🎬 Deal's on Ice

👋 Good morning! Ryan Gosling can finally sleep at night. The 'La La Land' poster of him and Emma Stone dancing under the stars has always had one flaw that tormented Gosling, and only Gosling, for ten straight years: her hand points elegantly up, his sticks out flat like he's steadying an invisible tray (a choice everyone on set advised against). He's called it his "La La Hand," and has brought it up in several interviews. For the film's 10th anniversary re-release, Lionsgate rotated his palm into the intended pose. One 'La La Land' error down. The envelope, tragically, is beyond Photoshop.

This is your midweek edition of The Dailies. Grab a coffee and we'll run through everything you need to know in film and TV. 👇

If it feels like Netflix signs a new YouTuber every week, that's because it basically has been. Top creators like celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni and the duo behind 'Good Mythical Morning' signed deals in the last week alone, joining Ms. Rachel, Mark Rober, and others. The setup is simple: Netflix pays a few million a year to stream creators' videos the same day they hit YouTube. And it's working: Ms. Rachel pulled 69M views on Netflix in the first half of 2026, beating plenty of shows that cost far more to make.

YouTube insists it's not worried, in the way you insist you're not worried when your best friend keeps getting dinner with someone new. The company maintains that success elsewhere just drives viewers back to YouTube. But behind closed doors, insiders say CEO Neal Mohan is debating whether to make a move. The concern is that YouTube starts looking like Hollywood's farm system, where creators "graduate" to streamers once they hit the big leagues.

To be fair, YouTube has fended off challengers before, launching Shorts to counter TikTok and luring top gaming streamers away from Twitch in a bidding war. A few moves are currently in play:

Looking ahead… It's early days, but a battle does seem to be brewing. Netflix is reportedly in talks with several more top channels, and rival streamers are circling the creators it hasn't signed. We'll be watching to see if YouTube's patience holds.

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🧊 The Paramount-WBD merger just hit pause. A federal judge granted a temporary restraining order Monday, freezing Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery for 14 days after finding merit in 12 state AGs' argument that the combined company would control too much of the theatrical market. That puts Paramount in a pricey spot: come Oct. 1, it owes WBD roughly $7M a day until closing, and backing out entirely costs $7B. The judge will spend the two weeks deciding whether to extend the freeze while the case heads toward trial, which could drag well into 2027. Somewhere, David Zaslav is checking the calendar and smiling.

🪓 It's Disney summer layoffs season again. Disney cut several hundred jobs yesterday across corporate functions, TV, and its film studios. Pixar and Nat Geo took the biggest hits. Insiders say 'Hoppers' shoulders some of the blame here. The well-reviewed original earned $389.5M worldwide on a $150M budget, which by Hollywood accounting still lands just shy of break-even. It's also CEO Josh D'Amaro's second round in five months, following April's cut of roughly 1,000 employees, and continues a summer pattern of trims stretching back to 2023. ESPN took a hit too, cutting redundant roles as it merges NFL Network into its operations.

⚽ FIFA is already selling the next World Cup. Sunday's final pulled in 62.8M viewers across Fox, Telemundo, and Peacock, making it the most-watched soccer telecast in US history. FIFA is wasting no time leveraging those ratings, shopping the 2030 and 2034 US rights for a staggering $4B. For context, Fox paid just $485M for the current English-language rights, which in hindsight was the media rights equivalent of buying Bitcoin in 2011. Fox, ESPN, Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon are all expected to take a look as the tournament heads to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco in 2030, then Saudi Arabia in 2034.

In a win for people who believe heartbreak feels good in a place like this, AMC Theatres just posted the biggest revenue quarter in its 106-year history: $1.6B, up 14% from last year. Its core business profits (before accounting for its massive debt) jumped 70% to $321M. Wall Street loved it, sending the stock up 27% Monday.

But this isn't an attendance story. While attendance rose 13.5% YoY, they're still down 26% from 2019 (and may never fully come back). AMC's real trick is making each moviegoer worth more:

Even with record revenue, AMC still lost $11M in Q2 (debt payments will do that). The company says it needs a $10.4B annual box office to break even on cash flow, a number not hit since Covid. The U.S. crossed $5.1B in July, so that number’s within striking distance for the first time since 2019.

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