☀️AMAZON Fast-Tracks OPENAI Pic; Summer ‘26 Gets Opening 🎥 Duel
NV kills tax subsidy proposal / SKYDANCE keeps buying film projects / NETFLIX + Samberg, Momoa
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, June 4, 2025.
Where good news! AMC THEATRES found a way to stuff more ads in before your movie starts. I mean, you didn’t think AMC was going to pick up the 💰 difference when “Discount Wednesdays” begins on July 9, did you?
Yes, starting July 1 — AMC THEATRES will shove yet one more ad in a “platinum spot” 🤌 courtesy of ad seller NATIONAL CINEMEDIA, right before your movie starts . . . so hopefully Flo from PROGRESSIVE gets you extra psyched for Jurassic World.
Huh. Wonder why this wasn’t touted in the audience experience improvement measures talk at CINEMACON this year? 🤔 I look forward to updating my January moviegoing experience reporting in July.
WELL: Nothing like at least a largely symbolic rejection of Zaz’s 2024 pay package of $51.9M by about 60% of WBD shareholders at the WBD annual meeting this week. Oh, he’ll still get it . . . but know that he’s getting a lotta 😏 and 🙄.
But folks — ya gotta understand . . . if he only made $30M, he’d be too unmotivated and deliberately tank the company! Ahem.
Again, WBD stock was about -7% in 2024.
AND: The Tribeca Festival begins today in NYC.
THEN: TIFF will open on Sept. 4 with the John Candy doc that Colin Hanks and Ryan Reynolds have been putting together, called John Candy: I Like Me. AMAZON PV will release it later in the fall.
YUP: TIKTOK just suspended giving search results for #skinnytok, realizing, oh, right — it may be promoting unhealthy and damaging physical and mental health behavior. And yes, the EU is primarily to thank for this, not any forward-thinking on TIKTOK’s behalf.
OH: AMC NETWORKS set a deal with AI firm RUNWAY to create more cost-effective marketing materials (sorry, agency vendors!) and to pre-viz shows that haven’t been produced yet.
I’ll let you figure out how using old AMC shows helps visualize new AMC shows . . . but if you see Don Draper hallucinations in the background of the next Anne Rice series — well, nuff said.
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS PT. 1: France is losing access to PORNHUB, due to a new government age-verification law . . . just as HIMS & HERS makes an acquisition in Europe to enter the market and make critical tele-health access to erection pills more readily available. Life can be cruel, sometimes.
GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS PT 2: A retailer finally reported that sales are up, people are buying more per visit in Q1, which caused it to raise its FY25 outlook! Sadly, that retailer is DOLLAR GENERAL.
PLUS: NETFLIX is screening a bunch of Hitchcock movies on the big screen at its Egyptian, uh, movie theater (🤷♂️) in L.A. (do they know they own 2 of those?) all June long — great lineup and tickets here.
OH: It’s nice to see ratting-out is a universal language — both OPENAI and China’s DEEPSEEK tried to snitch on their users to internal or external authorities when told the user was engaging in fraud.
AH: Good news, Florida! Trump’s new FEMA head and its leadership are abandoning a plan to create a new hurricane response plan, and are just gonna, ya know, go with the old one.
Well, sorta — the new FEMA head’s department cuts still are in play . . . which kinda prohibit last year’s plans from being fully executed. But, I mean, what are the odds of a major hurricane hitting the U.S. this year anyway, much less affecting Republican states? #HeckOfAJobBrownie!
Plus it’s always great when FEMA staff couldn’t tell if Trump’s FEMA head, David Richardson, was kidding when he said he didn’t know the U.S. had an official hurricane season (for the record — FEMA assured the AP that it was indeed a joke, and I’m sure it was a doozy!). Enjoy your late summer, America!
FINALLY: A congrats to the ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU club for winning what’s generally the world’s most-watched championship, IPL cricket! Maybe next year, PUNJAB KINGS. Sadly, a repeat win for my CHENNAI SUPER KINGS was not in the cards this year.
🎥 THE SILVER TV 📺
