☀️ Zach Cregger's 'Resident Evil': The Scary Good Numbers

Evenin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on SUNDAY, Sept. 20, 2026.

Where I hope all of those observing Yom Kippur this evening have an easy fast.

And, if you’re also a LAKERS fan — you may want to put away a little extra money in the year ahead, as you’re gonna join NYC in paying a lot more for tickets.

According to an investor deck floated by new team owner THRIVE CAPITAL, the team is projecting revenue to more than 2x over the next 10 years to $1.6B, resulting in nearly a 3x valuation increase to $30B, according to the WSJ. Sure, why not.

Part of that plan is reclaiming about 6k broker-held season tickets for single-game sales, skyrocketing avg. LAKERS game ticket prices from $217 to $361, or +66%, so it’s nice to see Bob Iger sticking with his #pricehike roots in his new career.

Oh, and if you work for the LAKERS, don’t you worry — $20M of “efficiencies” were also cited as part of the profitability growth plan. Old habits die hard. I mean, you don’t 3x EBITDA (profitability) from $129M a year currently to a projected $589M around 2037 by cutting owner payouts, amirite?

Now, how the LAKERS plan on maintaining their absurd $180M+ in annual local TV rights revenue — thanks to one of the worst deals in sports rights history made by TIME WARNER CABLE (now paid by CHARTER) back in the early 2010s — once the agreement expires in 2032 . . . well, that’s a thinker.

Eh, maybe Luka has some ideas.

AND: NETFLIX nabbed the audience / People’s Choice Award win at TIFF with La Bola Negra. AMAZON’s I Play Rocky was the runner-up, and FOCUS’ Elsinore took the int’l pic People’s Choice Award, with NETFLIX’s Possible Love as the runner-up.

MEANWHILE: Across the border at the Politburo, the king has banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from his White House kingdom. Man, those woke liberal free speech-killing snowflakes in power are the worst, amirite?

ALSO: As I mentioned on the Ankler Agenda pod last week — about 3 weeks of silence in the WARNAMOUNT saga could very well likely indicate that settlement talks are happening . . . and late Friday, lo and behold, the WSJ reported that talks were indeed hitting an “advanced” stage, but not much in the way of details.

Or at least not in regard to the larger issue of onerous cable TV network ownership — on the movies/studio side, keeping WB “separate” somehow from PAR for a period of years is the solve being floated . . . but again, we’ll see what the hell that would mean, exactly.
The NY Times noted that remedies to protect the editorial independence of CNN have been on the table to discuss (even though that is not part of the charges in the antitrust legal matter), as is getting rid of some cable channels like COMEDY CENTRAL — which would certainly drag The Daily Show and potentially South Park further into the conversation.
Then there’s the WGA’s concerns about TV and movie script buyer consolidation, which . . . perhaps would be addressed by the “separate WB” thing — but yeah, who knows.
Date reminders:
- The hearing on the $1.9B bond issue is on Thursday.
- We’re about 10 days away from the $7M a day ticking fee starting.
- AND: Just so it doesn’t feel left out, it’s also the first day of autumn on Tuesday (you know how fall gets 🍁🙄).

MEANWHILE: Elizabeth Warren took the CNN White House banning moment to remind folks that a WARNAMOUNT settlement would put CNN in the hands of one of Trump’s big allies and donors . . . making this a “dangerous merger,” and that it would be a “massive mistake” for Rob Bonta to make concessions in a settlement.

AND: Mark Ruffalo also reiterated that the Block the Merger petition now has 75k+ signatures, and asked Bonta “not to cave.”

JUST A REMINDER: No matter what, if the WARNAMOUNT deal goes through or a settlement is struck — thousands of employees will be out of a job in Hollywood and the town loses a major, free-standing buyer of TV shows and films for the 2nd time in about 7 years. This deal has no wins.

AH: Things are coming up Kremlev! The Russian entrepreneur and boxing executive is getting his Don Jr. wedding party money back as Don’s dad ~~is making him do so~~ announced the move on Friday — while also saying the payments from the Russian businessman with close ties to Putin were “totally allowed.” Or, at least that may have happened — Trump said “I understand that Don has paid him back,” so take that as ya like.

PLUS: UNIVERSAL MUSIC and SONY MUSIC keep suing AI music generator SUNO.

OH: I know you’ll be shocked to hear this, but according to the NYT — execs at DRAFT KINGS are using AI to target folks most likely to lose money on the app . . . while not also using that AI to help protect those gamblers at risk of real addiction. Ya know, as any good dealer would do.

I’m sure that will come up in conversations with the celebrities who keep taking big checks to endorse the product.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE PREDICTION

Even my optimistic Resident Evil prediction wasn’t optimistic enough! I’ll happily take the L this weekend with this kind of result.

FINALLY: We don’t have SNL back until Saturday here, but the folks across the pond had a lot of fun with the Ed Sheeran tour situation this weekend.