☀️ AMAZON's Movie Slate Just. Keeps. Growing.
FANDUEL's troubling RSN 💰 math / NETFLIX's massive new int'l 🎥 hit / '26 movie slate shifts
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, May 7, 2025.
Where I gotta say, the NBA is putting on a helluva product out there with the NBA Playoffs the past week or so (ratings details in the Sports section below today, plus NHL and F1).
Nothing quite like another 3-pointer FTW last night 🙌, to go up 2-0 on one of the league’s top teams, and heading back to your home court for game 3.
PLUS: The DGA Awards are set for Saturday, Feb. 7 next year.
THEN: The Teamsters called Trump’s highly detailed and well thought-out Sunday night social post imposing nondescript tariffs that would change the fundamentals of the movie business “a strong step.”
Trump also killed PBS KIDS programming with his administration’s pulling of grants that funded it.
OH: The studio heads are doing a conference call with the MPA / Charlie Rivkin on Friday about the whole “movie tariff” thing. No international cuisine lunch orders, mmmkay? And yes, I know it’s #PizzaFriday, Bob.
SO: NETFLIX is getting some work done (I told you not to mention the crow’s feet at the Oscars party this year!) — the NETFLIX homepage is getting a refresh that . . . well, has some broad descriptions at this point but we’ll just see what it looks like in “the next few weeks and months” as it rolls out. 🤷♂️
Live programming, in particular, is likely going to be better accentuated as part of the changes.
Gaming is getting a look as well, and yes OPENAI is involved in the new search tool — I’m sure it’ll be very adept at helping you find something equally dystopian once you finish Squid Games in June.
The mobile NETFLIX app is also getting a ‘TIKTOK-style’ experience with clips and trailers that will then bring you to the actual show/movie if ya like — this one we have a visual for:
AND: Who had May 7, 2025 as the date LIONSGATE and STARZ would finally start trading as fully separate companies when the separation process was first explored / floated . . . 4 years ago? Congrats to all, and a sincere welcome to the STRZ ticker.
OH: Add higher priced drugs to the list of U.S. economic factors hitting the American consumer in the latter part of the year — Trump announced a new pharma tariff will be announced within 2 weeks, which could be 200%. Exact number TBA.
73% of the $203B in U.S. drug imports come from Europe.
Trump is also directing the FDA to reduce the time it takes to build drug manufacturing plants in the U.S. — which currently takes about 5 to 10 years. So enjoy your cheaper drug prices . . . in the 2030s! You can hold on for 5 years with your 2025 medication stockpiles, right?
WELL: SPINCO, it’s been real — meet VERSANT! That’s the name COMCAST chose for the cable TV networks it’s spinning off into a separately traded company by end of year. Sadly my MISFITS and BUNDLE STRONG title proposals were rejected.
And yes, we’ll probably still call this SPINCO, just like we’ll still probably call whatever service ESPN launches this fall FLAGSHIP.
Here is your logo, which . . . kinda reminds me a bit of AXIOS, no?
HOUSEKEEPING
I’ve been dialed into the DISNEY Q1 earnings this morning and will have my #medianerd🤓 breakdown coming soon separately, with the Q1 business health breakdown across all DISNEY business lines.
A call which featured absolutely zero mentions or comments from Wall Street analysts about the #TrumpTariff on movies, ahem. 👀 But they had plenty of broad ones on DISNEY’s new expansion into the Middle East (be careful with the jokes you write for the Aladdin ride 😳).
But yes — start looking at flights to Abu Dhabi, DISNEY-stans! Well, sometime mid 2030s. The new DISNEY theme park there is gonna take a couple years to design, then probably 5-ish years to build out (no park opening timeline was given).
Which should also give folks in the American Southeast plenty of time to finally get a passport. 🤯 Kudos to Jersey for being the state where the most residents have passports, at 80%!
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
