🎬 Nolan's Next: Straight to Netflix

😉 Just kidding. No, Christopher Nolan is not sending his next film straight to Netflix. But it is April Fools' Day, so keep your guard up. Today's the day studios, streamers, and PR teams all try to out-prank each other, and your timeline is about to be littered with fake announcements, bogus casting reveals, and at least one "leaked" trailer that's definitely not real. Trust nothing, verify everything, and maybe wait 24 hours before reposting that bombshell headline.

Welcome back to The Dailies. Now that we got that out of our system, everything below is 100% real (we promise). Let's get into it. 👇

The current U.S.-Iran conflict has experts questioning the stability of what's quietly become one of Hollywood's most reliable funding sources: Gulf sovereign wealth funds. Taking money from regimes with spotty human rights records was a source of debate for a long time, but as the industry's need for capital has grown, studios and dealmakers have been increasingly willing to take it. Some recent examples:

The conflict is now four weeks in with no clear end in sight. A prolonged war could make those deals more expensive to finance, put unsigned ones on ice, and in some cases, activate "material adverse change" clauses that give investors a legal off-ramp to walk away from commitments entirely.

If the conflict runs through April, Goldman Sachs forecasts GDP contractions of 3% in Saudi Arabia, 5% in the UAE, and 14% in Kuwait and Qatar. Numbers like that could force these countries to redirect capital toward defense and domestic priorities instead of, you know, bankrolling the next streaming megadeal.

Looking ahead... Gulf officials say they're not going anywhere. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund governor called them "long-term patient investors," and the UAE ambassador reaffirmed the country's partnership with U.S. companies. But experts say the "blank check vanity era" is over either way. "The money will start flowing again," economist Dr. Christopher Kummer says, "but investors may be more disciplined about the projects and partnerships they commit to."

🍄 The biggest box office opening of 2026 arrives today. Universal's 'Super Mario Galaxy Movie' is projected to pull in $175-200M domestically over the five-day Easter window and $350M+ globally. Presales are running slightly ahead of the first film's pace (that one opened to $204M and finished at $1.36B worldwide). Critics aren't loving it (43% on RT), but that didn't slow the first one down either, and most analysts expect 'Galaxy' to cross $1B. PG-rated films have outgrossed every other rating at the domestic box office for two years running. With 2026 domestic grosses already up 23% over last year and the industry hoping to clear $10B domestic this year for the first time since 2019, this is the pre-summer tentpole that keeps that train rolling.

🗳️ ABC's 'American Idol' broke its own voting system on live TV. The show pioneered text voting back when that was cutting-edge in 2002, and this season introduced live social media voting via Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok as a play to reach younger audiences. The new system generated tens of millions of votes during Monday's live episode, so many that production couldn't verify results in time. No one was eliminated (a move that visibly surprised even the judges), and votes will carry over to next week. It's the first major reality competition to attempt live social media voting, and while the infrastructure wasn't quite ready for the moment, the volume alone is a pretty strong validation of the strategy.

💰 David Ellison insists Paramount can cut billions and still grow. Paramount's CEO said Skydance merger savings will blow past the original $3B target ($2.5B of which will be realized by year's end), with an additional $6B in savings projected from the proposed WBD acquisition. He pushed back on the idea that efficiency means shrinking, citing a doubled film slate and 11 new Paramount+ greenlights. He says most savings come from non-labor costs like vendor contracts and tech consolidation. Critics, though, point to the thousands of jobs already cut since the merger closed and question whether ~$80B in combined debt can be managed without deeper cuts. Time will tell which narrative wins out.

🇫🇷 Canneseries dropped its 2026 lineup: Richard Gadd's new show 'Half Man,' Hugo Blick's 'California Avenue,' and Apple TV's 'For All Mankind' spin-off 'Star City' are all premiering out of competition. The international TV festival will showcase series from 17 countries this year and runs April 23-28.

🫠 Rough stretch for Row K Entertainment: The new-ish indie distributor just pulled its CinemaCon presentation after news of exec upheaval, with its president and CMO both out just seven months after launch. It also yanked the release of 'Poetic License' and is reportedly dealing with cash flow issues.

💰 Global streaming revenue is on pace to hit $200B by 2030. Subscription revenue also topped $150B for the first time last year, fueled by steady price hikes and the rapid rise of ad-supported tiers (which now account for 28% of total revenue, up from less than 5% in 2020). So much for subscription fatigue.

🏈 Netflix wants more football. The streamer is looking to expand its NFL package from two games to four, eyeing the league's new Thanksgiving Eve game and an international matchup. Netflix is in the final year of its three-year Christmas Day deal, where it paid roughly $75M per game.

_*sponsored

Wall Street just bet billions on a small collection of stocks. Our analysts tracked the rotation and identified 10 companies seeing heavy accumulation from institutional money right now.

The tickers, the trends, and the reasoning are all in The 10 Best Stocks to Own in 2026 report.

See The Top 10 Stocks

Know someone who should be reading The Dailies? Send them our way. Your friends get smarter. You get rewarded. Win-win.

Your referral count: {{rp_num_referrals}} (Only {{rp_num_referrals_until_next_milestone}} away from unlocking {{rp_next_milestone_name}})

Or copy your personal referral link here: {{rp_refer_url}}