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Bloomberg reported today that as of late April, Comcast’s Peacock has about 42 million sign-ups but about 2.8 million paying subscribers (with another 11 million or so using its ad-based free tier or accessing it through a cable provider). By comparison, Disney+ has about 38 million paid subscribers in North America; Netflix, 74 million. With Universal’s most valuable properties living on a competitor’s service, it’s easy to read the strategy as a vote against the future of Peacock, which hasn’t benefited from the day-and-date draw of HBO Max releases nor the buzzy titles of Disney+ and Netflix....

[The Oscars] did a good thing moving back. I’m catching up. Because my business has been extremely busy in this COVID year, ironically, I didn’t want to watch the movies. It was the weirdest thing. I was buried in production 24/7, cutting and notes-making. There was no relaxation time, because we had to do everything remotely, it took longer. I found myself watching light TV, like the series “Emily in Paris,” “The Crown,” “Queen’s Gambit,” “Call My Agent,” and I binged “The Wire” and “Nurse Jackie....

Maybe it’s the sinewy camera movements, and the super-real beauty they layer over the darkest chapter of a national history that’s speckled with blood on every page. Maybe it’s how the shot eventually lands on the broken face of a captured runaway named Eden and played by a locked Janelle Monáe, a mega-talented polymath who’s aced period roles before (“Hidden Figures”), but still shimmers with the space age glow of the afro-futurist android she’s embodied in her music....

Brimming with heart and not much else, the new teen romance “Anything’s Possible” isn’t likely to create any converts to the unique magic of movies. The feature directorial debut of Emmy-winning “Pose” star Billy Porter, the story follows a transgender high schooler during the early stages of her first relationship with the boy of her dreams. The script by Ximena García Lecuona offers a twist on this age-old tale: The character’s trans-ness is not an impediment to finding love or happiness....

Director James Wan told audiences at CinemaCon in Las Vegas during the Warner Bros. Discovery showcase that “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” in theaters March 17, 2023, utilized new technology to craft the underwater sequences. “It’s less painful for the actors, which makes it easier for me as well, because they’re not screaming and yelling at me,” Wan said on stage (via CinemaBlend). “But the most important thing is it really frees up the filmmaking to really do things I’ve never been able to do before, and that is exciting....

“It used to be just about challenging expectations and trying to do something unconventional to keep myself fresh, because of the amount of exposure I’ve had,” he said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “I didn’t want to keep turning up as fast-talking posh English people. That used to be the main driver. But now it’s much more about the people I get to work with.” One of those people is Jane Campion, the director of “The Power of the Dog....

A new gaming monitor will help you achieve the vivid picture quality that you’ve been looking for, but not everybody can afford to spend $10,000. LED and OLED TVs offer a cost-effective and convenient alternative for your PlayStation, XBox, and other gaming consoles. Gaming monitors are different from TVs in that they have reduced input lag and more ports, and of course, they tend to cost more. But for the price-conscious gamer in the market for a large TV, Sony’s X900H 65” LED 4K Ultra HD Smart TV is the way to go....