🎬 Zero Box Office Revenue

👋 Good morning! HBO Max's shiny new 4K remaster of 'Mad Men' dropped this week… with a slight problem: it was the unedited version. Eagle-eyed viewers tuning in for prestige TV nostalgia instead got a behind-the-scenes bonus: crew members clearly visible in shots, including one poor soul operating the fake vomit machine during Roger Sterling's oyster disaster in ‘Red in the Face.’ Nothing says prestige television like accidentally shipping the rough cut. Corrected episodes coming soon.

It's Wednesday, you're halfway through the week, and we've got your Hollywood news fix ready to go. Let's dive in.

Quentin Tarantino, the film purist who won't touch digital, just directed an eight-minute animated short that premiered in Fortnite, the massively popular gaming platform.

'The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge' resurrects a never-filmed 'Kill Bill' sequence that Tarantino cut for being "too crazy, too violent, and just too much action." Using motion capture and Epic Games' Unreal Engine, Uma Thurman reprised her role as The Bride for a project that'll also screen theatrically with 'Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair' on Friday. But Tarantino's not alone in treating gaming platforms as legitimate storytelling venues:

Why it's happening: 83% of Gen Alpha and 78% of Gen Z game at least an hour weekly, making these platforms arguably larger storytelling hubs than most streaming services. Studios are responding by dedicating $50K-$1M and 8-12 weeks of production time per campaign to create custom Fortnite and Roblox content. These gaming activations are quickly becoming standard line items in Hollywood marketing budgets.

☕ PINKIES UP! Fackham Hall is in theaters now! Gather your crew, grab your tickets, and see it the way it was meant to be seen … snorting soda out of your nose at a movie theater!

Legion M is co-distributing in partnership with Bleecker Street. The OG fan-owned studio is on a roll – they just launched a P&A fund, have a film in post production, and shattered their revenue record in 2025.

To learn more, check out Legion M’s current offerings. Then go watch ‘Fackham Hall’ and see what a fan-owned company is capable of!

🍿 Netflix is giving theaters a free blockbuster. The streamer expanded its 'Stranger Things' finale to 500+ U.S. and Canadian theaters on Dec. 31-Jan. 1 while collecting zero box office revenue. Instead of selling tickets, theaters will sell concession vouchers that guarantee entry, keeping 100% of proceeds while Netflix takes nothing. The theatrical release happened after the Duffer Brothers pushed for it and Netflix initially refused, then reversed amid fan demand. Despite Netflix's historical resistance to theatrical, they're increasingly using cinemas as marketing to create cultural moments for major releases. S5 is already breaking records with 59.6M first-week views for its opening episodes.

🤑 Hollywood's biggest auction just entered round two. Netflix, Paramount, and Comcast all submitted second-round offers Monday for Warner Bros. Discovery. Netflix reportedly put forward a mostly cash bid for WBD's studios and streaming assets, though concerns about its streaming dominance and potential regulatory hurdles are already being whispered about in Washington. Paramount countered with an all-cash offer for the entire company (cable networks and all), with backing from Apollo and three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Comcast's bid would merge NBCUniversal with Warner Bros.'s studio and streaming operations. WBD is aiming to wrap things up by Christmas.

💃 'Dancing with the Stars' just became must-study material for TV executives. After the show's finale drew the best young viewer share since the 'Friends' conclusion 20 years ago, BBC Studios boss Zai Bennett told Content London he's now trying to replicate its strategy across other formats. What worked: casting social media stars, having contestants post behind-the-scenes content all week, and creating custom videos for TikTok and YouTube. That social media blitz helped rack up hundreds of millions of video views this season and brought Gen Z viewers back to linear TV. Bennett admitted making content for TikTok requires different skills than producing TV, but expect more shows to lean into this approach now that ‘DWTS’ proved it works.

The opening salvo of Oscar season brought some expected winners, and a few curveballs, starting with the Gotham Awards this past Monday:

And yesterday, the New York Film Critics Circle weighed in:

What it means: PTA's film is establishing early momentum, but it's not steamrolling the field. The NYFCC hasn't aligned with the Best Picture winner since 'The Artist' in 2011, so don't read too much into these just yet.