☀️ Movie Libraries Get Reality Check From Investor Community
TUBI’s big creator moves / A24 adds another one / Waithe’s HILLMAN downsizes
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, June 19, 2025.
Where I’ll take any excuse to use a Winning Time gif . . . so enjoy your new (ish) owners LAKERS!
While yes, NBA Commish Adam Silver deserves an Edibles Arrangement bouquet for those new national TV rights deals — don’t forget to send a banana CHARTER’s way for its huge, over-priced and, more importantly, guaranteed local RSN TV revenue deal that still has about 6 years left on it.
This also marks 2 of the 3 of the biggest owners in the NBA hitting eject on ownership this year / since the new NBA rights deals were set (although I’m gonna guess Chuck holds onto the KNICKS . . . assuming he can find someone to coach them within the next 4 months).
AND: GOOGLE is now testing a function where you can now live the dream, and talk to your GOOGLE searches.
ALSO: Way to use those business extensions, APPLE. 👏
THEN: Who said there’s no money in the news business? NEWS CORP threw another $300k on CEO Robert Thompson’s payday in 2024, to hit $42M.
OH: In terms of chatbots replacing creative idea generation — a new study in Nature Human Behaviour (subscriber since ‘03) showed that 94% of ideas from folks who used CHATGPT to come up with plans for a toy involving a brick and a fan “shared overlapping concepts.” I.e. CHATGPT wasn’t too great at “fresh” creative.
Folks who used their brains and the internet produced the most “unique concepts.”
Granted, this is just CHATGPT 3.5 and 4 — who knows what 9 will yield, but certainly one in the win column for betting on noggin-generated creativity.
BUT: Your new toy brainstorming may have to take a backseat to OPENAI saying its future models will carry a “high risk” of being able to allow folks who aren’t too handy in a science lab to make biological weapons. Eh, ya know I’m sure everything will be fine — OPENAI said it’s also working on “fresh precautions.”
BTW: The barrage of fake AI-generated videos & images purported to be from the battlefields of the Israel-Iran conflict is already in full effect, according to 404 Media. Just imagine what they’ll look like when VEO / AI gets really good at this within a couple of years.
AH: YOUTUBE will integrate the VEO 3 AI video tool from its parent company into Shorts this summer.
Just a reco to check out Janice Min’s convo / pod with YT head Neal Mohan from Cannes this week if you haven’t already.
ALTHOUGH: Gotta love current Middle East nuclear geopolitics mirroring the plot points in the final act of Top Gun: Maverick. Way to go, Hollywood!
FINALLY: A happy Juneteenth holiday to folks out there today — not sure what the work policies are around town, but if it’s a crickets day as a result . . . I may skip a day in your inbox tomorrow.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Look at that! 2 big new movie entrants on the same weekend. What is this, 2017?
SONY’s 28 Years Later could go around $27M to $29M . . . or if it catches heat, land in the low $30M range.
PIXAR’s Elio is looking at $25M, although some think that’s a bit high. Immediately following a family film that opened to $84M isn’t great (I know this is “PIXAR’s weekend” in the summer, but . . . was this really the best slot for the movie?). Elemental opened to $30M two years ago.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
