Mornin'! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED-IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY Feb. 16, 2023.
Where some days you wake up to this moment in human achievement 🤯 — breaking your school’s single-game scoring record, going 50% from three-point land, in the same game where you break the all-time college women’s hoops 🏀 scoring record… like this 👇
AND: Some days you also wake up to this kind of moment… 🤬
So, who had “Sora” in the office pool for the name of the tool that would decimate the video creation business? It means “sky” in Japanese for those keeping score at home (it’s also likely unintentionally, but nevertheless comically close to “Sorta”).
It’s not (yet) a public product, with OpenAI’s researchers still testing it out. And by researchers, I’m sure they mean their Legal and Business Development 🤑 departments.
Obviously, from political video deepfakes in an election year (can’t wait til the Taylor Swift: U.S. Government Operative people get to play with it) to better fake celebrity porn, the sky’s the limit for humankind advancement with this new tool.
Now, if OpenAI could only answer prompts like “How do I get a celebrity to stop suing me?” and “Create me a $50 million marketing spend for my Sora-generated movie”, then I think we’ll be getting somewhere.
But anyone without A.I. at the top of their 2026 guild negotiations list, or who is under any misconception that this won’t lead to massive job loss on the digital artist sides of our business for starters… should probably take that voluntary severance package offer and find a new business.
an image from one of the videos. This person is not real, nor does “he” need to be paid any residuals or be fed lunch on set.
(note: OpenAI wisely didn’t use any celebrity’s name in its sample video text prompts. Again, no one knows what OpenAI has fed Sora to create these videos — this could very well be a real actor from a show or movie).
THEN:Sports HULU will very likely get a DOJ review“according to two people familiar with the process”… whenever there are actually details and a product to review (in case there was any doubt here to begin with).
WELL: In case you needed further proof that the real money in celebrity is in the Consumer Packaged Goods business, LeBron is starting his own grooming products line based around his brand, The Shop (which… actually sounds very smart). The WSJ takes a look at the state of all things SPRINGHILL here (revenue rate: $200 Million, mostly from making ads for brands, and its studio business).
😬: META is now making advertisers pay the 30% APPLE app store vig if they buy ad boosts via FB and INSTA apps on iOS (if they do it on via the websites, it’s cheaper). I mean, they’d really love to help ya’ll out… but META stock is only up +65% in the past 6 months.
HMM: I guess it’s reassuring that FORD is dealing with the same issue that DISNEY was in 2023, in that leadership taking its eyes off the “quality” ball has resulted in massive 💰💰 losses there too (all while giving FORD divisional management leaders 100% of their potential annual bonus ranges during that time). Hmm. Maybe they should start teaching this “quality is important” lesson in MBA programs 🤔.
