🎬 Messy TV Breakup

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Welcome aboard the Dailies. As you sip your morning brew, we’ll get you caught up with the fast-paced world of Hollywood—no need to chase down a newsstand, we’ve got everything you need right here.

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• Comcast Plots Cable Split

• SNL's TikTok Success

• IMAX's Bold Forecast

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

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Release Radar: What to watch this weekend

• Martini Shot 🍸

But first, it’s Friday, so let’s take a look at what people were watching this week… 👀

TOP STREAMED
📊 What U.S. audiences were watching this week…

CLOSEUP
📺 Comcast's planning a messy TV breakup…

During its Q3 earnings call, Comcast dropped two bombshells: the company's thinking about splitting up its TV empire—spinning off cable networks into their own company, while possibly hooking up with Paramount for streaming. These moves could kickstart the final phase of the streaming wars as media giants scramble to survive.

What's behind the spinoff move?

• Protecting the good stuff: Gotta shield those money-makers (broadband, NBC broadcast, Peacock, Universal Studios, theme parks) from cable TV's decline. Time to separate the old cable networks (USA, Bravo, MSNBC) that still make money but are shrinking fast.

• Cable's falling off a cliff: Another 365,000 subscribers said "thanks, but no thanks" this quarter, bringing total cable TV customers down to 12.83M.

• Following the trend: Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery already wrote off $15B in cable network value, signaling a bigger industry shift.

Meanwhile, in streaming land:

• Peacock finally hit 36M subscribers but still lost $436M this quarter—even with an Olympics boost.

• Price hikes went into effect in July and August, but still aren’t fixing the money problem.

• Comcast says it's open to streaming partnerships, specifically mentioning Paramount

• Think Hulu: Just as Comcast and Disney share Hulu, a Paramount partnership could create another major streaming player—though details remain under wraps.

The bigger picture: Traditional players seem to finally accepting the cable bundle's twilight. As streaming consolidates, we might end up with just 3-4 major streaming players battling it out.

Looking ahead: Comcast's moves could start a domino effect across media. By splitting into two companies—one managing TV's decline, another chasing digital growth—they're admitting the old TV model is broken. The real question isn't if other media giants will follow suit, but how quickly they'll reshape themselves for streaming's brave new world.

WIDESHOT
🎬 SNL’s TikTok success, and IMAX’s big year ahead…

📱🎭 SNL's cracking the Gen Z code with a TikTok transformation that's paying off big. The 50-year-old sketch show has exploded on social, racking up 1B+ views this season—a 178% jump from last year—by meeting young viewers where they scroll. While traditional networks struggle to capture Gen Z (who are dumping streaming services and spending 88% of watch time on phones), SNL's social team is surgically dissecting sketches into TikTok-sized bites and spawning viral hits like their ‘Bridesmaid Speech’ spoof that topped 100M views. It's not their first youth culture pivot—in the 2000s, Andy Samberg's Lonely Island crew revolutionized the show with viral YouTube shorts like ‘Lazy Sunday,’ which helped SNL capture millennials during the early days of online video. Now, they're repeating that playbook for TikTok, even recruiting creator Jane Wickline (1M followers) to the cast. The big question: can they convert these social views into meaningful Peacock revenue? For now, they're proving legacy media can speak fluent Gen Z without losing their DNA.

🎥📈 IMAX is proving to be Hollywood's silver lining. While the broader box office struggles in 2024—down 11.4% from last year and trailing pre-pandemic levels by 26.8%—the premium format is bucking the trend. The Q3 earnings tell the story: while regular theaters fight for audiences, IMAX is eyeing a record-breaking $1.2B in 2025 ticket sales by doubling down on what streaming can't match: truly epic moviegoing experiences. They're growing worldwide with new deals in Australia, France, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, while landing a killer lineup of films shot with IMAX cameras, including:

• Disney/Marvel's ‘Captain America: Brave New World’

• ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ (Tom Cruise back for more massive stunts)

• ‘Superman’ (James Gunn's fresh start for DC)

• Christopher Nolan's mystery 2026 project

• ‘Avatar 3’

• New ‘Star Wars’ film (first big-screen adventure since 2019)

• ‘The Batman’ sequel

Even Netflix, once seen as theaters' biggest rival, is considering an IMAX release for Greta Gerwig's Narnia remake. CEO Rich Gelfond told investors it's simple: post-pandemic audiences will pay more for experiences they can't get at home—and IMAX's numbers prove it.

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LAST LOOKS
Development 🗒️

• Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan are set to return for Apple and Skydance’s European-set holiday sequel to ‘The Family Plan’. (more)

• Bryan Cranston and Lily Gladstone are set to lead Mark Pellington’s conspiracy thriller ‘Lone Wolf.’ (more)

• Warner Bros. is in early discussions to develop a ‘Game of Thrones’ movie, though no creative direction or attachments have been set. (more)

• Maika Monroe and Chloe Okuno reunite for the horror film ‘Brides,’ a feminist twist on vampire lore set in 1960s Italy. (more)

• Kit Harington and Billy Magnussen team up for Steve Pink’s quirky horse racing comedy ‘Chariot,’ (more)

• Mark Wahlberg and Sterling K. Brown will star in Elegance Bratton’s true-crime thriller ‘By Any Means.’ (more)

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star in ‘Pendulum,’ a psychological thriller produced by Darren Aronofsky. (more)

• John Krasinski returns as Jack Ryan in a new Amazon MGM feature film, joined by Wendell Pierce and potentially Michael Kelly. (more)

• Amazon MGM acquired Julia Cox’s spec script ‘Love of Your Life’ for nearly $2M, with Ryan Gosling attached as producer, marking one of the biggest spec script deals recently. (more)

• Theo James will star in Kim Jee-woon’s thriller ‘The Hole,’ based on Hye-young Pyun’s novel. (more)

• Idris Elba will lead the action-thriller ‘Hammer Down,’ produced by Charles Roven and Black Bear. (more)

• Russell Crowe will star in ‘The Last Druid' with William Eubank set to direct. (more)

• Jake Kasdan, Patty Jenkins, and Joe Cornish are set to direct three new live-action ‘Lego' movies for Universal. (more)

• Armie Hammer returns to acting with a role in the western ‘Frontier Crucible,’ marking his first project in over three years following resolved assault allegations. (more)

Business 🤝

• Rola Bauer exits her role as Head of Pan-English Scripted Originals at Amazon MGM Studios after two years, with her team’s projects now merging under Amazon MGM’s main television group. (more)

• NBA star Anthony Edwards’ Three-Fifths Media has partnered with Wheelhouse to launch a new ‘Wheelhouse Sports’ label. (more)

Other News 🚨

• The Grammys are set to leave CBS for Disney platforms, including ABC, Hulu, and Disney+, starting in 2027 under a ten-year deal. (more)

• Carol Lombardini will step down as AMPTP president next year. (more)

• The Animation Guild and AMPTP have extended contract negotiations into November, with additional bargaining dates set. (more)

RELEASE RADAR
📅 What to watch this weekend?

🎥 THEATRICAL

• Absolution: Crime thriller starring Liam Neeson as an aging gangster, directed by Hans Petter Moland.

• Blitz: Historical WWII drama from director Steve McQueen, starring Saoirse Ronan. Opens in limited release before hitting Apple TV+ later this month.

• Here: Drama about a single spot of land and its inhabitants across time, from director Robert Zemeckis, starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright

• Hitpig!: Animated cyberpunk comedy about a bounty hunter pig and his elephant target, featuring voices of Jason Sudeikis and Lilly Singh

📺 STREAMING

• The Diplomat: (Netflix) S2 of the political thriller series starring Keri Russell and Allison Janney.

• Like Water for Chocolate: (Max) Period drama series adapting the beloved Mexican novel, executive produced by Salma Hayek Pinault.

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW

'Venom: The Last Dance' should hold onto #1 with around $20M (-60%), while Sony stablemate 'Here' targets $3-7M despite mixed reviews. Newcomers 'Absolution' and 'Hitpig!' are set for modest debuts in what looks to be a quiet pre-holiday frame, with things picking up when 'Red One' arrives Nov. 15th.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments