🎬 Hollywood 2.0

👋 Good morning! SNL just threw the mother of all high school reunions—except instead of awkward small talk by the punch bowl, we got five decades of comedy legends cramming into Studio 8H for the show's 50th birthday bash. From original cast members to fresh faces, from music legends to Hollywood A-listers, NBC managed to get just about everyone who's ever made America laugh on a Saturday night under one roof.

Whether you're a seasoned subscriber or a new arrival, we're thrilled to have you here. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we'll deliver the most important industry scoops directly to your inbox.

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• Weekend Awards Round-up

• Vegas as Hollywood 2.0?

• YouTube and Paramount’s Last-Minute Deal

• Berlinale Update

• Last Looks: 👀 Bite-sized scoops on developing stories/projects

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Call Sheet: The week ahead

• Martini Shot 🍸

But first, let’s take a look at what happened at the box office this past weekend!

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ Presidents Day packs the multiplexes…

1. 🦸‍♂️ Captain America: Brave New World: $88.5M domestic weekend, projected $100M 4-day holiday, $192.4M global. Fourth-best Presidents Day launch ever but concerning B- CinemaScore (lowest ever for MCU).

2. 🧸 Paddington in Peru: $13M domestic opening, $128.8M global total. Third ‘Paddington’ installment earns stellar A CinemaScore and 94% on RT, but can't grow its stateside audience despite universal acclaim. Previous entries both crossed $240M globally.

3. 💘 Heart Eyes: $10M domestic weekend (+20%), $22.6M domestic total. Valentine's Day slasher shows surprising legs with rare horror movie hold. Good news for Spyglass on their $18M investment.

4. 🐕 Dog Man: $9.73M domestic weekend (-30%), $69.5M domestic total, $84.4M global. Universal's animated adventure still fetching solid numbers in week three.

5. 🐉 Ne Zha 2: $7.3M domestic opening from just 660 screens ($11,061 PSA). The Chinese animated phenomenon has already amassed $1.046B in its home market, becoming the highest-grossing Chinese film in history.

6. 💔 Love Hurts: $4.37M domestic weekend (-25%), $12.9M total. Rom-com feeling the Valentine's Day love despite mixed reviews.

7. 🦁 Mufasa: The Lion King: $4.15M domestic weekend (+4%), $240.76M domestic total. Holding strong in its ninth frame.

8. 🎭 One of Them Days: $2.97M domestic weekend (+4%), $43.51M domestic total. Strong hold for Sony's indie dramedy in week five.

9. 👥 Companion: $1.87M domestic weekend (-38%), $18.76M domestic total. Horror hit losing steam in week three after shedding over 2,000 theaters.

10. ✈️ Flight Risk: $1.64M domestic weekend (-36%), $27.9M domestic total. Lionsgate thriller descending in fourth frame.

The Big Picture: Presidents Day weekend brought some much-needed heat to 2025's box office with $153.3M overall, up nearly 49% from 2024. While ‘Captain America’s’ numbers might look soft by MCU standards (especially given that B- grade), it's worth noting this is the biggest opening of the year so far. The real test comes next weekend—recent Marvel entries with mixed reception have taken steep second-week drops.

CLOSEUP
🏆 Oscars voters have 24 hours left to decide…

Just as Oscar voters are making their final picks, we got hit with a weekend triple-header of awards that's shaking things up:

🎭 BAFTA

• Well, well, well... 'Conclave' and 'The Brutalist' both snagged 4 wins each, with 'Conclave' taking home the big prize. (But don't get too excited—BAFTA and Oscar have only agreed on Best Picture twice in the last decade.)

• Mikey Madison (‘Anora’) shocked by beating Demi Moore turning Best Actress into a genuine two-way race.

• Safe bets for Oscar night? Adrien Brody's win feels like a lock, and 'Wicked's' costume wizardry is probably heading to the Academy stage too.

• Brady Corbet landed Best Director for ‘The Brutalist,’ adding another voice to an already wide-open Oscar directing race

✍️ WGA Awards

• Sean Baker hit the rare guild trifecta with ‘Anora’ winning Original Screenplay (after DGA and PGA wins)

• ‘Nickel Boys’ took Adapted Screenplay, though Oscar heavyweights ‘Sing Sing’ and ‘Conclave’ weren't eligible as they weren’t produced under WGA jurisdiction

• Remember: WGA winners often translate to Oscar gold, even in years with different nominee lineups

🎨 Art Directors Guild Awards

• The guild splits film prizes into three categories, with each Oscar nominee winning their division: ‘Wicked’ (Fantasy), ‘Nosferatu’ (Period), and ‘Conclave’ (Contemporary)

• For you stats nerds: ADG picks have matched Oscar's taste 19 out of 28 times.

• ‘Conclave’ getting another win here (plus its BAFTA haul) suggests strong below-the-line support

Looking ahead... Some films are hitting their stride just as voters hit "submit":

• ‘Anora’ is looking mighty strong for Best Picture—it's now won PGA, DGA, and WGA, a combo that's only missed Best Picture once (in 2006 with ‘Brokeback Mountain’)

• Don't sleep on 'Nickel Boys'—it's got that scrappy underdog energy plus Orion Pictures' magic touch (they delivered the last two Adapted Screenplay Oscar winners)

• ‘Conclave’ isn't slowing down either—BAFTA Best Film win and strong below-the-line showing suggest broad support

The bigger picture: This year's race is unusually fluid, with multiple films peaking at exactly the right moment. With Oscar voting wrapping up tomorrow, these last-minute victories could prove decisive.

WIDESHOT
🎬 Vegas, YouTube TV, and Berlin Film Festival…

🎬🎰 Vegas is making a $1.8B bet on becoming "Hollywood 2.0." A new bill backed by Sony Pictures and Howard Hughes Holdings could transform Sin City into a major production hub, offering $80M in annual tax credits through 2043—but with a catch (there’s always a catch in Vegas…). Unlike with traditional film incentives that simply attract temporary shoots, Sony's got to prove they mean business by building permanent digs and dropping $100M yearly on production for a full decade before seeing any of that tax credit cash. The blueprints are ambitious: 13 buildings sprawling across Summerlin Studios, plus an $8M vocational training facility to grow their own crew talent (with a rule that 50% of below-line crew must be Nevada residents). Spearheaded by Mark Wahlberg, who pitched the idea after moving to Vegas, the initiative promises 17,000 permanent jobs averaging $113K annually. If lawmakers give this the green light, it could shake up how regions compete for entertainment dollars—less about quick wins, more about building something that lasts.

📺🤝YouTube TV just became too big for Paramount to play hardball with. After some heated negotiations, the streaming service reached a last-minute deal with Paramount Global, preventing a blackout that would have yanked CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and a whole buffet of other channels from its 8M+ subscribers. The multi-year agreement also brings Paramount+ and BET+ to YouTube's channel store. What's fascinating here is the power shift it represents: YouTube TV, the new kid who showed up just eight years ago as Google's experiment in cord-cutting, has quietly grown into one of America's largest TV providers. For Paramount, already navigating a complex $8B merger with Skydance, the timing was particularly precarious—they simply couldn't afford to lose such a massive distribution platform. It's a striking example of how tech-based streaming services have evolved from industry outsiders to kingmakers, wielding the kind of negotiating power that was once exclusive to traditional cable giants.

🎬🌍 The 75th Berlinale is in full swing, with the first four days revealing key industry shifts and major market moves:

• New fest chief Tricia Tuttle secures Warner's ‘Mickey 17’ from Bong Joon Ho—signaling the festival’s push to mix studio premieres with arthouse fare

• Sales trends at EFM show horror and rom-coms gaining traction in Eastern European territories

• Traditional sales agents resist AI forecasting tools to assist with sales

• São Paulo makes an aggressive play at EFM to become Latin America's next production hub, unveiling major studio builds and tax incentives for international productions

• European exhibition numbers raise alarms: The region sees 1% box office dip in 2024, with host Germany down 6.5%

• Festival's timing clash with the BAFTAs highlights increasingly crowded awards season calendar

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LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• ‘Good Sex,’ Natalie Portman and Lena Dunhams’s rom-com sparks a $45M+ bidding war at EFM. (more)

• Kate Winslet is making her directorial debut with Netflix’s ‘Goodbye June,’ a family drama starring Toni Collette, Johnny Flynn, and Helen Mirren. (more)

• Warner Bros. hires writer Potsy Ponciroli to pen ‘The Goonies’ sequel as the classic film nears its 40th anniversary. (more)

• Benedict Cumberbatch replaces Tom Hardy in Cary Fukunaga’s ‘Blood on Snow,’ joining Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the Jo Nesbo crime thriller. (more)

• Lucky Number acquires global sales rights to ‘The Bird Kingdom,’ a Brazilian fantasy fable produced by Sacrebleu Productions and Lupa Filmes. (more)

• Mia Goth and Corey Hawkins join Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (more)

• Mubi acquires ‘The History of Sound’ for North America, a WWI-era gay romance starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. (more)

• Scott Adkins and Djimon Hounsou team up for ‘One Last Fight,’ a high-stakes action-thriller set in Thailand’s underground fight scene. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Hulu and 20th Television have scrapped their planned ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ TV adaptation. (more)

• Sophie Thatcher is in talks to lead ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ S2, stepping into the spy game alongside Mark Eydelshteyn. (more)

• Catherine Zeta-Jones will star in and produce ‘Kill Jackie,’ a Prime Video thriller based on ‘The Price You Pay.’ (more)

• Amazon MGM Studios secures exclusive U.S. streaming rights to ‘The Chosen’ and inks a first-look deal with 5&2 Studios. (more)

• Rosalía and Marshawn Lynch join ‘Euphoria’ S3, which jumps five years ahead and premieres in 2026. (more)

Renewed & Canceled ✅ ❌

• ‘XO, Kitty’ is renewed for S3 by Netflix. (more)

• ‘The Pitt’ is renewed for S2 at Max. (more)

Other News 🚨

• The 12th annual Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards took place over the weekend at the Beverly Hilton. (more)

• Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show’ racked up over 61M social media views during Super Bowl week, fueled by a viral Eagles TikTok. (more)

• Love The Dailies? Here are more newsletters we love. (more)*

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CALL SHEET
📅 The week ahead…

• TUESDAY: Oscars voting closes 🗳️

• SATURDAY: Independent Spirit Awards 🏆

• SUNDAY: SAG Awards 🎭

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest trends & viral moments

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

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