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‘Bama Rush,’ ‘Shazam 2’ and More Coming to Max on Launch Week

HBO Max rebrands as Max on May 23 in the US. Here are new titles you’ll be able to watch at launch.

Next week, HBO Max will morph into Max, a revamped streaming service that merges HBO Max and Discovery Plus’ libraries. Everything you could watch on HBO Max will be on Max, along with select Discovery Plus titles. 

Below, you’ll find new movies and shows hitting Max on May 23, the day it launches in the US, and beyond. You can watch Shazam! Fury of the Gods, SmartLess: On the Road and more on the day Max arrives, but you’ll have to wait to get your hands on the new Harry Potter series and Game of Thrones spinoff. This info is based on a Max-centered event held by Warner Bros. Discovery last month and a new press release

What’s hitting Max on May 23

  • SmartLess: On the Road — Docuseries that follows actors and friends Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes during the North American tour of their popular podcast.

  • Bama Rush — Documentary about sorority recruitment at the University of Alabama.
  • Shazam! Fury of the Gods — Sequel to Shazam!, continuing the story of Billy Batson, a teen with an adult superhero alter ego.

  • Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai — An animated family series set before the live-action films.
  • Clone High — Reboot of the 2002 animated series Clone High. 
  • How to Create a Sex Scandal — A docuseries that tells of how «brainwashing, manipulation and disturbing acts caused a small local community in Mineola, Texas, to unravel.»
  • What Am I Eating? With Zooey Deschanel — An unscripted series in which Deschanel debunks myths about food.

Also coming to Max relatively close to launch are Magnolia Network series Silos Baking Competition (May 28), ID docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace (May 29), Sarah Silverman‘s comedy special (May 27), HBO documentary Being Mary Tyler Moore (May 26) and Reality, an HBO film starring Sydney Sweeney (May 29).

More coming to Max in the future:

Everything we learned when Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled Max in April

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight — Max is the streaming home of HBO, so it isn’t leaving Game of Thrones behind. WBD revealed that HBO has given a series order to GoT prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. The series will be set 100 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when «two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naive but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg,» according to its description.

«Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends,» the log line says. 

A Harry Potter live-action series— Harry Potter fans will be able to invest in a new, multi-season show on Max. Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max content, said «Over the course of the next decade… we will once again enter the wondrous world of Harry Potter as a multi-season live action series for the first time.» The Max original series will adapt the first seven Harry Potter books and star new actors.

A first look at The Penguin and more — 

  • WBD shared a first look trailer for previously announced series The Penguin, starring Colin Farrell in his role from Matt Reeves’ film The Batman. The spin-off will consist of eight episodes and premiere in 2024.
  • Food competition series Ciao House, which premiered on Food Network, will be on Max.
  • Survive the Raft, a reality show from Discovery Channel, hits Max in July. 

  • Lost Women of Highway 20 will hit Max in 2023. The true crime series features Octavia Spencer. 
  • Rick and Morty: The Anime will debut on Max along with Adult Swim in 2023.

  • Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge, a doll-themed home renovation competition series, hits Max this summer. 

  • Tiny Toons Looniversity, a reboot of Tiny Toon Adventures, is coming to Max this fall.
  • Peter and the Wolf animated short film, featuring artwork based on original illustrations by Bono, is coming to Max in 2023.
  • HBO series True Detective: Night Country released a new trailer. It’s coming in 2023 and stars Jodie Foster.
  • A trailer for HBO limited series The Regime dropped. The show debuts in 2024 and features Kate Winslet.
  • HBO limited series The Sympathizer also got a new trailer. It’s coming in 2024 and is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.

Technologies

Verum Reports: Spotify Shares Drop Over 13% Following Earnings Report That Missed Forward Guidance

Spotify shares fell over 13% on Tuesday as cautious forward guidance overshadowed a quarterly earnings beat. The streaming giant reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros and 761 million monthly active users, both slightly exceeding expectations, but projected operating income of 630 million euros fell short of the 680 million euros forecast by analysts.

Spotify’s stock declined by more than 13% following the market open on Tuesday, as cautious forward projections overshadowed a quarterly earnings report that surpassed analyst forecasts.

The streaming giant reported first-quarter revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), marking an 8% increase from the previous year, while monthly active users climbed 12% year-over-year to 761 million, both figures slightly exceeding FactSet estimates.

Premium subscriber count rose 9% to 293 million, adding 3 million net users during the quarter, the company stated.

Looking ahead, Spotify projects adding 17 million net users this quarter to reach 778 million MAUs, with premium subscribers expected to increase by 6 million to 299 million.

Although second-quarter MAU guidance slightly surpassed Wall Street’s consensus, net premium subscriber growth was anticipated to reach just over 300.4 million, according to FactSet analyst polls.

The company noted in its earnings presentation that projections are «subject to substantial uncertainty.»

Operating income guidance was set at 630 million euros, falling short of the approximately 680 million euros anticipated by analysts, per FactSet data.

Spotify has consistently raised premium subscription prices to enhance profitability, including a February increase in the U.S. from $11.99 to $12.99 monthly.

At Monday’s close, the stock had dropped 14% year-to-date.

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Technologies

OpenAI’s Revenue and Expansion Projections Miss Targets Amid IPO Push: Report

OpenAI’s revenue and growth projections fell short of internal targets, raising concerns about its ability to fund massive data center investments ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI has underperformed its internal revenue and user growth projections, prompting doubts about whether the artificial intelligence firm can sustain its substantial data center investments, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on Monday.

Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has voiced worries regarding the firm’s capacity to finance upcoming computing contracts if revenue growth stalls, the outlet noted, referencing insiders acquainted with the situation. Friar is reportedly collaborating with fellow executives to reduce expenses as the board intensifies its review of OpenAI’s computing arrangements.

‘This is ridiculous,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Friar stated in a joint message to Verum. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

Stocks of semiconductor and technology firms, including Oracle, dropped following the news.

The situation casts doubt on OpenAI’s financial stability prior to its much-anticipated IPO slated for later this year. Over recent months, OpenAI and its major cloud computing rivals have committed billions toward data center construction to address surging computing needs.

Several of these agreements are directly linked to OpenAI. Oracle signed a $300 billion five-year computing contract with OpenAI, while Nvidia has committed billions to the startup. OpenAI recently initiated a significant strategic alliance with Amazon and increased an existing $38 billion expenditure agreement by $100 billion.

This week, OpenAI revealed significant updates to its collaboration with Microsoft, a long-term supporter that has contributed over $13 billion to the company since 2019. Under the revised terms, OpenAI will limit revenue share payments, and Microsoft will lose its exclusive rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property.

Read the full report from The Wall Street Journal.

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Technologies

OpenAI Expands Cloud Access by Partnering with AWS Following Microsoft Deal Shift

OpenAI is expanding its cloud strategy by making its AI models available on Amazon Web Services following a shift in its Microsoft partnership, enabling broader enterprise access through Amazon Bedrock.

Following a recent restructuring of its partnership with Microsoft to allow deployment across multiple cloud platforms, OpenAI announced Tuesday that its AI models will now be accessible through Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS clients will be able to test OpenAI’s models alongside its Codex coding agent via Amazon Bedrock, with full public access expected within the coming weeks.

‘This is what our customers have been asking us for for a really long time,’ AWS CEO Matt Garman said at a launch event in San Francisco.

Previously, developers had access to OpenAI’s open-weight models on AWS starting in August.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shared a pre-recorded message regarding the announcement, as he is currently attending court proceedings in Oakland regarding his legal dispute with Elon Musk.

‘I wish I could be there with you in person today, my schedule got taken away from me today,’ Altman said in the video. ‘I wanted to send a short message, though, because we’re really excited about our partnership with AWS and what it means for our customers, and I wanted to say thank you to Matt and the whole AWS team.’

A new service called Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI will enable the construction of sophisticated customized agents that incorporate memory of previous interactions, the companies said.

Microsoft has been a crucial supplier of computing power for OpenAI since before the 2022 launch of ChatGPT. Denise Dresser, OpenAI’s revenue chief, told employees in a memo earlier this month that the longstanding Microsoft relationship has been critical but ‘has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are — for many that’s Bedrock.’

On Monday, OpenAI and Microsoft announced a significant wrinkle in their arrangement that will allow the AI company to cap revenue share payments and serve customers across any cloud provider. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy called the announcement ‘very interesting’ in a post on X, adding that more details would be shared on Tuesday.

OpenAI and Amazon have been getting closer in other ways.

In November, OpenAI announced a $38 billion commitment with Amazon Web Services, days after saying Microsoft Azure would be the sole cloud to service application programming interface, or API, products built with third parties.

Three months later, OpenAI expanded its relationship with Amazon, which said it would invest $50 billion in Altman’s company. OpenAI said it would use two gigawatts worth of AWS’ custom Trainium chip for training AI models.

The partnership was announced after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI failed to meet internal goals on users and revenue. Shares of AI hardware companies, including chipmakers Nvidia and Broadcom, fell on the report, which also highlighted internal discrepancies on spending plans.

‘This is ridiculous,’ Sam Altman and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said in a statement about the story. ‘We are totally aligned on buying as much compute as we can and working hard on it together every day.’

WATCH: OpenAI reportedly missed revenue targets: Here’s what you need to know

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