Transcript: How Ari & Iger Outfoxed Wall Street
Hollywood's one-two punch beat back critics, activists, complainers
Ed note: We’re nominated for a 2024 Webby for Independent Publisher in email newsletters! Be sure to vote for us here by April 18th!
Sean McNulty (00:04):
Welcome to The Ankler Podcast. This is Sean McNulty of The Wakeup newsletter here at The Ankler here in New York City on Thursday, April 4th. I'm joined by Elaine Low in Los Angeles. Richard got so inspired by the Disney annual meeting yesterday that he decided he had to go to do a Disneyland to test out all the rides, Elaine. So he's not here today. That's what it is.
Elaine Low (00:22):
That seems like a perfectly fair thing to do. I would have done the same.
Sean McNulty (00:26):
He's a stickler for that quality control. He just must make sure Iger has it controlled and Nelson's gone now, so somebody has to keep an eye on Bob Iger there.
Elaine Low (00:35):
Yeah, we're going to have to get the full food report from him too when he gets back. How was your food quality control over at Disney?
Sean McNulty (00:41):
Yeah. Taking detailed notes for Mr. Iger, Richard ever joking, but he's enjoying a little downtime this week. So it's a two-hander today with good old Elaine and Sean. Wait, Elaine, how did you get top billing? What happened there?
Elaine Low (00:53):
I went in and tweaked your script a little, Sean.
Sean McNulty (00:55):
That's definitely not how I wrote it. But anyway, before we get started, just a reminder, you can catch The Ankler crew over on LA's number one NPR station and Southern California public radio's flagship radio station, 89.3 LAist throughout the day every Thursday as partner of their Entertainment Thursday programming during Morning Edition, AirTalk, and All Things Considered. And of course, you can reach us here at the podcast anytime at podcasts, plural podcasts, @theankler.com.
(01:22):
Today we're going to get into Elaine's great interview in her Series Business column with a top TV exec on the state of series buying, budgets, staffing, and much more. We have, well, a little bit of Paramount news, but if I can tell by Elaine's face, she's very excited to talk about that. So maybe we'll get that somewhat brief, which is also the same look she gave me when I told her there was another Matrix movie coming. So very excited about that, Elaine.
Elaine Low (01:46):
I've actually seen all of them.
Sean McNulty (01:48):
Yeah. Are you in for a Matrix 5?
Elaine Low (01:49):
That's like a milestone for me. I mean, come on.
Sean McNulty (01:51):
That is. In this podcast, that is, a hundred percent. All right, Matrix 5. Elaine is in. All right, good job mining that vaults, Warner Brothers. Has the Warner Brothers reboot thing become a little bit comical by now, Elaine? Am I fair in that assessment or am I being too hard on it in the newsletter?
Elaine Low (02:06):
Who isn't scraping from the bottom of the IP barrel? That's what I want to know.
Sean McNulty (02:10):
All right.
Elaine Low (02:10):
Look, I'm in the middle of watching the new X-Men animated series on Disney Plus right now. So I am not complaining about some of the IP barrel scrapes here.
Sean McNulty (02:20):
You're talking about the IP, fair enough. I stand down. Also, David Lidsky is going to join us again this week to dive into all things Endeavor, making a lot of news this week, and help me pour one out for Endeavor as a public company, come 2025 and dive into some various curious things to note about what's ahead for the assets that Ari, Patrick, and the team assembled over there over the past few years. So we'll dive into all of that. Ari Emanuel, Patrick Whitesell, good stuff there at Endeavor. And we'll of course give you the latest on The Ankler's Players Tournament as the giants of our industry get down to the final, final rounds here to battle it out for, I think it's an Ankler hat, Elaine. Is that the prize we got for winning Hollywood?
Elaine Low (02:57):
I wear that hat regularly. It is a fine quality hat.
Sean McNulty (03:01):
I have mine as well. Maybe we can throw in a signed eight by 10 glossy from Richard. We'll see. We'll see. We'll get creative on maybe whatever we can sweeten the pot here. So we'll get into that. And finally, Elaine, we are up for a Webby Award. That's excitement on Elaine's face. That's the Elaine's excited phase.
Elaine Low (03:18):
Get your voting clickers out, guys. I don't know what that means, Sean.
Sean McNulty (03:23):
You sound like Richard now, by the way. That's a very, "Get your clickers out, you all." Okay, well, thankfully we are taking care of that. The link to vote is in the show notes for the podcast here, and it's also in the Thursday and Friday editions of The Wakeup, which you can access there at theankler.com. The link will be in there as well. So please vote early, vote often, or vote once, whatever you got for us at The Webbys. All right, shifting gears here. Elaine, are you a voting Disney shareholder?
Elaine Low (03:47):
No, but quite the little drama we've seen unfold and finally conclude, eh?