☀️NETFLIX Film Animation's Week of Highs & Lows
FOCUS, AMBLN re-team on 'Salesman' / HBO, SKY order legal series / Barris sets up CBS comedy
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, August 20, 2025.
Where finally, token middle-aged white guys are getting a break!
Or at least 52-year-old actor Scott Jacqmein is — you may have seen him in your TIKTOK feed lately trying to pitch you something. Well, make that his AI slop equivalent.
This after TIKTOK paid him (via an agency) to make his digital likeness available for any advertiser to create an AI-generated ad with, as long as they abide by the platform’s marketing guidelines (without actually having to shoot anything or hire actors, naturally).
So, I hope Scott is enjoying that whopping . . . $750 one-time payment with no royalties whatsoever — and the free trip to SF to scan every inch of his likeness for use all across the world by a company making billions 💰 from the result.
I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear that Scott and the other performers who did this have also found that their ads (that they didn’t approve, nor got paid to shoot) were somehow also appearing on IG, FB and YT as well . . . without the small print AI labeling that exists on the TT ads.
And you say private equity has been actively investing in the advertising firm business lately? Hmm. Note that META made $35B in net profit alone in the first 6 months of this year.
AND: Gotta love the irony of the META AI division looking at downsizing itself (it’s also now re-org’ing into 4 different groups, and yes — one is called superintelligence).
PLUS: Your ESPN D2C / NFL+ (including RedZone) combo subscription price will be $40 a month, launching Sept. 3 (a $5 a month savings). Or $200 for the full season, essentially.
That’s the same price as the ESPN D2C & FOX ONE combo launching in October.
THEN: HOME DEPOT is giving Hollywood a new way to sneak #pricehikes into its communications 🥳 — the company is expecting “modest price movement” in some of its product categories this year.
Coincidentally, the company also said that it will thus still hit its financial guidance for 2025. Funny how that works (it also noted that folks are still mainly holding off on larger purchases / major home projects).
Also, enjoy the Trump admin widening tariffs on things like air conditioners, office furniture and generators. Sure that’ll help HOME DEPOT sales — or at least their “price movements.”
AH: MCDONALD’S is also lowering combo meal prices after its customers weren’t lovin’ the uh, ‘modest price movement’ that had begun to creep into the deals.
OH: If your college kid is a big CHIPOTLE stan — it’s launching a college student discount / loyalty program. The company has over 250 locations within 2 miles of a college campus.
ALSO: Just a hello to any readers commuting in from New Jersey today (hopefully you’re at the office by now reading this).
CORRECTION FROM YESTERDAY: LEGENDARY is not involved in the Mortal Kombat II pic at WB this October, so their movies together are all 2026/27 (and they are partners on the Detective Pikachu franchise, for which a sequel is in development).
UPDATE TO YESTERDAY: The most-watched WWE PLE in H1 2025 on NETFLIX actually wasn’t the WrestleMania Sunday edition — rather, it was the Royal Rumble in early February at 3M views internationally.
My apology for the omission — all other WWE programming had “WWE” in the name in the NETFLIX H1 #datadump except for Rumble for some reason, so it didn’t come up in my search.
REST IN PEACE: Goes out to longtime comedy manager David Steinberg, who repped Billy Crystal, Robin Williams and others, who died at the age of 81 this week.
IN THIS EDITION
NETFLIX Animated Films closes in on an extreme new high and encounters a very low . . . low this week in the new Top 9 Films chart, as KPop is now destined for 2 company landmarks.
AND: Perhaps it’ll hit a 3rd NETFLIX landmark as well this weekend — KPop Demon Hunters already has over 1,000 sell-out screenings in movie theaters this Saturday/Sunday — and it’s only Wednesday morning.
FOCUS launches a big project, Alien gets a strong start at FX, the WNBA has a record showing on ABC and IRL this year and . . . yeah, a bunch of other stuff. Come join.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
