This week’s highlights: The entertainment landscape is undergoing tectonic shifts that make previous disruptions look like minor tremors. The headline grabber is Netflix, which proposes to swallow Warner Bros. whole. As The New Yorker notes, this feels existential—a move that could portend the end of mainstream moviegoing as we know it. While Ted Sarandos reportedly made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago (The Hollywood Reporter) to smooth the way, analysts warn that this consolidation creates a runaway market leader (Slate), leaving rivals to wither. It signals a future where residuals dissolve into upfront fees (TheWrap) and the “Paramount” era of studio dominance officially fades to black.
If Netflix is buying the past, Disney is spending on the future. The House of Mouse will invest $1 billion in OpenAI, a deal that will see Mickey and Marvel characters officially licensed for video generation (The Wall Street Journal). It’s a jarring pivot: while Disney aggressively sues Google for copyright infringement (TechCrunch) on one hand, it is essentially legitimizing the AI revolution with the other, redefining copyright in real-time (Wired). Side Note: In what kind of traditional licensing deal does the licensor pay the licensee for IP rights? (that should tell you much about this deal right there). Meanwhile, we are left to ponder if we are outsourcing not just our animation, but our actual thinking (The Atlantic) to algorithms.
On the political front, the culture wars are moving from the budget office to the design studio. The State Department declared a war on “woke” fonts, ordering a retreat from the gentle curves of Calibri back to the serifed walls of Times New Roman (The Guardian). Closer to home, the Kennedy Center is getting a “Trumpian revamp,” (Washington Post) trading aesthetic for portraits of the first family. The chill is financial, too: Arkansas PBS has become the first state network to sever ties with the mother ship (AP), and there is talk of stripping licenses from NPR stations entirely (Ars Technica).
Small presses are facing an existential funding crisis (LitHub), Broadway’s suburban audience has retreated to 30-year lows (The Hollywood Reporter), and the Louvre is literally leaking on its art (The Guardian) while staff vote to strike (AP).
But take heart. An octopus spent six months learning to play the piano (sort of) (ZME Science), we finally have scientific proof that Mariah Carey might be tanking your productivity (Fast Company), and Denzel Washington is apparently one of the most mispronounced names of the year (NPR).
The rest of this week’s stories organized by topic are below.
