☀️SONY Pitches 'Bingeable' Beatles, A-List Directors to Theater OwnersZack Snyder + UFC / NHL sets big TV rights deal / PAR, Kendrick exit summer
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 TUESDAY, April 1, 2025. Where there’s nothing like a well-earned return on investment, as NEWSMAX’s $75M IPO went up a very sensible 700% on day 1. FOX NEWS covered it by saying “Are you f’ing kidding me?” (FOX CORP stock was up about, uh, 4% yesterday), followed by “Wait, is today April Fools’ Day?” (remember that today btw). So, congrats NMAX stock owners! And to those of you who may have confusingly bought IMAX stock instead — welcome to the movie business! Enjoy that +0.8% ROI yesterday. See you all on the NEWSMAX Q2 earnings call this summer, when I’m thinking this stock will be nowhere near where it is now (not investment advice, naturally).
AH: So, Trump said a TIKTOK deal would happen before the Saturday deadline this week, and if these past 2 months have shown anything, is that once Trump says something, he never later revises it. OH: X was offering some of OMNICOM’s advertiser clients “incentives” like up to $200k in free added value for making ad buys on the platform in Q1, according to Adweek — a quarter which began with Elon emailing the troops that X “user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we’re barely breaking even.” But hey, I guess that’s now xAI’s problem, amirite? THEN: In an idea I’ve pitched an executive or two myself — COSM is going to start showing movies! Well, at least The Matrix will play at its 2 locations in L.A. and Dallas on Friday, June 6. COSM usually shows sporting events, but this is kicking off a “multi-film partnership” with WB (future films TBA).
ALSO: The NFL is doing a tripleheader on Christmas this year — NETFLIX is gonna run it back with 2 games again, and AMAZON gets the other (the holiday falls on a Thursday, so that made that one easy). SO: $20M a year to spread out to all of a college’s athletes starting next season is a great start . . . but hey — how about, ya know, a cut of this money too 👇, just like all of the bonuses that the adults coaching these kids get for their tourney achievements? #PaidInSuccess
AND: Just a follow up on March Madness on MAX and why there were no ads in the Saturday night game (DUKE vs. ALABAMA), and just HBO/MAX promos:
OTHERWISE: I’m still adjusting to Vegas time and have a stacked day a head so just gonna dive in. SONY at CINEMACON: The Director’s Cut
First — a disclaimer here that I’m a first-time official CINEMACON goer . . . so I have absolutely no comps as to how these things usually go. Rushfield will of course give you all the expert perspective soon. But apparently Darren Aronofsky and Destin Daniel Cretton also haven’t been before, so I feel a lot better about my status.
However I don’t need to be sober or have been to one of these before to know that SONY took a curiously very director-heavy approach to hype up its slate . . . and to note that Tom Rothman sent a definitive message to theater owners that they will definitely quote back to him in distribution conversations over the next year. More on that in a sec, but first — actors? Eh, we all know people come to see directors!... Subscribe to The Ankler. to unlock the rest.Become a paying subscriber of The Ankler. to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. A subscription gets you:
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