‘SpongeBob’ Universe Expands With Three Paramount+ Spinoff Movies, New Theatrical Film

Also Read

Three new SpongeBob SquarePants character spinoff movies for Paramount+ are in the works at Nickelodeon Studios, in addition to a new theatrical release about the porous resident who lives in a Pineapple-under-the-sea. The news was announced today by Brian Robbins, Chief Content Officer, Movies and Kids & Family for Paramount+ at the ViacomCBS Investor Event.

The first of Paramount+’s SpongeBob character spinoff movies, which focus on different Bikini Bottom residents, will drop in 2023.

The expansion of the SpongeBob franchise follows the recent success of SpongeBob series offshoots Kamp Koral on Paramount+ and The Patrick Star Show on Nickelodeon, the first season of which will be available soon to stream on Paramount+.

Paramount has made three SpongeBob feature movies, the first in 2004, which altogether have grossed close to $471M worldwide. The highest grossing installment was 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water which grossed over $325M WW. However, because of the pandemic, Paramount was forced to pull The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run from U.S. release in 2020. The sequel received a Canadian theatrical release in August of that year, making $4.8M, while the film in the states served as the branded launch for Paramount+ in 2021. The pic’s foreign rights, except for China, were sold to Netflix.

“As we’ve known with Nickelodeon’s long-standing success, the kids and family audience is incredibly loyal, and we see that on Paramount+ as well, with kids and family ranking as one of the strongest genres on the service in terms of both engagement and subscriber acquisition,” said Robbins. “So as they stay for our shows and look for even more of them, we’re doubling down on giving them what they want by expanding the universes of the characters they love the best.”

Paramount Confirms Merger Plans For Their Streaming Service

Also Read

For many months now, Hollywood insiders and industry commentators have been talking about Paramount+ — at least the service as it currently exists — as a dead streamer walking. This week, however, the obituary notices started coming from within the building.

During a shareholder presentation Tuesday, the three execs currently running Paramount Global (at least for now; the company may be on the verge of being sold) announced that they had a plan to “transform” the company’s streaming strategy, which currently focuses on the stand-alone streamer Paramount+ (and, to a lesser degree, free streamer Pluto TV). Toward this end, the trio said they had begun actively exploring the formation of a joint venture with either a rival streamer or a tech company — and that they’d already received interest from possible partners. While they didn’t go into any details of what such a joint venture would entail, both history and common sense suggest an outcome where Paramount+ either becomes a tile on another service, or its content gets folded into a new or existing platform featuring content from multiple companies, similar to how Hulu at one time existed as a partnership among ABC, NBC, and Fox’s corporate owners.

The execs went out of their way to stress that they’re not thinking small here. “Let me clear: I’m not talking about marketing bundles,” like the one Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are planning, said Chris McCarthy, president/CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, and part of Par’s three-headed exec branch. Instead, the company is looking to form “a deep and expansive relationship, one that would make the most of our hit content while improving the customer offering.” McCarthy said Par wants a new paradigm that both reduces subscriber churn and, perhaps most importantly, controls cost.

It’s not that Par execs think their programming isn’t popular enough to work in a subscription universe. Quite the opposite: The exec trio talked up the populist appeal of its content and noted Paramount+’s ability to become a top-five streamer just a couple of years after launch, with over 70 million global subscribers. But Paramount has decided the costs of running its own streaming service — marketing dozens of shows, finding a user interface that actually works, etc. — are too high. Instead, it wants to create a new blueprint where Paramount content (CBS shows, MTV reality series, the Yellowstone universe, Paramount Pictures movies) has a guaranteed home, but not in an expensive, self-contained luxury island where Par shareholders pay the full mortgage. Think of it this way: Paramount wants to move its streaming offering from the ritzy mountaintop mansion where it’s lived the past few years and relocate it to a still very nice duplex condo where another owner (or owners) helps pay for building upkeep.

To underscore just how serious they were about moving on from the current Paramount+ status quo, McCarthy said the company has “already had a great deal of an inbound interest” in the idea and that there would be more details “soon.” It’s worth noting here that back in February, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount had engaged in conversations with Peacock owner Comcast about a Peacock–Paramount+ merger “through a partnership or joint venture” — the exact same wording McCarthy used this week. The paper has also reported Warner Bros. Discovery’s interest in a team-up. Nothing has happened publicly on this front, in part because of the aforementioned potential sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media, producer (with Par) of the recent Mission: Impossible and Top Gun movies and TV shows like Reacher and Jack Ryan. Per multiple published reports, the Skydance-Paramount deal is both all but done and possibly in doubt, given some supposed last-minute doubts from Shari Redstone, the media mogul who basically controls Paramount through her family’s movie-theater chain National Amusements.

It’s this uncertainty that may explain why Tuesday’s admission by Paramount’s current leadership that Paramount+ as a stand-alone business no longer makes sense hasn’t generated a ton of headlines. Fact is, as long as there’s a strong chance that new ownership could be taking over, any plans from the current “office of the CEO” of Paramount Global come with a major asterisk attached. It’s hard to imagine any potential Paramount+ partner would sign a deal without knowing for sure that either the people executing said deal will be around to see it through or that the new owners are onboard with the idea. And then there’s this: Many in the media and Wall Street have been operating under the assumption that Paramount+ as it is now isn’t long for this world, and that any new owner, including Skydance, would look to make a meaningful change in streaming. (In fact, I continue to hear rumblings from very good sources that a Peacock–Paramount+ team-up of some sort is more likely than not, however the current ownership drama gets resolved.) So the fact that the current management officially signed on shaking things up might not read as worthy of a breaking-news alert.

But if Redstone’s supposed waffling ends with the Skydance bid being called off and Paramount Global moving forward with one or all of its current leaders, then this week will go down as a very important milestone in the streaming wars. Five years after Apple and Disney officially kicked off hostilities versus Netflix in the race to win SVOD share, a major combatant could be getting ready to sue for peace.

Source: Vultures 

Paramount And Skydance Media Agree To Terms Of A Merger, Awaiting Approval

Also Read

Paramount and Skydance have agreed to terms of a merger. A deal could be announced in the coming days, he said.

A Paramount special committee and the buying consortium — David Ellison's Skydance, backed by private equity firms RedBird Capital and KKR — agreed to the terms. The deal is awaiting signoff from Paramount's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, who owns National Amusements, which owns 77% of class A Paramount shares, Faber said Monday.

The agreement terms come after weeks of discussion and a recent competing offer from Apollo Global Management and Sony Pictures.

"We received the financial terms of the proposed Paramount/Skydance transaction over the weekend and we are reviewing them," said a National Amusements spokesperson.

The deal currently calls for Redstone to receive $2 billion for National Amusements, Faber reported Monday. Skydance would buy out nearly 50% of class B Paramount shares at $15 apiece, or $4.5 billion, leaving the holders with equity in the new company.

Skydance and RedBird would also contribute $1.5 billion in cash to Paramount's balance sheet to help reduce debt.

Following the deal's close, Skydance and RedBird would own two-thirds of Paramount, and the class B shareholders would own the remaining third of the company, Faber reported. The negotiated terms were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

The deal will not require a vote from the shareholders, which was part of the negotiations, Faber reported. Paramount's annual shareholder meeting will take place on Tuesday.

The deal is valued at $8 billion, an increase from the $5 billion offer on the table earlier. Under those earlier terms, Redstone would have received less than $2 billion for her stake, and the class B shareholders would have been bought out at a nearly 30% premium at $11 a share.

In early May, Apollo and Sony formally expressed interest in acquiring Paramount for about $26 billion. However, Redstone has favored a deal that would keep Paramount together, and Apollo and Sony planned to break up the company.

In addition to the twists and turns of the negotiations with buyers, Paramount's C-suite has also undergone a shakeup in recent months.

Bob Bakish stepped down as CEO in late April and was replaced by what the company calls the "Office of the CEO." Paramount is now led by three executives: George Cheeks, CBS president and CEO; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, the head of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi | Pilot | Cartoon Network

Also Read

After Sam Register (the creator) pitched the idea of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi having their own cartoon series on Cartoon Network, the animation studio Renegade Animation created a pitch pilot, in the hopes of swaying Cartoon Network to green-light the show's production.

The pilot was sent to Cartoon Network and they accepted it and it was to air in late 2003, but for unknown reasons, the pilot was reworked and later premiered on November 19th, 2004. The series premiere was successful and was even at the time one of the highest-rated shows to premiere on Cartoon Network.

Elderly People Seen In Titanic Film Were Based On A Real Life Couple

Also Read

Not only did the film - starring none other than Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio - recall the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 and deaths of over 1,500 passengers, but the movie also centred itself on the heart-wrenching love story between Rose and Jack too.

However, there's wasn't the only romance to board the ship.

The true story of another couple has since been revealed.

As well as featuring a scene where Jack paints Rose 'like one of his French girls' and a steamy rendezvous in the back of a car, another couple also makes a cut, spooning one another in bed as the water rushes onto the ship - ultimately deciding to die in one another's arms.

While the scene isn't entirely factually correct - the real-life couple actually deciding to hunker down for a hug on the deck opposed to back in their room - the shot is based on a real couple named Isidor and Ida Straus.

Married in 1871, the Jewish couple had seven children together. Isidor was 67 when he boarded the Titanic and Ida the age of 63.

After the Titanic was struck by an iceberg on that fateful day in 1912, the lives of women and children were prioritised on the lifeboats rescuing passengers from the sinking ship.

However, due to the Straus' status - Isidor a co-owner of Macy's Department Store located in New York - his chance to escape followed shortly after.

Despite being offered a seat due to his status and wealth, Isidor turned the opportunity down, stating: "I will not go before the other men."

Ida resolved to not leave without her husband and according to Historical Honey, said: "We have been living together for many years. Where you go, I go."

Isidor's body was recovered after the ship sunk, however, unfortunately Ida's has never been found.

However, their united love lives on in one of the scenes from the 1997 release - not only portrayed as the couple spooning on the bed, but the design for Rose's cabin room onboard the ship inspired by the Straus' actual room which was the best suite onboard the ship.

Skydance Media Plans To Merge Their Operations With Paramount Global, Could This Have An Everlasting Affect On Nickelodeon And MTV?

Also Read

As some readers are aware, Shari Redstone is looking to sell her shares in Paramount Global home to MTV and Nickelodeon. Currently, Skydance Media and Sony Pictures Television in a joint bid with Apollo Global Management are battling it out.

The Sony-Apollo deal has garnered a lot of media scrutiny as insiders report a possible dismemberment of their linear portfolio. With Paramount Studios being merged onto Sony Pictures Television current offering and studio lots auctioned off.

Skydance Media proposal is said to be favorable because unlike Sony-Apollo they wouldn't go through any regulatory hurdles for foreign ownership. Their plan would be to merge their operations with Paramount Global of course the finer details haven't been outlined. 

From what several sources uncovered, Skydance Media is planning to merge/bundle Paramount+ with another streaming service. It is no secret that Netflix and Disney+ have been edging out the competition so it's likely they're looking after Paramount’s interests. 

Skydance Media has worked with Paramount Global on several projects such as Mission: Impossible, Transformers, Top Gun, Jack Reacher and Star Trek.

If anything, we presume a possible merger between Skydance Media and Paramount Global could lead to a reduction of content or at least for its linear portfolio. As mentioned, Skydance wants to merge Paramount+ with another streaming service. 

On top of that they've got several projects in development and with Paramount Pictures they'll expand on that. Prior to acquisition talks, Netflix had licensed various content from Nickelodeon like Saving Bikini Bottoms: The Sandy Cheeks Movie and Fairly OddParents: A New Wish.

Although Sony-Apollo would lead to the purging of TV channels outside of regulatory confinement. These channels could lose credibility under Skydance Media and serve as second fiddle to the endeavors licensed to Netflix or even Apple TV+.

Warner Bros. Discovery Looking To Bundle Max With Other Streaming Services In Parts Of Europe And Africa

Also Read

Following the first phase of the recent WBD’s European roll out of Max, Leah Hooper Rosa, EVP of EMEA Streaming, the company’s goal is to operate across all major markets, including the UK.

She said she expects to see more conversations in the future about launching Max in the UK. WBD previously announced it plans to launch service Max in the country by 2026. The media and entertainment powerhouse currently has a long-running licensing partnership with UK pay TV operator Sky, for its HBO content which runs until the end of 2025.

Hooper Rosa, said, “We’re in the game now of we want to be a top three global streaming service. That’s our ambition.”

“We’re on a multi-year journey in terms of our Max roll out across Europe. We’re actively in conversations. Our CEO and Gerhard Zeiler (president of WBD International)  have also shared with partners and working out what that would look like,” she added.

Referring to the company’s recently partnership with Disney to offer a bundle including Disney+, Hulu and Max in the US, Hooper Rosa said – “it’s natural that we see those types of things move into Europe”.

The streamer has launched across Europe in partnership with telcos and pay TV provider in select regions.

“We haven’t seen too many types of those relationships yet in Europe with other streamers doing streaming bundling. But I think there is an opportunity for that in the future and we’ll see how consumers react to that,” she added.

Max debuted in Iberia, the Nordic markets and parts of central and eastern Europe earlier this month, as part of a staggered roll-out for simplicity, said the WBD exec. Further launches are planned for France, Poland, the Netherland and Belgium June.

Currently the streamer is available in 20 countries, including Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Bosnia & Herzegovnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

At present, WBD will only introduce tis Max’s ad-supported subscription plan in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Romania, Poland, France and Belgium.

For their strategy in Europe she explained, “its really a combination of the maturity of the ad market in those regions and the of maturity of our business because we need to be able to sell ads or to be able to have the capability to work with a partner.”

Max also offers a sports add-on, providing coverage of major international and European sports including Australian Open, Roland-Garros, The Championships, Wimbledon, US Open, Giro d’Italia, La Vuelta a España, Tour de France, and every major winter sports World Championship and World Cup events.

As part of the move, Hooper Rosa said it will be scaling back its content across its other streaming services including discovery+ where Max is present, which was the streaming home for WBD’s sports content across the company’s European markets.

“Max is our flagship streaming service,” she said. “So what we’re doing now is a  wind down across Europe of our other streaming services. It’s really on a market by market basis of how we’re managing that transition.”

Warner Bros. Discovery Hinting At More Mergers And Acquisitions Through Interviews

Also Read

Warner Bros. Discovery, just over two years after closing the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, will be “opportunistic” about seeking M&A deals in the next two or three years, president and CEO David Zaslav said.

“I think some companies will be for sale,” Zaslav said, speaking Thursday at the Bernstein 40th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference in New York. “We can be opportunistic but we’re going to be very disciplined.”

“I think there’s likely going to be some consolidation. There are a lot of players. There are a lot of players that are losing a lot of money,” Zaslav said. “One of the reasons why we really fought to drive our free cash flow and pay down our debt is to be in a position — as we roll out globally, as we fight to build our business — that we’re a healthy company.”

Speaking of losing money, Warner Bros. Discovery reported full-year 2023 revenue of $41.3 billion, down 4% on a pro-forma basis, and a net loss of $3.13 billion (versus a net loss of $5.36 billion on a pro-forma basis in 2022). The media conglomerate during the first quarter of 2024 repaid $1.1 billion of debt to end the quarter with $43.2 billion of gross debt.

“Over the next two to three years, I expect that there’s going to be some opportunities,” Zaslav said. “There’ll be some players that want to get out of the business, that will look to consolidate their streaming businesses with others. And so I think we will look to be opportunistic during that time,” he said, adding that he believes there will be 4-5 dominant global streaming platforms as things shake out.

“The global nature of this business is going to require a number of players to decide whether they want to go it alone,” according to Zaslav. He said “consolidation can happen in a lot of different ways,” including through bundling — such as WBD and Disney’s forthcoming Disney+/Hulu/Max bundle — and he also suggested “over the long term some of the smaller players in streaming will end up wanting to be part of a bigger global organization.”

Regarding Paramount Global — which has been in talks about a potential sale to Skydance Media and has been reviewing a joint bid from Sony Pictures-Apollo — Zaslav didn’t address WBD’s recent interest in exploring a merger with the company, but he commented in a lightning-round Q&A about Paramount, “Great storytelling heritage.” Zaslav met briefly late last year with Paramount’s then-CEO Bob Bakish to size up a potential merger but those talks didn’t continue.

Skydance Sweetens Offer For Paramount Global

Also Read

David Ellison’s Skydance has sweetened its offer to acquire Paramount Global, Deadline has learned, in an attempt to make it more palatable to the company’s Class B stockholders after they trashed the outlines of a previous deal and threatened to sue.

Ellison’s original offer was to buy out Par’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone for a significant premium, resulting in a windfall for her, and then merge Skydance into Paramount keeping the combined company public. Stockholders wanted to be bought out at a premium as well.

Skydance, backed by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, sweetened the offer once late last month — offering to buy out a certain number of Class A voting shares from stockholders other than Redstone — as an exclusive monthlong negotiating period with Par ended. But it wasn’t enough to woo holders of the Class B non-voting stock, who are the majority of shareholders.

As the Skydance exclusive talks ended with no deal, Sony jumped in for a $26 billion bid with private equity giant Apollo, that was later downsized in some fashion as Sony signed a non-disclosure agreement with with Par about two weeks ago that would let SPE access Par’s books and talks to start in earnest. Those conversations were not exclusive, however, and Skydance remained very much in the mix, continuing to talk with Par as well.

The issue for Sony is not shareholders but regulators. Foreign ownership rules likely prevent Sony from owning CBS broadcast assets, which likely why its offer became more targeted. But it might not be a cakewalk to merge two major studios either. Skydance is safer, more certain on the regulatory front and wouldn’t require a prolonged review amid possible opposition that can drag a deal out and sometimes end without one.

All offers are being evaluated by a special committee of Paramount’s board of directors. Three on that committee — Dawn Ostroff, Nicole Seligman and Frederick Terrell — will formally exit the board as of the company’s annual shareholder meeting next Tuesday. Another board memeber, Robert Kieger, will also be leaving. Par announced the upcoming departures — which will leave it with a greatly downsized board — earlier this year to widespread speculation on what it meant for a deal.

Par hasn’t said whether the three had continued to serve actively on the pared down committee after their pending departures were announced or what the committee composition is now, or will be after the meeting where shareholders vote for directors among other issues on the agenda. The committee in any case is just there for a recommendation, with Redstone the decider and, some feel, a wildcard.

Says one source with knowledge of the dealings, “At the end of the day, whatever the committee recommends to Shari, it’s up to her to decide. A deal’s not a deal without her.”

Hollywood insiders favor a Skydance deal over a Sony/Apollo takeover of Paramount Global. The reduction of a major studio strikes fear throughout the exhibition sector that fewer event films would exist in the long run, the sector currently weathering the aftermath of Covid, two strikes and a Disney-Fox merger which has reduced the supply of movies at multiplexes.