'Avatar' Sending Disney B.O. To $6B; Paramount Bolsters Its WBD Bid; 'Pluribus' Q&A

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View on web New reader? Subscribe SUBSCRIBE. IT'S FREE. 'AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH' HAS DISNEY SOARING TOWARD $6B YTD JAMES CAMERON'S THREEQUEL NOTCHES THE YEAR'S SECOND-HIGHEST GLOBAL OPENING FOR AN MPA MOVIE At $345M, the James Cameron-directed sequel  Avatar: Fire and Ash notched the second highest global opening for an MPA movie YTD, behind Zootopia 2. Sunday is forecast domestically at $23M, repping a -18% hold from Saturday. That’s the same percentile hold as Avatar: Way of Water, though that had a bigger Sunday at $36.5M, rounding out its $134.1M opening. The global success of the movie puts Disney at $5.82 billion worldwide YTD. Deadline’s Nancy Tartaglione told you a few weeks ago that Disney became the No. 1 studio (besting Warner Bros) with $5 billion. Now, with Fire and Ash and the $1.27 billion Zootopia 2 haul, Disney is poised to hit $6 billion worldwide by Saturday, +37% ahead of Warner Bros’ $4.37 billion. >>>Demographic Breakdown Related: ‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ – All The Box Office Records Broken Deadline Exclusives & Originals Gordon Ramsay Cooks Up Drama - Gordon Ramsay is entering the scripted TV game, serving up a Rachel Bilson-starring drama about female empowerment based on The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. >>>EP Credit Lively-Baldoni To Face Off - Lawyers for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are officially talking about coming to some sort of settlement and the two may end up in the same room at a settlement conference. >>>Judge's Order A Starry Globes Luncheon - The second annual Golden Globes First Time Nominees Luncheon included TV stars such as Severance’s Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman, and Pluribus' Rhea Seehorn, while the film side saw The Smashing Machine’s Dwayne Johnson, The Secret Agent’s Wagner Moura, Sorry Baby’s Eva Victor and One Battle After Another’s Chase Infiniti. >>> Notes On The Season In Brief - Paramount developing S.D. Coverly novel The Arcane Arts for film... Agnes Denes to be profiled in docu from Ethan Hawke, Alexandra Shiva THE DEADLINE INTERVIEW ‘Pluribus’ Cast, Creator Unpack Zosia & Carol’s First Kiss, Budding Romance After a biblically maddening period of isolation — 40 days, to be exact — Pluribus' Carol (Rhea Seehorn) finds respite in the arms of Zosia (Karolina Wydra), her envoy from the Others, chosen specifically because of her resemblance to the romantasy author’s initial sketches for her novel series’ love interest. And though “Charm Offensive” offers Carol an interlude of sorts to her monumental grief — at the state of the world, at the loss of her wife Helen (Miriam Shor) — it doesn’t preclude her ongoing investigation into the hive mind. As star and recently minted Golden Globe nominee Rhea Seehorn tells Deadline, “I assumed this [Zosia and Carol’s relationship] must be a complication because they’ve sent her to her to be enticing and attractive. >>>Q&A      QUOTABLE   "We have effectively handed them a kill switch" - '60 Minutes' correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi criticizing what she said was a "political" decision by CBS News management to spike a story on the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants to a harsh El Salvador prison RENEWALS, PICKUPS & CANCELLATIONS ​​​​​​​‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’ Canceled After One Season At Paramount+ ‘The Last Frontier’ Canceled At Apple After One Season CASTING ABOUT exclusive German actor Lars Eidinger will be Brainiac in James Gunn’s Superman and Lex Luther movie Man of Tomorrow. This is the first time that Brainiac, a very popular Superman villain in the comics, will appear on the big screen.  exclusive Laura Marcus (Sunrise on the Reaping) has been cast as a series regular in Netflix’s adaptation of Assassin’s Creed.  Antonia Thomas (The Good Doctor) has been cast as a series regular in the new Peacock comedy series Dig, based on Kate Myers’ bestselling book Excavation. exclusive Rusty Schwimmer (The Righteous Gemstones), Jayne Taini (Ray Donovan), and Annabelle Toomey (The Bear) have been set as recurring guest stars on the hit HBO Max medical drama The Pitt's second season. In Brief - Mike Thornton Navy SEAL pic adds Hoa Xuande... White Lotus casts Alexander Ludwig & AJ Michalka for Season 4      BY THE NUMBERS   $145.9k - Per-screen average for 'Marty Supreme,' the highest ever for an A24-distributed film MORE NEWS 💰 Paramount revised its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery after WBD had dismissed the financing behind it as "illusory." The updated bid features a personal financial guarantee by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison for $40.4 billion of the equity in the $108 billion proposal. WBD has already accepted Netflix's $82.7 billion offer, which excludes cable networks, so Paramount is appealing directly to shareholders. 🧙 With all eyes on HBO’s Harry Potter series the J.K. Rowling franchise continues to conjure sales across its audiobook and theatrical arms. Financial earnings published on the UK’s Companies House reveal that Pottermore Limited and HPTP Holdings remain profitable, even if they had mixed years in terms of revenue. Rowling controls both companies.  🤝 Sony Pictures has secured the film adaptation rights to Freida McFadden’s psychological thriller, The Surrogate Mother. Journalist-turned-screenwriter Anna Klassen (The Last Sunrise) will pen the screenplay with Marc Evans (The Old Guard) producing. OBITUARIES 🕯️ Kevin Arkadie, the co-creator of Fox cop drama series New York Undercover, died on December 17 at age 68. The nature of his death is unclear. 🕯️ James Ransone, the actor known for his roles in IT Chapter Two and The Wire, has died. He was 46. He apparently died by suicide, according to the county medical examiner’s report. 🕯️ 2025 Media Deaths Photo Gallery ON THE RADAR Wed - Christmas Eve; It's a Wonderful Life on NBC Thu - Christmas Day; NFL tripleheader; Stranger Things - Season 5, Part 2 PHOTO OF THE DAY  A Farewell To Studio 8H - Bowen Yang said a poignant "goodbye" and got an all-star sendoff from Ariana Grande and Cher on Saturday Night Live.  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. Visit the Preferences Center to update your profile and customize what email alerts and newsletters you receive. 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