| | | | | | What's news: The Paramount-Skydance deal officially closed this morning. HBO Max added 3.4m subs in Q2. The Batman Part II finally has a release date. Disney plans to unify all their streaming brands by 2026. Former Superman actor Dean Cain is set to join ICE. Dave Franco is keen on playing Luigi Mangione in a movie.— Abid Rahman
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David Ellison's High Wire Act ►"He’s the kind of person who’s going to take advantage of [AI and automated production] innovations." The Paramount Global-Skydance Media takeover deal officially closed this morning. The ambitious Oracle heir David Ellison, who once counted Steve Jobs as a mentor, hopes to turn Paramount Skydance into a tech-era media monolith. But THR's Steven Zeitchik and Alex Weprin wonder if Ellison has the team — or the vision — to scale the Paramount mountain. The analysis.
—More additions. Paramount continues to round out its executive ranks for business operations. Don Granger will be president of its motion picture group and Matt Thunell will have the same role at Paramount Television Studios. Jane Wiseman will lead streaming originals from the executive vice president level. Kevin MacLellan has been named the president of international and content distribution, and Rebecca Mall is president of cross-company initiatives, franchise, and corporate marketing. The remaining five appointees are all EVPs: Kevin Creighton for corporate finance and investor relations, Tony Driscoll as head of corporate strategy and development, Efrain Miron as head of content strategy and licensing for direct-to-consumer, Jose Turkienicz as head of global operations, and Laura Watson is the executive vice president of corporate and executive communications. The story.
—It's official. On Wednesday, Brian Robbins made his exit as co-CEO of Paramount Global and president-CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon official. “This moment of transition is, of course, bittersweet. But I step away with deep pride in what we’ve built together, and with great confidence in the road ahead,” Robbins said in a memo to staff. “The company is in exceptionally capable hands with David Ellison and the incoming team from Skydance, and I know you’ll continue to thrive and excel with your collective talents.” Robbins, who was tapped to run Paramount Pictures in 2021 following a successful stint at Nickelodeon, took on the expanded role of co-CEO of Paramount Global in April 2024 alongside George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy following the ouster of Bob Bakish. The story.
—Exiting. Liza Burnett Fefferman, head of communications at Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios & Paramount Media Networks and the co-head of MTV Documentary Films, is also leaving Paramount. Fefferman joined the company to run comms for VH1 and Logo in 2016. A respected and seasoned public relations strategist, she grew her portfolio over nine years to include MTV, CMT, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, Smithsonian Channel, TV Land and Showtime. The story. |
Zaz is Jazzed as Movies Power WBD in Q2 ►Mike and Pam to the rescue. Warner Bros. Discovery reported Q2 earnings Thursday, turbocharged by its studio business, even as its streaming business continues on its growth trajectory and linear TV still struggling in a tough environment. The company reported revenue of $9.8b, up modestly from the same quarter a year ago, with net income of $1.6b (compared to a loss a year ago). In Q2, studios revenue hit $3.8b, up 55 percent from a year ago thanks to the performance of films like A Minecraft Movie and Sinners , as well as performance from the TV studios thanks to the timing of some renewals. In a shareholder letter, WBD executives said that looking ahead the company intends to release 12-14 new films a year, split between 1-2 WB tentpoles, 1-2 DC Studios films, 3-4 New Line releases, 1-2 animated films, and 1-2 modestly budgeted original films. In streaming, the company added 3.4m subscribers, with revenue up 8 percent to $2.8b. The results.
—📅 Finally! 📅 Robert Pattinson‘s diary continues to fill up as Matt Reeves‘ The Batman sequel is preparing to shoot in the spring. The Batman Part II will finally begin filming next year, WBD said in a letter to shareholders Thursday, aiming for an Oct. 1, 2027 theatrical release. Reeves completed the script in June. Elsewhere, “James Gunn is already preparing to write the next installment in the Super family,” WBD CEO David Zaslav also confirmed, with the letter detailing that Gunn is working on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2026), Clayface (2026), and the next Wonder Woman. The story. |
Universal to Big Tech: We'll Sue If You Steal Our Movies For AI ►The Donna Doctrine. Universal Pictures is taking a new approach to combat mass theft of its movies to teach artificial intelligence systems. Starting in June with How to Train Your Dragon, the studio has attached a legal warning at the end credits of its films stating that their titles “may not be used to train AI.” It’s also appeared on Jurassic World Rebirth and Bad Guys 2 . “This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States and other countries,” the warning reads. “Unauthorized duplication, distribution or exhibition may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.” By Universal’s thinking, the worldwide insertion of the language adds another layer of protection against the theft of its movies for data mining and AI training purposes, according to a person familiar with the situation. The story.
—Not too shabby. Sony Pictures Entertainment’s operating income for the first quarter ended June 30, 2025 was up 76 percent to $129m from $73m in dollar terms for the comparable period a year before, with Q1 sales up 4 percent to $2.263b from $2.166b. SPE comprises the motion pictures division, television productions and media networks. The motion pictures unit saw Q1 revenue fall 13 percent to $742m from $852m. SPE released four theatrical movies globally in the period, including Until Dawn, Materialists (outside North America only), Karate Kid: Legends and 28 Years Later (for which only 11 days of release were included in Q1). SPE’s TV unit saw Q1 revenue reach $841m, up a healthy 39 percent from $607m in the same period a year earlier. SPE’s major streaming television productions from the period included Amazon’s Wheel of Time and The Narrow Road to the Deep North, HBO’s The Last of Us, Netflix’s Department Q, The Creature Cases and Yo No Soy Mendoza. The results.
—From the top rope! Just hours after the company announced a blockbuster $1.6b deal with ESPN for the U.S. rights to its WWE's premium live events, TKO Group Holdings revealed Q2 earnings that showed substantial growth in both live events and partnerships, two areas that are key to the company’s future. TKO reported revenue of $1.31b, up 10 percent from the same quarter last year, with net income of $273.1m, up from $46.2m a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was up 75 percent to $526.5m. Both UFC and WWE saw substantial gains from last year, and while rights fee increases played a role (those fees are locked in, and thus tend to step up on a regular basis), partnerships and live events were also major drivers, underscoring how the company is leveraging its resources to grow those businesses outside media rights. The results.
—Pricey pay off. Warner Music Group swung to a net loss of $16m in the third quarter after reporting net income of $141m a year earlier. However, revenue increased to $1.7b from $1.5b, driven by an increase in streaming revenue. The company attributed the net loss to about $9m in expenses related to the departure of the company’s CFO Bryan Castellani, an increase in restructuring and impairment charges, an increase in amortization expenses, the impact of exchange rates on the company’s Euro-dominated debt resulting in a $70m loss and unrealized losses on hedging activity of $8m in the quarter, among other items. The results.
—Suit filed. Disgraced mogul and convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein is suing the producers and managers of the Finding Neverland musical, accusing them of cutting him out of part of the tour’s proceeds. In a lawsuit filed in New York state court on Wednesday, Weinstein alleges NETworks Presentations, National Artists Management Company and FNL Touring secretly withheld $2.3m from him in breach of their contract. “This isn’t about redemption—it’s about remuneration,” said Juda Engelmayer, a lawyer for the disgraced ex-Hollywood mogul, in a statement. “Harvey Weinstein built this tour. He was promised a share. They took his name, his work, and tried to erase the deal.” Finding Neverland , adapted from a 2004 film of the same name, had a 17-month Broadway run that closed in 2016 after 565 shows, which was followed by a national tour. The story. |
Disney Plans Unified Streaming App by 2026 ►"When these are together, it’ll be on one tech stack as a for instance, one tech platform." Disney will stop reporting quarterly subscriber numbers and ARPU for its streaming platforms Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, as it seeks to put more focus on the profitability of its streaming efforts. The change follows a similar move by Netflix, which stopped reporting its subscriber numbers on a quarterly basis earlier this year. And the company will sunset its standalone Hulu app next year, with plans to fully integrate Hulu and Disney+ in one app experience. Disney revealed that with Hulu now wholly owned by the company, it will fully integrate Hulu into Disney+, culminating in an entirely new app experience coming in 2026. To be clear, Hulu will not go away, but it will become Disney’s new general entertainment brand, and will become available within a unified Disney+ app, with the standalone Hulu app sunsetting. The Hulu brand will also replace the Star tile in Disney+ international markets. The story.
—"Our priority is to put out great movies." As Disney prepares its future film slate, CEO Bob Iger said on Wednesday the company does not have a “priority” of creating new intellectual property versus releasing sequels or reboots. "We continue to be focused on creating new IP. Obviously, that’s of great value to us long term, but we also know that the popularity of our older IP remains significant," Iger said on Disney’s earnings call. "I wouldn’t say that we’ve got a priority one way or the other. Our priority is to put out great movies that ultimately resonate with consumers and the more we can find and develop original property, the better," he added. The story. |
'South Park' Eviscerates ICE Villain
Kristi Noem ►Brutal. South Park mocked Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem in its latest episode — and took some digs at Vice President J.D. Vance as well. In the episode, titled “Got A Nut,” school counselor Mr. Mackay loses his job due to Donald Trump cutting the Department of Education’s budget, so he decides to sign up to join ICE. Mackay watches an orientation video from Noem where she says, “A few years ago, I had to put my puppy down by shooting it in the face, because sometimes doing what’s important means doing what’s hard.” (Noem previously admitted to killing her 14-month-old dog for exhibiting aggressive behavior). This is followed by Noem shooting several other random puppies in the face, which becomes a running gag throughout the episode. The recap.
—Reaching for relevance. Dean Cain says he’s going to be “sworn in as an ICE agent, ASAP.” The actor, who starred as Clark Kent/Superman in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the 1990s, revealed Wednesday on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime that he’s signed up for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help carry out Donald Trump‘s mass deportation agenda. “I put out a recruitment video yesterday — I’m actually a sworn deputy sheriff and a reserve police officer — I wasn’t part of ICE, but once I put that out there and you put a little blurb on your show, it went crazy,” he told host Jesse Watters. “So now I’ve spoken with some officials over at ICE, and I will be sworn in as an ICE agent, ASAP.” The story. |
TV Legend John Wells Has Some Advice for Hollywood ►"People are frightened in the executive ranks. It takes tremendous courage to say to somebody, 'Go make this show, here’s $60m for 15 episodes or $80m for eight episodes.'" Since he got his start in Hollywood nearly 40 years ago, THR's TV Producer of the Year John Wells has averaged more successes per decade than most creatives accumulate over an entire career. The prolific writer, director, producer and filmmaker’s latest feat is The Pitt, a real-time medical drama that spans one 12-hour emergency room shift in a 15-episode season. THR's Mikey O'Connell spoke to Wells who opens up about what’s ailing the industry and candidly examines the high highs (The West Wing) and bizarre lows (racist E.R. notes) of his own spectacularly prolific career. The interview.
—🎭 Not Tom Hardy. 🎭 CBS is starting to build up the cast of its Yellowstone spinoff Y: Marshals. Logan Marshall-Green has joined the series, which stars Luke Grimes as his Yellowstone character, Kayce Dutton. The show will follow Kayce as he becomes part of an “elite unit of U.S. Marshals, combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana, where he and his teammates must balance family, duty and the high psychological cost that comes with serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence,” according to the show’s logline. Y: Marshals is set for an early 2026 premiere. The story.
—Back in the Fox fold. More than six years after leaving Fox’s Empire amid an uproar over an allegedly staged attack, Jussie Smollett is returning to the network. Smollett will be part of the network’s competition show Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test in the fall. The actor and singer is one of 18 celebrities taking on a series of challenges that mirror those of military special forces training. Smollett starred on Empire for five seasons from 2015-19. In January 2019, he claimed he had been attacked in Chicago, where Empire filmed, by two Black men who shouted homophobic slurs. The two men then said Smollett paid them to stage the attack, and Smollett was charged with filing a false police report; the charges were later dropped after Smollett paid a fine and did community service. The story. |
'Freakier Friday, 'Weapons' Load Up for Box Office Showdown ►Mike and Pam streak continues. Disney’s highly anticipated Freakier Friday and Warner Bros.’ and New Line’s critical darling Weapons are headed for a lively late-summer showdown at the box office in what could be a boost for two genres that have struggled on the big screen — comedies and horror. Many are predicting that the duo will take the top two spots on the Aug. 8-10 chart, with Marvel's holdover The Fantastic Four: The First Steps coming in an unlucky third after dropping an alarming 67 percent to $38.6m in its second outing over the Aug. 1-3 weekend. Freakier Friday has a slight edge over Weapons in tracking, which pegs it at opening in the $28m range domestically, which would be a stellar start for a pic costing a modest $42m before marketing. Zach Cregger’s Weapons — which currently boasts a perfect 100 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes — is tracking for a $25m debut, but could easily come in higher. The story.
—🎭 High and Lowe. 🎭 Rob Lowe, who went viral in March for a fiery take on the challenges of shooting projects in Los Angeles, has returned to the city to shoot an independent film titled The Musical. Lowe will star opposite Gillian Jacobs and Tony-winner Will Brill in the dark comedy for director Giselle Bonilla and writer Alexander Heller. Filming is underway in L.A., which is hoping for an uptick in local productions thanks to tax incentives, particularly for independent features. The Musical casts Brill as a frustrated playwright and middle school theater teacher who finds out that his ex-girlfriend (Jacobs) has started dating his nemesis, the school’s principal (Lowe). As a result, he hatches a plan to ruin the principal’s chances of winning the blue ribbon of academic excellence by secretly producing the most inappropriate musical imaginable. The story.
—🤝 Sold! 🤝 Neon has acquired the North American rights to Japanese director Genki Kawamura’s thriller Exit 8, a video game adaptation that bowed in Cannes and is next headed to Toronto. Neon plans an early 2026 theatrical release for the arthouse spin on the 2023 indie game from Kotake Create that has players lost in a Japanese subway labyrinth, with the movie starring Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, and Nana Komatsu. Exit 8 premiered in the midnight section in Cannes and is booked into the Centerpiece section at the Toronto Film Festival for a North American bow. Kawamura directed Exit 8 based on a script he co-wrote with Kentaro Hirase. The story.
—"Let’s just say I’m open." Dave Franco isn’t entirely shutting down the opportunity to play Luigi Mangione in a potential future biopic. During the Together star’s Tuesday night appearance on Watch What Happens Live, a fan asked if he’d take up the role if it was offered to him. The actor confirmed that he hasn’t been approached about a project centered around Manigone yet, though that hasn’t stopped fans from asking. “Oh, how do I answer this. Um, no one has approached me about it yet, I’ll say that,” Franco said. “This is something that more people in my life reached out about this exact thing than anything else that has ever happened!” The story. |
'KPop Demon Hunters' Directors on Massive Success of Netflix Animated Film ►"I don’t see the fandom slowing down." THR's Nicole Fell spoke to KPop Demon Hunters filmmakers Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans and Netflix film boss Dan Lin. The trio discuss the animated film becoming one of Netflix's biggest and most unexpected hits, and weigh in on how a unique concept and authenticity propelled the animated feature into long-term success. The interview.
—"I really hope The Naked Gun works, but if it works, I don’t necessarily know what it changes." THR's Brian Davids spoke to The Naked Gun writer-director Akiva Schaffer. Schaffer explains why he limited the reboot to one O.J. joke, how Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson ended up being paired together, as well as the currently fragile state of the studio comedy. The interview.
—"The Wolverine thing is almost like a joke at this point." Brian also spoke to Taron Egerton about his new film, She Rides Shotgun. The Welsh actor also discusses the chances of a sequel to the hit Netflix feature Carry-On, and "strange" Wolverine talk on social media that has fans wish-casting him in a new X-Men movie. The interview.
In other news...
—Liam Neeson stays on the comedy path with Cold Storage trailer
—New York Film Festival reveals Currents lineup
—Gaumont marks 130 years with Academy Museum retrospective
—Locarno says farewell to David Lynch with tribute film An Unfinished Room…
—Lady Gaga’s Wednesday song will feature a Tim Burton-directed music video
What else we're reading...
—Chris Lee looks at whether anti-American sentiment is really impacting Superman and other Hollywood films outside the U.S. [Vulture]
—Katherine Long, Ben Foldy and Sara Randazzo report on a bizarre story of an L.A. mansion inhabited by a couple with supposedly 22 surrogate children [WSJ]
—Esther Zuckerman wonders if watching The Devil Wears Prada 2 will be as much fun as watching the production shooting in New York [NYT]
—Kelly Ng reports that the black skull flag from popular Japanese manga One Piece has become a symbol of defiance in Indonesia [BBC]
—Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham report that Microsoft has been helping Israel spy on millions of phone calls by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank since 2022 [Guardian]
—The population of Japanese nationals fell by a record amount in 2024, falling by more than 900,000 people [AFP]
Today...
...in 2013, Warner Bros. Pictures released Rawson Marshall Thurber's We're the Millers in theaters. The film, starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Emma Roberts and Will Poulter, was a massive box office success, making $270m worldwide, and gave birth to the "you guys are getting paid?" meme. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Charlize Theron (50), Michael Shannon (51), Harold Perrineau (62), David Duchovny (65), Abbie Cornish (43), Wayne Knight (70), Brit Marling (43), Tobin Bell (83), Alexandre Aja (47), John Glover (81), Sasha Calle (30), David Rasche (81), Sydney Penny (54), Eric Johnson (46), Marlyn Mason (85), Francesca Eastwood (32), Liam James (29), Caroline Aaron (73), Julian Wadham (67), Lesley Nicol (72), Kim Ro-Woon (29), Anjanette Comer (86), Charlotte Lewis (58), Jon Jon Briones (60), Tom McGrath (61), Julia Ford (62), Doon Mackichan (63), Hans Matheson (50), Randy Wayne (44), Suzanne Bertish (74), Mark Bagley (68), William Stanford Davis (74), Cirroc Lofton (47), David Caves (47), Brett Gray (29), Shannon Cochran (67), David Mann (59), Benjamin Wallfisch (46), Megan Gale (50), Ramon Estevez (62) |
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