Mediagazer: North America's box office in 2025 will fall far short of the $9B most analysts expected, flat from 2024 and well below the pre-pandemic norm of $10B to $11B (Variety)

4:00 AM ET, December 30, 2025

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Discussion: Page Six, Decider and Observer

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:

Ampere Analysis: UK streaming subscribers on ad-supported tiers will reach 26.5M by the end of 2025, surpassing the 23.1M ad-free subscribers for the first time — Viewers hoping to cut bills driving switch from once-normal advert-free subscriptions now charging a premium

Discussion: NZ Herald, @samuelwroberts.bsky.social, Miami Herald and Tom's Guide

New York Post:

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Max Tani / Semafor:

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Discussion: @readdanwrite, @maxwelltani, @semaforben, @nick_field90, @ettingermentum, @admcrlsn, @scottnover, @bulwarkonline and Fox News

Tess Patton / The Wrap:

Job cuts across TV, film, broadcast, news, and streaming in the first 11 months of 2025 grew 18% YoY to 17K+; news suffered 2,254 job cuts, down about 50% YoY — A wave of consolidation, AI-driven change and cost-cutting pushed entertainment and media layoffs sharply higher in 2025

Aisha Down / The Guardian:

A Kapwing study of the 15,000 top YouTube channels finds 278 of them have only posted AI-generated “slop” videos, amassing 63B+ views and 221M+ subscribers — Low-quality AI-generated content is now saturating social media - and generating about $117m a year, data shows

Axios:

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Variety:

North America's box office in 2025 will fall far short of the $9B most analysts expected, flat from 2024 and well below the pre-pandemic norm of $10B to $11B — Some comeback! — The past 12 months were supposed to turn things around for struggling cinemas.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, @stevenraymorris.bsky.social, @brentalang and Instapundit

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

In 2025, several books saw audiobook sales outperform hardcovers, even as digital audiobook growth slowed to 1% through October after 2024's ~24% jump to $1.1B — Though the pace of growth has slowed, audiobooks remain a bright spot in publishing — Author S.A. Cosby's southern crime novel …

Discussion: @dannygroner.bsky.social

Eoin Higgins / The Flashpoint:

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Discussion: @dylangyauchl, @nathanjrobinson, @zaidjilani, @mehdirhasan, @vanguard_pod, @notouchthrow, @eoinhiggins_, @postleftwatch, @eoinhiggins_, @agoldmund, @leighbeadon, @zaidjilani, @mtaibbi, @nickyfrank30, @jaredlholt and @hongpong.bsky.social

DataBreaches.Net:

A hacker published 2.3M Wired user records, and claimed to have downloaded all 33M Condé Nast users' information, including email, name, phone, and usernames — Over the years, DataBreaches has been contacted by many people with requests for help notifying entities of data leaks or breaches.

Discussion: @scottfromny.com, eSecurity Planet, The Register, @haveibeenpwned, @marshacollier, SiliconANGLE, Cyber Security News, Security Affairs, BleepingComputer, Hackread and CyberInsider

Ben Strauss / Washington Post:

A profile of Pablo Torre, whose podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out” became a 2025 phenomenon for aggressive reporting that uncovered seismic stories in US sports — NEW YORK — One day last month, Tom McMillen, a 73-year-old retired NBA player and former congressman, got an email.