Friday Briefing #20: The New King of the Mountain

The week the music stopped. For months, Hollywood held its breath, watching the high-stakes poker game between Netflix and Paramount for the prize of Warner Bros. Discovery. This week, Netflix folded. Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, reading the room and their own balance sheet, walked away from the table, leaving David Ellison's Paramount Skydance the sole suitor. The deal is done. A new, terrifyingly large media leviathan now bestrides the Hollywood landscape. Everything has changed.

This week: the merger that remade the industry overnight, the Game of Thrones spinoff that proves the franchise has life in it yet, and the first reactions to a Ryan Gosling sci-fi epic that has critics buzzing. Plus: Oscar voting is live, the MPA goes to war with TikTok's parent company over AI, and Glen Powell's new movie bombs.

Friday Briefing #21: The Box Office Is Breathing Again

Hollywood finally got a week that felt less defensive. Theaters have a real hit on the board, another ambitious film still drawing crowds, and just enough momentum for executives to talk about growth again instead of only cuts. None of that cancels Sony’s layoffs, the labor question, or the fight...

Apr 11

IP Surveillance #22

The market this week is drawing a harder line than it used to. Buyers still want IP, but they increasingly want it to arrive either pre-legitimized by prestige, talent, or institutional weight, or pre-scaled by franchise logic and audience behavior. That is why A24 moved early on Patrick Radden Keefe’

Apr 10

IP Surveillance #20: The Paramount-WBD Leviathan

Netflix walks away. Paramount wins. The merger that changes everything — plus Tayari Jones, a Trotsky thriller, and a video game franchise finally going live-action.

Feb 27

Friday Briefing #19: The Last Studio Standing

The bidding war for Warner Bros. enters its final stretch. Plus: Presidents Day box office, SAG-AFTRA talks, Spirit Awards, and why micro-dramas are a billion-dollar problem.

Feb 20