julia boorstin, cnbc business news, los angeles. >>> still to come here on "street signs," it's batman vs. superman smashing the box office, but was the star power strong enough to beat critics? we'll discuss after this short break.

for "nightly business report," i'm julia boorstin in austin, texas. >>> and that does it tonight fornightly business report." i'm sue herera. your public television station seeks your report. >> and we thank you for it. i'm tyler mathisen. have a great evening, everybody. ♪ ♪ superstar tenor andrea bocelli travels to hollywood to perform some of the greatest melodies from the silver screen. ♪ moon river relive oscar-winning songs... ♪ wider than a mile movie musicals... ♪ maria classic themes... [ singing in italian ] and epic songs... [ singing in italian ] join us when the stars come out...

julia boorstin is in austin. >>> the department of transportation wants to help cities become smartery embracing everything from driverless cars to electric vehicles to ride sharing. transportation secretary anthony fox unveiled the seven finalist cities. a competition to generate high-tech solutions for the future of transportation. >> this is not about just having one city win. this is about having our incubators of innovation, cities across the country actually thinking about the future, making plans for the future that can be actually done and although we only have one winner, we're going to work with all 77 of the other cities to give them a pathway to move forward as much as we can with what they have planned out. >> reporter: the winning city gets $40 million from the government, plus $10 million from paul allen to invest in a car infrastructure. austin, one of the finalists, would use the money to continue initiatives already under way to solve what the mayor call as seve severe mobility challenge. >> we are the only city outside of california that has autonomous vehicles bein

for "nightly business report," i'm julia boorstin in austin, texas. >>> and that does it tonight fornightly business report." i'm sue herera. your public television station seeks your report. >> and we thank you for it. i'm tyler mathisen. have a great evening, everybody. ♪ >> announcer: explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> it's been an extraordinary thing to be a part of. and now it's coming to an end. it's going to feel very strange. >> i think the moments that i'll most remember are a sudden unexpected kiss, the turk dying in a bed. >> i'll be ruined, mama. >> edith has had a lot of heartache. >> what are you saying? >> i can't do it. >> i loved playing all of rose's loves. >> oh, darling. >> and there's been quite a few. >> paddling in the sea was a treat. >> you can always hold my hand if you need to feel steady.

julia boorstin has more. >> reporter: front and center at south and southwest. in contest sharing sharing buzz. this tech savvy scene is a valuable audience for trtritional companies as well. u.s.a.'s mr. ro robot hosting this ferris wheel and arcade. amc turning this trip upside upcoming launch of "preacher"." >> i think the industry, if everyone in that industry likes someone, it's big enough to move the needle. so many people are involved with tech, being a start-up or just working for a company, even in an office, i think it applies to you. >> this "game of tones" attraction from hbo drew over 1200 fans on its first day. hbo investing in this attraction that uses pictures in the hall of faces, hoping people will share their photos. >> you're not only hitting that one influencer, and that continue to have a halo effect. it helps u to amplify the marketing message. we'd like to see things m mre tapping into the technology which really speaks to this tecec southwest. >> hbo, amc and usa a looking the boost the social conversation, promoting their hashtags for f

for "nightly business report," i'm julia boorstin in los angeles. >> comcast is the parent company of nbc unifoversal and cnbc whi produces this program. >>> peabody energy warns it may have to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. that is where we begin tonight's "market focus." if it proceeds, it joins a growing number of coal producers who recently filed for bankruptcy. the company has been hit hard by low energy prices and continuing shift away from coal power plants. shares of the company down man 45% to $12.19. >>> two solar energy companies announcing today they're delaying the release of their 10k financial report for the second time. both sun edison and teriform power cited, quote, material weakness with their financial reporting as a reason for the delay. sun edison ending the day unchanged $2.08. teriform dropped nearly 8% to $9.72. >>> amgen wins a patent lawsuit decision against regeneron pharmaceuticals. a new kind of cholesterol lowering drug that was dropped. regeneron also a little higher 368.46 the close there. >>> cesars entertainment and private equity owners

julia boorstin has that story. >> reporter: march madness has turned into advertising madness. the annual ncaa division 1 men's basketball championship sold a record $1.2 billion of advertising last year for cbs and turners networks and this year it's on track to grow by at least 5%. as advertisers turn to live events viewers want to watch in realtime along with ads. >> live sports programming has been steadily increasing, ad rates across march madness, across other professional sports, college sports as well. audience ratings have shrunk for other types of programming, audience ratings for sports programming have held up fairly well and adds to the attractiveness of the investment for advertisers. >> you guys ready for our march madness road trip? >> reporter: broadcasting the tournament has been increasely profitable for time warmer and cbs because advertising has been growing faster than the cost of tv rights. this year's tournament is particularly important for time warner. its stock dropped on concerns of the future of the tv bundle. this is the first time a championship w

i'm julia boorstin with the latest on vice.article making the rounds saying the company's web traffic fell over 17% from january to february. we reached out to com score to clarify the numbers and spoke to vice who calls "variety's" character sakes misleading and vice's traffic has continued to slow. traffic in the digital network, the partner space that vice sell ads for taking a fee is what declined. "variety" quote intentionally misconstrued the 17% dip in part anywhere traffic as a vice partner dip. that ad network in its entirety represented 3.8% of vice's total u.s. very much knew so the traffic decline is immaterial. the vast majority of vice revenue comes from licensing and production geels with the likes of hbo and the creation of sponsored or native content. last month it announced partnerships with samsung, toyota and others. melissa, back over to you. >> thanks so much, julia boorstin. for monlet's brung in the co-editor-in-chief at "variety" and wrote the article. >> good evening. >> vice comes out and says that yo

let's bring in julia boorstin, they apologized for this, right? >> facebook did apologize. they said it was a bug that caused this. i know a number of people received this text. i did not myself. you can imagine, michelle, how this would make people really worried, wondering where the explosion was, if their friends and family nearby were safe. facebook said that this was a bug and they are determined to fix this. but this product safety check really has had a lot of positive impact since it was launched. we saw it used in belgium with the recent attacks there, as well as the attacks in paris. and it was really designed for specifically natural disasters. so we have seen it rolled out about half a dozen times over the past year or so for natural disasters. >> so it was rolled out in the wake of -- in the wake of paris or is this just something they had come up with and had they seen a problem like this in the past? >> they never had seen a problem like this in the past. in fact, the criticism of facebook in the past has been for not rolling it out more frequently. it was ac

our julia boorstin.next, a final check on restoration hardware's earnings before the conference call. "closing bell" is back in two. >>> moving forward with uber tomorrow. global expansion, big competition. uber's top advisers looks at the tough road ahead. "skwak ally," 11:00 a.m. eastern cnbc. >>> shares of restoration hardware have been whipping around after hours initially declining when the company released its earnings. it was a miss relative to the lower earnings guidance they had basically just given us a month or two back. that said the stock is well off its highs, the guidance was also weak. the shares went down 4% up to 4% to up about 1.3% and the conference call starts in 30 minutes. >> the challenge that you have to look at here is the execution from the management team and some of the things that they are doing even on the revenue side. they are going to the new membership program where you have a 100 buy-in to get discounts which not only competes with their interior designers who are huge

our julia boorstin is live in l.a. hey, julia. >> hey, carl.hat's right, "zootopia" grossing at $74 million this weekend. that makes it disney animation's largest opening ever. even bigger than "frozen" which held disney's prior record when it kicked off a massive run in 2013. overseas, "zootopia" has grossed $67 million after a month in theaters, the film drawing a remarkable 99% rating, nearly perfect, according to rotten tomatoes. exploiting across its platforms. with more films potentially in the franchise and consumer products and a presence at the disney parks. these numbers helping push disney shares a little higher this morning. now up about 1%. piper jaffray with an overweight rating on the stock, issuing a note saying, quote, we continue to be buyers of disney as we believe the robust film slate will bring significant valley across consumer products and theme parks." after concerns about espn started weighing on disney shares in august, analysts are now looking at whether that can be outweighed by strength at the studio. with "the for

julia boorstin is here in the flesh to talk about it. >> melissa, great to be here.ney gave up the numbers on the resort business. they have new massive cruise ships under construction. they'll be completed in 2021 and 2023. and two more "star wars" films in the works. visitors will be able to experience what it's like to fly the millennium falcon. the reelection of the board members was approved. two proposals were rejected also as expected. the big hot topic for the q&a portion of the meeting, an issue that has been weighing on disney shares. >> espn is a healthy business, and a large business, and exciting business and a growth business. will it grow at the compelling rate we've seen it grow in the last 15 or 20 years into the future? probably not. but still should deliver growth for the company long term. we're not in any way taking matters lightly in terms of speculation or what's been said or what's believed to be the case about espn. >> iger stressed disney is looking for new ways to bring espn and disney's other brands to consumers. >> when iger talks about a

julia boorstin is live in l.a. with more. >> well, jon, facebook is betting they're here to stay.culus rift on sale for $600, that launches with 30 games and hundreds of thousands of movies and photos and other immersive experiences. while there are already less expensive devices, including google's cardboard already available, today kicks off a competitive high-end headset market. due out april 5th. sony's playstation now launches in october. and apple last week awarded a patent for a vr headset. facebook's rift has a head start but for now the market is limited by the fact most pcs won't work with it unless they're fairly new and equipped for hard-core gaming. here's what these tech companies are playing for. the pc gaming market was worth $28 billion last year. and the total augmented and virtual reality market is projected to reach $150 billion by the year 2020. and analysts seem optimistic that facebook will make its $2 billion acquisition of oculus two years ago pay off. raising the price target for facebook earlier this month, valuing oculus at $4 billion. now we're waiting

julia boorstin, cnbc business news, los angeles. >>> still to come here on "street signs," it's batman vs. superman smashing the box office, but was the star power strong enough to beat critics? we'll discuss after this short break. >>> welcome back to "street signs." facing another impeachment case. the bra jill yan bar association has filed a request, accusing the president of obstructing justice and accounting tricks. amid this turmoil, the minister for tourism has become the first member o to resign from the party. >>> fidel castro has criticized president obama following his visit, saying cuba does not need gifts from the empire. the retired leader wrote that listening to obama could, quote, give anyone a heart attack. >>> former new york banker has been arrested on charges that he defrauded investors of more than $95 million. prosecutors say he scammed clients into investing millions of dollars in sham private equity investments. he posted a $5 million bail. >>> and warner brothers latest comic book movie has stormed the box office, despite receiving a number of poor reviews "bat

. >> well, julia boorstin sends this report. >> disney shares gaining a few percentage points on an upgradeper jaffray. at disney's big annual meeting, the company announced building two new disney cruise ships, which will be ready in 2021 and 2023. the company also revealing more details of its "star wars" lands in the works in florida and anaheim. they say visitors will feel like they're flying the millennium falcon. much at question and answer session at the meeting was dominated by talk about the health of espn and the tv bundle, issues which have been weighing on disney's stock. iger reassuring investors that espn is a healthy business and will continue to be. while they do work ahead on some new digital options. >> even though cable packages are still the most popular way to watch television, our media businesses continue to innovate, embracing digital technologies and platforms like netflix and hulu, and even creating our own like our disney life service that recently launched in the u.k. >> as for the shareholder votes, they all went very much as expected. disneys' board and executi

we had julia boorstin on the other day. we were talking about "rogue one" and the new "star wars" movie and i think there's a chance that things get saturated. >> you're the one who saw the most recent "star wars" how many times? >> three times. >> you're afraid it's getting saturated. >> they have been home runs and what i'm saying is the idea of having a new "star wars" movie out every year or new "avengers" movie out every year, i think there's a potential it gets saturated. right now it's so fresh and they are doing so well off the two $4 billion acquisitions individually, at some point it's just going to be -- it's not going to be as exciting. think about the anticipation. >> this is like the first time anyone ever saw "star wars," a whole new generation so i do believe it will get saturated. i don't think it's even close. >> they control all of the distribution for these things. again, it's a branded strategy. they are delivering content. this is where the new media actually works for these guys and own it all the way

julia boorstin joins us with the details what it could mean for the future of facebook.was coming. now it is official. >> facebook's $600 oculus rift headset goes on sale today, kicking off what will become a crowded market for high end vr heads headsets. this works with the pc outfitted for gaming and will include this far land virtual world plus 30 games and thousands of 360 videos and photos. now, facebook's rift will be competing against htc's $800 viv headset which launches next tuesday. the $400 sony playstation vr, which debuts in october. tackling the augmented and vr market projected to reach $150 billion by the year 2020. analysts seem pretty bullish on facebook's $2 billion acquisition of oculus, paying off. anthony declemente values oculus at $14 billion, upgrading facebook today, saying a virtual reality that facebook seems among the best positioned. rosenblat assumes facebook's long-term plan is to drive it to a more mass market and ubiquitous platform. investors are waiting to see how mark zuckerberg delivers on his promise to make facebook -- make oculus

julia boorstin has more. hi, julia. >> hi, kelly. announcing it's partnering with wwe, the mobile game network working with wwe and its new game called wwe champions. scopely telling cnbc that it is profitable with the $200 million revenue run rate, a 600% growth over the past ten months. now scopely's august release drew $4 million downloads in the first week and it's not just a one-hit wonder. it was scopely's sixth consecutive number one game launch. they project its yahtzee with buddies game which launched in april will bring in $650 million in revenue over five years and has eight more games in development. >> we believe the future of entertainment will be much more driven by interactive experiences in software rather than linear experiences and the mobile gaming market will be a $45 billion market by 2020 and many of the world's biggest most established brands don't have really compelling interactive mobile experiences. >> and driver says partnering with brands and working with different studios helps minimize its risk and also

julia boorstin is at the courthouse in los angeles and joins us live. julia? that's right. the outcome could reveal some very private information about the media mogul who still controls both cbs and viacom. the motion filed -- a los angeles county superior court judge will hold a hearing on a motion to unseal court documents. the motion which was filed by the "l.a. times," hollywood reporter and variety last months asked that documents including doctor's reports, activity logs from redstone's house be opened to public view. this followses redstone's lawyer's request that the judge seals those documents to protect redstone's privacy. it's possible that the judge could grant -- hear the argument the today but choose not to make a ruling yet in the event that the documents are unsealed, it's unclear how quickly they'll be made available to the public. since this was filed in november, there's been a number of changes at viacom and cbs, including redstone stepping down as chairman of both companies, replaced if i philippe dauman and les moonves. viacom extended t

julia boorstin is here to tell us -- >> in person, right there. >> tell us what's on the docket when we return. . >>> welcome back to "squawk box". disney holding its annual shareholder meeting today. joining us to talk all things disney and viacom, julie boorstin who happens to be in the big apple with us. >> good to be here. i'll be monitoring disney's shareholder meeting today in chicago. usual topics up for vote including approving executive compensation. they recommend shareholders vote against the re-election of jack dorsey calling his commitments over boarded. one proposal to watch asking the company from provide additional disclosure of political activities. disney says it disclose as lot already. now two big shareholder adviser groups support this proposal but given the failure of similar proposals at other companies it's unlikely to pass. just yesterday disney announced it would bring its channel stonesy's playstation individto sony's playstation. so we'll be listening in for more fun stuff. >> one of the things i did want to talk to you about is this sort of sense -- we've

julia boorstin has more on this move. >> that's right.it's an unlikely partnership designed to simplify comcast products. a new page at amazon cable stores sells the company's flagship service. including mod manies and routers. prices are the same as on comcast's own website, but buying on amazon included dedicationed customer service. last may it dedicated more than $300 million towards new customer service efforts. down the line, comcast -- amazon could sell other products lie comcast's home security service and this store seems designed to carry other carriers. charter says it's in talks with amazon as well. the idea is while people are shopping for, say, a tv set, amazon could offer tv service as well, similar to what best buy has done. this partnership just takes it digital. kelly? >> what's so interesting about this, julia is most companies are so focused on maintaining that consumer relationship, what comcast seems to be doing is acknowledging it hasn't done a good job of it and willing to hand it off to amazon. >> comcast is hirin

and let's get to julia boorstin. >> that's right. disney threatening to boycott making movies in georgia if the state enacts legislation to permit discrimination based on sexuality. the media giant issuing a statement saying, quote, disney and marvel are inclusive companies and although we have had great experiences filming in georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law. thanks to tax credit, disney made a number of films including captain america civil war in the state. the mpaa representing all the major hollywood studios already attacked legislation as discriminatory, urging the governor to not sign it. we have reached out to georgia's governor's office for a comment, but we have not yet heard back. back to you. >> julia, thank you very much. >>> long time republican political consultant mike murphy summing up what many on the traditional side of the gop believe. >> i think she's beatable, incredibly beatable. a huge opportunity. i don't thi

julia boorstin has more. >> reporter: this three-screen is called the barco escape.t's launching tomorrow at this regal theater owned by aeg. it's submersive surround sound and outfitted the lobby with fast-changing high def disflays. the number of tickets sold in the u.s. has declined 7% since 2009. parentally thanks to the explosion of premium content available at home. tech titan shawn parker is working on screening room to allow people to watch movies at home the very day they debut in theaters. plus nearly half of all u.s. homes are projected to own a 4-k tv by 2020. which is why barco is in talks with all of the theater chains. >> we'll be in more than 100 by the end of this year. so we're well on our way. we're in the middle of a $100 million raise and trying to partner with the right friends and ecosystem. >> reporter: this new technology joining the 4 dx theater already here at the cineplex with seats that move and wind and smells piped in. so kelly, the more your living room feels like a movie theater, the more high-tech movie theaters will become. back ove

julia boorstin will give us on update on the streaming service's original content and tell us whethereason four is binge worthy when we return. story. they dropped it last night >> dropped. debuted. launched. >> they do it all at one time. >> all at one time. "house of cards" fourth season, just launched or dropped or whatever we're calling it. the original show back in 2013 kicked off netflix's massive investment in original content. it's helped reinvent netflix as a premium cable alternative of sorts and helped its stock soar about 280% over the past three years. now "house of cards" is just one of the many new movies and tv shows hitting netflix this month. season two of marvell's daredevil launches mid-month and that is $5 billion total on content. a new report estimates netflix's domestic streamed hours are the equivalent of about 6% of all traditional tv hours watched. up from about 4% in 2014. now given that traditional tv hours fell by 3% last year, about half of that change is attributed to netflix. netflix's total viewing is more than aadoubl double amc's chann. now the ques