☀️PIXAR’s ‘Hoppers’ Pop; WB’s ‘Bride’ Jilted
NETFLIX gets Pine pic / SONY picks up new Mezrich book / Byron Allen’s STARZ play
Evenin! 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 SUNDAY, March 8, 2026.
Where let’s begin with a shout out to the Brady Bunch house (yeah, I didn’t see that one coming either).
The Studio City home was granted landmark status by the L.A. City Council last week, making it a historic-cultural monument. Don’t worry, FaZe Clan mansion — I’m sure your day will come someday too.
ALSO: SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have extended their talks another week, leading right into the WGA talks on March 16.
PLUS: Health insurance and pension funding hit the top of the list of WGA priorities approved by members for AMPTP negotiations, followed by increasing minimum payments and AI protections. The full list is here, and talks begin next Monday.
Here is your list of WGA Award winners (updating as announced).
WELL: NETFLIX exited its partnership with Meghan Markle’s AS EVER home products line.
AH: Several states are coalescing to challenge the impending $6.2B NEXSTAR / TEGNA local station behemoth deal that Brendan Carr is so fond of, including CA, NY and CO.
If the FCC changes its reach rule to approve the deal (or essentially eliminates the 39% population reach cap), the states will likely challenge on antitrust grounds, asserting that the combined company will have too much concentration in some local TV markets.
The combined company would own stations reaching about 60% of Americans, and own multiple major local TV stations in some markets.
THEN: The L.A. Times had good follow-up details on the course of events in the latest Shell saga at PSKY.
OH: A sign of the times — a positive one, IMO — is that we now have an app that can alert you/your phone if someone around you is wearing smart glasses (i.e., that could be recording you. The app is ANDROID-only for now.
YUP: There was more money bet on KALSHI for college basketball in February ($2.27B) than the NBA ($1.74B). Granted, college basketball has a bigger inventory of games . . . but still noteworthy.
YAH: FOX and TELEMUNDO got a nice handout from FIFA for the men’s World Cup this summer, as they can cut to commercials during the newly mandated 2.5-minute mid-half “hydration breaks,” thereby increasing the ad inventory they can sell.
AND: OPENAI hit a $25B annual run-rate revenue mark (take last month’s revenue and x12). ANTHROPIC hit $20B by the same metric last month.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Well, I’m counting this a win for my fellow 39% bulls as DISNEY PIXAR’s Hoppers is right on the cusp of my demarcation point . . . but 37% you get points too.
FINALLY: Kudos for SNL having some fun with Ryan Gosling’s tendency to break during sketches last night — although Ashley Padilla seemed to have a harder time not doing so in this.
🎥 THE BOX OFFICE
