🎬 The Dust is Settling

👋 Good morning! Netflix is taking lip-syncing to a whole new level, and no, we're not talking about a TikTok challenge. The streaming giant's AI dubbing technology in ‘La Palma’ has caught viewers' attention for making Norwegian actors look like they're speaking perfect English—a far cry from the classic kung-fu movie dubs we all grew up with.

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:

• The Dust Settles on 2024 Box Office

• Ditching the Agency Package Deal

• 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 blue blur takes the top spot…

1. 🦔 Sonic the Hedgehog 3: $62M domestic opening. Takes #1 with outstanding reception (86% on RT, A CinemaScore). While below ‘Sonic 2's’ $72.1M launch, strong word-of-mouth and family appeal point to lengthy holiday legs.

2. 🦁 Mufasa: The Lion King: $35M domestic opening, $122.2M global debut. Disney prequel stumbles hard, falling 82% below 2019's ‘Lion King’ opening. A- CinemaScore and holiday corridor could help, but rough start for $200M+ budget film.

3. 🧙‍♀️ Wicked: $13.5M domestic weekend (-40%), $383.9M domestic total, $571M global. Musical adaptation continues strong run in fifth frame.

4. 🌊 Moana 2: $13.1M domestic weekend (-51%), $359.1M domestic total, $790.2M global. Disney's animated sequel sailing toward $1B worldwide milestone.

5. 🏡 Homestead: $6.1M domestic opening from 1,886 theaters. Faith-based western starring Neal McDonough earns surprising B CinemaScore.

6. ⚔️ Gladiator II: $4.45M domestic weekend (-42%), $153.9M domestic total, $416.2M global. Epic sequel crossing break-even territory on $250M budget.

7. 🕷️ Kraven the Hunter: $3.1M domestic weekend (-72%), $17.4M domestic total, $42M global. Sony Marvel spinoff continues catastrophic plunge.

8. 🗡️ Lord of the Rings: War of Rohirrim: $1.2M domestic weekend (-72%), $7M domestic total, $15M global.

9. 🎄 Best Christmas Pageant Ever: $825K domestic weekend (-36%), $38.5M domestic total. Holiday comedy showing decent legs in seventh frame.

10. 🌈 Queer: $364K domestic weekend (-54%), $2.8M domestic total. A24's drama drops sharply in fourth weekend.

Hollywood's pre-holiday frame delivered a $143M haul—a 34% jump from last year.

CLOSEUP
🍿 The dust is settling on the 2024 box office…

The movie business is wrapping another wild year, and while things aren’t quite back to pre-pandemic glory, there are some interesting stories to unpack:

• Global box office is landing around $30.5B for 2024, down from 2023 as Hollywood felt the full impact of last year's dual strikes delaying major releases.

• We're still trailing 2019's numbers by about 23%.

• If you're looking for original stories, you might want to look elsewhere—the top 15 box office films this year are all sequels or IP spin-offs.

🎬 Studio Showdown: The Winners and Losers of 2024

🏆 Disney pulled off quite the comeback story. After a rough 2023, the House of Mouse had not one, but three billion-dollar babies: ‘Inside Out’ ($1.69B), ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ ($1.33B), and ‘Moana 2’ (projected to cross $1B in January). The studio dominated the field as the only one to cross $2B domestically, while also hitting a whopping $5B globally in 2024—marking the first time any studio has reached that global milestone since the pandemic. It seems Bob Iger's strategy of pursuing quality over quantity this year has paid off in spades.

Warner Bros. had a decent run with some heavy hitters like ‘Dune: Part Two’ ($714M) and ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ ($571M). Even ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ showed there's still life in those old ghosts, pulling in $451M. But it wasn't all champagne and celebrations—‘Furiosa’ stalled out at $173M, and ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ proved that lightning doesn't always strike twice, barely breaking even at $206M. The studio's batting average was decent, but they're still searching for that consistent home-run formula.

Universal played the role of steady eddie this year, sticking to a proven strategy of mixing reliable franchises with fresh takes. ‘Despicable Me 4’ nearly hit the billion-dollar mark ($969M), while ‘Wicked: Part One’ defied the recent musical curse and soared to $525M. Even their revival of ‘Twisters’ proved there's still an appetite for disaster flicks with a modern spin, spinning up $370M.

Paramount played it safe this year, trading blockbuster swings for steady singles. No ‘Top Gun’-sized megahits this year, but they stayed profitable with modest wins like ‘Mean Girls’ ($104M) and ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ ($261M). 'Gladiator II' reached $400M globally, though that victory feels a bit hollow against its hefty $250M budget. But hey, sometimes steady wins the race... or at least keeps the lights on.

Apple & Amazon MGM continued finding their footing in theaters this year. While Apple's 'Argylle' ($96M) and Amazon's 'Red One' ($150M) didn't hit blockbuster numbers, both studios showed they're serious about bringing ambitious films to the big screen.

Pour one out for Lionsgate, who had a rough go of it. ‘Borderlands’ became a cautionary tale at $32M on a $120M budget, and things didn't get much better from there. When your CEO admits that "nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong," you know it's been a tough year.

Meanwhile, the indie distributors A24 and Neon had their best year yet, taking advantage of the majors' lighter slates post-strikes. A24's ‘Civil War’ dominated the spring with nearly $70M domestic, while Neon scored a summer hit with ‘Longlegs.’

🔮 Looking ahead…

The movie business is betting on a stronger 2025, with analysts projecting global box office to hit $33B—that's about 8% more than 2024. While we're still not back to pre-pandemic levels, the lineup looks promising with new ‘Avatar’ and ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies, James Gunn's ‘Superman’ reboot, and the conclusion to ‘Wicked.’ The big question mark remains China, which keeps becoming less interested in Hollywood movies, but the industry's showing signs of life. Things are looking up—even if they're not quite where they used to be.

INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM THE DAILIES
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• Stay on track with weekly steps to keep you moving forward.

• Get actionable feedback from an industry pro who’s sold to Netflix, Max, and more.

• Connect with storytellers, grow your network, and gain fresh insights.

There’s a reason students are raving about this course:

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CLOSEUP
🎬 Studios are ditching the agency package deal…

For years, talent agencies ruled the spec script market by pre-packaging screenplays with A-list stars before selling them to studios. But Netflix film chief Dan Lin is now leading a quiet rebellion: he's telling his team to snatch up promising scripts before agencies can attach any talent. Other studios are following suit, grabbing "naked" screenplays (industry speak for scripts with no stars attached) and choosing to develop films in-house:

The new math: 

• Old way: Agency packages script + two stars + director = ~$200M movie

• New way: Studio buys script for ~$2M + picks their own cast = ~$50-100M movie

The new playbook in action:

• Amazon pounced on ‘Love of Your Life’ for $2M before agencies could attach stars, wanting to pick their own cast for the Covid-era journey story

• Fifth Season gave writer Natan Dotan just 3 hours to accept $1.25M for his AI thriller ‘Alignment,’ preventing a bidding war

• Paramount jumped on ‘Over Asking’ with a million-dollar offer, choosing to develop the thriller their way

• Netflix's Dan Lin told his team: "If you read a script and love it, let's buy it now and build our own movie"

Why’s it happening now? Last year's Hollywood strikes left studios desperate for fresh content. But there's more to it: streaming data is showing studios that big-name stars don't always draw the viewers everyone assumed they would. By buying scripts early and building movies from scratch, studios can control budgets from day one and cast based on their own data, not agency packages. Meanwhile, talent agencies—who've made fortunes by bundling scripts with A-list talent—are watching one of their most profitable businesses slip away. Recent expensive flops like Apple's 'Wolfs' with Clooney and Pitt only reinforce the studios' new approach.

Looking ahead… This power shift could reshape Hollywood in 2025. As studios take control back from talent agencies, we might see more original movies and fewer expensive star packages. For audiences tired of sequels and reboots, that could mean fresher stories on screen—and for studios, it means more control over what those stories cost to make.

LAST LOOKS
Development 🗒️

• Netflix secures exclusive U.S. rights to the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup, marking a historic streaming first for the global event. (more)

• A24 acquires U.S. rights to ‘Victorian Psycho,’ a gothic horror-thriller starring Margaret Qualley and Thomasin McKenzie. (more)

• Sean Hayes joins Paramount’s ‘The Running Man’ and Searchlight’s ‘Is This Thing On,’ marking a busy 2025 with back-to-back film projects. (more)

• Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett join Anne Hathaway in Amazon MGM’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling thriller ‘Verity.’ (more)

• Liev Schreiber joins Oscar-shortlisted documentary ‘Once Upon a Time in Ukraine’ as executive producer. (more)

• Blumhouse’s ‘The Mummy,’ directed by ‘Evil Dead Rise’ filmmaker Lee Cronin, comes to theaters on April 17, 2026, via New Line Cinema. (more)

• Jared Leto is confirmed as Skeletor in Amazon MGM’s ‘Masters of the Universe,’ with the film set for a 2026 theatrical release. (more)

• ‘The Six Billion Dollar Man,’ Eugene Jarecki’s Julian Assange documentary, has been pulled from Sundance 2025 due to “unexpected developments” in the story. (more)

• Harvey Guillén and Adrianne Palicki lead the indie mockumentary ‘Pickleheads,’ a comedic take on redemption through pickleball. (more)

Business 🤝

• Apple has appointed former Sky executive Catherine Lees to lead its international video team, strengthening its global content strategy. (more)

• Kevin Plunkett joins Wolf Entertainment as EVP of Development, leading scripted content expansion into streaming and broadcast platforms. (more)

• Nielsen removes Paramount’s data from its advertising tool amid a contract dispute, as both parties clash over pricing and value. (more)

• Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp sells Australian pay-TV company Foxtel to DAZN for $2.1B, retaining a minority stake in the global sports streaming platform. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Village Roadshow faces a WGA ban after failing to pay writers, landing on the guild’s strike list amid financial turmoil and arbitration disputes. (more)

RELEASE RADAR
🍿 What to watch this week?

🎥 THEATRICAL

• Babygirl: A24 erotic thriller from ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ director Halina Reijn, starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, and Antonio Banderas.

• A Complete Unknown: Musical biopic from director James Mangold, starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan.

• The Fire Inside: Sports biopic from cinematographer-turned-director Rachel Morrison, starring Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry.

• Nosferatu: Gothic horror remake from director Robert Eggers, starring Bill Skarsgård, Lily-Rose Depp and Willem Dafoe.

📺 STREAMING

• Squid Game: (Netflix) The hit Korean survival thriller returns Dec. 26 for S2 with Lee Jung-jae reprising his role as Gi-hun.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments