☀️SONY’s Rothman Blasts ‘Ad Crack,’ Bets on Zuck, Spidey, Jumanji
NETFLIX ❤️ Nick Jonas, Alan Ritchson / NEON sets new exec appointments / ANGEL ups the ’26 volume
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 Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
Where ya gotta love AMC THEATRES getting a nice stock bump as CINEMACON begins!
The stock was +7% yesterday as the Super Mario and Hail Mary combo seems to have given investors some hope for the company’s fortunes.
Granted, the stock is still in the danger zone at $1.45 a share, but that’s better than the under $1 status it had at the end of March. The stock is +32% since then.
So, yes — that means AMC is really counting on you to deliver your legendary and highly anticipated A-game in the WB presentation later today, Jeff Goldstein.
AND: Yet another Trump lawsuit has been dismissed by a judge. This time, it’s the WSJ lawsuit Trump filed over the Epstein birthday card story. It was dismissed with prejudice, allowing Trump to refile . . . which his legal team has indicated it will do.
OH: The Devil Wears Prada 2 premiere will be live-streamed on DIS+ and HULU on Monday, April 20, from Lincoln Center in NYC, and yes, I am available to do fashion commentary on the carpet.
YAH: NEXSTAR is replacing national news reports from ABC/NBC/CBS NEWS in its respective local affiliate news broadcasts with reports from its NEWSNATION network.
AHA: NETFLIX set another soccer deal — this time in Mexico for the Nations League finals and the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournaments in 2027 and 2029. Again, that new #pricehikes 💰 is increasingly going toward more sports.
YUP: The MLB’s ABS/’instant replay’ addition this year to challenge pitch calls is adding about 5 minutes onto the length of games so far. 54% of the 932 challenged pitches have been overturned.
THEN: SNL is changing homes in Canada, moving from airing live on GLOBAL TV to CTV. It’ll stream on the network’s streamer, CRAVE, which also recently picked up the next-day rights to the SNL U.K. version.
SNL U.K. TV audiences have leveled out around 120k/130k on Saturday nights, as the show has a week off before coming back with its final 4 episodes for this season.
The series premiere had 226k viewers in overnight BARB ratings.
ALSO: Nicola Coughlan and Aimee Lou Wood are your next SNL U.K. hosts
PLUS: The day in WARNAMOUNT developments:
The list of Hollywood boldfaced names opposing the WARNAMOUNT deal now includes J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, Bryan Cranston, Jane Fonda, Jason Bateman, Ben Stiller, Tiffany Haddish, Joaquin Phoenix, Noah Wyle, Emma Thompson, Yorgos Lanthimos and more, as part of an open letter released yesterday signed by over 1,000 creatives.
PAR responded yesterday, saying the WARNAMOUNT deal will allow the company to “greenlight more projects” and provide “creators” with “more avenues for their work, not fewer.”
The U.K.’s antitrust authority, the CMA, has now begun seeking comments from interested parties as it reviews the WARNAMOUNT deal.
Damon Lindelof stated his reasoning for signing onto the letter yesterday in a thoughtful IG post.
SEPARATE BUT NOT: UNITED AIRLINES then told WARNAMOUNT to hold its beer, as Bloomberg reported that UNITED’s CEO has been floating the idea of a merger or business tie-up of some sort with AMERICAN, thus bringing our Wall-E BUY N LARGE future potentially one step closer.
He also pitched the notion to Trump in late February, according to Reuters.
You’ll be shocked to hear that Trump’s DOT head said there’s room for airline mergers in late February, as JETBLUE has reportedly been looking for a deal.
AH: It seems Trump’s Obamacare subsidy cuts this year will hit Florida residents and its overall healthcare system the hardest. And you say Democrats flipped the state House district where Mar-a-Lago is, last month?
OUCH: Yeah, this chart isn’t promising for anyone in college right now. Bloomberg also has some good color from recent graduates about their job market experiences here.
ALSO: Sebastian Maniscalco is the next comedic name to get his own SIRIUSXM channel and show on the audio streamer, replacing the Raw Comedy channel.
ELAINE LOW TENNIS NEWS: NETFLIX announced a couple of tennis docs as the prime summer tournament season comes upon us:
Rafa 4-part docuseries on May 26 (teaser here)
Chris & Martina: The Final Match doc on June 29
🎞️ CINEMACON 2026
SONY brings Zuck, Spidey and Jumanji to party in Vegas, and advice for theater owners
Well, last year’s director-heavy presentation was certainly not repeated this year . . . as SONY definitely had more actors than just Ralph Macchio and Ben Wang this time out.
SONY also needs some momentum with theater owners after a #notgreatbob 2025, although GOAT was a good start following the 28 Years Later sequel stumble.
Although I wouldn’t exactly say SONY was walking into a hot room after a rather glitch-laden presentation involving sponsor BARCA and a short film whose purpose I’m still entirely sure of.
SO: Wisely, SONY led with Nate Bargatze essentially doing a very effective crowd warmup, followed by an intro with Mandy Moore for a scene from their new pic The Breadwinner, which played . . . OK.
Tom Rothman then shared his ideas for the movie biz ills, namely:
Shorter pre-shows — get rid of the “endless advertising” . . . or as Tom also put it in his unique way: “Get off the ad crack.”
Make or keep tickets affordable (I’m honestly not entirely sure where things currently stand in his POV).
Enforce longer theatrical windows
I can’t say the “Charge less, and take in less advertising revenue” pitch went over gangbusters with America’s theater owners, but presumably he’s saying the longer tail/release windows will help make up 💰 gaps — to which a theater owner response might be “Um yeah, how ‘bout some more movies, like we used to get?” . . . but I’ll leave that for them to sort out.
BUT: Given that UNIVERSAL has abandoned its 17-day window policy, and Ellison has committed to 45-day windows at a WARNAMOUNT . . . I think the windows thing was more pressing when he mentioned it last year. I also laid out the state of the matter here last month.
Now, onto the goods. No real banger announcements, a la The Beatles last year, but a few CINEMACON Presentation Awards:
Biggest Mic Drop Moment(s)
Biggest Question Mark
Best Thing I Saw
And the rest of the talent, starpower and new announcements.