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 Wednesday, July 1, 2026.
Where enjoy your potentially, uh, 11 p.m. massive fireworks display above the city on Saturday, D.C.! Eh, it’s not like it’s going to be a 40+ minute display or something.
The display has been pushed back so Trump can give a rant speech at 9:50 p.m. with a . . . loose wrap time. I wonder if his $1.4B in crypto revenue in 2025 will come up? Hmm, maybe the $80M in legal settlement payments from media companies will be the lede instead.
Well, at least it’s not like the temperature will likely still be in the 80s at that point on Saturday night for Trump’s inspiring words. Happy 250th, America!
WELL: PARAMOUNT has indeed committed to exiting its UIP int’l movie distro JV with UNIVERSAL to appease EU regulators. The business only operates in a handful of smaller EU territories at this point. This was part of a larger overall list of concessions PSKY submitted to the EU, but other details are not known.
- The EU’s new deadline for an initial decision is now July 22.
- Also add Australia, Kuwait and Austria to the list of countries giving a 👍 to the WARNAMOUNT deal.
- PSKY and WBD, don’t forget the U.K. is expecting new letters of explanation / case-making around its concerns by Monday. If you need me, I get time-and-a-half on holiday weekends.
PLUS: CNN’s Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid is going to exit the network, according to Status, choosing not to renew her deal with an offer on the table.
AH: TIKTOK is the latest to settle the pending social media addiction lawsuit brought by a 15-year-old plaintiff, which YOUTUBE also settled in June. META and SNAP still remain, and the trial has a July 27 start date in L.A. No word on the size of the TIKTOK settlement.
AND: CBS enlisted former LSU and NOTRE DAME football coach Brian Kelly to call MOUNTAIN WEST division games this year.
THEN: All due respect to the annual Bobby Bonilla Day celebration for METS fans today, but #HotKNICKSsummer continues in NYC! These will be up around the city through July.
GRANTED: This is just a poll of 1,001 people from GALLUP, but yeah. Now, what happened in 2016 and 2024? 🤔
AH: NIKE is expecting nearly $1B from the federal government in refunded tariff payments, putting the gross profit margin up nearly 9% in its latest quarter.
YAH: AMAZON PV will debut Project Hail Mary on the service this Friday, about 3.5 months post-theatrical release.
YES: Everyone’s favorite June press tour continued yesterday.
THEN: NETFLIX is using AI to recreate Gene Wilder’s voice for its new Wonka’s Golden Ticket competition series (with permission from the family estate). It’s used as the VO for the new teaser spot.
WAKEUP Box Office Prediction
I’m not a huge fan of 5-day holiday-weekend projections, so I’ll take a pass on Minions & Monsters.
Expectations range from $60M to $90M with a target of $80M. That’s all significantly below the last 2 pics with Minions in them, which both opened to just over $120M over 5 days in 2022 and 2024. The Minions movie in 2015 also opened to $116M over a traditional 3-day weekend.
None of those films had a weekend with July 3 and 4 on Friday and Saturday (on top of a World Cup knockout weekend), which seems to be providing some headwinds. This pic also does not feature Gru.
Now, does all of that equal $40M-worth of headwinds . . . or is some franchise fatigue setting in? Certainly a valid question.
Overall, however, I think it’s a case where it’ll really be a couple of weeks before we really get a fair handle on this one’s performance — but if it opens below $75M, that’s not great.
Final Note
This is it for me for the week, and hopefully it is for many of you as well.
I’ll see you on Sunday evening for box office analysis over hot dogs and beers — if Rushfield & I don’t see you outside of MSG on Friday, of course.
📈 Hollywood Summer Stock Check
H1 2026 has officially come to a close on Wall Street, and while Q2 earnings report season is still 3 weeks away (see you July 16, NETFLIX 👋), there are actually a lot of curious things going on with the stock prices of some of America’s favorite companies.
Er, not their favorites to invest in, per se (as you’ll see), but more in the sense of liking their product — all due respect to SPACEX.
So, let’s dive into which Hollywood leaders are earning their well-deserved salaries and take a look at the winners and losers in the market as we hit the midway point of 2026.
And if you guessed the top performing entertainment biz stock of Q2 . . . the beers are on me. I definitely had to triple-check that one.
Don’t stop here
Unlock the full story — and the no-spin reporting Hollywood trusts
Already a subscriber?
