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☀️ WBD: NETFLIX Brings 💰 as PAR Franchise Needs Mount

UNI adds to spec 🔥 / SONY enlists Justin Lin / CAA, PAR exec moves

Sean McNulty

Dec 2

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Preview

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Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on Tuesday, December 2, 2025.

Where it’s rare when a team’s fortunes in an entire season can be summed up in one play . . . but at least the GIANTS achieved that last night.

For the record, the subsequent squashing by the PATRIOTS of the kicker trying to run with the ball counts as a sack since . . . he never touched the ball with his foot. Via Giphy

PLUS: Here are your New York Film Critics Circle winners for 2025 (link updating as announced today).

ALSO: Your Gotham Award winners, with One Battle taking the top prize — and its only prize. Newly sentenced to prison in Iran in absentia, director Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident took home the 3 awards it was nominated for.

OH: If I have any readers in Missouri — let me know how your TV ad breaks look these days, since you became the 39th state to legalize sports betting yesterday (my contact info is at the top of the newsletter).

SO: 2026 is gonna be great news for whatever businesses are still left around corporate office buildings! INSTA is the latest company calling for 5 days a week in the office, according to Sources. Start date is Feb. 2 . . . except for the New York folks, cuz uh, sounds like they don’t have enough, ya know, desks.

This is only for people currently coming into the office — remote workers will still be remote.
But on the flip side — all recurring meetings will be canceled every 6 months and evaluated if they need to continue. As someone who’s pretty sure my calendar still has an HBO monthly promo scheduling meeting reminder somewhere . . . gotta say good call on that one, Mosseri.

AH: Nothing like Sam Altman using the term ‘code red’ with staff to describe the status at OPENAI after GOOGLE’s latest AI release (and other marketplace threats), according to The Information. No word on whether CHATGPT also included the phrase “You can’t handle the truth!” in its draft statement.

But at least it sounds like ~~ruining the product~~ adding ads to CHATGPT is getting a delay as a result, clearly nodding to another Aaron Sorkin screenplay tip.

OH: AI is now faking TMZ stamps on AI-created Diddy in prison pics floating around online. Eh . . . I’m sure at least one person is also using AI to try and cure cancer or something 🙏. Let’s just hope the NETFLIX Diddy doc from BFF 50 Cent dropping today steers clear of them.

YUP: Time to update your whiteboard for the AI economy collapse limited series you’ll be going into production for at WARNAMOUNT or NETWARNER (NETFLIX BROS?) in . . . 3 years?

OPENAI has taken an equity stake in THRIVE HOLDINGS, an investment arm of Josh Kushner’s THRIVE CAPITAL, which has a significant investment stake in OPENAI. Basically, our AI snake’s tail is getting a lot smaller in Q4.
Note — OPENAI isn’t putting in any cash . . . so it sounds more like a “use our tech for free as equity” scenario (although specific details were not outlined).
Oh, right — the goal here! To either launch or buy companies ripe for disruption by AI (accounting firms etc.). Read:
- Buy companies, lay off a lotta folks to cut costs by utilizing AI “efficiencies,” and enjoy your profits coming from the AI bots built on the work of the people who formerly worked at those firms.
- Build new companies that can do the work of existing companies with far fewer people, thanks to AI, to put those existing companies and their employees out of business.

AND: Ad biz giant OMNICOM is putting 4,000 folks out of a job in the next 4 weeks (about a 3% trim) now that its big merger with INTERPUBLIC GROUP is street legal.

The goal of course — $750M in “cost savings” from the deal. Both companies already trimmed about 6,500 folks combined over the past year in anticipation of the deal . . . so let’s call it a smooth 10,000 people now unemployed in the ad biz. Way to be efficient!
OMNICOM is now the world’s largest ad agency, with subdivisions DDB, FCB, and MULLENLOWE all RIP.
- BBDO, TBWA, and MCCANN are your 3 remaining creative agencies (who knew “B” was so popular in the agency naming world?).

THEN: Exhibit 236 that giving smartphones to kids is terrible — according to a study of kids from 2016 to 2022, kids who owned a smartphone at age 12 had:

31% higher odds of depression
40% higher odds of obesity
62% higher odds of insufficient sleep

SPEAKING OF: YOUTUBE released its ‘year in review’ data today . . . with a full month ahead of us still to go in 2025, but it is what it is. And yes, 4 of the top 10 most popular songs were from KPop Demon Hunters.

It’s also doing a SPOTIFY ‘homage’ product for users called ‘Recap’ . . . reminding you of what you spent your time on Earth watching this past year.

YEAH: Chinese company KUIASHOU has created an AI video program that can not only make videos from text prompts, but also allows you to edit them/remove things from the background, etc., as well as enter a video you’ve shot and turn it into an animated video.

Currently, it sounds like you can do this kinda stuff . . . but you need many different software programs to do so. This is all-in-one.

FINALLY: The Ankler would love to hear where your head is at / thoughts on the 2026 in front of us!

Elaine Low will be doing an upcoming analysis and would love to hear from you — drop your thoughts here, on or off the record, before all of the “experts” begin making their ~~guesses~~ informed prognostications on 2026. 🙋‍♂️

🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN

PARAMOUNT Franchise Health, and WBD Potential

While the PSKY M&A group worked hard through their Thanksgiving “break” to get the new bid in yesterday, it seems the franchise team has also been hard at work this Q4 and . . . hey, good news — 2028’s looking great!

But, taking a further dive into the state and history of the PARAMOUNT theatrical franchises this millennium and what’s slated ahead . . . well, let’s just say you can see why Larry is making the full court press on buying WARNER BROS — there are a couple updates on that process below as well.

FIRST UP: The new stuff! Some good news for the WB folks — with the latest release date announcements, you can finally take some holiday time off after the deal is closed. ...