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By Lisa Richwine and Dawn Chmielewski LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Walt Disney said on Thursday it would boost its dividend by 50% and double its share buyback plan for fiscal 2026, as the media giant's streaming and parks businesses powered a quarterly earnings beat. Disney posted an adjusted earnings per share of $1.11 for its fourth quarter ending in September, a 3% decline from a year earlier but 6 cents above an average LSEG estimate. Profit rose in Disney's theme parks unit, partially from an expansion of the U.S. cruise ship business and growth at Disneyland Paris. Earnings at its streaming business surged 39% to $352 million. Disney said it added 12.5 million subscribers to Disney+ and Hulu during the quarter, reaching a total of 196 million.  A new distribution deal with cable and broadband provider Charter Communications helped draw new streaming customers, Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston told Reuters. Box office smash "Lilo & Stitch" debuted on Disney+ during the quarter and racked up 14.3 million views in its first five days, he said. Disney has been remaking itself to adjust to the industry-wide decline of traditional broadcast and cable TV. It has invested in new theme park attractions and cruise ships and worked to lure subscribers to its streaming services. CEO Bob Iger undertook aggressive cost-cutting when he returned to Disney in 2022. His current contract expires at the end of 2026, and Disney has said it will name Iger's successor early next year. TRADITIONAL TV DECLINE Thursday's earnings report reflected a continued slide in television fees and advertising revenue, but the company projected confidence in the next two years.  Disney forecast double-digit adjusted EPS growth for fiscal 2026, in line with its previous forecast. The company also said it expected double-digit adjusted EPS growth for fiscal 2027.  The company's board declared a dividend of $1.50 per share, up from $1 a share, and doubled its stock buyback to $7 billion in fiscal 2026. In the just-ended quarter, Disney's revenue was comparable to a year ago at $22.5 billion but shy of the $22.75 billion analyst forecast. Operating income at the entertainment division slumped by more than a third to $691 million after this year's films failed to match the success of last year's hits "Inside Out 2" and "Deadpool & Wolverine." Profit at the traditional television unit declined 21% to $391 million, and income from ESPN slipped too. The experiences unit that includes theme parks posted operating income of $1.88 billion, up 13% from a year ago. Part of the growth came from more passenger days on Disney cruise ships, the company said. "This was another year of great progress as we strengthened the company by leveraging the value of our creative and brand assets and continued to make meaningful progress in our direct-to-consumer businesses," Iger said in a statement. (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Sonali Paul and Arun Koyyur)

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By Danielle Broadway LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -When director Alex Woo pitched the animated Netflix film "In Your Dreams" to actor Simu Liu, Liu was fascinated by the opportunity to show a real family that argues. "The way that families are depicted, especially to a lot of children, is this idea that families are always happy, always smiling. They never fight. And it's just not true," said Liu, the China-born Canadian star of Marvel movie "Shang-Chi" in 2021. "I think it's important that kids have imagery of families that aren't perfect." "In Your Dreams" opens in theaters on Friday. The adventure-comedy film was animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks. Director Woo started as a storyboard artist at legendary animation studio Pixar and worked on films like "Ratatouille," "WALL·E" and "Cars 2." The plot centers on the journey of sister Stevie, voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport, and brother Elliot, voiced by Elias Janssen, in search of The Sandman, who can magically save their parents' marriage. Emmy winner Cristin Milioti as Mom and “The Office” actor Craig Robinson as the stuffed animal Baloney Tony round out the voice cast. Milioti, who won a Grammy for the album "Once," said her duet with Liu, on a song that shows the strained couple in harmony, was a highlight. “I think that song is really great and it is such a beautiful moment in the film too,” she said. Hoang-Rappaport's character grapples with the discovery that there is no magic solution to real-life problems. Stevie thinks, "I can fix this on my own and everything can be fixed…I can keep my family together," the teen actor said. But Stevie's journey ends with the same truth Liu wanted to show: Real families fight, and fixing things takes more than a dream. Life does not always go the way that people plan. (Reporting by Danielle Broadway and Rollo Ross; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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By Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -In the film “Jay Kelly,” opening in limited release Friday, George Clooney plays the charismatic title character whose entourage — manager, publicist, glam team, security, and assistants — depend on his success for their livelihood. "It becomes an industry, basically," Clooney told Reuters, noting that his character in the film shows how easy it is to be consumed by Hollywood culture. Clooney added that he has managed to avoid the pitfalls of working too much that his character Jay falls into. "It's easy to get sucked in,” the “Gravity” actor said. "You have to be an active participant in who you are and what you do, right? So, you have to say, ‘Well, no, I don't need that and I don't want that.’ You have to actively say no or things kind of get brought in," he explained. "I've always had a sort of healthy understanding of how I want to be perceived and how I'd like to live my life.” The film, directed by Noah Baumbach and distributed by Netflix, follows actor Jay Kelly as he confronts his past and present with his loyal manager Ron, played by Adam Sandler. Other cast members include Laura Dern and Billy Crudup. The film shows numerous flashbacks in Jay's life, including those illustrating his regrets and fears. "It was more just about playing a character and trying to find a way to make it that you could still root for him when he does some pretty crappy things along the way,” Clooney, 64, said. While Jay must come to terms with his focus on accolades over his friends, Clooney said he isn’t driven by fame and fortune. "I always just feel like your job is to serve the material. That's what your job is, and if it's good material, you'll be good at it. If it's not good material, you'll be bad at it. So, my job has always been to do that. So, I don't worry about the rest of it too much," he said. (Reporting by Rollo Ross and Danielle Broadway; editing by Patricia Reaney)

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By Jaspreet Singh (Reuters) -A staggering 97% of listeners cannot distinguish between artificial intelligence-generated and human-composed songs, a Deezer–Ipsos survey showed on Wednesday, underscoring growing concerns that AI could upend how music is created, consumed and monetized. The findings of the survey, for which Ipsos polled 9,000 participants across eight countries, including the U.S., Britain and France, highlight rising ethical concerns in the music industry as AI tools capable of generating songs raise copyright concerns and threaten the livelihoods of artists. It also showed that most listeners want clear labelling on AI-generated music, music streaming platform Deezer said. The study found that 73% of respondents supported disclosure when AI-generated tracks are recommended, 45% sought filtering options, and 40% said they would skip AI-generated songs entirely. Around 71% expressed surprise at their inability to distinguish between human-made and synthetic tracks. Deezer, which has 9.7 million subscribers, has seen daily AI music submissions rise to more than 50,000 — about a third of total uploads, up sharply from 18% in April. It has introduced tagging and excluded AI-produced tracks from editorial playlists and algorithmic recommendations to promote transparency. "We believe strongly that creativity is generated by human beings, and they should be protected," Deezer CEO Alexis Lanternier told Reuters, urging transparency. Lanternier noted the complexity of implementing differential payout structures for AI music, stating a "massive change" in remuneration policies remains challenging. Deezer has also started excluding fake streams from royalty payments. The issue gained attention earlier this year when AI band "The Velvet Sundown" attracted one million Spotify listeners monthly before its synthetic origins were exposed. Universal Music Group recently settled a copyright case with AI music company Udio. While financial terms were undisclosed, the parties plan to launch an AI-powered music creation platform in 2026, using licensed music to train the tool. On Tuesday, a Munich court ruled that OpenAI's ChatGPT violated German copyright laws by reproducing song lyrics, a decision the company said it might appeal. Consumer attitudes toward AI in media remain mixed. A May survey by Luminate found the majority of U.S. audiences were indifferent or accepting of AI use in cinema tasks like visual effects, but sceptical of AI-written scripts or synthetic actors. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Leo Marchandon in Gdansk; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Milla Nissi-Prussak)

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By Hanna Rantala LONDON (Reuters) -French filmmaker Julia Ducournau channelled her own emotions and collective trauma for her new drama "Alpha". Best known for her Palme d'Or-winning body horror movie "Titane", Ducournau wove her latest feature around an unruly teenager and a world plagued by a virus which turns patients' bodies into marble. Drunk at a house party, 13-year-old Alpha (Melissa Boros) gets a tattoo from a potentially dirty needle, triggering panic from her mother (Golshifteh Farahani) that she may have caught the unnamed virus and leading to her being shunned at school. Ducournau, who wrote and directed the movie, said the story stemmed from what she felt was a "dark cycle" in present world events and memories of the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s and 1990s. The film is not about AIDS, however, she said. "I felt that these emotions that I'm feeling every day, this knot in my stomach, these tears that are stuck in my throat, that's something I needed to address," she said. "The only way to address that was to transfer it to another period of time in which I had this sense, where I really felt that I was born into a world that was doomed to die." "The biggest thing that I wanted to talk about is the spread of fear and how fear generates rejection, generates hate," she said. "If it's shocking for a young girl who's fictional, how come it's not shocking when it happens in real life?" "Alpha" also stars "The Prophet" star Tahar Rahim as Alpha's uncle Amin, a drug addict who reappears in her life and whose downward spiral the teen witnesses. Rahim went through a physical and mental transformation, losing over 20 kilograms (44 pounds) for the role and working with a charity helping drug abusers. He said joining volunteers on rounds to distribute sterile supplies and spending time with users allowed him to better understand addiction. Combined with the weight loss, it informed his character. "I felt like someone in his own lab, playing with chemistry to see if it blows up or not to create something," Rahim, 44, said. "It's one of the best experiences I've ever had, in my acting life, but also in my private life because I felt so wide open. I could feel everything that was surrounding me, the energy." "Alpha" opens in UK cinemas on Friday. (Reporting by Hanna Rantala, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

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SEOUL (Reuters) -All five members of K-pop girl group NewJeans plan to resume working with their record label ADOR, South Korea's Yonhap News outlet reported on Wednesday, citing group members Hanni, Minji and Danielle. The group has been on hiatus for months amid a legal battle with ADOR, which has made headlines in South Korea, where record labels traditionally wield power over their stars.  ADOR, a subsidiary of powerhouse label HYBE, released a statement earlier in the day saying that Haerin and Hyein, the other two members of the group, will return to the K-pop music scene, but it was not immediately able to confirm whether the other three are also joining. "We are checking whether the three members intend to return," ADOR said in an e-mailed statement.  A South Korean court in March issued an injunction to stop the group from pursuing independent projects, after they began their legal battle with the label over alleged mistreatment. The court upheld ADOR's request to maintain its role managing the group and prohibit the five members from engaging in commercial activities without the label's consent. (Reporting by Cynthia Kim, Minwoo Park, Ju-min Park; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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