☀️ NETFLIX Films’ Hit-less Summer So Far

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me atseanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.

Where in yet more signs that 2026 is the new 2019 — the LIRR is back!

June ridership on the Long Island Railroad was the first month that exceeded a corresponding month pre-Covid (by 2%).

Now, that’s certainly helped by a KNICKS in the NBA Finals boost as well as golf’s U.S. Open being held there . . . but a win’s a win!

BTW: NY sports fans — you’re getting a new streaming home for pretty much all of your teams this fall. YES NETWORK and MSG NETWORK are ending their GOTHAM SPORTS app JV, and moving all games to the DAZN app platform this fall.

• The YANKEES season will finish out on GOTHAM/YES, as this will begin with NHL and NBA seasons this fall.
• The NY METS are pretty much the only major NY sports team not involved here (#SNYstrong), excluding the NFL — otherwise this is for the KNICKS, NETS, RANGERS, DEVILS, SABRES, ISLANDERS, YANKEES and LIBERTY
• No word on the pricing structure as of yet. The NHL season begins the last week of September, when this should launch.
• Cable TV subs who get YES and MSG will get free access to the streaming on DAZN.

AND: SEARCHLIGHT’s Tony Gilroy pic Behemoth! will premiere at the NYFF as the centerpiece selection.

AH: CHATGPT will soon hit 1B global weekly users according to The Information, a goal it had expected to hit 7 months ago. #ThanksAnthropic

GOOD NEWS: META AI is now getting access to / training itself on NEWSMAX reporting so, yeah — take that, ANTHROPIC!

THEN: Spider-Man: Brand New Day is looking at a $37M opening day in China (it is also playing in IMAX there). The last Spider-Man pic was the only superhero movie to clear $100M in China since Covid (it did $199M).

SO: The WNBA All-Star game got 3.2M viewers on ABC Saturday, +44% from last year (Caitlin Clark did not play last year). It came in just under 2024’s record year of 3.4M viewers for the game, Clark’s rookie year (when she also played).

YES: Casey Wasserman has agreed to exit the building at WASSERMAN THE TEAM, with the deal frenzy situation basically going out with a whimper as existing WASSERMAN investor, PE firm PROVIDENCE, is buying Casey out.

• PROVIDENCE already owned 60% of the company, but no details were reported on the exact new size of its stake in this buyout.
• Current company President Mike Watts will be the new CEO, and the agreement is expected to close sometime by year’s end.

AH: The award for Best Lawsuit goes to . . . PENSKE MEDIA! Along with the Golden Globes organization, PMC is being sued by the HFPA under antitrust laws, accused of dismantling the HFPA organization to consolidate control of Hollywood’s awards ecosystem. The HFPA is seeking $150M in damages and unwinding agreements that transferred ownership of the Golden Globes.

EH: So much for the branch of government everyone generally liked. Man, what happened? I’ll assume no Canadians were inadvertently asked since their travel to the U.S. was -25% last year, keeping about $2.5B of their 2024 spending in the country north of the border in 2025.

WELL: Here are your new faces on 60 Minutes this September, alongside returning correspondent Norah O’Donnell in a more significant capacity, and Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim:

• CORRESPONDENT: NYT Opinion columnist & podcaster Ross Douthat
• CONTRIBUTORS: Writer Sebastian Junger, former VICE journalist Gianna Toboni and British journalist Trevor Phillips

IT’S MY WAY TIL PAYDAY: Here are the paydays for top LIONSGATE execs in its FY26:

• CEO Jon Feltheimer: $19.4M, up from $9.8M (mostly from 5x’ing his bonus and boosting stock grants by $4M)
• Vice Chair Michael Burns: $4.7M, down from $7.7M
• CFO James Barge: $6.3M, down from $7.1M
• COO Brian Goldsmith: $5.2M, about on par with FY25
• EVP/General Counsel Bruce Tobey: $4.5M, up from $2.7M

THEN: HBO MAX is adding vertical video in its mobile app with an HBO MAX Shorts feature in the U.S. — a TIKTOK-like scroll of clips from its programming/trailers/BTS content, with sports to be added in the future alongside additional markets.

• AI is used in the process to help select content, and it also powers a tool HBO MAX is testing called Ask HBO MAX, which helps you find things to watch that suit your mood, interests, etc.

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NETFLIX Film Chart Insights

NETFLIX’s Summer Movie Season Lacks A Hit Going Into August

When Kevin Hart comes in below expectations on NETFLIX . . . yeah, this isn’t good. Summer, we have a problem.