| | | | | | What's news: It's magazine day! The digital cover feature this week is our package on Park City hosting its last ever Sundance. The BBC and YouTube has inked a landmark content deal. The Sphere's Wizard of Oz experience has sold 2m tickets and made over $260m. Netflix has been testing new vertical video features. And the NYT has launched a new word game. — Abid Rahman
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Last Dance at Sundance ►Final fling. As the Sundance Film Festival wraps up its final year in Park City, THR dives deep with top filmmakers (Linklater! Coogler! Aronofsky!) in a decades-spanning oral history. Plus: inside the puffer-filled premieres and parties — and the latest interviews, videos and breaking news from the 2026 line-up. The Sundance hub.
—"Screaming, crying and almost throwing up." As it prepares for a final bow before relocating to Boulder, Colorado, Sundance alumni recount how America’s most consequential film festival launched careers, crushed nerves and rewrote the rules of independent cinema. The oral history.
—"The King on Main Street." THR's nicest man Chris Gardner spoke to Darren Aronofsky, Richard Linklater, Kenneth Lonergan and others who share stories of the late Robert Redford, the Sundance founder whose quiet encouragement shaped generations of independent filmmakers. The story. |
Jenny Slate Slammed "Fraud" Justin Baldoni in Unsealed Texts ►"Most intense narcissist." As the It Ends With Us legal battle continues, newly unsealed text messages from Jenny Slate have revealed her true thoughts on Justin Baldoni while filming the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling book. On Tuesday, a transcript of Slate’s deposition, held on Sept. 26, 2025, in New York, for Blake Lively‘s ongoing case against Baldoni was unsealed, along with other evidence and documents. During the deposition, several of the actress’ texts were read aloud, and she addressed on-set issues working with Baldoni and Wayfarer producer Jamey Heath. “Justin is truly a false ally and I’m unwilling to do anything that promotes the image that he’s crafting as a ‘male feminist,'” she wrote in one message. “Honestly I have no words to describe what a fraud he is.” The story.
—The latest. Timothy Busfield can be released from jail while he awaits trial on child sexual abuse charges, a court has ruled. Bernalillo County District Court Judge David A. Murphy on Tuesday rejected New Mexico prosecutors’ bid to keep Busfield detained, finding that the actor doesn’t pose an ongoing danger to the community. “Given the lack of a pattern involving children in this case,” the judge said that the risk of the actor/director committing more crimes “can be remedied through different conditions of release.” Under the order, Busfield may not contact the alleged victims or their families, discuss the case with witnesses or have any unsupervised contact with minors. The story.
—Bailed. Russell Brand has been granted bail after news of additional sexual assault charges against him broke last month. The comedian-turned-right-wing-pundit appeared at a London hearing via video link from Florida on Tuesday following the December news that he had been charged with more accounts of sexual assault. He is next set to appear in court on Feb. 17. In March last year, Brand was charged with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault over sex crimes allegedly committed between 1999 and 2005. He pleaded not guilty in May, and a London judge set a provisional trial date of June 3, 2026. The story.
—"He’s worried about being bullied." The stars of Netflix’s Queer Eye made the network morning show rounds Tuesday to promote the show’s forthcoming final season, but one of the group chose not to join them. Karamo Brown, the show’s culture expert, said in a statement to CBS Mornings — the Queer Eye team’s first stop Tuesday — that he opted out of the interview to focus on his mental health. Brown’s assistant also sent a statement to NBC’s Today saying that "Karamo has felt mentally and emotionally abused for years." Brown’s co-stars — Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France and Jeremiah Brent — reacted with surprise to his absence. On CBS Mornings, anchor Gayle King said the show received word less than an hour before the cast’s appearance that Brown wouldn’t be on camera and read part of a statement he sent to the show. The story. |
BBC Strikes Landmark Deal Content With YouTube ►🤝 For the yoof, innit. 🤝 The BBC will start producing original content for YouTube under a landmark deal unveiled with the Alphabet-owned video powerhouse, which has disrupted traditional TV and increasingly positioned itself as a partner for TV networks. The news comes as the U.K.'s state broadcaster continues to look for ways to reach younger audiences in the digital age. The initial focus of the partnership is set to be on the younger audiences of the BBC Three channel, covering entertainment and news and sports content. The BBC shows for YouTube are expected to later become available on the U.K. public broadcaster’s iPlayer streaming platform and its BBC Sounds audio service. The story.
—War on slop. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan wants to make 2026 a year in which more creators build big, sustainable businesses … and a year in which artificial intelligence enables them to do it faster. But in his annual letter to the YouTube community, which was published Wednesday morning, he also committed to fight AI “slop” and strengthening safeguards for kids and teens, underscoring the delicate balance that the world’s dominant video platform has to pursue as it seeks to grow even bigger. The story.
—New addiction just dropped. In a significant launch, The New York Times is debuting what Jonathan Knight, the head of games at the Times is calling “a bigger game than anything we’ve done before.” On Wednesday the Times is launching its first two-player competitive word game … and giving it its own standalone app, as it seeks to carve out a bigger slice of the mobile gaming market. The game is called “Crossplay,” its own take on a classic format (if you know Scrabble or Words with Friends you will instantly be familiar with the concept), and the first truly multiplayer game from the company. The story.
—Woof! As mogul James Dolan plots an expansion for the Sphere concept to the nation’s capital, his unique Las Vegas-based entertainment venue has disclosed a new milestone for its blockbuster Wizard of Oz experience. The reimagining of the 1939 classic has now sold 2m tickets since it bowed on Aug. 28 of last year, totaling more than $260m in ticket sales, the company said Tuesday. While it’s apples-and-oranges as far as the box office goes — an Oz at The Sphere ticket could be $200, while a movie ticket at a normal theater showing may be more like $15 — $260m in ticket sales would rank at No. 9 domestically in theaters last year. The story. |
Netflix Surpassed 325M Subs at the End of 2025 ►Domination. Netflix‘s shareholder letter summing up the final quarter of 2025 included one big surprise: the streamer says it crossed 325m global paid subscribers in the quarter. The streamer had stopped sharing quarterly subscribers some time ago, though executives did say they’d update the public at pertinent intervals. This is our first one of those. Netflix instead now focuses on new KPIs revenue and income. To that end, Netflix posted Q4 revenue of $12.157b, beating expectations. Revenue grew 17.6 percent year-on-year as Netflix’s ad tier continued its maturation process — across the entirety of 2025, advertising revenue crossed $1.5b, the company said. The results.
—"Instagram is coming." Ted Sarandos wants investors (and regulators!) to know: Netflix is facing more competition than ever, and the competition is only getting more fierce. It’s a message that appears honed for battle, should regulators in the U.S. or Europe try to fight the company’s $83b deal for Warner Bros. "The TV landscape, in fact, has never been more competitive than it is today. There’s never been more competition for creators, for consumer attention, for advertising and subscription dollars,” Sarandos said on Netflix’s earnings call. The story.
—"You can imagine us bringing more clips based on new content types, like video podcasts." Netflix has been testing new vertical video features, which it plans to roll out later in 2026. Speaking on its earnings call Tuesday, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the streamer had already been featuring a vertical video feed in the mobile experience for the past several months, which includes clips of Netflix shows and movies. That will likely soon include other new content types, including video podcasts, which began streaming on the platform in January. The story.
—Not going over. On Tuesday, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery jointly filed a 519-page proxy statement with the latest update to their Hollywood-shaking deal. Buried in the lengthy filing were some random nuggets about the landing spot for certain secondary WB rights, and brands. Notably, following the close of the Netflix/WB deal, All Elite Wrestling rights will ostensibly remain with Discovery (aka the “Global Linear Networks” company), though the league’s weekly series and premium live events (PLEs) are expected to continue streaming on HBO Max throughout the remainder of AEW’s current contract. The story.
—Conun-tudum. In that same filing it was revealed that Netflix will acquire Turner Classic Movies. THR's Alex Weprin writes that the beloved basic cable channel is not something that the streamer coveted, so there are questions as to what it will do with TCM. The story. |
'Demon Hunters' Is Netflix's Most Watched Movie (or Show) Ever ►Not even close. In five previous semiannual data releases dating back to 2023, no Netflix movie or series had recorded more than 165m views in six months. Then KPop Demon Hunters came along. The animated smash, which already sits atop Netflix’s all-time movie rankings (which are measured over a title’s first 13 weeks of release), accumulated a ridiculous 481.6m views worldwide in the second half of 2025. That is far and away the most views (calculated as total hours watched divided by running time) in a six-month period for any title, movie or series, ever on Netflix. The story.
—Stacked. Netflix has revealed a full look at its much-anticipated Korean content lineup for 2026. The streamer unveiled a slate of 33 Korean films and series titles on Wednesday afternoon from Seoul, noting that “K-content remains the most-watched non-English content on Netflix.” The lineup includes everything from a tart romantic comedy starring Blackpink’s Jisoo (Boyfriend on Demand) to a star-studded superhero drama (The Wonderfools, with Park Eun-bin and Cha Eun-woo), returning seasons of unscripted hits like Singles Inferno and Culinary Class Wars, and even some prestige cinema from the great Lee Chang-dong (Possible Love). The lineup.
—Laugh it up. It’s shaping up to be a hilarious May in Los Angeles after Netflix revealed the first batch of details for the next edition of the Netflix Is a Joke Festival, scheduled for May 4-10. The lineup includes shows from top comedians, screenings, podcast recordings in front of live audiences, reunions, one-night-only collaborations and more. Tickets go on sale Friday, Jan. 23. Produced by Netflix in partnership with Live Nation, Netflix Is a Joke Fest will host more than 350 live events in a weeklong span at some of the city’s high-profile venues, including the Hollywood Bowl, Greek Theatre, Intuit Dome, Comedy Store, Laugh Factory and Hollywood Improv. The lineup.
—Alan's show. Alan’s Universe is expanding to Netflix. The biggest YouTube Shorts creator, Alan Chikin Chow, has a scripted series coming to Netflix, a key streaming competitor. The show, a collaboration with HYBE AMERICA, “will follow a misfit crew of aspiring pop idol rejects enrolled in an arts academy who come together to form a co-ed band,” per the synopsis. HYBE America is the U.S. subsidiary of K-pop leader HYBE. It’s a scripted series, but the music component will be very real. The story.
—📅 Dated! 📅 Marty, Life is Short, a documentary about comedian Martin Short, will premiere on Netflix on May 12. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, the doc includes never-before-seen archive footage as well as interviews with “some of the most established and beloved stars.” Now a star of Only Murders in the Building, Short rose to fame as a writer and performer on SCTV and appeared in such films as Father of the Bride, Three Amigos, with his longtime collaborator Steve Martin. Short also collaborated with Martin on the 2018 comedy special An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life, which also debuted on Netflix. The story. |
'Hunting Wives' Casts WNBA's Angel Reese ►🎭 All-star addition. 🎭 The Hunting Wives is expanding its social circle. WNBA star Angel Reese has joined the cast of the spicy Netflix series for season two. She steps into a co-starring role described as “Trainer Barbie.” The Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman-starring series that became a breakout hit for Netflix this summer is currently in production in the U.S. After the streamer acquired the series from Starz ahead of its first-season launch, the eight-episode second season will release exclusively as a Netflix branded series in nearly all countries Netflix is available. A premiere date has yet to be set. The story.
—🎭 Next up. 🎭 After spending more than a decade in the 18th century while filming Outlander, Sam Heughan’s next TV role will be set firmly in the present day. Heughan has joined the cast of a six-episode thriller series titled Embassy, where he’ll star opposite Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons. The show comes from AGC Television, Ascendant Fox and Turbine Studios. It will be the first series role for Heughan since wrapping work on Outlander, whose final season premieres March 6 on Starz. Embassy has also brought on director Christian Alvart to helm two of its six episodes. Production is set to begin in February. The story.
—🟢 Greenlight! 🟢 A long-in-development adult animated series based on Rachel Smythe’s award-winning web comic Lore Olympus has found a home. Prime Video has given a series order to the show, which comes from Webtoon Productions and The Jim Henson Company. Julia Cooperman will serve as showrunner. The series order from the Amazon-owned streamer caps a development process that has lasted more than half a decade. Webtoon Productions and The Jim Henson Company first announced a series based on Lore Olympus was in the works back in October 2019. Smythe’s comic, which she began on Tumblr before moving it to Webtoon, is a retelling of the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades. The story. |
Razzie Awards Nominations 2026 ►🏆 Waiting for Gadot. 🏆 Last year, Snow White stars Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler took the stage together at the 2025 Oscars as Disney was gearing up for the much-anticipated release of the live-action fairy tale. A year later, Snow White is a top nominee for a very different awards show: the 2026 Razzies. The live-action film is up for six awards, including worst picture. Snow White is tied with the much-maligned Ice Cube-starring War of the Worlds, which also has six nominations, including worst picture. The nominees.
—🏆 Sounds good. 🏆 The Cinema Audio Society has announced its nominations in seven categories for the 2026 annual CAS Awards for outstanding achievement in sound mixing. Sound mixers on F1: The Movie, Frankenstein, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, One Battle After Another, Sinners, Elio and Kpop Demon Hunters are among the nominees this year. This year’s awards will be held on March 7 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The nominees.
—🏆 Big up north. 🏆 Paul Thomas Anderson’s political thriller One Battle After Another leads all comers as the Vancouver Film Critics Circle unveiled its nominations for the best movies of 2025 on Tuesday. OBAA came out on top with seven nods, including for best picture, best director, best screenplay and acting nominations for Leonardo Di Caprio and supporting cast members Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor and Sean Penn. The nominees.
—🏆 Smooth operators. 🏆 The Society of Camera Operators has announced its 2026 Camera Operator of the Year awards nominees across film and TV. The film nominees are Colin Anderson for both One Battle After Another and Marty Supreme, with Brian Osmond on the latter; Lukasz Bielan with Natasha Mullan for F1; Gilles Corbeil with James Frater for Frankenstein; and Michael Fuchs with Kate Roberson for Weapons. The TV nominees are Erdem Ertal with Aymae Sulick (The Pitt); Mark Goellnicht (The Studio); Scott Maguire with Mark Schmidt (Severance); Jim McConkey with Fanny Coustenoble and Niknaz Tavakolian (Etoile); and Nick Müller (Stranger Things). The nominees. |
'Harry Potter' Set for 25th Anniversary Global Celebration from WBD ►Merlin's beard!THR mudwallower Ryan Gajewski has the scoop on Warner Bros. Discovery's extensive plans to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Festivities kick off this spring, as butterbeer trucks will offer an array of drinks and merchandise in cities worldwide from March to May. Later in the year, official Harry Potter locations and retail stores worldwide will celebrate the character’s birthday on July 31 with products and events. Plus, the popular Back to Hogwarts celebration will take place in August and September to unite fans. The anniversary will also be marked with theatrical screenings of the first Harry Potter movie that are set to include 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage not previously shown on the big screen. The story.
—🎭 Crack open the orange soda. 🎭 Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell are reuniting to chase — and run away from — a monster. The long-time friends and former Nickelodeon co-stars will topline and produce Kenan & Kel Meet Frankenstein, a horror comedy that’s set to begin production in the summer. The movie is co-produced by Thompson’s Artists for Artists company and Range Media Partners, with the latter’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Pete Micelli handling sales. Jonah Feingold is writing the script, which pays homage to the old Abbott and Costello Meet … films. The story.
—🎭 Mon dieu! 🎭 French actress Léa Seydoux has joined Mikey Madison in The Masque of the Red Death, A24’s reimagining of the creepy Edgar Allan Poe story from filmmaker Charlie Polinger. Julia Hammer and Erik Feig are producing for Picturestart with James Presson and Lucy McKendrick. A24 is mum on the official plot but does describe the project as wildly revisionist and darkly comedic. Sources say that Madison is playing twin sisters in a story that sees a mad prince take in the noble class to his castle while a plague devastates the peasantry. The story sees a long-lost twin, hidden among the lower class, enter the castle and into a decadent world of orgies, opium, power schemes, revenge and decapitations. The story.
—🎭 Circling. 🎭 Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline is in negotiations to join Glen Powell in Judd Apatow’s untitled comedy for Universal. Cristin Milioti is also on the roll call for the feature, which was written by Apatow and Powell. Apatow is directing the project, which will shoot this spring. The story centers on a country Western star (Powell), whose life and career are in free fall. Cline will play the star’s girlfriend. Universal has set a Feb. 5, 2027 release date for the project. The story. |
TV Review: 'Steal' ►"Turner is strong, the vehicle less so." THR's Angie Han reviews Amazon Prime Video's Steal. This London-set drama is a six-part series about an ordinary office worker who gets tangled up in an armed robbery of $4b. Starring Sophie Turner, Archie Madekwe, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Ellie James, Andrew Koji, Harry Michell and Caleb Obediah. Created by Sotiris Nikias. The review.
In other news...
—Bait: Riz Ahmed’s The Studio-esque Amazon comedy drops first trailer
—Bruno Mars’ song “I Just Might” debuts atop Billboard Hot 100
—Banff World Media Fest unveils Rockie Awards grand jury
—Sabrina Carpenter to perform at Grammy Awards
—Billboard elevates Leila Cobo, Jason Lipshutz to lead editorial
—Billboard editor Hannah Karp named WMG chief communications officer
—Pathé U.K. names Emma Luffingham, Claudia Yusef creative directors
—IAG appoints Nir Caspi as head of non-scripted & new media, chief growth officer
What else we're reading...
—Lanre Bakare talks to the late David Lynch's collaborators, who say the iconic filmmaker would struggle to make films today due to the social media landscape [Guardian]
—Spencer Kornhaber writes that despite Trump's seemingly total control of government at the moment, the president's "golden age of culture seems pretty sad so far" [Atlantic]
—Michael Andor Brodeur writes that the recent changes at the Kennedy Center highlight an executive misunderstanding about the arts and what they’re for [WaPo]
—Francesca Regalado explains why French President Emmanuel Macron was wearing snazzy aviators at Davos [NYT]
—Daniel Chin has the three big takeaways from the excellent 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (go and see it!), and how it sets up a third film (make it Sony!) [Ringer]
Today...
...in 1995, screenwriter-director-producer-star Ed Burns premiered his dramedy The Brothers McMullen at Sundance, where it took home the top jury prize at the festival. The feature was picked up and distributed by Fox Searchlight as the studio label’s first release, ultimately grossing $10m. Burns returned to the story three decades later with sequel The Family McMullen. The original review.
Today's birthdays: IShowSpeed (21), Geena Davis (70), Luke Grimes (42), Craig Roberts (🏴35), Ken Leung (56), Michael Wincott (68), Robby Benson (70), David F. Sandberg (45), Kelly Rohrbach (36), Martin Shaw (81), Booboo Stewart (32), Karina Lombard (57), Lars Eidinger (50), Izabella Miko (45), Charlotte Ross (58), Matthew Willig (57), Jerry Trainor (49), Dylan Kussman (55), Jeremy Shada (29), Alexander Lincoln (32), John Early (38), Jackson Brundage (25), Svetlana Khodchenkova (43), Jill Eikenberry (79), William Gaminara (70), Mads Sjøgård Pettersen (42), Donna Lynne Champlin (55), Vincent Laresca (52), Remy Auberjonois (52), Marina Foïs (56), Leopold Hughes (38) |
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