🎬 Bill's Finally Here

👋 Good morning! Somewhere on the Upper West Side, a critic is already stretching for an 18-day sit: the 64th New York Film Festival kicks off today. James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' opens things up tonight, and over the next couple weeks we'll get first looks at Tony Gilroy's 'Behemoth!,' Luca Guadagnino's 'Artificial' and Ava DuVernay's '14th.' If you're heading to New York for it, just remember: if a subway car is empty at rush hour, there's a reason. Do not investigate.

Welcome back to The Dailies. Congrats on surviving another week in this business. Top off that coffee, there's plenty to catch up on. 👇

Top-streamed chart (U.S.) Sep. 17 to Sep. 23. Data provided by Luminate.

Hollywood's longest-running wish list item officially has a bill. A bipartisan group unveiled the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act on Thursday (or MPTERA, if you're the kind of person who says acronyms out loud).

The quick backstory: last year, President Trump proposed a 100% tariff on foreign-made films to curb runaway production, but the idea didn't get much traction in the industry. Jon Voight, his "ambassador to Hollywood," steered him toward an incentive instead. Trump endorsed the credit in late August, the MPA and every major union lined up behind it within days, and Congress finally moved on it.

Looking ahead… the bill still has to get through the tax committees in both the House and Senate, and with midterms hogging the calendar, the plan is to push it through in the window between the November elections and the new Congress in January. Not everyone's on board, either. Critics are already calling it a Hollywood handout, so expect a fight.

A24 just had its best year ever, and like anyone coming off a great year, it's asking for a raise (in this case, a bigger cut of theaters' ticket sales). Thanks to 'Backrooms' ($400M+ worldwide, the biggest indie since 2004's 'The Passion of the Christ'), it finished the summer as the fourth-highest-grossing studio, out-earning Paramount and Warner Bros. Some of the theater chains cutting the checks think it's a little early for a raise. Here’s where things stand:

Why do a few points matter? Theater owners say a swing of 10 points (or less) can decide whether a run turns a profit. Disney gets close to 70% because its hits come reliably, and exhibitors want a longer track record before giving A24 the same terms.

Why A24 feels ready: it's spending like a major now, with budgets up to $60-70M ('Marty Supreme') and a $3.5B valuation from a 2024 round led by Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital (more than Lionsgate's ~$3.2B market cap). It also gives theaters more flexibility than the majors, letting them drop underperforming titles early instead of locking them into multi-week runs.

Looking ahead… this weekend brings 'Primetime,' A24's widest release since the split fight began, and how it performs could shape how hard A24 keeps pushing. Meanwhile, a merged Paramount-Warner Bros. would control roughly 30% of the box office, and the proposed settlement would only hold current splits for three years. That gives theaters even more reason to guard their share now.

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📲 Letterboxd's for sale, and the interest is rolling in. Sony Pictures, A24, and The New York Times Company have all raised a paddle, formally submitting expressions of interest in the cinephile social network. Any deal is expected to value Letterboxd at $300M+, roughly 20x its projected earnings of about $15M this year, and a big jump from the $50M+ valuation Tiny paid for its 60% stake in 2023. Letterboxd has grown from 1.8M users in 2020 to 30M+ today, and it's one of the few corners of the internet where a good review still moves tickets. Whoever wins, co-founders Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow still own a big stake and get a vote on who buys.

✋ The Warnamount finish line just moved again. A federal judge who was expected to sign off yesterday on Paramount's settlement with 12 state AGs over its Warner Bros. Discovery merger held off. Hours before the hearing, she let Block the Merger, a coalition of press-freedom groups and filmmakers, file a formal objection to the deal, which they call "weak and unenforceable." Sen. Cory Booker also sent a letter raising concerns. The judge gave Paramount and the AGs until Monday to respond and will weigh the objections before ruling "in due course." Meanwhile, Paramount is reportedly asking Elon Musk and other deep-pocketed investors to chip in cash for the deal.

🎪 Coachella is staying on YouTube through 2030. Goldenvoice, which runs the festival, had offers from Netflix and Amazon on the table and still chose YouTube, its streaming partner for the past 15 years. CEO Paul Tollett's reasoning was simple: YouTube is free, global, and requires no login. The new deal comes off a rebound year for Coachella and adds mini artist docs that fill the gaps between sets. Live events have become prime real estate for streamers, and Coachella's success even inspired Disney+ to pick up Lollapalooza this summer. It's also one more example of YouTube going head-to-head with the traditional streamers, and winning.

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🎥 THEATRICAL

📺 STREAMING

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: 'Resident Evil' and an 'Avengers: Endgame' re-release will probably split the top two spots with $20-30M each. Between the newcomers: A24's 'Primetime' ($15-25M) has momentum, Brad Pitt's 'Heart of the Beast' ($15-20M) is close behind, and DreamWorks' 'Forgotten Island' ($10-17M) is lagging.