🎬 $2M-a-day

👋 Good morning! Remember 'Megalopolis'? Coppola's $120M epic was supposed to hit VOD last Thursday, but the Apple TV page mysteriously vanished. Turns out Coppola pulled the plug himself at the last minute because he's reportedly planning to release an even "weirder" cut in theaters this Christmas. Coppola says he genuinely wants it to become an annual holiday tradition like 'It's a Wonderful Life.' Deck the halls with experimental filmmaking about city infrastructure.

Happy Wednesday and welcome to The Dailies. Grab your coffee and we’ll get you up to speed on the latest Hollywood news. 👇

CLOSEUP
🔮 The Sphere is a $2M-a-day movie theater…

The Sphere's 'Wizard of Oz' draws 15,000 people daily at ~$200 a ticket, generating ~$2M per day since it opened last month. Sure, the Eagles and Backstreet Boys played there, but it turns out the venue originally pitched as Vegas’ ultimate concert hall is actually Hollywood's most lucrative movie theater. Some numbers:

• Films generate 2x more revenue than concerts ($400M vs. $200M this year)

• The Sphere keeps 70% profit margins on movies, while touring acts pocket nearly all concert revenue

• 'Wizard of Oz' will likely hit $1B in sales from this single location

• 4M tickets have already sold for Darren Aronofsky's 'Postcards From Earth'

The Hollywood angle: MSG owner James Dolan sank $2.3B into building the Sphere, then $100M more using AI to adapt 'Oz' for the venue (film preservationists were… not thrilled). The gamble's paying off for Dolan and for Warner Bros., who gets pure profit from licensing while Sphere covered all costs. The deal lets Sphere show 'Oz' indefinitely.

The Sphere isn't alone: Cosm is showing 'The Matrix' in its immersive theaters, while premium large format screens now generate 40% of blockbuster openings as audiences increasingly pay premiums for enhanced experiences.

Looking ahead… With Spheres planned for Abu Dhabi and beyond, Dolan's hunting for more titles to adapt. He's reportedly been talking to studios about classics like 'Harry Potter' and 'Star Wars,' though no deals yet. Critics worry these AI-enhanced classics disrespect the original filmmakers' vision, but after 'Oz's' success, expect more studios to start shopping their dusty classics around.

CLOSEUP
👾 OpenAI’s making a movie…

OpenAI is trying to convince Hollywood its AI tools can make theatrical films faster and cheaper than traditional Hollywood methods. The startup behind ChatGPT is backing 'Critterz,' an animated feature about forest creatures produced by London's Vertigo Films and LA-based Native Foreign, aiming for theaters next year. What they’re attempting:

• 9 months and under $30M instead of the typical 3 years and $100M+ for animated films

• GPT-5 and image generation models will transform human artists' sketches into final animations

• Some writers from the 'Paddington in Peru' team are writing the script, with human voice actors being cast

• The roughly 30-person team will share in any profits

The industry context: OpenAI's Hollywood push comes after partnership talks with major studios stalled earlier this year. In May, OpenAI's COO Brad Lightcap admitted the company hadn't secured any entertainment deals, so naturally, this is their way of saying “fine, we’ll do it ourselves.”

This is exactly what the guilds warned about during 2023’s strikes—30 people with AI tools replacing what would typically be hundreds of animation professionals. OpenAI frames it as humans maintaining creative control, but critics see it differently.

Meanwhile, studios can’t decide if they love or hate AI: Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. are currently suing AI image generator Midjourney for copyright violations, while many majors have been quietly experimenting with AI tools for production and marketing.

Looking ahead… The team hopes to debut at Cannes 2026 and doesn’t have a distribution partner yet. Original animated films already face tough odds at the box office, and there's no precedent for audience reception to openly AI-generated features. Producer James Richardson calls it "a very ambitious massive experiment."

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⚡️ Quick hits…

👻 James Wan might exit the 'Conjuring' franchise over money, despite 'Last Rites' opening to $194M worldwide. He wants a bigger cut (25-50% of future films) for his producing services, but Warner Bros. is refusing to budge. His cameo in the new movie could be his farewell to the billion-dollar horror universe he created.

📺 Paramount hired an ombudsman for CBS News—a title that sounds like a Scandinavian crime novel but basically means "complaint handler." Conservative think tank veteran Kenneth Weinstein will review bias complaints after Paramount's $16M Trump settlement. CBS staffers worry the appointment threatens editorial independence.

🏈 YouTube's NFL game hit 17.3M viewers but competitors weren't buying it. Fox and ESPN execs slammed Nielsen for using different measurement methods that make fair comparisons impossible. The free stream matched Prime Video's typical numbers but fell short of Netflix's Christmas games.

📰 Lachlan Murdoch cemented control of the family empire after his siblings cashed out for $3.3B. The settlement, announced on his 54th birthday, ends a court battle over who would inherit Fox and News Corp. from Rupert. Wall Street expects aggressive M&A moves now that the succession fight is over.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• David F. Sandberg will direct an Amazon MGM reimagining of horror classic ‘Amityville Horror.’ (more)

• Benny Safdie and Dwayne Johnson will reunite for ‘Lizard Music’, adapting Daniel Pinkwater’s 1976 novel about space lizard musicians. (more)

• Cate Blanchett will star in Alice Birch’s feature directorial debut ‘Sweetsick’ at Searchlight. (more)

• Lena Dunham, Jeremy O. Harris and Raffi Donatich are developing Netflix series ‘Sex Act’, with Sarah Paulson eyed to star. (more)

• Lionsgate is developing a sequel to ‘The Last Witch Hunter,’ with Vin Diesel and Michael Caine set to reprise their roles. (more)

• Rudy Mancuso will direct Disney’s long-awaited musical comedy ‘Bob The Musical.’ (more)

• Row K Entertainment has acquired U.S. and Canadian rights to Gus Van Sant’s ‘Dead Man’s Wire’ at TIFF, marking the distributor’s first release. (more)

• Fred Hechinger will star in Andrew Haigh’s new drama ‘A Long Winter.’ (more)

• Jessica Chastain will star with John Hawkes and Carter Faith in Netflix mystery thriller ‘Heartland,’ directed by Shana Feste. (more)

• Amazon nears $12M U.S. deal for all-female action film ‘Ballerina Overdrive’ starring Lana Condor, Maddie Ziegler, and Uma Thurman. (more)

TV Development 📺

• ESPN has acquired U.S. rights to docuseries ‘Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League’ ahead of its TIFF world premiere. (more)

• James Corden and Ruth Jones will star as siblings in new Apple TV+ comedy-drama ‘The Choir,’ their first series since ‘Gavin and Stacey.’ (more)

• Charlie Brooker is making an untitled four-part Netflix detective thriller starring Paddy Considine, Lena Headey, and Georgina Campbell. (more)

• Lara Spencer will host and exec produce Freeform/Hulu’s ‘That Thrifting Show’ while renewing her deal with ‘Good Morning America.’ (more)

• Netflix has ordered coming-of-age drama series ‘Crew Girl’ from showrunner Vivian Lin, starring Miku Martineau. (more)

Business 🤝

• Artists Equity has named veteran exec Amy Baer president of Film & TV, reporting to co-founders Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. (more)

• Warner Bros. Discovery has sued Sling TV over short-term bundles, following Disney’s similar lawsuit against the service last month. (more)

• Disney+ has struck a landmark deal with Spain’s Atresmedia to add 300+ hours of local content annually under the Atresplayer label. (more)

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