☀️ CNN Sets D2C Future, WBD’s Big Korean Content Play
MIRAMAX's $1M buy / OMAHA, FANDUEL RSNs team up / SORA ups output length / ‘KPop’ back in theaters
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, October 16, 2025.
Where here is your latest “annualized” AI company revenue snapshot — and nothing says “sound business footing” like an industry that continually tells you its revenue solely based on its most recent month of business, and not the actual revenue it’s making in a year.
ANTHROPIC’s (Claude) 2025 “annualized” revenue (take the last month of revenue and multiply it by 12) as of October 2025 is near $7B, up from $5B in July, according to Reuters.
ANTHROPIC’s actual 2025 revenue will be somewhere between $2B and $4B.
This is about the same size as LIONSGATE before the STARZ split.
2026 projections for “annualized” revenue are $20B to $26B.
Actual revenue projection for 2026 is . . . $5B to $12B.
If it hits the upper side there — that’s about the same size as SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT.
ANTHROPIC is also now looking to M&A deals to fuel its growth, according to The Information. Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine.
As we all know, new technologies never miss their growth targets at some point, causing a collapse of the valuations that several hundreds of billions of dollars is based upon that’s propping up a stock market in an otherwise rather stagnant economy. I mean, everything coming in at or above expectations is a possible outcome, of course.
BTW — Hollywood, how have we missed out on doing this? We know all of the movies will be huge in 2026 and the NBA ad revenue is going to be through the roof now that it’ll be on 6 days a week across many different outlets — time to get “annualized”!
AND: ROKU just rolled out a software update adding “AI search” to its remote controls, giving you AI-sourced answers to queries. But if you ask it if the NY JETS are winning their game on Sunday and it gives you a positive response — I think you’ll know something’s up.
ALSO: SPOTIFY set an agreement with the 3 major labels to create unspecified “responsible” AI music products.
OH: In the “I’m sure there’s nothing to see here” category — CBS NEWS’ head of standards and practices is leaving the company. Hope she dropped off her “What do you do here” memo before she left.
YAH: SORA 2 is already upping the video lengths you can create up to 15 seconds (from 10 seconds). CHATGPT paid/Pro users can create up to 25 seconds . . . so with just a few more seconds, ya gotta love the ability to create 30 second commercials basically with the input of a prompt.
If you have any doubts, here’s the SORA 2 AI-generated ad promoting the changes:
HUH: Brian Baumgartner (“Kevin” from The Office) spent 7 hours “working” in a glass office in NYC’s Flatiron district . . . not to promote The Paper or PEACOCK, but rather an AI company that replaces peoples jobs automates corporate finance tasks. The irony was free of charge.
THEN: Expect to hear a lot more of “Oi! What’s all this then!?” on the streets of London in 2026, as WAYMO will be launching robotaxis in the city next year on a pilot program to start.
PLUS: This photo collection of polar bears who have taken over an abandoned Russian research station on an island is just awesome (the pics were taken by drone, to be clear). Or here’s some of the video footage, too.
THEN: Anyone wanna forecast this one out to say, 2027?
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
UNI/BLUM’s Black Phone 2 is the big pic on deck. No one seems to think the $18M-ish number on the studio side holds much weight, with most putting a 2 as the first number in the gross this weekend. What say you?
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
