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Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Redstone's last CEO, The Social Network 2.0, Mistress America vampire hunter, Adam Scott's books and a cone.
Let’s go!
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount Global, is exiting the company. In his place, an “Office of the CEO” is being put together, comprised of division heads. The move comes as Paramount Global is wrapping up a 30-day exclusive negotiating window with Skydance (Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One), while Sony and Apollo Global, an asset management company, are also planning an offer.
This Succession style move was pretty inevitable given:
Skydance or Sony/Apollo taking over Paramount would lead to Bakish’s firing
Shari Redstone, president of Paramount Global’s parent company, has been unhappy with Bakish’s performance
Bakish actively prefers the Sony/Apollo Global offer
Four Paramount board members recently stepped down
Redstone prefers the Skydance deal because it allows a new family management team, including David Ellison (Skydance CEO) and his father, Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle), to sweep in, pay down the debt, and clean up the mismanagement.
The Sykdance deal has already come under significant fire by shareholders, who prefer the Sony and Apollo Global deal, which would face its own legal challenges from DC, given Sony is a foreign company.
Stay tuned for the 4:30 pm EST Paramount Q1 earnings call sans Bakish. A new leadership structure is set to be announced.
Weekend Box Office. Here are the domestic grosses:
$15 M Challengers (US: Amazon MGM Studios, International: Warner Bros.)
$7.8 M Unsung Hero (Lionsgate Films)
Christian music biopic
$6 M budget
$7.2 M Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Warner Bros/Legendary)
$519 M worldwide
$135 M production budget
Blew past expectations
$7 M Civil War (A24)
3rd weekend
$56 M domestic total
$71.6 M worldwide
$50 M budget
Writer Aaron Sorkin teases “some kind of sequel” to The Social Network, inspired by the Capital riots on January 6th, which he believes Facebook is to blame.
Sorkin confirmed that he has been working on a new project that will show the immeasurable impact of the social media platform Facebook since its creation.
Sorkin stated:
“Facebook has been, among other things, tuning its algorithm to promote the most divisive material possible, because that is what will increase engagement… There’s supposed to be a constant tension at Facebook between growth and integrity. There isn’t. There’s just growth.”
He continued:
“If Mark Zuckerberg woke up tomorrow morning and realized there is nothing you can buy for $120 billion that you can’t buy for 119 billion dollars, ‘So how about if I make a little bit less money? I will tune up integrity and tune down growth.’”
Sorkin scripted (and had a small role) in David Fincher’s 2010 drama, The Social Network, starring Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, which would go on to secure 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and an Adapted Screenplay win for Sorkin.
Aaron Sorkin has also said the new Social Network project would only move forward if David Fincher signed on to direct.
Tibit: