☀️NETFLIX Buys Affleck AI Company; TKO’s ’26 Ambitions
Another big CBS News departure / WB ‘Ocean’s’-Director Split / Jolie pic to VERTICAL
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, March 5, 2026.
Where we have good news for Hollywood “content”! You’ve been upstaged by burger “product.”
Yes, I’m here all day for all of the MCDONALD’S rivals dunking on this IG reel of the company’s CEO hyping up the new Big Arch burger product (yes, he referred to it as a product) and taking the weakest first bite of a burger by someone whose career rests on selling hamburgers.
ELSEWHERE IN FOOD MARKETING: CRACKER BARREL customer traffic is -10% YoY in the 3-month period ending Jan. 30, with sales -7%. #UncleHershelsRevenge!
HUH: 18% of home property transfers in CA last year were from inherited homes, not market sales. That’s more than 2x the national average.
OH: If you’re looking for more Epstein / Hollywood Venn diagram reading — Peggy Siegel defends her ties in NY Mag here.
THEN: Add the EP of CBS Mornings, Shawna Thomas, to the list of folks departing CBS NEWS in the Bari era. This, as Gayle King renewed her contract, much to the chagrin of the media pundit industrial complex.
The show is a far cry from the Chris Licht era, which saw notable consistent growth from the Early Show days from a pivot to harder news — and approach that sounds like it may be softened even further in the impending revamp, according to Variety.
PLUS: Call it a rebrand effect, or a more batshit crazy Trump news cycle than usual effect (or a little of both) — either way, MS NOW’s total viewer count is seeing double-digit % growth since the MS NOW rebrand in November.
AND: Trump upped his purchase of NETFLIX bonds (debt) in January, adding $600k to $1.2M to his previously amassed $500k to $1M from December. Man, good thing he was staying out of the deal! 😅
YEAH: Gotta love 2025 hitting a new high mark of people withdrawing funds early / taking a hardship withdrawal from their 401(k)’s, according to VANGUARD.
2025: 6% of workers
2024: 4.8%
Pre-pandemic average: 2%
OH: The 2 biggest reasons for the withdrawals? Welcome to America in 2026:
Avoiding foreclosure and eviction
Paying medical expenses
Don’t worry, folks — I hear the economy is going so well!
YAH: This Axios chart 👇 is also something to consider about how Trump dudes may be feeling about the Trump economy over the past year these days. Having new job growth basically just in health care and education is playing a role in the skew.
D’OH: OPENAI’s week keeps getting better — it’s now shutting down the feature to buy things in the app that CHATGPT finds for you on the internet that it notably touted just a few months ago. The purchases will now take place inside of specific apps that plug into CHATGPT.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
DISNEY/PIXAR’s Hoppers is getting some good notices from critics as, heaven forbid, just a fun movie! I love those! Tracking is around $37M-ish, but a couple folks see this with far more upside — how you feelin’?
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
