Ghostbusters. Entertainment, The Hunger Games.

Big Draws

maybe of all time,” he says. The studio also is scoring points with a mix of nostalgia flicks such as its Star Wars sequel and technologydriven hits like The Jungle Book, Crockett says. “They seem to have a finger on the pulse of what the public wants at a level that I haven’t seen before.”

Disney’s advantages lie in its storytelling ability and the strength—and number—of its brands. Time Warner’s Warner Bros. has DC Comics, and Comcast’s Universal Pictures has a strong animation arm, but Disney has unparalleled scale. This is largely because of an acquisition spree by Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, which included Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Pixar. That built the studio into five potent film brands while competitors weren’t investing in the risky business.

Playing catch-up, rival studios are digging into their archives to remake films with new twists, such as Sony Pictures’ all-female Or they’re having to find franchise properties, such as Paramount Pictures’ venture with Hasbro to bring to the screen a universe constructed around action figure G.I. Joe. The pressure to compete will probably encourage acquisitions. “Smaller firms with unique content will continue to be takeover targets,” says Christopher Marangi, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, an investor in media stocks. But some analysts worry that industry pressure could lead to expensive acquisitions that destroy value as movie companies chase—and overpay for—targets like Lions Gate

creator of Twilight for years to come, says Jeff Bock, a boxoffice analyst at Exhibitor Relations. Bock figures that Disney alone will have six or seven of the top 10 grossing films this year and potentially four movies each generating $1 billion worldwide:

Films that have grossed at least $1 billion worldwide, by year of release

Disney film Jurassic Park* Skyfall Transformers: Age of Extinction Star Wars: The Force Awakens The Dark Knight Rises Avengers: Age of Ultron The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Jurassic World Furious 7 Minions

$11.1 billion annual record generated at the domestic box office in 2015 and Disney’s studios will generate more than $3 billion in profit, its largest ever. For now, at least, Hollywood’s biggest star is Disney itself. �Anousha Sakoui, with Christopher Palmeri

The bottom line Disney’s acquisition spree under CEO Iger has positioned the company to dominate the movie business—and give rivals headaches.

Now, in an effort to reach consumers who’ve never set foot in an arena, Live Nation is racing to crank out video and virtual-reality programming featuring acts whose concerts it promotes.

The company has hired MTV alum Heather Parry to build a Tv-and-film production studio and has announced plans to produce programs with Vice Media, Hulu, and virtual-reality company Nextvr. By letting fans experience the concert vibe at home or on the go, Live Nation hopes to draw more advertising revenue, which already brings it more profits than the low-margin concert promotion business. The company and its artists also hope exposing TV and online viewers to videos of their acts will bolster ticket sales for live concerts.

Chief Executive Officer Michael Rapino says Live Nation’s advantage is simple: access. “We have these magical two hours happening, and we have access to the environment, whether onstage or backstage interviews,” he says. “We’ve been on a quest to take those two hours-plus and start bringing those to life online, on TV, and any screen we can monetize.”

Live Nation will produce its first TV show, Earth Works, with Vice’s new cable channel, Viceland. On the show, set to premiere this fall, musicians travel to imperiled ecosystems to highlight certain threats through song. In one episode, the band Animal Collective treks to the Amazon jungle to record animal sounds.

Earth Works grew out of Live Nation TV, a venture Live Nation and Vice created in 2014 to produce shortform series and documentaries from music events. “We’ve built a media company in a year, and now is the big moment with our sales forces combined to sell those to the biggest brands in the world,” says Hosi Simon, the Vice executive who helps run Live Nation TV.

Besides licensing the joint venture’s material to Hulu, Live Nation will also make a few virtualreality concerts with the streaming service, the companies announced on May 4. Nextvr, which streams sporting events and concerts in virtual reality, recently struck a deal with Live Nation to produce long-form live concerts for the next five years.

Live Nation could use some new profit-spinning businesses. The company generated almost $5 billion in sales from concert promotion last year, but that business lost $105 million. Its advertising and sponsorship unit, with sales of only $333 million, was its most profitable division. Live Nation already has a team selling sponsorships of concerts and its various Web properties, so it says that peddling ads to go with its videos is a natural next step.

To make more compelling videos, Live Nation acquired Greenlight Media, which specializes in producing socalled branded content for advertisers. Greenlight helped arrange Intel’s video morph of Lady Gaga’s face during the tribute to David Bowie during this year’s Grammy Awards telecast. Says Dominic Sandifer, co-founder of Greenlight: “It doesn’t matter [to viewers] if the content is created by a media company or a brand” as long as the entertainment value is high.

Live Nation and Greenlight are already trading ideas for brand integrations at festivals, such as a festival confessional where they edit fans’ admissions for videos on Youtube and Snapchat. Live Nation also has acquired Indmusic—a company that specializes in expanding viewership of videos on Youtube and other online portals—and says the new outfit is helping boost the audience at many of its venues and events.

Rapino says the draw of properly executed performance video shouldn’t be underestimated. “We’re not trying to sell two hours of dental work,” he says. “This is a very shareable, consumable piece of content. There are only so many people who can get to a certain show, that tour; it drives more awareness.” �Lucas Shaw

The bottom line More than 70 million fans attend events at Live Nation venues annually. Now the promoter hopes to draw them to video concerts.