☀️ Blum, Lee Enter YT Creator Horror Biz
A talent rep split at M88 / HBO MAX likely losing sports / DISCO gets WB stake interest
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, September 4, 2025.
Where today is our fun day on the calendar every year where your sports friends (who have no clue about the big fall films coming) and Hollywood friends (who have no clue about sports) are both equally as excited!
Then, there are those of us who are elite multi-taskers in the middle of the Venn diagram — equally excited for the tea out of TIFF . . . but also very happy to be home watching the start of the NFL season tonight on NBC.
SO: The NeueHouse members club is shutting down tomorrow, and will declare bankruptcy.
AH: Gotta love a headline that sounds like it’s from a major tech company in 2012 . . . but no, it’s from September 2025 — INSTA is now available in a customized app for your iPad.
HUH: Quite a corporate comeback story here! So, Don Jr. joins your advisory board last month after taking a minority stake in your company . . . and this month, your currently banned in the U.S. gambling predictions app is suddenly now given the greenlight to return to the U.S. by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Congrats, POLYMARKET! Hope you took the over on the odds of that development happening in your own app.
OH: PAR+ is running a sale through Sept. 18 in case you want to get in to stream the VMAs or watch Sunday NFL this fall (and don’t have a digital TV antenna): $30 for the year for the ad tier, or half-off the annual plan rate.
SO: As someone who spent more time than he’d like to remember in meetings about 20 years ago around channels like HBO Signature and MoreMAX — I’m pouring one out this morning as HBO is retiring its plex channel names (and removing MAX from the CINEMAX ones, ahem), and replacing them with:
HBO2 = HBO Hits
HBO Signature = HBO Drama
HBO Zone = HBO Movies
MoreMAX = Cinemax Hits
ActionMAX = Cinemax Action
5starMAX = Cinemax Classics
PLUS: NBC has sold out of Super Bowl slots as the NFL season kicks off, and 90% of SNF ad inventory this season is also accounted for. NBC was thought to be looking for $7M a slot, similar to FOX’s number for many of its slots in the game earlier this year . . . but no final update was reported.
Ad tracking firm EDO put 2024 SNF ad revenue at $1B. NBCU pays $1.9B a year for its NFL rights (including the Super Bowl this season).
YUP: Everything’s coming up Kelce right now — their GARAGE BEER business is now valued at $200M in a new investor round. Sales were $20M in 2024, and tracking to over 3x this year. That kinda diamond ring isn’t free, folks.
FOR ELAINE: The NYT has a profile of the woman who runs the celeb ticketing at the U.S. Open 🎾.
THEN: In “America has a brand problem” watch:
2 tourism data tracking companies note that U.S. tourism visits and spending are both down significantly in 2025 (-8% in visits and -$12.5B in spending) this year, with a Canadian tourism collapse being a leading factor. Las Vegas also just cited its 6th straight month of visitor decline, at -12% YoY.
The CEO of MCDONALD’S was on CNBC last week saying, “The aura around America has dimmed a bit.”
While yes, this is just a MORNING CONSULT poll taken in 42 international countries . . . not a great chart to see.
AND: As I’ve noted in my Sunday box office breakdowns this summer: American films sans Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and dinosaurs have also largely been doing less business overseas on the whole — something that heretofore was a relatively rare occurrence.
We still need a longer trove of data and time to see if this is just a blip/relegated to this relatively small collection of movies . . . or something larger afoot — I’ll be noting developments either way on Sundays for sure.
PLUS: The Muppets are coming to Broadway this fall in a magic-themed show called Rob Lake Magic With Special Guests The Muppets (with industry PR & Comms vet Joe Quenqua among the producers), in case you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids. Tix go on sale today here and shows begin Oct. 28.
MAN: It seems Gen X can’t catch a break with dictatorship jobs either! Gotta love when the Boomer bosses have a (hot mic) conversation like this at their big military pep rally.
Xi: "In the past, people rarely lived longer than 70 years. But today they say at 70 you are still a child."
Putin (via his translator): "Biotechnology is continuously developing. ... Human organs can be continuously transplanted. The longer you live, the younger you become, and even achieve immortality."
Xi: "Some predict that in this century, humans may live up to 150 years old."
AND: You know your doctor is Floridian when he says, “Who am I to tell you what you should put in your body?" Thanks to FL Surgeon General — childhood vaccines are no longer necessary, measles for everybody!
Other choice “beliefs” from “Dr.” Joseph Ladapo, whom I’m rather certain HARVARD Medical School does not have on its homepage, despite having 2 degrees from the university (and don’t tell Trump he was born in Nigeria! 🤫):
Every vaccine mandate “drips with disdain and slavery."
There is "no ethical basis" to require vaccines to protect vulnerable populations like kids from things such as measles or polio.
Such diseases are "part of the experience of life.”
And of course, the Covid vaccine is “poison.”
I’m sure folks who moved to the state because the tax rates are better are thrilled (sadly, that’s only meant sarcastically for maybe half of them and for real for the other half).
AND: Today in banker media conference appearances (link to listen in the name, times are ET):
BOFA conference
10:30 a.m. Jessica Fischer (CHARTER CFO)
1:10 p.m. Jimmy Pitaro (ESPN Chairman)
2 p.m. Perry Sook (NEXSTAR CEO)
CITI conference
8:10 a.m. Jason Armstrong (COMCAST CFO)
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
WB/NLC are looking (and likely) to go 3 for 3 in the horror genre this year with the new Conjuring pic. Tracking seems like a pretty wide birth — WB on the low side at $35M, which . . . I think only WB is putting out there, and some industry trackers seeing potentially $50M/$55M.
THANKS!
To DISNEY for the invite to come have my first KPop Demon Hunters for Millennials Hamilton experience last night at the 10th anniversary release premiere in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater! Bob Iger was at your first time seeing it, too, right?
Gotta say it’s a super fun movie experience to have with a crowd — it turns out that the 187 people who told me to see the show in the 2010s weren’t lying. Huh.
So, a recommend for Millennials (and other demos) to take the opportunity to go have a fun experience with friends at the movie theater next weekend, or bring the teens in the household . . . and show those KPop Gen Z’ers how it’s done.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
