The newest "Call of Duty" is off to a faster start than many in the video game industry had thought -- and appears to have reached $1 billion in sales faster than any game in history.

"Call of Duty: Black Ops II" crossed more than $1 billion in retail sales by Nov. 27, its 15th day on sale, publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. announced Wednesday.

That's a day faster than last year's installment "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" reached the same mark.

It also marks the first time Activision has announced sales figures for "Black Ops II" that exceed "Modern Warfare 3."

When the Santa Monica game...

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, mother of News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, has died at her home outside Melbourne, Australia, at the age of 103.

The matriarch of the world's most prominent media family was well-known in Australia for her philanthropy, and she remained active late into her life.

News Corp. confirmed her death Wednesday.

"Throughout her life, our mother demonstrated the very best qualities of true public service," Rupert Murdoch said in a statement published in the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal. "Her energy and personal commitment made our country a more hopeful place and she...

Netflix's day-old deal to be the exclusive pay-TV home for new movies from Walt Disney Studios is a "game changer" for the streaming video company and was "the highest value deal" possible for the entertainment giant, executives from the two companies said Wednesday.

Speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said bidding away those rights from premium cable channel Starz beginning in 2016 was particularly valuable to his company because of its large family audience.

"The movies that constantly performed well for us...

After the coffee. Before getting a better agent.

The Skinny: I've been watching the old movie "The Music of Chance." Man, James Spader killed it in that flick. Anyway, Wednesday's headlines include Disney's big deal with Netflix, Ryan Seacrest buys a marketing firm and the New York Post's subway death photo causes a stir.

Daily Dose:RLTV, the network aimed at the over-50 demographic is officially on Time Warner Cable. In Los Angeles, RLTV can be found on Channel 200. Fear not, that doesn't mean you have to be 200 to watch. And no jokes about the channel scoring TV rights to checkers and...

After moving to Los Angeles from his native New York eight years ago, writer-director Marshall Lewy spent many weekends hanging out at his neighborhood farmers market in Silver Lake. He became intrigued by the idea of a sprawling metropolis where farmers markets come to life, bringing in fresh produce and unusual characters from farms that surround the nation's second-largest city.

The experience planted the seed for "California Solo," an independent movie about a former British pop rocker played by Scottish actor Robert Carlyle ("Trainspotting" and "The Full Monty"), who moves to L.A. to...

Netflix Inc. has acquired exclusive U.S. rights to movies from Walt Disney Studios in a deal that catapults the Internet video-on-demand service into direct competition with pay TV giants such as HBO and Showtime.

The three-year agreement takes effect in 2016 and is a blow to the pay channel Starz, which currently has the rights to broadcast Disney movies, including its Pixar animated films and Marvel superhero pictures, about eight months after they are released in theaters.

Starz's sole remaining movie provider is now Sony Pictures. That partnership ends in 2016.

VIDEO: Disney buys Lucasfilm...

A new report on Los Angeles' creative economy shows the entertainment industry emerging from its recession-induced slump, with modest job gains in 2011 hinting at the early stages of a recovery.

The entertainment industry employed about 120,400 people in Los Angeles County last year -- off about 7% from the peak in 2006, but an improvement over 2010, according to the Otis Report on the Creative Economy of the Los Angeles Region released Tuesday.

Motion picture and video production accounted for the greatest number of job losses in the entertainment sector from 2006 to 2011. Hollywood shed 6,...

Consumers may want to pick and choose what channels they pay for but Time Warner Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes says they don't know how good they have it under the current pay-television system.

"I don't think it's desirable for consumers to break the bundle," Bewkes said in remarks at the UBS Media and Communications Conference in New York on Tuesday. "You end up paying more for less."

The bundle, which is industry lingo for how cable networks are packaged and sold to distributors and customers, has become a hot topic of late because of rising pay-TV bills. On Monday, Glenn...

Netflix has acquired the exclusive U.S. rights to movies from Walt Disney Studios films, beginning in 2016, in a three-year deal that catapults the Internet video-on-demand service into direct competition with pay-TV giants such as HBO and Showtime.

The news is a blow to the pay channel Starz, which previously had the rights to Disney movies, including its Pixar animated films and Marvel superhero pictures.

Disney has also agreed to immediately give Netflix non-exclusive streaming rights to more of its older library titles including "Dumbo," "Pocahontas" and "Alice in Wonderland."

Starz's sole...

After the coffee. Before tormenting Giants fans about the Redskins win.

The Skinny: Today's Morning Fix is 80% News Corp.-related. That wasn't intentional, it just sometimes works out that way. Stories include a probing profile of Elisabeth Murdoch, Roger Ailes' efforts to convince David Petraeus to run for president and how Hollywood took Michigan for a ride. 

Daily Dose:Sunday's midseason finale of "The Walking Dead" scored a bigger rating among adults 18-to-49 than any broadcast network show this season. Overall, the episode averaged 10.5-million viewers. The interesting thing is that if...