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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Legendary, Warner Bros. Join for One Last ‘Kong’

Warner Bros. Studio is back in business with Legendary Entertainment, and while it’s just for a single movie, it’s a big one. “Kong: Skull Island,” financed by production house Legendary in Burbank and distributed by the Burbank entertainment company, brought in $61 million in its opening weekend, beating out holdovers “Logan” and “Get Out” for the period March 10-12. Overseas, the giant ape flick brought in $85 million for a total global box office take of $146 million. Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. domestic distribution president, said that the film’s marketing campaign, which included a heavy presence on social media, sold it perfectly. “This is a great weekend for the industry overall and all of our exhibition partners,” Goldstein said in a prepared statement. Warner Bros. and Legendary had a long-standing distribution agreement that expired at the end of 2013, after which Legendary struck a deal with Universal Pictures, owned by Comcast Corp., in Universal City. Among the films that Warner Bros. had distributed for Legendary was the live-action “Godzilla,” which opened its first weekend with a $93 million box office. There is now talk of bringing Kong and Godzilla together in a film tentatively scheduled to be released in 2020. Early last year, Chinese investment firm Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. acquired Legendary in a deal valued at $3.5 billion. Estrella’s Ratings LBI Media’s Estrella TV network finished strong in the February sweeps period, beating out the competition for male viewers. The Los Angeles flagship station KRCA 62 of the Burbank company was the number one Spanish language broadcaster with males 25 to 54 years old. The station earned a 2.1 rating during the sweeps for the primetime hours Monday through Friday, according to Nielsen Media Research. That means that 2.1 percent of Hispanic men in that age group were tuned to the channel weeknights between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. KRCA 62 tied with Univision Communications Inc. for male viewers in the 18 years to 49 years old demographic. Univision owns and operates KMEX 34, its west coast flagship station in Los Angeles. Sweeps weeks happen quarterly and set local advertising rates based on audience metrics. LBI Media Chief Executive Lenard Liberman said the company was pleased with KRCA’s performance during the sweeps period. “Our original and dynamic programming, combined with our top-of-the-line, award-winning local newscasts proves that the Latino community in Southern California has choices when it comes to Spanish language entertainment and top-quality news programming,” Liberman said in a prepared statement. Since the start of the season in September, Estrella TV has seen significant growth in males 18 to 34 years old in the early fringe, or 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. time period as well as during primetime. On weekends from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., that demographic improved by 50 percent from the same period a year earlier. The network also showed a 40 percent increase in women 18 to 34 years old in the early fringe hours, and by 23 percent in that time period with women 25 to 54 years old. The national newscast “Cierre de Edición” brought in an 8 percent increase in women 18 to 49 years old compared to the same period last year. The network’s success with Hispanic millennial men shows that it’s counterprogramming strategy – eschewing telenovelas for reality-based shows – is paying off, Liberman said. “We are committed to continue offering the highest production value in every TV show we produce for our Hispanic viewers,” he added in his statement. Picking California Documentary TV series “American Pickers” is coming to California looking for the offbeat and unusual in people’s personal antique collections. The cable show airing on History Channel follows Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they travel the country to recycle and rescue forgotten one-of-a-kind relics found in barns, attics, basements and other places where people keep their private collections. They do not buy from stores, malls, flea markets, museums, auctions, businesses or anything open to the public.   The show will film throughout the state this spring when Wolfe and Fritz come out from their home base in Le Claire, Iowa where Wolfe operates his shop, Antique Archaeology. Fritz owns a shop up the Mississippi River in Savanna, Ill. American Pickers debuted in 2010 and is now in its 17th season. It is produced by A&E Television Networks and Cineflix Productions, with offices in Canada and New York. Staff Reporter Mark R. Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or [email protected].

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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