☀️FCC Daddy Finally Gives PAR & SKYDANCE His Blessing: What's Ahead

CHARTER sees #cordcutting greenshoots / SONY joins spec sale train / HBO's 'Gilded' keeps growing

Jul 25, 2025

∙ Paid

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 Friday, July 25, 2025.

Where I’m not saying NETFLIX is running out of ideas for movies — but within a 4-month period, it will have released films called Hostage . . . and iHostage.

BUT: Hey, maybe GPT-5 will have some new ideas? We’ll see what ~~fresh hell~~ fun OPENAI induces upon the world when it’s released sometime in August.

THEN: YOUTUBE is giving Shorts creators the ability to turn a photo into a 6-second AI-generated video, in case you were lacking for ways to spend your precious time on Earth.

HUH: META will stop taking political and issue ad money in the EU starting in October, due to regulations in the region. GOOGLE has already made a similar move. Well, uh, good luck finding things to avoid on FACEBOOK now, EU users.

OH: Just an noteworthy Adweek read here for anyone else interested in the efforts of NIELSEN competitors like VIDEOAMP, COMSCORE and ISPOT to make inroads into the video ad buying business, now that they’ve received accreditation from the the U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC), one of two major stamps of approval for viewership data in the industry.

AND: Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that if China doesn’t approve of a deal for the majority sale of TIKTOK U.S. by Sept. 17, then the app will go dark here (that’s the latest deadline from Trump’s 3rd questionably legal delay of the enforcement of the law passed in January).

On June 29, Trump gave his usual “in about two weeks” timeline for revealing who the U.S. buyer might be — still nothing there either.

REST IN PEACE: Goes out to Hulk Hogan, who died at the age of 71 yesterday.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

Fantastic Four thoughts are . . . kinda all over the place. I’m holding a spot with the 15% dreamers.

BONUS POLL

Let’s have fun with a little something different — a NETFLIX opening weekend poll! What will be the global opening weekend view total for Happy Gilmore 2 ? Your comps:

Murder Mystery 2: 43M
Leo: 34.6M over 4days
Hustle: 43M
BH Cop 4: 41M over 5 days
Back In Action: 46.8M views, the biggest opening weekend in the past 3 yeas.

NEW POD

AND FINALLY: Just a shout to Josh Johnson, who’s been doing great work at the TDS desk this week.

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Yes, the PARAMOUNT thing — but it’s also important to take a look at what’s going on at one of PARAMOUNT’s most important business partners, CHARTER.
- Take a look at why the stock is -18% so far this morning, what the company has accomplished to turn around #cordcutting trends and how it relates back to Jeff Bewkes’ last crusade at TIME WARNER before the AT&T saga.
Plus, a positive quarter for IMAX, some exec moves in the indie film world and the rest of the days happenings in the TV and movie biz — plus a look at the new things to watch this weekend.