Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
AMC Entertainment’s rise, A24’s undertone, and a new Rambo.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
AMC Entertainment’s Q2 revenue and attendance rises.
Yellowjackets showrunner Jonathan Lisco inks multi-year overall deal with HBO.
Netflix signs first-look TV/film deal with Prince Harry & Meghan’s Archewell.
David Weil's (showrunner of Citadel) debut feature is Tyrant for Amazon MGM.
Shipley Brothers sell comedy This Could Be Our Night to Sony.
Neon’s Sirāt sets awards season release.
Noah Centineo circling lead role as young Rambo in the reboot.
William H. Macy joins Hulu’s Dan Fogelman NFL drama.
Chase Sui Wonders cast in Hulu’s Buffy reboot.
John Malkovich & Ayo Edebiri reunite in Apple TV+ romcom series Prodigies.
Nicholas Duvernay joins Amazon MGM’s The Love Hypothesis.
Bill Pullman & Karl Glusman join Paul Schrader’s The Basics of Philosophy.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere will screen at NYFF.
A24 acquires debut horror The Undertone at Fantasia Fest.
Sri Lankan hit comedy Tentigo sparks Hindi, Spanish & Italian remakes.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
AMC Entertainment’s Q2 earnings. Plus, the change from last year:
$1.4bn revenue
↑ 35.6%
$4.7M net loss
↑ 85.7% from last year’s $32.8M loss
↑ 97.6% from last quarter’s $202M loss
62.8M attendance
↑25.6%
↑29% US attendance
CEO Adam Aron celebrated:
“As AMC’s revenues grow, our EBITDA can soar… an increase of 391.4%, to a highly gratifying $189.2M.”
The stock was up 10% on the news. Even better news: they’re going to cut 4-5 minutes from the previews.
David Ellison + Ari Emanuel’s multi-billion-dollar deal.
David Ellison’s newly acquired Paramount has inked a $7.7bn deal with Ari Emanuel’s TKO Group (parent company: UFC and WWE). Paramount+ will now be the exclusive streamer for US-based UFC events for 7 years. Paramount plans to go after international rights in each of the 210 countries when they’re available. They’ll get an exclusive 30-day negotiating window.
This is Ellison throwing down the gauntlet with a splashy buy, outbidding Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and YT. For context, this $1.1bn/year spend replaces Disney’s deal for $550M/year for UFC. This is a solid first step for Paramount+, the 7th-largest streaming service, growing its 77M subs and ad revenue.
Tidbits:
“Showrunner of the Year” Jonathan Lisco has signed off on a multi-year overall deal with both HBO Max and Warner Bros. TV. Lisco is co-showrunner of Showtime’s Yellowjackets, and also wrote/directed on the first three seasons. Under his first deal with WBTV, Lisco worked as a showrunner for TNT’s Animal Kingdom (2016-22) and Southland (2011-13) and will continue to develop and produce TV shows.
Netflix has struck a multiyear TV/Film first-look deal with Prince Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions (prod co: Netflix’s #5 most-watched doc, Harry & Meghan and With Love, Meghan). Previously, the couple’s company had an overall deal for $100M for 5 years. The reason for this downgrade: these deals haven’t been yielding a significant ROI. Their animated series Pearl was cancelled by Netflix, and none of their unscripted series hit like Harry & Meghan.
Mini Tidbits:
The Shipley Brothers (Prime’s Wrecked) have sold their comedy script This Could Be Our Night to Sony. The duo catapulted a collaboration with Weapons’ Zach Cregger (who starred in Wrecked 2016-2018), into deals with Hulu, Netflix, Lionsgate, Disney+, and Paramount+ just in the past two years.
David Weil, the creator of Prime Video’s Hunters, is making his feature directorial debut with Tyrant for Amazon MGM Studios. The high-stakes thriller is set in the world of fine dining and will be based on a script written by Weil.
The sports bundles are coming! ESPN and Fox will bundle their nearly launched streaming services called ESPN and Fox One. The price will be $39.99/month. Launching in August.
Former Jax Media (Prod Co: Broad City) founders and producers Tony Hernandez and Lilly Burns are launching Counterpart Studios. Hernandez will serve as CEO, and Burns is named COO, with the company set to offer a mix of production services.
Meredith Rothman (talent manager: The Idea of You’s Nicholas Galitzine) joins Brillstein Entertainment. She’s got a strong pedigree: 5 years at Mosaic (2013-2018), 7 years at Anonymous Content (2018-2025).
Dogumentary: Prime Video’s A Different Breed docuseries follows 18 dogs and handlers competing in Purina’s Incredible Dog Challenge. Premieres Aug 18.
Crunchyroll, the leading anime provider, has teamed up with Delta to offer over 2,000 of its shows later on this year.
Emmy winner Michael Klick has passed away at 77. His TV credits were voluminous, from EPing 36 episodes of Homeland to producing 96 episodes of 24. Recently, he EP’d all ten episodes of Netflix’s Pulse.
Renewal:
Canal+’s Empathie (renewed for Season 2)
Trailer:
20th Century Fox’s Swiped
Lily James plays the founder of Bumble
Streaming: Sept 19
Release Dates:
Neon’s Sirāt
Winner: Cannes Jury Prize
NY/LA Release: Nov 14
Wide release: Jan 2026
Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek 5
Release pushed: Dec. 23, 2026 → June 30, 2027
First Look:
Netflix’s Narnia, directed by Greta Gerwig. Unofficial first look.
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Noah Centineo could be the new Rambo.
Sisu director Jalmari Helander is all set to reboot the Sly series with Millennium and is apparently circling Centineo to play John Rambo in a Vietnam War origin story.
Though Centineo started off as a heartthrob in a variety of kissing booth movies, he recently made a pivot to more action-oriented films, playing super-sized superhero Atom Smasher in The Rock's Black Adam. Following up on that generally well-liked performance by taking on heavy material from Alex Garland's Warfare - clip.
Centineo seems just poised to be a well-known Hollywood leading man; he just needs a bit of first blood to really make his mark.
Silver Bear-winning actress Paulina Garcia is a tour de force. Just watch her in Gloria (2013) to see her eruptive passion for life propel the film. She returns with Victoria in the Clouds.
Here’s the synopsis:
Follows a 65-year-old coffee grower named Victoria who fights against a real estate project threatening her land.
Filming begins end of next year. For a sense of what this might look like, check out her previous collaboration with the director Beloved Tropic (trailer).
William H. Macy has joined Hulu’s untitled Dan Fogelman NFL drama in a series regular role as Hank Durkin, alongside Christopher Meloni’s head coach Danny Roarke.
The 20th Television and Skydance Sports series is written and EP’d by Fogelman. Macy is a beloved character actor, probably best known for his bumbling car salesman who botches a hit in Fargo, and most recently, he played the alcoholic patriarch of the equally screwed up Gallagher family in Shameless.
If Macy is in it, I'll give it a look.
Tidbits:
Chase Sui Wonders and the reboot. Wonders, who broke out in Apple TV+’s The Studio, and just starred in the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot, has been cast in Hulu’s Buffy reboot pilot. In the 20th Television and Searchlight TV pilot (dir: Chloé Zhao), Wonders will play a vampire. Star Sarah Michelle Gellar will be reprising her role. Two others joining the cast are Merrin Dungey (Alias) and Audrey Grace Marshall (The Flight Attendant).
John Malkovich + Ayo Edebiri re-team in Apple TV+’s romcom series Prodigies. The streamer’s anticipated series follows two-ex-child prodigies who question if they are living up to their potential. No word on who Malkovich will play, but in Opus (trailer), he had a tense, almost predatory relationship with Edebiri’s character, oscillating between mentorly charm and an undercurrent of danger.
Netflix Japan’s Plastic Beauties finds its leads in Mayu Matsuoka and Riisa Naka (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, 2006) in the upcoming drama series set in the world of plastic surgery. Matsuoka is best known as part of the unconventional family in Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters (2018) and in her new role will play a gifted surgeon whose unusual circumstances push her to shift from general surgery to aesthetics.
Amazon MGM’s The Love Hypothesis casts Nicholas Duvernay. You may remember him from White Lotus Season 3 as the doting son and hardball negotiator (clip). No word on who he’ll play, but this is based on Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling 2021 novel. Lili Reinhart is playing a biology PhD candidate who enters into a fake relationship with a hotshot professor.
Paul Schrader’s new film, The Basics of Philosophy, has added Bill Pullman, Daniel Zovatto (the villain of Woman of the Hour), and The Industry favorite Karl Glusman (The Neon Demon, Little Death) to the cast. It is said to be similar in style to First Reformed and The Card Counter.
Netflix’s series adaptation of Unaccustomed Earth, starring Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) casts Sarayu Blue. She will play a confident Bengali American mother who has such crippling standards as an attorney that she begins to collapse under the strain. Blue has manifested her latent sadness in Prime’s Expats as Nicole Kidman’s friend (trailer).
Mini Tidbits:
Channing Tatum Joins Demon Slayer Infinity Castle movie: He will be voicing Keizo, the kind owner of a martial arts school. Big names like this make sense when you realize the Japanese release broke records and grossed $120M in Japan alone (trailer).
Paul Reiser, Miles Teller’s father in Whiplash, stars in Fox’s upcoming untitled comedy about a failed son in his twenties who must work with his dad (Reiser) in the damaged goods business.
The third season of Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt casts model-turned-actress Lori Harvey (Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist) as a regular guest star. The new season of the lawyer drama returns to Hulu on Sept. 18th.
Max Minghella (Handmaid's Tale) is in talks to join DC Studios’ Clayface, the Batman villain origin film starring Tom Rhys and Naomi Ackie. Minghella’s role is not yet announced, but for DCU, that could be a big reveal. Releasing September 11, 2026.
Dave Z Martin (English Teacher) joins Season 2 of BET’s Diarra From Detroit as Booker, a street-smart criminal. The series has been a massive hit for BET.
FESTIVALS
Jeremy Allen White’s Bruce Springsteen biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, is playing at NYFF. Read our full cover story breakdown with trailer here.
One of the more interesting projects at San Sebastián Festival’s co-production market is Patrimonio. The film, produced by Tarea Fina (The Sleepwalkers), follows a female truck driver who discovers she owes a debt on the truck in her father’s name and must retrace her personal history to resolve it. The director, Maria Astrauskas, edited Cannes Camera d’Or-winner Las Acacias (2011).
Locarno’s Dry Leaf director is already onto his next project, Bilingual. That film is said to merge two different stories in two different countries, one a crime story, the other a romance. Meanwhile, Dry Leaf just dropped a trailer and is repped by Heretic (Prod co: Triangle of Sadness)
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Checkpoint Zoo is not for the faint of heart.
The Tribeca 2024 Audience Award-winning doc, at times, can feel like a heist film. It follows a daring group rescuing lions, monkeys, and ostriches from zoos while rockets rush overhead.
But this is not an Ocean’s 11 meets Tiger King, but instead a harrowing tale of the heroic zookeepers and volunteers who saved 5000 animals during the first days of the war in Ukraine.
It’s a beautiful 21st-century Noah’s Ark tale directed by Joshua Zeman (Netflix’s The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness). EP’d by Leonardo DiCaprio.
In theaters on August 15th.
Mr. Scorsese is a definitive Martin Scorsese docuseries from Apple TV+. Directed by Rebecca Miller (Maggie's Plan), the series shows you Scorsese’s wild mania that birthed new dimensions of cinematic violence and grit. Watching the trailer feels like you’re reading a passage of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, where Hollywood stories of an earlier era are writ large.
Exclusive interviews from Daniel Day-Lewis (Miller’s spouse), De Niro, DiCaprio, and Thelma Schoonmaker (Scorsese’s editor).
Premieres October 17 on Apple TV+.
A24 has acquired Ian Tuason’s debut horror The Undertone in a competitive mid-seven-figure deal after its Fantasia Fest premiere.
Starring Nina Kiri, the slow-burning follows a paranormal podcaster drawn into eerie recordings from someone she thought was dead.
The genre festival has been a source of renewed interest for studios, as horror has become a more reliable guarantee of box office returns. We should see this one sometime this year.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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