“Avatar: Fire and Ash” retained the top spot at the North American box office after it debuted the week before, reeling in $64 million during the weekend after Christmas, industry estimates showed Sunday.
The third installment in director James Cameron’s blockbuster series stars Zoe Saldana as Na’vi warrior Neytiri and Sam Worthington as ex-Marine Jake Sully, who must battle a new foe threatening their family’s life on the planet Pandora.
The film grossed $217.6 million at the box office worldwide during the current weekend, according to estimates.
“Zootopia 2,” Disney’s feel-good animated film and an Oscar contender, rose to number 2 from 5 in the rankings, bringing in $20 million, according to weekend estimates.
“Marty Supreme,” a period sports drama starring Timothee Chalamet, soared to third place in the rankings from the number 10 spot the previous week, bringing in $17.5 million, weekend estimates showed.
“This is an excellent opening for a sports drama,” according to David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.
“Critics’ reviews are sensational, with an excellent audience score (a B+ CinemaScore). The film is going to get a lift from holiday moviegoing this week — all of the releases are going to benefit now,” he said.
Dropping one notch to fourth place was “The Housemaid,” a thriller from Lionsgate films starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, which earned $15.4 million, according to estimates.
“Anaconda,” the new comedy action movie starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black, placed fifth in the rankings after making its debut. Distributed by Sony, the film brought in $14.5 million, according to estimates.
“This is a solid opening for a horror remake. The three-day figure is roughly average for the genre, and it’s a bit better start than the previous ‘Anaconda’ opening in 2004,” Gross said.
Rounding out the top 10 are:
“David” ($12.6 million)
“The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” ($11.2 million)
“Song Sung Blue” ($7.6 million)
“Wicked: For Good” ($5.2 million)
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” ($4.4 million) (JapanToday)
As Disney has gone into business with OpenAI, the Mouse House is accusing Google of copyright infringement on a “massive scale” using AI models and services to “commercially exploit and distribute” infringing images and videos.
On Wednesday evening, attorneys for Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, demanding that Google stop the alleged infringement in its AI systems.
“Google is infringing Disney’s copyrights on a massive scale, by copying a large corpus of Disney’s copyrighted works without authorization to train and develop generative artificial intelligence (‘AI’) models and services, and by using AI models and services to commercially exploit and distribute copies of its protected works to consumers in violation of Disney’s copyrights,” reads the letter to Google’s general counsel from law firm Jenner & Block on behalf of Disney.
The letter continued, “Google operates as a virtual vending machine, capable of reproducing, rendering, and distributing copies of Disney’s valuable library of copyrighted characters and other works on a mass scale. And compounding Google’s blatant infringement, many of the infringing images generated by Google’s AI Services are branded with Google’s Gemini logo, falsely implying that Google’s exploitation of Disney’s intellectual property is authorized and endorsed by Disney.”
According to the letter, which Variety has reviewed, Disney alleges that Google’s AI systems and services infringe Disney characters including those from “Frozen,” “The Lion King,” “Moana,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Deadpool,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Toy Story,” “Brave,” “Ratatouille,” “Monsters Inc.,” “Lilo & Stich,” “Inside Out” and franchises such as Star Wars, the Simpsons, and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man. In its letter, Disney included examples of images it claims were generated by text prompts in Google’s AI apps, including of Darth Vader
The allegations against Google follows cease-and-desist letters that Disney sent earlier to Meta and Character.AI, as well as litigation Disney filed together with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery against AI companies Midjourney and Minimax alleging copyright infringement.
Asked for comment, a Google spokesperson said, “We have a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship with Disney, and will continue to engage with them. More generally, we use public data from the open web to build our AI and have built additional innovative copyright controls like Google-extended and Content ID for YouTube, which give sites and copyright holders control over their content.”
According to Disney, the company has been raising its concerns with Google for months — but says Google hasn’t done anything in response, and that i anything, Google’s infringement has only increased during that time.
Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, in an interview with CNBC Thursday, said, “Well, we’ve been aggressive at protecting our IP, and we’ve gone after other companies that have not honored our IP, not respected our IP, not valued it. And this is another example of us doing just that.”
Iger said Disney had been in discussions with Google “basically expressing our concerns” about its AI systems’ alleged infringement. “And ultimately, because we didn’t really make any progress, the conversations didn’t bear fruit, we felt we had no choice but to send them a cease-and-desist [letter].”
Disney’s letter to Google demands that Google “immediately cease further copying, publicly displaying, publicly performing, distributing, and creating derivative works of Disney’s copyrighted characters” in “outputs of Google’s AI Services, including through YouTube’s mobile app, YouTube Shorts and YouTube.” (Variety)
Disney is experiencing the highs and lows the box office has to offer. On one hand, the studio’s animated sequel “Zootopia 2” returned to No. 1 in North America in its third weekend after sprinting past the $1 billion mark. On the other, the political dramedy “Ella McCay” cratered with $2.1 million in its domestic debut, suffering one of the worst openings in modern times for Disney.
To be fair, “Ella McCay” cost $35 million to produce, which is way less than Disney tends to spend on its theatrical releases. Most of the studio’s movies — including franchise fare from Marvel and “Avatar,” as well as family-friendly sensations like “Inside Out 2” and “Lilo & Stitch” — typically carry budgets above $200 million. Although “Ella McCay” isn’t in danger of turning a profit for Disney, the PG-13 misfire probably won’t cause heads to roll, either.
“Ella McCay,” written and directed by “The Simpsons” co-creator and “As Good As It Gets” filmmaker James L. Brooks, landed behind already low projections of $4 million. It’s not exactly a mystery as to why ticket sales missed the mark. “Ella McCay” is the kind of mid-budget film that studios hardly make anymore because audiences don’t show up to see them. And this one — a comedic drama about a young politician (Emma Mackey) who unexpectedly becomes her state’s governor — was roundly rejected by critics (a 24% Rotten Tomatoes average) and moviegoers (a “B-” grade on CinemaScore exit polls). “Ella McCay” continues a miserable box office run for Brooks after 2004’s “Spanglish” ($55 million against an $80 million budget) and 2010’s “How Do You Know?” ($48 million against a $120 million budget). However, the Oscar-winner could end his theatrical dry spell with Disney and 20th Century’s “The Simpsons Movie” in 2027.
“James L. Brooks defined character storytelling in the ‘80s and ‘90s with a string of award-winning comedy dramas,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “Today, you can find material like this on television and even on social media, where it benefits from authenticity.”
“Zootopia 2,” after ceding the top spot to Universal and Blumhouse’s horror sequel “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” returned to first place with $26.3 million in its third weekend, a 39% decline from its prior outing. The family-friendly adventure has grossed $259 million domestically and $1.13 billion globally to date to stand as just the second Hollywood release this year to cross the coveted $1 billion mark.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” slid to second place with $19.5 million, a brutal 70% drop from its scary-good $64 million debut. That’s rough, but not as bad as the original “Five Nights at Freddy’s” — which cratered by 76.2% in its second weekend while playing simultaneously on streaming. Still, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” cost just $36 million and registers as an undisputed win for Blumhouse, having already grossed $95 million and $173 million globally after two weekends in theaters.
“Wicked: For Good” remained at No. 3 with $8.5 million in its fourth weekend of release, a 51% decline from its prior outing. So far, Universal’s big-budget musical has earned $312 million domestically and $467 million globally. “Wicked: For Good” appears to be running out of steam much faster than its predecessor, 2024’s “Wicked,” which powered to $474 million in North America and $758 million globally.
A standout at the specialty box office includes Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet” with $1.5 million from 749 venues. (That’s roughly $500,000 less than “Ella McCay” despite playing in a fraction of the number of theaters.) So far, “Hamnet, a well-reviewed tragedy starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal that follows the death of William Shakespeare’s son, has amassed $7 million to date. (Variety)
Ready to play a game starring Stitch on Disney+? Or maybe create some kind of personalized, AI-animated version of the chaotic but oh-so-adorable alien from “Lilo & Stitch” you can share with your friends?
Disney+, which is in the process of merging with Hulu into a unified platform, is preparing “the biggest and the most significant changes from a product perspective” since the streaming service launched in late 2019, according to CEO Bob Iger, speaking on the media giant’s September quarter earnings call Thursday.
Iger then sketched out Disney+’s future roadmap — which could include games, commerce and AI user generated content. The big vision, he said, “particularly with the deployment of AI,” is to be able to leverage Disney+ “as a portal to all things Disney.”
“There’s an opportunity to use it as an engagement engine for people who want to go to our theme parks, want to stay at our hotels, want to enjoy our cruises, our cruise ships,” said Iger. “And obviously, there’s a huge opportunity for games.” He cited Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, the company behind “Fortnite,” and while the games and experiences developed under the partnership “will largely be on their platform,” the Epic pact “gives us an opportunity to integrate a number of game-like features into Disney+.”
Iger, on a roll, continued, “The other thing that we’re really excited about that AI is going to give us the ability to do is to provide users at Disney+ with a much more engaged experience, including the ability for them to create user generated content and to consume user generated content, mostly short form from others.”
“There are great opportunities in terms of our collection of data and our mining of data,” Iger told analysts. “And I’d say above all else, there’s phenomenal opportunities to deploy AI across our direct-to-consumer platforms, both to provide tools that make the platforms more dynamic and more sticky with consumers, but also give consumers the opportunity to create on our platforms.”
Needless to say, any AI features the Mouse House lights up on Disney+ would likely be confined within a very strict sandbox. Iger said Disney execs have had “some interesting conversations with some of the AI companies, and I would characterize some of them as quite productive conversations as well, seeking to not only protect the value of our IP and of our creative engines, but also to seek opportunities for us to use their technology to create more engagement with consumers. And we feel encouraged by some of the discussions that we’re having.”
Iger didn’t identify which AI companies Disney has spoken to. But, he said, “It’s obviously imperative for us to protect our IP using with this new technology, and we’ve been pretty engaged on that subject with a number of entities, and I’m hopeful that ultimately we’ll be able to reach some agreement with the industry or companies” that would “reflect our need to protect the IP.”
On that front, this year Disney began actively engaged in legal action against AI companies that it alleges had infringed its copyrights. Disney, together with NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery, has sued Midjourney and Chinese AI company MiniMax, seeking to recover monetary damages and injunctions to block the alleged infringement.
Beyond using AI for content production and for features in products like Disney+, the company sees opportunities in terms of increasing efficiency by deploying AI across the enterprise “as we engage with our cast members and our our employees, but also our guests and our customers.” (Variety)
Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night television Tuesday after a nearly weeklong suspension and nearly broke down in tears, saying he wasn’t trying to joke about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“I have no illusions about changing anyone’s mind, but I do want to make something clear, because it’s important to me as a human and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said, his voice breaking. “I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
Kimmel added: “Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what … was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make.” He said he understood his remarks last week to some “felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both.”
Kimmel criticized the ABC affiliates who took his show off the air. “That’s not legal. That’s not American. It’s un-American.” Two stations groups that represent about a quarter of ABC affiliates, Sinclair and Nexstar, had said they would not show Kimmel’s program on Tuesday.
He thanked the people who supported him, and even people who don’t like him who stood up for his right to speak, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “It takes courage for them to speak out against this administration,” he said. “They did and they deserve credit for it.”
Kimmel nearly broke down again in praising Kirk’s widow, who publicly forgave her husband’s killer. If nothing else comes from the past few weeks, he said “I hope it can be that.”
ABC, which suspended Kimmel’s show last Wednesday following criticism of his comments about the Kirk’s assassination, announced Monday that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return after the network had “thoughtful conversations” with the host.
Kimmel admitted that he was mad when ABC suspended him, but praised his bosses for putting him back on the air. “Unjustly, this puts them at risk.”
He mocked Trump for criticizing him for bad ratings. “He tried his best to cancel me and instead he forced millions of people to watch this show,” Kimmel said.
The decisions by Sinclair and Nexstar left ABC stations in Washington, D.C.;, St. Louis;, Nashville, Tennessee; and Richmond, Virginia among the cities airing something else. WJLA-TV, the Sinclair-owned station in Washington, instead aired a newscast and an episode of the chain’s show, “The National Desk.”
Kimmel, who has been publicly silent since his suspension, posted Tuesday on his Instagram account a picture of himself with the late television producer and free speech advocate Norman Lear. “Missing this guy today,” he wrote.
ABC suspended Kimmel “indefinitely” after comments he made in a monologue last week. Kimmel, who has been a relentless Trump critic in his comedy, suggested that many Trump supporters were trying to capitalize on Kirk’s death and were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Kimmel, who has been a relentless Trump critic in his comedy, suggested that many Trump supporters were trying to capitalize on Kirk’s death and were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”
Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr last week said it appeared that Kimmel was trying to “directly mislead the American public” with his remarks about Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah man charged with Kirk’s killing, and his motives. Those motives remain unclear. Authorities say Robinson grew up in a conservative family, but his mother told investigators his son had turned left politically in the last year.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said before ABC announced the suspension. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Those remarks set a backlash in motion, with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz saying that Carr acted like “a mafioso.” Hundreds of entertainment luminaries, including Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Aniston, signed a letter circulated by the American Civil Liberties Union that called ABC’s move “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”
Podcaster Joe Rogan weighed in Tuesday on Kimmel’s side. “I definitely don’t think that the government should be involved — ever — in dictating what a comedian can or can’t say in a monologue,” Rogan said. “You are crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you.”
Some consumers punished ABC parent Disney by canceling subscriptions to its streaming services.
Trump had hailed Kimmel’s suspension and criticized his return, writing on his Truth Social platform: “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back … Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”
Actor Robert De Niro appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday, impersonating Carr being interviewed by Kimmel. De Niro, as Carr, said the FCC had a new motto, “sticks and stones can break your bones.”
Isn’t there more to the saying, Kimmel asked, that words can never hurt you?
“They can hurt you now,” De Niro responded, saying you have to make sure to say the right ones.
Kimmel took the stage to a long standing ovation and chants of “Jimmy, Jimmy.” One audience member, Walter Bates, said after the taping that Kimmel’s discussion of Kirk’s wife “was a very moving moment. I got very emotional and so did my wife.”
Trump’s administration has used threats, lawsuits and federal government pressure to try to exert more control over the media industry. Trump sued ABC and CBS over news coverage, which the companies settled. Trump has also filed defamation lawsuits against The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and successfully urged Congress to strip federal funding from NPR and PBS.
After pulling out of her planned performance at the premiere of Hulu’s Lilith Fair documentary in protest over Kimmel’s suspension, singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan appeared on Kimmel’s show as the musical guest. McLachlan had been booked on the show prior to the preemption, a representative told The Associated Press.
The other guest was actor Glen Powell.
The suspension happened at a time when the late-night landscape is shifting. Shows are losing viewers, in part because many watch highlights the next day online. CBS announced the cancellation of Colbert’s show over the summer. Kimmel’s contract with ABC reportedly lasts through May.
CBS’ “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, in his own opening monologue Monday, grabbed his recently won Emmy Award for outstanding talk series, saying, “Once more, I am the only martyr on late night!” (JapanToday)
Fans of everyone’s favorite blue heeler dog may just be a little more excited this afternoon as the Bluey movie unveils a release date.
The film version of the hit animation will launch August 6 2027, according to a Disney post on X in the past hour. “Hooray! The all-new feature length Bluey movie is coming only to cinemas on August 6, 2027!,” read the post.
The Bluey movie will no doubt be one of the biggest animated releases of 2027. It had long been teased and was confirmed late last year under a deal struck by Disney and BBC Studios. Disney has global theatrical and streaming rights. The Australian series chronicles the life of blue heeler dog, Bluey, and her family: Mom Chilli, Dad Bandit, and sister Bingo.
The film features returning voice talent Melanie Zanetti and David McCormack as Mum (Chilli) and Dad (Bandit). The show has captured the world’s imagination with its charming, funny, and relatable observations about everyday family life.
BBC Studios is financing and licensing the picture with theatrical distribution through Walt Disney Studios. The film is being supported by the Australian government through the Producer Offset and Screen Australia, and support from the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Post, Digital and Visual Effects Incentive.
Written and directed by Bluey creator Joe Brumm, the film is a Ludo Studio production. Brumm recently announced that he was stepping away from the TV series to make the film although the TV series will continue without him. A video game was also announced by Nex Playground this morning.
“I’ve always thought Bluey deserved a theatrical movie. I want this to be an experiential event for the whole family to enjoy together,” Brumm said last December.
The movie is produced by Ludo Studio in collaboration with BBC Studios, the CG-animated feature is produced by Amber Naismith (Happy Feet) and co-directed by Richard Jeffery (Bluey, Series 1–3). Brumm is the executive producer, alongside Justine Flynn for BBC Studios, with Charlie Aspinwall and Daley Pearson from Ludo Studio. For Disney, the film will be overseen by David Greenbaum, president of Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios, and his team. (Deadline)
Actress Gina Carano has settled her lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm after she was fired from Star Wars franchise spin-off The Mandalorian.
She was dropped from the cast in 2021 following comments she made comparing being a Republican in the US to being a Jew during the Holocaust.
Ms Carano, a former MMA fighter who played Cara Dune in the Disney+ series, shared the news of the settlement on X, writing “I hope this brings some healing to the force.”
The agreement, which has not been made public, comes after her case gained support and funding from Elon Musk.
Ms Carano described the settlement as the “best outcome for all parties involved,” adding she was “excited to flip the page and move onto the next chapter”.
She also thanked Musk, saying she’d never met the tech billionaire but he stepped in to do this “Good Samaritan deed for me in funding my lawsuit”.
“Yes, I’m smiling”, she signed off.
The actress originally sued for wrongful termination and sexual discrimination, claiming that two of her male co-stars had made similar posts and faced no penalty.
She had sought $75,000 (£60,000) in damages and to be recast in the popular series.
Lucasfilm had condemned her comments in 2021 for “denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities”.
In a statement released since the settlement, the production company said that it looks forward to “identifying opportunities to work together”.
The company described Ms Carano as someone who “was always well respected by her directors, co-stars, and staff. She worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect,” it added.
Ms Carano is a former mixed martial arts fighter and has faced pushback in the past for deriding mask-wearing policies during the Covid pandemic and making false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 US presidential election, which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. (BBC)
They’re about to make “hisssstory” in an adventure with the first snake ever seen in Zootopia… but remember… never pull a bunny’s ears! Disney just dropped the Official trailer to Zootopia 2, the highly anticipated sequel to its Oscar-winning 2016 animated comedy, Zootopia.
In the film, after cracking the biggest case in Zootopia’s history, rookie cops Judy Hopps (voice of Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (voice of Jason Bateman) find their partnership isn’t as solid as they thought when Chief Bogo (voice of Idris Elba) orders them to join the Partners in Crisis counseling program. But it doesn’t take long for their partnership to be put to the ultimate test when they find themselves on the twisting trail of a mystery tied to the arrival of a venomous snake in the animal metropolis.
The film introduces Gary De’Snake (voice of Ke Huy Quan), Nibbles (voice of Fortune Feimster) and quokka therapist Dr. Fuzzby (voice of Quinta Brunson); it also welcomes back Idris Elba (voice of Chief Bogo); Bonnie Hunt (voice of Bonnie Hopps); Don Lake (voice of Stu Hopps); Nate Torrence (voice of Clawhauser); Jenny Slate (voice of Bellwether); Alan Tudyk (voice of Duke Weaselton); Maurice LaMarche (voice of Mr. Big); Leah Latham (voice of Fru Fru); Josh Dallas (voice of Frantic Pig); Tommy Chong (voice of Yax); Mark Rhino Smith (voice of Officer McHorn); Raymond Persi (voice of Flash); and Shakira (voice of Gazelle).
“It’s been an absolute joy to reteam with so many actors who made the first film so special, and so exciting to expand the world with our phenomenal new cast members,” said director/writer Jared Bush (chief creative officer for Walt Disney Animation Studios). “I can’t wait for audiences to see what other surprises we have in store in this brand-new adventure.”
From the Oscar-winning team of Bush and Byron Howard (directors) and Yvett Merino (producer).
Marvel and Disney’s newest release Thunderbolts* has proved a hit at the box office, after taking an estimated $162m (£122m) internationally.
The film, which both production houses hope will kickstart a new franchise, is based around lesser-known superheroes who have to take on human and superhuman threats whilst fighting their own personal battles.
It stars Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan in two of the main roles, alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Harbour.
Whilst not all critic reviews have been favourable, the movie has been a hit with superhero fans – drawing in an impressive 95 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
It means the film receives the third highest audience score for a Marvel title, tying with Spider-Man: Far From Home and behind Shangi-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Not all critics have not treated the film as favourably, with Empire’s John Nugent noting that the film is “missing a bit of colour – literally, in the washed-out palette and CG shadow-threat that dominates the latter half of the film — and figuratively, in its subject matter”.
He adds that the topics covered, including suicide, depression and domestic violence are “not always sensitively handled”.
Radheyan Simonpillai at The Guardian gives the film three stars, citing that although the film is “the best thing to come from the brand [Marvel] since WandaVision“, “Thunderbolts often irritates because the depression and trauma the movie supposedly grapples with so often lives on the surface”.
Simonpillai is full of praise for Pugh though, “who can wrestle sincerity out of a screenplay (and a franchise) that has so little”.
However, Clarisse Loughrey from The Independent looks on the film a little more favourably, giving it four stars and calling it “the best Marvel movie in years”.
“Thunderbolts does feel different to what’s come before.
“It’s the first of its kind to seem genuinely self-aware – Thunderbolts might actually then be the ultimate Marvel film for now,” she adds.
Audience fatigue when it comes to Marvel films is a genuine concern for the studio, which has been trying to pivot away from the characters from the main Marvel Cinematic Universe since the release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
It is perhaps why Deadpool & Wolverine was a big hit for Marvel last summer, as it featured characters that have been less front and centre for them, with Thunderbolts* potentially following a similar path. (BBC)
The US government agency that regulates television says it is opening an investigation into Disney’s diversity and inclusion practices, in the latest sign of pressure being applied to media firms.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to Disney on Friday notifying the firm, and its ABC News unit, of the plan.
He said the move had been prompted by concerns that the company was promoting diversity “in a manner that does not comply” with government regulation.
A spokesperson for Disney said the company is reviewing the letter.
“We look forward to engaging with the commission to answer its questions,” a Disney spokesperson said in a statement.
The FCC’s investigation into Disney also comes amid a wider crackdown on DEI practices by the Trump administration, with impacts felt beyond the US.
French companies with US government contracts received a letter from the American embassy in France this week, asking them to sign on and comply with Trump’s executive order banning DEI programmes.
The order, the letter said, “applies to all suppliers and service providers of the US government, regardless of their nationality and the country in which they operate.”
In a letter addressed to Robert Iger, the chief executive of Disney, FCC chairman Carr said he wants to ensure that the media company “ends any and all discriminatory initiatives in substance, not just name”.
He added: “I want to determine whether Disney’s actions – whether ongoing or recently ended – complied at all times with applicable FCC regulations.”
Carr has been a member of the FCC since 2017 and was named to lead the agency by Trump in November.
Since being appointed to the post, he has ramped up scrutiny of media firms, launching probes of NPR and PBS and demanding information from Big Tech companies including Apple and Google, about their use of services that influence how news articles get ranked.
The FCC also announced investigations of Verizon and Comcast and its media unit, NBCUniversal over their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Disney, best known for its cartoon classics and theme parks, made changes to its DEI policies earlier this year.
“While I have seen reports that Disney recently walked back some of its DEI programs, significant concerns remain,” Carr wrote in the letter.
“I want to ensure that Disney and ABC have not been violating FCC equal employment opportunity regulations by promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination,” he said. (BBC)
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