How to Sell a Show to Netflix; Manager M&A; Sony TV Chief’s Market Secrets
Plus: 5 charts that explain romcom winners & losers
Heading to the Toronto Film Festival? As the iconic event marks its 50th edition, Team Ankler is heading north with a Prestige Junkie interview, portrait and podcast studio helmed by Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen; daily newsletter dispatches featuring on-the-ground reporting from Richard Rushfield; and a by-invitation-only party on Sept. 7 thrown by Janice Min and Letterboxd CEO Matthew Buchanan. Reach out to TiffEvents@theankler.com with questions, comments and all that…
Meanwhile, closer to home here in L.A., we celebrated 20 of the most ambitious digital creators shaping media and entertainment. Dhar Mann, Josh Richards, Hasan Piker and Ben Meiselas were among the top voices who joined our exclusive summer soirée on Tuesday — hosted by Janice, Web Summit’s Ciara Haley and Bitmoji co-founder Ba Blackstock — at a stunning home high in the Hollywood Hills. Check out what other huge creators (and which reps) were there too (and what they talked about) at our must-read Like & Subscribe by Natalie Jarvey.
One theme that came up over and over in conversation is what a big year 2025 has been for creators — it’s a world you can’t afford not to know, whether it’s about new jobs in the space, digital stars’ growing dominance over traditional entertainment, the Hollywood agents scrapping for their piece and who’s winning, and how money in the creator economy is growing 5x faster than in Hollywood.
And finally, congratulations to Janice, who’ll be honored in November with a LEA Award from The WICT Network of SoCal alongside other heavy hitters including Disney’s Simran Sethi and Apple TV+’s Shannon Willett. Good company for our head honcho as Ankler Media heads into another season of big plans.
Now, without further ado, ICYMI, even more of our best of the week:
Series Business: Netflix’s Wish List; Sony’s TV Swing
Elaine Low delivered the goods in her Summer Sellers’ Guides, telling you what Apple TV+, Amazon, HBO & HBO Max, Peacock, ABC, Hulu, FX, Disney+ and Disney Channel are looking for — this week, she closes with the Big Kahuna: Netflix. Elaine reveals who has greenlight power; per-episode budgets; and genres in demand at the dominant streamer now:
Sony TV is a true independent, allowing Katherine Pope, the division’s chief, to oversee platform-defining series for Amazon (The Boys), Starz (Outlander) and HBO (The Last of Us). But Pope’s not done taking big swings. She breaks news with Lesley Goldberg about three new overall deals her studio signed; her ambitions for comedy; and the one change she says could fix TV’s broken system:
Dealmakers: Major M&A Ahead
Paramount-Skydance may have gobbled up all the headlines, but plenty of other big deals turned heads in Q2. Ashley Cullins canvases Hollywood’s top dealmakers, revealing the company “everyone thinks” will sell next; investors’ risk-reward calculus for getting in bed with Hollywood rep firms; and ripple effects of Hailey Bieber’s $1B Rhode sale:
Richard Rushfield: Shari’s Trainwreck; H’Wood Syllabus
Speaking of Paramount… Shari Redstone gave her version of events to the NYT last week, and Richard has sharp words for her, the media and our compliance in allowing Trump to run rampage over our institutions. Plus: Top industry minds’ essential curricula for Hollywood:
ESG: 5 Charts that Explain the Romcom Market
Romcoms are back — but does the data bear out Amazon and Neftlix’s new buying spree? Entertainment Strategy Guy takes a hard look at the performance of romcoms at the box office, on streaming, which platform dominates, and the top-performing hits — plus the kind of show streamers should be making more of:
Notable: KPop Demon Hunters’ Music Man
The song of summer isn’t just one track, it’s a whole album: the original soundtrack for Netflix megahit KPop Demon Hunters. Ian Eisendrath, the film’s executive music producer, tells Rob LeDonne how he came to the project, the ins and outs of crafting a K-pop hit, his takeaways for creatives and how it all came together:
Prestige Junkie: Goggins, Bargatze & Traitors
Katey Rich ranks her 30 favorite nominations, from Pop Culture Jeopardy to Colbert. Plus: Her trio of juicy interviews with Walton Goggins, an all-star Traitors lineup, and first-time Emmys host Nate Bargatze:
The Wakeup: 5 Days of Big News
After last week’s buying frenzy, David Ellison isn’t done yet. Sean McNulty analyzes the talks between Paramount and Legendary for a theatrical distribution deal, the status of the company’s pact with Warner Bros. and where it all leaves the Legendary-Lionsgate purchase talks:
Weekly Shows
Monday Morning QBs: This week, on our live show about box office, Chris and Sean weigh whether Netflix would make theatrical releases a habit after putting a sing-along of KPop Demon Hunters in multiplexes:
Rushfield Lunch: A familiar face joins Richard on this week’s episode: Dealmakers’ Ashley Cullins, whose new book, Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror, chronicles the making of the Scream franchise and its legacy on the horror genre:
🎧 PODCASTS
THE ANKLER
How TV Became a 24/7 Sports Bar Yes, scripted is getting TKO’d. Plus: Inside whispers about Q2’s big deals and what's coming:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
MARTINI SHOT
You’ll Eat Lunch in This Town Again Rob Long on why showbiz failure isn’t the end like everyone says:
👓 THE OPTIONIST BY ANDY LEWIS
FINAL HOUSEKEEPING!
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