86
With Hollywood strapped for cash, Saudi Arabia is re-emerging as a key financial backer (www.nbcnews.com)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
24 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hollywood is feeling the lure of Saudi Arabian money (...)

Saudi money is also behind a portion of Paramount Skydance’s more than $60 billion bid this week for Warner Bros Discovery, according to Variety, which cites multiple sources, and Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the discussions. A spokesperson for Paramount declined to comment.

Additionally, the kingdom is backing a $1 billion new independent content studio called Arena SNK launched in October by former Lionsgate executive Erik Feig, and a $55 billion deal for video game maker Electronic Arts announced in September. A representative for Feig declined to comment.

Executives from Sony traveled to Saudi Arabia this fall for meetings, a spokesperson confirmed. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts also traveled to the country this fall to attend a conference and view a potential theme park site in Qiddiya, a tourism megaproject in Riyadh province, according to a source with knowledge of Roberts’ trip who was not authorized to speak on the record about it. (Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the parent company of NBC News.)

The Red Sea Film Festival 2025 is going on right now (Dec 4-13). The glitterati are partying with Saudi royalty & following the money while blithely ignoring Saudi human rights abuses

all 24 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 36 points 11 months ago (1 child)

Get ready for films to have over-the-top villains show their villainy by being gay again.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
    • [–] 35 points 11 months ago (10 children)

    Hollywood strapped for cash

    Have they tried making good movies again?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 28 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    Have they tried hiring actors that aren’t 50mil? Lots of people will work for less. Much less.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Me thinks the problem is that very few people go to the movies unless there's some kind of hook, e.g. their favorite actor or a known franchise.

    Direct to streaming movies seldom make Hollywood money.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Well the real problem is that what you're saying does exist to some extent, and it's a very easily controlled variable

    So when execs and investors look at marvel, they learn the wrong lesson. Endgame threw in an insane number of expensive actors and made an insane amount of money

    Instead of looking at the years of setup and buildup of characters in this grand artistic vision, they're working with spreadsheets to try to min-max the actor to box office numbers

    It's why everything just keeping getting worse. The finance brained people are running the world, and you can always count on them to learn the wrong lesson

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
    • [–] 15 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    For some reason I'm reminded of the new Top Gun's absolute refusal to name their enemy. The studios's pathetic cowardice took me right out of the movie.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    I thought it was funny how it was some magical conglomerate of Iran and Russia, and how the plot literally included the exact nuclear refinery target that was bombed earlier this year.

    Ignoring all the insane air fight stupidity, the only thing I could think about during the whole movie was the WKUK Nerf Nuke spoof.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
    • [–] 30 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    Oh my god, so many possibilities!

    A slapstick comedy about accidentally killing a journalist in an embassy and desperately trying to get rid of the body by dismembering it and taking it out in suitcases.

    Alien invasion movie, it turns out the only thing that kills the aliens is crude oil.

    Historical drama about prophet Mohammad: first ever movie where the main character is always just out of frame.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
    • [–] 14 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    yah for pro-saudi propaganda!

    weeee.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
    • [–] 12 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Ok, so Hollywood will do what they did with China when trying to sell their movies there, Saudi's will suddenly for some random reason be cool, popular and kind completely out of the blue.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
    • [–] 9 points 11 months ago

    Fuck hollywood.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •