Ankler Agenda

Netflix’s head of film, Scott Stuber, stepped down from his post after seven years in a perfect ankling (meaning, it was unclear who left whom and why). That shocker was followed by one bombshell after another: a massive 10-year, $5 billion deal for WWE Raw in its first move into live sports, the most Oscar nominations out of any studio, and a record subscriber count reported on its earnings call. All of it portends a different Netflix than the one we’ve known. “Who else is making giant moves like this right now?” asks Richard Rushfield, who earlier examined the Stuber departure. Also: Claire Atkinson joins to break down her buzzy story on Hollywood’s overworked, often abused PR chiefs to the CEOs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inside the gleaming towers of marble and modern art containing Hollywood’s storied agencies lays the beehive of Hollywood: 10 percenters rolling calls and doing deals (that close slowly), and fresh faces filing the mailroom. But agencies aren’t immune to industry upheaval. Consolidation is just one reason more agents are leaving for management(resulting in a new class of manager superstars) as the team dives into our weeklong series about the representation business. Also: Elaine Low returns from TV conference NATPE, and Richard Rushfield and Peter Kiefer check in from Sundance.For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Toast the New Year with RC Cola? It’s the kind of subpar beverage apropos to the first days of 2024, where a dreary Golden Globes (the RC Cola of Awards Shows) was celebrated for not being the lowest-rated in history; one of the most valuable companies in the world (Amazon) laid off hundreds in Hollywood, and one of the most storied studios (Paramount) has perched a semi-permanent “For Sale” sign out front. “It’s not a great way to start off the year,” says Elaine Low, who’s joins Sean McNulty and Richard Rushfield to survey the worsening landscape that — surprise! — may yet deliver some silver linings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five years ago, Hollywood rose up in protest over Saudi Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, which U.S. intelligence found was approved by the country’s leader, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Now, with Hollywood in lean times and in need of new markets, the Kingdom and its $776 billion sovereign wealth fund appear back in favor, reports Claire Atkinson, with one movie producer likening it to "California in the 1920s." Meanwhile, political waters also are churning around the Golden Globes, where a ribbon-wearing campaign for Israeli hostages being held captive by Hamas may or may not bear out, explains Peter Kiefer, who broke news of the efforts. Also: Andy Lewis delivers George Santos’ thoughts on an upcoming HBO film, and Richard Rushfield expounds on his New Year resolutions for Hollywood.For more entertainment industry news, subscribe to The Ankler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From mass layoffs to major strikes to multiplex disasters, the entertainment industry isn’t likely to forget 2023. Richard Rushfield runs through his annual Ankler 100, Hollywood’s most miserable moments of the year, as 2024 looms with even more possible disruption as a Warner Bros. Discovery-Paramount merger raises myriad questions: Would a hypothetical deal even pass DoJ and FTC muster? What would HBO/Showtime and CNN/CBS News combos look like? And will any of these efforts even matter against Big Tech? Says Claire Atkinson, who joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low: “It feels to me like they need to do these huge acquisitions or else the tech guys are just going to run away with the show.” For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler here.Note: The Ankler Podcast will not be releasing an episode next week. See you in 2024! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hollywood officially entered the upside-down this week: streamers flexed like it was 2019 again with a flurry of new deals; Disney about-faced by licensing shows to one-time nemesis Netflix; and then Netflix, in the never-say-never category, dumped 10,000 pages of viewership data onto reporters. With Richard Rushfield and Sean McNulty breaking down the press call with Ted Sarandos, the team talks takeaways, good and bad, and why Netflix did it. Also: Penske Media’s conflict(s) of interest with the Golden Globe, and Narcos and upcoming Hotel Cocaine creator Chris Brancato joins Claire Atkinson to discuss how to responsibly make shows involving drugs: “If drugs [are] a centerpiece of the criminal activity, it’s very important to show that the outcome for most is jail or death.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The passing of Norman Lear coincides with a new TV era where, quite likely, not a single one of the legendary producer’s famous sitcoms would pass muster in a pitch meeting of today. While Elaine Low talks specifics about what’s selling and who’s buying in the contracted post-strike TV market, Martini Shot host Rob Long pays homage to Lear’s immense legacy (“his shows were’t about politics, they were about characters”). Also: Janice Min shares her scorcher of a live interview with Andrew Cuomo’s former top advisor Melissa DeRosa, who declares that President Biden should dump Kamala Harris, zings RFK Jr.’s “ego”, and decries the “total lack of leadership” over antisemitism in New York City.Transcript here. For more entertainment news, subscribe to The Ankler here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Hollywood reels from a string of high-budget box office flops, Kevin Goetz, says, sure, contraction is coming. But, “every movie — if made and marketed for the right price — should make money,” says the CEO of Screen Engine/ASI, long considered a top expert on audience. Goetz joins to talk about recent changes he’s seeing in theater-going, what’s working (and not), and what films can learn from TV. Also: Sean McNulty, Peter Kiefer and Elaine Low talk Elon Musk’s F-U; Bob Iger’s flip-flop on Disney’s linear TV assets; and Israel-Gaza and the worrisome WhatsApp wars of Hollywood.For more about the entertainment industry, subscribe to The Ankler at TheAnkler.com/subscribe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

‘Oh Judy, baby.’ That’s Judy Blume impersonating the many male producers who had approached her decades ago to bring her legendary book about a girl traversing puberty, family and friends to the big screen. She wasn’t having it and followed advice from her son: Wait for the girls who grew up with the book to be in power. Enter director Kelly Fremon Craig. In a poignant, fun and revealing conversation, the two women tell the story of how they met, what happened after, and the power of “small” stories, as part of The Ankler’s In Conversation series, hosted by Janice Min.For more about the entertainment industry, subscribe to The Ankler at TheAnkler.com/subscribe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back from the golf-F1 mashup Netflix Cup, Richard Rushfield joins Sean McNulty and Elaine Low to reveal that what happened in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas as the team talks Ted-spotting, celebrity entourages, and what it all has to do with the sports-ification of today's entertainment. Also how the streamer may be the only one left to take big swings (no pun intended).Also: the Globes have a TV partner after a year of brutal rejection; Peter Kiefer reveals who's battling for Britney Spears' book rights; and SAG's new rules around "synthetic" performers. Transcript here. For more about the entertainment industry, subscribe to The Ankler at TheAnkler.com/subscribe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices