☀️AMAZON Lands Karen Read True Crime Saga, YOUTUBE TV-OAN Back in Bed
Busy int'l sports rights deal day / Murdoch gets TV portrayal / AMAZON MGM finds its Stallone
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 Thursday, August 28, 2025.
Where corporate bigwigs are finally catching a break 🙏 . . . as GOOGLE’s new AI tools in its GOOGLE VIDS app will allow them to never have to shoot another company video ever again!
Just choose your AI avatar/fake actor (perhaps uh, ‘inspired’ by the look of a real one), write your script, and GOOGLE will make your corporate training video for you.
Ya know, so you don’t have to take time out of your day (and pay a crew) to record a video instructing employees how to use the company’s new AI tools that will eventually replace their jobs . . . or, uh, whatever other corporate video uses you may have.
I’m sure your new AI avatar will be very inspiring and motivational for your team.
PLUS: Emil Wakim will not be returning to SNL this year after 1 season on the show.
THEN: The Hamptons Film Festival will open with A24’s Eternity starring Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen on Friday, Oct. 3 (the film’s U.S. premiere). Linklater’s Blue Moon and JLo’s Kiss of the Spider Woman will also screen at the fest.
HUH: Your latest KPop Demon Hunters beneficiary? BULDAK’s spicy “fire chicken” noodles — the food subgenre is featured in the movie and has become a bit of a TIKTOK trend, so much so that it’s parent South Korean company SAMYANG’s stock was +7% yesterday to hit a new all-time high.
YEAH: This chart just says a lot while saying very little. Eh, I’m sure TIKTOK has a very similar effect on the brain and cognitive thinking.
PLUS: 66.5% of college football players at the big Power 4 conferences are getting less than $10k in NIL money + money from their schools this season.
Less than 1% are getting $500k plus, according to OPENDORSE data cited by Yahoo Sports.
AND: Elon may have left the government . . . but according to a new whistleblower account — DOGE’s uploading of 300M Social Security numbers to an unsecured cloud in June will last with us forever. Eh, I’m sure the Trump admin would give free EXPERIAN accounts to all Americans for the rest of their lifetimes should something come of this.
BUT: At least Vanity Fair will have a meaty subject if its Melania cover interest ever comes to fruition (although Page Six says she “laughed” at the idea instead):
Melania has launched a new “Presidential AI Challenge” for K-12 students, encouraging the use of AI tools to develop an app, website or process to help solve a community issue . . . such as “How will our school pay its ever increasing electric bill due to rampant AI usage and Trump’s slashing of green energy projects that were already 75% completed and would have powered over 350k homes?”
FINALLY: Some Q2 revenue/profit comps:
BYTEDANCE: $48B, +25% YoY
This includes the China business, where the majority of the revenue comes from.
Plus, TIKTOK’s parent company is being valued at $330B in a new employee stock sale program, according to Reuters. That’s up fro $315B six months ago.
META: $47.5B, +22% YoY
Net Profit: $18.3B
Market cap: $1.88T
NVIDIA: $46.7B, +56% YoY
Net Profit: $26.4B
Market cap: $4.43T
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
All the new entrants are tracking roughly $5M to $8M so . . . yeah — let’s go with which of these 3 makes the most money by Sunday? Although Weapons should handily still beat them all.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
