🎬 Hollywood Buzz 💈

👋 Good morning! This marketing stunt gives “Hollywood buzz” a whole new meaning: The 'Bugonia' team is hosting a screening today at Culver Theater with one tiny catch… you must be bald to enter. Not follicularly challenged? No problem, they've got a barber on site to help you achieve that aerodynamic look. It's all a nod to the film, where Emma Stone's character gets her head shaved. Free admission if you commit.

Welcome to The Dailies. Hope your weekend was solid. We've got fresh box office data, breaking deals, and all the industry intel to kickstart your week, no haircut required. Let’s get into it. 👇

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ Blumhouse dialed up a winner…

1. ☎️ Black Phone 2: 🆕 $26.5M domestic opening, $42M global debut ($30M budget). Universal and Blumhouse scored a much-needed win after a rough year, with this sequel slightly topping the original's $23.6M debut from three years ago. The B CinemaScore (down from the first film's B+) suggests word-of-mouth might not be as strong, but with no major horror competition until November, it should hold well.

2. 🏍️ Tron: Ares: (Wk 2) $11.1M domestic weekend (-66%), $54.6M domestic total, $103M global ($180M budget). Disney's sequel crashed hard in its second weekend with that brutal 66% drop, plus China delivered just a $2.8M opening. It's tracking to hit maybe half of 'Legacy's' $400M global total, pointing to a potential $100M+ loss for the studio.

3. 🪽 Good Fortune: 🆕 $6.2M domestic opening ($30M budget). Aziz Ansari's directorial debut couldn't find its audience despite Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen in the cast. This marks Rogen's lowest wide release opening since '50/50' and his first true leading movie role since 2019's 'Long Shot.'

4. 🧨 One Battle After Another: (Wk 4) $4M domestic weekend (-41%), $61.9M domestic total, $162.5M global ($130M budget).

5. 🏠 Roofman: (Wk 2) $3.7M domestic weekend (-54%), $15.5M domestic total, $16.4M global ($19M budget).

6. ✝️ Truth & Treason: 🆕 $2.7M domestic opening ($15M budget).

7. 🐱 Gabby's Dollhouse: (Wk 4) $1.65M domestic weekend (-52%), $29.9M domestic total, $58.1M global ($32M budget).

8. 👻 The Conjuring: Last Rites: (Wk 7) $1.57M domestic weekend (-50%), $175.4M domestic total, $482M global ($55M budget).

9. 🎯 After the Hunt: (Wk 2) $1.56M domestic weekend, $1.77M domestic total. Luca Guadagnino's thriller with Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield expanded nationwide but couldn't connect with audiences, earning a brutal C- CinemaScore.

10. 👹 Demon Slayer: Infinity Catles: (Wk 6) $1.3M domestic weekend (-43%), $131.2M domestic total ($20M budget).

The bigger picture: The weekend brought in $67.2M total, down 4.6% from last week. The month of October specifically is lagging 11% behind last year, but the overall 2025 box office is actually up 4% compared to 2024 according to Comscore. After oversaturating the market with five horror films in January (all flopped), Hollywood finally spaced out releases this summer and it's paying off, 'Black Phone 2' being the latest beneficiary.

Star-studded movies are losing money: Warner Bros. faces a projected $100M theatrical loss on 'One Battle After Another' despite Leonardo DiCaprio and likely Oscar buzz. The film needs $300M to break even given its $130M production budget and $70M marketing spend, but $163M worldwide won't get it there theatrically. Meanwhile, A24's big-budget gamble didn’t really pay off with 'The Smashing Machine' (not in this week's top 10) dropping 70% in week two to just $15.1M total on a $50M budget. It seems these prestige films aren't creating urgency for theatrical viewing, with audiences content to wait for streaming.

CLOSEUP
💃 ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is winning over Gen Z…

A 20-year-old reality competition has become Gen Z's newest obsession. 'Dancing With the Stars' is pulling its highest ratings in years (5.88M viewers last week), breaking voting records (more than 45M votes), and achieving something it's never done before: growing its audience three consecutive weeks after premiere.

The turning point: The unlikely youth movement started when TikTok queen Charli D'Amelio won the Mirrorball Trophy in 2022, bringing millions of her Gen Z followers with her. Producers noticed the surge and went all-in on the creator playbook.

The new A-list: Now the show has fundamentally changed who counts as a "celebrity." This season's cast includes at least six social media stars, from TikToker Alix Earle to 'Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' cast members. For Gen Z viewers, these influencers are bigger draws than traditional Hollywood names. And the show has reimagined its format to keep them engaged. Here’s what they’re doing:

• Contestants as content machines: Cast members post constantly between shows. Earle's post-episode "Un-Get Ready With Me" TikToks each rack up millions of views (one hit 3.6M). Even traditional celebrities are adapting—comedian Andy Richter had never used TikTok before joining the show.

• Week-long engagement cycles: Instead of hiding dances to build tune-in suspense, 'DWTS' now reveals everything early, keeping fans engaged between Tuesday broadcasts.

• Second-screen experiences: The show runs TikTok Lives during episodes with backstage content (one recent stream pulled 390,000 views and 1.4M likes).

• Fan participation culture: Young viewers aren't just watching. They're posting their own attempts at the choreography, filming reaction videos, and creating dance tutorials. When pros performed one samba on the show, fans generated 44M views recreating and reacting to it.

The bigger picture: While networks panic about losing young viewers, 'DWTS' proves legacy shows can thrive by accepting a simple truth: Gen Z will show up for traditional TV if you cast the people they actually care about and feed them content all week long, not just on Tuesday nights. With 246M social video views this season, the show's become TV's most social program by turning broadcast into just one part of a much bigger content ecosystem.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 F1 & Apple TV, TikTok edits, and South Korea…

🏎️ Apple just dropped $750M to steal Formula 1 from ESPN. Starting in 2026, Apple will pay $140M to $150M annually for exclusive U.S. broadcast rights over five years. That's nearly double ESPN's current $85M per year. Select races and all practice sessions will be free to non-subscribers, while Apple TV subscribers get everything including F1 TV Premium at no extra cost. The F1 grab appears to be part of Apple hitting the gas on a serious subscriber growth push: Apple just rebranded from Apple TV+ to Apple TV and struck its first competitor bundle with Peacock, breaking from its typical walled-garden approach. Despite all its prestige content and awards, Apple TV still ranks near the bottom of Nielsen's streaming viewership charts each month.

📱 Hollywood studios are outsourcing their movie trailers to teenagers on TikTok. Lionsgate has hired 15 young creators who make "fan edits," those viral TikTok montages where users splice together movie clips with pop music, filters, and neon text. Rather than trying to replicate this style internally, the studio went straight to the source and recruited creators from around the world who were already making these videos with pirated footage. It seems to be working: one fan-made 'Creed' edit racked up 195M views and coincided with a 29% viewership spike on Amazon Prime. Now Lionsgate is betting big on 'Twilight,' planning a theatrical re-release after commissioning over 40+ fan edits to see if TikTok virality can actually drive people back to theaters.

🇰🇷 Korea just shipped its first AI-powered feature film. 'Run to the West,' a supernatural thriller, used artificial intelligence to cut post-production from 12 months down to just 3-4. Director Kang Yoon-sung turned to AI to create creature effects, battle scenes, and collapsing buildings on a tight budget. The AI visuals got mixed reactions from audiences, but Kang calls it a "necessary risk" worth taking. South Korea's theatrical market has been in a prolonged slump, and he believes the industry needs technological innovation to survive rising costs and shrinking audiences. It's the latest example of international markets experimenting with AI production while US studios work through union agreements and ethical questions about the technology.

ICYMI
⚡️ Quick hits…

🏆 The 52nd Daytime Emmy Awards crowned their winners Friday night in Pasadena. ‘General Hospital’ had a great night, taking home seven trophies, and Sir David Attenborough made history at 99, becoming the oldest-ever Daytime Emmy winner. See a full list of winners here. 👈👀

⏸️ OpenAI paused Sora 2's ability to generate MLK Jr. videos after people created what users described as disrespectful and vulgar clips of the civil rights leader. The move came at the King estate's request, with OpenAI saying it will "strengthen guardrails" for historical figures and let estates opt out of having their likeness used.

🪓 Paramount's long-expected layoffs are coming sooner than expected, likely the week of Oct. 27 ahead of David Ellison's first earnings call on Nov. 10. Around 2,000 jobs are likely to be cut across all divisions from CBS News to the film studio, though leadership insists they'll also be investing heavily in growth.

CALL SHEET
📅 The week ahead…

• TUESDAY: Netflix earnings announcement 📣

• WEDNESDAY: AFI fest kicks off 🍿

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VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers…

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments…