☀️ Zaz On 'Younger' Movie Comedy, #PriceHikes, CNN & More
Gervais sets new NETFLIX show / PAR, NFLX product exec moves / Latest NFL, College 🏈 #s
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, September 11, 2025.
Where before we dive into the events of the day across the media & entertainment business, it’s important to take a moment to start with where my mind certainly begins on Sept. 11 every year in NYC, now 24 years later.
AND: NJ’s Montclair Film Fest set NETFLIX’s Jay Kelly as its opening film, as well as:
BLACK BEAR’s Christy as the closing night film
SEARCHLIGHT’s Rental Family as the centerpiece
APPLE TV+’s Come See Me In the Good Light as the featured doc
Fest begins Oct. 17, pre-sale begins Sept. 29
YAH: Season 2 of AMAZON’s Beast Games was given an up to $15M grant from the North Carolina government as part of the state’s incentive program (note the term “grant” was used, not a tax incentive, but it seems like the goals of employing people and spending money in the state are the same).
UH: If you lost 1.4 tons of cocaine on your last superyacht trip — I have good news and bad news.
YUP: French streaming music platform DEEZER reported that 28% of the songs uploaded to the service each day are fully AI-generated, amounting to about 30k+ songs a day. #AISlop
That number was 20k+ just 5 months ago.
70% of the plays on the AI songs were also deemed to be fraudulent according to the company’s AI detection system.
ALSO: Bad Bunny, one of the world’s largest recording artists, has decided to skip the U.S. entirely on his tour explicitly due to concerns that the U.S. government will use the events as raiding opportunities to harass or round up fans who are simply attending a music concert.
This after ICE was recently granted a Supreme Court-backed freedom to use the color of someone’s skin as a
deciding“relevant factor” in their work.
THEN: AMAZON joined the autonomous driving taxi business today, as its ZOOX business (sadly, it seems the name ZOINKS was already taken by a guy named Scooby) started accepting rides from the general public today on the Vegas strip — and get them while they’re free, as the company is still awaiting full regulatory approval.
AH: The swamp draining continues . . . as the Trump admin has halted the I.R.S.’ efforts to shut down a bunch of aggressive tax shelters used by rich folk and American corporations. Finally, I catch a break!
PLUS: Having more cops in NYC subway stations seems to have helped the crime rate, as major crimes in the subway system hit 15-year lows this summer.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
The forecasts for the SONY CRUNCHYROLL Demon Slayer pic are . . . I think “vast” covers it. The conservative side is $35M to $40M. The somewhat bullish folks are around $50M+, and some very bullish folks are around $65M to $70M+. So, let’s just cast 3 tranches.
📝 IN OTHER WORDS . . . GOLDMAN Conference Edition — WBD
DAVID ZASLAV
Zaz came to play with a WB/D divorce timeline update, and some movie group, HBO MAX and CNN intel guidance too (a dive into Mark Shapiro’s comments on TKO revenue growth, UFC int’l rights and more follows down in the sports media section as well).