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, May 7, 2026.
Where it’s great that the NFL is already having conversations about TV rights in the year 2030, but I’m gonna say maybe we should get through 2028 first?
Gotta love this quote from ANTHROPIC co-founder Jack Clark:
“My prediction is by the end of 2028, it’s more likely than not that we have an AI system where you would be able to say to it: ‘Make a better version of yourself.’ And it just goes off and does that completely autonomously.”
And I’m sure this potential “intelligence explosion” #officialterm won’t be used in nefarious ways, whatsoever. Oh, 2028 is also the year that driverless 18-wheelers are projected to be cheaper to use than human-driven ones, according to GOLDMAN.
Gonna be a fun Presidential election year in 2028.
PLUS: SKY renewed SNL U.K. for a 12-episode season 2.
YAH: Fun day for the creator economy — INSTA is apparently purging millions of followers from accounts. Wait, there are INSTA accounts that are not actual people or haven’t been used in years!? Tell me more about these bots you speak of!
OH: It turns out it’s gambling’s turn in the rock-solid, two-prong AI/Gambling juggernaut that seems to be fueling the U.S. economy in 2026 (streaming subscriber counts — you had a good run), as KALSHI is raising another $1B in a Series F round at a new $22B valuation, according to the NYT.
- That’s double the valuation it had . . . 5 months ago. Who knew “We Don’t Do Death Markets” was such a potent marketing message? Virtue signaling, FTW.
ALSO: Alex Sherman at CNBC has a good roundup of the NFL messaging inundation we’re all going to be getting at Upfronts next week, in case you just wanna save some time now (announcements which will likely coincide with the release of the fall season game schedule, according to Alex 🥳).
AH: Et tu, elite M&A lawyers? A fun day at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Latham & Watkins and Goodwin Procter and others.
YUP: You know when you see headlines like these that everything’s just gonna keep going great!
- Hedge funds just had their best month since 2020.
- Q1 is one of the best earnings seasons in 20 years, according to DEUTSCHE BANK.
BUT: Enjoy your gas prices that likely won’t return to pre-Iran war levels for about another 9 months — that’s if Hormuz is reopened soon.
FINALLY: No polling ability here yet, but WB/NLC Mortal Kombat II tracking seems to be in the low to mid $40M range, possibly as much as $50M.
I’m just gonna do a straight-up over/under call on this one at $43M, and while I think the pic will be successful — I’m taking the under on this one myself.
The first one opened to $23M in #ProjectPopcorn . . . and there’s definitely more gas in the tank, but more than 2x gas? That seems like a big leap — not to mention the existing competition out there in the marketplace.
But maybe the underserved young dudes will surprise me.
WBD, The Final Chapters
To be fair, what is there for executives to say on an earnings call for a company that is very likely to be run by other executives, perhaps within the next 5 months?
But I do think it’s fair to note that I can’t remember an earnings call where 3 guys came together to say so many words for 45 minutes . . . and yet actually say very little at all.
But the trades sure did still try hard to find . . . something in the word salad. Good try, THR (and we’ll see if PSKY feels the same way about this, probably):
But hey, I guess those hundreds of billions 💰 in C-suite paydays are for something, and the words about Ted Turner were a nice add.
Although wasting 45 minutes of my life was probably on me, the fact that this was going to be akin to listening to graduating seniors give an English class presentation in early June after already having sent in their college deposits for the fall, where they recount stories from sophomore year, should have been more apparent to me beforehand.
You’ll also be shocked to hear that WBD stock was unmoved after the report and call.
So, let’s move on to the Q1 WBD numbers, which give the real intel about what’s going on inside one of Hollywood’s biggest and arguably most storied studios.
Plus, a look at what the quarter would have been like at a split-off WARNER BROS. company that now will not be. Pretty impressive growth!
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