Warner/Paramount Challenges, Comcast Splits, Disney Lay Offs, The Odyssey & Lost

The Backlot Brief Team brings you the film and industry news of the week. This week we cover new legal challenges to the Warner Bros. acquisition, Comcast divisions, more Disney Lay Offs and Christopher Nolan's new epic The Odyssey.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Backlot Brief, the No Nonsense Film and Television Industry News Podcast. I'm your host, Cody McLeod Rogers. This week we are getting into new barriers for the Paramount Warner merger, the NBC Universal Comcast Split, and Disney Layoffs. This episode is brought to you by Foreground Productions. Foreground Productions. Hello everyone. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and that your week is getting off to a great start. Spain won the World Cup this last weekend in a stunning match which went to overtime. This marks the end of the World Cup journey for Argentinian Superstar and the greatest to ever play, Lion All Messi. For all the sports fans out there, don't worry, there's still plenty coming up to watch. The MLB season is entering its second half, and the NFL preseason starts in just two weeks. College football kicks off the regular season in only five weeks. Some of the biggest news moving through the industry right now deals once again with the Paramount Warner Brothers merger. Twelve state attorneys general have requested a temporary restraining order preventing Paramount Skydance from closing the deal with Warner Brothers. A federal judge granted this request. The restraining order will hold for 14 days, setting a hearing date of August 3rd. California Attorney General Rob Banta is leading the charge with a statement reading, The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theater's basic cable distributors, and ultimately audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the US. This is the most direct threat to the merger since the deal was closed. The Writers Guild of America also filed its own antitrust suit, arguing it will greatly impact members' wages and the number of available jobs. The merger is being attacked from all directions except the Trump administration, whose federal regulators approved the merger several weeks ago. This saga appears to be heating up once again, so we will keep you posted as the merger evolves. Comcast is splitting up its own companies. The Entertainment and Telecommunications Behemoth has announced they will spin off NBC Universal into its own publicly traded company. This spin-off will include Universal Pictures, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, Peacock, Bravo, its theme parks, and Sky, the British TV broadcaster. Comcast itself will focus on broadband cable and wireless services to consumers and businesses. The company's leadership team believes that each company has greater potential in future success on its own. This comes as a sort of antithesis to the Paramount Warner merger. Although the two are drastically different, the difference is in its principles. The Paramount Skydance team states the merger will benefit the industry across the board, whereas Comcast claims the opposite. The Comcast MBC Universal split will likely take about a year to complete. Current investors will own shares in both companies once the split is complete. The stock markets have already responded well to the split with a surge of about 4.5%. So, we've touched on Paramount, Warner Bros., Comcast, and MBC Universal. We might as well talk about Disney. Disney has laid off several hundred employees across its entertainment divisions. ESPN, the NFL Network, Disney Entertainment Television, Disney Studios, and Pixar all have faced cuts. Pixar and National Geographic have faced the largest amounts of layoffs. ESPN and the NFL Network faced a number of high-profile cuts. Former NFL quarterback and ESPN commentator Cam Newton, who just signed an extension in late August, was told his days at the network were over. The same goes for 33-year veteran MOB announcer Carl Revich and longtime NFL analyst Tom Pelicero. Many others have been let go and the numbers continue to rise. Meanwhile, polarizing ESPN commentator Pat McAfee is finalizing a deal in which he would make a record-breaking $60 million a year. The last week has been filled with major news across the studios, but there's also been some major news for more of the independent scene. The popular movie social media and ranking app, Letterboxed, announced that they're open to being bought. Netflix, Paramount, Sony, Percent, several private equity firms, and now A24 are circling the Cinefile app. It's currently estimated to be worth $250 million, which is five times greater than when the founders sold 60% of the company back in 2023. And with that, we'll close up industry news for this week and move on to the box office. The Odyssey has exceeded expectations and then some. Nolan's most recent epic posted $264 million globally in its opening weekend. That's 47% bigger than Oppenheimer and Nolan's biggest opening ever. It's the fourth biggest rated R opening ever, only behind the three Deadpool picks, and sits in third for the largest opening for the year, although it does claim the largest live-action opening of the year so far. The film ran on a $250 million production budget coupled with a colossal $125 million marketing budget. So the film still has a long ways to go before it's fully recouped, but if I were a betting man, I'd say it will make its costs back with plenty of extra change to go around. I mean, when was the last time you remember a 10 a.m. showing on a Tuesday being sold out? Moana took second place, sitting at $179 million globally. And we can keep this short story short here. Disney has basically written this one off already. The film is currently slated to lose a minimum of around $150 million in its theatrical window. It goes without saying that's pretty bad, especially when your company is laying off hundreds the same week. And in third place, we've got Minions and Monsters. Sitting at $323 million globally, the film has recouped its costs. Although still the least successful film in the franchise, only doing about half of what all the other picks did. That being said, it's still a fun and charming movie. Although I personally felt a little awkward being the only adult dude sitting in the movie by myself surrounded by kids. And that will wrap up our box office and bring us to the marquee. These are not promotions of any kind, but simply some pieces of art that carry importance and are widely discussed in the industry and cultural zeitgeist. So, some new things to give a watch. The Odyssey. I mean, I think we all knew I was going to say The Odyssey. Christopher Nolan's epic adaptation of the 3,000-year-old story follows Odysseus, portrayed by Matt Damon, on his perilous journey home over the years following the Trojan War. I'll try not to share my opinion too much here because that's not the point of this segment. However, you all need to go see this film. I've never experienced something quite like it before. The sheer scale is remarkable. If you go see just one movie in theaters this year, let it be this one. And make sure you see it in IMAX if you can. That is how the film is intended to be seen. And if you are curious about how they managed to make something of this size, there's tons of behind the scenes and documentary content out there. So take a few hours, turn off your phone, and go witness an absolute spectacle at the cinema. And my throwback pick for the week is lost. The survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were 1,000 miles off course when they crashed on a lush, mysterious island. Each person possesses a shocking secret, but they've got nothing on the island itself, which harbors a monstrous security system, a series of underground bunkers, and a group of violent survivalists hidden in the shadows. Lost popularized the modern serialized mystery box format. That's a lot of unnecessary film words, so basically, Lost popularized the concept of an overarching mystery expanding across an entire show. It was crafted as a puzzle instead of standalone episodes. You needed to watch everything to understand anything. Today we see these shows all the time. One example is Severance. But it all started with Lost back in 2004. Well, that's all I've got for you folks. Thank you for listening to The Backlot Brief. I'm your host, Cody McLeod Rogers. This episode is produced by Kristen Fosdick and brought to you by Foreground Productions. Foreground Productions. Stories that matter. Have a great day, everyone, and never forget to keep those dreams alive. Whatever they may be. We'll see you next week on the Backlot Brief.