Alison Hoffman has been promoted to president, domestic networks, at premium pay platform Starz, a Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B) company. Hoffman previously served as the network’s chief marketing officer spearheading its brand and content marketing, driving acquisitions for the Starz app and delivering data-driven insights that support all facets of the business. In her newly expanded role, she will oversee domestic network operations including all aspects of marketing and promotion, product development, distribution, analytics and program operations.
“Alison is a proven and strategic leader in our organization whose talents lie in both the creative and analytical sides of the business. This new role will bring all of the domestic focused functions under one leader and allow her to exercise all of her strengths,” said Jeffrey Hirsch, president and CEO of Starz.
Hoffman was one of the key executives responsible for launching the Starz app and managing the network’s direct-to-consumer business. Over the past year, Hoffman has led Starz’s efforts to build its streaming business, delivering 70% growth year-over-year domestically and outpacing several key competitors. She has worked closely with partners including Amazon, Hulu and Apple to successfully launch Starz on new platforms while continuing to build the Starz brand as a premium streaming content platform appealing to female audiences around the world.
During her tenure, Hoffman launched a master brand strategy for Starz, repositioning the network as a home for acclaimed and diverse original programming. She’s led campaigns for the entire Starz Originals slate, including Power, Outlander, Vida and American Gods enabling Starz to compete for and retain subscribers in an increasingly competitive and fragmented television landscape. In the past year, Hoffman assumed oversight of program operations and built a world-class acquisition marketing and insights & analytics departments for Starz from the ground up.
She joined Starz in 2012 after serving as VP of creative and brand strategy at AMC Networks where she was a key architect of award-winning marketing campaigns for series such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead.
Review: Writer-Director Mark Anthony Green’s “Opus”
In the new horror movie "Opus," we are introduced to Alfred Moretti, the biggest pop star of the '90s, with 38 No. 1 hits and albums as big as "Thriller," "Hotel California" and "Nebraska." If the name Alfred Moretti sounds more like a personal injury attorney from New Jersey, that's the first sign "Opus" is going to stumble.
John Malkovich leans into his regular off-kilter creepy to play the unlikely pop star at the center of this serious misfire by the A24 studio, a movie that also manages to pull "The Bear" star Ayo Edebiri back to earth. How both could be totally miscast will haunt your dreams.
Writer-director Mark Anthony Green has created a pretty good premise: A massive pop star who went quiet for the better part of three decades reemerges with a new album — his 18th studio LP, called "Caesar's Request" — and invites a select six people to come to his remote Western compound for an album listening weekend. It's like a golden ticket.
Edebiri's Ariel is a one of those invited. She's 27, a writer for a hip music magazine who has been treading water for three years. She's ambitious but has no edge. "Your problem is you're middle," she's told. Unfortunately, her magazine boss is also invited, which means she's just a note-taker. Edebiri's self-conscious, understated humor is wasted here.
It takes Ariel and the rest of the guests — an influencer, a paparazzo, a former journalist-nemesis and a TV personality played by Juliette Lewis, once again cast as the frisky sexpot — way too much time to realize that Moretti has created a cult in the desert. And they're murderous. This is Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" crossed with Mark Mylod's "The Menu."
It's always a mistake to get too close a look at the monster in a horror... Read More