What I’m Hearing: Zaz Mysteries, Vince vs. ‘Mr. McMahon,’ ‘Transformers’ Bust & A Puck Event!

Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, where I’m still waiting for my invitation to Ari Emanuel’s The Weekend event, which concluded yesterday. Elon Musk made it, I’m told, as did Roger Goodell, Andy Jassy, and Jeff Bezos with my BFF Lauren Sánchez. Hopefully, the gift bag included Lauren’s new children’s book, The Fly Who Flew to Space, the idea for which she may or may not have stolen from her yoga instructor, and which Jeff helpfully reviewed on Amazon. (A rave!) Anyway, before we begin tonight, an important announcement pertaining to the Oscar race:

Puck is launching a flagship awards season event—and it’s a different kind of awards event. We’re calling it Stories of the Season, and it’s a chance for the film community to get up close and personal with the year’s top contenders at an evening reception with a highly curated program, including talent panels and an exclusive live recording of The Town with me and major guests. Unlike most awards events, which we all know can feel tired and stodgy, or are merely pay-for-play cattle calls that exist for sponsors rather than the people who attend them, Stories of the Season will feature a program entirely selected by me and my fellow Puck journalists, like Lauren Sherman (fashion), Baratunde Thurston (culture), and Peter Hamby (politics). Actors, filmmakers, artisans—all presented through the Puck lens and having real conversations about the best of the year in movies. Plus great food and drinks, and an opportunity to network with industry colleagues.Stories of the Season is presented by Polestar and supported by Wondery and Mayer Brown, and will take place November 15 at the new Brownstone event space in Hollywood. It’s invite-only for Puck subscribers who are also members of industry guilds or other awards voting bodies. If that’s you, and you’d like to attend, just email Fritz@puck.news to request an invite. Space is limited. Programming note: On The Town, Lucas Shaw and I dove deep into the latest Netflix consumption data, Franklin Leonard explained how writers can break through in these tough times, and the Times Magazine’s Sasha Weiss broke down the Prince documentary you’ll probably never see. Subscribe here and here. Got a news tip or an idea for me? Just reply to this email or message me anonymously on Signal at 310-804-3198. Discussed in this issue: David Zaslav, Josh Cooley, Lorne Michaels, Lina Khan, Vince McMahon, Miley Cyrus, Brian Robbins, Steve Levitan, Mark Shapiro, Dan Sanchez, Gavin de Becker, Barry Diller… and the R.F.K. Jr. nude photo “assault.” But first…

Who Won the Week: Millie Bobby Brown

Easy pick. The Queen of Netflix reigns over the latest “Engagement Report,” with 143.8 million views from January through June of her fairy-tale adventure movie Damsel—which, interestingly, was a miss with both critics and audiences, per Rotten Tomatoes.Runner-up: Charlie Rivkin, the MPA chair, who finally succeeded in convincing Amazon to join the Hollywood lobbying group, leaving Apple—whose long-term intentions in entertainment aren’t really clear—as the only major holdout.

Quote of the Week

“We were the ones, clearly, that got Skydance to close the first round of it.” —Barry Diller, declaring at a Financial Times conference that his overture to buy Paramount pushed the Ellisons to concede on major deal points, and that Shari Redstone “ought to send a nice pot of flowers or chicken soup” as a gift. Okay, Barry… let’s get you to bed.Runner-up: “As long as it’s important and I can be useful, I’ll stay.” —Lorne Michaels, suggesting he wants to stay at SNL beyond this 50th season with helpers slowly assuming more and more duties. Truly honorable mention: “This had nothing to do with romance. He was being chased by porn.” —Gavin de Becker, the Hollywood security guru, claiming his client (and Mr. Cheryl Hines) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was the victim of an alleged “assault” in the form of “demure” nudes texted to the former presidential candidate by New York writer Olivia Nuzzi. The quote only seems like it was lifted from Veep. Now I’ve got three items presented as answers or quasi-answers to questions I’ve been asking lately…

Which is more impactful in U.S. streaming, the Olympics or a single NFL game?We’ve got a nice comparison, per new data from Antenna. Peacock generated 4.9 million sign-ups in January (or 30 percent of the streaming industry’s “gross adds” that month), when it aired its first exclusive NFL playoff game. Peacock then generated a slightly lower 4.4 million signups in July (28 percent of gross adds), the month that included the first week of the Paris Games (which, unlike the wild card game, also aired on NBC linear networks). So the short answer is the NFL game, which delivered a bigger month to Peacock, was likely more impactful… although the service generated another 2.2 million subs in August, when the Olympics were still on, compared to 1.6 million sign-ups in February, after that NFL exclusive. So all in, as a sign-up “event,” the Olympics likely squeaked by that one NFL game. And both events led to increases in churn rates once they finished.
What’s with the recent C-suite moves at Warner Discovery? It was hard not to take notice of last week’s two pieces of Warner Bros. Discovery news. First, amid relentless cost-cutting, the board nonetheless expanded to 12 by adding a new director, Dan Sanchez. Who? Exactly. He’s investor John Malone’s nephew, a tax attorney whose background as a “seasoned public company director” refers to his tenure as a reliable Malone surrogate on the boards of Malone-backed companies Lionsgate, Starz, Discovery, and Liberty Global. The company press release couldn’t even come up with a good rationale for adding him, declaring only that he’ll be an “important voice” on “growth plans, evolving consumer preferences, and strategic initiatives.” (I can only imagine the investor relations people laughing hysterically as they wrote that.) Amid heightened scrutiny and a depressed stock price, why would Malone and his board add an obvious crony whose primary experience has been voting his uncle’s preferences despite being an “independent” director? There’s the straightforward answer: With the recent exit of the Malone-friendly Steven Newhouse and Steven Miron over antitrust concerns, Sanchez is merely restocking the yes-man pond. If WBD C.E.O. David Zaslav can’t reverse the trajectory, the board may feel pressure to remake itself or its management team. So another reliable vote could avoid that, uh, uncomfortable situation. But some are speculating the move could mean Malone himself is eyeing an eventual exit. He’s 83 now, and those who’ve seen him lately say he’s looking it. Time comes for us all, even the Cable Cowboy. Plus, back in 2018, Sanchez joined the Lionsgate board just as Malone was leaving. Malone’s economic interest in WBD has waned significantly, but he still holds tons of influence over the board (and Zaz, obviously), so any step back would be a big deal, proxy in place or not. (Warner Discovery declined to comment.) Second, nobody seems to know exactly why Savalle Sims, the company’s chief legal officer and the highest-ranking Black and female executive at the company, abruptly bailed last week. I’ve heard a bunch of possible reasons: She was a scapegoat for the botched NBA negotiations (after all, Zaslav prides himself on his dealmaking skills, and the NBA loss made him appear outmaneuvered); or maybe she pushed back too much on Zaz, who has always preferred the company of yes-men; or, one source even postulated, she objected to Sanchez’s appointment and the degradation of the board. (I doubt that.) After the company’s U.S. networks chief Kathleen Finch announced her retirement last month, company insiders quickly let it be known that she was pushed out. But the reasons for Sims’ exit are being kept unusually secret. And adding to the intrigue: Jackie Hayes, a Sims lieutenant and 25-year veteran of Warners, also left earlier this summer to become V.P. and head of studio affairs at Netflix.
Is Vince McMahon bigger than ‘Mr. McMahon’?Disgraced pro wrestling mogul Vince McMahon took an amusing swipe today at the new Netflix documentary series on his rise and fall, saying “a lot has been misrepresented or left out entirely in an effort to leave viewers intentionally confused.” McMahon, now 79, didn’t reveal much about the backstory of this project, but it’s pretty wild. Vince and the WWE signed off on the doc back in 2019, and filmmaker Chris Smith was nearly finished in 2022, when McMahon was first forced to step back as chairman and C.E.O. of WWE amid investigations into multiple settlements over alleged affairs. The ensuing scandal was added into the series, as was McMahon’s return to the company and the April 2023 purchase of WWE by Endeavor, which merged it with UFC into TKO, netting McMahon billions. But McMahon was still nervous about the doc, and after seeing early footage, he actually tried to buy the project back from Netflix, per two sources familiar. (Netflix declined to comment.) Vince also had Endeavor C.E.O. Ari Emanuel, his new partner in TKO, chime in on his behalf, voicing concern about the doc’s treatment of Vince’s alter ego, “Mr. McMahon,” which ended up being the title of the doc. Netflix refused to let the project go, and then this past January, the worse McMahon scandal broke, when a former employee sued alleging terrible abuse. That was two days after Emanuel and Endeavor president Mark Shapiro had brokered the blockbuster $5 billion deal to bring WWE to Netflix, and after Netflix had already dated the Mr. McMahon doc for March. Those plans were quickly scrapped, and Smith embarked on another revision to capture McMahon’s forced resignation, which features prominently in the version finally dropping on Wednesday. (Disclosure: Mr. McMahon is produced by The Ringer, which also produces The Town.)

My Reading List…

Everything is terrible, so Lucas Shaw identified five reasons to be excited about the entertainment business. [Bloomberg]Attorney Aaron Moss offers a history of “answer songs” to explain why the lawsuit claiming Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” infringes Bruno Mars’ “If I Was Your Man” is a big loser. [Copyright Lately] Squishmallows v. Build-a-Bear is the hottest intellectual property litigation going (among 6-year-olds). [WSJ] MrBeast’s company handbook leaked, offering a snapshot of how to win at YouTube. Some dude on LinkedIn actually has a decent summary of the takeaways. [LinkedIn] Here’s the Lina Khan 60 Minutes segment that is being hate-watched by every entertainment executive preaching “consolidation” and thinking about voting for Trump. [CBS News] Good for Steve Levitan’s daughter for making SNL. It’s so difficult for comedy writers to break through. [Vulture] Now, our box office guy Scott Mendelson’s take on the ‘Transformers One’ disappointment…

‘Transformers’ & The Limits of I.P. Exploitation

Despite some incredible prerelease buzz around ‘Transformers One,’ the latest entry in the toy franchise proved to be another cautionary tale about what happens when a studio keeps exploiting franchises past their sell-by date.

SCOTT MENDELSON

From a financial perspective, Transformers One underwhelmed at the box office this weekend—at least compared with expectations. Sure, a $25 million domestic and $14 million overseas launch, which accounted for 40 percent of the international marketplace, isn’t a total disaster. Hopes were higher, however, due to tracking that suggested a $30 million-$40 million debut—that’s a tracking service problem, not a movie problem, but whatever—the strong history of the franchise overseas, and shockingly positive reviews. Alas, as we’ve learned before with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, among others, positive reviews mean diddly if the I.P. has gone stale.As a piece of intellectual property, Transformers appears to have reached the other side of a trend it helped create. Michael Bay’s initial Transformers movies—even more than Spider-Man or The Lord of the Rings— ushered in a new era of stuff once beloved by kids being turned into mega-budget live-action tentpoles aimed at nostalgic adults. They were also—as the MCU was keeping things comparatively grounded with Iron Man and The First Avenger—perhaps the biggest, weirdest, most over-the-top bonkers blockbusters around. Then Marvel upped the ante with The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, rendering Transformers no longer one of a kind. Hollywood’s obsession with branded content and rehashing successful properties was fully manifested, for better or worse. But for every Jumanji sequel ($962 million in 2017 and $800 million in 2019) that worked due to clever casting or reimagining, there were plenty of other I.P. reboots that… Continue reading online…

The Feedback

Lots of responses to both last Monday’s report on TPG’s plan to roll up management firms and Thursday’s analysis of Ted Sarandos’s religious conversion to data transparency, which will be on full display tomorrow as Netflix pitches agents and managers on the new compensation plans. Some examples…“Netflix will never be transparent until they release the completion rates. Viewing and top 10 means nothing. It’s all about completion rate. That’s the stat that determines whether they renew a show or not.” —An agent “I believe showing the data helps Netflix in other, lesser-understood ways. In the old days—ahem, roughly three years ago—the daily viewership reports sent to staff showed outside-licensed content so regularly trouncing Netflix original content that all of us saw how wasteful the spend on originals was. In fact, Ted had the strategy analysis team rig the internal efficiency metrics such that two minutes viewed (!) of a Netflix original constituted a full view… which helped make things look rosier for all those Netflix Originals and justify the profligacy. Now, though, the name of the game is cost control, with Netflix quite successfully holding flat and even reducing talent fees, all to the chagrin of the multitude of talent reps Netflix previously snookered with the cost-plus illusion. ‘So, voila!’ says Ted, ‘here’s your data… and for many of you, it’s shitty.’ It’s a tight strategy. First, they fleeced creators into bad deals on a service where most of them can’t win, and then they turn around and point to lackluster performance in order to hold down talent/production fees. NFLX $1,000/share, here we come!” —A Netflix insider “The big question raised by Netflix’s Engagement Reports is: Can the other streamers deliver enough volume to match the market leader? The answer, in most cases, is no. It doesn’t matter that more than 10,000 titles in each Engagement Report failed to accrue at least 1 million hours of global viewership (yikes). Netflix has more than enough lottery tickets to ensure an inherent and possibly endless engagement advantage over its rivals at this point. (And they’re slowly but surely cutting down on low-yield content spending). The company’s job now is less disruption and innovation and more about just not fucking it all up.” —An analyst “Private equity bought agencies based on the long-term earning potential of TV packages. What is P.E. buying with managers? Some return but nothing sexy. I used to hate having to make projections of client earnings. What if a client has a baby? Or does indie [movies] or Broadway? When the assets and employees can walk out the door, it’s a risk.” —A manager-producer “Important distinction: Managers are not allowed to negotiate deals. This is the problem with Range, which is negotiating deals—a clear conflict. That’s how they take their position that they are a one-stop shop.” —An agent

Finally…

Universal’s well-reviewed The Wild Robot has been stalled in most tracking services since it premiered at TIFF, so it’s encouraging to see a late spike in awareness and interest, according to the latest Quorum chart…

Clarification: Due to a production error, an incorrect chart was included with the Netflix consumption data analysis on Thursday. The correct chart from Owl & Co. on the top 10 shows based on total viewing in the first half of 2024 is here:

Have a great week, MattGot a question, comment, complaint, or some “demure” nudes? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.

FOUR STORIES WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

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WILLIAM D. COHAN

Nuzzigate, Cont’d

Chronicling the sexting scandal involving R.F.K. Jr.

DYLAN BYERS

Pete Speaks!

Getting Pete Buttigieg’s candid views on J.D. Vance.

JOHN HEILEMANN

Fall’s Art Market Awakening

Previewing the new offerings at Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

MARION MANEKER

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