☀️Fall Box Office: Movies Drop The Ball With Dudes
CAA agents to WME / PAR adds to spec 🔥 / WBD wants more 💰 / NETFLIX’s ‘Champagne’ pops
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, November 26, 2025.
Where there’s nothing quite like spreading holiday cheer by choosing the day before the Thanksgiving vacation to tell your 3 bidders that they need to go back to the drawing board on their bids to uh, gimme more money . . . by Monday. Sincerely, WBD 🤑.
Eh, M&A execs spending the Thanksgiving holiday with their families is overrated anyway. So, anyone know how much a last-minute flight to Dubai costs the day before Thanksgiving?
Although, given that this movie 👇 is in the PARAMOUNT library — let’s still give them the advantage.
GOOD NEWS!: If you’re a Thanksgiving parade completist (who may now have to watch it from your office in the finance group at COMCAST) — PEACOCK has you covered with a multi-view feed tomorrow.
OH: Not to be outdone by the streamers — AMC THEATRES is getting in on the #BlackFriday action, offering 50% off 1 large popcorn every day of the week deal for just $30 to members of its Stubs loyalty program, in case you want to do a one-man re-enactment of Super Size Me.
AH: YOUTUBE TV is also getting in the Thanksgiving spirit, settling its carriage dispute with TELEVISAUNIVISION after about 2 months.
AND: WB is putting Sinners and One Battle back on 10 IMAX screens in 70mm on the weekend of Dec. 12. Sinners tix here, One Battle tix here.
YEAH: Between META now buying some of GOOGLE in-house TPU chips for its AI growth and the general “this is a step up” reaction to its Gemini 3 Pro AI release — ya gotta love GOOGLE’s big AI week is happening pretty much at the 3-year anniversary of CHATGPT’s release into the world.
PLUS: Nate Bargatze’s shows grossed over $15M in October alone, according to Billboard (the highest of any comedian that month). Then again — when you do 14 of them in a month, that helps.
#2 was Mulaney, who grossed $2.6M from 7 shows.
In news you don’t want to tell the 2010s — Chris Brown was the #1 highest-grossing music act in October, with his 7 shows taking in over $46M.
Louis C.K. was the #5 comedian, with his 11 shows grossing $1.7M. If you’re curious what they’re like — Jason Zinoman at the NYT went to one and did a ‘state of Louis’ piece this week.
WAKEUP POLL RESULTS
While I did not eat the AMAZON Sports cereal (as 55% of you thankfully voted against me doing so), I did open the box — which totally didn’t have fake blueberries as promised, btw 🙄 — to find out what the “mystery cards” were inside, and I gotta say . . . it’s like looking in a mirror.
A THANKS TO YOU ALL
Just expressing a note of thanks to you folks for reading these daily missives chronicling our fine industry, and a special thanks the many readers who have reached out to get in touch this year, whether to share some intel or insights or to say hi (yes, I really do respond on LINKEDIN! And to my email address at the top of every newsletter).
It’s great to hear from folks across the executive spectrum, as well as college students and assistants who have reached out and had calls together — I always find it insightful to hear what the future thinks. This interaction is really one of the best and most unexpected aspects that have come with launching The Wakeup as a newsletter, coming up on 5 years ago.
On a more personal note, I’m also thankful that I’m about 90% back to walking normally again after my knee scope, so just putting that out into the universe as the progress continues! 🙏 A fine reminder to both try and be present in the day you’re in, and enjoy what you can do in the day in front of you — and with that . . .
SOME WEEKEND RECOS IN THE THANKSGIVING SPIRIT
Sharing a couple of things that I found moving this week, and served as healthy reminders to really try to both enjoy and appreciate the time you have here, as well as make a continued effort to do that with friends and family in your life as well.
This New Yorker read from Tatiana Schlossberg certainly got some well-deserved light this week — chronicling her sudden cancer diagnosis. She writes very well about both personal and life observations, keeping in mind how quickly life can change.
This moving 60 Minutes piece from Sunday should remind anyone to enjoy the time you have with your kids over the holiday weekend. A heavy topic to be sure, but told with great care.
AND FINALLY: I found the new NETFLIX movie Train Dreams a nice way to round out here — great for a moment in the calendar where you may have more time to sit down (and put the phone down), and just take in a film that lives in the beauty and quiet of the world around us, while exploring the real fleeting nature of our time here on this planet, despite our constant attempts to mask that fact.
And no, NETFLIX did not pay me to say that (though they know where to find me ;) . . . but note that it’s also a gorgeous film that, yes, would be great to see on a big screen in a dark theater, ahem — so do what you can.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
