☀️UNI’s Next Video Game Franchise Move
VERIZON kicks off Q1 #cordcutting / CBS settles DEI suit / FOCUS enters Christmas fray
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 22, 2025.
Where, sure, the UFC is great — but I’m beginning to think streamers have been focusing on the wrong sports deal negotiations when . . . egg rolling seems to be where the blue chip advertisers really wanna be. 🐣
I mean, META, YOUTUBE and AMAZON all made it a priority to sponsor this year’s highly competitive Easter Egg Roll event at The White House according to The Hill (presumably to cover the exorbitant egg budget) — rubbing elbows with other A-list luminary sponsors like the TOY ASSOCIATION and the INTERNATIONAL FRESH PRODUCE ASSOCIATION.
No idea how you missed this burgeoning hotbed, sports media.
THEN: Gotta love the list of folks selling shares in their companies in Q1/as the Trump administration began rolling out its policies. A sampling of the proceeds:
Jamie Dimon: $233M
ORACLE CEO Safra Catz: $705M
Ted Sarandos: $194M
Zuck: $733M
BUT: I’m afraid it’s time to start actually watching Oscar-nominated movies, folks. At least according to the new AMPAS rule changes, which mandate it in the final round of voting.
Viewing will be tracked for movies available in the Academy Screening room, and for the films not available there . . . folks will have to list when and where they saw them. Scout’s honor.
AI use was addressed — in that it’s basically up to each branch how they want to deal with it. Done and done.
AH: WaPo set an OPENAI licensing deal “strategic partnership” to feature stories from the publication with links in CHATGPT. No fee was disclosed.
DAMN 😒: AI — when did you become such a narc?! META will be using AI to catch teens using INSTA but using an incorrect age, and gently nudge them into accounts with teen settings.
OH: AI is also replacing basically all checkout lanes and self-checkout kiosks at SAM’S CLUB’s 600+ locations. You’ll now have to use the app to scan your items — but no more airport customs-like receipt scrutiny at the door thanks to AI-backed tech.
HOWEVER: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY student Chungin “Roy” Lee, who was suspended for creating an AI “tool” that “helped” software engineers cheat on job interviews, just got $5.3M in seed funding from venerable PE firms ABSTRACT and SUSA for his CLUELY AI app that lets you cheat on . . . whatever ya like with a hidden in-browser window giving you info based on an audio input.
And with a sales pitch video like this 👇 — “tool” is definitely the word that comes to mind first, but not in the way Chungin may be intending. Yeah . . . that is not how that date would end, bro.
THEN: Zuck The CHAN ZUCKERBERG INITIATIVE is closing the tuition-free elementary school it opened in the Bay Area 10 years ago. Sorry kids, the Mark Zuckerberg — Education Entrepreneur days are so 2010s . . .
HUH: The unrealized, uh, “hopes” for a great dealmaking environment in the Trump 2.0 Admin #whoknew (hey, it was called The Art of the Deal, not The Science of the Deal) is hitting the PE industry particularly hard — a very interesting WSJ read on how the inability to sell companies is putting gunk in the works of the PE biz.
SO: While Trump’s first 100 days mark isn’t quite here yet (8 more days to really turn things around! 🤞) — gotta love these two stats to date:
DOW JONES: On track for its worst April since 1932
S&P 500 Performance: Worst since Inauguration Day for any President since 1928
So yes, Fed Chief Jerome Powell is definitely the “loser” here.
OH: Enjoy your TESLA Q1 earnings call later today!
AND: Sinners came in even higher than the Sunday estimates for the weekend, at $48M in the U.S.
Richard and I brought our Slack conversations from this weekend to life in a live chat yesterday about the treatment of this film to date, and how the fetch-like Mike & Pam “narrative” has been toxic to the past 6 weeks in this business, culminating in this black eye for industry coverage.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
