ABC News Blues, ‘Dune’ Marketing Magic, Trump’s Banking Crisis

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best new reporting.

Today, we lead with Bill Cohan’s readout on the freshest Downtown Cip table chatter: Zaz’s bonus math, the fate of Shari’s Paramount auction, and Trump’s banking crisis.

Plus, below the fold: Dylan Byers chronicles the chilly reception inside Hudson Yards to Mark Thompson’s latest CNN manifesto. Matt Belloni presents the annual pre-Oscars 2024 Awards Season Awards. Scott Mendelson reveals the alchemy behind the opening weekend success of Dune: Part Two. And on The Powers That Be, Jon Kelly joins Peter Hamby to unpack Kim Godwin’s mounting challenges at ABC News, before digging into Thompson’s pronouncements at CNN.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

News and notes on the Downtown Cip table chatter: Zaz’s Paramount false flag and Trump’s increasingly cumbersome penalty financing solutions.

DYLAN BYERS

As a follow-up to his original dissertation on the challenges facing CNN, Mark Thompson recently outlined a vague, pablum-filled vision of the network-cum-news-organization’s future. But is it so opaque because Thompson’s vision remains hazy, or because he doesn’t want to say the hard part out loud?

MATTHEW BELLONI

Acknowledging the highs and (mostly) lows of the interminable months-long march to the Oscars.

SCOTT MENDELSON

The opening weekend success of ‘Dune: Part Two’ suggests that the future of theatrical relies, in part, on studios marketing films as requiring a premium large format experience.