Epic CEO Promises to Solve Insurance Challenge
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney addressed this over the weekend, saying Epic would work out the insurance challenge. https://t.co/cN28vZnbMN
Gaming's Attention War Fuels Saudi Jobs and AI Growth
Here's my conversation with Brian Ward for The BIG Show. We talked about gaming's war for the attention of consumers, emerging markets, creating jobs in Saudi Arabia, Savvy's acquisition strategy, his optimism for games, and AI. https://t.co/hvTZR0xOeD
Steve Jobs Bought Lucasfilm Graphics, Birthing Pixar for $5M
#MondayMemory. February 3, 1986. #SteveJobs purchased the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, which became Pixar for $5 million. (Steve Jobs Archive) #JVGpost https://t.co/iaFrkTcado
Paramount’s Survival Hinges on NFL Deal
The NFL isn’t a negotiation for Paramount, it’s survival $PSKY The LightShed Podcast, Ep. 306. With @BrandoLightShed @WaltLightShed https://t.co/JApfPb4aWI
Iran War Threatens Gulf Media Investment Funding
NEW: Excellent piece this am by @Lmanfredi7 looks at the impact on media investment from the Gulf by the ongoing war with Iran. The war puts funding at risk for future deals, and may put current deals on hold.🧵...
Judge's TRO Crushes NXSTMediaGroup Amid Newsom Politics
Policyband Analysis: Obama Judge’s TRO Filled with TDS (@TEGNA Derangement Syndrome) -- It was a shock to see another superstar company like @NXSTMediaGroup effectively ground to dust by a dystopian West Coast political class led by America Last Gov....
ElevenLabs Announces Music AI App to Rival Suno, Udio
ElevenLabs is set to launch is music generation app soon to take on Suno and Udio https://t.co/9PYYgMIKJ9
More Movies, Better Quality, yet Box Office Stalls
Hollywood is releasing more and better movies, but TD Cowen’s Doug Creutz says it’s not moving the needle. “The lack of growth in box office despite increased supply in both quantity and quality last year underlines our concerns about the...
Jay Sean’s “Down” Hits Diamond, 10 Million Sold
Jay Sean’s "Down" featuring Lil Wayne is now Diamond in the U.S., marking 10 million units sold. The global hit reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the biggest crossover pop-R&B singles of its era. https://t.co/Uo67YQYpI2
Q1 Box Office Up 25% Despite Theater Critics
people hating on movie theaters but Q1 theatrical gross is up 25% from last year. PHM helped close out the win.
Epic Games Promises Insurance for Laid‑off Brain‑cancer Employee
In last week's cut of 1,000 jobs, Epic Games laid off an employee with brain cancer; now it says it will take care of insurance problem. https://t.co/cN28vZnbMN
Low‑Budget Films Aren’t Hits, But Don’t Toss Them
“The most important thing about They Will Kill You, like Blink Twice, like Ready or Not 2, like Primate… reasonable budgets. They night nor be commercial hits. But no one is bleeding out over them. That said, throwing them all out...
CNN CEO Brings Digital Creators Into Executive Strategy Sessions
"In recent months, CNN chief executive Mark Thompson convened a series of internal workshops in which the network invited digital creators to hold court before a room of senior executives," @nataliekorach reports. https://www.status.news/p/cnn-podcast-style-shows-nyt-video
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2026 distributors race at US #BoxOffice crossed the 1.7B mark, now +0.3% over 2023 & strong +23% over 2025 at same point, thanks to #ProjectHailMary Distributors Top 5 YTD #AmazonMGM 241.5M #Disney 228.8M #20thCenturyStudios 222M (owned by $DIS) #Paramount 169M #Sony 162.9M https://t.co/w0PVw2iqzz
Chinese Blockbusters Dominate 2026 Global Box Office
Global #BoxOffice Top10 2026 releases ONLY #Pegasus3🇨🇳$631.4M #ProjectHailMary 🇺🇸 $300.8M #HOPPERS🇺🇸$297.6M #WutheringHeights 🇺🇸$236.4M #BladesOfTheGuardians🇨🇳$208.8M #Scream7🇺🇸$204.1M #ScareOut🇨🇳$194M #GOAT🇺🇸$180.9M #BoonieBearsTheHiddenProtector🇨🇳$152.2M #Dhurandhar2 🇮🇳$147.5M https://t.co/woj4lyuRkn
AI Simulates Podcasting OG Chat on Future Trends
Talking to @robgreenlee on the phone. He is a podcasting OG. So we had Grok simulate a conversation between the two of us about the future of podcasting. Nuts. https://t.co/IVV4uVDgYy
Undertone Nets 37× Budget Despite Modest Box Office
#A24’s new R-rated #Undertone is giving its last breaths at US #BoxOffice, but with mission accomplished, after grossing 1.7M over just 1.852 theatres on 3rd 3-day weekend, a -44.8% drop from opening weekend. With a 18.5M cume in the U.S. alone,...
Ready Or Not 2 Faces Sharp Drop, Needs Strong Legs
Already out of Top5 at US #BoxOffice, #Searchlight’s R-rated horror sequel #ReadyOrNot2HereICome grossed 4M on 2nd 3-day weekend, a -55.8% drop from Opening weekend (vs #ReadyOrNot’s 5.9M, -26.2%) #SamaraWeaving & #SarahMichelleGellar hit a 16.3M US cume in 8 days. With a 20M production...
Project Hail Mary Surpasses $300M, Down 23%
Project Hail Mary has eclipsed $300 million in worldwide ticket sales. It dropped just 23% from last weekend. https://t.co/vmL9tuJxBa
Project Hail Mary Leads, Box Office Up 34% YoY
WKND #BoxOffice Chart ▶️ Amazing hold for #ProjectHailMary at #1 ▶️ #Hoppers doing well in 2nd ▶️ #TheyWillKillYou opens DOA Top 10 at $92.8M, up 34% from last year when A Working Man opened at #1. See full wknd chart at: https://t.co/H9rtcx7IlP.
Long Copyright Terms Don't Guarantee Artist Royalties
How is anti-artist that my copyright last LOA +70 years verses a hard 28 years? The song low is 35 years old. I would not have recieved the last 7 years of music publishing royalties. The label and the streaming...
Project Hail Mary Hits $300M, They Will Kill You Flops
#ProjectHailMary hits $300M mark globally while #TheyWillKillYou bombs Here’s all the box office info on #MidnightMovieMoney https://t.co/ac05hOgD8y
Negotiated Deals Outperform AI Exploitation for Songwriters
You sound pretty collectivist and anti property to me. But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Pretend you own some music IP. Which would you choose. Which would you choose? Having your IP vacuumed up without consent or...
Warner Bros' Poor Timing Tanks $5M Debut
Hugely disappointing $5M debut for #TheyWillKillYou as WB completely wrecked this by placing it on the schedule the weekend following READY OR NOT 2 This film deserved a September/October release https://t.co/IqLYXJJYrS
New Sync Licensing Spot: Submit Your Music Today
🔌 Sync Plug of the Day 8 Here’s another company you can submit music to for sync licensing opportunities ↴
Project Hail Mary Posts $54.5M Second Weekend, Second‑best Ever
#ProjectHailMary holds at otherworldly -32% with $54.5M in second weekend pushing its domestic haul to $164.3M Second best overall second weekend for an original film behind only the first AVATAR https://t.co/wL564uKdz8
Project Hail Mary Soars, ‘They Will Kill You’ Falters
Box Office: ‘Project Hail Mary’ Adds $14.6 Million; ‘They Will Kill You’ Cuts Down $2.3 Million on Opening Day https://t.co/1ihy0R45Cl via @variety
Google Spurned VCG for Complexity and Higher Bids
Google initially rejected the VCG auction design in 2002 because (1) it would be harder for advertisers to understand than GSP and (2) it would likely require them to increase their bids, since it incentivizes truthful bidding. https://t.co/jgf9YOpSZ0
SXSW Hype Fails; Horror Opens Under $5M
A splashy world premiere at SXSW did little to bring moviegoers out to new horror pic #TheyWillKillYou. Opening day FRI was just $2.25M with almost half of that from pre-shows and pure FRI being very slow. Opening wknd #boxoffice now looking...
Weak Friday Box Office Highlights WB's Scheduling Misstep
Weak $2.3M Friday for #TheyWillKillYou as weekend will be in $5M range Colossal scheduling mistake by WB placing this one week after RON2
Video Ads Out‑earn Print, Thanks to Google’s Monopoly
NYT is a subscription business so it's a much more complex calculus but for every other media company operating on the open web video CPMs blow written CPMs out of the water in part because Google's monopoly on programmatic ads
Twitter Feed Flooded with Low‑quality Ads, Deterring Advertisers
Is it just my feed or are others suddenly awash in what might best be labeled "Ad Slop." If I were a paying advertiser, I'd pull my business.
Best Pay‑Per‑View Platforms for Creators Revealed
I tested out pay-per-view sites for creators to find my top video hosting platforms - here's what I found https://t.co/gQS0lKD6uX
FCC Delays Fox 29 License Challenge, Dismisses After Election
Unfortunately, this is about 10% of the story. First, it wasn’t a Fox affiliate. It was @FOX29philly owned and operated by Fox Corp., meaning the Murdochs. And it wasn’t a complaint. It was a petition to deny Fox 29’s TV...
Analysts Value Netflix so Highly It’d Trade at 14x P/E
Love the anecdote about Nygren’s analyst pitching Netflix: - Anecdotal survey showed his colleagues valued Netflix higher than any other subscription - If Netflix raised its price to their level, it would have traded at 14x P/E https://t.co/SlDjNAkwbF https://t.co/cVAQ97b2Pr
Clipping: New Viral Marketing Tactic Dominating Music Industry
What Is ‘Clipping,’ the Viral Marketing Strategy That’s Taking Over the Music Biz? https://t.co/LJVT5j5Q2w via @variety
Julia Ormand Wins; CAA Exec Forced to Testify
News: Actress Julia Ormand picked up a win today in her legal case claiming CAA knew that Harvey Weinstein was a pig and sent her into private meetings with him anyway. Michael Ovitz, CAA’s co-founder, is being forced to testify...
Netflix Veteran Sean Carey Joins Crush Capital Advisory Board
I’m excited to announce that Sean Carey, former Vice President of Global Television at Netflix, has joined Crush Capital’s Advisory Board. With more than 25 years of experience at the forefront of media and entertainment, Sean played a pivotal role in...
BTS' ARIRANG Projected to Debut at 652k Units, No.1
📈🧵 Final industry projects predict that BTS' 'ARIRANG' will open with about 652,000 units in the U.S. for its first week (540k from album sales, 99k from streaming-equivalent units, 13k from track-equivalent units) and easily No. 1 on the Billboard...
Streaming Price Hikes, AI Setbacks, And
Read this week's Strictly Business newsletter: Netflix's New Price Hikes & the 'Streamflation' Problem; 'Love Story' Producers on That Finale; Did Disney Get Lucky That OpenAI Killed Sora?; Epic Games' Massive Layoff; and More https://t.co/t5lKG7FYDy
Michael Jackson Biopic Leads Pre‑Sales, Beats All Competitors
And yeah, general ticket Pre-sales for the KING OF POP #MichaelJackson music biopic #MICHAEL’s opening weekend at US #BoxOffice had a solid kick off yesterday, despite hardcore fans already having concentrated on the PLF early screenings pre-sales which kicked off...
Meta's Creator Partnerships Down for a Week, No Update
Meta's creator partnerships has now been broken for a week. Still no word from Meta on the fix. https://t.co/aF10GFNR7l
Dhurandhar The Revenge Hits $18M,
With $18M in first 8 days, #DhurandharTheRevenge has surpassed Pathaan to become all-time #2 Bollywood movie ever at North American #boxoffice. It only trails first #Dhurandhar film which it should pass after this wknd.
Pixar's HOPPERS Holds #
#Pixar’s new original #HOPPERS won’t let go of its #2 at US #BoxOffice, after grossing another STRONG 1.2M on #2 BIGGEST 3rd THU for a original animation in over a decade, but a -59.9% drop from last SPRING BREAK boosted...
Netflix Leverages Must‑Watch Shows to Offset Price Hikes
Netflix raised prices again. I went through all five stages in about four minutes. Outrage, indignation, a brief google of "cancel Netflix," a moment of genuine pause, and then I remembered I want the next Bridgerton season so there is...
Netflix Hikes Prices Across All Subscription Tiers
Netflix is increasing their subscription prices again: • Ad-tier: $7.99 → $8.99 • Standard: $17.99 → $19.99 • Premium: $24.99 → $26.99 $NFLX https://t.co/HpCsmuworE
Netflix Hikes All Plans, Citing $20B Content Spend
Netflix raised prices for all its plans on Thursday, bumping the ad-supported tier to $8.99, standard to $19.99, and premium to $26.99 a month. Extra member add-ons also got more expensive. The company cited investments in new content, including live...
WB's Low‑Budget Horror Struggles to Cover Costs
If horror gave lots of good news to WB at US #BoxOffice last year, 2026 has been tough for the studio in that area, as R-rated horror #TheyWillKillYou starring #ZazieBeetz grossed timid 1M on THU Previews (vs #TheBride’s 1M, #ReadyOrNot2’s...
Republicans Stall Trump’s Film Tax Credit, Awaiting Sign
Trump’s interest in helping US film productions got everyone excited. But now that the push for a tax credit is real, Republicans are “waiting for the white smoke at the Vatican.” Details ⬇️⬇️ https://t.co/jQTLzxgQlj
Horror Thriller ‘They Will Kill You’ Opens Strong, $8M Weekend
$1M pre-show debut for new horror pic #TheyWillKillYou for THU + MON previews. RT critics score currently at 72%. Opening wknd #boxoffice might get to $8M area (avg near $3k) taking home bronze medal. https://t.co/DkpNHQduU5