Summer Duds, Fest Buzz: What the Hell is Happening to Movies
From Telluride mountaintops to Toronto’s Tim Hortons, awards season is officially here. Before jetting to TIFF, Prestige Junkie’s Katey Rich joined Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey to dissect the quirks of each fest and how they influence not just Oscar voters but box office, too. Plus: the crew autopsies a limp summer box office that fell behind last year, and looks ahead to whether Nolan, Spider-Man, Baby Yoda and even the Minions can save summer 2026 — or if movies are still stuck in a death spiral.
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Love, Loss & Drama: Swift, Netflix, Paramount
And here you thought Hollywood might coast into Labor Day. Instead, summer’s final days delivered both the inevitable — Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement — and the unexpected: Netflix OG veteran Peter Friedlander’s exit after 14 years. Elaine Low, Natalie Jarvey and Sean McNulty break down the business stakes of both before running through the five biggest stories of the summer you need to know into the fall, from the ongoing rise of microdramas to Paramount’s high-stakes reboot with Cindy Holland, to Gen X as Hollywood’s Rodney Dangerfield generation.
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How TV Became a 24/7 Sports Bar
Comedies, dramas, animation and reality may be Hollywood’s bread and butter, but when it comes to what Americans actually watch the most, it’s live sports — and now, an avalanche of shoulder programming to support it. As ESPN, NBCU and Amazon spend $76 billion on NBA games alone over the next 11 years, Manningcast spawns imitators and sports docs and series eat up space once reserved for scripted, Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey reveal the aftershocks to traditional TV (hint: grab the hot dogs and peanuts). Then Dealmakers’ Ashley Cullins dives into the wild state of entertainment M&A right now, including why insiders are hyped about Hailey Bieber’s $1 billion Rhode sale, and what they’re saying about investors’ sudden interest in management companies, who’ll win the old media Hunger Games, and what in the world happens with Lionsgate.
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‘And Just Like That’... Streamers Want Rom-Coms, Agents Want Creators
It’s the end of an era — again — as the surprise finale of And Just Like That has fans bidding farewell (once more) to Carrie Bradshaw & Co. Elaine Low, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey share their takes on the messy send-off (spoiler warnings!), and why Hollywood romance isn’t going away like Aidan just yet. In fact, the once-dormant rom-com is in the midst of a 2025 shopping spree, with Netflix, Amazon and others stocking up on meet-cutes to satisfy comfort-craving audiences. The team unpacks what the divisive Sex and the City spinoff says about the market, the genre’s economic appeal, and the next gen of rom-coms headed for your queue. Plus: They go inside Hollywood’s big four agencies’ war to rep digital creators like MrBeast, Alix Earle and Addison Rae, and the brutally honest scoop on whom digital stars choose (and don’t) when internet fame tips into “call my agent” territory.
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Apple's ‘F1’ Brand Slam & Disney+’s Streaming Shakeups
Brad Pitt, fast cars and Expensify receipt management software logos: Three things that go great together… when you’re shoring up millions to fund your F1 movie. On this week’s episode, Dealmakers’ Ashley Cullins breaks down how ad viewing is down but brand spending is up in hits from F1 to Superman to Jurassic World Rebirth in ways that go far beyond the usual logo slap: They’re narrative tie-ins where the ad is part of the story (host Elaine Low likens it to “hiding the pill in the peanut butter” for dogs, though, yes, Superman’s mutt, Krypto, hawks Milk-Bones). Plus: Elaine, Sean McNulty and Natalie Jarvey unravel Disney’s latest moves — including a farewell to the Hulu app, a hello to ESPN’s standalone streamer and other shakeups from the company’s mic drop earnings call.
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Listen in as The Ankler team and industry insiders break down Hollywood’s latest business headlines, power struggles and trends shaping the future of entertainment.
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