Netflix Wins Hard
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Netflix Q1, and a Hit Man goes Funny.
Let’s go!
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Netflix’s monstrous Q1 earnings upset expectations. Here are their gains and losses. And the comparison to Q1 2024:
$3.35bn operating income
↑ 32% operating margin
$2.89bn net income
↑ 24%
$10.5bn revenue
↑ 12.5%
$61.9M, co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ total compensation
↑ 24%
$60.3M co-CEO Greg Peters’ total compensation
↑ 50%
Here are 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)
Highlights from the earnings interview:
Netflix is going to invest in Video Podcasts to capture market share from YouTube
Producing original content in 50 countries
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings will move from Executive Chairman To Chairman Of The Board
Riffing off James Cameron’s comment, AI can not only reduce costs by 50% but also make films 10% better.
One thing missing from Netflix earnings is subscriber numbers. That’s because they’re no longer sharing them.
Likely domestic subs fell by 670K in Q1, but that’s because Netflix has topped out on US growth. Ultimately, Netflix no longer needs this metric, as it is far larger than all the other major streamers.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Glen Powell and Judd Apatow will co-write a comedy for Universal. Apatow directs. Powell stars.
Robert Zemeckis’ new film for Netflix stars Jennifer Lopez.
A Pacific Rim TV Series will be developed at Amazon.
UA under Amazon MGM Studios, is finalizing a deal to relaunch Highlander w/ Henry Cavill starring and Chad Stahelski directing.
Fifth Season elevates Dan Guando and Kelly Todd to EVP.
Peacock is developing a Clueless TV series with Alicia Silverstone.
David Leitch’s heist film, How to Rob a Bank, casts Pete Davidson.
Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez) will star in The Life Lift.
Joel Kinnaman has joined the cast of Apple TV+’s Imperfect Women.
The Cannes Market has a hot project starring Sandra Hüller and Colman Domingo.
BFI launchces an American branch.
Strand Releasing acquires Berlin-winning Sex, Love and Dreams trilogy.
Kino Lorber takes Sundance doc hit Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.
Cineverse has begun production on a reimagining of Silent Night, Deadly Night.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Hit Man joins Funny People. Glen Powell, hot off co-writing and starring in the hilarious and poignant Hit Man, will team with Judd Apatow, the king of Staten Island, the once prevalent mid-budget comedy.
The two will write an Untitled comedy for Universal.
Anemic Logline:
A country western star in free fall.
Apatow will direct, Powell will star. The project is being fast-tracked.
And that makes sense as Powell made Twisters with Universal that did great business domestically with $268M, the issue with the film was that the budget was $155M and it only brought in $104.3M internationally, with a global total of $372M (less than the originals unadjusted $499M on a $88M budget).
The country western music doesn’t exactly sing to international audiences, but as this is a comedy, Universal can hopefully keep the costs down and continue to nail Powell’s charisma to pull in big box office numbers.
The man behind classic films like Forrest Gump and Back to the Future, Robert Zemeckis, has found his next project in a Netflix original with none other than Jennifer Lopez set to lead. The unexpected duo will be adapting The Last Mrs. Parrish, a psychological thriller based on the 2017 novel by Liv Constantine.
The story follows a con artist (Lopez) who targets a wealthy couple, The Parrishes, as her next victims. She infiltrates the pair by befriending the wife and seducing the husband, with the master plan of becoming the next Mrs. Parrish, only to discover the wife’s life is far more complicated than she could have imagined.
Oscar nominee John Gatins will be penning the script, marking a reunion between the screenwriter and Zemeckis, who worked together on the 2012 high-intensity drama Flight. This newly announced film will extend Lopez’s strong partnership with the streamer after The Mother (2023) and Atlas (2024).
There is no word yet on when the Netflix adaptation will start production.
Pacific Rim Prequel Primed: Eric Heisserer, the writer of Arrival, has entered a first-look deal with Legendary Entertainment. The first series under this deal is a prequel series to the Guillermo Del Toro-created Pacific Rim (2013, Clip). A partnership with Legendary and Amazon has now been announced.
The original was an incredible love letter to the time-honored anime genre of giant robots beating the crap out of monsters. The second Pacific Rim (2018): Uprising was messy but still fun; Del Toro was not part of the production, stating:
“I didn't see the final movie because that's like watching home movies from your ex-wife. It is terrible if they're good and worse if they're bad, or the opposite. You don't wanna know.”
There is a deep, layered sci-fi world that Del Toro created that is rife for digging into. Clearly, there are decades of success from animated Mecha shows to back up a fanbase, and Heisserer’s mastery of sci-fi, both the quiet parts and the grandiose, could be a recipe for some prime interdimensional monster fighting mayhem. Exciting to see what they come up with in what I imagine will be three or so years from now.
Tidbits:
United Artists, under Amazon MGM Studios, is finalizing a deal to relaunch Highlander with Henry Cavill starring and Chad Stahelski directing. Highlander centers on an immortal hero born in the 16th century, flung into the present and battling eternal warriors—uber sci-fi stuff.
Production and distribution studio Fifth Season (Severance, Lost Daughter) has made several key promotions within its higher-ups. These include Dan Guando and Kelly Todd, both now EVPs of creative and physical production, and Christopher Slager, who’s been elevated to President of Film. Fifth Season has an ambitious slate ahead, including Ben Affleck’s Animals and the Paul Rudd, Tim Robinson dark comedy Friendship.
Trailers:
Netflix’s The Sandman (Season 2) trailer
Final Season premiere date: July 3rd
Marvel’s The Fantastic Four trailer
Release date: July 25th
Sony’s 28 Years Later trailer
Release date June 20th
This trailer needs to be edited faster. Skillhouse, from the writer of Saw X, stars 50 Cent as a “let’s play a game” type, who kidnaps 10 influencers who wake up in a house and must get the most amount of likes or they die (trailer).
I was kidding before, but it really does look like Ryan Gosling's Star Wars movie is Drive, but in space. Shawn Levy's Star Wars: Starfighter puts Gosling in the cockpit and will be released May 28, 2027. That's all we know right now but I wouldn't be surprised if this in some way pulls from the Star Wars Rogue Squadron series.
At Star Wars Celebration Tokyo, Jon Favreau, Pedro Pascal, and Sigourney Weaver previewed footage for The Mandalorian and Grogu, teasing stormtrooper battles, Weaver’s mysterious role, and Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt. The film, releasing May 22, 2026, marks Star Wars’ return to theaters after six years of the Disney+ series.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Oh, my god. I am totally buggin! No you’re not… Peacock is developing a Clueless TV series with Alicia Silverstone back to reprise her iconic role.
Both Silverstone’s highly quotable Cher Horowitz and the 1995 (trailer) romcom itself heavily influenced teen dramas, language, and fashion trends, and became a lasting cultural phenomenon for young and old people alike. Hype for some kind of Clueless sequel reached new heights after Silverstone brilliantly played Cher in a Super Bowl ad two years ago (clip).
While the role of Cher launched the 90s actress into stardom, she has recently appeared on a number of TV series like American Horror Stories and The Baby-Sitters Club (2020). On the big screen, Silverstone can be seen next in Yorgos Lanthimos ' sci-fi feature, Bugonia, in theaters this November.
The Clueless show is being written and EP’d by Gossip Girl duo Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, said to be a direct follow-up to the cult classic. No word yet on when it’ll go into production.
David Leitch’s heist film, How to Rob a Bank, casts Pete Davidson.
The team is top-notch:
Co-Star: Nicholas Hoult
Studio: Amazon MGM
Prod Company: Imagine Entertainment (American Made, A Beautiful Mind) + Leitch’s 87North
Dir: Leitch (Bullet Train, Atom Blonde)
Writer: Mark Bianculli (upcoming Cliffhanger reboot)
Synopsis:
A group of savvy bank robbers that use social media to document their heists, playing a cat and mouse game with police.
No word on who Davidson will play, but imagining him as a dumb, enthusiastic, crazed bank robber seems to fit very well with the type he’s been playing recently.
The Sam Shepard play Ages of The Moon is getting adapted into a movie by actors Aidan Quinn (Legends of the Fall) and Steve Buscemi. The show follows a pair of old friends who reflect on their decades of friendship and early rivalry. Quinn will direct in addition to starring alongside Buscemi with production supposed to start before the end of the summer.
Emilia Pérez’s Karla Sofía Gascón will star in The Life Lift.
Here’s the synopsis:
Gabriel (Vincent Gallo), tormented in his NY apartment, finds Post-its in the elevator demanding he murder three tenants who themselves plan to kill their relatives.
Gascon’s character is:
A psychiatrist who embodies both God and the devil.
First-time director, Stefania Rossella Grassi also co-wrote and produces. Shooting planned for early next year.
Joel Kinnaman has joined the cast of Imperfect Women, a psychological thriller series for Apple TV+ based on Araminta Hall’s novel. He will play Robert, a mysterious character central to the unraveling mystery surrounding a woman’s murder and its impact on her closest friends. The series, starring and executive produced by Elisabeth Moss and Kerry Washington, explores buried secrets, guilt, and betrayal within the three women's long-standing relationship.
Not your father… Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, a new film from filmmaker Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) and Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures (Nickel Boys) rounds out its cast with eight new additions.
John Cho (Star Trek)
Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad)
Tramell Tillman (Severance)
Abubakr Ali (Anything’s Possible)
Tiffany Boone (Mufasa: The Lion King)
Laith Nakli (Problemista)
Adia (Full Circle)
Jaheel Kamara (Nanny)
They will be joining two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) in a script written by Tariq. Character descriptions and the plot of the film are being kept under wraps for now.
FESTIVALS / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The Marché du Cannes (Market) has its first hot project:
True-Ish
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Colman Domingo
Dir/Wri: Goran Stolevski (Venice-queer lion award winner Housekeeping for Beginners)
Producer: Kristina Ceyton (The Babadook, The Nightingale)
Domestic sales rep: UTA
International Sales Rep: Charades, New Europe Film Sales
Synopsis:
A well-intentioned but deeply insecure Manhattan PR exec who does smear campaigns relocates to the Balkans to turn things around at “peace lab” but ends up generating fake news to target political regimes.
Tidbits:
UK financier Creativity Capital (McQueen, Under the Shadow) has brought on Oliver Garboe to be its new Senior Associate. Garboe will focus on strategic and transactional growth and new partnerships across the industry, working with distributors throughout Europe. He previously worked at Media Finance Capital and will start his new role effective immediately.
In celebration of 90 years of the British Film Institute is launching an American branch. Fellow BFI member Bond producer Barbara Broccoli will be joining American board members, the Monty Python filmmaker Terry Gilliam, among other major forces. The American group will champion the work of its British originator, maintaining its longtime partnership with Hollywood and American cinema.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Strand Releasing acquires a trilogy. They’ve picked up domestic for the Gold Bear (Top Prize) Berlin winner Dreams (Sex Love) as well as the previous two films in the series, Sex and Love.
Synopsis:
Johanne documents her intense crush on her french teacher. Her mother, grandmother end up reading these intimate writings. They're both horrified by the contents but taken by the powerful writing and story. Johanne navigates romantic ideals vs reality, exploring emotions of self-discovery, love, sexuality.
Here’s the trailer. The director, Dag Johan Haugerud, won Berlin over with his previous film, Sex.
Kino Lorber takes Sundance doc hit Marlee Matlin, Not Alone Anymore. The doc lays bare Matlin’s struggles and achievements as a cinema icon who shines in Children of a Lesser God, The West Wing, Coda, and even those roast battles.
Kino said:
“Marlee is a true force of nature, a fearless performer and tireless advocate whose lifetime of artistry and activism has broken countless barriers in Hollywood.”
The film is directed by first feature director, deaf actress and writer Shoshannah Stern. It will be theatrically released on June 20th
The French musical Queens of Drama charts the rise and implosion of pop singer Mimi Madamour (Louiza Aura), blending a Y2K-era aesthetics with razor-sharp commentary on fame. The film chronicles a feud that went on for over five years. It made its world premiere at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and arrives in select North American theatres tomorrow!
Cineverse has begun production on a reimagining of Silent Night, Deadly Night, directed by Mike P. Nelson and starring Rohan Campbell. Featuring original producers and new cast members, the slasher reboot hits North American theaters December 12, 2025. Studiocanal handles international releases through its new genre label, Sixth Dimension. This continues Cineverse’s bloody takeover of the genre and reshaping of horror distribution as a whole.
Mini Tidbits:
Sundance 2023’s To Live and Die and Live was picked up by AuthentiQ Films & CinemaStreet Pictures and will play on May 16th at AMC theaters. Samuel Goldwyn Films has digital.
Wendy Finerman is back in action. Finerman (producer: Forrest Gump, The Devil Wears Prada) is producing Chasing My Cure, based on the true story of a star football player who was given six months to live after being diagnosed with a rare disease and embarked on an odyssey to save himself. No word on production date, but nice to see Finerman making another movie, as her last release was Katherine Heigl’s One for the Money (2012).
Did you, (Forget About Me?): Simple Minds, the iconic Scottish band behind Don’t You (Forget About Me), made famous for its inclusion in the Breakfast Club soundtrack, is the subject of Simple Minds: Everything Is Possible, a new documentary hitting U.S. theaters June 13 via Greenwich Entertainment.
ON THIS DAY
1972. Eli Roth born in Newton, Massachusetts.
That’s all for the week! See you Monday.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Spencer Carter, and Madelyn Menapace.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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