Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon digest of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Matt Belloni gets an early look at an entertainment industry study with a surprisingly counterintuitive takeaway: Gen Alpha actually prefers watching movies in theaters. Indeed, for young teens, whose lives have taken place entirely in front of devices, the cinema seems to represent an alluring escape. If the media narrative of the past decade has been wrong, Netflix’s decision to put KPop Demon Hunters in theaters could mark the beginning of a major trend reversal…

Plus, below the fold: Lauren Sherman digs into Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet’s explosive lawsuit against her former business and life partner, Erik Torstensson. Julia Ioffe chronicles the latest developments in the Trump-Putin rapprochement. John Ourand details a possibly precedent-setting carriage dispute between YouTube TV and Fox. And Ian Krietzberg chats with the founders of Stability AI and Wonder Dynamics about Hollywood’s A.I.-assisted, but still human-driven, future.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Matt is joined by Scott Mendelson on The Town for a postmortem on the ’25 summer box office. On The Grill Room, Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander chew over The New York Times’s A.I. ambitions, the brewing Portnoy-McAfee rivalry, Bob Iger’s media strategy, and more. On Fashion People, Lauren and Danielle Frankel discuss her rise as a new-gen bridal designer. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and John Heilemann assess how blue-state Democrats are countering Trump’s threats to deploy the National Guard.

HOLLYWOOD

According to a new study from NRG, the under-15 crowd loves movie theaters, which represent an exotic and alluring escape to a generation whose upbringing has taken place entirely in front of screens and devices, and whose socialization metric has never been anything other than digital.

FASHION

News, notes, and the inside story on a brutal and rapidly unfolding scandal.

WASHINGTON

U.S.-Russia relations are largely unchanged, and the future of Ukraine is just as uncertain, following the Trump-Putin photo op in Alaska. Meanwhile, among the Russian elite, there is an obvious eagerness to get the “Ukrainian crisis” over with so they can get back to the real business of making money.

SPORTS

YouTube and Fox reached a deal Thursday night. But their unusual carriage spat had YouTube asking Fox to treat it like Amazon, while Fox insisted the real comp should be Charter or DirecTV. The stakes of this battle could impact YouTube TV’s coming deals with NBCU and Disney, too.

A.I.

Amid all the hyperventilating and legitimate fears over generative A.I., a new wave of entrepreneurs is creating more specialized, A.I.-fueled VFX tools to empower directors, lower effects budgets, and maybe even help the industry embrace its future.

HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by Puck’s box office expert, Scott Mendelson, to revisit their early summer box office predictions by looking at the biggest hits, misses, and questions from the 2025 summer slate.

MEDIA

Julia Alexander and Dylan reunite to hash out the week’s biggest media stories: The New York Times’s increasing investment in A.I.; how technology is undermining Disney magic—and what this portends for Bob Iger’s media strategy; the spectacle of the U.S. Open; the brewing Portnoy-McAfee rivalry, and much, much more.

FASHION

Lauren catches up with Danielle Frankel, who shares the story of her rise as a new-gen bridal designer. They discuss modern business models, changing social mores, the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, and a lot more. Plus, Lauren checks in on the fashion at the U.S. Open.

WASHINGTON

John Heilemann joins Peter Hamby to assess how Democrats in blue states and cities are countering Trump’s false claims about violent crime, and his threats to deploy the National Guard in places like Chicago, Baltimore, and Los Angeles. They also discuss what these clashes reveal about the positioning of potential 2028 presidential candidates like Gavin Newsom, J.B. Pritzker, and Wes Moore—and whether they have the savvy to thrive in America’s nonstop political media machine.

Need help? Review our FAQ page or contact us for assistance. For brand partnerships, email ads@puck.news.

You received this email because you signed up to receive emails from Puck, or as part of your Puck account associated with {{customer.email}}. To stop receiving this newsletter and/or manage all your email preferences, click here.

Puck is published by Heat Media LLC. 107 Greenwich St, New York, NY 10006