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.