'Zootopia 2' Grabs $10M In Tuesday Previews; Amazon MGM Studios Unscripted Chief Exits; BBC Studios Goes Format Hunting

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View on web New reader? Subscribe SUBSCRIBE. IT'S FREE. Editor's Note: There will be no Morning Rush on Thursday or Friday. Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 'ZOOTOPIA 2' POCKETS $10M IN TUESDAY PREVIEWS 'WICKED: FOR GOOD' GRABS ALMOST $16M IN YEAR'S SECOND-BIGGEST TUESDAY AS FILMS EYE BLOCKBUSTER THANKSGIVING HAUL After a barren harvest at the fall box office, exhibitors have a lot to be thankful for as Disney’s Zootopia 2 and Universal’s Wicked: For Good are finally delivering the goods this holiday season. Zootopia 2 started previews yesterday at 2 p.m., pulling in $10.2M. That's the second-highest preview start ever for a Walt Disney Animation Studios film. It trailed Moana 2 ($13.8M) but topped Frozen II ($8.5M Thurs). It’s also the second highest Tuesday preview for any Disney Thanksgiving opener, animated or live-action. Meanwhile, Universal’s first Tuesday of Wicked: For Good saw $15.75M. That's the second best Tuesday of 2025 so far after Warner Bros/DC Studios’ Superman which did $17.1M. >>>One-Two Punch Deadline Exclusives & Originals Unscripted Exit - Barry Poznick, who oversees unscripted television for Amazon MGM Studios, which produces series including The Voice and Survivor, is exiting the company. Poznick is departing after nearly 10 years at MGM, which was acquired by tech giant Amazon in 2022. >>>Latest Exec Departure Goodbye, CAA - Three big agents from CAA — Matt Martin, Trevor Astbury and Adam Schweitzer — are heading over to WME. Group defections from one major agency to another are rare and the last time several high-profile CAA agents left together was in 2020 when a faction departed to launch Range Media Partners. >>>'Tis The Season Next Course - Netflix and Adolescence director Philip Barantini’s indie are in talks to turn Jade Franks’ buzzy Edinburgh play Eat the Rich (But Maybe Not Me Mates X) into a TV series. Inspired by Franks’s life as a working-class student at Cambridge, the play was a huge hit at the Fringe Festival this past August, leading to a frenzy of interest from streamers and networks. Multiple sources say Netflix won a bidding war and is now beginning early stage development. >>> Development Deal Disney's Beasts Unleashed - The opening of Disney’s Zootopia 2 and the second weekend of Universal’s Wicked: For Good are bound to send the domestic box office to what could be the second best five-day Thanksgiving stretch ever after last year’s holiday Wednesday-Sunday record of $424.9 million. >>>Comps BBC Goes Format Hunting - BBC Studios is hiring a European IP scout as the team led by one of the architects behind the Lionsgate co-pro deal seeks to discover the next big scripted format.  >>>Sourcing European IP In Brief - Spiridellis Bros. partners with Parry Gripp & Roblox on Parryverse... Moors about conquest of Sicily in the works THE DEADLINE INTERVIEW James L. Brooks On ‘Ella McCay’ Origins, Meeting Albert Brooks & ‘I’ll Do Anything’ War Stories A widow’s relationship with an astronaut, the love triangle of a broadcast TV news team, and now a state lieutenant governor-turned-governor who is bogged down by the men in her life, chiefly her knuckleheaded husband. The characters on the surface may appear very different and very different from most audiences, but James L. Brooks has a knack for finding relatability in every situation. On Deadline’s Crew Call podcast, we speak with Brooks about his first feature as a director in 15 years, Ella McCay. He says he’s been working on the screenplay for four years, but acknowledges he may even be fibbing about that. >>>Listen      QUOTABLE   "We have to do it as much as possible to counteract everything that’s happened" -  Comedian Mo Amer on Hollywood's depiction of Arabs CASTING ABOUT exclusive After Wednesday introduced Morticia Addams’ sister Ophelia last season, we now can put a face to the name (and the back of her head). Eva Green has joined the cast of the hit Netflix series as a regular.   EXCLUSIVE There’s been so much buzz about who will play a younger version of Scott Bakula’s popular NCIS: New Orleans character Dwayne Pride in Season 2 of CBS' NCIS: Origins, and the wait is finally over. Shea Buckner (Only Murders in the Building) will appear in one episode to air later this season as Pride.   exclusive Toby Wallace (Euphoria, Bikeriders) has become the first actor officially set as a series regular in Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed live-action series, based on Ubisoft’s best-selling video game franchise. In Brief - Finn Wolfhard & Gabriel LaBelle to topline stunt comedy Crash Land... Terry Crews, Eddie Griffin, Cymphonique Miller & Ed Bassmaster join crime-thriller Motion... Roy Wood Jr., Punkie Johnson, Brett Gray & E.J. Bonilla join Amazon’s Barbershop      BY THE NUMBERS   $132M -  How much the BBC has confirmed it hopes to save by radically reimagining itself MORE NEWS 🤝 YouTube TV and TelevisaUnivision reached a carriage renewal, ending a nearly two-month blackout of channels including Hispanic broadcast network Univision. 💰 Blue Ant Media is paying  C$89M ($63.2M) in cash and stock to acquire  Thunderbird Entertainment, the Canadian production company behind series like Kim’s Convenience, Highway Thru Hell and Reginald the Vampire. 📽️ A fourth Rush Hour movie from Brett Ratner will be distributed by Paramount. Warner Bros is paying a fee in the double digit percent range for Paramount to release the New Line franchise installment. The deal follows a report that Donald Trump pressed David Ellison to revive the New Line franchise. 🥊 NBCUniversal and Fubo are taking shots at each other amid a carriage battle that saw the NBCU networks go dark on the virtual multi-channel video provider last week. Until yesterday, the two sides had remained mum on the situation. 🚦 Hulu has handed The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives another 20-episode order with plans to premiere Season 4 in “early 2026.” HIRINGS, PROMOTIONS & EXITS   exclusive Elias Scangas Joins Entertainment 360 Longtime CAA Agent Olivia Blaustein Joins Untitled In Pivot To Management ON THE RADAR Wed - Stranger Things S5, Part 1 premieres; Zootopia 2 opens Thu - Thanksgiving; NFL tripleheader Fri - Black Friday Mon - WBD round 2 bids due; Avatar global premiere; Gotham Film Awards Tue - Deadline For the Love of Docs: Cutting Through Rocks PHOTO OF THE DAY Having A Ball - Alfonso Ribeiro and Julianne Hough look on as Robert Irwin and Witney Carson celebrate their Dancing With the Stars win. This email was sent to punjabsvera@gmail.com by Deadline. Please add email@email.deadline.com to your address book to ensure delivery to your inbox. 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