🎬 Winning Playbook

👋 Good morning! Netflix has partnered with CBS Sports to produce its first-ever NFL Christmas games. While the on-air talent is still under wraps, CBS is bringing its A-game to make Netflix’s NFL debut a festive touchdown. With this one-year deal, Netflix is diving headfirst into live sports, setting the stage for an epic holiday showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, and Houston Texans.

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:

• NBC’s Winning Playbook

• Disney Drops Upcoming Slate

• Mayor Bass’s Hollywood Rescue Plan

• Last Looks: 👀 Bite-sized scoops on developing stories/projects

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Martini Shot 🍸

But first, let’s take a look at what happened at the box office this past weekend!

LAST WEEKEND’S
🎟️ BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN 🎟️

1. 🦸‍♂️ Deadpool & Wolverine: $54.2M domestic weekend (-44%), $494.3M domestic total, $1.029B global. Crossed $1B milestone, making it only the second R-rated film ever to hit ten digits, joining the ranks of ‘Joker.’ No. 1 for 3rd consecutive weekend.

2. ❤️ It Ends With Us: $50M domestic opening, $80M global debut. Strong start for $25M-budgeted romance, especially with female audiences.

3. 🌪️ Twisters: $15.4M domestic weekend (-34%), $222M domestic total, $310M global. Universal's disaster epic holding well in its fourth weekend.

4. 🎮 Borderlands: $8.8M domestic opening, $16.5M global. Major flop for $115M-budgeted video game adaptation with star-studded cast. Poor reviews (10% on Rotten Tomatoes) and "D+" CinemaScore.

5. 🟡 Despicable Me 4: $8M domestic weekend (-30%), $330.1M domestic total. Continues to perform well in its sixth weekend.

6. 🔪 Trap: $6.7M domestic weekend (-56%), $28.7M domestic total. Significant drop in its second weekend.

7. 💭 Inside Out 2: $5M domestic weekend (-27%), $636.5M domestic total. Pixar's sequel approaching $1.6B globally, becoming highest-grossing animated film ever.

8. ✏️ Harold and the Purple Crayon: $3.1M domestic weekend (-48%), $12.9M domestic total. Struggling in its second weekend.

9. 🇩🇪 Cuckoo: $3M domestic opening from 1,503 theaters. Low-budget horror film starring Hunter Schafer, produced for $7M.

10. 🔪 Longlegs: $2M domestic weekend (-53%), $71.3M domestic total. Nicolas Cage horror film holding decently in its fifth weekend.

Total box office: $158.5M, a 29.4% jump from last year. For the first time in August, we got two $50M+ grossers in one weekend: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ ($54.2M) and ‘It Ends With Us.’ ($50M). Disney's celebrating as ‘Deadpool’ joins Inside Out 2 in the billion-dollar club, marking their second summer blockbuster to hit that milestone.

📺🥇 As the dust settles on the Paris Olympics, NBC's innovative playbook has proven to be a game-changer. The peacock network threw conventional wisdom out the window, and it paid off big time. Peacock's live streaming didn't cannibalize primetime as feared; instead, it supercharged overall viewership. The ‘Gold Zone’ on Peacock became the binge-watch MVP, serving up rapid-fire event coverage that kept viewers hooked. NBC's savvy use of celebrity cameos (Snoop Dogg, anyone?) turned into engagement gold, while their focus on athlete stories and event narratives kept audiences engaged even when they knew the results. The results speak for themselves: viewership increased by more than 75% compared to the Tokyo Olympics. As Milan 2026 and LA 2028 loom on the horizon, NBC's playbook is looking like the new industry standard.

🏰🎬 Disney just turned Anaheim into Hollywood's crystal ball for the weekend. The D23 fan event dropped some major intel on the company’s upcoming film and TV projects. Here are some highlights:

• Disney+ is developing ‘Dream Productions,’ an animated series based on ‘Inside Out.’ (more)

• Andrew Stanton is set to write and direct ‘Toy Story 5.’ (more)

• Pixar unveiled ‘Hoppers,’ a film about a human and a beaver who swap brains, featuring voices by Jon Hamm and Bobby Moynihan. (more)

• ‘Incredibles 3’ is in the works. (more)

• Nine Inch Nails are composing the score to ‘Tron: Ares.’ (more)

• ‘The Simpsons’ will release four exclusive episodes on Disney+ this year.(more)

• Ben Mendelsohn joins ‘Andor’ S2. (more)

• Check out more updates here.

🎬🏙️ LA Mayor Karen Bass is on a mission to keep Hollywood from packing its bags. She's launched a new Film and TV Task Force to streamline production and permitting in the city. Why? Because rival cities are luring away LA's signature industry. With local filming down 8.7% and U.S. productions taking a 40% hit, Bass is assembling a dream team of industry heavyweights for her Entertainment Industry Council, including Netflix exec Amy Lemisch, filmmaker Jason Reitman, and Ellen Goldsmith-Vein of The Gotham Group. NBCUniversal and IATSE are in the mix too, covering all bases from studios to unions. The city's even greenlighting new studios and soundstages to sweeten the deal. With billions in GDP and countless jobs at stake, Bass wants City Hall to be Hollywood's BFF, not its nemesis.

"Unabashedly romantic, optimistic, and sumptuously filmed"
— SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Based on the New York Times bestseller, Red, White & Royal Blue centers around Alex, the president’s son, and Britain’s Prince Henry whose long-running feud threatens to drive a wedge in U.S./British relations. When the rivals are forced into a staged truce, their icy relationship begins to thaw and the friction between them sparks something deeper than they ever expected.

Starring Nicholas Galitzine, Taylor Zakhar Perez and Uma Thurman. The Emmy eligible television movie RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE is available for Television Academy members at ConsiderAmazon.com.

Development 🗒️

• Joaquin Phoenix abruptly exits Todd Haynes’ untitled gay romance film just five days before filming, putting the entire project in jeopardy. (more)

• Huey Lewis is set to star in a mockumentary-style comedy for Fox, playing a fictionalized version of himself. (more)

• Lily Sullivan lands the lead role in ‘SOULM8TE,’ a risqué spinoff from the M3GAN universe where she plays an AI android turned deadly soulmate. (more)

• ‘The Accountant 2,’ starring Ben Affleck, is set for a theatrical release on Apr. 25, 2025, from Amazon MGM Studios. (more)

• Rupert Wyatt is set to direct the Lionsgate heist thriller ‘Boxman,’ centered on a bank heist gone wrong and a box man’s race to save those trapped inside a vault. (more)

• ‘Vanderpump Villa’ is renewed for a second season on Hulu, with Stassi Schroeder joining the cast and securing a development deal for a new docu-comedy, ‘Stassi Says.’ (more)

• Colin Hanks joins Bob Odenkirk and Sharon Stone in ‘Nobody 2.’ (more)

Business 🤝

• AMC Networks missed Q2 earnings expectations as linear TV struggles continued to drag down financial results. (more)

• Disney plans to invest $5B in European movies and TV shows over the next five years. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Cartoon Network’s website shuts down, redirecting visitors to Max as Warner Bros. Discovery consolidates its streaming services. (more)

• The Paris Olympics saw a massive surge in TikTok activity, with over 1.3M posts—a 1,828% increase from the Tokyo Games. (more)