The Mail Cart: Monday, May 4th

👋 Welcome to The Mail Cart. This is Warner, founder of AvA. Connect with me here + follow our IG page for daily resources.

🎥 This Wednesday on AvA LIVE: Dear Media & Night Media’s CEOs, Partner @ UTA who reps the biggest movie stars, and the brains behind reality TV’s biggest shows. AvA LIVE streams every Wednesday at 12:30PM PT / 3:30PM ET LIVE on YouTube.

📝 The Oscars (kinda) ban AI. SAG-AFTRA comes to a tentative deal with major studios on contracts. ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ starts the trend for this Summer, and more.

🧠 Today’s big brain fact: U.S. advertisers are projected to spend $43.9 billion on creator content in 2026

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AvA LIVE Lineup Booked In Partnership With:

HOLY STACKED LINE UP!!!!

Episode 5 guests joining us live on YouTube this Wednesday at 12:30pm PT / 3:30pm ET:

Want your question asked live on the show? Submit one HERE for our guests!

⭐ The Oscars debut a new update on eligibility rules, including a statement on AI:

❝

“The only sorts of performances that will be eligible for acting Oscars are those credited in a film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent.”

— The Academy

All scripts must also be human authored in order to qualify for a writing Oscar + The Academy reserves the right to request more info as it pertains to AI use.
Actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category, but the one with the most votes will make the final ballot
A single country can now receive multiple nods in the Best International Film category, with the award now going to the Director as well instead of the country itself.

⭐ SAG-AFTRA and the major studios have reached a ‘tentative deal’ for their new studio contract, with hopes to avoid another actor strike.

⭐ YouTube Shorts now = YouTub Video in terms of dollars💰

YouTube Shorts now matches core YouTube’s revenue per watch-hour in the U.S

⭐ ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ posted an insane $236 million in its first weekend, making it the first female-led project to kickstart the Summer box office in years.

For those keeping score at home:

👠 DWP1 had a budget of $35-41M and posted $326M at the box office.

👠👠 DWP2 had a budget of $100M + a rumored $100M in marketing on top

⭐ Spotify and FC Barcelona teamed up with Olivia Rodrigo for a custom jersey in their game against Real Madrid. She’s now the youngest artist to achieve the honor.

⭐ USA Today Studios inked a first-look deal with Zero Gravity Management to leverage their sports IP vault.

⭐ Kid Cudi fired M.I.A. off his tour

⭐ VINE is BACK. Hello old friend

Jack Dorsey’s diVine brings Vine back as a six-second video app with about 500,000 archived clips and a hard rule against AI-made uploads.

The public benefit company comes from Dorsey’s nonprofit and Other Stuff, with no revenue model and tools for old Viners to reclaim accounts

⭐ Noah Kahan’s album ‘The Great Divide’ just landed the biggest streaming week of any album for 2026 so far, posting his first Billboard 200 #1 in the process.

⭐ Bonus: ‘Star Wars’ was watched a total of 33 billion minutes in 2025 as per Nielsen, and that number will probably shoot up again today in celebration of Star Wars Day.

Big Machine Records promotes Allison Jones to EVP of A&R, with Jones coming up on nearly 20 years of service at the company.
ESPN’s Supervisor of News and Top Studio Shows, David Roberts, is set to retire after 22 years in a leadership position.
The Beatles Apple Corps. hired 4 new executives, and promoted 2 longstanding staff members.

READ THESE!!! 3 pieces of advice to start off your week:

Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy: “You have to differentiate yourself… Don't follow every trend. Do things coming from a place of passion and personal storytelling or personal emotional expression.”

Josh Kurfirst, Head of Festivals at WME: “I didn't just become an agent overnight. It took 10 years of bouncing around the music business. I was a manager at A&R. I got coffee. I was a hustler. I promoted shows. I booked festivals. All that well-rounded education, and a lot of failing, made me who I am today and gave me the skill set to actually do the job I have.”

Adam Faze, Producer at Gymnasium: “The journey is the process. This is the good part. You should be so lucky that it takes time, because getting it that early, that quickly, is actually probably a curse long-term.. It's a gift for it to take a long time.

It has also never been a more exciting time to be in the industry, ever. End of sentence. That is the entire point. The idea that you can, with something that fits in your pocket, reach over a billion people within seconds, it was never thought possible. It presents an entire world of opportunity.”

Catch up on episode 4: