🎬 Significant Concerns

👋 Good morning! Quentin Tarantino just discovered you can't cancel Paul Dano. Hollywood won't let you. Last week on 'The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast,' Tarantino called Dano "the weakest f***ing actor in SAG" while discussing 'There Will Be Blood,' claiming the actor was the film's "big, giant flaw." But instead of piling on, the industry rallied behind Dano so hard he's become the first actor to be successfully "reverse-cancelled." Matt Reeves, Ben Stiller, Simu Liu, Mattson Tomlin, Alec Baldwin, and Zach Woods all jumped to his defense. The Paul Dano Defense League is the fastest growing club in town.

Welcome back from the weekend. We've got box office results, Netflix/WBD updates, and all the industry news you missed while you were away from your inbox.

The bigger picture: The post-Thanksgiving curse has been shattered with a record-breaking $153.8M weekend. That’s up 10.8% year-over-year and obliterated the previous record for this typically dead frame. The domestic box office officially crossed $8B for 2025 (the third time since COVID) sitting 1% ahead of 2024 at this point. We’ll see whether ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash's’ December 19 launch can push the year past the elusive $9B mark, a feat only achieved once post-pandemic during 2023's ‘Barbenheimer’ summer.

In case you missed the big news last week: Netflix is buying Warner Bros. for $82.7B, and Hollywood spent the weekend freaking out. Pretty much every guild, union, and lawmaker came out swinging. Here's what they're saying:

How Netflix won: New reporting reveals Sarandos played the long game, meeting with Trump at the White House in mid-November and bonding over dinner at Mar-a-Lago in December 2024. He pitched that Netflix isn't a monopoly, just the "fifth-or sixth-biggest distributor on TV." Netflix then submitted the highest offer at every stage ($27.75/share) plus a record $5.8B breakup fee.

The regulatory gauntlet: Netflix faces a 12-18 month review process starting with the DOJ, which tends to scrutinize deals where two direct competitors merge (unlike, say, a tech company buying a studio). State attorneys general in NY and CA could also challenge the deal independently, while EU regulators might demand concessions like maintaining licensing agreements with competitors or even forcing Netflix to sell off HBO Max to preserve competition.

Trump weighed in last night, praising Sarandos as "fantastic" but noting the combined company would have "a very big market share" and "it could be a problem." He confirmed meeting with Sarandos in the Oval Office last week and said "I'll be involved in that decision."

What Netflix's promising: Warner Bros. theatrical releases will continue, HBO Max will remain its own service (for now), and theatrical windows will "evolve to be much more consumer friendly." That last part sounds like code for shorter windows, though Netflix hasn't specified exactly what that means. Theaters fear it could shrink to two weeks before movies hit streaming.

What's next? Paramount isn't going quietly. The company is exploring a hostile takeover by going directly to WBD shareholders, with lawyers alleging WBD execs rigged the auction to land cushy post-merger jobs at Netflix. Netflix says it's "running full speed towards regulatory approval," but this could be far from over and could get messy.

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Industry advocates from production businesses, lobbying firms, and the TV Academy met with Trump administration officials Friday to make their case: forget the tariffs, give us tax credits instead. Here’s what went down:

The context: Trump appointed Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone, and Mel Gibson as Hollywood ambassadors and has been pushing 100% tariffs on overseas productions, saying other countries have stolen the movie business from the U.S. 'just like stealing candy from a baby.' Voight himself presented a plan to Trump in May that included midsize tax incentives alongside tariffs. But industry insiders say tariffs alone would accelerate Hollywood's decline, not reverse it.

Worth noting: There's an existing federal incentive called Section 181 that's set to expire December 31. It allows a 100% deduction for the first $15M of production costs, and stakeholders want it renewed. But even with renewal, industry consensus is clear: it's a band-aid on a much bigger problem, not the competitive solution the U.S. needs.

Looking ahead... The meeting followed dozens of Capitol Hill discussions that were well received. But this is Trump's call, and bipartisan support for a federal incentive requires his sign-off to get Republicans on board.

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