Where on one of those days where we’re just thankful that everyone is safe after another high-profile shooting incident in America . . . I’ll take a moment to shine a little light on mental health at large in this country — and offer an inspiration that change can happen when folks and funding come together to actually give a shit about making a difference.

The NY Times took a look at the creation of the 9-8-8 mental health crisis hotline in 2022, and how young adult suicides notably dropped in the subsequent 2.5 years since its creation — particularly in states where call volume to the hotline was greatest.

As for other factors possibly playing a role in the decrease, it’s not like younger Americans were using less social media as the 2020s have progressed . . . nor was any other suicide decrease noted in some other developed countries examined in that time.

This effort resulted from the Department of Health and Human Services revamping the hotline (including changing the number to a 3-digit one rather than a 10-digit one) and Congress agreeing to fund it to the tune of $1.5B in the Biden era.

So, sometimes positive change can still happen in this country when folks put their minds and efforts toward it. The project is currently asking Congress for another $500M for 2027 to continue — we’ll see if the Trump administration comes through.

PLUS: The WGA-AMPTP deal was ratified by membership, with 90% voting yes . . . although only about half the votes were cast (4,700-ish) compared to the 2023 deal (almost 9,000 votes). The WGA has about 11,000 members. See you in 2030.

• SAG-AFTRA / AMPTP talks resume tomorrow.

AND: The radio business is apparently getting jealous of Hollywood converging into 4 companies . . . as America’s only satellite radio provider, SIRIUSXM, and America’s largest terrestrial radio company, IHEART, are having talks about merging, according to Bloomberg.

• Although this would really be more of a situation where SIRIUS (nearly $9B market cap) is buying IHEART ($850M market cap), given their sizes.

IT’S PAYDAY SEASON!

Here are the totally well-earned salaries at the top of Hollywood at 2 of our studios last year.

COMCAST

Over $143M paid to just 5 people in 1 year, with everyone making at least as much as they did in 2024, or more.

Unlike TKO’s +50% stock rise in 2025 (re: the paydays I reported on Friday) — COMCAST stock was -20% in 2025 . . . so, job well done, everybody! How do I get one of these gigs?

• CEO Brian Roberts: $35.1M, up from $33.9M in 2024.

  • $23M is in stock, $290k is for personal security and $191k is in personal use of the COMCAST PJ 🛩️ .

  • (Wait, do I have to start disclosing my annual PJ use, or does that fall outside the bounds of journalism ethics? Eh, Rushfield tells me he doesn’t either . . . so I think I’m good 😅.)

• Prez Mike Cavanagh: $71.8M, up from $28.2M in 2024.

  • Mike, geez — leave something for everyone else. Think of those important broadband installers you guys keep talking about!

  • $60.3M was in stock, and $221k was in personal use of the COMCAST PJ 🛩️.

• CFO Jason Armstrong: $16.4M, up from $15.1M in 2024

  • $9.7M is in stock. They still won’t tell Jason where the PJ is . . . so no personal use for Mr. Armstrong.

• CLO Thomas Reid: $14.4M, about the same as 2024

  • $7M is in stock.

• CCO Jennifer Koury: $5.7M, about the same as 2024.

  • $1.5M is in stock.

PSKY

• CLO Makan Delrahim: $63.6M

  • Yes, in a move that couldn’t be more on-brand for PSKY — the legal guy and former Trump 1.0 admin official got the biggest compensation package in 2025 at the company.

  • $57.4M was in stock grants.

• CEO David Ellison: $63M

  • $58.7M is in stock, and $1.7M is in personal security.

• Prez Jeff Shell: $60.7M

  • $58.7M was in stock (and yes, he gets to keep this).

  • Jeff got paid his 2026 salary/bonus ($5M) for basically 3 months’ work after being let go this month, but did not get any additional stock to go with it.

• COO Andy Gordon: $48.5M

  • $47M was in stock

• Former CFO Andy Warren: $2.2M (all in 💰, no stock)

As the company was only formed under this leadership for less than half of 2025, I’ll forgo any stock price comps . . . but I will say the stock is still below where it was when PSKY was formed.

The stock grants will fully vest over a 5-year period.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

The 21% Michael bulls take it! Kudos on the bolder thinking above my fellow 27%.

🎥 THE BOX OFFICE

It’s always nice when the theatrical box office mirrors the state of the American economy — the winners are winning big, and then there’s a huge chasm to the rest of the box office, which is really struggling.

BASICALLY: Whatever you do, don’t look past the Top 5 movies — and I’m not too sure the “let’s go 60 days!” CINEMACON cheerleading for exclusive theatrical windows would really solve the sector’s ills.

SO YEAH: Let’s focus on the, uh, “more movies” thing instead.

NOW: Here’s what we’ve got on our hands this weekend, plus a look ahead at a May that will likely not be a happy story by the time June gets here. Remember that 2025 had some good times, too.

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Where, yes, Bob Iger is going back to his old job! Uh, no — not the one in Burbank again — and I’m pretty sure he can do this advisor role at Josh Kushner’s THRIVE CAPITAL from his yacht. 😅

THRIVE, being a firm that he already had a stake in, and a company he had previously (briefly) joined as a venture partner the first time he left DISNEY, before returning to DISNEY in late 2022.

So yes, A24 now has access to Bob Iger’s insights (in theory), given that THRIVE is an A24 investor. Can’t wait for the Hereditary ride to open in Anaheim.

OH: 82% of WBD shareholders voted down Zaz’s pay package in the WARNAMOUNT deal. Again, this is non-binding / doesn’t matter.

AH: Now Air Mail-less, Graydon Carter is still doing a Cannes party next month — alas, Zaz is not footing the bill (those several hundred billions won’t hit the savings account until the keys are officially handed over), but rather Graydon is partnering with AI, naturally, in ANTHROPIC CEO Dario Amodei and CAA’s Bryan Lourd to throw the shindig.

THEN: WGA deal votes are due today.

YES: An American soldier with knowledge of the Maduro raid in Venezuela made over $400k on POLYMARKET bets since the end of December (and subsequently cashed his account out / attempted to close it after the raid) . . . and has now been charged by the DOJ.

#TRUTH: A thanks to The Ringer’s Craig Horlbeck for resurfacing this Bill Burr classic about watching a pro sports draft (particularly, the NFL Draft this week), that is still 100% true.

PLUS: META made the expected 8k global layoffs street-legal yesterday (10% of the workforce), and threw in the closure of 6k open head positions just to keep things spicy.

• As foretold by Reuters, May 20 is layoff day.

• U.S. employees will get a minimum of 4 months severance, plus 2 additional weeks for every year at the company, and COBRA payments for 18 months . . . plus the option to install AI software that tracks everything they type on their home computer, too, in case they’re feeling nostalgic.

AND: If Ari Emanuel asks you for gas money for the private jet ride, keep these numbers handy. Here are your TKO exec total comp paydays for 2025.

• CEO Ari Emanuel: $67.4M, a big bump from his $18M in 2024, but about the same as his 2023 payday ($65M)

  • Most was in stock ($44M), but a hefty $20M was in essentially cash bonuses.

  • Plus, $359k of personal use of the TKO PJ 🛩️, even though he was given his own PJ as part of the ENDEAVOR take private event.

  • Plus $5,769 in company 401(k) matching contributions — though at 65, you definitely wanna be maxing that out. 😳

• COO/Prez Mark Shapiro: $42.6M, up from $32M last year.

  • Stock was the majority at $25.8M, although $12.5M was in cash bonus.

  • His company personal PJ 🛩️ use was only $281k (alas, ENDEAVOR ran out of jets to hand out after Ari and Patrick . . . but Shapiro is, of course, more of a man of the people anyway), and $8,750 in matching 401(k) contributions.

• CFO Andrew Schleimer: $23.1M, up from $7.7M in 2025

  • Including $14M in stock and $7M in bonus. No personal PJ use for Mr. Schleimer.

• Chief Admin Officer Seth Krauss: $10M, roughly even with 2025

  • Stock and bonus were each about $4M.

• #FunFact: At the end of 2025, Vince McMahon still has an 8.6% stake in TKO Class A shares (and a 3.4% voting stake).

YAH: The spring real estate housing market, typically the most active of the annual calendar, is about as robust as you’d think it would be given the Iran war and overall economy’s effect on mortgage rates (currently about 6.25%), the state of and future prospects for gas prices, AI’s threat on employment and . . . yeah, everyone’s totally psyched about their economic outlook.

FINALLY: Senior DISNEY Comms exec Naomi Bulochnikov-Paul will be awarded the Medal of Hope at the Race to Erase MS gala in early June for her leadership, advocacy and example she’s set out for others following an MS diagnosis.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

I’m gonna go somewhat big on LGF’s Michael, but I did really think about joining the top 21%.

NEW POD

🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN

The Most Popular Movies On Streaming in Q1

As weekly NIELSEN streaming data has a bit of lag, we just now have the full data set for Q1 (well — through March 29 . . . but close enough).

So, here are the films America was digging most in the first 3 months of this year, along with which streamers got the most traction — accompanied by NETFLIX’s viewing data globally where applicable.

• Other streamers are welcome to report their Top 10 movie data each week, just like NETFLIX does! Ahem. #FreePublicity!

I’ll also break down which films did not chart . . . or barely charted.

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Lotta change afoot at the country’s largest broadband provider, with VERSANT split off the books and the 1-2 Olympics/Super Bowl revenue combo.

Speaking of which, COMCAST’s long-term sports strategy really crystallized in Q1 across all of its business sectors (including Broadband), so let’s take a big look at why NBCU has been spending so much on sports — and what the plan is to make that money back, longer term.

Plus, I’ll take a look at:

• How and why Broadband subscriber trends are at least seeing some greenshoots thanks to, uh, wireless service . . . and the continued “less worse” news for the TV bundle biz.

  • PLUS: How COMCAST is using similar tactics to both turn around Broadband and grow PEACOCK.

• The, uh, curious way the TV studio boosted profits in Q1

• The kinda MIA quarter in Movies

• Why NBCU is very happy with the Theme Park business and much more.

Starting with . . .

A WONKY QUARTER 🥴

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Where good news! NETFLIX is using all of that net profit — $5.3B in Q1 alone #ThxPSKY, and about $11B in 2025 — to lower your prices buy back more shares!

Yes, in lieu of a notable new business / potential deal narrative to interest Wall Street, which now has its ravenous appetite fully whetted after the NETFLIX BROS. deal prospect . . . it’s time to dip into the classic “share buyback well” to try and juice the stock, as NETFLIX has now authorized up to $25B of stock buybacks.

Eh, it was either that or issue a dividend #freemoney for the first time, and clearly NETFLIX wants to still keep that arrow in its quiver for future use.

• Buying back more of one’s stock is also a belief that your stock is currently undervalued (it’s at $93 a share, still below where it was pre NETFLIX BROS. saga) and, if it eventually goes up, benefits a company’s financial profile in the long term.

Either way — between talk of stock buybacks and potentially buying a Hollywood studio lot, NETFLIX is definitely becoming its Hollywood studio parents in increasing regards . . . and getting even further away from the old ‘NETFLIX is a tech company’ vibes from once upon a time.

Alas, NETFLIX’s stock is . . . basically flat so far this morning on the news.

AND: It’s WARNAMOUNT deal vote day. Vote early, vote often. Oh wait — it’s already approved by shareholders. So . . . over to you, state AGs and EU! WBD reiterated the planned closing timeline by the end of Q3.

• HOWEVER: Zaz’s payday was rejected by shareholders . . . although those kinds of votes are largely ceremonial / non-binding, so I wouldn’t expect much to change.

OH: Trump’s FBI is now investigating NY Times journalists who write stories about Kash Patel. Midterms are less than 6 months away, America — your turn.

THEN: Here are your latest recipients of CA film tax credits, $193M in total across 38 projects including next Simpsons pic, the 13 Going on 30 reboot and a Will Ferrell comedy.

WELL: At least it’s safe to breathe the air in L.A. . . . the majority of the days in the year? 🤷‍♂️

THEN: MCCLATCHY is laying off about half of the staff at US Weekly, according to Status, including the entire social media team . . . which raises the question: What’s left? The remaining staff will be going fully remote.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

Yes, the big thriller day has arrived . . . where we find out if life will be bad or off the wall this weekend at LGF, and we finally see if America can’t stop ’til it gets enough of Michael.

I really can’t remember the time that there was this much riding on a musical biopic that really wants to be starting somethin’ . . . but perhaps that’s just human nature. And yes, I’ll now see myself out and just beat it.

Looks like we’re going with $65M/$70M range on the Michael expectations, but others see more of a surge coming with walk-up ticket buying — so what is the way it’s making you feel? (You knew I had one more in me — ok, 2 👇).

THANKS! To the folks at NETFLIX for the invite to check out the Apex NYC premiere last night, and for the subsequent nightmares about crossbow arrows being shot at me from out of nowhere. Well done.👌

Wakeup Housekeeping Note — COMCAST

I’ll be back with a special Wakeup lunch edition breaking down all of the COMCAST / NBCU earnings report intel to know.

🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN

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Where I’m not sure why META employees are too surprised that their employer is tracking their every computer keyboard, mouse and click movement, given this is the company actively creating a surveillance state at large with META glasses . . . but here we are.

Just be sure to get as much keyboard productivity in before the 8,000-person layoff next month! Thx, mgmt.

AND: Tribeca Fest added its TV programming in June, including the S2 premiere of FX’s Adults and DIS+’s X-Men ’97 and final season premiere of NETFLIX’s Survival of the Thickest (full info here).

THEN: MS NOW added former top CBS Mornings exec Shawna Thomas as its new Political Director.

KUDOS: To Jack Quaid and fellow Boys co-star Claudia Doumit on their Australian wedding.

OH: FILM LA is cutting the prices of location permits for smaller productions (microdramas, student films) in a 6-month pilot program.

PLUS: CNN is doing an America Laughs with Matt Friend special on Friday night at 11 p.m. in advance of Saturday’s WHCD.

ALSO: PSKY/Ellison has begun making the TV Upfront pitches to advertisers through a series of bespoke events once again, forgoing a formal big Upfront presentation next month.

🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN

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Where Tim Cook is gonna have to start paying for an APPLE TV subscription as of the fall TV season (did you know it’s up to $13 a month? 😱).

Although, as he’ll transition from CEO to Exec Chairman of the APPLE Board on Sept. 1 — maybe they’ll still credit his account.

Eh, I’m sure the Hardware Engineering guy wants to go to The Oscars too, right? 🙏 (Googling John Ternus, alongside everyone else in Hollywood today — anyone know his LETTERBOXD handle?) Seems like this is the APPLE equivalent of hiring “the theme park guy” (i.e., the part of the company where most of the profits are).

So, with that Sept. 1 timing — I guess Tim gets the Ted Lasso season 4 premiere invite . . . John gets the Emmys invite.

ALSO: Ya gotta love Magic Mike’s enduring fandom, 14 years later . . . as Channing Tatum’s experiential business FREE ASSOCIATION LIVE has raised $45M to bring the show to more countries around the world.

WELL: Bloomberg has a look at some choppy waters inside the UNWELL empire, including alleged berating behavioral complaints against leader Matt Kaplan, some notable exec turnover and its lack of success at building other hit franchises outside of Alex Cooper’s show/Alex-related properties.

UH HUH: The price for a family of 4 (with kids over 10 years old) at DISNEY WORLD on the most popular days in 2027 will be $932 — that’s just to get into the park for 1 day. So, be sure to make the most of breakfast at DENNY’S ahead of time — enjoy your week weekend in Orlando!

THEN: This was a #goodread from writer/producer/exec Nick Morton, detailing his shift into construction work after the streaming bubble burst dried up work opportunities, sharing insights with great candor and humor — and a sense of accomplishment.

OH: AMAZON is putting another $5B into ANTHROPIC, on top of $8B it already invested, and has another $20B on layaway that it’ll put in as undisclosed business metrics are hit.

AND: AI video editing software outfit QUICKTURE announced a new $4.5M fundraise, as it has signed up new folks like PSKY, BOX TO BOX, ITV, BANIJAY and others as clients over recent months.

• This is AI software that can plug right into any AVID or PREMIERE PRO editing system, and do things like find moments in all of your footage/library just by asking for it — i.e. “give me 5 shots of (insert talent) laughing,” etc. Particularly helpful in reality and news, and it can now create graphics for you too.

MM HMM: YOUTUBE is giving access to its AI deepfake tools to actors, athletes, creators and musicians so they can identify and request removal of deepfakes on its platform (YT channel/presence not required).

YUP: French music streamer DEEZER now reports getting 75k AI-generated tracks uploaded every day, up from 60k in January and 30k just 8 months ago.

AH: META is targeting May 20 for its initial 2026 layoff round of about 8,000 folks, according to Reuters, which will make for an awesome month ahead. More cuts are reportedly planned for H2 2026.

YAH: Ari & Shapiro’s MARI is making a new addition, buying COLLECT-A-CON, a collectors events company with 24 events planned for 2026. No price was disclosed.

PLUS: This was a #goodread from Fast Company looking at the rather shocking state of gambling addiction help services in the U.S., as prediction and gambling apps continue to boom. There are fewer than 10 residential facilities in all of America to help gambling addicts, most taking relatively few patients at a time.

• And no, gambling apps are not contributing meaningful funds to finance more direct support — and are fighting against bills proposing the use of gambling tax 💰 to also fund more help services.

• ALSO: A billionaire energy trader turned philanthropist is giving $4M to fund further research into the impacts of sports gambling on young men, and is speaking publicly about the behavioral issues being created.

THANKS!: To the folks at DISNEYFOX for the invite to the big NYC Devil Wears Prada 2 premiere last night — I was actually also at the original’s premiere in June 2006 (which I remember as both one of the most humid nights in NYC I’ve ever had at a rooftop event, and a great time). So, it’s always great to complete my movie biz high-fashion event punch card.

Thankfully, the DIET COKE placements in the movie were not as overt as I feared (though certainly there), and yes, Miranda is still drinking STARBUCKS. That’s all.

🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN

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Where apparently Wall Street liked what it saw in Vegas last week, as AMC THEATRES stock was +41% for the week, up to $1.86 — a number it has not hit since mid-December.

Movie trailers, what can’t they do? Then again, IMAX was -5% on Friday, so . . . thanks a lot, Infinity Vision!

WELL: The NEXSTAR/TEGNA deal got a preliminary injunction order against the 2 companies combining from the judge in the DIRECTV case against it . . . pending further court proceedings. NEXSTAR is appealing.

ALSO: Given that 2004’s White Chicks was one of NETFLIX’s most popular non-kids/family licensed titles — 95M global views in 2024 & 2025 (it’s now off the service in 2026) — I’d think SONY and NETFLIX doing a sequel should be an active point of conversation given their strong relationship, regardless of how Scary Movie does.

SPEAKING OF: Here are your NETFLIX top exec total comp paydays for 2025, and just an additional note — NETFLIX confirmed on the Q1 earnings call that those executives are indeed in talks with the NFL for more games.

• Ted Sarandos: $53.9M (down from $61.9M)

• Greg Peters: $53.2M (down from $60.3M)

  • $41M of that was in direct stock awards (no options involved) for both.

  • Greg used the company PJs 🛩️ for personal use far more than Ted did: $1.3M vs. $533k.

  • Ted also has $1.8M in annual residential security costs, compared to $150k for Greg.

• CFO Spence Neumann: $20.8M (down from $22.9M)

• CLO David Hyman: $15.4M (down from $17.3M)

• Chief Global Affairs Officer Clete Willems: $14.3M

• Co-Founder Reed Hastings: $1.2M (down from $1.7M)

  • This is pretty much all in stock.

• NETFLIX stock was essentially flat for 2025, thanks to the WARNAMOUNT deal drag-down effect over the last 6 weeks or so.

AND: The head of LIV GOLF said that the league would “probably” have to start raising money to fund operations, after news of the Saudis likely pulling their 💰 surfaced last week.

PLUS: The WNBA got 1.5M viewers for its draft last week on ESPN, up from 1.25M last year. The Caitlin Clark/Amber Reese year got 2.5M in 2024.

OH: INDIANA PACERS star Tyrese Haliburton is the next athlete to throw his jersey in the TV producer ring, setting a production deal with WHEELHOUSE.

AH: Good to see cooler heads have prevailed in the World Cup public transit situation in NYC/NJ this summer. NJ TRANSIT won’t actually be charging $100 for a round-trip ticket to the matches at METLIFE Stadium. They will be charging $150. So, if you thought the world hated us now . . . hold our $25 beer.

• But don’t worry, there is also a shuttle bus — that’ll cost you the bargain price of $80 per round trip.

• Unlike GIANTS games or concerts, there is no parking available at METLIFE for the games, so public transit or UBER is your only option to get to the North Jersey swampland home of METLIFE.

• 40k train tickets and 10k bus tickets will be sold per match — the stadium holds roughly 75k people. So yes, the FIFA shitshow continues.

SO: Both Sinners and One Battle returned to the weekly NIELSEN Top 10 Films chart the week after The Oscars.

• FWIW: Melania was 1 week and done on the charts in March.

YUP: HULU is the latest streamer to also become a podcast company . . . as podcasts become TV shows, making licensing deals for:

• Handsome, hosted by Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster and Mae Martin.

• TV series re-watch pods for The New Girl, This Is Us and Prison Break, all 20TH TV series.

• The shows will debut on Hulu and roll out elsewhere after an undisclosed period.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

Looks like the 32% bears take this one on WB/NLC’s Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, as the slightly decreasing tracking over time seems to have been foreshadowing.

FINAL CINEMACON NOTES

A couple of thoughts on some themes outside of the larger ones that Richard and I both covered thoroughly in our columns last week.

1. Comedy dips a toe, but some originals still MIA

Was there actually more than 1 comedy hyped at CINEMACON for once? Yes.

Were they all from IP from 25 to 40 years ago? Essentially, yes.

• Focker-In-Law, Spaceballs: The New One, Scary Movie 6 and Jackass: Best and Last — plus The Breadwinner, which, while original, certainly has heavy Mr. Mom overtones.

  • UNI’s One Night Only certainly seemed to lean more rom than com . . . or certainly not pure comedy like the above.

  • A Super Troopers 3 trailer was also not in the cards at DISNEY/SEARCHLIGHT, even though I’d think it would have gotten a nice response from that kinda crowd — although it did get a verbal mention on stage. But at least that Aug. 7 date is holding firm.

HOWEVER: The thing is — Hollywood actually has 3 big, original comedies already in the can! But we neither saw nor heard . . . anything about them.

• PAR’s Kendrick Lamar / Matt & Trey comedy, which previously had release dates in July 2025 and March 2026, currently has no release date.

• WB/LEGENDARY’s Animal Friends with Ryan Reynolds, which has had too many release dates for me to go back and find, and now has a January 2027 release date, but was not mentioned nor shown except on the final laundry list of WB titles shown for 2027/28 in the preso.

• WB’s Cut Off with Jonah Hill and Kristen Wiig, with Hill also directing, which was previously slated for July 17 this summer, but has been pulled.

  • Given that it was only its first pulled release date and the film was shot in the fall (and that Hill’s APPLE pic Outcome just came out) — we’ll give it a bit more benefit of the doubt.

SO: Hopefully the 2026 comedy IP pics listed above do well, and give studios greater confidence to proceed with these and other original comedies as well — getting the 3 unmentioned comedies all on the calendar in the first 4 months of 2027 alongside UNI’s step back up to the plate with the Apatow/Powell pic The Comeback King would be a triumph! Just an idea.

2. Original swings are back

Sure, IP dominated the headlines — Spidey, Avengers, Dune, Call of Duty, etc. — but the Sinners and now Project Hail Mary lessons have certainly taken hold with more originals in the pipeline.

So, I’ll finish out here with the ones that really stood out to me besides the 2 big original attention getters, WB’s Digger and SONY’s The Social Reckoning (I’m not putting this in the IP bin), that I think could really pop.

• DISNEY’s Whalefall (Oct. 16) — Granted, we only saw one scene from this . . . so the movie still has to uh, be good. But this was an incredibly riveting sequence.

• A NEON twofer:

  • Chloe Domont’s A Place In Hell with Michelle Williams and Daisy Edgar-Jones could be a real year-end conversation starter.

  • Hope, its new Japanese monster pic acquisition also looked really promising (more to come at Cannes).

• AMAZON MGM had 3 swings that I could see taking off:

  • Verity being the biggest.

  • I Play Rocky could take off in November with the right amount of luck.

  • And my biggest underdog of the week that I hope finds some light — the ORION pic A Colt Is My Passport.

• PAR’s military dog-in-the-wilderness pic, Heart of the Beast, isn’t a slam dunk by any means . . . but it’s more just a really interesting choice for Brad Pitt that I’m curious to see the results of this fall.

  • Harrison Ford’s Call of the Wild did $62M U.S. in a Covid-cut run in early 2020.

• Let us not forget that the biggest pics in the UNI presentation were originals in Disclosure Day and The Odyssey.

  • It’s other big auteur pic, Werwulf, had a brief tease, but end-of-year Robert Eggers magic could once again take hold (Nosferatu ended up at $182M global).

🎥 THE BOX OFFICE

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Where I’m a little embarrassed to start today’s email by saying I think I’ve mistakenly been at the wrong hotel on the strip for CINEMACON all week!

Well, lessons learned for next year.

THEN: NETFLIX is increasing its original podcast production, going deeper into tried-and-true formats like true crime and celebrity interviews.

• We’re Back! With Brian Williams, an interview podcast with notable figures

• Allegedly with Ellison Barber, a true-crime pod from NBC NEWS

• Shut Up Evan with Evan Ross Katz, celebrity interviews and chat

• The Rotten Files with Stephanie Soo, a true-crime pod

• The Puzzle Room with David Kwong, a celebrity-based puzzle-solving pod

AND: Here to round out CINEMACON week — a couple of big movie theater biz news developments to note:

• AMC THEATRES CEO Adam Aron, head of the largest theatrical movie chain in America, said the company now has a “favorable view about Paramount’s desire to acquire Warner,” something his company’s trade organization, CINEMA UNITED, reiterated its stark opposition to just this week. Talk amongst yourselves.

• North of the border — Canada’s largest theater chain, CINEPLEX, is reportedly exploring a sale, per Bloomberg. This comes as longtime CINEPLEX exec Ellis Jacob is retiring in December (he was honored with a big Lifetime Achievement award at CINEMACON this week).

  • CINEPLEX went through a botched sale process to #2 U.S. chain REGAL’s parent company, CINEWORLD, earlier this decade, which famously fell apart in an acrimonious fashion, soon followed by CINEWORLD entering bankruptcy.

  • CINEPLEX also had its appeal denied on a $39M payout over “deceptive marketing” practices earlier this year in Canada.

• AND: My Full breakdowns of the key things to know from the room in the PARAMOUNT and DISNEY presentations yesterday is down below.

OH: DISNEY is trying to bring its penchant for #pricehikes to Super Bowl advertising, reportedly floating $10M pricetags for 30-second spots in the game next year, according to Variety. The general price for the last game on NBC? Between $7M and $8M.

• Note that the $10M could include some other placements in the DISNEY TV/streaming universe to go with it . . . but so far, it seems Madison Avenue is too busy laughing at the price to look at the details. See you at the Upfronts.

ALSO: YOUTUBE seems to have the lead in the talks for whatever new 5-game package the NFL is putting together, according to FOS, likely mostly international games that air early morning in the U.S., but no real details there as of yet.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

I’m feeling optimistic about WB/NLC’s Lee Cronin’s The Mummy going a bit above and beyond, even if most of you are sticking to the lower sides.

NEW POD

🎞️ CINEMACON 2026

PARAMOUNT sets a new era, as it pitches the old regime’s product

Well, the top headlines from PARAMOUNT’s presentation weren’t actually the new movie previews shown.

Yes, David Ellison showed up! But he did not go in the same direction with his splashy big video to set the tone for a new era of PARAMOUNT as Robert Evans did in this 1971 video, teeing up “PARAMOUNT’s future.” Many thanks to The Wakeup reader who sent me this. 👏

1. Jon M. Chu, brand marketing directing guru

The presentation began with a very well-directed video from Jon M. Chu (who has a deal at the studio), kinda going around various parts of the PARAMOUNT lot — starting at the iconic gates and former PAR honcho Sherry Lansing driving a golf cart with Gina Prince-Bythewood . . . and finishing with Tom Cruise sitting atop the PAR lot watertower looking out over Los Angeles, as I’m sure he does from time to time on his own (he also narrated the video).

A nice list of talent taking part — Jim Cameron, Timothée Chalamet (he has a James Mangold pic set up at PAR), Sonic producer Neal Moritz, McKenna Grace, Dan Trachtenberg, Jerry Bruckheimer, Molly Ringwald, Will Smith, Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius, Marlon Wayans, Teyana Taylor, Issa Rae, Miles Teller, John Krasinski, Pete Berg, Mark Wahlberg, Callum Turner, Parker Finn, Margaret Qualley, Duffer brothers, Travis Scott, James Wan, Isabel May, Chris Pratt, Damson Idris and Chu himself.

Not a bad list. Now, these kinds of “brand marketing” videos can be tricky. It’s a tough needle to thread between being overly hokey or sales pitch-y (or just dull and not engaging), but this seemed to achieve the desired effect of being engaging and subtly reinforcing that this is a new era at PARAMOUNT, while delivering its new tagline — Long Live the Movies.

Speaking of 👇

2. Ladies & gentlemen . . . David Ellison

Yes, the CEO showed up to say hello and humbly reminded theater owners that he was the guy who gave them “what Variety called one of the biggest bombs of 2006” in Flyboys.

But, also a couple of pics that fared much better, like True Grit and Top Gun: Maverick from SKYDANCE.

Most importantly, he was there to go on the record with key #DavidEllisonGuarantees for this crowd, including a new one as far as I know:

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Where it seems the first big casualty of Saudi spending from Trump’s Iran war may not be Hollywood . . . but sports.

Yes, it appears that the Saudi PIF fund is close to pulling its financial backing for the LIV GOLF boondoggle after 4 years . . . right as the 2026 PGA season enters its prime.

Not a lotta details about what will transpire from here or if the
Saudis are 💯 on pulling the plug, but, yeah — gonna be a fun year ahead for golf and PGA CEO Brian Rolapp.

HUH: LIVE NATION / TICKETMASTER is a monopoly, who knew?

AH: AMC THEATRES is joining the #pricehike train, upping the prices for its Stubs membership program, +$2 a month to $30 if you’re in NY and CA (it’ll be $28 for users who exclude those states). Its last #pricehike was a year ago. Folks — didn’t you listen to Tom Rothman this week?!

THEN: The Tribeca Fest announced its lineup and schedule — you can peruse here.

ALSO: Here is your CBS fall TV schedule, with Matlock and Ghosts moving to midseason, but with full-season orders (although Ghosts will get hour-long holiday specials in October and December)

• And good news! We’re getting another CSI. 😱 This time in NYC with LL Cool J and Scott Caan— and if they don’t use LL’s “I’m Bad” as the theme song . . . know that I’m very disappointed in you, CBS.

• CBS is also bringing back the ’90s by setting a development room for a cop show with Matt LeBlanc called Flint, which would shoot in L.A. if it happens.

• Daytime series Beyond the Gates has also been renewed for 2 more seasons.

THEN: AMAZON PV dropped out 1-2 minutes of the HEAT vs. HORNETS NBA Play-In game overtime on Tuesday night. A hardware glitch in the production truck was cited as the cause of the outage.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

WB/NLC’s Lee Cronin’s The Mummy seems to be looking anywhere from about $15M up to $20M-ish if you’re feeling bold.

🎞️ CINEMACON 2026

A couple of reports today from the UNI and AMAZON MGM presentations, which were quite different from each other.

One was delivered with the confidence of an executive team that’s worked together for many years, with solely a focus on the year ahead and reinforcing a wide variety of offerings . . . and the other came out with a lotta swagger, testosterone and the ferocity of an upstart movie studio still looking to prove itself with theater owners, and a large lineup of pics.

I’ll take a look at how I think both succeeded or not and where, plus hand out some more awards for each:

• Best Thing I Saw

• Biggest Question Mark

• Biggest Mic Drop

• Net Net Takeaways

• And some other special categories (kudos to Donna Langley for the executive joke of the con so far)

UNIVERSAL throws down the auteur gauntlet

Snoop Dogg fulfilled the blood contract that he signed with NBCU to appear at every corporate function and kicked things off at the UNI presentation (with his UNIVERSAL “globe” chain necklace on, naturally). He also plugged the biopic he’s working on at UNI with Craig Brewer (Song Sung Blue) and producer Brian Grazer, which is set for next year.

Snoop also, of course, then handed the mic (and another UNIVERSAL “globe” necklace he keeps on hand) to Dame Donna Langley — who thankfully had some fun with the crowd that got a hearty laugh in the room:

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Where did you guys know Jersey rules? 💪

New Jersey is the only state where TV & movie production filming was up considerably in both filming count (+45% YoY) and production spend (+37%) in Q1, according to PRODPRO.

But, CA still leads the way in spend — NJ is only #5 in total spend size — so, as always, don’t get too high on yourself there, Jersey.

The Q1 numbers:

• CA: $1.48B (+2% YoY, -14% in filming count)

• NY: $871M (flat, -14% in filming count)

• GA: $370M (-5%, -11% in filming count)

• IL: $253M (flat, +2% in filming count #ThanksDickWolf)

• NJ: $211M (+45%, +37% in filming count)

Ashley Cullins also took a good look at the state of tax incentives #punintended in her Dealmakers column this week (also, uh, remember to get your taxes in today).

AND: The Tribeca Fest is opening with Questlove’s HBO doc Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World) on June 3.

OH: NJ TRANSIT will charge you $100 to take the train from Penn Station to MET LIFE Stadium and back for the World Cup games this summer. The usual price for other events? About $13.

• And you say U.S. hotels are slashing rates as demand is coming up short, eh?

ALSO: Sen. Cory Booker will hold a “Spotlight” hearing on the WARNAMOUNT deal today. David Ellison was invited but won’t be able to attend due to a family funeral.

BTW: The open letter opposing the WARNAMOUNT deal now has well over 2,000 signatures.

AH: Ted Sarandos did come out for CINEMACON . . . ish — he met with the heads of the major movie theater chains on Sunday night, according to The Wrap.

YES: DISNEY is definitely laying off about 1,000 people starting this week, centered in the marketing & brand divisions, but also hitting studios, TV, ESPN, product & technology and certain corporate groups.

• MARVEL alone is cutting about 8% of its staff.

SPEAKING OF: The Q2 layoff train just keeps growing . . . SNAP is cutting 16% of staff, or about 1,000 folks, due to AI, and the BBC is cutting up to 2,000 jobs.

YAH: AMAZON is spending $11B on a satellite operator called GLOBALSTAR to help its reportedly behind-schedule STARLINK rival, LEO. Good thing that NFL deal is the one not up for re-negotiation!

• GLOBALSTAR is the service that also powers the satellite coverage backup features on iPhones, putting AMAZON and APPLE in business here.

UH HUH: OPENAI is now planning the advanced business model of “pay-per-click” to its advertising business pricing approach, according to The Information.

PLUS: Sydney Sweeney and AMERICAN EAGLE are launching a new ad campaign that . . . well, let’s just say they’re taking a new approach.

THEN: Here’s Lin-Manuel Miranda’s casting sheet for his next musical adaptation, Octet.

🎞️ CINEMACON 2026

WARNER BROS: Movie Tonnage, Aged Cruise, Epic ‘Dune’ . . . and don’t forget our 2025! 🙏

So, who knew Patton Oswalt joined WB PICTURES? Hope he survives the WARNAMOUNT consolidation. 😬 Not too surprising that there was no mention of, uh, ya know, on stage.

Yes — while Mike & Pam, Jeffrey “Oscar” Goldstein (gotta love a man walking out on stage in a gold suit) and Peter Safran made on-stage speeches, Patton was enlisted to serve as emcee for the night, and he brought a good, loose vibe to the presentation.

A presentation that, I think, is still going on — its length was certainly one of the biggest remarked upon reactions I got from all folks afterward.

Part of that was time spent once again diving into the 2025 that was . . . now nearly 4 months into 2026, although given that when Mike & Pam took the stage a year ago — everyone in the press section was writing them out of their jobs . . . they certainly get the pass.

But I think we put the Han Solo carbonite seal on WB 2025 talk from here on out.

So, let’s take a look at:

• What 2026 / 2027 (and 2028) has in store — a pretty diversified slate, even if a couple of genres are still missing, as the studio is full steam ahead.

  • Clearly, the newly added 2nd Prez of Production, Michael Ireland, is being put to work quickly alongside the other Prez, Jesse Ehrman.

• The key messages from Mike & Pam for what’s ahead in the next 2-3 years.

• A bunch of new dates for movies on a growing slate.

• Some more awards, of course:

  • Biggest Question Mark

  • A look at the Cruise non-IP numbers 💰

  • Best Thing I Saw

  • Biggest Mic Drop Moment

FIRST UP:

An announcement!

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Where ya gotta love AMC THEATRES getting a nice stock bump as CINEMACON begins!

The stock was +7% yesterday as the Super Mario and Hail Mary combo seems to have given investors some hope for the company’s fortunes.

Granted, the stock is still in the danger zone at $1.45 a share, but that’s better than the under $1 status it had at the end of March. The stock is +32% since then.

So, yes — that means AMC is really counting on you to deliver your legendary and highly anticipated A-game in the WB presentation later today, Jeff Goldstein.

AND: Yet another Trump lawsuit has been dismissed by a judge. This time, it’s the WSJ lawsuit Trump filed over the Epstein birthday card story. It was dismissed with prejudice, allowing Trump to refile . . . which his legal team has indicated it will do.

OH: The Devil Wears Prada 2 premiere will be live-streamed on DIS+ and HULU on Monday, April 20, from Lincoln Center in NYC, and yes, I am available to do fashion commentary on the carpet.

YAH: NEXSTAR is replacing national news reports from ABC/NBC/CBS NEWS in its respective local affiliate news broadcasts with reports from its NEWSNATION network.

AHA: NETFLIX set another soccer deal — this time in Mexico for the Nations League finals and the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournaments in 2027 and 2029. Again, that new #pricehikes 💰 is increasingly going toward more sports.

YUP: The MLB’s ABS/’instant replay’ addition this year to challenge pitch calls is adding about 5 minutes onto the length of games so far. 54% of the 932 challenged pitches have been overturned.

THEN: SNL is changing homes in Canada, moving from airing live on GLOBAL TV to CTV. It’ll stream on the network’s streamer, CRAVE, which also recently picked up the next-day rights to the SNL U.K. version.

• SNL U.K. TV audiences have leveled out around 120k/130k on Saturday nights, as the show has a week off before coming back with its final 4 episodes for this season.

  • The series premiere had 226k viewers in overnight BARB ratings.

• ALSO: Nicola Coughlan and Aimee Lou Wood are your next SNL U.K. hosts

PLUS: The day in WARNAMOUNT developments:

• The list of Hollywood boldfaced names opposing the WARNAMOUNT deal now includes J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, Bryan Cranston, Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Ben Stiller, Tiffany Haddish, Joaquin Phoenix, Noah Wyle, Emma Thompson, Yorgos Lanthimos and more, as part of an open letter released yesterday signed by over 1,000 creatives.

• PAR responded yesterday, saying the WARNAMOUNT deal will allow the company to “greenlight more projects” and provide “creators” with “more avenues for their work, not fewer.”

• The U.K.’s antitrust authority, the CMA, has now begun seeking comments from interested parties as it reviews the WARNAMOUNT deal.

• Damon Lindelof stated his reasoning for signing onto the letter yesterday in a thoughtful IG post.

SEPARATE BUT NOT: UNITED AIRLINES then told WARNAMOUNT to hold its beer, as Bloomberg reported that UNITED’s CEO has been floating the idea of a merger or business tie-up of some sort with AMERICAN, thus bringing our Wall-E BUY N LARGE future potentially one step closer.

• He also pitched the notion to Trump in late February, according to Reuters.

• You’ll be shocked to hear that Trump’s DOT head said there’s room for airline mergers in late February, as JETBLUE has reportedly been looking for a deal.

AH: It seems Trump’s Obamacare subsidy cuts this year will hit Florida residents and its overall healthcare system the hardest. And you say Democrats flipped the state House district where Mar-a-Lago is, last month?

OUCH: Yeah, this chart isn’t promising for anyone in college right now. Bloomberg also has some good color from recent graduates about their job market experiences here.

ALSO: Sebastian Maniscalco is the next comedic name to get his own SIRIUSXM channel and show on the audio streamer, replacing the Raw Comedy channel.

ELAINE LOW TENNIS NEWS: NETFLIX announced a couple of tennis docs as the prime summer tournament season comes upon us:

• Rafa 4-part docuseries on May 26 (teaser here)

• Chris & Martina: The Final Match doc on June 29

🎞️ CINEMACON 2026

SONY brings Zuck, Spidey and Jumanji to party in Vegas, and advice for theater owners

Well, last year’s director-heavy presentation was certainly not repeated this year . . . as SONY definitely had more actors than just Ralph Macchio and Ben Wang this time out.

SONY also needs some momentum with theater owners after a #notgreatbob 2025, although GOAT was a good start following the 28 Years Later sequel stumble.

Although I wouldn’t exactly say SONY was walking into a hot room after a rather glitch-laden presentation involving sponsor BARCA and a short film whose purpose I’m still entirely sure of.

SO: Wisely, SONY led with Nate Bargatze essentially doing a very effective crowd warmup, followed by an intro with Mandy Moore for a scene from their new pic The Breadwinner, which played . . . OK.

Tom Rothman then shared his ideas for the movie biz ills, namely:

• Shorter pre-shows — get rid of the “endless advertising” . . . or as Tom also put it in his unique way: “Get off the ad crack.”

• Make or keep tickets affordable (I’m honestly not entirely sure where things currently stand in his POV).

• Enforce longer theatrical windows

I can’t say the “Charge less, and take in less advertising revenue” pitch went over gangbusters with America’s theater owners, but presumably he’s saying the longer tail/release windows will help make up 💰 gaps — to which a theater owner response might be “Um yeah, how ‘bout some more movies, like we used to get?” . . . but I’ll leave that for them to sort out.

BUT: Given that UNIVERSAL has abandoned its 17-day window policy, and Ellison has committed to 45-day windows at a WARNAMOUNT . . . I think the windows thing was more pressing when he mentioned it last year. I also laid out the state of the matter here last month.

Now, onto the goods. No real banger announcements, a la The Beatles last year, but a few CINEMACON Presentation Awards:

• Biggest Mic Drop Moment(s)

• Biggest Question Mark

• Best Thing I Saw

• And the rest of the talent, starpower and new announcements.

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Where it was great to have another Masters to remember this weekend on CBS — and an even more impressive back-to-back win today.

An inspiration to always keep at it, and just do the work. Well done, Rory!

ALSO: The judge in the NEXSTAR / TEGNA case extended his TRO against the deal another week on Friday, as he decides whether to issue a preliminary injunction to halt the deal based on DIRECTV’s lawsuit.

GOOD NEWS: Well, for pawn shop owners — they’ve seen a spike in the number of folks coming in for loans over the past month.

• So, while Americans may have seen a bit of a bump in their tax returns this year due to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill . . . it seems a lot of it is going right back into their gas tank due to Trump’s, uh, other ongoing actions.

AND: The Zac Brown Band will headline the UFC’s Freedom 250 Fan Fest at The Ellipse in D.C. on June 13 (the day before the White House fight). The event is free, but folks will need to register to get tickets/entry.

THEN: The WSJ has a look at the state of the MUBI business after a 2025 that saw revenue at $200M but a net loss of -$7.3M, as well as an SVOD subscriber dip to 1.2M despite a goal of hitting 2M — plus, the blowback effects from its $100M SEQUOIA investment at a $1B valuation.

OH: I’m sure you’ll be surprised to hear FIFA found another way to both gouge and screw over soccer fans this summer on tickets.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

Well, the 34% bears take it on UNI’s You Me & Tuscany this weekend, and given the total — we’ll give it to both 34% groups.

NOTE FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

I’ll be out at CINEMACON all week in Vegas — so this week’s editions will be very focused on the studio presentations, as I’ll be off my usual writing schedule (and usual writing time zone in the mornings).

FINALLY — A REASSURING NOTE

If you could use some faith restored in the world these days — I highly recommend this 60 Minutes piece below from last Sunday about a medical program called RAM (Remote Area Medical) that gives care to those in need at a variety of weekend clinics in mostly rural areas around the U.S.

It succeeds thanks to medical professionals flying themselves to other areas of the country to give their time and expertise, particularly in vision and dental care, so that folks can see correctly again and get much needed oral care — typically things that even people “with insurance” don’t have coverage for.

It’s heartening to see folks helping others out of their own pocket and generosity, from the doctors to the donors — the majority of which are small donations from fellow Americans.

🎥 THE BOX OFFICE

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Where I wish a happy Masters weekend to all. Especially, of course, to those folks who spent tens of thousands of 💰 to fly the PJ 🛩️ to Georgia to watch golf.

But ya gotta love a tournament that draws 4,000+ PJs 🛩️ to a small Georgia town, then charges those folks just $6 for a beer. Although — even The Masters doesn’t seem to be immune from possible tariff inflation!

The price of a “Masters Gnome” went up $10 this year! One of these little guys will set you back a whole $60 — if you’re able to get your hands on one of course (they sell out early).

YEAH: If you needed another reason not to be in NYC July 4th weekend — according to Page Six, Taylor & Travis have set July 3 in NYC as their wedding plan choice (location TBA), which I’m sure will make the tourist situation even more enjoyable than usual.

• Add that on top of the World Cup madness, where NJ commuters won’t be able to get on NJ TRANSIT trains in Penn Station starting up to 4 hours before matches on game days.

OH: L.A. folks — you’re gonna have to pay to go to your FIFA World Cup Fan Fest event this summer during the tournament too, as the city joins NYC in charging tickets to the festivities.

• The events have typically been free hangs in other editions around the world that fans look forward to going to, so they can hang with other fans and meet folks from different parts of the world etc. — but as FIFA is providing little to no 💰 assistance to cities for things like security . . . yeah, welcome to America. Is it now possible to be less than excited about this event this summer due to FIFA’s ineptitude and blatant greed?

ALSO: As expected, Trump’s Iran war pushed inflation over 3% in March to 3.3%.

SPEAKING OF: YOUTUBE is going Hollywood, and joining the #pricehike train — YT Premium will now be $16 a month, and the Lite version will be $9 a month. YT Music Premium is also now $12 a month (SPOTIFY is up to $13 a month). The changes will hit the June billing cycle.

PLUS: Welcome to the NFL, NFL — the DOJ is now investigating the league over antitrust concerns around its media deals, as the league is conveniently in the midst of talks with CBS about a new deal, and with FOX thought to be on deck — 2 networks at parent companies with strong ties to the Trump administration.

• The NFL, of course, is the only sport that makes a point of putting every team’s games on free local TV in their respective home markets.

YES: OPENAI has lowered the minimum ad spend to participate in its burgeoning advertising business from about $200k/$250k to $50k, as it launches its own ads manager interface for pilot program participants, per Digiday. However, it’s still sticking with its high CPMs detailed in the piece.

AND: Pink will be your Tony Awards host this year.

GOOD NEWS: COMCAST is remaking the cable TV bundle in streaming! Those crafty Philly fellas. COMCAST broadband and TV bundle subs can now add on a bunch of streamer bundles — all ad-tier only (although APPLE TV has no ads).

• The biggest one is $35 a month: NETFLIX, PEACOCK, APPLE TV, DIS+, HULU, HBO MAX — which is a 39% discount, not bad!

• There are other, smaller, various streamer combos listed here for lower prices.

• NOTE: AMAZON PV and PAR+ are not in any of them, so throw on another $18 to any plan to get all the biggies . . . which makes it $53, or essentially what we all used to pay for cable TV about 20 years ago.

• Again, these packages are only available to COMCAST broadband and cable TV bundle subs.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

Gonna join the mild optimists on UNI’s You, Me & Tuscany this weekend.

NEW POD

THANKS!: To the folks at FOCUS for the invite to check out the new Lorne doc at the NYC premiere last night. It’s a fun watch that also gives at least some insight into a subject who’ll always be an enigma — even if, like me, you saw all the PEACOCK SNL50 docs last year, too (this is also, thankfully, not primarily a clip-heavy retrospective of the show).

I recommend checking it out this month, and yes, Lorne himself was down there in the audience somewhere (along with David Letterman and Anna Wintour, uh, separately, and SNL mainstays like Robert Smigel and Jim Downey), as were many of the current SNL cast who had yet to see the doc either.

🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN

CINEMACON Predictions: What to Expect in Vegas Next Week

The movie business’ biggest annual gathering starts on Monday! If you see a 6’4 bald guy who looks like he writes a daily newsletter column doing a lot of stretching in the corridors and cocktail parties after the 2.5-hour panels — be sure to say hi!

So, let’s take a look at the theatrical movie business themes we’ll likely see and hear most at CINEMACON in Las Vegas next week from our Hollywood studios and CINEMA UNITED execs in their pitches to America’s movie theater owners.

Plus, a studio-by-studio wish list of trailer looks (and talent on stage) that I hope we get to see from the various presentations . . . as Hollywood looks to hype up their esteemed longtime business partners for the year ahead.

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Where it turns out the woman who wrote The Housemaid book is a real brain doctor!

No, seriously — “Freida McFadden” revealed herself to be Sara Cohen, a 45-year-old MD treating brain disorders who writes novels on the side, but didn’t want the fame to detract from her medical work.

A rationale to which Hollywood had the collective reaction of . . .

YUP: Here is your list of Cannes films this year, and yeah — just one American film in competition this year so far (Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love), and studio films are basically MIA overall, which I’m sure the French film community is very upset by.

ALSO: Here are your final SNL hosts for the season.

YEAH: Ya gotta love this line in shareholder advisory firm ISS’ statement on the WARNAMOUNT deal — which it is advising WBD shareholders to approve . . . but not the Zaz payout part, which I’m sure will totally cause everyone to rethink the matter:

• “The value disclosed in the golden parachute table for CEO Zaslav at over $886 million represents one of the highest golden parachute estimates ever observed.”

• It also issued the sternly worded opinion that “Support for the golden parachute proposal is not warranted.”

AND: PSKY also launched a PARAMOUNT GLOBAL PUBLISHING arm to adapt company IP into books and other formats, as well as look for original material.

• Amy Jarashow will lead the imprint, reporting into Products & Experiences Prez Josh Silverman.

UH HUH: OPENAI is telling investors it’s expecting to generate $2.5B in ad revenue this year, according to Axios. In roughly its first 6 weeks, it generated . . . $100M. In “annualized revenue.” So, OPENAI is now basically telling people it is going to 25x ad revenue in essentially 9 months.

• Granted, that initial advertising rollout was limited to under 20% of free and Go paid users — so, either prepare to get inundated with ads on CHATGPT this year, or OPENAI has some very creative advertising ambitions.

• Not a perfect comp in a few ways (namely, there’s a lot more 💰 to be had in search than video ads), but it took NETFLIX 4 years to reach $3B in annual ad revenue (its projection for this year).

• OPENAI is also telling investors it’ll then 4x ad revenue in 2027 to $11B, and eventually hit $100B in ad revenue by 2030.

• So, TBPN — you have your work cut out for you. Oh, wait, right — you got rid of ads in your OPENAI sale deal. #goodcall

THEN: TUBI set a CHATGPT deal, whereby you can use the TUBI app inside CHATGPT app store, and simply “@Tubi” to ask it questions/recos about the kind of movie they’re in the mood to view. Just keep your queries PG-13, mmmkay?

HUH: META finally met an ad category it won’t stand for! What’s that? No, not illegal drugs . . . worse, lawyers! Yes, lawyers posting ads to enlist people to sue META about its social media practices (thanks to the recent CA case ruling, one would think) are getting the boot. Always nice to see social platforms taking a real stand against the real bad actors in advertising.

OH: AMC NETWORKS is dropping the TV association from the name and going with AMC GLOBAL MEDIA (or, uh, AMC GLOBAL, as I’ll be calling it).

• The company made more money domestically from its Streaming businesses than its Linear TV business in Q4.

AH: Movie theater trade group CINEMA UNITED has set an advisory Filmmaker Leadership Council, with Jerry Bruckheimer and Emma Thomas as chair and vice chair, respectively, and Ryan Coogler, Brad Bird, Jason Reitman and Celine Song as members.

• The goal is to give ongoing feedback and recos on exhibition issues - can’t wait to hear their thoughts on pre-show length!

THEN: Here is your Top 10 list of most-anticipated summer movies among 6k folks polled by FANDANGO back in February.

FINALLY: You’ll never believe this, but there was a highly unusual amount of oil trading going on less than 15 minutes before Trump made a social media post about the Iran war on Monday that significantly impacted markets. 😱 I mean — what luck, amirite?

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

Ok, who’s ready for a good ol’ fashioned straightforward rom-com? UNI’s You, Me & Tuscany is broadly looking at $8M to perhaps $12M this weekend.

THANKS! To the folks at AMC GLOBAL (see? workin’ it in already) for the invite to check out The Audacity last night in NYC, looking forward to seeing the 2nd episode! (The first 2 episodes are dropping this weekend.)

DISNEY next on the Hollywood layoffs train

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Where it’s always fun to decide which global crisis to start with in the morning here at the 15-month mark of Trump 2.0.

Yes, your oil prices may be finally starting to go down . . . then again, when a critical Saudi oil pipeline was hit by a drone today, maybe don’t readjust your budget just yet.

Back here at home — yeah, it may be getting closer to the time you should start downloading backups to local hard drives of everything you hold dear in the digital space . . . and maybe start holding more actual cash on hand.

ANTHROPIC is limiting the distribution of its latest MYTHOS AI bot because it seems not only to be too good at finding vulnerabilities in widely used operating systems, but also to be able to immediately hack / take control of them.

While this kind of doomsday PR tactic is not unusual at ANTHROPIC to boost its image of being at the forefront of the technology, it doesn’t mean it’s not legit.

A top ANTHROPIC exec said it’s likely only about a 6- to 18-month window before other AI systems develop similar capabilities — a number that some experts in the field also agreed with in Platformer’s look at the matter — hence why ANTHROPIC is limiting usage/testing of the MYTHOS to big tech companies (GOOGLE, AMAZON, CISCO, etc.) and cybersecurity firms at present.

While ANTHROPIC is giving $100M of usage credits across all companies testing the product, also note that this is not all altruism — ANTHROPIC is then charging 5x the amount to use MYTHOS vs. its OPUS model, with Stratechery pointing out that an inability to process all of the computing power could also be a factor in this more limited/exclusive rollout approach.

• The company also announced it was dealing with limited processing capacity this week, according to The Information.

No matter what the strategy here — it’s getting increasingly weird to feel like we’re living in the first 20 minutes of the 2029 AI disaster movie equivalent of The Big Short, no? I gotta go buy some seeds.

GOOD NEWS: The Oscars will still be a good 2 months later than they should be for the next 2 years:

• March 14, 2027

• March 5, 2028

  • The PGA Awards will be on Feb. 27, 2027.

  • The Actor Awards will also be on Feb. 28, 2027. Love the team coordination on the announcements here!

THEN: The latest way for ad agencies to lay off more people? Training AI bots with the media buying expertise of their top traders, so that they can not only make programmatic exchange ad buys — they can handle the buying strategy, too, according to Ad Age. Those PE firms that bought into the agency space a couple of years ago were really right about the efficiencies! 👏

BUT: TIKTOK’s head of North America advertising, Khartoon Weiss, is leaving the company to pursue a “new opportunity” — certainly curious timing given the proximity of NewFronts and Upfronts.

KUDOS: Aubrey Plaza is having a baby with her partner, Chris Abbott, due this fall.

YUP: Add Greece to the list of countries banning social media use for kids under 15, starting next year.

FWIW: In an SEC filing yesterday, PSKY indicated that the Ellisons and REDBIRD will "continue to hold the largest equity stake in PSKY” after announcing the $24B-worth of Middle East investment in PSKY Class B shares (the Ellisons/REDBIRD control all voting/Class A stock).

AND: If you fly DELTA, you’ll be paying $10 more for checked bags now too, joining UNITED and JET BLUE . . . and yes, due to Trump’s Iran war effects on oil prices. And yes, I’m sure the prices will totally go back down whenever the oil crisis abates. 😂

BUT: If you’re on one of the . . . 4,000 private jets flying into Augusta, GA this week, I’m gonna guess luggage fees are not a problem for you. High jet fuel prices? Sorry, corporate travel budget — I really need to go watch The Masters in person . . . and for you to pay for it #CBSisForPoorPeople. But yeah — it’s the billionaire tax proposals that are really the problem in this country. #FFS🤬

💼 THE EXECUTIVE SUITE

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Where a congrats goes out to MICHIGAN fans on winning men’s March Madness for the first time since I was about to enter high school, and Pat Sajak had a late-night talk show.

Although from the descriptions of the game this morning . . . it sounded like a pretty bad one (MICH going 2-for-15 in 3-pointers, with UCONN shooting 31% from the field).

Alas, I did not actually watch the game as it was on cable — just like college sports’ other major playoffs/championship with the CFP 🏈.

Yes, both also now come with streaming options . . . that come with $19 and $30 pricetags to watch (and services that don’t report any viewership data). Always great for sports with specific youth appeal.

But hey, it’s not as if both sporting events are locked into (predominantly) cable TV bundle contracts until the early 2030s or something! Well . . . at least men’s March Madness does its final rounds on CBS every other year, and the women’s championship game is on ABC. 🙏

AND: SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP will resume deal talks on April 27, giving them 2 weeks to seal a deal before the DGA begins talks on May 11.

WELL: #Dunesday seems to be keeping its Dec. 18 release plan this year, as Dune: Part Three sold out its first round of IMAX 70mm screenings for opening weekend yesterday.

YAH: AMAZON is the latest #bigtech company to be accused in a lawsuit of scraping YOUTUBE videos to train one of its AI offerings.

AH: DISNEY is expanding ESPN’s distro in the DIS+ app to more than 50 new countries in APAC and Europe, bringing the total above 100.

WELL: CAA is allowing equity holders to liquidate up to 5.6% of their holdings, according to Page Six Hollywood.

YUP: The world’s largest music label, UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP, got a $65B takeover bid from buy high/sell low NETFLIX investor Bill Ackman’s PERSHING SQUARE hedge fund, which already holds 4.5% of the company (yes, this is a bid to make that stake richer).

• The offer for the EU-based company is mostly in stock in a new company that would then be formed in Nevada / listed on the NYSE (only 23% would be in cash for existing UMG shareholders).

• French billionaire Vincent Bolloré is the majority shareholder in the company through both his family fund and VIVENDI, so he would basically have to go for this idea — no word on that.

ALSO: ANTHROPIC is now up to a $30B revenue annual run rate according to The Information (take the last month of revenue and multiply by 12 — ANTHROPIC did not actually make anywhere near $30B in the last year), surpassing OPENAI’s most recently announced $25B run rate. But, I mean, it doesn’t even have a daily talk show with 70k viewers, so . . . can we even take it seriously?

OH: If you thought #AmericaSoExpensive was trending strong these days — just wait until the rest of the world shares the news about the joys of $20 (or more) beers at sporting events, and, uh . . . $80 round trip tickets just to take the train to the World Cup matches from Boston to Gillette Stadium this summer, 4x the normal cost.

THEN: As expected, PSKY has indeed secured commitments for $24B from the Saudis (about $10B) and Abu Dhabi and Qatar (the other $14B-ish) for equity in a new WARNAMOUNT company.

• Again, this is equity/ownership in the company — not debt that will be eventually repaid (which represents the largest tranche of money in this whole thing at a $54B from BOFA, CITI and APOLLO).

• The Middle Eastern countries will have no voting power at the company 😉, but if you want to know where seemingly most of the actual new investor money came from to buy WBD ex. debt, it’s not the Ellison family or REDBIRD — it’s the Middle East.

• While no single country is a majority owner of the equity, the largest ownership stake in the new combined company that will own CBS is seemingly foreign / from the Middle East.

• Democratic leadership has pointed out that the Communications Act prohibits foreign entities from holding more than 25% of the equity or voting interest in a U.S. company that holds a broadcast license without the FCC’s approval.

  • FCC ruler Brendan Carr has generally thrown his hands up here, saying there’s no actual transfer of a broadcast license in the WARNAMOUNT deal, so . . . I’m gonna get back to bothering Roger Goodell and the NFL, thx.

THANKS!: To NETFLIX for the invite to check out the NYC premiere of Big Mistakes last night. Dan and Taylor make for a scarily believable sibling combo, although that Laurie Metcalf kinda steals the show — what a talent, who knew?

IN TODAY’S EDITION

It’s time we have a real talk about late-night TV again, as CBS is essentially going back to the ’80s with its new late-night TV strategy.

Let’s take a look at:

• How do audience sizes stack up across both linear and YT so far in 2026 for all late-night TV properties (including FOX NEWS)?

• Why the Colbert cancellation still really gets a 😏 . . . at best.

• How the next 12 months could be an even bigger year of disruption, given the state of contracts and, uh, the looming change in ownership we’re staring down.

• What are the options for the genre and its marquee talent at this point?

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Where I have some chocolate to attend to, so let’s get to it. Hope those of you celebrating with family this weekend are having a relaxing Sunday.

ALSO: CINEMA UNITED sent a letter to the National Association of Attorneys General, asking them to block the WARNAMOUNT deal, saying essentially this is DISNEYFOX 2.0.

AND: The WGA and AMPTP have set a tentative agreement on a new 4-year deal (up from the usual 3). No real details on the rate bumps, nor any mention of the term AI — but the WGA said it “protects our health plan” and has gains around “free work.” So, more to come.

• The two sides have been negotiating for the past 3 weeks.

• DGA talks currently have a May 11 start date, although SAG-AFTRA still needs a bit more time with the AMPTP, which it was planning to do in June — so we’ll see if things get reshuffled a bit this month.

THEN: Just a little #funfact for any fellow 30 Rock die-hard fans that I was not previously aware of — Olivia Munn was originally cast in the Avery Jessup role before Baldwin thought she was a bit too young for the role. Elizabeth Banks ended up with the part.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

Kudos to my fellow 26% on A24’s The Drama 🤝.

🎥 THE BOX OFFICE

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Where it has been 0️⃣0️⃣1️⃣ days since OPENAI has succeeded at being able to ‘keep focus’ and concentrate on its core businesses amid a real surge by a formidable competitor . . . as the company is now in the daily news media production business! Hey, why not?

I’m sure the marriage of TBPN and CHATGPT will yield many exciting returns. For TBPN’s investors.

According to the WSJ, the show is tracking toward $30M in revenue in 2026 (TBPN had $5M in 2025), and the FT reports that OPENAI paid “low hundreds of millions” for the show that averages about 70k viewers a day across all platforms.

• The least-watched cable TV network in the Top 50 last week, E!, averaged 123k viewers in primetime at #50.

• 70k is the same average TV audience size as COURT TV in 2025.

As part of the deal, the show will also end its ads business, which . . . well, seems to be the main revenue source here since it’s a free show, so yeah.

Now, does roughly $200M mean much to a company that just raised $122B? No.

Does this dedicated investment in video production and maximizing value from the video creator ecosystem from a company with . . . zero experience in either thing seem like a great use of resources? Also no.

Not to be ignored — the potential huge downside of TBPN potentially being perceived as a Sam Altman shill vehicle. Sure, editorial independence is being maintained 😉, but it’s definitely a long-term PR sticky wicket that OPENAI leadership also has zero experience navigating . . . that carries some real, significant potential downside.

The TBPN hosts/founders will also be enlisted to help OPENAI with its comms — and given this purchase happened less than a week after the company was shedding extraneous business endeavors with the explicit new goal to focus on improving the core product in the face of an ANTHROPIC surge . . . apparently, the company desperately needs that comms help.

OH: Speaking of terrible marketing & comms, while the TBPN purchase indeed was not an April Fools’ joke as many first thought — this WASHINGTON WIZARDS halftime show prank went over like a lead balloon. Then again, when your record is 17-59 this season, that doesn’t exactly scream managerial aptitude.

PLUS: NETFLIX set Louis C.K. to headline a show at the Hollywood Bowl on May 5 as part of the Netflix Is a Joke festival. It also picked up his latest comedy special, Ridiculous, which will debut sometime this summer.

#GOODNEWS: AMAZON is adding a 3.5% fuel surcharge onto all 3rd-party vendor purchases, that totally won’t get passed along to you. The winning never ends, does it, folks?

THEN: HBO will premiere Euphoria season 3 in the most on-brand way for that series — at Coachella in a fan screening at 11:59 p.m. on the show’s HBO premiere night, Sunday, April 12. Entry is first-come, first-served.

WELL: Almost 50% of the U.S. data centers planned for this year are expected to be delayed or canceled, according to a new Bloomberg report. A big culprit? A shortage of electrical equipment (transformers, batteries, etc.).

• U.S. manufacturing resources can’t handle the demand, and companies have to import such parts from, yes, China.

AND: HERSHEY is adjusting its, uh, suddenly under the microscope chocolate policy after the significant bad PR it has received this year for not leading with “chocolate” in the ingredients for some REESE’S products #MakeChocolateGreatAgain. Going forward, all REESE’S products will again be made first and foremost with milk chocolate . . . just in time for the end of the last major candy holiday until Halloween.

THANKS!: To A24 for the invite to find out what The Drama was last night at the NYC premiere, and gotta say my “Used to work at HOOTERS” guess about the big secret in the pic was way off — also definitely the kind of movie best viewed with an audience in a theater.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

A24’s The Drama — my head says $9M to $12M, but the young mobs outside on the streets of NYC for the premiere last night are pushing me to go with my heart at $12M to $15M. Although I’m more curious to see the exit polling on this one.

NEW POD

YES:

In news shocking to no one — Jeff Shell’s legal team is in prelim talks with PSKY about either an exit from the company / his Prez role for which he has few if any major organizational direct reports, or potentially a transition to an advisory role.

• No final decision will be made regarding his future until the internal investigation into the Cipriani debacle concludes, so it’s certainly still possible he stays on . . . even if most seem to be giving that event low odds.

If he leaves, there will certainly be a few WBD execs who I’m sure are uh, totally hungry 🤑 for a new job (you’d be surprised how fast $100M+ goes these days). . . although given COO Andy Gordon has become a public operational face for the company, alongside REDBIRD investor Gerry Cardinale, who seems to kinda be filling a president-like role in a public facing sense so far anyway.

Plus, given Ellison’s penchant to have all “creative” direct reports himself, the Prez position could very easily just be seen as extraneous at this point.

BUT: Here are Shell’s main COMCAST experience benefits you’d be looking to augment — and whether his departure, should it transpire, would necessitate a new major addition to upper management.

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Where I think Trump saw his hair shadow last night, so we apparently have 3 more weeks of war? Yeah, that was about as reassuring as one would have thought . . . and yes, the market is down this morning as oil prices tick up once again.

So, good luck with your 2026-27 media budget planning / economic forecasting in April ahead of May Upfronts negotiations, Madison Avenue!

WELL: This doesn’t involve TEGNA or NEXSTAR . . . but I’m sure similar headlines will emerge if efforts to knock down this deal fail. 2 stations / 1 market = 1 newsroom.

ALSO: The application process is open for the PARAMOUNT Writers Mentoring Program.

GOOD NEWS: Step aside McConaughey and Val Kilmer, AI-likeness capabilities are now being used by porn stars, because I’m sure watching fake AI bots also fake it on camera is a booming, untapped market.

THEN: FOX will air the 3rd Christmas Day NFL game this year (likely the primetime game). NETFLIX has the other 2.

• ALSO: With the NFL NETWORK/DISNEY deal officially done, there will officially be no more ABC/ESPN MNF doubleheader nights going forward, ending a failed idea.

AND: Gotta love that Russia’s government chose the name MAX for its state-controlled super app that it is driving all Russian citizens to use for many daily tasks (many U.S. apps like FB, WHATSAPP, etc., are banned there). Hey, one man’s scraps are another man’s feast!

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

A24’s The Drama is on deck (as Mario is well on its way already), and looking at anywhere from around $10M up to $15M.

Your A24 comp is probably Materialists at $11M, or your Zendaya-ish comp is Challengers at $15M.

FINALLY:

A Happy Passover to those who are celebrating, and as that is combined with L.A. spring break week and impending Good Friday tomorrow . . . if today’s a snoozer news-wise — I’ll just see y’all on Sunday.

🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN

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Where I gotta say, living in the Trump 2.0 era kinda negates the power of April Fools’ Day.

Which I’m not mad at — but let’s see who tries to waste your time today with a “clever” stunt that’s never been done before! And watch that sweet ROI roll in . . . 🤑.

YAH: Trump chose April Fools’ Day to deliver a national address tonight at 9 p.m., which I’m sure will impart a cogent message to Americans about the rock-solid plan ahead in Iran. So, be sure to get those KALSHI bets in early, D.C. insiders!

• Note for Survivor fans — CBS is cutting the show in half and will resume pt. 2 at 9:20 p.m.

YUP: TEGNA told the CA judge who issued the temporary restraining order against its NEXSTAR deal that certain aspects of the integration “cannot be reversed,” saying it would be “difficult to freeze integration” that already took place in the whopping . . . whole 5 business days that took place between the deal’s FCC/DOJ swift approval and the court’s issuing of the order. 😂

• In TEGNA’s defense, do you know how hard it is to cancel stationary orders? Those folks are ruthless.

ALSO: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, sent a note to FCC honcho Brendan Carr stating “serious concerns” about his personal rubber stamping of the NEXSTAR-TEGNA deal, and asking why a deal of this scale and precedence did not get a vote by the full FCC.

WELL: Lest you think Hollywood is the only industry that vastly overpays its C-suite execs — Advertising would like to have a word. Enjoy your $70M compensation package for a year’s work in 2025, OMNICOM CEO John Wren!

• I mean, he does have a 2028 retirement to plan for. Hopefully, the additional . . . $170M he’s scheduled to make from 2026 through 2028 will help with the costs of the Medicare supplement plan.

PLUS: TUBI is adding 250 episodes from the Sesame Street library to its lineup, with 10% of the episodes refreshed each quarter.

AND: YOUTUBE’s Upfront will be Wednesday, May 13, at Lincoln Center, with Trevor Noah hosting the festivities and Chappell Roan performing, plus appearances by Alex Cooper, the SAVANNAH BANANAS and Dude Perfect among others.

• WBD also has a presentation scheduled for that day . . . but we’ll see how that shakes out with the WARNAMOUNT deal proceedings.

THEN: HBO MAX is doing screenings of The Pitt season 2 finale at select ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE locations on Monday, April 13, for active or retired healthcare workers — tickets avail here (a $10 food & bev voucher, so the theaters get a benefit for holding the event).

OH: If you have a TV bundle through SPECTRUM — its streaming app is now available on AMAZON FIRE TV devices.

NOW: Who had goalie fighting becoming the hot trend in the NHL this season?

YUP: OPENAI raised another $122B from investors at a $830B valuation (it was looking to raise about $100B but, ya know how things go), including good ’ol NVIDIA, SOFTBANK and AMAZON (although it’s only a hard commit of $15B, with another $35B depending upon meeting certain targets).

• OPENAI has 50M paying subs globally, or what NETFLIX had in Q2 2014.

  • NETFLIX was making about $530M a month from that sub count (adjusted for inflation). OPENAI is now making about $2B a month from its subs, or 4x the NETFLIX amount.

BTW: According to documents viewed by BI, OPENAI is now hiring contractors in fields like animal husbandry, agriculture, music composition and commercial flying to tell CHATGPT everything they’ve learned in several years of building a career . . . so that an AI chatbot can put many of their co-workers out of a job in a couple of years. #sellingout

• But at least they’re getting paid . . . at least $50 an hour to do so.

BUT: At least the long-rumored, AI-induced layoffs at Larry Ellison’s ORACLE have begun — no specific numbers as of yet, other than in the “thousands” according to CNBC.

• ORACLE is giving 4 weeks’ salary as severance, plus 1 additional week for each year worked at the company (up to 26 weeks).

• RECENT COMPS:

  • BLOCK gave folks 20 weeks of salary in its recent layoffs this year.

  • META gave 16 weeks in its layoffs last year.

    • Each also gave additional weeks depending on the length of employment, per BI.

FINALLY: NATPE and REALSCREEN TV biz events are no longer, as their Canadian parent company, BRUNICO, is pulling the plug after reviving NATPE in 2023. The company’s BANFF WORLD MEDIA FESTIVAL will continue this summer, but the World Screen publication will also shut down.

Weekly NETFLIX Film Chart Insights

SONY’s Anaconda opens very strong, as NETFLIX Pay1 deals show viewing dividends, volume

A great showing for Anaconda’s debut on the service last week, which hit NETFLIX 3 months after its theatrical release. 👀

Here’s a look at the debut with some key NETFLIX comps . . . and a look at what NETFLIX’s burgeoning Pay1 business is doing for its volume this year so far — essentially taking a page from the old HBO playbook, and adding it onto its already potent NETFLIX Films playbook.

Plus take a look at the significant role studio libraries play at the top of the NETFLIX films charts, just they have for cable TV networks for decades, and updates on Peaky Blinders, War Machine, the BTS doc and more.

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