☀️‘Wicked’ Soars, But Can’t Save ’24 Box Office Comps
NETFLIX gets A24 military show / Middle East indie film deal 🔥 / LEGENDARY eyes Sweeney, Centineo combo
Evenin! 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 SUNDAY, November 23, 2025.
Where it’s nice to see the GIANTS and Hollywood have something in common, in that both of them never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, as Rushfield always says.
Well, at least the over 1,000 yards of total offense in the game was entertaining even if the overtime that came after deciding not to go with a field goal that would have made the difference for a win, was not.
THEN: La La Anthony will host the first annual TIKTOK Awards at the Hollywood Palladium on Dec. 18.
PLUS: Donald Glover shared that a stroke is what caused him to cancel his tour last year, and the 42-year-old also said doctors discovered a hole in his heart, which still requires another procedure to fix.
OH: Todd Boehly’s next acquisition with his ELDRIDGE INDUSTRIES investment firm? CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITCHEN. He was one of 2 main sources of funding for an investment group that bought the business for around $300M.
AH: KALSHI’s valuation is going from $5B in an investment round 2 months ago to $11B in a new round currently being finalized.
REMEMBER: KALSHI is legal in every state (or maybe just not banned?), while actual gambling apps still can’t operate in the 3 of the 4 biggest states in the country (CA, FL, TX).
You also only need to be 18 to use “predictions” apps, not 21 like most gambling apps. Not that teen boys haven’t found a way to work around that on either platform.
#FunFact 1 — Total weekly action on KALSHI and POLYMARKET 4x’d once the NFL season started this year, to hit $2B a week by mid-October for all
wagerspredictions on the platform.#FunFact 2 — Americans bet about $150B on sports in 2024 alone. This was before the material rise in the use of “prediction market” apps to do so.
That annual online gambling number was only about $16B total back in 2019, when it was available in far fewer states.
#FunFact 3— Bankruptcies went up as much as 30% in states that legalized online gambling in recent years, according to a UCLA study. Granted, it wasn’t peer reviewed, but even if it was more like 20% . . . that’s still something to behold.
PLUS: Just an interesting trial going on in NC that’s using drones to fly defibrillators to folks suffering cardiac arrest in more rural areas (i.e., faster than an ambulance can arrive). Hopefully they don’t get hit by other drones flying your DOORDASH McFlurry order to your house.
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Kudos to the 23% on Wicked: For Good, the eyes on my fellow 18%’ers were a bit too large.
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