🎬 Buying a Talk Show

👋 Good morning! Somebody tell the doom-and-gloomers to take a lap, the box office is having a moment. Q1 2026 came in at $1.77B domestically, the best first quarter since the pandemic and a 22% jump over last year's rough start. Five films cracked $100M, led by 'Project Hail Mary' ($177M in 11 days) and 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' carrying into the new year. If the summer lineup lands, we're looking at a $9B-plus year, maybe even a shot at $10B. It's not 2019 money, but honestly, we’ll take any headline that doesn't include the word “slump.”

Welcome to The Dailies. Friday. You're here. The finish line is in sight. Let us brief you on what matters so you can coast into the weekend with confidence. 👇

Sources: Top streamed chart (U.S.) via FlixPatrol; new release viewership data (U.S.) via Luminate.

You've probably seen the recent Bill Clinton deepfake in Peacock's 'Ted,' the Ben Affleck-led Dunkin' Super Bowl spot, or Kendrick Lamar's face morphing into O.J. Simpson and Will Smith in the 'The Heart Part 5' music video. Those were all the same company: Deep Voodoo, the AI visual effects startup from 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The company started because the duo wanted to make a Trump deepfake movie and couldn't find an effects house that could pull it off, so they built one themselves. It's been quietly operating since 2020.

The company says its approach is deliberately different from the big generative AI players: licensed-only datasets, actor consent required, bespoke models built from scratch. But Deep Voodoo is just one in a growing wave of AI companies led by Hollywood creators:

The bigger picture: At this point, it's less a question of whether AI will reshape production and more a question of who's building the tools. Some studios are partnering with outside tech firms. Others are betting on these artist-led ventures instead. The irony is that many of the people behind them (Affleck and Lyonne included) are also signatories of the Creators Coalition, a group that's publicly advocated for AI guardrails and warned about the technology's threat to creative labor.

Looking ahead… Whether the "ethical, artist-led" framing holds up long-term is anyone's guess. But if the trend continues, the tools reshaping production may end up being built by the people using them on set, not by Silicon Valley outsiders.

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📺 OpenAI just bought itself a talk show. The AI giant acquired TBPN, a popular streaming show that covers business and tech through daily livestreams on YouTube and X. The deal comes one week after OpenAI shut down Sora, its AI video generation tool, effectively torching a $1B partnership with Disney in the process. So rather than building the tools to create entertainment, OpenAI would apparently rather shape the conversation around AI's role in it (at least for now). Oh, and TBPN's hosts will also work on OpenAI's comms and marketing, which makes the promise of editorial independence a little hard to take at face value. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he and Disney are still in talks about collaborating on something, but no details yet.

🤖 Bad Robot is getting smaller, and moving east. J.J. Abrams is downsizing his nearly 30-year-old production company, with cuts coming across the board. Bad Robot will close up shop in LA and move operations to New York. All of this follows a December 2024 deal restructure with Warner Bros. that traded a nine-figure overall deal (one that let Abrams sign other writers to their own overalls) for a slimmer first-look pact. Abrams will keep developing film and TV projects with outside producers, and the slate's still busy, with 'The Great Beyond' and a U2 bio series at Netflix among titles in the works. Even one of Hollywood's most established banners, it turns out, isn't immune to the contraction.

🚗 Mazda is making movies now. The automaker hired director Paul Hunter to create five short films for the new CX-5, each in a different genre (romance, action, horror, musical, sci-fi) and all starring actress Jessamie Waldon-Day. The campaign debuted during this year's Oscars and is headed to YouTube, TikTok, and Hulu, with Mazda eyeing theatrical placement this summer too. Call it a trend: brands aren't just buying ad space anymore, they're building content machines. Dick's Sporting Goods launched an in-house studio last year (and has two Sports Emmys to show for it), and companies like LVMH, Nike, and AB InBev have all made similar bets. Something to keep an eye on.

🎥 THEATRICAL

📺 STREAMING

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' already posted a record $34.5M opening day Wednesday (topping the original), and is tracking toward a $130-145M 3-day weekend. Critics don’t love it (42% RT), but an A- CinemaScore says nobody cares. A24's 'The Drama' counter-programs with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, looking at a $10-15M debut. 'Project Hail Mary' holds strong in Week 3 at $28-35M.