🎬 Aced the Test

👋 Good morning! Bong Joon Ho just gave the most Bong Joon Ho answer possible at the Marrakech Film Festival jury press conference on Saturday. When asked about AI, the Oscar-winning director had two takes: his "official" one (it's good because it forces us to think about what only humans can do) and his "personal" one (he's organizing a military squad to destroy it). The rest of his jury, which included Jenna Ortega, Celine Song, and Anya Taylor-Joy, mostly sided with option two.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Welcome to December and welcome back to The Dailies. As you shake off the turkey coma and dive into the final stretch of 2025, we'll get you caught up with everything that happened while you were away.

The bigger picture: This Thanksgiving delivered a solid $293M over the 5-day frame ($185.9M for the 3-day), but last year's record-shattering $424.5M weekend feels like a distant memory. While 'Zootopia 2' and 'Wicked: For Good' performed strongly, the rest of the chart showed little depth. This year's overall box office advantage over 2024 has now slipped considerably, with the year-over-year lead narrowing as we head into December. Next weekend it's 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2,' then 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' arrives to take over the holidays.

Last week we called 'Zootopia 2' and 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' litmus tests for whether China still matters to Hollywood. The results are in, and the numbers are impressive:

The film is now tracking toward a $500M+ China finish, with an outside shot at challenging 'Endgame's' $632M record for Hollywood films.

Why it matters: 'Zootopia 2' proves China can still deliver massive box office for the right IP, but it's the exception, not the new normal. No other Hollywood film has cracked $100M there this year. The economics are still tough: studios spend $5M+ on local marketing while keeping just 25% of ticket sales (versus 40-50% in most markets). Even proven franchises like 'Jurassic World' and 'Mission: Impossible' have seen China returns collapse versus pre-pandemic levels.

Looking ahead: Zootopia is arguably Hollywood's most popular franchise in China right now, but one breakout doesn't signal a trend. 'Avatar 3's' China performance in three weeks will be the real tell for whether the $200M+ tentpole model can still rely on Chinese scale to justify budgets.

📺 The ad world just crowned a new heavyweight champion. Ad giant Omnicom closed its $13B acquisition of Interpublic, creating the world's largest advertising company. The merger required FTC approval, with the companies agreeing not to coordinate on withholding ad dollars from outlets based on their politics, and consolidates major PR firms like Weber Shandwick and Ketchum. For Hollywood, this means one mega-agency now has unprecedented negotiating power with streamers and networks at a time when ad-supported tiers on Netflix, Disney+, and Peacock are critical to profitability. When one buyer controls that much ad spend, everyone listens.

⚖️ The AI copyright battle is ending in settlements. After 50+ lawsuits over using copyrighted materials to train AI, tech companies are abandoning their legal defenses and cutting deals. This year alone saw settlements from Anthropic ($1.5B), Suno, and Udio, all on terms that favor creators. OpenAI looks like it could be next in line after a judge forced the company to hand over internal messages about deleting pirated book datasets, which authors' lawyers suspect was done to destroy evidence ahead of lawsuits. If those Slack messages prove OpenAI knew it was infringing, damages could jump to $150,000 per work instead of standard rates, potentially billions in total liability.

🇬🇧 The bidding war just lost a bidder: The UK government declined to raise its film and TV tax credits despite months of industry lobbying, keeping the high-end TV credit at 25% instead of the requested 40%. Major producers like Jane Tranter ('Doctor Who') and Jane Featherstone ('Black Doves') pushed for the increase to stay competitive with other markets. Interestingly, the UK has been gaining ground with its current 25% rate, with scripted TV production up 77.2% in 2024 as many other markets declined. Refusing to go higher could signal a shift in the decade-long arms race of countries outbidding each other for projects.

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Awards season shifts into high gear with a handful of major awards revealing their winners in the next seven days. While these early picks rarely predict the eventual Oscar winner, they set the tone for which films enter the conversation with serious heat. Here’s what’s coming:

Looking ahead… History shows patience pays off. The race doesn't truly take shape until the guilds weigh in come January.