🎬 Ellison Taking TikTok?

👋 Good morning. The Sundance Kid has ridden off into his final sunset. Robert Redford passed away peacefully yesterday at 89 in his Utah mountain home, the very place that gave Sundance its name. As tributes pour in from filmmakers across the industry, his enormous impact is clear: from starring in classics like 'Butch Cassidy' and 'The Sting' to creating Sundance as the launchpad for countless indie careers, Redford defined multiple generations of American film.

Welcome to The Dailies (yes, that's a new logo up there). Grab your coffee, your thrice-weekly dose of Hollywood's most important stories starts now. 😎👇

CLOSEUP
💸 Oracle + TikTok + Paramount + WBD = ?

TikTok's finally getting a U.S. owner, and surprise—it's Oracle leading the charge. The social media app has faced years of threats, bans, and endless deadline extensions over its Chinese ownership. Now Oracle, along with Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and other investors would take an 80% stake in a new U.S. TikTok entity, per the Wall Street Journal. Trump says he's "reached a deal with China," with a Xi Jinping call on Friday to finalize everything.

Oracle shares got a nice bump from the news. $ORCL ( ▲ 1.49% ) They've been TikTok's cloud provider since 2022, so this keeps that lucrative relationship intact while solving the whole China ownership headache.

Worth noting: Larry Ellison (currently the world's second-richest person) isn't just bankrolling TikTok. He controls 77.5% of National Amusements, which owns Paramount, after putting up $6B for the Skydance-Paramount merger that closed just last month. Now his son David, Paramount's CEO, is preparing a mostly-cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.

The bigger picture: The Ellisons are building something nobody else has—a vertically integrated media empire. If these deals go through, they'd own cloud infrastructure (Oracle), social distribution (TikTok), and content creation (Paramount + potentially Warner Bros.)—the pipes, the platform, and the programming all at once. TikTok brings significant reach: 136M U.S. users, with Gen Z spending 3+ hours daily on the platform.

Looking ahead… Both the TikTok and potential Warner deal would need regulatory approval, but the Ellisons seem confident. Their apparent good relationship with the Trump administration could smooth the approval process.

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM MORNING BREW
🚨 Your friends are worried about you…

They've noticed you can explain the entire Paramount-Skydance merger but go silent when someone mentions "the Fed." You know which studios are bleeding money but not why your grocery bill keeps climbing.

Morning Brew speaks human. Business, finance, tech, world news—all translated from Corporate into English.

WIDESHOT
🎬 Studios, quarterly earnings, and theaters…

🏴‍☠️ Disney and friends are taking a Chinese AI startup to court. Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. are suing $3B Chinese startup MiniMax for letting users create videos with Spider-Man, Darth Vader, and other protected characters through its Hailuo AI app. The app is marketed as a "Hollywood studio in your pocket." The studios call it an attack on America's creative community and $260B entertainment industry, noting MiniMax actually uses these stolen characters to promote the service. While Hollywood's been carefully debating AI guardrails through strikes and negotiations, Chinese companies like this one are apparently plowing ahead, with MiniMax even pursuing an IPO while openly ignoring copyright law.

📅 Trump wants to ditch quarterly earnings reports. President Trump proposed ending mandatory quarterly earnings reports for U.S. companies, suggesting they report every six months instead to save money and promote long-term thinking. The SEC has required quarterly reporting since 1970, but Trump argues the change would stop executives from making short-sighted decisions just to hit 90-day targets like cutting budgets or delaying hires. Every publicly traded studio would be affected along with all U.S. public companies, potentially easing pressure on media stocks like Netflix and Spotify that often swing wildly after earnings. While supporters say it would free managers to focus on sustainable growth, investors worry about losing transparency.

🍿 Movie theaters just dropped $1.5B on a glow-up. One year ago, eight major chains including AMC, Cinemark, and Regal pledged $2.2B to renovate theaters through 2027 as part of their mission to "eventize" the moviegoing experience. They're delivering on that promise, adding 200+ premium format screens, recliner seats, and expanded concessions. Some locations are going all-in with arcades, sports bars, even pickleball courts. Basically, their goal is to get audiences to "linger longer" and spend more money even when there's nothing good playing. As theaters pour money into these renovations, the domestic box office sits at $6.22B for 2025, up 4.5% from last year but still down 8.8% from 2023.

STATISTIC
🎮 Court gamers, multiply gamers, profit…

What started as Hollywood chasing Gen Z's gaming audience has turned into a self-reinforcing cycle, according to new Ampere Analysis data. These adaptations court existing gamers and manufacture millions more in the process. Some numbers:

• Amazon's 'Fallout' series created 14M new game players—80% had never played before

• TV adaptations drive 203% player growth vs. films' 48%

• Netflix's modestly successful 'Devil May Cry' still delivered 358% player surge

• 'The Last of Us' brought in 4M new gamers

Looking ahead… With 'Call of Duty,' 'Street Fighter,' 'Metal Gear Solid,' and 'Elden Ring' all in development, the cycle shows no signs of slowing.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Greenwich and Kanopy have acquired U.S. rights to Eran Riklis’ ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran,’ starring Golshifteh Farahani and Zar Amir Ebrahimi. (more)

• Row K Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to TIFF drama ‘Charlie Harper,’ starring Nick Robinson and Emilia Jones. (more)

• Universal’s pushing Jessica Chastain’s horror film ‘Other Mommy’ to an October 9, 2026 release. (more)

• Sarah Levy, Phillipa Soo and Adam Pally will star in indie feature ‘Run,’ directed by Melissa Miller Costanzo. (more)

• Tyrese Gibson and Deon Taylor are reteaming for horror thriller ‘Don’t Open the Door,’ set to film in Los Angeles. (more)

• Young Mazino and Stephen Root have joined Jeremy Saulnier’s A24 thriller ‘October,’ alongside Cory Michael Smith and Sophie Wilde. (more)

• Esai Morales will star in Per Prinz’s border drama ‘Coyote’ as an ex-smuggler seeking redemption. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Stanley Tucci’s joining NBC’s coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, highlighting northern Italy’s food and culture. (more)

• Tanner Zagarino and Sam Corlett will star opposite Christopher Meloni in Dan Fogelman’s upcoming Hulu NFL drama series. (more)

• Matt McCusker will debut his first Netflix special, ‘A Humble Offering’, premiering October 7. (more)

• ‘The Morning Show’ is renewed for S5 at Apple TV+. (more)

• ‘Tulsa King’ has been renewed for S4 at Paramount+, with Terence Winter returning as head writer and EP. (more)

Business 🤝

• The 2025 Emmys drew 7.4M viewers, up 8% from last year and the most-watched since 2021. (more)

• Julie McNamara is returning to CBS Studios to partner with ‘Matlock’ creator Jennie Snyder Urman, who just renewed her overall deal. (more)

• Josh Goldstine is set to join Paramount as Global Head of Marketing & Distribution under new motion picture leadership. (more)

• Warner Bros. Discovery is nearing a legal win in the ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit over Tesla’s alleged AI-generated images. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Traditional TV viewership actually grew for the first time since April, driven by football and back-to-school, per Nielsen’s latest Gauge report. (more)

• Webtoon shares soared nearly 90% after Disney took a 2% stake and unveiled a new digital comics platform. (more)

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM SCREENPLAYER
🚨 Listen to any screenplay on the go…

ScreenPlayer transforms screenplays into lifelike audio table reads, in minutes. Upload your script and hit play. And now, after some major updates, it’s better than ever:

• 🗣️ More realistic voices to choose from

• 🧑 Smarter auto-casting that saves time

• ✅ Easy filters to find the perfect voice match

Thousands of film and TV pros already use it to hear scripts the way they’re meant to be heard.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments