☀️DISNEY Joins Q2 Layoff Chorus; Shell’s Big Payout
The WGA’s healthcare-centric deal / SONY adds to its growing 🎥 remake list / Zaz payday gets reprimand
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, April 9, 2026.
Where it turns out the woman who wrote The Housemaid book is a real brain doctor!
No, seriously — “Freida McFadden” revealed herself to be Sara Cohen, a 45-year-old MD treating brain disorders who writes novels on the side, but didn’t want the fame to detract from her medical work.
A rationale to which Hollywood had the collective reaction of . . .
YUP: Here is your list of Cannes films this year, and yeah — just one American film in competition this year so far (Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love), and studio films are basically MIA overall, which I’m sure the French film community is very upset by.
ALSO: Here are your final SNL hosts for the season.
YEAH: Ya gotta love this line in shareholder advisory firm ISS’ statement on the WARNAMOUNT deal — which it is advising WBD shareholders to approve . . . but not the Zaz payout part, which I’m sure will totally cause everyone to rethink the matter:
“The value disclosed in the golden parachute table for CEO Zaslav at over $886 million represents one of the highest golden parachute estimates ever observed.”
It also issued the sternly worded opinion that “Support for the golden parachute proposal is not warranted.”
AND: PSKY also launched a PARAMOUNT GLOBAL PUBLISHING arm to adapt company IP into books and other formats, as well as look for original material.
Amy Jarashow will lead the imprint, reporting into Products & Experiences Prez Josh Silverman.
UH HUH: OPENAI is telling investors it’s expecting to generate $2.5B in ad revenue this year, according to Axios. In roughly its first 6 weeks, it generated . . . $100M. In “annualized revenue.” So, OPENAI is now basically telling people it is going to 25x ad revenue in essentially 9 months.
Granted, that initial advertising rollout was limited to under 20% of free and Go paid users — so, either prepare to get inundated with ads on CHATGPT this year, or OPENAI has some very creative advertising ambitions.
Not a perfect comp in a few ways (namely, there’s a lot more 💰 to be had in search than video ads), but it took NETFLIX 4 years to reach $3B in annual ad revenue (its projection for this year).
OPENAI is also telling investors it’ll then 4x ad revenue in 2027 to $11B, and eventually hit $100B in ad revenue by 2030.
So, TBPN — you have your work cut out for you. Oh, wait, right — you got rid of ads in your OPENAI sale deal. #goodcall
THEN: TUBI set a CHATGPT deal, whereby you can use the TUBI app inside CHATGPT app store, and simply “@Tubi” to ask it questions/recos about the kind of movie they’re in the mood to view. Just keep your queries PG-13, mmmkay?
HUH: META finally met an ad category it won’t stand for! What’s that? No, not illegal drugs . . . worse, lawyers! Yes, lawyers posting ads to enlist people to sue META about its social media practices (thanks to the recent CA case ruling, one would think) are getting the boot. Always nice to see social platforms taking a real stand against the real bad actors in advertising.
OH: AMC NETWORKS is dropping the TV association from the name and going with AMC GLOBAL MEDIA (or, uh, AMC GLOBAL, as I’ll be calling it).
The company made more money domestically from its Streaming businesses than its Linear TV business in Q4.
AH: Movie theater trade group CINEMA UNITED has set an advisory Filmmaker Leadership Council, with Jerry Bruckheimer and Emma Thomas as chair and vice chair, respectively, and Ryan Coogler, Brad Bird, Jason Reitman and Celine Song as members.
The goal is to give ongoing feedback and recos on exhibition issues - can’t wait to hear their thoughts on pre-show length!
THEN: Here is your Top 10 list of most-anticipated summer movies among 6k folks polled by FANDANGO back in February.
FINALLY: You’ll never believe this, but there was a highly unusual amount of oil trading going on less than 15 minutes before Trump made a social media post about the Iran war on Monday that significantly impacted markets. 😱 I mean — what luck, amirite?
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Ok, who’s ready for a good ol’ fashioned straightforward rom-com? UNI’s You, Me & Tuscany is broadly looking at $8M to perhaps $12M this weekend.
THANKS! To the folks at AMC GLOBAL (see? workin’ it in already) for the invite to check out The Audacity last night in NYC, looking forward to seeing the 2nd episode! (The first 2 episodes are dropping this weekend.)
DISNEY next on the Hollywood layoffs train
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, April 9, 2026.
Where it turns out the woman who wrote The Housemaid book is a real brain doctor!
No, seriously — “Freida McFadden” revealed herself to be Sara Cohen, a 45-year-old MD treating brain disorders who writes novels on the side, but didn’t want the fame to detract from her medical work.
A rationale to which Hollywood had the collective reaction of . . .
YUP: Here is your list of Cannes films this year, and yeah — just one American film in competition this year so far (Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love), and studio films are basically MIA overall, which I’m sure the French film community is very upset by.
ALSO: Here are your final SNL hosts for the season.
YEAH: Ya gotta love this line in shareholder advisory firm ISS’ statement on the WARNAMOUNT deal — which it is advising WBD shareholders to approve . . . but not the Zaz payout part, which I’m sure will totally cause everyone to rethink the matter:
“The value disclosed in the golden parachute table for CEO Zaslav at over $886 million represents one of the highest golden parachute estimates ever observed.”
It also issued the sternly worded opinion that “Support for the golden parachute proposal is not warranted.”
AND: PSKY also launched a PARAMOUNT GLOBAL PUBLISHING arm to adapt company IP into books and other formats, as well as look for original material.
Amy Jarashow will lead the imprint, reporting into Products & Experiences Prez Josh Silverman.
UH HUH: OPENAI is telling investors it’s expecting to generate $2.5B in ad revenue this year, according to Axios. In roughly its first 6 weeks, it generated . . . $100M. In “annualized revenue.” So, OPENAI is now basically telling people it is going to 25x ad revenue in essentially 9 months.
Granted, that initial advertising rollout was limited to under 20% of free and Go paid users — so, either prepare to get inundated with ads on CHATGPT this year, or OPENAI has some very creative advertising ambitions.
Not a perfect comp in a few ways (namely, there’s a lot more 💰 to be had in search than video ads), but it took NETFLIX 4 years to reach $3B in annual ad revenue (its projection for this year).
OPENAI is also telling investors it’ll then 4x ad revenue in 2027 to $11B, and eventually hit $100B in ad revenue by 2030.
So, TBPN — you have your work cut out for you. Oh, wait, right — you got rid of ads in your OPENAI sale deal. #goodcall
THEN: TUBI set a CHATGPT deal, whereby you can use the TUBI app inside CHATGPT app store, and simply “@Tubi” to ask it questions/recos about the kind of movie they’re in the mood to view. Just keep your queries PG-13, mmmkay?
HUH: META finally met an ad category it won’t stand for! What’s that? No, not illegal drugs . . . worse, lawyers! Yes, lawyers posting ads to enlist people to sue META about its social media practices (thanks to the recent CA case ruling, one would think) are getting the boot. Always nice to see social platforms taking a real stand against the real bad actors in advertising.
OH: AMC NETWORKS is dropping the TV association from the name and going with AMC GLOBAL MEDIA (or, uh, AMC GLOBAL, as I’ll be calling it).
The company made more money domestically from its Streaming businesses than its Linear TV business in Q4.
AH: Movie theater trade group CINEMA UNITED has set an advisory Filmmaker Leadership Council, with Jerry Bruckheimer and Emma Thomas as chair and vice chair, respectively, and Ryan Coogler, Brad Bird, Jason Reitman and Celine Song as members.
The goal is to give ongoing feedback and recos on exhibition issues - can’t wait to hear their thoughts on pre-show length!
THEN: Here is your Top 10 list of most-anticipated summer movies among 6k folks polled by FANDANGO back in February.
FINALLY: You’ll never believe this, but there was a highly unusual amount of oil trading going on less than 15 minutes before Trump made a social media post about the Iran war on Monday that significantly impacted markets. 😱 I mean — what luck, amirite?
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Ok, who’s ready for a good ol’ fashioned straightforward rom-com? UNI’s You, Me & Tuscany is broadly looking at $8M to perhaps $12M this weekend.
THANKS! To the folks at AMC GLOBAL (see? workin’ it in already) for the invite to check out The Audacity last night in NYC, looking forward to seeing the 2nd episode! (The first 2 episodes are dropping this weekend.)
DISNEY next on the Hollywood layoffs train
Well, kudos to the folks who had “less than a month” in the office pool for how soon news of Josh D’Amaro’s first round of layoffs would emerge.
Looking at about a 1,000-person trim in “the next few months,” according to Deadline, although not a lot of details at this point. The company has enlisted BAIN & CO. to work on finding the ‘efficiencies,’ according to the WSJ.
BUT: The entertainment marketing group looks to be one place of focus . . . as the cuts are meant to eliminate duplicative positions as DISNEY consolidates film, TV and streaming marketing groups (HULU into DIS+, etc.).
Gotta love the internal name created for this process to unite staff and cut costs — Project Imagine. As in, imagine yourself collecting unemployment!
THUS: It will have essentially been 0️⃣1️⃣0️⃣ months (ish) since DISNEY’s most recent round of layoffs in June 2025. Hopefully, the person in charge of changing that sign out front on the lot is not among the cuts.
MEANWHILE, ON PARAMOUNT MOUNTAIN
Yes, Jeff Shell is out as President at PSKY (and from the PSKY Board). No replacement was named, and I laid out whether one is really needed here.
Shell’s payday for getting fired for the 2nd time in 3 years due to another scandal? About $15M including accelerated stock vesting according to THR’s math.
$5M of that is in the form of salary and bonus, and the rest is in the stock vesting — the valuation of which could fluctuate a bit.
Oh and medical and health insurance over the 12-month severance payout schedule, naturally.
Shell was officially with the company for (check’s notes) about 9 months since its inception in August, where he accomplished . . . well, certainly getting paid about $1.5M a month, mainly.
ALSO: PSKY has also syndicated its large looming new debt financing for the WBD deal out to 18 banks, vs. the 3 folks initially involved (BOFA, APOLLO and CITIBANK), and shifted things around a bit to reduce that huge debt from $54B to $49B through establishing things like a $5B revolver and a $5B term loan.
WGA reveals AMPTP deal details
The full agreement document is here for those who like to peruse it themselves, but here are the topline takeaways. The deal will go to writers for a vote starting April 16, with votes due by April 24.
HEALTH CARE PLAN
The AMPTP will pay $321M into the health insurance fund, mostly due to a bump in the % contribution of gross writers’ compensation by 3.75%. The remainder will be via the shift of a $41M payment.
The plan will undergo some changes in 2027 to preserve as much plan choice as possible, and keep out-of-pocket costs “as manageable as possible.”
Monthly premium rates are going up to $75/month for an individual and $200 for a family, and there are other increases in deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
The earnings threshold to qualify for coverage is also getting a 10% bump next summer.
The WGA’s health plan was running about -$200M over the past 4 years.
PAY INCREASES
Looking at bumps for most guild minimum rates of 1.5%, 3%, 3%, and 3% over the 4 years.
The “success bonus” for the biggest streaming series will also go from 50% of the base residual to 75%.
AI
Not much new here — more ongoing meetings to discuss developments, and studios will still notify the WGA when it licenses writers’ work for AI training. #thx
WRITERS ROOMS
Not much change here either — the AMPTP was looking to add a bit more flexibility for “mini rooms,” but there will be no changes to the gains/adjustments the WGA got back in 2023.
NET NET
Basically, it was healthcare or bust on the WGA’s end, and the AMPTP wanted a longer deal — and both got what they really wanted.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
SONY TRI-STAR developing Troop Beverly Hills reboot
Cameron Diaz is attached to star in the remake of the 1989 Shelley Long pic, with Clea Duvall (Happiest Season) writing and directing the story, which centers on a pampered Beverly Hills housewife trying to prove she can rough it as a Wilderness Girls leader with her daughter.
Although based on some unofficial polling of Gen Z and Millennial women on The Ankler Slack yesterday . . . yeah, this may have an uphill battle in building excitement/awareness for the IP among core moviegoing demos. Will this be more Devil Wears Prada or Running Man?
I’d love to hear your thoughts! Send all passionate or “never heard of it” responses if you’re in the female Gen Z/Millennial demo to seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com
BIGGER PICTURE AT SONY — A FAMILIAR FEELING
Put another reboot up on the SONY big board! To my count, SONY has now put 9 movies from the vault into remake development over the past 18 months — and that’s just from publicly reported items.
AMAZON MGM is next over that time period with 7, or call it 8 if you count Heat 2 (but that’s not a remake, so I don’t count it).
ALSO IN MOVIES
NETFLIX greenlit Extraction 3, with Hemsworth, Idris Elba, Golshifteh Farahani and director Sam Hargrave all returning for a script from David Weil (Hunters, Citadel). No timeline was put forth. /Deadline
WB set Melina Matsoukas (Queen and Slim) to direct an adaptation of the 1993 book Parable of the Sower, which became an NYT Best Seller in 2020, around the time when the book was set.
It centers on the slowly creeping anarchy in a Cali community caused by climate change and economic crises.
COLOR FORCE is producing along with Matsoukas’ DE LA REVOLUCION and Jules Jackson, who manages author Octavia E. Butler’s estate. /Variety
NETFLIX added Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Waits to the voice cast of Brad Bird’s next pic, Ray Gunn, premiering later this year via SKYDANCE ANIMATION.
VERTICAL picked up the Andrew Garfield / Claire Foy family film The Magic Faraway Tree for U.S. distro and will release it on Aug. 21.
The pic has done $11M in the U.K. already. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
A FEW THINGS
FX added Peter Dinklage to Alien: Earth season 2. /THR
NETFLIX set Sarah Silverman and Andrew Rannells in recurring roles for Nobody Wants This season 3, and show creator Erin Foster will also appear in a guest role. /Variety
NETFLIX re-upped its overall deal with Beef creator Lee Sung Jin. /Deadline
AMAZON PV is developing a series around the psychosexual short story Good Bones, with Jen Salke’s SULLIVAN STREET exec producing. Not much is known other than that the story is set in the world of country music and centers on a house renovation. /Deadline
Brian Robbins’ BIG SHOT is developing an anime series around YouTuber IShowSpeed from showrunner Matt Owens (One Piece). /THR
HULU is developing yet more YA, this time a thriller novel called The One That Got Away With Murder, which I was very surprised was not based on a Friends episode. #deepcut
Tawnya Bhattacharya and Ali Laventhol (Bel-Air, Ginny & Georgia) are writing the series about a girl entering a new high school, who takes it upon herself to get to the bottom of a murder mystery involving the school’s former golden boy.
GAUMONT is producing. /Deadline
🏟️ THE SPORTS GAME
First, a curious sports rights item from Joe Flint at the WSJ — NBC is selling the 2026 BIG 10 college football championship game to FOX for $45M to $55M.
This was the only BIG 10 championship game NBC got in the conference’s big TV deal, but apparently it didn’t have the rights to do that in its FOX deal (which is also a partner in the BIG 10 NETWORK) . . . so this is kinda rectifying an error, and the conference is also paying FOX $40M for the screw up.
So, FOX is kinda paying $5M to $15M for the game, net net.
Ok, now onto the ratings roundup!
All numbers are NIELSEN BIG DATA+ PANEL.
No PAR+, FOX ONE, HBO MAX or ESPN D2C viewing data is included. PEACOCK only if noted.
🏀 MEN’S MARCH MADNESS
CHAMPIONSHIP
18.3M: MICHIGAN vs. UCONN on TBS/TNT/TruTV Monday
A 🤏 above last year’s 18.1M on CBS, but with the shift to NIELSEN BIG DATA+PANEL methodology, it’s probably slightly down.
But it is +23% vs. the 2024 Championship game, also on the T-NETS, well beyond any bump from a methodology change.
FINAL FOUR
14.1M: UCONN vs. ILLINOIS on TBS/TNT/TruTV Saturday
14.3M: MICHIGAN vs. ARIZONA on TBS/TNT/TruTV Saturday
The games were -8% YoY from when they were on CBS (i.e., not on basic cable), and probably a bit more due to the NIELSEN methodology change.
BUT NOTE: The tournament is not incorporating streaming viewership data from HBO MAX because it would make the audience seem too big.
OVERALL TOURNAMENT
10.9M average across CBS/TNT/TBS/TruTV
+7% YoY, but most of that gain is likely from the NIELSEN methodology change.
🏀 WOMEN’S MARCH MADNESS
CHAMPIONSHIP
9.9M on ABC/ESPNU for the Championship on Easter Sunday afternoon
+16% YoY and tied for the 2nd biggest women’s March Madness game ever with the 2023 Caitlin Clark/IOWA vs. Amber Reese/LSU game.
FINAL FOUR
5.2M: UCONN vs. SOUTH CAROLINA on ESPN Friday
5M: UCLA vs. TEXAS on ESPN Friday
The 2nd biggest women’s Final Four ever:
No ESPN D2C viewership counted here.
🏀 NBA
3M: NBC Sunday night, LAKERS vs. MAVS
-100k from the previous Sunday (KNICKS vs. OKC)
2.4M: NBC Sunday night late game, ROCKETS vs. WARRIORS
Flat vs. last week
1.9M: NBC Tuesday Night games
1.6M: AMAZON PV Thursday, LAKERS vs. OKC
1.5M: ESPN Wednesday night early game, CELTICS vs. HEAT
1.4M: ESPN Wednesday night late game, SPURS vs. WARRIORS
Both of these were up vs. the previous week, which was about 1.2M
⛳️ GOLF
2.8M NBC Sunday, Valero Open (Saturday was 1.5M)
Up from 2.1M for the Houston Open final round the previous Sunday
⚽️ MEXICAN SOCCER
2M: UNIVISION Tuesday night, MEXICO vs. BELGIUM
🤼 WWE
1.51M: USA WWE Friday Night SmackDown, up from 1.31M the prior week.
🏀 MLB
1.4M: FOX Saturday night, BRAVES vs. DIAMONDBACKS
🥅 NHL
1.2M: ABC Saturday afternoon, both games (AVALANCHE vs. STARS, RED WINGS vs. RANGERS).
If you were forwarded The Wakeup, get it as part of your subscription to The Ankler:
🏦 STOCK NOTES
META +6% ($612.42)
LIONSGATE +6% ($10.45)
NEWSMAX +8% ($5.86)
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
AMAZON PV and ESPN The Masters round 1, beginning at 1 p.m. on AMAZON.
HBO MAX Hacks final season
PEACOCK The Miniature Wife
NETFLIX Big Mistakes
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
PEACOCK M.I.A. series trailer — STREAMING MAY 7
NETFLIX Trevor Noah: Joy in the Trenches trailer — STREAMING APRIL 14
TUBI Big Mood season 2 trailer — STREAMING APRIL 16
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
Ok, who wants some ’80s arena rock that couldn’t sound more like ’80s arena rock? A deep cut here from Honeymoon Suite, and thanks to the SIRIUSXM Hair Nation channel for resurrecting this one in my consciousness. Play it loud and proud in your Camaro on your commute today.
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect here on LINKEDIN.
— SEAN MCNULTY
@SeanMcNulty on BLUESKY
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM