🎬 Disney 🤝 OpenAI

👋 Good morning! Francis Ford Coppola wants to launch a new annual tradition with his $120M self-financed Roman epic that earned $14M. ‘Megalopolis’ is returning to theaters every New Year's Day starting Jan. 1, 2026 at select Alamo Drafthouse locations to serve as what he calls "a fulcrum of discussion about the betterment of society and humanity." Forget the gym—start your year contemplating Rome's collapse in a dine-in theater.

Welcome back to The Dailies. One last industry roundup before you check out for the weekend. By the way, we’re trying something new: want to listen to this newsletter? Try our new audio edition. 🎧

How last week’s releases are stacking up…

Top-streamed chart (U.S.) Dec. 5 to Dec. 11. Data provided by Luminate.

Disney dropped a major AI move yesterday: The studio announced a $1B investment in OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT and AI video tool Sora) while simultaneously slapping Google with a cease-and-desist for "massive scale" copyright infringement. Iger said Disney would rather "participate in the rather dramatic growth, rather than just watching it happen and essentially being disrupted by it." Here’s what went down:

On the same day, Disney sent Google a cease-and-desist alleging its AI systems infringe Disney characters through Gemini and YouTube. Iger said Disney had been "expressing concerns" with Google but conversations "didn't bear fruit," leaving them no choice but to escalate. This follows similar legal notices to Meta and Character.AI, plus lawsuits against Midjourney and Minimax. Disney's playing whack-a-mole with its IP across the entire AI landscape.

The WGA wasted no time pushing back, saying Disney's deal "appears to sanction its theft of our work and cedes the value of what we create to a tech company that has built its business off our backs." The guild's invoking its bargaining agreement to sit down with Disney about the deal. SAG-AFTRA took a slightly softer line after "months of frank discussions" with OpenAI, but said it'll be monitoring implementation closely.

Looking ahead… Other studios are likely to follow Disney's lead. This carrot-and-stick model (partner selectively, litigate aggressively) could define how the industry navigates AI's chaotic rise. By picking winners and weaponizing IP rights against non-partners, Disney's essentially trying to determine which AI video platforms survive and which get sued into oblivion.

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🎿 Sundance's final Park City lineup just dropped. The fest revealed 90 features and 7 episodic projects for its last Utah edition, running January 22-February 1, before relocating to Boulder in 2027. The roster's stacked with recognizable faces: Charli XCX shows up in two films, Olivia Wilde both acts and directs, and there's a Courtney Love doc alongside a documentary about AI from the 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' producers. Staying true to its discovery roots, 36 of the features come from first-time filmmakers. The festival will also honor founder Robert Redford throughout the event, who passed away at 89 in September. It's a proper goodbye to both the location and the legend who started it all.

🤖 New York just passed new AI disclosure requirements for Hollywood. Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law requiring advertisers to disclose when they use AI-generated synthetic performers and get consent from heirs before using deceased individuals' likenesses commercially. SAG-AFTRA hosted the signing at their New York office and immediately flagged that AI protections will be a key demand when they head back to the bargaining table with studios in 2026. Meanwhile, President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that would sweep away state AI regulations like New York's in favor of federal guidelines, setting up a fight over who gets to make the rules.

🍿 Small-town theaters are getting squeezed out by the studios that supply them. Independent cinema owners say mandatory 2-3 week holdover requirements are crushing single and double-screen venues. They're forced to commit their entire lineup to every new release whether it flops or not. This past weekend, several theaters missed 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' during its opening because they were locked into screening 'Wicked: For Good' for a third week. Others recently spent two weeks showing Disney's 'Tron: Ares' to empty seats. It's an ironic squeeze: longer theatrical windows are typically celebrated as a lifeline for struggling theaters, but for mom-and-pop venues with limited screens, extended mandates can be a death sentence.

🎥 THEATRICAL

📺 STREAMING

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: 'Zootopia 2' ($27-32M) and 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' ($25-30M) are neck-and-neck for the top spot this weekend. The newcomers aren't making much noise: 'Ella McCay' is eyeing a $4M debut, while 'Dust Bunny' might struggle to hit $3M, potentially landing both outside the Top 5. It’ll most likely be a quiet December weekend before 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' hits theaters the following weekend.