☀️ SKYDANCE Cuts, Layoffs & HBO-PAR+ Timelines Revealed

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty, and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026.

Where I’ll start the day with a note of thanks and a moment of acknowledgment for all of our veterans and the sacrifices they’ve made to serve our country.

BUT: At least you can now use your American freedoms to spend your credit card points on . . . gambling! Yes, America 2027 is really looking bright, as AMEX is backing a FANATICS-branded credit card.

• You can earn “FanCash” to buy sports collectibles and team merch, naturally, but you can also spend it on your hottest “predictions” on sports games.
• Note that FanCash is worth less when you use it to redeem betting money than when you use it elsewhere at FANATICS —so yes, you’re already losing money before you bet on the JETS.

NO: Daniel Radcliffe won’t be joining your Harry Potter TV series watch pod . . . when asked about the forthcoming HBO show, he said, “Eight hours is a lot of anything to watch,” and suggested he doesn’t really watch TV at all. All due apologies, of course, to his TV series on PEACOCK . . . and previous TBS series; it’s just not his thing.

ALSO: Keira Knightley will not be doing a Love Actually DVD commentary, as she hasn’t seen the film since it came out.

• “I know that people have a particular look on their face and then they say things to me and I know that means they’re quoting Love Actually, but I don’t really know what it is. It means nothing to me.”

AND: NETFLIX is clearly coming for your Thanksgiving week viewing, just in case the 2-7 EAGLES vs. the 4-5 COWBOYS game on FOX doesn’t hold your interest. Here’s what it has lined up (including its own NFL game with a far better matchup):

• Monday, Nov. 23: A Karen Read docuseries
• Tuesday, Nov. 24: A Rob Lowe doc and a Nate Bargatze comedy special
• Wednesday, Nov. 25: PACKERS vs. RAMS Thanksgiving Eve game with U2 at the half, plus The Mosquito Bowl debut on the service and Cliff Booth in IMAX theaters.
• Thanksgiving: The Hunting Wives season 2

OH: DISNEY made another AI deal, this time with ADOBE to develop gen AI models for use primarily in the theme parks, but also across sports and the studio biz (a bit broad on details at this point).

ALSO: ESPN made its rumored College Football Playoff deal official, extending it through 2032 as it expands to 24 games next year that no one is asking for.

• Looking at a $1.7B pricetag for the next 5 years, or about $340M a year.
• That’s close to the approx. $400M ESPN pays for NHL rights through 2028, in case anyone wants to make some bets with their FanCash points as to where ESPN finds the money to accommodate.
• We’ll see how many of those CFP games it sub-licenses to also lessen the 💰 exposure, as it already does with a few CFP games on TNT.

FINALLY: The Ankler’s Christopher Rosen and I dive into just how much Godzilla Minus Zero truly embodies 2026’s box office trends, our theories on Cat in the Hat‘s less than promising debut, a shout-out to Wildwood and other films showing the power of word-of-mouth on moviegoing as 2027 rounds out and more.

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📉 Earnings Season

So, do we start with an examination of the key details from how David & Ynon are finding profitability despite a Streaming profits decline at SKYDANCE in Q3, and what that means for the future of WB’s business lines . . . or the huge firing?

Yeah, ok, who are we kidding?

DC Changing of the Guard

Yes, Zaz faves James Gunn & Peter Safran are out as heads of the DC universe, and they’re being replaced by a name I can’t say I’ve ever written in this newsletter — film producer and former MARVEL exec Jeremy Latcham, now Prez and CCO of DC.

• Jeremy had a long tenure at MARVEL from 2004 until 2017, where he was SVP of Production & Development under Feige in the latter part of that tenure.
• For the past 9 years, he’s been a producer on films like PAR’s Dungeons & Dragons, Bad Times at the El Royale, this summer’s The Breadwinner and is (was?) attached to the Naruto pic at LIONSGATE / SONY from Destin Daniel Cretton.
• Gunn certainly also has history with Latcham from the Guardians of the Galaxy pics.
• So, certainly some legit superhero cred — though he left MARVEL well before Guardians 3, and before even Black Panther came out, so it’s a different time for the genre.

THUS: That’s now 4 big movie exec paychecks eliminated from the SKYDANCE employee payroll, ahem 👀, and the Man of Tomorrow press tour next summer just went up a notch (Gunn is helming the movie).

• Safran & Gunn are also producers on that Superman pic, as they are on The Batman II, and they’re EPs on the already-shot The People v. Gorilla Grodd HBO MAX series, as well as the (likely) next season of Lanterns.

PLUS: They’re also attached as either Producers or EPs on pretty much everything currently in development at DC across TV & movies, so . . . we’ll see how that goes, much less how much of that pipeline actually gets made now.

• As Gunn put it in his farewell note, “We have Man of Tomorrow out this summer. And we’ve just been engaged on another DC project which I’m writing, and we’ll see where it goes after that.”

FINALLY: Gunn & Safran were listed as David Ellison direct reports just a few weeks ago — Latcham, however, will report into Josh & Dana . . . so interpret that as you like as a factor in the exit.

• No mention of how things will work on the DC series side with Casey.

ALSO AT SKYDANCE: It made an undisclosed number of layoffs yesterday in the SKYDANCE GAMES division as well.

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SKYDANCE outlines where & when the cuts & layoffs cost savings will come from, and Streaming combo timelines

Well, anyone hoping for any kind of consolidated look at a WARNAMOUNT company got an early stocking full of coal yesterday as no WBD numbers were reported.

See you in February 2027 on the Q4 call where that will all come together — more importantly, along with financial guidance for the full year / FY27 at WARNAMOUNT SKYDANCE.

So, WBD seemingly got a pass on its entire Q3 earnings report . . . at least for now (perhaps one will be forthcoming in an SEC filing 🤷‍♂️), but as of this morning we have zero insight into what happened in Q3 at WBD.

Thus, here’s your look at the SKYDANCE (fka PARAMOUNT) business in Q3 and what the strategy nods to ahead, including:

• Where the $6B “cost savings” are going to be realized across sectors — and where (& when) to interpret the biggest areas of layoffs.
• HBO MAX and PAR+ integration timelines, and a good guess on the superstreamer launch timing.
• Where SKYDANCE has cut and grown content spends, and what that reveals about the strategy they’re going to light up 🔥 in the WBD business come 2027.
• How SKYDANCE’s streaming strategy changes are boosting revenue, but also cutting PAR Streaming profitability in Q3 even with that revenue success.
• Whether Streaming gains are making up for Linear TV declines (and the latest snapshot of those declines).
• The Digger damage coming on the Studio books (perhaps w/Cat in the Hat assist) and more.

But let’s begin with the topline Q3 SKYDANCE numbers to set the stage, which were largely positive.