The Mail Cart: Monday, July 13th

👋 Welcome to The Mail Cart. This is Warner, founder of AvA. Connect with me here + follow our IG page for daily resources. Hope everyone is having a better day than the 10k+ fans stranded outside (and inside) the Jay-Z concert for 3 hours last night.

❤️ Big favor: I don’t ask much, and almost everything we give our community is free. It would mean a ton if everyone could subscribe to our YouTube channel. It takes 5 seconds but it helps us bring in more and more brands to keep resources free. We are growing the show, and launching some new series.

🎧 Also listen to last week’s AvA Live on Spotify!

After 9 years of running AvA I finally recorded my first video the other week at the ripe age of 33. And another one yesterday. Here’s how it’s going:

💼 Looking for open Entertainment jobs? Scroll to the bottom of this email.

Our Job Board now has 220+ early career Entertainment roles as well.

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AvA LIVE Lineup Booked In Partnership With:

Join us on AvA LIVE this week where we'll discuss how to find your purpose and make an impact that extends far beyond your job title with the below guests:

🎙️ Scott Budnick - Producer of my favorite teenage hits: ‘The Hangover,’ ‘Old School,’ ‘Project X’ & ‘War Dogs.’ But his impact has come outside of Hollywood: He’s worked for 30+ years to reform the criminal justice system. He now sits on the Board of State and Community Corrections and serves as a board member for President Barack Obama's My Brother's Keeper Alliance.

🎙️ Steve Mosko - Former President of Sony Pictures Television for 20+ years. We had breakfast the other week and he invited me to go on one of his famous 5am walks. This 12:30pm PT timing is more in my wheelhouse for now..

🎙️ Naz Perez - TV/Social Host who is helping pave the way for the next generation of interviewers (She also was a surprise host at our first AvA Awards)

⭐ PLUS REAL HOLLYWOOD INTERNS JOIN THE SHOW LIVE TO DO AN AMA WITH ME (Yes, I’m scared)

Catch up on last week’s episode below in the meantime:

⭐ Paramount only has 38 states to choose their new home from now…

A coalition of 11 states + California is suing to block Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing the deal would mean fewer movies, higher prices and even more power concentrated in fewer hands. The DOJ already approved the deal & now Hollywood’s biggest merger is heading for a very expensive custody battle.

This all comes on the heels of Paramount threatening to leave California, and taking their $30 billion planned spending spree with them. They should do a Love Island style show to help pick which state they move to right (they aren’t leaving California).

⭐ Michael has become the first biopic ever to cross $1 billion at the global box office.

It’s also now Lionsgate’s highest-grossing film of all time (and the studio’s first billion-dollar movie), surpassing The Hunger Games: Catching Fire at $865 million and Twilight at $850 million.

⭐ Livestreaming is getting Into The Groove

Madonna’s Confessions II TikTok Live drew 2.1 million global viewers, setting a new platform record for a standalone artist event. The rollout blended a listening party, fan Q&A, club night, and confession booth, generating 5.75 million likes and proving that at 67, Madonna can still out-TikTok most of TikTok.

⭐ The Grammys, RIAA, SAG-AFTRA and other major industry groups are launching a program to label AI-generated music, and pushing for it to become the industry standard.

❝

“Fans want to know whether and how generative AI has been used in the music to which they listen. Given how important human artistry and authenticity is to music lovers all over the world, these labels will provide an immediately understandable and easily scalable approach to transparency.”

— IFPI CEO Vikki Oakley and RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier

⭐ Oscar- and Cannes-winning studio NEON has sold a significant stake to Department M for an undisclosed sum, signaling a big push into the world of television.

No surprise after A24 has been flooding the zone on TV

⭐ The Seattle Seahawks are being sold for a record $9.61 billion, more than $3.5 billion above the price of the last NFL team sale 🤯

Could have bought the 1920 Bears with my first bonus in Hollywood (jk I didn’t get one)

Credit: Boardroom

⭐ Our Editor Riley’s Bonus Think Piece: Are Movies Officially Back?

To start the year we have had some of the biggest cultural moments since Barbie meets Oppenheimer. The youth has taken over with ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession,’ the ‘Michael’ biopic set a new all time record, and we still have the looming release of ‘The Odyssey’ and a new ‘Spider-Man’ this month alone. Don’t even get me started on how a rock made me cry in ‘Project Hail Mary’ too. Plus remember the whole Chicken Jockey thing in Minecraft.

In a time of AI doom and gloom with statistics being thrown out left and right about how Entertainment is failing, I just wanted to say that we feel differently here. Human work is only getting more meaningful, ideas are flowing, and the box office is thriving.