David Ellison just brought in a co-CEO to run his new empire: Meet Ynon Kreiz - CNBC

By naming the product of two mergers Skydance, David Ellison relegates two of Hollywood’s founding studios to a sub-brand stew and attempts to erase a bunch of controversial hires. What a surprise. David Ellison has decided to name the Frankenstudio media company created by the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery simply Skydance. And why not? “Massive Debt Funding Media” doesn’t really roll off the tongue (though “Ultra Leveraged” has a nice ring); “Ellison and Dad” is a bit too on the nose; and “Skydance” is, after all, the name he chose for the one company out of those four that he built rather than bought. Skydance is a poetic term with some definite “Star Wars” overtones and perhaps unintentional symbolism. Before the aviation-loving Ellison claimed it, “sky dance” referred to the aerial mating of certain birds, most famously the American woodcock, also known as the timberdoodle or (I’m not making this up) the bogsucker. (“Timberdoodle Media,” now that’s a splendid name, and “Bogsucker Productions” could work as well.)In his attempts to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, Ellison has certainly engaged in some high-flying …

Val Chmerkovskiy is being suspended from Dancing with the Stars for a week after he posted a controversial TikTok message that seemed to reference Will Smith's 2022 Oscar slap.

Marvel Studios’ release of Avengers: Endgame: Encore was a shrewd gambit for a few reasons: It put the studio’s most successful film back in conversation right after the juggernaut success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day; it tided die-hards over with new footage ahead of December’s Avengers: Doomsday; and, perhaps most importantly, it raked in an additional $138 million for the film, reinstating its position as the worldwide box office champion over James Cameron’s Avatar. Cameron, who certainly doesn’t spend his precious time fretting about such matters as lifetime financial grosses and being the best in the world at stuff, recently expressed his congratulations to Marvel for once again overtaking his 2009 sci-fi film. “You are one of the people,” the director wrote (per The Wrap) in a composite image from Avatar, with Iron Man at the center of a welcoming Na’vi tribe. “Congratulations to Marvel and the #1 Avengers: Endgame: Encore for bringing moviegoers to the cinemas! – Jim Cameron.”