Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
EEAAO, $WBD, and NFLX Q3.
Let’s go!
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The new $750M CA state tax credit continues to give. They’ve just allocated $324M to 51 films.
All in all, this is projected to generate $1.4bn in stimulus for CA while also employing 8,900 cast and crew.
Although only 30.4% of the money was allocated to indie films, 82% of the films supported are indies.
Here is a breakdown of the most interesting studio films and indies supported.
Studio:
Universal’s Untitled Daniels Film
Directors: Daniels (EEAAO)
60 days filming in CA
$38.4M CA tax credits
United Artists’ Heat 2
Dir: Michael Mann
77 days filming in CA
$37.2M CA tax credits
Columbia Pictures’ Jumanji 3
Dir: Jake Kasdan (Red One, Jumanji 2)
69 days filming in CA
$43.9M CA tax credits
Indies:
Dir: Max Barbakow (Palm Springs)
Cast: Bill Murray and Kristen Wiig
24 days filming in CA
$4.2M CA tax credits
Untitled Mike Mills
Dir: Mike Mills (Beginners, C’mon, C’mon)
24 days filming in CA
$3.6M CA tax credits
Fifth Season’s Our Kind of Cruelty
44 days filming in CA
$8.7M CA tax credits
Synopsis
The film adaptation is based on the novel “Our Kind of Cruelty” by Araminta Hall, which is a psychological thriller about a man’s obsession with a woman.
Allocating the money to these projects is a great step toward driving business back to the state. Although we haven’t seen a major lift in film production days in LA, according to FilmLA.
For More:
See all the projects supported here.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Warner Bros. Discovery is officially for sale.
Netflix Q3 revenue hits $11.5bn (↑17%).
Netflix secures rights to Catan, developing live-action, animated adaptations.
James Wan’s Atomic Monster adapting YA thriller The Thrashers for TV.
Netflix partners with Mattel and Hasbro on KPop Demon Hunters toy lines.
Rian Johnson to follow Wake Up Dead Man with an original 1970s-inspired sci-fi.
Producer Jerry Tokofsky (Glengarry Glen Ross) dies at 91.
Samo Lives casts Danny Ramirez, Dane DeHaan, and Kathryn Newton.
The Julia Set casts Chase Infiniti, Gillian Anderson, and Jason Isaacs.
Dakota Johnson’s A Tree Is Blue casts Jessica Alba and Charli XCX.
Keith David joins Dreams of the Moon.
Sundance 2026 to honor founder Robert Redford in final Park City year.
Mel Gibson’s The Resurrection of the Christ budget: $100M per part.
Neon and Waypoint Entertainment expand partnership with multi-picture deal.
Hulu acquires Spanish thriller series Innate from Netflix’s Spain division.
Tribeca Films picks up Serious People, an experimental comedy.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Warner Bros. Discovery is now officially for sale. Paramount is still the top company in the running to buy.
Paramount’s bid would be 70-80% cash, with backing from Skydance CEO David Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison (net worth: $334bn).
Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery rejected Paramount’s bid to acquire the company for $20/share. That would have put WBD’s valuation at $49.5bn. WBD board rejected the bid, hoping to get more per share (some had anticipated they’d get $22-$24/share). Although now they may try to go for $30.
If this comes to fruition, this would 3x the value of Paramount.
Other possible suitors include Amazon and Comcast. Or possibly Netflix, which would just be interested in buying WBD’s IP.
Netflix’s Q3 earnings. Here are their gains and losses. And the comparison to Q3 2024:
$11.51 bn revenue
↑ 17.2%
$5.87 per share
↓ 5.5%
$2.55 bn income
↑ 8.1%
$3.25 bn operating income
↑ 12%
Due to an “unusual tax dispute,” Netflix’s shares have fallen over 6% according to expectations, yet that doesn’t seem to be slowing down their domination of the streaming arena.
Netflix sees rising Q3 numbers thanks to its expansive subscriber growth (which they stopped reporting in 2024) and a substantial increase in ad commitments for the year, set to launch their new format powered by generative AI beginning this next quarter.
Netflix owes a big thank you to the hit animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters, which garnered 325M viewers in its first 91 days on the platform (breaking the record previously set by The Rock’s Red Notice). And we were excited to see their Sundance doc, The Perfect Neighbor, hit 16.7M views in 3 days.
Netflix has shared that the total viewing hours of Q3 have been greater than the first half of 2025 combined.
For the entirety of 2025, the streamer is predicting an operating margin of 29% with a 16% year-over-year revenue growth to $45.1 bn in total.
Keep in mind their internal projections for 2030:
$1 trillion market cap
$30bn operating income (3x 2024)
$78bn revenue (2x 2024)
410M subs (301M in 2024)
$9bn in ad sales (up roughly $8bn from 2024)
And Netflix has a new show:
Wood for Sheep: Netflix has secured exclusive global rights to Catan, Klaus Teuber’s hit 1995 board game originally titled The Settlers of Catan.
They apparently have big plans for the strategy game, already laying out:
Live action film
Animated films
Scripted series
Unscripted series
Video games.
It’s gonna be like what they did with Jumanji, but supercharged with the post-Barbie spark of capitalism.
Teuber’s sons, Guido and Benjamin, will produce alongside Vertigo Entertainment.
Netflix is going all in on games lately, we have their Monopoly game show, followed by their live action Clue show, and other more narratively focused projects already in development, like Exploding Kittens card game, and Family Pack.
Roll the dice, pay the price, wood for sheep.
Tidbits:
James Wan’s Atomic Monster (M3GAN) is adapting the bestselling YA novel The Thrashers for television. The thriller “encapsulates the vulnerability of adolescents playing adult games,” following an exclusive friend group forced to confront an unexpected tragedy. With its expertise in crafting emotionally charged, high-stakes storytelling, Atomic Monster is the perfect fit to bring Julie Soto’s tense genre-bending debut to life on the small screen.
Netflix has signed an “industry-first” deal with Mattel and Hasbro to co-develop toys and games for their breakout K-pop Demon Hunters. Both companies will serve as global co-master toy licensees, with Mattel producing dolls, action figures, and collectibles, and Hasbro creating plush, electronics, and roleplay products. Get ready to see these ladies everywhere…
Rian Johnson will follow Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Story with an original sci-fi film inspired by 1970s paranoid thrillers. The idea dates back to Looper. Johnson says it’s his next creative focus now that his 3-picture deal with Netflix has ended. Johnson even seems to be up for returning to Star Wars in the future. Still, one of the most exciting directors around will eagerly follow you wherever you go, Rian.
HB-Oh NO: HBO Max has raised its monthly prices: Basic with Ads now costs $10.99, Standard $18.49, and Premium $22.99. That’s nearly a 10% price increase across the board. This price increase takes place immediately, and existing users should see this reflected in their upcoming November bills.
Mini Tidbits:
Glengarry Glen Ross producer Jerry Tokofsky has passed away at 91. In the 60s, Tokofsky began his career as an executive at Columbia, where he’d go on to produce a number of acclaimed films.
Canada’s CBC has given the Roses their own channel! All six hilarious seasons of the Emmy-winning Schitt’s Creek have been added to the CBC’s FAST streaming platform, set to launch on LG channels and The Roku Channel in Canada later this year.
CAA has brought on NBCUniversal exec Jacob Selzer to join its creative division as a new agent. Selzer’s hiring is part of the major talent agency’s goal to give more representation for podcasters and digital creators.
Renewals:
Disney’s Project Runway (for S22)
Trailers:
Universal’s Reminders of Him
Based on the book by Colleen Hoover
Cast: Maika Monroe (in a non-horror role)
Release: March 13, 2026
Netflix’s Selena y Los Dinos (doc)
Release: Nov 17
Release dates:
Warner Bros.’ Sinners (IMAX re-release)
Re-release date: Oct 30 (for 1 week)
Level 33’s Time Travel Is Dangerous (mockumentary)
Narrator: Stephen Fry
Theatrical/VOD Release: Nov 21
Apple TV+’s Shrinking (S3)
Release date: Jan 28, 2026
New Line’s Mortal Kombat II
Release date: May 8, 2026 (moved 1 week earlier)
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Samo Lives, the Jean-Michel Basquiat biopic starring Kelvin Harrison Jr (Waves, Elvis), has wrapped production. The film’s cast is massive and decorated, including:
Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick)
Dane DeHaan (Chronicle)
Kathryn Newton (Lisa Frankenstein)
Thomas Kretschmann (King Kong)
In a very special nod to the 1996 film, Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) will also have a role.
Notably, Wright made his acting debut as Basquiat himself in the original film. Though through Samo director Julius Onah (Luce, Captain America: Brave New World) will be taking a different lens to the project, it appears they will cover a similar time in the artist’s life.
Check out the cast in the original trailer, absolutely insane.
One Battle After Another breakout actress Chase Infiniti is looking to continue to impress audiences by portraying the titular lead in The Julia Set, a new coming-of-age drama from writer-director Niki Byrne (Evan Wood).
Infiniti plays Julia, a brilliant mathematician navigating a high-pressure academic world. While she demonstrated skillful physicality in the PTA action drama, this new role shifts the focus to her intellect and emotional depth in a character-focused film where she is the main focus.
Infiniti is joined by a strong ensemble of The X-Files’ Gillian Anderson, The White Lotus’ Jason Isaacs, and The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Christopher Briney.
The Julia Set is currently filming.
Tidbits:
Dakota Johnson’s feature directorial debut, A Tree Is Blue, is coming together with a strong female-forward cast, with stars like Jessica Alba and Brat singer Charli XCX in talks. The Grammy winner has been rapidly growing her acting resume, starring in Amazon’s Overcompensating and the upcoming A24 movie The Moment, with a number of other projects in the works. A Tree Is Blue is set to begin production in LA next month with $2.4M in tax credits just allocated by the CA Film Commission.
Singer Camila Cabello and Langston Kerman (Abbott Elementary, Bust Down) have joined Cut Off, Jonah Hill’s Warner Bros. comedy co-starring Kristen Wiig. Written by Hill and Ezra Woods, the film follows wealthy siblings (Hill, Wiig) who are abruptly cut off from their parents. We don’t know either Langston’s or Camila’s roles yet, but the cast is already looking promising, joining famous names for the parents like Bette Midler, Nathan Lane, and recently announced Adriana Barraza (Babel) will be playing the family’s caregiver. Production begins this fall in LA.
I Play Rocky Casting: Kiki Seto (The Studio) joins the Sylvester Stallone Biopic I Play Rocky as Talia Shire, the actress who played Adrian, and Robert Morgan (Hacksaw Ridge, The OA) as Burgess Meredith, the actor who played Rocky’s Mentor Mickey. The film follows Stallone’s relentless pursuit to write and star in Rocky, writing the script by hand in 3.5 days. A dream that led to a storied career in Hollywood. Currently in production.
Mini Tidbits:
Keith David (Greenleaf, The Thing, Nope) joins Dreams of the Moon, a 1970s-set drama. No word on his role. But Riele Downs (Henry Danger) plays an astronaut hopeful entering training during the 1970s. David always adds gravitas with a powerful voice and calming presence.
Actress Kelli O’Hara is joining CBS’s Sheriff Country in a recurring role. At one moment, she’s a NY’s socialite in HBO’s The Gilded Age, and the next, she’s in a country cop procedural, as a sharp-tongued ex-sister-in-law sure to cause some havoc. Sheriff Country premiered earlier this week on CBS.
Despite fans’ wishes, Joseph Quinn’s fan favorite Stranger Things character is still very dead. The Duffer Brothers confirmed that the Fantastic Four actor will not be returning for the series’ upcoming fifth and final season.
Annabelle Wallis (The Mummy) is set to star in a historical thriller Pedro Pan as British diplomat Ms. Penny Powers, aiding Operation Pedro Pan’s child rescue after Cuba’s revolution. Richie Adams (Of Mind and Music) directs. Currently in production.
FESTIVALS
Sundance 2026 is going to be a special one. Not just the final year at its iconic Park City location, the festival will also commemorate the late founder Robert Redford (read our obit here).
Events will include… Celebrating Sundance Institute: A Tribute to Founder Robert Redford.
There’ll also be retrospective screenings of some of the great films to emerge from Sundance:
Little Miss Sunshine
Dir: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Half Nelson
Dir: Ryan Fleck
Saw
Dir: James Wan
Sundance 2026 runs from January 22–February 1, 2026.
Mel Gibson’s big bucks on the bible: Mel Gibson’s The Resurrection of the Christ’s budget has been revealed.
The two-part follow-up to The Passion of the Christ will be an eye-popping…
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