Good morning: In today’s edition of The Industry, we look at:
TIFF, WBD and FCC.
Let’s go!
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Will lightning strike twice?
TIFF has announced the ten films selected for its Midnight Madness program.
Of course, last year’s lineup included Obsession, which was picked up by Focus Features and has now made $475M at the box office worldwide.
So, will any of these films come close? Here are our top candidates:
Dir: Joshua Giuliano
Prod: Steven Schneider (Paranormal Activity, Insidious)
Synopsis:
Three siblings who, after being stranded in a boat on a country river, are stalked by a faceless killer.
Sales Rep: Blue Finch
Synopsis:
When a night of partying leads four friends to KICK ON, at the extravagant drug-fueled lair of a mobster’s reckless son, they find themselves fighting for their lives amidst a brutal spiral of paranoia, violence, and ultimate betrayal.
Cast: Cole Sprouse
DP: Sean Price Williams (A24’s Good Time)
Synopsis:
A livestreamer (Cole Sprouse) discovers a cache of vintage denim only to run afoul of the Yakuza when he is lured to Japan to sell the jeans by one of his subscribers (Kiko Mizuhara).
More at TIFF’s Midnight Madness:
This one is first premiering at Venice, but don’t snooze on Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral.
Also, not a world premiere, but Duncan Jones’ Rogue Trooper will play.
Experimental films get infrequent love, but this one is worth seeing: Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney. Directed by Matthew Rankin (who made the wonderfully absurd film Universal Language).
Excel Entertainment (Gully Boy) boards Malayalam Vampire Thriller Half. The film follows two half-blooded vampires on a violent hunt.
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
WBD Q2 revenue falls to $8.7bn (↓11%). Profit plunges to $149M (↓91%).
Lionsgate Q1 FY2027 revenue rises 48% to $776M.
Roku posts $1.35bn in Q2 revenue (↑22%) and a record $164.2M profit.
The UK clears the Paramount-WBD merger with conditions.
The FCC eliminates the 39% broadcast ownership cap.
Screen Gems lands Mime, starring John David Washington.
James Marsden will lead a new Apple TV mystery comedy from You’re the Worst.
Kit Connor is tapped to play Cyclops in Marvel Studios’ upcoming X-Men reboot.
Sam Neill will appear in The Legend of Zelda, his final film.
Gareth Edwards exits the Jurassic World Rebirth sequel over creative differences.
Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ Bluefly lands at inaugural TIFF Market.
Eric Roth EPs Noah Stratton-Twine’s The Present Times.
Yesterday’s top answer: Toy Story 1, favorite film in series.
50% got it correct.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Warner Bros. Discovery Q2 2026 results tell a grand story about where the company is at. Numbers are down all across the board, with the exception of streaming revenue.
Here’s Q2 and the change from last year:
$149M profit (net income)
↓91%
$8.7bn revenue
↓ 11%
$1.88bn Adjusted EBITDA
↓ 4%
$2.33bn studios revenue
↓39%
$96M profit (↓89%)
Theatrical revenue (↓46%)
$3.08bn streaming revenue
↑ 10%
Why? HBO’s global expansion, combined w/ high viewership engagement (two shows in Nielsen’s top 5)
$512M profit streaming (vs. Disney’s $712M)
↑ 75%
$4bn linear division revenue
↓ 17% overall
↓ 4% profit ($1.45bn)
Note: WBD is no longer breaking out subscribers.
Bottom line is that WBD had a banner 2025 year, with the Best Picture win and a near billion-dollar film (A Minecraft Movie), so 2026 was always likely to be a down year for them. On par with previous quarters, linear is shrinking, but there is massive streaming revenue.
2026 is looking up for Lionsgate. Here are the Q1 2027 numbers, plus the change from last year:
$776M total revenue
↑ 48%
$587.3M total film division revenue
↑ 119.7%
$105M profit - highest ever for fiscal Q1
$189M total TV division revenue
↓ 34%
$10.2M profit
$28.8M loss
Up from $108.9M loss
Thanks to Lionsgate’s Michael and The Housemaid, they made a healthy profit in the film division. Yet they were weighed down by $56.9M of interest expense, $40.3M of stock compensation, and $35.9M of corporate overhead.
Full breakdown here. Also, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer has endorsed the PSKY-WBD merger.
And Feltheimer is in good company as the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger clears the UK. Even though PSKY WBD would be the UK’s biggest distributor, it was determined there’s sufficient competition from the normal gang of studios + BBC and ITV.
However, some concessions were made:
No combining linear and streaming services (but Paramount+ and HBO’s combination can move forward)
Channel 5 News must maintain editorial independence (Paramount owns the UK’s Channel 5)
Provide more funding to Channel 5 news, including funding an additional 20 hours of drama/year
Full details here.
Tidbits:
Sony’s Screen Gems (Prod Co: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter) wins the horror package Mime that will star John David Washington (Tenet). No info on the plot other than it will take place in an NYC apartment complex during a heatwave blackout. Stephen Herman (Wri: Prime Video’s Black Box) will write the script based on his original concept. Nikyatu Jusu (Dir: Sundance-winning Nanny) will direct the horror film.
Danya Jimenez and Hannah McMechan (Wri: KPop Demon Hunters) are writing a comedy crime-drama, A Really Bad Person, for FX. The show will follow an American girl in London pretending to be the missing daughter of a British family. The series will be a co-production between FX Productions and Legendary Entertainment.
The FCC just approved a new rule that eliminates the current 39% cap on the share of U.S. TV households that a single broadcaster can reach. This paves the way for the blocked Nexstar-Tegna merger. The combined company would reach 80% of US TV households. Separately, a judge is barring anyone working for Nexstar from being on Tegna’s board.
Gareth Edwards, who directed the last Jurassic film, Jurassic World Rebirth (2025), will not be returning to the series due to creative differences. Universal is searching for a new director. All three leads of Rebirth, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, are expected to return to the sequel. Though Jurassic World Rebirth generated $869.1M at the box office, the film got mixed reviews for its underwhelming dinosaurs and underused subplots.
Mini Tidbit:
Versant Q2 and Roku’s Q2 numbers and breakdown here.
AMPAS re-elects Kim Taylor-Coleman (Casting Director: American Crime) as president of the 2026-27 Academy Foundation Board.
Disney is looking at the price of fame in new scripted series LALA IRL, following controversial social media influencer Lala Sadii. The series comes from Good Trouble co-creator Peter Paige.
Minnie Driver was in a “really bad car accident” that resulted in her spraining her neck. We wish her a speedy recovery!
Greenlit:
Pilot for Disney+’s EPCOT ride Spaceship Earth TV series
Fox’s animated Joe Dirt sequel series (in development)
Cast: David Spade
No longer moving forward:
Netflix’s David Fincher Squid Game series
Renewal:
Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (for S5)
Trailers:
Sony Pictures Classics’ The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
Cast: John Turturro
Premiere: Sundance
Release: Oct 23
A24’s Primetime
Cast: Robert Pattinson
Release: Sept 25
HBO Max’s War
Cast: Sienna Miller, Dominic West
Release: Oct 1
Eagle Pictures’ The City of the Living
Premiere: Venice, TIFF
CBS’ Adam’s Law
Cast: Adam Levy (Son of Judge Judy)
Release: Sept 14
The Daily Wire’s Run Hide Fight: Infidels
Cast: Jonathan Majors
Release: Sept 16
British Drama Mission
Cast: George MacKay, Rosy McEwan
Premiere: Aug 15
Release: TBD
First Look:
Paradise City Sales’s Love Lessons
Release: TBD
Netflix’s Grown Ups 3
Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock
Release Dates:
Lionsgate’s Michael 2
Dir: Antoine Fuqua
Cast: Jaafar Jackson, Miles Teller
Release: Late 2027
Prime Video’s Madden
Dir: David O. Russell
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Christian Bale
Release: Nov 18
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
To Me, My X-Men! Kit Connor (Heartstopper) is tapped to play the X-Men leader Cyclops for the upcoming Marvel Studios’ X-Men reboot. Marvel is assembling the X-Men one by one, following the news of Samara Weaving’s casting as Emma Frost.
Some background: Cyclops, or Scott Summers, is a fan-favorite character who can shoot powerful laser beams or “optic blasts” out of his eyes. He is one of the founding members and a field leader of the X-Men, taking charge of the mutant team on the battlefield while Professor X provides orders. He was played by James Marsden in the original X-Men trilogy, and Tye Sheridan in the prequels.
With Kit Connor tapped to play the X-Men field leader, we see this may be an origin story considering that Connor is only 22.
Cyclops is a character who is deeply serious and dutiful. He often serves as the antithesis of Wolverine, who is often wild and ferocious. Connor played the role of an inexperienced and reluctant leader with profound emotional depth in the hit Heartstopper, which would transition well into the version of Cyclops who is new to leading the X-Men.
Apple TV is holding onto James Marsden for a new mystery comedy.
Based on Adam Frost’s upcoming novel Bad News Dads, the new series follows a men’s rec baseball league whose season is completely stalled by the mysterious passing of one of the players’ wives. From You’re the Worst creator Stephen Falk, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Bros. Television. Marsden became the talk of the neighborhood as a new addition to Apple’s Your Friends & Neighbors’ second season.
This time, rather than further complicating Jon Hamm’s Coop’s life, he’ll be leading the decidedly ill-advised investigation into the murder.
Tidbit:
Sam Neill will appear in Sony’s The Legend of Zelda, his final film. The actor completed filming his role before his passing last month. It’s a fitting farewell, as the film’s sense of wonder and fantasy matches the magical world Neill helped bring to life in Jurassic Park (1993).
Casting Tidbits:
Yul Vázquez
Rainn Wilson
Uli Latukefu
All those and more here.
FESTIVALS AND DOCS
It’s the inaugural TIFF Market, and a big project has landed:
Bluefly
Cast: Russell Crowe & Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Dir: Nimród Antal (Adrien Brody’s 2010 Predators)
EP: Brian Kavanaugh-Jones
Worldwide sales rep: Highland Film Group
Synopsis:
Deep in the Congo, a grieving UN translator is pulled onto a black-ops mission to recover a downed aircraft that isn’t supposed to exist.
Shooting later this year in Australia.
Mini Tidbit:
South of Tehran, a documentary short about Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (Dir: Palme d’Or-winning It Was Just an Accident), will premiere in this year’s New York Film Festival. It’s from director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neon’s The Secret Agent). Here’s our interview with the legendary filmmaker Panahi on how he conceptualizes the overall moral structures of his films.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth is backing an ambitious new indie. The Forrest Gump writer has boarded The Present Times as an EP alongside Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (prod. A Complete Unknown) and Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films.
Written, directed, edited, and scored by Noah Stratton-Twine (SXSW’s The Peril at Pincer Point), the tragicomedy film will be told through intertwining perspectives of two embittered paparazzi whose pursuit of the perfect celebrity shot forces them to face the consequences of their intrusive profession in fantastical ways.
Filming in London.
Tidbits:
Jeremy Slater
VIZ Media
BAFTAs
All those tidbits here.
ON THIS DAY
2018. Crazy Rich Asians premieres in LA.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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