Welcome back to What I’m Hearing...

Happy almost-weekend. For Sunday’s issue, I’m going to do one of those back-and-forth conversations about Big Media with my Puck colleague William D. Cohan. If you’ve got a question you’d like to have Bill and I discuss, email me at Matt@puck.news.  

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Thursday Thoughts…

• I heard it was a sad, but very nice, memorial service today at the Academy Museum theater for the late talent manager Chris Huvane, who died last month at 47 after a battle with depression. His brother, CAA’s Kevin Huvane, spoke last at the ceremony, and the other speakers included a mix of friends, family, and clients: Declan Huvane, Darin Friedman, Gabe Cohen, Derek DiMaggio, Ruth-Ann Huvane, Tory Kittles, Mac Clark, Jaime Feld, Margot Robbie, Brian Burke, Stephanie Levinson, Kevin Zegers, and Zach Braff.  

• Has a removal of a studio C.M.O. ever generated as much exaltant chatter as Bozoma Saint John’s exit today? The perpetually self-promoting Saint John, who was foisted on Ted Sarandos by Ari Emanuel less than two years ago, technically worked for Netflix (at an alleged $4 million a year salary), but her staff believed she mostly leveraged it as her personal branding platform. Can’t wait to see what’s next.

• Academy C.E.O. Dawn Hudson and president David Rubin provided a bit more Oscars clarity this week—a 4 p.m. pacific start time, a four-hour show, and speeches from winners in the 8 untelevised categories in the first hour will be sprinkled through the televised section. The top stars will have staggered arrivals to the red carpet, after which escorts will usher them in.
  
  So everyone will be in place only when the televised show starts. That’s potentially problematic...

Batman, “Variable Pricing,” and the Future of Movies in Theaters

If theaters are going to survive post-Covid, they very badly need to evolve the model. Does “ape”-obsessed AMC C.E.O. Adam Aron have a solution, or just another schlocky ploy?

When I last checked in with my buddy Adam Aron, in late December, the C.E.O. of AMC Theaters was unloading millions of dollars in meme-inflated stock before its inevitable decline. The AMC share price is now down to about $18 from $27 on Dec. 23, when I dubbed him the “Villain of the Year” for his antics. It’s off 75 percent from its $72 high in mid-2021, when retail investors that call themselves the “AMC Apes” decided to push the company far beyond the grim business fundamentals of movie theaters in the Streaming Age.

That perilous position is at the center of Aron’s latest move...

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