☀️NETFLIX’s ‘Carry-On’ Hits Huge — The Comps To Know
CA awards next round of tax credits / Top MARVEL exec departing / Big TV cancellation & renewal day
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY, December 18, 2024.
Where a kudos to SALESFORCE for giving a true snapshot of our AI future — its new “Agentforce” customer service AI bot that can handle complex questions cut SALESFORCE’s number of customer service interactions requiring a human in half.
CEO Marc Benioff told The Information that “the plan” is to move staff to other units like sales and engineering . . . because as we all know, people in customer service are also well equipped for tech engineering roles. #funfact
SALESFORCE has laid off 1,000 people in 2024.
AND: Here are your Oscar shortlists for 2024 across 10 categories.
THEN: Here is your latest list of shows and movies getting CA tax credits . . . including a show set in Florida:
PLUS: Sure — A24 movies are great, but Josh Kushner’s THRIVE CAPITAL just can’t get enough AI. THRIVE is leading the new $10B Series J funding round (they go up that high?) for data analytics & AI firm DATABRICKS.
This on the same day that DATABRICKS CEO Ali Ghodsi said we’re in a “peak AI bubble” at an AXIOS conference. Er, just not his company, mind you. (To be fair — DATABRICKS is nearing $3B in annual revenue on an annual run rate basis.)
Note — DATABRICKS was looking to raise $3B to $4B in this round, but there was just too much money flooding in to say no to apparently. 🤷♂️
The NYT puts the incoming interest at $19B . . . so yeah, fellas, $10B is all that our Excel spreadsheets can handle — but know that we really feel terrible about not being able to take all of your money.
Yeah, this crash is gonna be super fun . . .
AH: CAA made a broad partnership with YOUTUBE to give some of its clients access to YT tools that identify AI-generated content on YT that features their “digital likeness.”
So add that to the list of work & 💰 outlay that #BigTech is laying off to someone else to do and pay for.
KUDOS: To DISNEY (and UNI) on this one — I feel confident saying these folks aren’t flying in to see ORLANDO MAGIC games.
ALSO: Not a great day for Saudi-backed pro golf yesterday . . . congrats to the PGA duo ⛳️ of Scheffler & McIlroy for handily beating the LIV duo of Koepka & DeChambeau in the Crypto.com Showdown, winning $10M in, uh, crypto. 🥴
Gotta love Scheffler’s response to the generic “What are you gonna do with your prize” question in the presentation ceremony:
“You know I, uh, I don’t know a whole lot about crypto but this is some good motivation to do some research.”
He’s 28.
AND: Updates below in the SPORTS MEDIA section today on LIV’s search for a new U.S. TV home — it currently does not have one for the 2025 season which begins . . . in about 7 weeks.
DO-OVER: For my branding folks — never let it be said that the WWE doesn’t listen to the people. Meet your new RAW logo when the show launches on NETFLIX next month (previous attempt last month is on the right). Good call.
FINALLY: DISNEY agreed to pay $233M to settle a class action lawsuit by Disneyland workers claiming underpayment per Anaheim regulations.
IN TODAY’S EDITION
NETFLIX’s Carry-On is now one of its top film openings ever — see the comps to know. This is in very elite territory.
PLUS: How It All Ends With Us stacks up against other SONY pics and the other studio pic doing big numbers last week.
ALSO: Megan Fox is showing some pull with NETFLIX viewers.
AND: Where the other big hits are coming from in the world this week for NETFLIX . . . as NETFLIX’s Top 9 movies globally had their biggest weekly viewership total in at least the past 2 years.
📽 THE SILVER TV 📺
