Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Tuesday, July 21, 2026.
Where ya gotta love the power of IP outside of the multiplex.
First, DISNEY struck a big multi-year partnership with KRAFT HEINZ to feature its world-class condiment products throughout DISNEY’s U.S. theme parks and cruise lines, and allows KRAFT to use DISNEY IP in its marketing/product branding.
So, be sure and tell the kids all about the wonders of the impending ketchup dispensing lightsaber stand, while you read them this WSJ read about how DISNEY’s ride reservation app system is uh, totally awesome. Perfect for killing time while waiting in line for a ride.
Meanwhile at PARAMOUNT, they’ve partnered with a company in Vegas to develop a 2.5-acre site near the future MLB stadium and NBA arena to launch a Top Gun-themed “next-generation entertainment destination,” which is likely great news for whoever owns The Righteous Brothers catalog these days.
AND: Here is your New Faces list of talent for this year’s Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.
WELL: A judge made ANTHROPIC’s $1.5B payout official for the class action lawsuit brought by a group of authors yesterday. #Funfact — it’s the same judge that is considering the state AG lawsuit against WARNAMOUNT (Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin), although a now-retired judge made the initial approval of the payout.
- Note that a violation of “fair use” was not cited as the reason — but more of a backend procedural failure on ANTHROPIC’s end where it saved 7M+ pirated books (ANTHROPIC did not pay for them) to a “central library” not related to AI training.
SO: Nice to see Coach Lasso and Beard on Sunday in Jersey . . . but it’s kinda curious that the new Ted Lasso season still has no trailer (outside of a 1-minute teaser dropped 2 months ago) and had no ad presence in the World Cup (outside of that halftime appearance) when the show is slated to premiere in 2 weeks?
ALSO: NETFLIX set its next talk show video podcast deal with The Rest Is Football, which will deliver 2 episodes a week for the next 2 PREMIER LEAGUE seasons.
- Ah, wait! They actually called this one a talk show (and it did appear in the H1 2026 data dump as its own show too for its World Cup editions).
AH: NETFLIX also set a deal with SIGNUP MEDIA to add ASL interpretations for roughly 200 hours of Kids & Family titles on the service across 73 different shows.
HMM: Put as much stock in this as ya like, but ANTENNA has the FOX ONE SVOD subscription signups at 2.8M for June, spurred by the World Cup. Who knows how many will keep the service after this week . . . but a curious note for the FOX Q2 earnings call in 2 weeks.
- As I’ll say one more time — those PEACOCK sub numbers could be very interesting on Thursday morning’s COMCAST call.
YES: Zaz bought a camp! Or at least his holding company GRANDVIEW VENTURES has a $68M bid in for a Westchester County camp and school in New York (Mohawk Day Camp and Mohawk Country Day School) that has gone bankrupt. His children all attended the camp.
PLUS: AMAZON MGM is adding Masters of the Universe to PRIME VIDEO tomorrow, roughly 6 weeks after theatrical release.
THEN: TIFF added more world premieres to the lineup, including Chris Rock’s A24 pic Misty Green, Lauren Miller Rogen’s comedy drama Babies, Courteney Cox’s true-crime thriller Evil Genius and AMAZON MGM’s I Play Rocky.
AH: The NYFF set NETFLIX’s upcoming doc 14th from Ava DuVernay as its closing night movie on Oct. 9.
FINALLY:
I laid out some thoughts here on paths ahead for PARAMOUNT (and potentially WBD) depending on how things shake out in court given the new temporary restraining order (TRO) issued yesterday.
See you all Aug. 3 for the next hearing. Elaine Low talked with California AG Rob Bonta yesterday afternoon, which I would recommend listening to here:
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