Arts/Entertainment

In an entertainment industry still trying to take off, “Top Gun: Maverick” provided some much-needed speed.The long-awaited sequel to the 1986 hit opened to a blockbuster $156 million in the U.S. and Canada over the long Memorial Day weekend, a box-office record for the holiday and a career-best debut for its star, Tom Cruise.…

This year’s Memorial Day weekend soundtrack might be dated.Radio DJs and music tastemakers are placing bets on which new hot track will be crowned “song of the summer,” played at barbecues, pool parties and on windows-down car trips. But the charts this year have been full of songs released months or even years ago. The industry is hoping new releases from Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo and Jack Harlow will buck…

In an entertainment industry full of uncertainty, few movies seemed as sure a bet as a sequel to the 1986 classic “Top Gun.” The Chinese tech firm Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY 3.43% in 2019 signed on to co-finance the film, which the Shenzhen-based conglomerate hoped would yield a windfall at the box office. Yet when “Top Gun: Maverick” hits theaters this weekend, it will do so without any financing from Tencent, and without any mention of the Chinese firm that had once…

A fund backed by private-equity firm Blackstone Inc. BX 2.92% has purchased the rights to Justin Timberlake’s song catalog in the venture’s largest music-rights acquisition so far, fund executives said.Terms of the deal, which was done in partnership with music-investment company Hipgnosis SONG 0.54% Song Management Ltd., weren’t disclosed. People familiar with the matter said it is valued…

Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki is joining cable news channel MSNBC as an on-air contributor and will also host a new program for Peacock, the NBCUniversal streaming platform, the network said Tuesday. Ms. Psaki, who stepped down from her role as chief spokeswoman for President Joe Biden earlier this month, joins a long list of White House officials who took jobs on cable news after leaving government.…

The former late-night host sold his hit podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” to the satellite-radio company, along with his Team Coco digital-media company and its network of 10 podcasts, the companies said. Terms weren’t disclosed. The deal, which comes with a five-year talent agreement with Mr. O’Brien, is worth an estimated $150 million, according to people familiar with the sale. The acquisition is one of the biggest moves yet by Sirius in the competition among audio companies to lock in successful…

The chief executive of Wells Fargo & Co. says it will be difficult to avoid an economic downturn. The head of Frontier Airlines predicts conditions for high airfares could last for years. A veteran healthcare entrepreneur expects some startups to be wiped out in a recession.Executives in industries as varied as banking, agriculture and transportation say they are watching the effects of inflation and looking for signs of a slowdown, even as many continue to…

At the upfronts, as the television industry’s annual pitch event for advertisers is known, the traditional TV aspect of the spiel this year may have never been less important.Amid the hurtle toward streaming video, this week’s presentations were less focused on networks’ traditional hour-by-hour scheduling strategies and more about the actual content—now largely available to consumers wherever and whenever they want to watch. In some superficial ways, at least, the upfronts were a return to the norm. After two…

The Future of Everything Festival is happening right now. Click here to register and watch for free as a member. U.S. companies should continue to have a presence in Russia despite the war in Ukraine, Max Levchin, chief executive of buy-now-pay-later company Affirm HoldingsInc., said Wednesday. “In the long term I hope American businesses do end up in Russia and Russian people have the perception that Americans are…

Boutique auctioneer Phillips sold a 16-foot-wide, red-and-peach painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat for $85 million in New York on Wednesday.  Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa put the untitled 1982 painting up for sale, and an Asian telephone bidder represented by a Phillips representative based in Taipei won it after a four-minute competition. The sale didn’t break the $110.5 million record for a Basquiat, held by an untitled blue work from 1982 that Mr.…