| | | | | | What's news: Coca-Cola has released another AI Christmas ad. The first-ever TikTok Awards in the U.S. are set to take place on Dec. 18. Japan’s animation industry reached record revenues of $25b in 2024. Toho's next Godzilla film has a name. And Ariana Grande will star in the next season of American Horror Story. — Abid Rahman
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Inside Ms. Rachel's Preschool TV Empire ►"It kind of just happened." Ms. Rachel has become one of the most powerful people creating educational entertainment programming for preschoolers, with more than 17.5m subscribers on YouTube, and the second season of her show on Netflix was the biggest kids launch in that platform’s history. THR's Alex Weprin spoke to Ms. Rachel, real name Rachel Accurso, and her husband and collaborator Aron Accurso about becoming full-time creators, leveraging Broadway experience to kids music and how their hit YouTube and Netflix show is made. The interview.
—"Their actions make clear how little regard they have for their customers." Disney is rallying the troops as its TV channels go dark on YouTube TV. Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman and ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro sent a note to staff Friday, thanking them for the work and continued focus, while admonishing YouTube and its parent company Google for the dispute. Disney’s channels, including ABC and ESPN, were pulled from YouTube TV late last night ahead of the midnight deal deadline, leaving subscribers of the vMVPD without programming like college football, Monday Night Football, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! The story.
—Hold up. Donald Sutherland's memoir reflecting on his life and career as a pillar of Hollywood is being held up by his estate. In a lawsuit filed in New York, Penguin Random House details a dispute with McNichol Pictures in which the company failed to deliver a manuscript of Made Up, But Still True because the estate of the late actor didn’t approve the draft. The publishing house seeks the return of a $400,000 advance. The legendary actor, whose career spanned six decades, died last year. Before his passing, a draft of the memoir had been submitted, with Crown announcing a release in November. The book, described as “bracingly candid” and “utterly unpredictable,” chronicles behind-the-scenes stories of movies he’s starred in and a glimpse inside the private life of the Hollywood icon. The story.
—Second time's the charm? For a few weeks last November, no villain loomed larger over Madison Avenue and social media that polices it than Coca-Cola. The company’s “Holidays Are Coming” spot, an homage to a classic 1995 ad, featured the original’s rhythmic anthem as trucks drove through various snowy landscapes. Only now the ad was filled with AI generated objects, animals and people — a fact that did not go over well with creatives and many others on the Internet who nonetheless helped the ad rack up billions of impressions. After that major backlash in 2024, Coke and the L.A. studio it hired have produced a new synthetic spot they believe viewers will like a lot more, as "the craftsmanship is ten times better." Will they? The story.
—🏆 New awards show in town! 🏆 Joining Hollywood’s legions of celebrations for movies, TV and music, TikTok on Monday announced its first-ever TikTok Awards in the U.S., set to take place Dec. 18 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. The show will be presented under the theme “New Era, New Icons” in front of a live audience of hundreds of creators, complete with a red carpet and live performances. It will air live both on TikTok and official screaming partner Tubi and also be available on demand the next day on Tubi. Fans will be able to vote for their favorite creators on the TikTok Awards in-app hub starting Nov. 18 and running through Dec. 5. The story. |
'60 Minutes': Trump Praises New Paramount Leadership ►"Actually, 60 Minutes paid me a lotta money. And you don’t have to put this on, because I don’t wanna embarrass you." Donald Trump sat down for an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell to talk about a wide range of topics, praising Paramount’s new leadership and addressing whether he will run for a third term. The interview, which was taped Friday and aired Sunday night on 60 Minutes, took place at Trump's Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. O’Donnell also asked Trump questions related to the government shutdown, nuclear testing, immigration, tariffs and more. This marked Trump’s first interview with CBS since suing the company over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The recap.
—"You are vastly overestimating how much I care about where you take a sh**." Amid the government shutdown, Donald Trump posted photos of a newly remodeled bathroom. On Friday, Trump shared a couple dozen photos of a renovated bathroom that is connected to the Lincoln Bedroom. On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver echoed critics of the president, noting: “That is pretty tone deaf." Added Oliver: “It is odd to be posting bathroom remodel photos when so many are legitimately concerned about getting the government open again.” The government shutdown, which started Oct. 1, will break a record for the longest shutdown if it continues until Tuesday. The recap.
—"Donald and Melania still feel like something’s missing." Viewers were seeing double of Saturday Night Live host Miles Teller when he portrayed twins Jonathan and Drew Scott — the stars of the hit HGTV show Property Brothers — during a skit of them helping Donald Trump build his new White House ballroom. “This week we’re taking on our biggest challenge yet: building the new White House ballroom,” Teller’s Drew says before James Austin Johnson’s Trump joins them to ask, “So which one of you is married to New Girl and which one of you is the gay?" The recap. |
Box Office Meltdown: Worst Halloween Weekend in 31 Years ►Frightening. Paramount and Constantin Films’ romance-drama Regretting You — the second Colleen Hoover book adaptation to hit the big screen after It Ends With Us — is proclaiming itself the victor of this year’s Halloween box office contest. According to Sunday estimates from David Ellison’s new regime, Regretting You placed No. 1 with $8.1m from 3,245 cinemas in its sophomore outing. Or did it? Universal is likewise estimating a first-place finish for Blumhouse’s Black Phone 2 with $8m from 3,425 cinemas. Most rival studios also show the horror sequel, now in its third weekend, coming in ahead of Regretting You.
Monday will determine the correct order of the Oct. 31-Nov. 2 frame, and whether Paramount was being too aggressive in the hunt for a good headline.
THR's Pamela McClintock reports that overall ticket sales for the weekend came in at $49.8m — the worst showing of the year to date. But that’s not the most frightening fact — it was the lowest-grossing Halloween weekend in 31 years, according to Comscore. This excludes 2020, when the COVID-19 crisis forced theater closures for months. The last time Halloween weekend revenue came in lower was in 1993, when combined ticket sales reached $49.2m, and that’s not adjusted for inflation. The box office report. |
Japan's Anime Industry Expanded to $25B in 2024 ►Sugoi! Japan’s animation industry surged 14.8 percent to reach record revenues of $25b in 2024, with most of the growth driven by the expanding international popularity of Japan’s favorite art form. The Association of Japanese Animations reported that revenue outside Japan accounted for 56 percent of 2024’s total sales at $14.25b. The strong 2024 expansion doesn’t even include the historic recent success of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, which released on Sept. 12 and has become the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time with a staggering $670m at the global box office. The offbeat anime fantasy Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc has continued the eye-popping earnings this fall, bringing in $139m worldwide since its Oct. 24 launch. Both films were released by Sony’s anime unit, Crunchyroll, in partnership with Sony Pictures. The story.
—Get excited! The King of Monsters is revving up to roar again. Tokyo-based Toho Studios shared the title Monday morning for mighty Godzilla’s next rampage, revealing that the follow-up to the 2023 smash-hit Godzilla Minus One will be called Godzilla Minus Zero (also styled Godzilla -0.0) and that Oscar-winning director and VFX supervisor Takashi Yamazaki will return to direct. The title was unveiled during this year’s “Godzilla Day 2025” event in Tokyo, where a teaser logo and first-look artwork were revealed. Godzilla Minus One set several new benchmarks. Made on a reported budget of just $15 million, it defied expectations by earning more than $113m worldwide and became the first film in the Godzilla franchise’s 70-year history to win an Academy Award. The story.
—🎭 Shut up and take my money! 🎭 THR's Borys Kit has the scoop that Warner Bros. is in final negotiations to acquire Shiver, a unique sci-fi package that has Keanu Reeves attached to star and Deadpool helmer Tim Miller attached to direct. Matthew Vaughn, the filmmaker behind the Kingsman action movie franchise, will produce via his Marv Films banner along with Aaron Ryder, who counts love story All of You and Gamestop movie Dumb Money among his recent credits. Ian Shorr wrote the script for Shiver, which has been described as having shades of Edge of Tomorrow , the Tom Cruise sci-fi movie about a soldier trapped in a time loop during an alien invasion, and The Shallows, the Blake Lively shark survival movie. The story.
—🎭 Filing out. 🎭 Sam Mendes has cast more of the women who made history alongside The Beatles for his upcoming biopics on the Fab Four. Mia McKenna-Bruce will star as Maureen Cox, the wife of Ringo Starr; Anna Sawai will be Yoko Ono, John Lennon’s wife; and Aimee Lou Wood will be Pattie Boyd, who married George Harrison. They join Saoirse Ronan, who was earlier cast as Linda (Eastman) McCartney. Sony Pictures‘ The Beatles—A Four-Film Cinematic Event also earlier brought on board Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson as Lennon, Joseph Quinn as Harrison and Barry Keoghan as Starr. The four Beatles films, one from each band member’s point of view, are set for a theatrical release in April 2028. The story.
—🎭 Grand! 🎭 Daisy Edgar-Jones and Emilia Jones will topline a period revenge thriller currently titled Bad Bridgets, which is serving as the follow-up feature for Rich Peppiatt, the rising director behind the hit Kneecap. The script was inspired by the book Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem, and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women by Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick and has been developed with the support of Belfast’s Queen's University. The book looked at the world of Bad Bridgets, a swath of Irish women emigrants to 19th century America that were deemed troublemakers, noting that for a time Irish women outnumbered Irish men in prison. FilmNation will be handling international sales, and WME Independent is on for domestic sales for the title, which will be officially introduced at AFM. The story. |
'Good Morning America' at 50 ►"It’s not your grandma’s Good Morning America. I mean, it’s changed. America’s not the same as it was 50 years ago." In a rare joint interview, Good Morning America's anchors, Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan, talk to THR's Alex Weprin about what makes their ABC morning show tick. The trio also discuss how they all hedged their bets when offered the morning show job, why they think their chemistry works, and that viral Hot Ones episode. The interview. |
World Series Game 7 Hits 8-Year Ratings High for MLB ►Woof! The dramatic finish to the World Series drew baseball’s largest TV audience in eight years. Fox’s broadcast of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 11-inning, 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in game seven of the World Series averaged 25.45m viewers in preliminary Nielsen ratings (which include only the ratings service’s panel measurement); Fox Deportes and Fox Sports streaming added 530,000 more viewers. Final ratings, which will include Nielsen’s big data component and will be available Tuesday, could push the total higher. The game peaked at 31.54m viewers from 11:30-11:45 p.m. ET. The 25.98m viewers for the game are the most for any World Series game (or any other Major League Baseball telecast) since game seven of the 2017 series brought in 28.24m people. The ratings.
—🎭 A Wicked touch. 🎭 A 13th season of American Horror Story is in the offing. Ariana Grande will join a host of AHS veterans in the series, which, according to a social media post from Ryan Murphy Productions on Friday, is set for Halloween 2026 on FX. Grande, who’ll next be seen in Wicked: For Good, joins Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Billie Loude, Gabourey Sidibe, Leslie Grossman and Jessica Lange in the cast. The story.
—End of an era. MTV is canceling its long-running, ubiquitous clip show Ridiculousness. The show, hosted by Rob Dyrdek and featuring a series of viral videos and commentary from Dyrdek and his co-hosts, will end in 2026 after 15 years, 46 seasons and some 1,700 episodes. MTV has stopped making the show, though previously produced new episodes will continue to roll out into next year. Ridiculousness has been almost literally inescapable on MTV in the past several years, with marathons of the show occupying half or more of the channel’s daily schedule. Repeats will continue to air on MTV, and some seasons are also available on Paramount+. The story.
—🎭 Guesting. 🎭 Jameela Jamil, best known for her turns in The Good Place and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, is set to guest-star in a six-part legal drama from the BBC. Jamil will appear in The Split Up, set in the world of Manchester’s high-net-worth divorce circuit. The series focuses on the Kishan family, a powerhouse British South Asian law firm whose success, secrets and loyalties are about to be tested. Shot on set this week, Jamil — also an activist and radio host in her native U.K. — posed with fellow castmember Ritu Arya, who plays Aria Kishan. The story. |
Kristin Chenoweth Is Ready for Her Broadway Return ►Is Broadway ready for her? THR's Seth Abramovitch spoke to Kristin Chenoweth about her new Broadway show, The Queen of Versailles, a lavish musical adaptation of Lauren Greenfield's 2012 documentary with music and lyrics by Wicked's Stephen Schwartz. The diminutive diva opens up as she takes on the most challenging role of her career, portraying shopaholic one-percenter Jackie Siegal. The interview. |
Fan Bingbing on Rebounding From Her "Lowest Point" ►"Some people, when faced with hardship, give up. But the brave ones grow stronger and want to express more. I think I’m that brave girl." For THR, Gavin Blair spoke to Chinese A-lister Fan Bingbing about her new film, Mother Bhumi, that was screening in competition at the Tokyo Film Festival. In a wide-ranging interview, Fan, once China’s highest-paid actress, discusses coming back from her "lowest point" — the multimillion dollar tax case against her in 2018 — and her hopes of working domestically again. The interview.
In other news...
—Netflix’s new releases coming in November
—Jesse Eisenberg says he’s donating one of his kidneys to a stranger
—Camerimage: Anemone to open 2025 festival
—Lee Weaver, actor in O Brother, Where Art Thou, Easy Street, dies at 95
—Bob Trumpy, NFL player turned NBC broadcaster, dies at 80
—Ralph Senensky, director on Star Trek and The Waltons, dies at 102
What else we're reading...
—Matt Stieb and Kaleigh Rogers pick out the 25 young(ish) new Democrats to watch as the party tries to reinvent itself [Intelligencer]
—Catherine Porter reports that the arrests in the daring Louvre heist show the power of DNA databases in solving crimes [NYT]
—Lucas Shaw looks at how box office duds are becoming streaming hits, and the likes of Sony and Paramount are cashing in [Bloomberg]
—Ashley Fetters Maloy reflects on Zohran Mamdani's strict fashion choices of suits and ties and the clever messaging behind it all [Washington Post]
—Yolande Knell and Wael Hussein report from the official opening of the stunning $1.2b Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which is displaying Tutankhamun's tomb in full for the first time [BBC]
Today...
...in 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen arrived in theaters with Borat, a surprise hit that nabbed more than $120m at the box office. The original review.
Today's birthdays: Dolph Lundgren (68), Jessica Matten (40), Kate Capshaw (72), Lois Smith (95), Diana Silvers (28), Antonia Thomas (39), Kathy Kinney (71), Kendall Jenner (30), Bert Kreischer (53), Dennis Miller (72), Jim Cummings (73), Tom Savini (79), Jefferson White (36), Amaka Okafor (44), Adam Faraizl (48), Dylan Moran (54), Fina Strazza (20), Benito Skinner (32), Ever Anderson (18), Gemma Ward (38), Trevor Einhorn (37), Emily Woo Zeller (42), Brian Henson (62), Elliott and Luke Tittensor (36), Gary Ross (69), Carson Rowland (28), Debbie Rochon (57), Vinessa Vidotto (30), Lulu (77), Alperen Duymaz (33), Daniel Pemberton (48), Adriana Torrebejano (34), Hal Hartley (66), Whoopie Van Raam (37) |
| Tchéky Karyo, the Turkish-born French actor who sparkled as a detective on the harrowing BBC series The Missing and had solid supporting turns in films including La Femme Nikita, Addicted to Love and Bad Boys, has died. He was 72. The obituary. |
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