Latest in Walmart

UPDATED AT 5:40PM PACIFIC WITH DETAILS FROM POLICE OFFICIALS. As law enforcement officials investigate today’s deadly shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas; Fox News and NBC News are planning extensive live coverage. The first calls on the mass shooting at Cielo Vista Mall came in at 10:39 a.m. local time…

YouTube star Lauren Love, who has more than a million subscribers to her channel, is under fire for a prank video in which she pretends to be a company executive and fires hapless Walmart employees. Love visited a Richmond, Texas Walmart dressed in professional attire and approached a few employees. She told them they…

No one accumulates power without using it. So, as the Disney-Fox merger officially comes together in 2019, how concerned should studios and theater chains be about the new company’s combined 37% domestic box office share power? It’s already a Disney world, and we’re just living in it: The Burbank, CA-based studio…

The 1983 comedy Mr. Mom starring Michael Keaton is set to get the digital series treatment. MGM is partnering with Walmart’s streaming service Vudu to bring the classic into 2018. Vudu revealed the new Mr. Mom iteration Wednesday during NewFronts West. The news comes after it was announced that Vudu and MGM would be…

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders filed a bill today targeting Amazon, Walmart and other big companies whose workers rely on public assistance programs. The Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (BEZOS) Act would impose a 100% tax equal to the amount of federal assistance received by its employees. So, if an Amazon…

Walmart is collaborating with veteran television executive Mark Greenberg on a new video streaming service that would challenge the dominance of Netflix and Amazon by targeting Middle American tastes in programming. The venture is in the early stages of development and has not been formally greenlit by Walmart…

Writer-director Dee Rees, whose film Mudbound is a multi-category contender at Sunday’s Oscars, will also put her stamp on an entire 60-second block of the broadcast during a commercial break. Rees, along with Melissa McCarthy and Nancy Meyers, was picked by Walmart to direct a short spot on the theme of a shipping…

Continuing the film-centric ad campaign it introduced on last year’s Oscar broadcast, Walmart has lined up three directors who will turn out a trio of 60-second branded shorts: Nancy Meyers, Dee Rees and Melissa McCarthy. This year’s spots all revolve around the retail giant’s signature blue shipping box, adding their…

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit. It’s down to one day and counting. That’s right, it all comes down to this as the six month long awards season that started with the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals in early September culminates Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre with the…

Are “Like” buttons worth more than “everyday low prices”? Wall Street thinks so.  Facebook shares are up 3,6% in afternoon trading, and touched a new high of $87.91, after the company  introduced several new ad formats it plans to use on mobile phones. The news contributed to an $8.4 billion rise in Facebook’s market…

“I can’t believe Walmart is blaming me for an accident that they caused,” Tracy Morgan said in a statement the day after Walmart said in a court filing that Morgan and others in his limo are “in whole or in part” responsible for outcome of a fatal highway crash. “My friends and I were doing nothing wrong.  I want to…

Country music star Brad Paisley is making the leap into “Over The Top” video distribution with a new site called My Country Nation. Paisley is teaming with WME, ARC Entertainment, Taillight and presenting sponsor Walmart on the venture, which is being billed as a digital platform for the “country music…