🎬 $1B Glow-up

👋 Good morning! Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the fires in Los Angeles. Hollywood pressed pause last night as several premieres and events, including Jason Reitman's ‘Saturday Night’ FYC reception and the ‘Better Man’ premiere, were canceled due to the emergency. Stay safe out there, everyone.

Welcome aboard the Dailies. As you sip your morning brew, we’ll get you caught up with the fast-paced world of Hollywood—no need to chase down a newsstand, we’ve got everything you need right here.

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• Hollywood’s Betting on a Comeback

• Disney Clears Way for Venu

• Media Giants Take CES

• Last Looks: 👀 Bite-sized scoops on developing stories/projects

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Martini Shot 🍸

CLOSEUP
🌴 Hollywood’s betting big on a comeback…

LA's production numbers hit alarming lows in 2024 according to FilmLA, with shoot days falling well below expectations and even dipping under 2023’s strike-impacted levels. As more studios chased generous tax incentives in places like Georgia and overseas, California watched the exodus with growing concern. Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to stop the bleeding by boosting California's film tax credit to $700M, but some heavy hitters aren't waiting around to see if it works.

Case in point: The Los Angeles City Council just unanimously greenlit a massive $1B expansion of the iconic Television City studios.

Yesterday’s approval marks a major vote of confidence in Hollywood's hometown, especially as production days hit record lows in 2024.

The Television City mega-project includes:

• Expanding from 8 to 15 soundstages

• Adding 1.4M square feet of new development

• Preserving four original 1952 stages

• Completing everything before the 2028 Olympics

But that's just one piece of LA's studio building boom. Here's what else is cooking:

• Hackman Capital's dropping another $1B on the historic Radford Studio Center (where ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Will & Grace’ once called home)

• Warner Bros. is pumping $500M into their Burbank Ranch (wrapping late 2025)

• East End Studios has $230M cooking in the Arts District

• Bardas and Bain Capital are transforming a former Sears into Echelon Studios

• Even San Diego's getting in on the action with an $85M virtual production complex

Why are they so confident? Hackman's Zach Sokoloff puts it simply:

Translation: This might be a rough patch, but Hollywood's not going anywhere.

Looking ahead... With 3.5M square feet of new soundstage space in the pipeline for greater LA, these companies are betting the house that "runaway production" will eventually run back home. After all, you don't spend billions on new studios unless you're pretty sure the cameras will keep rolling.

WIDESHOT
🎬 Disney-Fubo merger, and media giants at CES…

📺🤝 Disney's found a clever way to launch its Venu sports streaming service. Disney faced a significant roadblock in its ambitious joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros. aimed at creating a premium sports streaming platform, as FuboTV's lawsuit claimed Disney's plans would unfairly harm their business. Disney's solution? Merge Hulu's live TV operation (4.6M subscribers) with FuboTV (1.6M subscribers) and pay $220M to settle the lawsuit. The result? A new joint venture that becomes the second-biggest live TV streaming service after YouTube TV. The deal gives Disney 70% ownership while keeping Fubo's experienced team in charge of operations, letting Disney build a three-pronged sports empire—ESPN, Fubo, and Venu. Investors are thrilled, pushing Fubo's stock way up, and the combined service expects to make $7.5B by 2028. It’s looking like an early domino in what could be a deal-heavy year—especially if Trump's expected second term brings a more M&A-friendly regulatory environment. As traditional cable TV continues its steady decline, the deal underscores how valuable live sports content has become—and how far media giants will go to control it.

🎬📊 Media giants have a plan to steal back advertising dollars from Silicon Valley. At CES 2025 in Las Vegas—traditionally a showcase for the latest TVs, robots, and quirky inventions—companies like Comcast, Disney, and NBCU are treating tech's biggest show like a dress rehearsal for the May "upfronts," where networks traditionally sell most of their advertising inventory for the year ahead. The stakes are huge: while social media ad spending is soaring to $102.6B in 2025 (up 13.6%), traditional TV's barely growing at 2% to $169.1B globally. After watching social platforms dominate digital ad spending for a decade with their easy-to-use tools (Meta alone has 10M advertisers while NBCU has mere "thousands"), these media giants are basically acknowledging they need a tech makeover. And they're betting big on their biggest advantage: live sports and premium content—unlike social media's scattered audience, these are the only shows left where millions of viewers tune in at the same time and actually watch the ads (try skipping a Super Bowl commercial). Here are some big moves announced this week:

• Comcast's launching Universal Ads, basically Instagram Ads for TV—letting any business buy commercial time online in minutes instead of through old-school negotiations. Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox are already in.

• Disney's opening up NFL and ESPN ad spots to instant buying through Google, meaning small businesses could grab game-time commercials as easily as boosting an Instagram post.

• NBCU's packaging the 2026 Winter Olympics, Super Bowl, and NBA All-Star Game into a 10-day advertising fest, complete with social media-style targeting tools.

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM THE DAILIES
🚨 ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘The Office…’

They all started with a pitch—and yours could be next.

Every great show begins with a killer idea—but what makes that idea irresistible to networks? It’s the pitch. Shows like these weren’t just great concepts; they were packaged and presented in a way that studios couldn’t refuse.

Chris Amick—who’s sold hit shows to Netflix, Max, and DreamWorks—knows exactly what it takes to get a “yes” in the room. In his 7-week course, you’ll learn step-by-step how to:

• Craft a pitch that sells.

• Learn what networks want.

• Build the confidence to own the room.

🚨 Only a couple of spots remain, and registration closes this week!

The class kicks off January 16—secure your spot now before it’s gone.

LAST LOOKS
Development 🗒️

• Jacob Elordi is in talks to star in Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller ‘The Dog Stars,’ stepping in for Paul Mescal. (more)

• Peacock is rebooting ‘Grimm’ as a movie, with Josh Berman and the original creative team onboard. (more)

• Disney+ orders a pilot for a ‘Holes’ TV series, reimagining Louis Sachar’s classic book with a new twist. (more)

• Armie Hammer lands the lead role in Uwe Boll’s vigilante thriller ‘The Dark Knight,’ marking a major comeback for the actor. (more)

• Crunchyroll announces a ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ anime adaptation for 2027 and a new premium manga app for subscribers launching later this year. (more)

• Paramount+’s ‘Unspeakable: The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey,’ will launch as part of an anthology series on unsolved crimes. (more)

• Kevin Nealon’s celebrity hiking talk show, ‘Hiking with Kevin,’ lands on Fox Nation with 10 new episodes. (more)

• Scarlett Johansson will guest co-host NBC’s ‘Today’ for a week starting Jan. 20, following Hoda Kotb’s departure. (more)

• Reba McEntire will star in and produce a film adaptation of Fannie Flagg’s ‘The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion,’ directed by Callie Khouri. (more)

• Billy Zane, Zach Roerig, and Cara Jade Myers lead ESX Entertainment’s Western ‘Day of Reckoning.’ (more)

Executive Moves 👩‍💼

• Prentiss Fraser rejoins Fox Entertainment as Global President, overseeing worldwide content distribution and sales. (more)

• Sony Pictures EVP Palak Patel departs after a decade to join Prime Focus Studios as Chief Content Officer. (more)

• Disney promotes Tony Chambers, Head of Theatrical Distribution, to President of EMEA, effective February, as part of a regional restructure. (more)

• Lisa Hamilton Daly exits Hallmark Media as her EVP Programming role is cut in a leadership restructure under Chief Brand Officer Darren Abbott. (more)

Business 🤝

• Glen Powell’s Barnstorm production company secures a first-look deal with Universal Pictures. (more)

• Paramount and Comcast renew multiyear deals, keeping Paramount networks and streamers on Xfinity. (more)

• Voltage Pictures acquires a majority stake in The Exchange, merging their strengths to expand global sales and finance capabilities. (more)

• Discovery+ raises its U.S. prices to $5.99/month for ad-supported and $9.99/month for ad-free tiers. (more)

• George R.R. Martin, Jimmy Iovine, and Conrad Vernon are stakeholders in newly launched adult animation company Bizaar Studios. (more)

Other News 🚨

• SAG cancels today’s live nominations announcement for the 31st SAG Awards due to Los Angeles-area wildfires, opting for a press release instead. (more)

• The 82nd Golden Globes drew 10.1M viewers, up 7.4% from last year, marking a strong comeback with Nikki Glaser as host. (more)

• The Directors Guild of America announces nominees for TV, documentaries, and commercials for the 2025 DGA Awards. (more)

• Tubi surpasses 97M monthly active users in 2024, solidifying its lead in the growing FAST streaming market with over 10B hours streamed. (more)

• Roku surpasses 90M streaming households, highlighting its growth as competition in the FAST market intensifies. (more)

• Ex-MoviePass exec Theodore Farnsworth pleads guilty to fraud over the misleading “unlimited” plan. (more)

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

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