🎬 Studios Skipping Cannes

👋 Good morning. ‘Euphoria' is headlining Coachella this weekend… kind of. HBO is screening the S3 premiere in the festival campgrounds this Sunday at 11:59 p.m., making it the first TV show ever to debut at the festival. The long-awaited season, which returns after a four-year hiatus, premieres on HBO Max the same night. You'll need a wristband and a first-come, first-served spot under the desert sky. Can't fault the targeting: the Venn diagram of "Euphoria's target audience" and "people at Coachella right now" is just a circle with glitter on it.

Welcome back to The Dailies, and congrats on making it to Friday. Whether you're headed to the desert or just the couch, let's get you caught up before you clock out.

Sources: Top streamed chart (U.S.) via FlixPatrol; new release viewership data (U.S.) via Luminate.

The 79th edition's official selection dropped yesterday, and it's an auteur's buffet. A record 2,541 features were submitted (up ~1,000 from a decade ago), but the resulting slate is notably light on American studio films. Ira Sachs' 'The Man I Love' is the only U.S.-directed title in competition. Some highlights:

Major studios are increasingly sitting out the festival circuit. Berlin got the same treatment earlier this year, and Cannes is following suit. The 'Joker: Folie à Deux' debacle at Venice 2024 (brutal critical reception, commercial flop) seems to have spooked the majors away from premiering tentpoles in front of festival crowds. Frémaux shrugged it off, noting that studios are simply "producing fewer blockbusters and fewer auteur films than in the past."

But Cannes has quietly become the de facto awards-season launchpad. Last year's selections pulled 19 Oscar nominations (including two for Best Picture). The year before: 31. And Neon, which has distributed six consecutive Palme d'Or winners (at this point just set up a permanent office in the Palais), has North American rights on several of this year's competition titles. Studios or not, the pipeline is working.

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🚪 Jeff Shell's résumé now includes two very expensive departures. Shell resigned as Paramount Skydance's president this week after a professional gambler filed a $150M lawsuit claiming he leaked confidential company info, including his belief that Paramount is overpaying for WBD. It's his second ouster from a top media job in three years (he was fired as NBCU's CEO in 2023 over misconduct allegations). By one estimate, Shell's severance totals roughly $15M, including accelerated stock vesting, for about nine months of work. Shell was basically brought on as Ellison's right-hand man, so not a great look for a company trying to close the biggest media merger in recent memory. The lawsuit has since expanded to name Ellison himself, his father Larry, and the board.

🪂 Even Wall Street thinks Zaslav's payout is a bit much: ISS, one of the most influential shareholder advisory firms, is telling WBD shareholders to approve the Paramount merger, but is rejecting Zaslav's $887M golden parachute as "problematic." ISS rarely pushes back on management, so the rebuke stands out. The firm took issue with how the package is structured, essentially saying Zaslav negotiated terms that most major companies have already phased out. Shareholders vote April 23, though the exec pay portion is non-binding. Either way, the package was already a sore spot in an industry reeling from layoffs and contraction, especially for a CEO whose tenure delivered negative revenue growth and returns that lagged a basic index fund.

✍️ Details have emerged on the WGA's new contract. It's mostly a healthcare deal: Studios will contribute a record $321M to a health fund that was bleeding cash, while writers accepted higher premiums and tighter eligibility. The WGA got its fund rescued, the studios locked in the longer deal they came for, and that was enough for both sides. Beyond that, the gains are more incremental. Streaming residuals got a modest bump and TV staffing minimums from the 2023 strike held firm. On AI, the studios agreed to keep meeting with the guild and give writers a heads up if their work is used to train AI, but paying writers for that training wasn't part of the deal. The guild's boards unanimously signed off. Writers get to weigh in with a ratification vote starting April 16.

📱 The National Enquirer is getting into microdramas: A new deal with streaming app GammaTime will adapt stories from the tabloid's archives as vertical series, starting with a true-crime series on Drew Peterson. Richard Ramirez and Karen Read adaptations are also in the works.

🏰 Add Disney to the list of entertainment giants eyeing layoffs, with plans to cut around 1,000 positions in the coming weeks. Marketing is expected to take the biggest hit. The move comes less than a month into new CEO Josh D'Amaro's tenure as the company adjusts to tighter streaming and box office margins.

📚 Paramount is launching its own publishing imprint to extend its franchises into print and develop original IP that could feed back into the film and TV pipeline. Funny timing, considering the pre-Skydance regime sold major publisher Simon & Schuster to KKR for $1.62B in 2023.

🍿 Cinema United launched a Filmmaker Leadership Council chaired by Jerry Bruckheimer and Emma Thomas, with Brad Bird, Ryan Coogler, Jason Reitman, and Celine Song also joining. The group will advise on consolidation, release windows, and marketing the theatrical experience ahead of CinemaCon next week.

🎥 THEATRICAL

📺 STREAMING

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' is still the one to beat, looking at a $65-72M second weekend after its massive $131.7M debut. 'Project Hail Mary' should hold well at around $15-20M. The newcomer to watch is 'You, Me & Tuscany,' Universal's bet that a breezy rom-com can still pull date-night crowds to theaters for an $8-12M opening.