🎬 Grown-up Business

👋 Good morning! Good news for anyone who's ever lunged for the remote when an ad detonates at twice the volume of their show: starting July 1, a California law forces streaming platforms to stop airing commercials louder than the programming around them. Broadcast and cable have lived under this rule for years, but streamers were free to blast away until one senator's aide had his baby startled awake mid wind-down show. Sleeping babies of California, rejoice.

It's Friday. The weekend's almost here, so top off that coffee and let's run through what you need to know before you sign off. 👇

Top-streamed chart (U.S.) Jun. 17 to Jun. 24. Data provided by Luminate.

'Peppa Pig' may be for toddlers, but her contract is strictly grown-up business. Hasbro, which picked up the franchise back in 2019, is asking the kids who voice the show to sign away their voices to AI:

The industry caught on fast. Nearly 1,000 agents, actors, and parents signed an open letter calling the practice out. It argues that kids can't meaningfully consent to this, and that a parent or guardian's signature shouldn't hand over something this sweeping on their behalf. The letter politely never names 'Peppa Pig' to protect the kids involved, though sources have confirmed it's the target.

Ironically, Peppa's voice has already been recast four or five times (Harriette Cox took over last year), so the show clearly survives a voice change. Critics point out that makes the AI clause look less about the show and more about saving money down the line.

The bigger picture: there's no settled answer yet for what AI voice consent should look like when the performer is a child. How 'Peppa Pig' shakes out could set the precedent.

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🔮 Sony just put $100M into Cosm. Cosm is the company behind those giant wraparound LED domes that drop you into the middle of a sports match or a movie, with tiered seating priced like a real venue. Sony led the funding round, picked up a minority stake and a board seat, and plans to start piping its own movies into the domes (think 'Spider-Man,' 'Ghostbusters,' and anime). Notably, it's the one major studio without its own streamer, so rather than chase subscribers, Sony's betting on the big-screen experience. And it comes amid a wider boom in premium formats, a rare bright spot in a soft box office. IMAX is posting record numbers and reportedly fielding buyout interest, and Disney just rolled out its own large-format program, Infinity Vision, to keep pace.

📅 Netflix is giving its Cannes winner four weeks in theaters. 'La Bola Negra,' a Spanish queer epic from directing duo Los Javis starring Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close, opens in U.S. theaters Nov. 6 before hitting the platform Dec. 4. It's an awards-corridor play built into the deal. Four weeks is wide for Netflix, which usually keeps theatrical runs short, and it feeds a will-they-won't-they question about the streamer's big-screen plans. On one hand, Netflix has been dabbling more, with a two-week Imax run for David Fincher's 'The Adventures of Cliff Booth' and a full wide release (its first ever) for Greta Gerwig's 'Narnia: The Magician's Nephew.' On the other, film chief Dan Lin recently framed those as one-offs, insisting Netflix won't work with talent who hold out for theatrical.

🇪🇺 Paramount's mega-merger is one step away from clearing Europe. The studio sat down with the European Commission this week to hammer out the final terms for approving its $110B takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. The likely price of admission is that Paramount will probably have to ditch a film-distribution joint venture it shares with Universal that handles theatrical releases across several international markets. Regulators worried the combined giant would control too much of the foreign box office. A formal decision could come as soon as July 7, and the deal is expected to clear once that remedy is locked in. The U.S. Justice Department already signed off earlier this month, so the only real hurdle left is U.S. state attorneys general, who could still sue to block it this month.

🗳️ The DGA ratified their new contract. Members passed it "overwhelmingly," according to guild leaders. The four-year deal locks in job protections, bigger health contributions, and director control over AI-generated footage. It's the last of Hollywood's three big unions to settle this cycle.

🏆 The Oscars are getting 529 new voters. The Film Academy's 2026 invite class includes familiar faces like Jacob Elordi, Teyana Taylor, Jenna Ortega, Jon Bernthal, and Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro. Over half this year's invitees come from outside the US, nudging the Academy's overall membership to 22% international.

📊 YouTube's still the king of the TV set. It pulled 13.4% of everything Americans watched on their televisions in April (per Nielsen) and keeping its lead over Disney (10.3%) and NBCUniversal/Versant (8.2%). Also, streaming's now nearly half of all screen time (47.6%), with cable at 21.6% and broadcast at 19.9%.

📽️ Chris Nolan's 'The Odyssey' is skipping its influencer screenings. Universal will preview the epic for professional critics rather than the usual social-media "word-of-mouth" screenings that tend to produce gushing early posts. It makes sense–fans seem to be souring on the suspiciously glowing reviews influencers tend to post.

🎥 THEATRICAL

📺 STREAMING

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: 'Toy Story 5' is still the one to beat, so really the newcomers are just fighting for second. 'Supergirl' is looking at a $40-48M opening, which is less than half of what 'Superman' did last year. Still, Warner insiders say anything north of $300M worldwide counts as a win, so nobody's hitting the panic button yet. And 'Jackass: Best and Last' is eyeing $10-14M. That'd be the lowest opening the franchise has ever had, but on a $10M budget, Paramount probably isn't losing much sleep over it.