland at Netflix for believing in me and the future of my company which will continue to champion women, minorities and LGBTQ heroes and heroines, and I am honored and grateful to continue my partnership with my friends and peers at Fox on our existing shows.”

Associated Press

Murphy, one of the top creator-producers working in television today, has pulled off the rare feat of launching commercial and award-winning hits on both broadcast and cable. His jump to Netflix is another hit for the traditional TV business, which has been upended by deep-pocketed digital upstarts with the creators of some of the biggest broadcast and cable series now calling the streaming platforms home, including Murphy, Grey’s Anatomy‘s Rhimes, Friends‘ Marta Kauffman and Weeds’ Jenji Kohan (Netflix) and The Gilmore Girls’ Amy Sherman-Palladino (Amazon).
As Murphy admitted at TCA in January, he also had been courted by Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Disney is in the process of acquiring key Fox assets, including 20th TV. While I hear Murphy considered both options, the timing worked better for Netflix, which provided a clear vision for the future and an opportunity for Murphy to pursue TV series, films and documentaries — all under the same roof. Meanwhile, the alternative at the combined Disney-Fox company was still a subject to speculation because the deal is far off.

Murphy’s Netflix deal puts an end — at least for the time being — to one of the most successful collaborations between a creator and an executive in television.

“I wish Ryan well, and I know everyone at our company feels the same,” said Fox TV Group chairman Dana Walden, who has worked closely with Murphy for years and counts him as a close personal friend. “We are lucky to have so many projects with him.”

Indeed, all eight series Murphy has on the air are with 20th TV/Fox 21 TV Studios, and, at least for the next year, he is expected to be focused on them, continuing to work with the executive teams at the studio as well as at Fox and FX. I hear Walden was approached about joining Murphy at Netflix.

She is currently committed to her job at Fox, where her contract expires later this year, and has been rumored for a potential top post at Disney-Fox. Murphy and Walden reportedly had explored potentially launching a company together and, given the duo’s long history and very close relationship, it is possible for them to re-team in the future.

Fox

Murphy’s new original series, Ratched and The Politician, will premiere globally on Netflix. Murphy also oversees production on American Crime Story, American Horror Story and Feud on FX, 9-1-1 on Fox and the upcoming Pose, also on FX. His previous series credits include hits Nip/Tuck on FX and musical dramedy Glee on Fox.

While he had been wooed for awhile, the deal with Netflix came down quickly, and it was instigated by the proposed Disney-Fox pact.

“Three months ago, I thought I was going to be buried on the Fox lot; I had my mausoleum picked out,” Murphy said in January. “I started working there in my 30s, and many of us had young children who would play together.”

Back then, Murphy said that he had received a phone call from Iger, reiterating that Disney was interested in what he had created in the sophisticated adult TV space. “The stuff that I do isn’t specifically Disney,” Murphy said. “I was concerned: Do I have to start putting Mickey Mouse in American Horror Story?”

The deal for Murphy was negotiated by CAA.

New 'Passion of the Christ' to be 'biggest film in history'

 

by Joe Kovacs

Actor Jim Caviezel portraying Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ.”

Jim Caviezel, who stunned the world with his portrayal of Jesus in the 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” is now confirming he’s on board with director Mel Gibson for a sequel, and predicts it will be “the biggest film in history.”

“There are things that I cannot say that will shock the audience,” the 49-year-old actor told USA Today. “It’s great. Stay tuned.”

Both Gibson and Caviezel have not said much about the story focusing on the resurrection of Christ, but the star indicated he’s encouraged by the direction the project is taking.

“I won’t tell you how he’s going to go about it,” Caviezel said of Gibson. “But I’ll tell you this much, the film he’s going to do is going to be the biggest film in history. It’s that good.”

“The Passion” isn’t the only big sequel. You’re not being told the entire truth about the Bible’s contents. Learn Scripture on the spirit level as well as the physical level in the best-selling sequel “Shocked by the Bible 2” — autographed at WND!

The original “Passion of the Christ” followed the last 12 hours of Christ’s life. The movie brought in more than $611 million worldwide on a $30 million budget, and remains the highest-grossing R-rated film ever in North America with $370.8 million.

In 2016, Gibson spoke with USA Today about his plans for the sequel.

“The Resurrection. Big subject.” Gibson said. “We’re trying to craft this in a way that’s cinematically compelling and enlightening so that it shines new light, if possible, without creating some weird thing.”

Earlier this month in Chicago, Caviezel warned against false Christianity, and urged believers to publicly voice their faith in “this pagan world.”

“I want you to go out into this pagan world, I want you to have the courage to step into this pagan world and shamelessly express your faith in public. The world needs proud warriors animated by their faith,” he told the Fellowship of Catholic University Students SLS Leadership Conference.

“Warriors like Saint Paul and Saint Luke who risked their names, their reputations to take their faith, their love for Jesus into the world.

“God is calling each one of us, each one of you to do great things but how often we fail to respond, dismissing it as some mental blurp. It’s time for our generation, now, to accept that call, the call of God urging all of us to give ourselves entirely to Him.”

“Set yourselves apart from this corrupt generation,” the actor continued. “Be saints. You weren’t made to fit in. You were born to stand out.”

“We must shake off this indifference, this destructive tolerance of evil. But only our faith and the wisdom of Christ can save us,” he said. “But it requires warriors, ready to risk their reputations, their names, even our very lives, to stand for the truth.”

“By God, we must live,” Caviezel concluded, “and with the Holy Spirit as your shield and Christ as your sword, may you join St. Michael and all the angels in sending Lucifer and his henchmen straight right back to hell where they belong!”

How Overseas Film Sales Saved Hollywood From a Terrible Summer

 
By Anousha Sakoui
The duds just keep coming this summer in North America, from “The Mummy” to “Alien: Covenant” to “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.” The season has been what critics politely call lackluster for Hollywood studios -- but don’t expect them to stop churning out more bombs.

That’s because as badly as so many franchise films and reboots have done in the world’s biggest cinema market, they’ve racked up solid ticket sales elsewhere. Theater-goers in America thought Paramount Pictures’ fifth “Transformers” was pretty much a yawner, but in China they liked it. And No. 6 is already in the works.

“Look at the casualties just this summer,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a Los Angeles-based analyst for ComScore Inc. “If they only had North America, it would be a monumental disaster for the studios.”

For now at least, the rest of the world -- China in particular -- is supporting Hollywood’s love affair with series, sequels and rehashes like “The Mummy,” Universal Pictures’ new take on a story that’s been told dozens of times. The risk is that sequel fatigue will set in overseas too. Chinese moviegoers are becoming more choosy, and the fastest-growing film market is slowing down. That’s a challenge for studios such as Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., which plan and schedule movies years in advance.

Jonathan Papish, an analyst for China Film Insider, described as a “disaster” the $250 million that “Transformers: The Last Knight” is projected to record in the world’s most-populous country. The reason: the previous version from Viacom Inc.’s film division pulled in 17 percent more, “a worrisome sign for both Paramount and other Hollywood studios who have become far too complacent thinking that Chinese audiences will swallow whatever garbage they shove down their throats.”

 

This “Transformers” opening in China, at least, was about 30 percent bigger than the opening for the previous one, according to Box Office Mojo.

Not every sequel or franchise entry has fallen flat in North America, of course. “Wonder Woman,” Warner Bros.’ fourth episode in the DC Extended Universe series, has taken in $346 million domestically and is one of the year’s top films. Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” topped the box office for two weeks and has taken in $383 million domestically.

And there are some big-hitters coming. Sony Corp.’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is expected to take in $301 million in North America after its release this weekend, according to BoxOfficePro.com. 

“War for Planet of the Apes,” out July 14 from 21st Century Fox Inc., could grab $165 million.

But the second-quarter domestic box office ended down 3.6 percent from a year ago at $2.7 billion, Barton Crockett, an analyst at FBR & Co., said in a note. He blamed disappointing sequels; even with a better-than-expected “Wonder Woman,” he predicts a 15 percent decline for the third quarter.

Chinese box-office sales fell in June, as local movies as well as Hollywood imports failed to meet expectations. This month, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC pushed back its forecast for China’s movie market to overtake the U.S. to 2021 from 2017.

This weekend, Universal’s “Despicable Me 3” will test the Chinese market, after opening in first place in 44 out of 46 countries, according to data from the film division of Comcast Corp. A new installment in another Universal series, “The Fate of the Furious,” enjoyed strong demand in China, taking in $393 million there earlier this year.

Even with big budget films flopping at home, movies can earn money for years to come from digital downloads and sales to Netflix Inc. and other streaming sites and cable-television channels. The latest -- and last -- “Pirates of the Caribbean” may have missed expectations when it came out May 26, but it could end up generating a net profit of $219 million, according to an estimate from Wade Holden, analyst with S&P Global Market Intelligence.

That hasn’t stopped some analysts from complaining that studios have focused too much on making big-budget features.

“There is an over reliance on sequels,” said Richard Greenfield, a media and technology analyst at BTIG LLC. The major studios “are so worried about investing in an unknown property that they are all just relying on sequels and hoping that sequels will save them.”

While Disney has had tremendous success, Greenfield said it’s not bullet-proof. “The danger is that investors are essentially assuming that a movie like ‘Star Wars’ will be successful forever.”

As much as any studio, Disney has tied its future to sequels and remakes. The company’s 2017 schedule includes eight films, of which six fit that profile, according to Box Office Mojo.

Disney said its strategy sets it apart from the competition -- in 2016 its film business had its most profitable year ever. Other studios trying to ape it have had less success. Sony, for example, tried and failed to refresh its 1984 hit “Ghostbusters” last year in the hope that it could spawn a new series.

In any event, many future slates are laden with new installments of existing worlds of characters. 21st Century Fox and Sony, which license Marvel characters, are planning more “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” chapters.

Disney has laid out several years worth of Marvel superhero offerings and at least a six-picture series of “Star Wars” movies. Meanwhile, the company is revisiting “Mary Poppins” and “Mulan.”

“Studios are rushing these sequels,” said Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. “If you want to get the domestic audience back, you’ve got to do something a little outside the box.”

Watch the Golden Globe LIVE!

Disney-Fox Films Controlling 90% Of Weekend Box Office Spurred By ‘Last Jedi’

 
by Anthony D'Alessandro December 17, 2017 10:04am

Updated with Sunday AM figures While it will take two years or less until Disney fully controls Fox, here’s a current statistic to give you a taste of their combined box office power during a blockbuster weekend, post merger news. Currently, total domestic ticket sales look to gross $280M this weekend per ComScore, and Disney and Fox films combined are generating 90% of that total or $252.1M.

Even though total weekend ticket sales are -11% from when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was in the marketplace two years ago spurring $313.2M, Disney-Fox’s combined marketshare this weekend is greater than in 2015 had they merged then (86% of the Force Awakens weekend or $269.2M) and last year’s Rogue One opening weekend (81% of a $211.6M overall weekend or $171.9M). Compared to last year when Rogue One debuted, the overall U.S./Canada weekend B.O. is +32%.

True, Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi is responsible for driving 79% of the weekend’s overall business with a $220M opening. However, Fox’s product is solid in the shadow of Last Jedi. Their Blue Studios animated film Ferdinand made $13.3M, a good start that will only swell during the holidays (their Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Chip generated a 6x multiple off a $14.2M opening versus Force Awakens’ near $248M opening). Before Fox’s Murder on the Orient Express opened (the movie also stars Last Jedi‘s Daisy Ridley), the film on paper appeared to be a challenge with its period setting. That’s hardly the case with Murder set to cross $100M a month later, fueled largely by an over-50 audience. On top of this, Fox Searchlight’s awards contenders are coming in ahead from where we saw them on Saturday with The Shape of Water earning $1.7M this weekend and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri making $1.6M. Disney also has Pixar’s Coco in third place drawing $10M and Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok in 7th place with close to $3M.  20th Century Fox is also opening the period Hugh Jackman musical about P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman on Wednesday. So not only is a Disney-Fox combination event driven in the current weekend, but appealing to a diversity of demos as well.
 
Where does this leave the competition? They don’t have any wide releases this weekend; Sony kicks off the Christmas flood on Wednesday with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. However, the highest grossing non-Disney/Fox movie this weekend belongs to Lionsgate’s Wonder which is generating $5.4M in fourth place in its 5th weekend. We’ll have a better idea in the weekends ahead how much air the competition can inhale.
 
While the DOJ works on approving the Disney-Fox deal, both labels will operate separately with business as usual. Next year, both studios together count 26 titles across Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Disney animation, Blue Studios, 20th Century Fox, Fox 2000 and Fox Searchlight. Whether they maintain this consistent outflow in the years to come, and how they counterprogram their labels is the big question. Nonetheless, box office dominance is a guarantee.
 

Overseas Film Sales Are Saving Hollywood From a Terrible Summer

Photographer: Paramount Pictures via Everett Collection

By Anousha Sakoui
The duds just keep coming this summer in North America, from “The Mummy” to “Alien: Covenant” to “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.” The season has been what critics politely call lackluster for Hollywood studios -- but don’t expect them to stop churning out more bombs.

That’s because as badly as so many franchise films and reboots have done in the world’s biggest cinema market, they’ve racked up solid ticket sales elsewhere. Theater-goers in America thought Paramount Pictures’ fifth “Transformers” was pretty much a yawner, but in China they liked it. And No. 6 is already in the works.

“Look at the casualties just this summer,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a Los Angeles-based analyst for ComScore Inc. “If they only had North America, it would be a monumental disaster for the studios.”

For now at least, the rest of the world -- China in particular -- is supporting Hollywood’s love affair with series, sequels and rehashes like “The Mummy,” Universal Pictures’ new take on a story that’s been told dozens of times. The risk is that sequel fatigue will set in overseas too. Chinese moviegoers are becoming more choosy, and the fastest-growing film market is slowing down. That’s a challenge for studios such as Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., which plan and schedule movies years in advance.

Jonathan Papish, an analyst for China Film Insider, described as a “disaster” the $250 million that “Transformers: The Last Knight” is projected to record in the world’s most-populous country. The reason: the previous version from Viacom Inc.’s film division pulled in 17 percent more, “a worrisome sign for both Paramount and other Hollywood studios who have become far too complacent thinking that Chinese audiences will swallow whatever garbage they shove down their throats.”

 

This “Transformers” opening in China, at least, was about 30 percent bigger than the opening for the previous one, according to Box Office Mojo.

Not every sequel or franchise entry has fallen flat in North America, of course. “Wonder Woman,” Warner Bros.’ fourth episode in the DC Extended Universe series, has taken in $346 million domestically and is one of the year’s top films. Disney’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” topped the box office for two weeks and has taken in $383 million domestically.

And there are some big-hitters coming. Sony Corp.’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” is expected to take in $301 million in North America after its release this weekend, according to BoxOfficePro.com. 

“War for Planet of the Apes,” out July 14 from 21st Century Fox Inc., could grab $165 million.

But the second-quarter domestic box office ended down 3.6 percent from a year ago at $2.7 billion, Barton Crockett, an analyst at FBR & Co., said in a note. He blamed disappointing sequels; even with a better-than-expected “Wonder Woman,” he predicts a 15 percent decline for the third quarter.

Chinese box-office sales fell in June, as local movies as well as Hollywood imports failed to meet expectations. This month, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC pushed back its forecast for China’s movie market to overtake the U.S. to 2021 from 2017.

This weekend, Universal’s “Despicable Me 3” will test the Chinese market, after opening in first place in 44 out of 46 countries, according to data from the film division of Comcast Corp. A new installment in another Universal series, “The Fate of the Furious,” enjoyed strong demand in China, taking in $393 million there earlier this year.

Even with big budget films flopping at home, movies can earn money for years to come from digital downloads and sales to Netflix Inc. and other streaming sites and cable-television channels. The latest -- and last -- “Pirates of the Caribbean” may have missed expectations when it came out May 26, but it could end up generating a net profit of $219 million, according to an estimate from Wade Holden, analyst with S&P Global Market Intelligence.

That hasn’t stopped some analysts from complaining that studios have focused too much on making big-budget features.

“There is an over reliance on sequels,” said Richard Greenfield, a media and technology analyst at BTIG LLC. The major studios “are so worried about investing in an unknown property that they are all just relying on sequels and hoping that sequels will save them.”

While Disney has had tremendous success, Greenfield said it’s not bullet-proof. “The danger is that investors are essentially assuming that a movie like ‘Star Wars’ will be successful forever.”

As much as any studio, Disney has tied its future to sequels and remakes. The company’s 2017 schedule includes eight films, of which six fit that profile, according to Box Office Mojo.

Disney said its strategy sets it apart from the competition -- in 2016 its film business had its most profitable year ever. Other studios trying to ape it have had less success. Sony, for example, tried and failed to refresh its 1984 hit “Ghostbusters” last year in the hope that it could spawn a new series.

In any event, many future slates are laden with new installments of existing worlds of characters. 21st Century Fox and Sony, which license Marvel characters, are planning more “X-Men” and “Spider-Man” chapters.

Disney has laid out several years worth of Marvel superhero offerings and at least a six-picture series of “Star Wars” movies. Meanwhile, the company is revisiting “Mary Poppins” and “Mulan.”

“Studios are rushing these sequels,” said Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. “If you want to get the domestic audience back, you’ve got to do something a little outside the box.”

Gregg Allman, Southern Rock Pioneer, Dies at 69

 

Chris Morris Music Reporter / photo's by Ray Tharaldson 

Gregg Allman, whose hard-jamming, bluesy sextet the Allman Brothers Band was the pioneering unit in the Southern rock explosion of the ‘70s, died Saturday due to complications from liver cancer, his longtime manager, Michael Lehman, confirmed to Variety. He was 69.

As recently as April 24, reports surfaced claiming Allman was in hospice, although Lehman denied those reports, which Allman then substantiated in a Facebook post. However, he had suffered a number of ailments in recent years — including an irregular heartbeat, a respiratory infection, a hernia and a liver transplant — and cancelled many scheduled tour dates in recent months for health reasons. Lehman said that Allman’s liver cancer recurred around five years ago, but the singer chose to keep the news private.

Allman completed a solo album, “Southern Blood,” that is set for release late this year. Lehman said they received some final mixes for the album on Friday, and Allman listened to them the night before his death. He added that Allman passed away with his family nearby, and was “at peace.”

For his work with the Allman Brothers, the legendary band he cofounded with his late brother Duane, and as a solo artist, Allman is one of the leading lights of Southern Rock. While the group’s greatest work was done before and shortly after Duane’s death in 1971, they stayed together, off and on, over 45 years and remain a singular influence on Southern rock and jam-band musicians. They were a top-drawing touring outfit until October 2014, when the group finally closed the book on their career with a series of dates at their longtime favorite venue, New York’s Beacon Theatre.

Allman’s solo career always played second to that of the band, but he enjoyed solo success with 1973’s “Laid Back” and 1987’s “I’m No Angel,” both of which were certified gold. In 2011 he released an unexpectedly strong album entitled “Low Country Blues” that was produced by T Bone Burnett (Alison Krauss/Robert Plant, Los Lobos, Elvis Costello, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”), who, along with instrumentalists like pianist Dr. John and guitarist Doyle Bramhall II, brought Allman back to his gutsy roots with stellar results.

With his older sibling, guitarist Duane Allman, the singer-keyboardist-guitarist-songwriter led one of the most popular concert attractions of the rock ballroom era; the group’s 1971 set “At Fillmore East,” recorded at Bill Graham’s New York hall, was a commercial breakthrough that showed off the band’s prodigious songcraft and instrumental strengths.

After Duane Allman’s death in a motorcycle accident weeks after the live album’s release, his 
younger brother led the band through four more stormy decades of playing and recording. The Allman Brothers Band’s latter-day history proved tumultuous, with other fatalities, disbandings, regroupings and very public battles with drugs and alcohol on the part of its surviving namesake.

Though Gregg Allman’s highly publicized addictions, his tabloid-ready marriage to pop vocalist Cher, and his equally public disputes with co-founding guitarist Dickey Betts came under harsh and sometimes mocking scrutiny over the years, Allman prevailed as the linchpin of an act that maintained popularity over four decades and opened the commercial door for such other Southern acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band.

As a member of the Allman Brothers Band, Allman was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

He was born Gregory LeNoir Allman on Dec. 8, 1947, in Nashville; brother Duane was born 13 months earlier in the same hospital. In 1949, his father was shot to death by a man he offered a ride to in a bar. As their mother was studying accounting to support the family, the brothers were sent to a Tennessee military school at an early age.

The Allmans became attracted to music after seeing a 1960 concert by R&B singer Jackie Wilson in Daytona Beach, FL, where the family had moved the year before. Using money from a paper route (augmented by his mother), Gregg bought a guitar, and taught Duane his first chords. Both played guitar in the bands they founded after returning to the military academy in their teens.

Their pro bands the Escorts and the Allman Joys, which favored R&B, blues and rock covers, found work on the Florida club circuit in the mid-‘60s; Gregg began playing keyboards in the latter unit. The Allman Joys were playing without success in St. Louis when Bill McEuen, manager of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, met them and offered to set them up in Los Angeles.

Renamed Hour Glass, the L.A.-based group cut two unsuccessful pop-oriented albums for Liberty Records in 1967-68. Duane chafed at the direction being forced on the combo and fled for Alabama, where he became a prominent session guitarist at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. Gregg remained in L.A. to fulfill obligations to Liberty, but was summoned to Jacksonville, FL, in 1969 by his brother, who envisioned a new blues-based band with two guitarist and two drummers, featuring members of another local combo, the 31st of February.

Calling themselves the Allman Brothers Band, the new unit – the Allmans, guitarist Betts, bassist Berry Oakley and drummers Butch Trucks and Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johanson – was signed by Otis Redding’s former manager Phil Walden for management and as an act on his Macon, GA-based label Capricorn Records. The group moved to Macon, which became its base for the duration.

Neither of the ABB’s first two albums was an enormous success: Its self-titled bow peaked at No. 188 in 1969, while sophomore set “Idlewild South” topped out at No. 38 in 1970. But they established Gregg Allman as a vocal, instrumental and songwriting power: His compositions included such future staples of the band’s live set as “Not My Cross to Bear,” “Dreams,” “Whipping Post” and “Midnight Rider.”

Though problems with hard drug abuse were already surfacing in the band, the Allmans became a huge concert attraction in the South; the enthusiastic sponsorship of promoter Graham led to high-profile gigs at New York’s Filllmore East (where the band attained a rabid following) and San Francisco’s Fillmore.

The Allmans made their commercial mark with “At Fillmore East”: The expansive, Tom Dowd-produced two-record set, recorded during two nights at the venue, shot to No.13 ultimately sold more than 1 million copies and became one of the defining concert recordings of its day. However, Duane Allman’s tragic death at 24 on a Macon street on Oct. 29, 1971, cast a shadow over its success.

The band completed a follow-up two-LP set, “Eat a Peach,” as a quintet, with live numbers featuring Duane filling out the contents. The 1972 package rose to No. 4 nationally and went platinum, but disaster again struck: In a mishap eerily similar to Duane Allman’s fatal crash, hard-drinking bassist Oakley died after driving his bike into the side of a truck that November.

 Shaken by the deaths of his brother and Oakley and increasingly incapacitated by heroin, cocaine and alcohol, Gregg Allman ceded much of the band’s songwriting and front man duties to Betts; as he noted in “My Cross to Bear,” his 2012 memoir, “Up until then, we’d never really had a front man; Dickey took it upon himself to create that role.”

 The ABB released its only No. 1 album, “Brothers and Sisters,” in 1973; the record was powered to the top by the Betts-penned No. 2 single “Ramblin’ Man,” the group’s only top-10 45.

Allman retreated from the group to cut his solo debut “Laid Back” in 1973; rising to No. 13, it would be his most popular work away from the band for nearly 40 years, and it spawned his only top-20 solo single, a down-tempo remake of “Midnight Rider.”

On the heels of the lugubrious but popular “Win, Lose or Draw” (No. 5, 1975), the group set out on its biggest, and costliest, tour to date. The ABB flew to its dates on a lavishly appointed private jet previously used by the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin; in his book, Allman recalls, “The first time we walked onto the plane, ‘Welcome Allman Brothers’ was spelled out in cocaine on the bar.”

The ABB returned from the 41-date tour with a mere $100,000 in hand, owing to over-the-top spending. This financial catastrophe was compounded by the indictment of the group’s security man (and Allman’s drug bag man) Scooter Herring on cocaine distribution charges; Allman testified against Herring before a grand jury and at his trial, which netted a 75-year prison sentence.

Addicted to heroin and embroiled in inter-band conflict with Betts, Allman began spending more time in Los Angeles with Cher, whom he had wed in June 1975. The incongruous couple was followed avidly by gossip columnists. In the wake of an unsuccessful 1977 solo album, “Playin’ Up a Storm” (No. 42), Allman and Cher released their only duo album, “Two the Hard Way”; embarrassingly credited to “Allman and Woman,” the set failed to chart, and its accompanying tour witnessed scuffles between hostile camps of fans in the audiences. Allman and Cher divorced in 1978.

Membership in the ABB rotated repeatedly for the remainder of the group’s career, which saw ever-diminishing contributions from writer Allman. He authored just one song for the group’s final Capricorn album, “Enlightened Rogues” (No. 27, 1979); the financially unstable imprint crashed within a year of its release. Allman was also a minor contributor to a pair of slick, poorly received albums for Arista Records in 1980-81.

During the band’s protracted hiatus of the ‘80s, Allman issued a pair of solo sets; the more popular of the two, 1987’s “I’m No Angel” (No. 30, 1987), spawned the titular radio hit.

Encouraged by airplay on the burgeoning “classic rock” radio format, the ABB reconvened for a 1989 tour. In 1990, the group recorded “Seven Turns” (No. 53) with “Fillmore East” producer Tom Dowd; the group also began multi-night residencies at New York’s Beacon Theatre, which became an annual tradition. They issued four commercially unrewarding albums – two studio sets and two concert releases – between 1991 and 1995.

Following a drunken appearance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in New York in January 1995, onetime junkie Allman, after 11 stints in rehab, finally stopped drinking on his own, under the 24-hour watch of two nurses.

Following the exit of longtime guitarist Warren Haynes and bassist Allen Woody and the recruitment of Butch Trucks’ young nephew Derek Trucks on guitar, the ABB cut the live “Peakin’ at the Beacon” in 2000. Tension within the band had reached the breaking point, and, following a severely worded fax to Betts from the other members and subsequent legal arbitration, the Allman Brothers Band’s other founding guitarist made his exit.

The front line of Allman, Haynes and Derek Trucks and the group’s founding drummers were heard on the Allman Brothers Band’s studio collection “Hittin’ the Note” (No. 37, 2003) and the live “One Way Out” (No. 190, 2004). After 45 years in business, the band was formally dissolved after an October 2014 show at the Beacon.

Allman’s old habits caught up with him in the ‘00s. Diagnosed with hepatitis C – a disease common to intravenous drug users – in 2007, he learned that he was suffering from liver cancer in 2008. He underwent successful liver transplant surgery at the Mayo Clinic in 2010.

Before his surgery, Allman entered the studio to record his first solo album in 13 years. “Low Country Blues,” a striking and powerful recital of old blues songs, augmented by one Allman-Haynes original and produced by T Bone Burnett (Alison Krauss/Robert Plant, Los Lobos, Elvis Costello, “O Brother Where Art Thou?”), garnered the best reviews of his career, collected a Grammy Award nomination and became his highest-charting solo release, reaching No. 5 in early 2011.

However, health problems and catastrophe continued to dog him. He cut short a 2011 European tour because of respiratory issues, which ultimately mandated lung surgery. He faced a drug relapse spurred by painkillers, and did a stint in rehab. In 2014, a film based on his 2012 memoir, “Midnight Rider,” ceased production after a camera assistant on director Randall Miller’s feature was killed by a freight train on the first day of shooting.

Allman’s last concert took place on October 29, 2016 in Atlanta, a headlining set at his own Laid Back Festival.

Married and divorced six times, Allman is survived by three sons and two daughters, all by different mothers. Four of the children are professional musicians.

Allman will be buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, next to Duane and former Allmans bassist Berry Oakley (who died a year after Duane), Lehman said. Their mother’s ashes, currently in Gregg’s home, will be buried there as well. 

US Media Publications Ranking April 2017, Drudge Report beats Google, CNN & Washington Post!

by Daniel Sevitt 

The latest SimilarWeb US Media Publications ranking is here!

April showers were not the only things falling this month as the top 100 websites received 3.9% fewer total pageviews compared to March 2017. Within the heavily concentrated upper tier there was little movement with the top five websites attracting 35% of all traffic to the top 100 in April 2017.

Notable changes in SimilarWeb Ranking

Four new websites entered the top 100 in April this year: avclub.com, jezebel.com, bostonglobe.com and theblaze.com. Correspondingly, these were the websites that left the top 100: independent.co.uk, newyorker.com, realclearpolitics.com and vogue.com.

The Drudge report came in third, beating Google, Cnn & Washington Post.

It was a good month for the Fusion Media Group as seven of its websites saw an increase in the rankings. The Onion’s sister publication, avclub.com, saw the largest increase jumping 69 positions from 119 to 50 thanks to drastic increase in engagement (pages/visit) that almost tripled compared to the previous month (174% growth in desktop pages/visit and 47% increase in mobile web pages/visit). The article named “What’s the worst movie you ever saw in the theatre?” was by far the most popular content on the website in April.

Financial news and services website thestreet.com was the second biggest winner in April moving up 17 places similarly due to increased engagement with improved pages per visit. The most search stock for the website in April was Rolls Royce.

It was also a great month for refinery29.com which closed the month 16 places higher than in March. Once again the driving force behind this increase was engagement, with the number of desktop pages per visit improving from 6.01 to 7.08. The most viewed article on the site for April was their rundown of new releases for Netflix, “Everything Coming To Netflix In May“.

Top Non-Branded Keywords

While PotUS continues to be a key draw for news sites, April was a busy month with stories about United Airlines, Bill O’Reilly and the ill-fated Fyre Festival grabbing the public’s attention. Here are the top ten non-branded keywords driving traffic to US media publications in April 2017:

1. trump
2. united airlines
3. north korea
4. donald trump
5. syria
6. aaron hernandez
7. bill o’reilly
8. fyre festival
9. united
10. russia

Based on the combination of desktop and website traffic in April 2017, the top 100 media publications ranking looks like this:

US Media Publications by Pageviews, April 2017

Domains	Rank in April 2017	Rank in March 2017		Monthly Change	Combined Pageviews
msn.com	1	1		0	1764.4 M
espn.com	2	2		0	1393.4 M
drudgereport.com	3	3		0	1248.2 M
news.google.com	4	4		0	1165.8 M
cnn.com	5	6		1	841.0 M
finance.yahoo.com	6	5		-1	827.9 M
sports.yahoo.com	7	7		0	741.4 M
foxnews.com	8	8		0	671.4 M
nytimes.com	9	9		0	538.0 M
buzzfeed.com	10	11		1	481.4 M
washingtonpost.com	11	10		-1	446.1 M
huffingtonpost.com	12	12		0	351.4 M
businessinsider.com	13	13		0	321.5 M
cnet.com	14	14		0	260.1 M
bbc.com	15	16		1	259.0 M
usatoday.com	16	15		-1	251.0 M
dailymail.co.uk	17	17		0	235.6 M
nbcnews.com	18	19		1	219.8 M
forbes.com	19	18		-1	218.2 M
news.yahoo.com	20	32		12	165.2 M
bloomberg.com	21	22		1	156.3 M
popsugar.com	22	28		6	144.3 M
sfgate.com	23	26		3	142.1 M
pitchfork.com	24	25		1	139.0 M
politico.com	25	21		-4	131.0 M
ksl.com	26	33		7	129.8 M
nydailynews.com	27	30		3	123.3 M
seekingalpha.com	28	24		-4	118.7 M
cbssports.com	29	20		-9	118.6 M
liveleak.com	30	38		8	118.2 M
theguardian.com	31	27		-4	116.4 M
cbsnews.com	32	31		-1	114.6 M
nypost.com	33	34		1	113.2 M
breitbart.com	34	23		-11	110.8 M
people.com	35	37		2	107.3 M
npr.org	36	29		-7	107.1 M
tmz.com	37	40		3	106.9 M
abcnews.go.com	38	39		1	104.4 M
gizmodo.com	39	43		4	98.3 M
wsj.com	40	35		-5	97.9 M
latimes.com	41	44		3	93.1 M
usnews.com	42	42		0	92.9 M
centurylink.net	43	45		2	91.6 M
slate.com	44	41		-3	83.2 M
bleacherreport.com	45	52		7	80.6 M
reuters.com	46	49		3	80.6 M
cnbc.com	47	36		-11	79.1 M
rollingstone.com	48	48		0	77.6 M
marketwatch.com	49	47		-2	74.9 M
avclub.com	50	119		69	73.8 M
lifehacker.com	51	55		4	72.2 M
thehill.com	52	46		-6	71.8 M
espncricinfo.com	53	68		15	69.7 M
pcmag.com	54	69		15	67.9 M
complex.com	55	63		8	67.1 M
zerohedge.com	56	53		-3	66.4 M
wenxuecity.com	57	50		-7	65.1 M
telegraph.co.uk	58	64		6	65.0 M
delish.com	59	56		-3	62.8 M
refinery29.com	60	76		16	61.1 M
chron.com	61	59		-2	61.0 M
cracked.com	62	60		-2	60.3 M
dailykos.com	63	51		-12	59.6 M
mashable.com	64	54		-10	59.4 M
nbcsports.com	65	67		2	59.4 M
thechive.com	66	62		-4	58.5 M
thedailybeast.com	67	58		-9	58.2 M
thestreet.com	68	85		17	53.7 M
chicagotribune.com	69	79		10	53.6 M
caranddriver.com	70	70		0	53.6 M
bbc.co.uk	71	80		9	53.3 M
tomshardware.com	72	73		1	53.0 M
littlethings.com	73	77		4	52.4 M
rotoworld.com	74	66		-8	52.4 M
arstechnica.com	75	91		16	52.1 M
deadspin.com	76	90		14	52.1 M
time.com	77	78		1	51.8 M
theatlantic.com	78	75		-3	51.8 M
msnbc.com	79	57		-22	51.3 M
foxsports.com	80	74		-6	50.2 M
scout.com	81	72		-9	49.9 M
rawstory.com	82	81		-1	48.7 M
jalopnik.com	83	98		15	48.4 M
wired.com	84	71		-13	48.4 M
digitaltrends.com	85	83		-2	48.3 M
hollywoodreporter.com	86	89		3	48.2 M
si.com	87	65		-22	46.7 M
nationalgeographic.com	88	84		-4	46.5 M
theverge.com	89	97		8	46.4 M
univision.com	90	82		-8	46.3 M
ibtimes.co.uk	91	61		-30	45.5 M
health.com	92	94		2	44.1 M
bhg.com	93	95		2	43.0 M
eonline.com	94	93		-1	42.9 M
jezebel.com	95	103		8	42.8 M
vice.com	96	88		-8	42.6 M
kotaku.com	97	99		2	42.3 M
tomsguide.com	98	96		-2	42.0 M
bostonglobe.com	99	107		8	41.6 M
theblaze.com	100	102		2	41.0 M