WWE names Michael Luisi new head of studio unit

WWE Studios, the movie production arm of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., has promoted Hollywood veteran Michael Luisi to president of the unit.

Luisi, who had been WWE's executive vice president and general counsel, succeeds Mike Pavone, who had served as executive vice president of the WWE Studios until his abrupt resignation last month.

Before joining WWE in January, Luisi spent 12 years at Walt Disney Co.'s Miramax film label, most recently as an executive vice president of worldwide operations. He left the company in the wake of Disney's sale of the production company to a group of investors led by Colony Capital.

Best known for its wrestling programs including the highly-rated "Smackdown" and "Raw," WWE has tried for several years to carve out a place in the movie business with mixed results. Most of its films go to DVD pretty quickly, but the low production costs have kept the unit profitable, although last year it made just $400,000.

WWE released four movies this year and two last year. Luisi wants to increase WWE's output to six to eight films annually. Besides creating movies, Luisi said he will actively seek to acquire movies for WWE to release, which is a different approach from his predecessor. Luisi, a veteran of the film festival circuit from his days at Miramax, said he is heading to the Toronto Film Festival to look for movies to buy.

Usually, the movies released by WWE feature its talent in starring roles. Going forward, Luisi said that will not always be the case. "The creative will dictate whether or not it makes sense to have WWE talent in the movie," he said.

WWE will also look to release movies on other platforms besides movie theaters. "Everyone is well aware that the landscape is shifting, we're looking to create content that would potentially bypass the theatrical window," Luisi said.

The first movie Luisi will guide is "No One Lives," an R-rated horror film that is a co-production between Pathe Pictures and WWE Studios that he brought to the company after he joined it earlier this year.

-- Joe Flint

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Photo: Mike Luisi. Credit: WWE

 

WWE Studios executive Pavone out

One of the top programming executives at World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. has resigned.

Mike Pavone, executive vice president of WWE Studios, left last week to "pursue other interests," according to a regulatory filing by the company late Wednesday afternoon. Although the company prefers to be referred to as just WWE, it still uses World Wrestling Entertainment in regulatory filings.

Besides being known for its professional wrestling shows such as "SmackDown" and "Raw," WWE has also tried to make a go of the movie business. The company has self-distributed and marketed many of its films. Recent releases include "That's What I Am" and "The Chaperone."

None of the low-budget movies have been box-office smashes. The film unit has managed to make a profit over the last three years, although last year it made just $400,000.

Besides movies, Pavone also had oversight over WWE's series and reality programming efforts.

A WWE representative was not immediately available to comment on whether Pavone's exit meant the company was rethinking its commitment to the movie business.

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-- Joe Flint

Photo: World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton during the WWE Smackdown Live Tour at Westridge Park Tennis Stadium on July 08, 2011 in Durban, South Africa. Credit: Getty Images.

Shane McMahon looking to make his mark with China venture

Shane McMahon has never been afraid to knock on doors.

When he was just 5, his dad -- wrestling impresario and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon -- put him to work going from barber shop to barber shop asking if he could hang up fliers and posters for upcoming matches.

Years later, McMahon was still selling for his dad. Only this time around the doors he was knocking on were in Eastern Europe and China. As the WWE's executive vice president of global media, the younger McMahon was instrumental in getting WWE content and events in almost 150 countries.

Now McMahon, 41, is trying to do for Hollywood what he did for the WWE. Earlier this week his company You on Demand formed a partnership with Warner Bros. to get the entertainment giant's content into China via pay-per-view and video-on-demand cable platforms. You on Demand has access to homes in China through a 20-year pact with China Home Cinema, the pay-television arm of that country's CCTV-6 network. Cable operators can deliver the content into homes. You on Demand has said it expects to have as many as 3 million subscribers this summer.

China, with a population of 1.3 billion, has become a priority for Hollywood. The Motion Picture Assn. of America is trying to get the Chinese government to ease up on its restrictions on foreign films and double the current quota to as many as 40.

In the meantime, Hollywood is trying to find other avenues into China. Earlier this month, Legendary Pictures, a Burbank company that co-financed "The Hangover" and "The Dark Knight," unveiled a joint venture with a Chinese entertainment conglomerate to make English-language films in China that would be exported around the world. Cable represents another window into the market and Warner Bros. will make current as well as older product available through You on Demand.

Up until a few years ago, McMahon was content toiling for his father at WWE. He had been working there professionally since graduating from Boston University -- holding positions in marketing, sales, promotion and production. He even reffed some matches and got in the ring every now and then as "Shane-O-Mac."

Rising high up the executive ranks, McMahon was seen as a potential successor to his father. There was only one problem. "He wasn't going anywhere," he said and laughed.

As a favor to a friend, McMahon took a meeting with Marc Urbach, who was chief financial officer of what was then known as China Broadband Inc. The company had just secured a license to operate in China and Urbach, who grew up as a fan of the WWE, wanted to pick McMahon's brains about the region. McMahon had spent a lot of time schmoozing government officials to get WWE content inside the country.

"At first I didn't believe them," McMahon said when he was told the company had a green light to set up shop in China. "Getting the license is the hardest thing in the world." He did his due diligence, even flying to China to visit the company's offices there.

Initially, McMahon was approached about joining China Broadband Inc.'s board of directors. The more time he spent studying the company, the more intrigued he became. He joined the company in late 2009 as its chairman and chief executive and invested $4 million.

"It was the hardest decision I've ever had to make," McMahon said of his leaving WWE to strike out on his own. "I didn't want to wake up when I was 70 and say, 'I should have done that.'" Telling his father he wanted to leave was "brutal" and now, almost two years later, there remains some residual tension. "It's still hard," he said.

McMahon is confident that he is entering a buyer's market in China. The heavy piracy there has convinced him that consumers are hungry for content.

"If you give them access and it's better quality, why aren't they going to watch it," he said.

McMahon said he is "very far down the road" with other studios about signing deals similar to the Warner Bros. agreement.

Asked if he'd be striking any deals with his father for WWE content on You on Demand, McMahon cracked, "I don't know, I'm a tough negotiator."

-- Joe Flint

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Photo: Shane McMahon. Credit: You on Demand.

 

Vince McMahon wants to take 'wrestling' out of the WWE

Vince McMahon wants to take the "wrestling" out of World Wrestling Entertainment.

No, this isn't an outrageous plot the colorful impresario has cooked up for his wrestlers to act out in front of thousands of screaming fans. McMahon, the chairman and chief executive of WWE, wants to give the company a makeover, starting with the name. From now on, WWE will no longer stand for World Wrestling Entertainment. It will just be WWE, plain and simple.

Fear not, fanatics. There will still be plenty of smack in "Smackdown," and "Raw" will still be fresh.

But McMahon wants more than men in tights in his life. He wants to grow the WWE through acquisitions and expand its business beyond the ring. In particular, he said, WWE is targeting companies involved in production, live entertainment and branding.

"I think every brand has to re-create itself," he said. "I want everyone to look at us in a vastly different way than they have."

Besides hunting for acquisitions, WWE is moving ahead with long-talked-about plans to create its own cable network for its vast library of wrestling fare. The company has been meeting with distributors including Verizon and hopes to get a channel launched in 2012.

McMahon also wants to start marketing WWE's expertise in producing live events.

"No one does television production better than we do, it's damn near the Olympics," McMahon said in his customary rasp after an afternoon rehearsing for a taping of one of WWE's shows. "We know more about live event touring than anyone in the United States." The company puts on about 300 shows annually.

The moves come as WWE looks to rebound from a tough end to 2010 that saw attendance at its events and pay-per-view revenue both drop 15% in the fourth quarter. The declines were blamed on the economy, although WWE probably didn't help matters by raising prices at a time when its core audience was feeling the pinch.

"I think it is very obvious that they need to do something," Hudson Square Research managing director Marla Backer said of the company's plans. "Clearly, their prospects in terms of growth are limited if they stick to their knitting."

Not everyone embraces WWE's desire to move beyond the wrestling mat.

"I think that the most important thing right now is the return of the health of the core business," said Jay Kaplan, portfolio manager for Royce & Associates, which holds about 9% of WWE stock. "One of the market's big concerns is are they losing market share to real fighting," Kaplan added, referring to mixed martial arts and ultimate fighting.

This is not the first time WWE has tried to expand beyond its core. Several years ago, it partnered with NBC to launch the XFL, a springtime football league that died after just one season. A restaurant in Times Square also flopped. McMahon said he's learned his lesson from those follies and will stick to the entertainment business.

For more on McMahon's plans for the WWE, please see our story in Thursday's Los Angeles Times.

--  Joe Flint

Photos: Top: Vince McMahon with his son-in-law Paul "Triple H" Levesque. Right: McMahon. Credit: Ethan Miller / Getty Images.

WWE says Democrats being hypocritical

You loved us when you came on our shows to ask for votes.

That's what World Wrestling Entertainment is saying in response to attacks about its content from Democrats who are supporting Richard Blumenthal in the Connecticut Senate race. Blumenthal, who is Connecticut's attorney general, is running against Linda McMahon, wife of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and until recently the company's chief executive.

In a news release, the WWE noted that President Obama has appeared on its programming, as have Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. Others who have participated in WWE-backed events include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

"Therefore, current negative criticisms concerning WWE from some groups would seem to be inconsistent and hypocritical including the recent ad paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee," the release said.

The WWE is responding to a blistering advertisement from the DSCC, which says that under Linda McMahon's watch, the WWE violated safety standards, tolerated drug use and "inserted death clauses in workers' contracts in order to avoid responsibility for their deaths."

We're guessing Blumenthal won't be on any WWE shows any time soon.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Richard Blumenthal and Linda McMahon get ready for a smackdown. Credit: Dana Jensen-Pool / Getty Images

William Morris Endeavor dumps Mel Gibson

 
Add another log to the Mel Gibson inferno.

A spokesman for the William Morris Endeavor agency confirmed Friday that the embattled actor is no longer a client.

The decision follows the death Saturday of longtime Hollywood agent Ed Limato, who had represented Gibson for more than three decades. Limato brought his roster of A-list talent -- including the Academy Award-winning actor -- to William Morris when he rejoined the agency in 2007. It merged with Endeavor last year.

Ari Emanuel, co-chief executive of William Morris Endeavor, has made no secret of his disdain for Gibson. In July 2006, Emanuel wrote an open letter urging Hollywood to blacklist the actor for anti-Semitic remarks made during Gibson's drunk-driving arrest. 

"People in the entertainment community, whether Jew or gentile, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning Mel Gibson and refusing to work with him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line," Emanuel wrote.

Gibson later apologized for his remarks.

Emanuel is said to have tolerated William Morris Endeavor's representation of Gibson out of respect for Limato. However, when the agent's illness made it impossible for him to continue to work, the agency reportedly asked Gibson to find other representation.

The split comes as RadarOnline.com posted a profanity-laced rant purportedly by the Oscar-winning actor in which he drops racial epithets and criticizes his former girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, for "sashaying in your tight clothes," dressing provocatively and telling her "if you get raped ... it will be your fault."

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is investigating an allegation of domestic violence involving Gibson and Grigorieva. The couple have been separated since April.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: Gibson and Grigorieva attend a screening last year. Credit: Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images

WWE's 'Smackdown' moving to Syfy

Syfy Channel has pinned a deal for "Smackdown."

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc's  "Smackdown," which for years was a mainstay on the UPN and CW networks before moving to News Corp.'s My Network TV, is now headed to NBC Universal's Syfy Channel, people close to the situation said.

A deal, which will be announced later this week, further solidifies the growing relationship between NBC Universal and Vince McMahon's WWE. Syfy already carries the show "NXT," which is a reality program featuring wannabe wrestlers trying to make it to the big leagues of WWE. NBC Universal's USA cable channel also carries WWE programming including "WWE Raw." 

Although terms were not disclosed, My Network TV was shelling out roughly $20 million a year for "Smackdown." Syfy's price tag is believed to be closer to $30 million a year.

Although "Smackdown" is more than 10 years old, it still does very well with men, particularly the 18-34 demographic, and generally averages about 3.5 million viewers overall. "Smackdown" will continue to air on Friday nights when it moves to Syfy later this year, most likely in either late September or early October.

WWE is still looking to launch its own cable network, probably sometime in 2011. This latest deal with NBC Universal is another sign that the two could end up partnering on such a channel. WWE chief Vince McMahon has close relationships with NBC Universal brass, particularly Dick Ebersol, who oversees all sports programming for the company. Just a few weeks ago, Ebersol took part in an induction ceremony for broadcaster Bob Uecker into the WWE's hall of fame, which was also broadcast as a special on the USA Network. 

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Great Khali, right, knocks down the Undertaker on "WWE Friday Night SmackDown" in 2006. Credit: Mike Groll / Associated Press.

THQ turnaround shows it can cut, but can it grow?

 

A screen shot from UFC 2009 Undisputed, THQ's top selling game in 2009. Credit: THQ.

THQ, the publisher of UFC Undisputed and WWE video games, this afternoon reported it had eked a $542,000 profit, a penny a share, on sales of $357 million for its third quarter ended Dec. 31.

Just a year ago, the Agoura Hills game company looked like it might have been down for the count. It lost $192 million, also on $357 million in sales. THQ marshaled its resources, or perhaps pared them down, and launched a turnaround plan. The idea: cut costs, focus on just a couple of hard-core games and build on its strength in wrestling games and games for smaller kids.

So how's it going?

So far, so good. The company slimmed to 1,800 employees, down from 2,400 just 14 months ago. Once the No. 3 publisher, THQ is now No. 4 after Activision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft Entertainment. But it seems to be finding a better groove in the lighter weight category, where it can pick its battles more selectively. Those cuts paid dividends; THQ turned a profit last quarter on the same revenue it took in a year ago, when it posted a massive loss.

"They've turned it around," said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. "The question is whether they can grow revenue."

Brian Farrell, THQ's longtime boss, insists the answer is yes.

"We've gained market share, and we're ramping up our digital games initiatives," Farrell told Wall Street analysts during a conference call, saying the company is "positioned for growth."

Key to THQ's plan is to test out new games online first where development costs are lower, via Facebook or downloads on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. If the titles get traction, the game gets moved up the food chain as a bigger-budget disc-based console franchise.

It's a smart strategy, Pachter said. Though the digital download and online games business is still small, it's growing fast. Any upside, however minor, could move the needle for THQ, where "every little bit means a lot," Pachter said.

-- Alex Pham

USA Network's new deal with WWE could foreshadow a bigger deal

USA Network's move to renew its deal for "Monday Night Raw" with World Wrestling Entertainment for another four years may be just the beginning of a broader partnership between the NBC Universal-owned cable network and Vince McMahon's WWE.

WWE, as was first reported here, is looking to start its own cable network within in the next 18 months, and NBC Universal might be a potential partner. NBC Universal has long ties to WWE that go beyond USA Network. The two companies were partners on the short-lived XFL football league, and NBC Universal sports chief Dick Ebersol and WWE Chairman McMahon have a long relationship.

One of the challenges facing McMahon and WWE is getting distribution for a new channel. NBC Universal has a channel that may fit the bill in its Universal HD network, a cable channel that carries high definition programming. Currently the channel, which is overseen by NBC Universal cable entertainment chief Bonnie Hammer, is a hodgepodge of reruns including "Hogan's Heroes" (yes, they've upgraded it to HDTV-like quality) and "Monk." It also has some sports, movies and even carries a high-definition version of "Raw."

There have been very preliminary chats between the two companies about working together on the WWE network. While Universal HD is a digital channel and only in 55 million homes, WWE programming is a big draw and it would likely help boost distribution for the network.

Obviously there are bigger fish to fry at NBC Universal right now, with cable giant Comcast inching closer to taking control of the entertainment company. For WWE, having Comcast take over NBC would be a plus because Comcast has cable systems reaching almost 25% of the country.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. Credit: Eric Johnson / WWE.

WWE and wine snobs gear up for smackdown over smackdown

Vince McMahon doesn't want anyone thinking his wrestling superstars are a bunch of wine-tasting wimps. 

McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. has told the American Wine Foundation, parent of the Wine School of Philadelphia with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that it is infringing on its copyright by calling one of its wine classes "Sommelier Smackdown." As any WWE fan knows, "Smackdown" is the name of one of its most popular franchises.

In a letter to the Wine School of Philadelphia, the WWE told the wine sippers that its use of the word "smackdown" is "likely to create consumer confusion as to WWE's affiliation, sponsorship and/or approval" of the class. Yes, because we all know how similar the demo is of wine snobs and wrestling fanatics.

American Wine Foundation President Keith Wallace knows he's outgunned, but he's still going to try to a few rounds with the WWE (sorry for the mixed metaphor).

"We can't go toe to toe with this national multi-corporation," Wallace says, mixing his metaphors as well. Wallace does think he has a case. "Smackdown is not a term they can protect. ... `Sommelier Smackdown' is clearly a parody. It's just a big company trying to bully a small firm." Wallace notes that WWE has hundreds of employees, "and I have five."

A WWE spokesman says it went after American Wine Foundation only after the foundation tried to file a trademark application for "Sommelier Smackdown."

"It's not us going after piddly little Joe Blow here," the spokesman said. "We do own the trademark, and we created the term `Smackdown.' "

Let's save everyone including the poor bureaucrats at the patent office time and money here. How about the wine snobs send McMahon, Chris Jericho and everyone else at WWE a few cases of the grape and in return WWE will let the wine folks keep their bones intact.

-- Joe Flint