ViacomCBS Inc. said it is renaming itself Paramount Global and will refer to itself as Paramount, underscoring the company’s emphasis on its Paramount+ streaming service and evoking the heritage of its roughly century-old film studio.
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How will Hollywood get back to full speed? After the pandemic, some things may never return to normal By Ryan Faughnder, Anousha Sakoui, Los Angeles Times
Published: April 19, 2021, 6:00am
Share: Season 4 of the Netflix series On My Block began production in late March and has been shooting continuously since then. (Nicola Goode/Netflix/TNS)
In Los Angeles, Hollywood’s awakening from the COVID-19 pandemic has been visible to anyone walking city streets in the last several months.
The usual signs of activity for the film and TV industry production crews taking over parking lots, yellow signs telling workers where to go are back. Movie theaters are open and actually starting to show big films. Prop houses and other local businesses dependent on the film and television industry are returning to life. Major studios have been issuing guidelines for eventually returning to offices.
Certain film and TV business dealings can be done
remotely, including scriptwriting, dealmaking, pitching, animation, visual effects and casting, and some of the shifts in how people work together using technology may never go completely back to the way it was.
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But
this is still a business that depends on spontaneous, in-person interaction, said multiple filmmakers, executives and other insiders who spoke with The Times.
That’s definitely the case for Mike Larocca, cofounder and vice chairman of AGBO, the production company of “Avengers: Endgame” directors Joe and Anthony Russo.
The company last month started shooting “The Gray Man,” a big budget action film starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, for Netflix onstage in Long Beach after being delayed from its previous January start date amid a COVID-19 surge. In another only-in-pandemic hurdle during pre-production, Anthony Russo had to quarantine for a week in Prague, Czech Republic, after his driver t
Why media stocks are booming one year after coronavirus shutdown
ViacomCBS has launched its Paramount+ streaming service, which draws on the library of the historic Paramount Pictures in Hollywood.
(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
March 10, 2021 5:16 PM PT
One year ago, investors took a grim view of legacy media companies.
The economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic was coming into focus: Theme parks and movie theaters were shuttered, sporting events were canceled, and TV and film production ground to a halt. Wall Street responded by bludgeoning shares of traditional media, including Walt Disney Co., ViacomCBS Inc. and Discovery Inc.
One year later, these stocks have not only regained their value, they have soared to stratospheric heights.