🎬 New Copyright Rules

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👋 Good morning! After weeks of wildfire devastation, Hollywood's awards season kicked into gear last night as the Grammys forged ahead at Crypto.com Arena—becoming one of L.A.'s first major events since the fires. While many of the usual Grammy week parties were called off, the show balanced celebration with solemnity, as Trevor Noah traded his usual opening zingers for a heartfelt tribute to the city's resilience. And yes, The Weeknd's surprise return to the Grammy stage after his previous boycott had nothing to do with his album dropping three days ago. Nothing at all. See a full list of winners here. 👈👀

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:

• Sundance Wraps

• Hollywood Continues Losing Its Grip

• Copyright Office Green-lights AI

• 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
🎟️ The box office has a new top dog (man)…

1. 🐕 Dog Man: $36M domestic weekend, $40.59M global. DreamWorks' latest animation fetches the second-biggest January animated opening ever (behind only ‘Kung Fu Panda 3's’ $41.8M). Budget: $40M.

2. 🤖 Companion: $9.5M domestic weekend, $15M global. Warner Bros' genre-bending horror comedy lands within expectations despite excellent reviews (94% RT) and solid B+ CinemaScore. Premium formats drove 34% of business, with IMAX bringing in $1.6M. Budget: Under $10M.

3. 🦁 Mufasa: The Lion King: $6.11M domestic weekend (-29%), $229.51M domestic total. Disney's prequel continues to roar in its seventh frame, now neck-and-neck with ‘Sonic 3’ for total domestic earnings.

4. 🎭 One of Them Days: $6M domestic weekend (-25%), $34.45M domestic total. Sony's R-rated comedy holds strong in week three.

5. ✈️ Flight Risk: $5.6M domestic weekend (-52%), $20.9M domestic total. Mel Gibson's high-altitude thriller sees expected second-weekend drop.

6. 🦔 Sonic the Hedgehog 3: $3.22M domestic weekend (-39%), $230.54M domestic total. The blue blur crosses $230M in its seventh lap.

7. 🌊 Moana 2: $2.83M domestic weekend (-32%), $453.89M domestic total. Disney's animated sequel continues its impressive run in week 10.

8. 🎸 A Complete Unknown: $2.16M domestic weekend (-30%), $66.69M domestic total. Searchlight's Bob Dylan biopic stays steady in frame six.

9. 🏗️ The Brutalist: $1.86M domestic weekend (-30%), $12.11M domestic total. A24's architectural drama expands to 1,612 theaters.

10. 🦹‍♂️ Den of Thieves 2: Pantera: $1.6M domestic weekend (-47%), $34.48M domestic total. Gerard Butler action sequel heads to PVOD after quick 18-day theatrical window.

The Big Picture: The box office perked up this weekend with a healthy $82.29M total, up 26.8% from this frame last year when ‘Argylle’ stumbled out of the gate with $17.4M. All eyes on ‘Captain America’ next month to give 2025 the boost it needs.

Specialty Corner: While the big guns were blazing, the indie scene had its own story to tell. Military actioner 'Valiant One' scraped together $725K from 1,275 screens, while 'Nosferatu' continues its immortal run, now just $2.1M away from sinking its fangs into Focus Features' all-time record held by 'Downton Abbey' ($96.8M).

CLOSEUP
🌄 Sundance 2025 wraps…

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival wrapped yesterday, offering a snapshot of independent film at a crucial crossroads. Deals are moving at a deliberate pace, with three significant sales so far:

• A24 landed Eva Victor's buzzy ‘Sorry, Baby’ for $8M after a heated bidding war—proving premium prices still exist for distinctive voices

• Neon snagged the Alison Brie-Dave Franco body horror ‘Together’—building on their success with 'Longlegs' ($74M box office)

• Netflix picked up Joel Edgerton's haunting ‘Train Dreams’—though streamer appetite for festival films continues to cool

Digital Growing Pains: Two high-profile titles were pulled from Sundance’s online streaming platform due to piracy concerns:

• ‘Twinless,’ starring Dylan O'Brien, was removed after leaked scenes hit social media.

• Award-winning doc ‘Selena y Los Dinos’ was also pulled after clips surfaced on TikTok.

Award Winners & Breakouts:

• U.S. Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic): ‘Atropia’—A mind-bending sci-fi about reality TV contestants trapped in a simulated world

• U.S. Grand Jury Prize (Documentary): ‘Seeds’—Brittany Shyne's intimate look at Black farming traditions in the American South

• Festival Favorite: ‘Come See Me in the Good Light’—Ryan White's unexpectedly funny documentary following two poets navigating love and terminal illness

• Special Jury Award for Acting: Dylan O'Brien for ‘Twinless’

• See a full list of winners here. 👈👀

The Big Picture: The festival highlighted that there’s no shortage of wealthy backers or talented filmmakers eager to make indie films. The problem is profitability: over the past three years, the reliable post-theatrical payday from streaming and TV rights has essentially vanished as streamers focus on making their own content. A Harvard study suggests there are 40M potential indie viewers out there—the challenge is reaching them profitably.

The festival may be eyeing Cincinnati for 2027, but this year showed indie film's creative spark is still alive—it's just the business model that needs a rewrite.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 Production exodus & AI green-light…

🎬🌎 Hollywood's grip on film production is slipping. A fresh report from production tracking service ProdPro drops a bombshell: U.S. locations are completely missing from the top five filming destinations for 2025-2026, according to their survey of studio execs. Instead, Toronto and Vancouver (where the Canadian dollar just hit a five-year low at 68.85 cents post-Trump tariffs), the UK, Central Europe, and Australia are stealing the spotlight, pushing California to a surprising sixth place. While Hollywood's post-strike numbers show some bounce—an 18% production jump and $16.2B spending boost—the bigger picture's concerning: U.S. high-budget production spend has nosedived 26% since 2022. TV's recovery tells a similar tale—while productions jumped from 397 to 494, we're far from the glory days of 600+ series. With executives ranking tax incentives as their top cost-control priority and 39% forecasting budget cuts, California's fighting back. Governor Newsom's pushing to double tax credits while a 17,500-strong industry petition demands action amid recent wildfire chaos.

📽️🤖 The Copyright Office just gave Hollywood's AI experiments their big break. The US Copyright Office just dropped a 41-page report that clears up one of AI's biggest question marks: can you copyright stuff that AI helps create? The answer's yes – but with some rules. This is huge for studios, who can now freely use AI to polish their productions, from making actors look younger to fixing accents (like they did in ‘The Brutalist’), without worrying about copyright complications. But there's a catch—can't just type "make me a masterpiece" into AI art tools like Midjourney and claim you're the next Spielberg. The Office is drawing a clear line: if humans thoughtfully curate, modify, and combine AI outputs (like how musicians select and transform samples to create new songs), they can claim copyright. But letting AI generate the final product without significant human creative input? That's a no-go. With 10,000 industry voices weighed in and two more major reports coming, this new rulebook balances tech innovation with protecting human creativity—though it probably won't completely calm artists worried about AI impacting their livelihoods.

LAST LOOKS
Development 🗒️

• Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, Bill Irwin, and Samantha Morton join Christopher Nolan’s star-studded ‘The Odyssey.’ (more)

• Melissa Leo, Jacob Scipio, and Lou Llobell join André Øvredal’s untitled Paramount horror film, produced by Walter Hamada. (more)

• Noah Centineo will star in and produce the thriller ‘Listen,’ directed by Brian Birch and produced by Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios. (more)

• Timothy Olyphant joins Anya Taylor-Joy in Apple TV+’s ‘Lucky,’ a limited drama about a woman confronting her criminal past. (more)

• O-T Fagbenle, Sian Clifford, and Ronny Chieng join Peacock’s comedy ‘The Miniature Wife,’ starring Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen. (more)

• Kyle Mooney, Ken Jeong, Roger Bart, and Jane Krakowski join Amazon MGM’s holiday comedy ‘The Man with the Bag.’ (more)

• Eric Bana joins Charlize Theron in Netflix’s survival thriller ‘Apex,’ directed by Baltasar Kormákur. (more)

• Peacock has snagged ‘Married at First Sight’ from Lifetime in a massive deal worth over $50M, securing the hit reality series’ future on streaming. (more)

• Mike Leigh will shoot a new film this year, reuniting with Bleecker Street, Studiocanal, Film4, and Cornerstone, with details under wraps. (more)

Renewed & Canceled ✅ ❌

• Netflix’s ‘The Sandman’ will end with S2 amid allegations against Neil Gaiman. (more)

Business 🤝

• The estate of ‘Superman’ co-creator Joseph Shuster is suing Warner Bros. Discovery and DC to block the film’s release in certain territories. (more)

• Fulwell 73 and SpringHill Co. finalize their merger, forming Fulwell Entertainment. (more)

• Anna Camp, Stephanie Beatriz, Anna Faris, Noomi Rapace, and six others follow agent Bonnie Bernstein from CAA to Gersh. (more)

• Still reading screenplays? Start listening to them with Screenplayer. (more)*

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CALL SHEET
📅 The week ahead…

• WEDNESDAY: Disney earnings announcement 📊

• FRIDAY: Critics Choice Awards (Postponed from Jan. 12) 🏆

• SATURDAY: DGA Awards & PGA Awards 🏆

• SUNDAY: Superbowl Sunday 🏈

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VIDEO VILLAGE
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MARTINI SHOT
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