Through the first 16 matches, World Cup soccer ratings are up 128 percent (to 6 million viewers) over the 2022 event via Shanks’s Fox Sports, and 234 percent (to 7.5 million viewers) on Spanish-language Telemundo, where Duro oversees sports. Nielsen’s new out-of-home viewing metric is boosting those numbers, but remember, Fox paid just $485 million for English-language rights in a shady FIFA deal. That number is going way up in the next negotiation.

Runner-up: The Obsession/Backrooms diaspora. To understand the rush right now to make low-budget genre movies by young, untested filmmakers, consider what’s happening with Theo James Krekis, a British director whose 10-minute short Jealous People Are Ugly People played at SXSW in March. Per two sources, it’s now the subject of a 10-bidder frenzy for a feature adaptation. He’s got Temple Hill attached to produce, and Paramount, Blumhouse/Universal, New Line, 20th Century, and Lionsgate, among others, throwing money at the prospect of scoring another potential $300 million hit.

Let’s rank from most defensive to less defensive the former Disney C.E.O.’s legacy-solidification quotes in a long Financial Times profile that also included carefully curated praise from Josh D’Amaro, Steven Spielberg, Ryan Coogler, Diane Sawyer, Adam Silver, and, of course, the adoring fans demanding selfies at Disneyland…

MOST DEFENSIVE…

On his decision to remain in his C.E.O. office suite when Bob Chapek took over: “He was keeping the trains running on time. Why should I leave the office? I’m not leaving the company. I’m staying as the senior executive.”

More crapping on Chapek: “There was no urgent need to make drastic changes. And yet he did, and he brought in bureaucracy, and he brought in layers of management.”

And yet…: “Another misperception is that when I was out of Disney, I was fomenting and trying to undermine [Chapek], which was completely untrue.”

LESS DEFENSIVE…

On his $71 billion Fox deal: “It enabled us to be a number two to Netflix globally and, if my goal was to create longevity or endurance for the company, both as a brand and as a business, that’s what Disney now has.”

On his abandoned plan to merge Disney with Apple: “Well, Apple didn’t show that much interest.”

On why ABC temporarily yanked Jimmy Kimmel after his Charlie Kirk joke: “We thought it was in bad taste. …We just wanted him to acknowledge that it was an ill-timed and probably inappropriate comment.”

On walking away (for good this time!): “I said to Josh, if you want advice, you call me. I’m available 24 hours a day, but I’m not going to call to give you advice. … I am being very careful not to impose myself.”

Winner: Tom Hanks to MS NOW’s Jacob Soboroff outside the Obama Presidential Center dedication:

Soboroff: “It’s great to see you.”
Hanks: “What can I do for the 800 people watching MS NOW?”
Soboroff: “Oh, come on, we are live on MS NOW.”
Hanks: “All right, add a zero to it if you need to.”

2,500
Approximate number of jobs that will be lost in L.A. County alone due to the WarnerMount merger. [L.A. Department of Economic Opportunity]

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62 percent
Domestic drop in weekend two for Disclosure Day, the largest second-weekend decline for any Spielberg blockbuster. [Screendollars]

More: That’s surprising, especially with Father’s Day expected to boost this dad-friendly movie. But the ambiguous ending likely hurt word of mouth (exit scores and the B CinemaScore were only okay), Toy Story 5 siphoned off parents, and—if we’re being honest—an original Spielberg movie with no butts-in-seats star just doesn’t have the goods to fully compete in summer.

69 percent
Share of consumers willing to watch ads to save on streaming, up 11 percentage points in five years. [Hub Research]

36 percent
Share of lead actors in films from major streamers in 2025 who were people of color, down from 51 percent in 2024. [UCLA]

61 percent
Share of U.S. internet users aged 18-24 who have been to a movie theater in the previous six months, above the national average (52 percent) and ahead of that group pre-pandemic. [Ampere/MPN]

Now here’s Kim…

Can you feel it? The mounting influence of politics, Big Tech, and oligarchy over what appears on our screens? On Thursday we learned that Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson was leaving her home at Warner Bros. Television for Disney, with one source telling Matt that “uncertainty” was the cause. Vague, but yes, there’s a lot of uncertainty in the industry right now—specifically, about how David Ellison, a relatively inexperienced C.E.O., will manage a massive, debt-strapped WarnerMount in an era of rapid technological change and shifting audience tastes. But my sources told me Brunson was more concerned by the Bari Weiss–ification of CBS News and possibly CNN. In some ways, it seems like the main uncertainty is whether the state attorneys general have a shot at blocking the deal, though most assume it’s unlikely, even if the Ellisons ddo have to start paying that $7 million-per-day ticking fee if the deal isn’t closed by October.

Then, hours later, Matt broke the news that Mike Hopkins, who runs Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, was dumping Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s all-but-finished film about OpenAI C.E.O. Sam Altman, and the frenzied week in 2023 where he was fired from, and then rehired in, that role. The explanation from a studio spokesperson: “We believe that Artificial will be better served if it were released by a different studio.” Yes, a different studio—one whose parent company had not pledged in February to invest $50 billion into OpenAI.

Then today, we learned of the latest Big Tech tentacle to wrap itself around Hollywood, with Google investing about $75 million into A24, supposedly one of the scrappy, independent production companies. (Note also that Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, a major OpenAI backer, has a seat on the A24 board.) With most big studios operating under massive parent companies, it’s becoming “impossible to track” where the potential sensitivities lie, one studio exec told me.

But in some cases, it’s pretty obvious. Artificial wrapped last October and made its way through multiple test screenings. The film was never officially dated, but there was talk of Amazon taking it to SXSW next spring. Then there was some consideration of hurrying the film into 2026 to qualify for awards, with hopes focused on Anora star Yura Borisov as Ilya Sutskever, the OpenAI co-founder who tried to oust Altman. (Sutskever’s story dominates the film. Andrew Garfield plays Altman and Ike Barinholtz plays Elon Musk, which I would actually pay to see.)

Maybe it’s not reasonable to expect a studio to release a film that casts a negative light on a major business partner. (Matt and I have been told that the film, with a script by SNL alum Simon Rich, got darker while it was in progress, presumably as the world began to know and fear more about Altman and OpenAI.) And maybe those Oscar hopes were always a pipe dream, given that Focus, Netflix, Warners, and 20th have now viewed the movie and passed. (One executive told me it was “depressing.”) A talent rep who wasn’t involved with the film and hasn’t seen it called the $40 million price tag “ridiculous for what almost certainly has to be a talkie drama,” especially since Guadagnino’s most recent film for Amazon, After the Hunt with Julia Roberts, was lashed by critics and tanked at the box office, earning only $9.4 million worldwide on a $70 million-plus budget.

So maybe the film doesn’t work. But Hopkins dumping it at this stage—assuming the call didn’t come from “Seattle,” as the parent company is known inside the studio—undercuts head of film Courtenay Valenti and might give other directors pause about bringing her edgy material. Then there’s the matter of relationships: Not only was this film a CAA package, but agency head Bryan Lourd represents Guadagnino. And while sources say this decision did not come from Jeff Bezos, whose Venice wedding guest list happened to include Altman, the fact that Amazon dropped $40 million-plus on the Melania Trump doc had already imbued the studio with an oligarchic aroma.

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It appeared this morning that CAA thought it was on the cusp of a deal—possibly with Mubi, which had awards success with The Substance—but as the day wore on, nothing was announced. Given that the obvious contenders have passed, it may be that any potential acquirer knows it has leverage and is driving a bargain that is too tough to swallow. That would leave Amazon in the awkward position of outright killing the film. You remember how well it went over when David Zaslav pulled the plug on Batgirl and a couple of other projects at the beginning of his WBD tenure—and political sensitivities weren’t even at play with those films. A better comparison here might be The Apprentice, the 2024 Trump biopic that became all but radioactive in the run-up to that year’s election. With a budget of about $17 million, the film eventually got a modest release via Briarcliff Entertainment (with an assist from a Kickstarter) and mustered up… about $17 million worldwide.

The Artificial saga stands in contrast to the news last week that Warners’ Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy had picked up a Sean Penn–directed January 6 movie, with Bradley Cooper eyed to star, even despite the Ellisons’s looming takeover. A studio source insisted that the decision was business as usual, and had nothing to do with politics. They also said that the film, which is based on ex-Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone’s book, isn’t really about January 6. Instead, it follows the protagonist’s career, his friendship with a Black, transgender, H.I.V.-positive informant, and how he ultimately gets caught up in the riot on Capitol Hill. But everyone gets the message: This is how Mike and Pam intend to run things if they are going to remain at the studio post-merger.

Whether anything derails the Penn project or Mike and Pam’s leadership in the wake of an Ellison acquisition remains to be seen. Maybe David thinks he can make everyone in town forget his embrace of Donald Trump with a major donation to liberal causes down the road. But meanwhile, Warner Discovery appears to be paying a price. Brunson had the option to vote with her feet, and why would she linger? CNN regular Kara Swisher recently vowed to quit the network after the “incompetent” Ellisons and their “handpicked minions” take over—and while comparing Hollywood creatives and media figures isn’t exactly apples to apples, the point still stands.

Hollywood talent would never threaten to boycott a studio, especially one as powerful as a combined Paramount and Warners, but about 5,000 industry members took a very unusual step in signing a petition opposing the deal. “The most revealing thing about that letter wasn’t the people who signed,” the petition organizers said. “It was the people who didn’t. Not because they disagree—because they were afraid. There are many reasons to block this deal, but we now believe the most fundamental one is what we encountered when asking artists to use their voices: fear. A deep, ugly and pervasive fear of speaking out.”

Then again, not so long ago, Disney hardly would have been an appealing alternative to WarnerMount. In December 2024, the company paid $16 million to settle Trump’s dubious defamation lawsuit against ABC News. (Regime Change, the new book from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, reports that the two sides had initially agreed to a $3 million payment to a veterans’ charity, but Trump decided that he could do much better, and Disney proved him right.) Early in 2025, the company started backing off of its D.E.I. efforts, and by November of that year, all references to diversity or inclusion had been expunged from the company’s annual report.

But all that seems to be changing. In May, after Trump called for Jimmy Kimmel to be fired and F.C.C. chairman Brendan Carr ordered an early review of the company’s licenses to operate eight broadcast stations, C.E.O. Josh D’Amaro put his lawyers on the offensive. And just today, Disney launched a campaign urging the public to push back, starting with a spot that ran on The View. “The View has welcomed your favorite guests for nearly 30 years,” one states. “Now the F.C.C. wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show. Tell the F.C.C. to let the viewers decide.” Carr has responded on the platform formerly known as Twitter, soliciting public comment that he clearly hopes will support his line of attack. But Disney sees this as a winnable battle and is standing its ground. That’s a notable development at this stage of the game. I mean, have you caught a Kimmel monologue lately? D’Amaro might not be ready to leap at the chance to release Artificial, but signs of a backbone in an industry C.E.O. are always welcome.

Márcia Mayer, the former Pixar producer who now works at Google DeepMind and had an A.I.-assisted short film at Tribeca, is skeptical that audiences will connect with a fully-A.I. movie. [Puck]

How an indie producer (and former drug dealer) makes a living off rev shares with Tubi and Roku. [WSJ]

Dinged by the depressed movie star market, CAA now really cares about digital creators! Enough for Bryan Lourd to hold his nose and go on the record comparing Dhar Mann to Charlie Chaplin (!) and extolling “what the economics are starting to become.” [N.Y. Times]

For those keeping score, Bari Weiss used a profile of CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil as both a defense against critics of her political meddling (“It’s not the experience that I’ve had,” he insisted) and a venue to fire back at those haters (“What’s being called ‘editorial interference’ is in reality the job description of an editor in chief,” she said). [WSJ]

Maybe the A24–Google A.I. partnership isn’t as soul-deadening as it seems. [IndieWire]

Instagram is coming for TV-first streaming services. But sure, Netflix, add a few more podcasts. [TechCrunch]

Bill Carter asks if this 26-year-old can be YouTube’s version of a late night host. [LateNighter]

May we all hate someone like the soccer press hates Alexi Lalas. [Guardian]

Thursday’s reveal of the decision by Amazon’s Mike Hopkins to dump ‘Artificial’ led to fear and loathing in my inbox. Some examples…

“This is the most important story in town right now and should be a wake-up call to everyone: Big Tech controls content, and Big Tech has the thinnest skin. That’s a terrible combination for artistic freedom and culture, and it’s going to get worse when guys like Altman truly take over. R.I.P., Hollywood.” —A filmmaker

“This is like Apple TV’s standard deal terms preventing any disreputable use of Macs and iPhones in series and films made for their service… but dumber.” —An executive

“The shock is that Amazon agreed to make this film [in the first place]. They had seen [Artifical director Luca Guadagnino’s] After the Hunt and presumably knew what that movie was. The script had everything in it that is so problematic now. It’s okay to pass on a movie that’s not right for your platform. It’s not okay to make the movie and then decide it’s not okay.” —A producer

“MAGA Mike strikes again.” —Another executive

Forget Toy Story 5, Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day looks like the movie of the summer, with a monster interest score on The Quorum’s early film tracking chart…

Have a great week,
Matt

Correction: Quinta Brunson’s Warner Bros. TV deal is expiring as she moves to a five-year deal at Disney. I misheard a source and wrote there were two years left on that contract in Thursday’s mailbag issue. Apologies!

Maya Tribbitt contributed research for this issue.

Got a question, comment, complaint, or a worst-dressed candidate from Cannes Lions? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.

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