☀️UNI’s New Movie Tactics Bring Hope
Oscars betting 💰 / WB, Bradley Cooper talk ‘Ocean’s 11’ / CBS, HBO see solid March results
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 Friday, March 13, 2026.
Where it seems we can add a . . . helium gas shortage to the list of daily rising fears in the Middle East due to Trump’s Iran war (oh — welcome back, above 6% mortgage interest rates!).
It seems America’s favorite investor, Qatar (aka the potential new PAPA JOHN’S owner — yes, that’s real), provides about 1/3 of the world’s helium . . . which is a key component in the making of silicon chips in APAC — especially for AI chips used in data centers.
And yeah — that helium is no longer leaving Qatar, so the folks in APAC are getting a bit nervous (never mind that restaurants in India are already shutting down due to natural gas shortages).
But wait, can’t they just float it there? Look, there are no bad ideas in a crisis, folks.
THEN: DISNEY sold all of its Oscars ad inventory, which is good because I hear the show is in 2 days. Ad rates were up double-digits YoY, and 30-second spots are going for the neighborhood of $2M.
YES: Hope you’re ready for the big, uh, “Movie Awards” / “Film Awards” on Sunday night! Or at least that’s what KALSHI is calling The Oscars in its programmatic podcast platform audio ads pushing for you to gamble on the show . . . likely since it has no official ties with the show or AMPAS.
Special thanks to the Wakeup reader who forwarded this! As soon as I get Wakeup merch, uh, you’ll get some.
BTW: See how much you can win on Sunday night for your expertise down below today — Matthew Frank has assembled some pretty good payouts if you think there’s an upset in the offing.
ALSO: CBS is gonna run it back with the UFC next month, airing 2 hours of UFC 327 on Saturday, April 11, in Miami from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. (in addition to the entire card being on PAR+).
So, gonna guess we’ll see some promo during men’s March Madness, although note that the Final Four and Championship are on the T-NETS this year, the weekend before this fight.
YEAH: Gotta love Slack messages between LIVE NATION employees joking about how much fun it is to gouge people with the company’s pricing policies.
OH: As the NWSL ⚽️ kicks its new season off tonight, it’s still looking for a new CMO and a COO — if ya know someone, give league commish Jessica Berman a call.
BUT: Not a great day at the BUZZFEED headquarters yesterday — revenue was -2.4% for 2025, it has $30.5M of debt due within the next year and . . . $8.5M of cash on hand. The stock is now fully in 🚨 territory once again, well below $1 at $0.67 a share.
The company also said it has “substantial doubts” that it can remain as a going concern.
FINALLY: A thanks to The Onion for keeping it real on the 2026 ahead.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Ok, I’m not that high on the prospects for UNI’s Reminders of Him . . . but I’m also wary of counting out the power of the young female demo and Colleen Hoover and will keep a good thought.
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🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
UNIVERSAL joins rest of Hollywood on movie windows, as signs of movie biz hope continue
If there is one upside to come out of a WARNAMOUNT deal, should it go through — the TEAMSTERS told the DOJ it should be stopped yesterday unless worker protections are put in place (I didn’t see any specific tenets laid out) — is that all of Sarandos & Ellison’s talk of 45-day theatrical windows (7 weekends) has started a movement!
Man, CINEMACON’s gonna be rockin’ next month!
Yes, UNIVERSAL PICTURES, the leading architect of the 17-day theatrical window, which had 0 movies with 45-day windows in 2025, has now committed to:
5 weekends in theaters for its releases this year
7 weekends starting in 2027
And it announced that via the NY Times, so no takebacks!
FOCUS FEATURES pics won’t adhere to this, or at least it’s keeping flexibility. Note that:
Hamnet had over 2 months in theaters
Bugonia had 4 weekends in theaters
Song Sung Blue had just 3 weekends until PVOD.
BASICALLY: An acknowledgement that yeah, the audience for these films just hasn’t returned to anywhere near pre-Covid levels on the whole — not to mention the loss of many theaters that show these films — and that these movies are seeing meaningful revenues from PVOD soon after theatrical release.
SO
Let’s take a dive into:
This soon-to-be notably quite different lay of the land for the theatrical movie business going into 2027.
A look at the 🔥 activity that’s been going on in the film development offices in Hollywood over the past 6-9 months
And . . . yes, there’s no guarantee this all works to change the business’ fortunes — but Hollywood really seems to be building up to really give a shit about, and fight for the existence of its most esteemed industry as we sit here on the cusp of Oscars weekend.