👋 Welcome to The Mail Cart. This is Warner, founder of AvA. Connect with me here + follow our IG page for daily resources.
🎥 AvA LIVE Guests This Wednesday: VP A&R at Sony Music overseeing Kane Brown’s career, a writer & exec producer from Scrubs, and a certain someone you may know from NYC Subways.
AvA LIVE is my new talk show covering the business of Entertainment, streaming Wednesdays at 12:30PM PT / 3:30PM ET LIVE on YouTube.
📝 The Cannes Film Festival had bidding wars, standing ovations, and FaceTime dodging. Drake dropped 3 albums to get out of his record deal & Seth Rogen delivers the most grounded take on AI so far, and more.
💼 Looking for open Entertainment jobs? Scroll to the bottom of this email.
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‼️ Kareem Rahma joins me on AvA LIVE this Wednesday!
Along With:
‼️ Angela Nissel, television producer and writer who has worked on projects like Scrubs
‼️ Margaret Tomlin, VP of A&R at Sony Music who oversees artists like Kane Brown
Want your question asked live on the show? Submit one HERE for our guests!
⭐ By now you know the story about the TikTok creator's crowdfunding campaign to buy Spirit Airlines…Up next? Letterboxd.
The controlling investor in Letterboxd is putting the cultish social film discovery platform up for sale.
The fear: Letterboxd gets swallowed by a tech giant or streamer, then slowly becomes a data mine, ad funnel, and algorithmic graveyard where taste goes to die.
The solution: Intrinsic Entertainment Collaborative is launching a community-led push to buy 60% of the platform and turn it into a public benefit company owned by film fans, filmmakers, and mission-driven investors.
Seems crazy but there are 26M users. If even a fraction chipped in, the community could make a real bid. Read more.
Talking about bids…
⭐ I know you weren’t at Cannes, so here are headlines to make you sound smart at work today:
A24 secured the rights to Jordan Firstman‘s festival darling ‘Club Kid’ for $17 million after a heated bidding war with Mubi, Focus Features, Searchlight, Netflix and Warner Bros.’ new indie label Clockwork.
Major studios skip Cannes: including Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Paramount, and Sony have skipped bringing tentpole films to the Croisette. Factors include high costs, fear of negative early reviews (flashback to the 2023 reception of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny), and a preference for controlled marketing campaigns.
Looking ahead: Tim Burton is apparently en route to Cannes to pitch a super secret project The Dish.
⭐ It took nearly 50 years, but Star Wars finally shot a movie entirely in Los Angeles.
Jon Favreau thanked the California Film Commission for the tax incentive, proving even galaxies far, far away are now asking about rebates.
⭐ Drake dropped 3 albums simultaneously to fulfill his contractual obligations from his $400M deal in 2022 with Universal Music Group (UMG).
Two options now: going independent or negotiating a new, massively lucrative deal.
⭐ Seth Rogen you dropped this 👑
⭐ Saudi Arabia just boosted its film incentives to cover up to 60% of eligible local spend, instantly making it one of the most aggressive production rebate programs in the world.
I’m sure no one has any strong opinions on this one..
⭐ Kylie Jenner’s appearance on Jake Shane’s podcast ‘Therapuss’ became Spotify’s most-streamed podcast episode ever within its first 12 hours.
Amazon MGM Studios parts ways with their Head of Business Affairs, Daniel Scharf, due to restructuring. Leadership of the department will be split internally.
Beehiiv brings on Ainsley Rossitto as their new Head of Podcasts, which signals their future focus. Rossitto also brings experience in the field from both Paramount and NPR.
Central Talent Booking welcomes Mona Nair as a Junior Booker & Researcher, who has worked across shows like Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon
Paramount TV Studios exec Keith Cox is leaving the company after 20 years of service, and is joining NBCUniversal for what has been described as a ‘megadeal.’
Our new job board features 200+ early career roles in Entertainment, including:
💼 Assistant to the Head of Creative - CAA - Apply Here
💼 Admin Assistant - Netflix - Apply Here
💼 Day to Day Manager Creators - Live Nation - Apply Here
💼 Manager, Media - MLS - Apply Here
💼 Public Relations Manager - AMC - Apply Here
💼 Editorial Assistant - The New Yorker - Apply Here
💼 Studio Tour Assistant Manager - Warner Discovery - Apply Here
💼 Post Production - Sony Pictures - Apply Here
💼 Web Editor - TMZ - Apply Here
💼 Production Manager - Overtime - Apply Here
💼 Executive Assistant - SiriusXM - Apply Here
💼 Production Coordinator - Condé Nast - Apply Here
💼 Membership Coordinator - ASCAP - Apply Here
💼 Photo Publicity Coordinator - Disney - Apply Here
💼 Executive Assistant - Personality Pool - Apply Here
💼 Global Themed Entertainment - Warner Discovery - Apply Here
💼 Visual Effects Manager - Sony Pictures - Apply Here
👋 See you back here on Wednesday
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The Mail Cart is written by Warner Bailey and edited by Riley Furey and Dominik Sansevere.
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