🎬 IMDB Ratings War

👋 Good morning! A petty, beautiful internet war broke out on IMDB last week: For 13 years, 'Breaking Bad's' 'Ozymandias' was the only TV episode in history with a perfect 10.0 score. Then last week’s episode 5 of HBO's 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' started threatening that crown. 'Breaking Bad' fans allegedly swarmed the new episode with low ratings. 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' fans fired back. Both scores tanked into the 9.7-9.8 gutter. While both sides were busy fighting, the 'Six Feet Under' finale slipped into the #1 spot. Either poetic justice or a cosmic bit. Hard to tell.

You're back, we're back, and your Monday reading list is ready. Box office recap, BAFTA surprises, the biggest headlines across the industry. Let’s get into it. 👇

The bigger picture: Not terrible, but not exactly a barn burner at $79M total. None of this week's new releases made much of a dent. 2026 YTD sits at $1.05B, 5% ahead of 2025's pace. Oh, and spare a thought for newcomer 'Psycho Killer' from 20th Century Studios, which debuted just outside the top 10 with a dismal $1.6M and a flawless (depending on how you look at it) 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Reinforcements are on the way: 'Scream 7' hits next weekend, March brings Pixar's 'Hoppers,' 'Project Hail Mary,' and 'The Bride!,' and then 'Super Mario Galaxy Movie' shows up in April like Mario hitting a star power-up.

Adult animation has been building steam for a while now, with agents reporting “massive appetite” for new series across the board. Netflix has been the most aggressive buyer in the space. Nearly half of its 325M subscribers watch animation monthly, and last week, the streamer went straight-to-series on two new shows and debuted a third:

And it's not just Netflix. Amazon continues to build out its animated slate, and Warner Bros. calls animation a "growth area." Hulu also just ordered 'Deano,' an adult animated comedy with 'Bluey' creator Joe Brumm executive producing, to go alongside its revivals of 'Futurama' and 'King of the Hill.'

The appeal is straightforward. Animation costs as little as $800K per half-hour episode, and tops out around $5M for a premium series, a fraction of comparable live-action. The ROI is strong too. One insider says Amazon's 'Invincible' likely outperforms 'The Boys' on a per-dollar-per-viewer basis. And shows last practically forever. 'The Simpsons' is approaching S40 with no aging actors or contract renegotiations.

There's also a practical hedge. Since a lot of animation writers work under IATSE contracts rather than WGA ones, animated productions tend to be less vulnerable to a WGA strike (though plenty of non-WGA writers still honored the picket lines in 2023). Nobody wants another strike, but with WGA-AMPTP negotiations kicking off March 16 and the guild already dealing with internal turmoil after its own staff went on strike, the insurance doesn't hurt.

FYC HAMNET | Nominated for 8 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress

✉️ James Cameron really doesn't want Netflix to buy Warner Bros. The director sent a letter to Sen. Mike Lee, who chairs the Senate's antitrust subcommittee, calling Netflix's proposed acquisition of WBD "disastrous for the theatrical motion picture business." His concerns echo what we've been hearing from exhibitors and creatives that Netflix's pledge to give WB films a 45-day exclusive theatrical window has no teeth and will "evaporate in a few years." The letter dropped Friday, on the heels of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos laying out the 45-day strategy on The Town podcast. Sarandos wasn't feeling warm and fuzzy about it, accusing Cameron of being part of a "Paramount disinformation campaign" and noting that when the two met in December, Cameron was "very supportive" of the plan. The WBD saga rolls on.

🤖 Doug Liman wants AI to fix his actors' performances. A U.K. casting notice for his upcoming Bitcoin biopic 'Killing Satoshi,' starring Pete Davidson and Casey Affleck, revealed that the production plans to use AI to "adjust" actors' facial and body movements instead of doing reshoots. The film will also skip real locations entirely, generating all backgrounds and scenery digitally. So actors will perform on a capture stage in front of… nothing, essentially. Producer Ryan Kavanaugh, sensing the pitchforks: "We will not have any AI-generated actors that do not exist. AI is a tool we're using to make the filmmaking process more efficient while maintaining all department heads' jobs, all actor jobs." Production kicks off in the U.K. by the end of February.

🎙️ Comedians aren't sold on Netflix's pitch to move their podcasts off YouTube. As Netflix ramps up its push into video podcasts, comedians are proving to be a tough get. The streamer has been requiring licensed shows to pull new video episodes from YouTube, and for comedians who've built audiences and ad revenue streams on the platform, that's a tough ask. Sources say Netflix underestimated both the price tag and the leverage top comedic talent holds over their own distribution. Hulu is taking a gentler approach, giving episodes a one-day head start on its platform before releasing them on YouTube. Netflix says the rollout is going according to plan, and that podcasting is a long-term bet, not an experiment. But creators worry that pulling their shows off YouTube risks alienating the very fans who made them worth licensing in the first place.

The 79th BAFTAs were last night at London's Royal Festival Hall, hosted by Alan Cumming. Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another' took six awards, including Best Film and Best Director, completing a clean sweep of every major precursor this season from the Gothams through the BAFTAs. At this point, it feels like the only thing standing between PTA and an Oscar is the envelope.

The top-line awards were predictable. The acting categories were not:

Both supporting races now have three different winners across the Globes, Critics Choice, and BAFTAs, something that hasn't really happened since 2004. Translation: there is no frontrunner in either category heading into Oscar voting. Meanwhile, 'Marty Supreme' went 0-for-11 on the night, tying the BAFTA record for most losses in a single ceremony. See the full list of winners here.

What it means for the Oscars: BAFTA shares ~500 voters with the Academy, and the UK bloc is the largest international contingent in Oscar voting. PTA's precursor sweep makes the Best Picture race feel close to over, but the acting categories just got a lot more interesting. Oscar voting opens this Thursday and runs through Mar 5, so these results land right when it counts.