Welcome back to What I’m Hearing, a proudly Met Gala-free safe space. Reminder: I’m at the Milken Conference tomorrow for my panel. I heard Apollo hosted a nice rooftop party tonight, though my spy did not see Shari Redstone…

Programming note: If your friends or family are confused by the Paramount saga, I slowed it down on the Today, Explained podcast. Meanwhile, on The Town, Lucas Shaw and I debated why The Fall Guy underperformed and eulogized Paramount’s C.E.O.; Bill Simmons predicted Comcast would outbid WBD for NBA rights; and Scott Mendelson and I revealed our Summer Box Office Confidence Scale. Subscribe here and here.

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Discussed in this issue: Tim Cook, Warren Buffett, Shari Redstone, Ari Emanuel, Adam Aron, Adam Novak, Adam Driver, Eddy Cue, Kevin Costner, Kim Godwin, Jessie Henderson, Tom Freston… and a Golden Globes firing spree.

Honorable mention: Pat McAfee, the ESPN host, who continues to be allowed to trash his employer on its own platform. “Things are going great here… not at all,” McAfee said Thursday of ESPN Bet, Disney’s struggling gaming platform. Wasn’t the whole point of ESPN Bet to get talent to promote the service? Penn Entertainment, Disney’s sportsbook partner, has now reported major losses in consecutive quarters. Does this stumble hurt Jimmy Pitaro’s chances in the C.E.O. succession race?

• A Globes firing spree: Remember when the Golden Globes turned themselves into a for-profit business and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association disbanded? All those H.F.P.A. members became employees of a new company, controlled by Jay Penske and Todd Boehly at Dick Clark Productions. And last week, the 100 percent predictable firings of those former H.F.P.A. voters began. I won’t reveal names here, but I’m told it was more than a handful. A “business decision,” Globes president Helen Hoehne is said to have told the impacted voters in a Zoom—yes, a Zoom—with H.R. (A Globes rep didn’t respond.)
• … And an interesting agency hiring: Adam Driver just signed with WME, and not a moment too soon. Driver, one of my favorite actors, has been agent-less since he fired Gersh in early 2022. Since then, the Oscar nominee has gone on one of the all-time disastrous runs for a prestige actor, starring in Noah Baumbach’s super-pricey Netflix debacle White Noise, the dinosaur time-travel opus 65, Michael Mann’s bomb Ferrari, and now Francis Ford Coppola’s baffling Megalopolis. All of those except 65 probably looked fine on paper, but… hopefully WME’s Andrew Dunlap can better screen his projects. (WME declined to comment. Usual disclosure: WME represents Puck but not me.)

1. “Like seeing your old high school on fire.” —Tom Freston, the former Viacom C.E.O., in Semafor, about what it feels like watching the Paramount sale chaos play out.
2. “It was 100 percent my decision, and we’ve sold it all, and we lost quite a bit of money.” —Warren Buffett, admitting fault for the 63.3 million shares of the company that Berkshire Hathaway owned at the end of 2023.
3. “I don’t want to denigrate anybody, but I think [Paramount] needs a little bit of new energy.” —Ari Emanuel, the Endeavor C.E.O., endorsing David Ellison’s bid for the company in the Financial Times.

I know for a fact that the FT, with the help of Team Ellison, cast a wide net for Hollywood names willing to go public with what many are saying privately—that, given the options, the Ellison bid is the better-case scenario for Paramount, and that the rival Sony/Apollo bid, which would almost certainly eliminate a major studio, would be a disaster for the industry. The fact that the only quotes came from Ari and Jim Cameron, two outspoken guys with business ties to Ellison (Cameron produced a Terminator movie with Skydance, and Emanuel has represented the company, including in the recent move of its animation division from Apple to Netflix) speaks volumes. Basically, everyone’s a big wuss.

“I’m in the camp of fighting for every shareholder to get the same price as Shari Redstone,” the Paramount investor Mario Gabelli tweeted last week. Okay… but in the entertainment ecosystem, groups like the talent agencies, SAG-AFTRA, the WGA… they’re all basically de facto shareholders in Paramount, deriving their income from the continued existence of the entity that employs their clients/members. The question is whether they will raise their voices as loud as the investors who seem to have spooked Redstone off the deal that benefits herself… and the industry that made her family billionaires in the first place.

I know what you’re thinking: Oh no. The mere suggestion that the world’s richest company might waver in its commitment to A-level Hollywood programming, and meaningful exclusivity for movies in theaters, is enough to make film industry people double up on their Lexapro. After all, Apple and Amazon Prime Video have been the two relative bright spots amid the worsening content-pocalypse. Both have shown only scant evidence of pulling back in their overall spend, and both have at least declared themselves big believers in movie theaters—though the extent of that devotion is still an open question.

Apple, in particular, has become a savior of sorts for big-name actors and their agents’ kids’ private school fundraiser auctions. Van Amburg and Erlicht, who previously ran Sony Pictures TV, are still regularly paying their series stars $750,000 or more per episode. You don’t even want to know what Reese and Jen are making for Season 4 of The Morning Show after their recent renegotiation. Ben Stiller is said to have gone tens of millions of dollars overbudget on the still-not-dated Season 2 of Severance. And in film, they’re still champions of the massive buyout, although Apple, like the other streamers, is trying to figure out how to share that risk—and pay less upfront—in new deals.

All of that persists despite the monthly evidence that barely anyone is watching Apple TV+, at least not in this country. According to Nielsen, the service still generates less than 0.5 percent of total viewership of connected TVs. That’s far below Peacock and Paramount+, long considered the also-rans of the streaming wars. For Apple, original film and TV has meant very little bang for those very big bucks.

But the Apple ecosystem… and selling phones… and yada yada. Of course. Apple is in Hollywood for reasons known mostly to Apple, and that’s fine. And movie theaters were supposed to help fix the viewership problem. If Apple TV+ has low subscriber numbers (Apple has never revealed) and low engagement (they push back on those Nielsen numbers), a well-marketed theatrical movie with good word-of-mouth can raise awareness and at least get people to sample the product. But if Cook and Cue suddenly decide big-budget movies are not worth the upside, or that the money is better spent on the NBA or UFC or more TV series, which have typically been more popular than movies on the platform, a major spigot for Hollywood would be shut off—with downstream ramifications felt throughout the industry.

I’m pleased to report, however, that Cook and Cue didn’t pull the plug on theaters in that meeting, and Cook was clear in his continued support for Apple TV+ in general—or at least, that’s what Van Amburg and Erlicht have been telling people, both internally and externally. (An Apple rep declined to comment on their behalf.) I’m told the Apple leaders did prod Zack and Jamie to explain how the company can become smarter in its theatrical endeavors—which, at least by traditional metrics, haven’t gone great. Lessons were learned, the duo promised, data was collected, and it’s early—the two career TV guys will figure this theater thing out.

Unlike Amazon, which built its own distribution apparatus (and then bought MGM, which added another distribution apparatus), Apple contracts with different studios to distribute its movies. The studio pays for the P&A (marketing and distribution) and then recoups its costs via ticket sales; once it’s recouped, the studio takes a fee—often 10 cents on every dollar—from the revenue generated. More box office, more money for the studio that released the film for Apple. Sometimes—and this was the case on at least one of the three recent releases—the studio will make Apple split the P&A costs, thus reducing the risk for the studio if the film bombs.

Killers, with a production budget of between $200 million and $300 million, depending on whose B.S. numbers you believe, and a full-scale marketing campaign and awards push, grossed just $157 million worldwide. Not great. Killers was followed in November by Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, released by Sony, whose marketing chief, Josh Greenstein, did a nice job with a poorly reviewed movie. It cost far less than Killers and grossed more—$221 million worldwide—with 72 percent coming from overseas.

Still not great, but a better result than Matthew Vaughn’s disastrous Argylle, which Apple bought for $200 million and released via Universal in February to just $96 million worldwide, a true turkey. (It’s funny now to recall how Vaughn was talking prerelease about wanting to make two Argylles; I’m told his deal with Apple now allows him to do that elsewhere, if he so chooses.) Universal did negotiate to handle the premium video-on-demand window before Argylle dropped on Apple TV+, lessening that blow.

This isn’t confirmed, but the Argylle experience may have been the impetus for the come-to-Jesus portion of that meeting in Cupertino. After all, Apple has several films lined up for this year, and two of them—Fly Me to the Moon, a Space Age rom-com starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, in July; and Wolfs, a thriller with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, in September—are confirmed to get the 45-day treatment via Sony.

Beyond that, it’s unclear. The biggie, a $300 million-plus Formula One movie with Joseph Kosinski directing and Brad Pitt starring, still doesn’t have a release date or a distributor attached, even though Apple has begun reaching out to Imax about booking screens. (Sony and Warner Bros. are considered the favorites; reps for both said it wasn’t theirs but that they are still talking and interested.) That F1 package was so big, and everyone involved wanted so much money up front, that no traditional studio could touch it. And now, in an ironic twist, Apple has been calling around asking potential studio distributors when they would release the movie if they were chosen as the distributor. If. At least one declined to offer that free advice, for obvious reasons.

So if Van Amburg and Erlicht are on a tight leash with their movie initiative, it would seem they have at least until the F1 release to figure it out. Not a great sign that Jessie Henderson, a top Apple film exec, chose to bail recently for a production deal with Ryan Gosling at Amazon. Apple’s internal structure has always been kinda odd, considering how much they spend. The film unit is run by Matt Dentler, who previously worked at iTunes Movies, but Zack and Jamie handle the greenlights and are considered by agents to be the “deciders” in film. Marketing and distribution is mostly handled by the partner studios, but obviously Ricky Strauss and his global marketing team at Apple TV+ have a strong voice.

What is the strategy? is a phrase you hear a lot when talking about Apple TV+, particularly its movie initiative. If putting films in theaters is merely to boost engagement on the service, it does seem to be working a bit. Killers of the Flower Moon and Argylle have both popped up on the ratings charts of original movies, thanks to all that marketing and press. Do viewers then stick around for other Apple TV+ movies and shows? Less clear. To that end, I’ve heard the basic barometer for success at Apple is that the box office should at least pay for the P&A cost, thus making the theatrical release a cost-neutral marketing effort for the streamer.

That’s a pretty low bar; any traditional studio executive would dance in the streets of Burbank if that was his or her primary success metric. At Apple, it seems that’s kinda all they have to do, plus score some Oscar nominations. This is a business that Apple doesn’t seem to care much about as a business, but they’ve decided it’s better to do than to not do it. And until Cook and Cue change their mind or, God forbid, pull the plug, Hollywood will be more than happy to cash the checks.

Rupert Murdoch joined Elon Musk and other anti-Biden billionaires to strategize how to “beat back the Democrats” at the Hollywood Hills home of V.C. dude/podcaster David Sacks. Your move, Jeffrey. [Puck]

The S.E.C. cleared Barry Diller and David Geffen, finding that the two most well-connected insiders in media just happened to buy a large number of Activision Blizzard shares on the cheap days before it agreed to be acquired by Microsoft. [WSJ]

Does the exit of ABC News’ embattled leader Kim Godwin take Disney TV chief Dana Walden down a notch in the C.E.O. succession sweepstakes? I doubt it. This was Peter Rice’s hire before he got fired. And if anything, Walden handled this pretty well, first layering Godwin with Debra OConnell and giving her a new contract as a parting gift. [NY Times]

I haven’t seen the new Albert Brooks doc, but now I kinda don’t think I need to. [Atlantic]

WME screenplay guru Adam Novak taught Ronda Rousey how to write coverage. Adorable! (But unlike her assistant and coordinator peers, Rousey then sold her own project to Netflix.) [Lainey]

Clooney, Cuarón, DuVernay and 100 others signed an open letter tonight urging Hollywood to prioritize socially conscious filmmaking in the wake of Participant Media’s closure. I’m sure the studio heads will get right on that. [Open Letter]

Sadly, the “chief Lauren Sánchez correspondent” job trumpeted by new Daily Beast editor Joanna Coles is almost certainly not real. [NY Mag]

“No one seems to be mentioning the long-view context as it relates to the film industry. You’ve rightfully pointed out that Ellison aims to keep the studio alive while Sony/Apollo will surely squeeze it for value, essentially reducing the number of major studio players from five to four. At the same time, Netflix will dramatically reduce the volume of English-language original movies it makes under Dan Lin. Should both happen simultaneously—on the back of Covid disruption, dual Hollywood labor strikes, and a potential IATSE strike—it may be the final nail in the coffin for mainstream cinema as we know it.

“If we think the middle class within the creative community was hurting before, imagine the widening gap in that scenario. Movie theaters will always survive in some form, but there will be less product to support the dangerously over-leveraged industry domestically. Your buddy [Adam] Aron can’t meme his way out of that reality.

“Love or hate Skydance, the Ellison Princeling, and the Jeff Shell brain trust he plans to empower, the industry needs him to win this one.” —An analyst

“I’m curious about the over/under on how many Paramount cable linears get dropped by Charter/Spectrum. I put the line at 8.5 channels being dropped.” —An executive

“There’s really only one place for Shari to go after destroying Paramount: the Trump administration. We know they are friends. Could she follow the Hollywood guy Steve Mnuchin and be our next Treasury secretary?” —A writer

Got a question, comment, complaint, or dis track you’d like to drop? Email me at Matt@puck.news or call/text me at 310-804-3198.