☀️ WBD Q2: Film, Streaming 👍, Linear TV 😩
Cable TV MIA in Ellison PAR vision letter / Michael Bay leaves NETFLIX pic / WWE shares more ESPN details
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 Thursday, August 7, 2025.
Where a happy #TrumpTariffs day to you, kind sir and madam. May you enjoy your new feeling of liberation this weekend. From your money.
AND: Happy PSKY day to the rest of us, as the deal is street legal — and definitely some things to note down below today in Ellison’s first letter to the public as CEO.
As the deal is official, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins also get their $18M+ paydays for staying until the end. Former CFO Naveen Chopra left early, and gave up his $12M check. George Cheeks is obviously staying on.
PLUS: Well, its an earnings day so the top here is light — time to dive into:
Everything you need to know about WBD, including how things look at both the WB and the D (which are . . . quite different), and some interesting bread crumbs on DISCO GLOBAL’s sports streaming future.
Dive into the new key details TKO shared around both the financials for its WWE / ESPN deal (including some a new ad time component), and its upcoming new boxing promotion financials.
AND: Some possible good news / bad news about who may have to pay the $30 a month to watch the WWE PLEs next year, and who gets it free with their cable TV bundle.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
WB/NLC’s Weapons seems to have a lot of heat . . . tracking has been ticking up as pre-sales info has come in, so what was once around $30M has some thinking it could be more like $40M. But with horror, sometimes that data can be very frontloaded / overheated.
What say you?
WBD ❤️ Movies, Streaming . . . but Linear TV numbers 😩
Let’s start with the big headlines in Q2 by division, as there are a lotta developments across all the significant sectors (streaming, studio, linear).
I’ll begin with 2 of our favorite streaming lever revenue boosters: Password Crackdowns and #PriceHikes!
Plus, there are some . . . curious broad strokes on what the sports streaming plan will be post WBD split.
And these linear TV numbers . . . oh boy. Yeah, those DISCO GLOBAL earnings calls are going to be very intriguing later next year.
Plus some WB movie output updates, a breakdown of what the quarters would have looked like as 2 separate WB and D companies, and more.