☀️'Electric State' Falls at NETFLIX, The Comps to Know
A24, Zendaya reteam for biopic / AMPTP sets new leader / HBO adds to 'Potter' cast
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 March 26, 2025.
Where Warren Buffett finally caught a break, as he found someone worthy of giving $1M to! 👏 Gotta say, on the list of rich folk problems . . . I had no idea this was so high — time to update my list (do I put this before or after “The yield on the honey bee colony 🐝 at my summer home isn’t as high as expected”?)
Warren has been lamenting that no one has won his annual $1M March Madness BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY employee bracket challenge since he started it in the mid-2010s ☹️, and he’s really been looking forward to giving away the $1M at some point.
So, he, uh, relaxed the rules just a bit to give it to the person who got the most winners in the first weekend (sorry, men’s tournament only) — and congrats to an employee of BERKSHIRE subsidiary FLIGHTSAFETY INT’L who is taking home the big $1M prize for picking 31 of 32 winners in the first round.
Although um — 11 other folks also got 31 of 32 games correct 🥴, but uh . . . only $100k for you folks. I mean, Warren isn’t made of money.
YEAH: As you might expect, DUKE isn’t too crazy about all of the “free publicity” in this year’s White Lotus.
UM: Ya see Pete Hegseth, as you should of course know from your time at FOX NEWS — the thing about “so called” journalists . . . is that they’re usually very good at keeping very detailed notes. Good luck with this “blowing over” in a day or so, and now enjoy a new tranche of messages detailing the list of exact times of planes taking off in a military strike that were sent on a SIGNAL text chain. It’s funny the consequences that result when government officials categorize something as not classified information.
PLUS: The WSJ is moving Ben Fritz back to the entertainment biz beat, coming over from a stint as the editor in AI.
OH: If you thought trying to sell your used TESLA in L.A. was tough — things aren’t likely much better in Europe. New TESLA car registrations there were -40% in February YoY (and -47% in the EU itself). But hey — at least folks in SAUDI will now be able to buy one!
YUP: Add top ad biz forecaster MAGNA to the growing list of outlets cutting the projected U.S. advertiser spend for 2025 (from +4.9% to +4.3%)
BUT: At least the parents of high schoolers at top NYC private schools still have the $3k (not including $45 hotel breakfast) to go on spring break at ATLANTIS in the Bahamas (apparently it’s the place to be — especially for almost 80% of TRINITY SCHOOL’s graduating class). See kids? All of that after-school work at TACO BELL is really paying off.
AND: Look at West Virginia finally leading the nation in a health matter! The state banned pretty much all artificial food dyes and 2 preservatives, going into effect in 2028. Although it’ll pertain to school meals come August.
20 other states are currently looking at similar measures.
IN THIS EDITION
With 2 weeks of data now in on The Electric State at NETFLIX, we have a pretty good picture of how things are shaking out for this $300M+ movie — and yes, March has now officially been bad for blockbusters all around town. Take a look at the comps to know.
What the ratings #s for the men’s & women’s college hoops tournaments last weekend reflect about the value of their TV 💰 deals.
News around town at NLC, A24, APPLE, SEARCHLIGHT, AMAZON, HBO . . . and I’m doing that thing again where I’m starting to list every company in Hollywood, so let’s get rolling. But I think you’ll also enjoy this new 🤌 quote from a top OPENAI exec on copyright too.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
