Latest in Look Back 2021

UPDATED: “Are you really doing a domestic box office marketshare piece?” Such is the whine from several studio insiders and corp comms folk. Of course, we are. Why wouldn’t we? In the best and worst of times, in the published horserace of box office dollars, we still need to know where the studios stand when all the…

Before the pandemic, if there was something studio executives rubbed their hands about, it was the near total eclipse of the theatrical window. In 2021, for some studios that dream came true, and as far as 2022 goes, hopefully they’ve learned their lesson from this nightmare that, in Deadline’s annual survey, shows…

Covid, neither gone nor forgotten in 2021, batted investors and markets for another year as attempts at business as usual were stymied by cycles of angst and rebound. Defensive stocks, growth stocks, value stocks, stay-at-home stocks were in one day, out the next. After a volatile year of ups and downs, broader…

It was another Year of Covid in 2021, and the sadness extended to many beloved and groundbreaking people in the show business and media worlds who died during the past 12 months. Scroll through a photo gallery above. The acting world lost such giants as Betty White who died on New Year’s Eve eve, Ed Asner, Cicely…

As 2021 draws to a close, here's our rundown of nine storylines likely to dominate the international film and TV business in the coming year. Covid Phase Three It is a full two years since a cluster of pneumonia cases detected in Wuhan were reported to the World Health Organization and were soon labelled…

Certainly following the dismal, Covid-slammed movie year of 2020, anything would be an improvement, and in my opinion, against all odds, the movies of 2021 have exceeded my expectations. My obligatory Top 10 list certainly shows that and includes a large number of crowd-pleasers that “pleased” me too — in more that…

This past year couldn't be expiring soon enough as far as most of the world is concerned, and we can only hope that the next one will at least provide small measures of relief in one regard or another. May this be true for the planet first and foremost, but also for the world of films. I've experienced 2021 as the…

Hollywood's guilds and unions saved the film and TV business in 2021. Working cooperatively with the industry’s companies, they adopted Covid-19 protocols that got production booming and their members safely back to work, all the while averting strikes that would have crippled recovery efforts. And earlier this year…

As 2021 draws to a close, the film aficionados who make up Deadline's International Critics Line crew have each chosen their top three titles of the year to hail from abroad. Some were world premieres at Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice or Toronto, though not all are on the Oscar International Feature shortlist, nor…

If 2020 was the year of the late-night bathtub and garage specials, the last twelve months saw somewhat of a return to normal for the entertainers making linear viewers laugh on a nightly basis. With all of the late-night hosts returned to the studio – albeit some such as Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee and Desus & Mero in…

A surge in demand for content, big companies shedding non-core assets and consolidation in digital media led to a massive rebound in entertainment M&A in 2021, ushered in by two landmark combinations in April and ending with a drumbeat of deals in December. Momentum is seen continuing into 2022 with a major asset…

The year 2021 was one of tumult in the news biz: Chris Cuomo fired, Brian Williams’ surprise exit, Chris Wallace bolting for a rival. And that is not even getting to the daily headlines about Tucker Carlson’s vaccine doubts and distortions, the “great replacement” theory or January 6th false flags. The past 12 months…