Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY August 10, 2021.
Where Jon Stewart & Pete Davidson are hosting a comedy show extravaganza on Sunday Sept 12 at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, to benefit 9/11 charities. Chappelle, Amy Schumer, John Mulaney, Che & Jost, Bill Burr, and Jimmy Fallon are just some of the names taking part. Obviously – if you ain’t got no vaccine, you ain’t gettin no comedy D’Annunzio.
Special preferred Mastercard sale tix go on sale tomorrow at 12noon here, general public on Friday at noon (you know how comedians like to sleep in).
ALSO: “West Side Story” will not re-open on Broadway and is gonna call it a day. It was one of abusive producer Scott Rudin’s productions.
AND: Christina Applegate revealed that she was diagnosed with MS a few months ago, taking things day to day at the moment: “It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some asshole blocks it.”
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
WARNER BROS & AMC Theaters set exclusive 45 day in-theater window for 2022 WB movies
Same terms WB set with #2 movie chain REGAL’s parent company earlier this year, thus ending the HBOMAX same-day thing. WB now fully joins PARAMOUNT in the 45 day / 6 weekend exclusive window thing.
UNIVERSAL of course struck a deal in the heart of the pandemic to bring their movies to PVOD as soon as 17 days (2 weekends) after release if they so choose, and 31 days for movies opening to over $50 Million.
DISNEY… doesn’t seem to have too much of a blanket policy here, and has been going more “title by title” so far – this weekend’s “Free Guy” has a 45 day window, and they don’t currently have any more same day $30 DIS+ Premiere Access movie releases planned fwiw.
SONY of course has none of these issues 😎. /Deadline
ALSO: AMC Theaters will accept Bitcoin by the end of the year because… of course they will. Just make sure you have enough Bitcoin in case it drops 10% in value from the time you buy your ticket to when you reach the concession stand. 🍿 /Deadline
AND: AMC has about $2 Billion in cash on hand thanks to issuing stock at sky-high inflated stock prices this year, and credit lines.
AMC lost $349 Million from April thru June. /Deadline
WARNER BROS sets Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for a new thriller “By All”
Dystopian movie about a guy down on his luck, who must go on the run after a tragic event in a world where there is no police… and all justice is crowd-sourced. So if you ever wished that TWITTER would become sentient – today is your day. Also – we should talk 😳.
Steven Capale Jr (“Creed II”) attached to direct. /THR
ALSO: Here is the upcoming movie slate for Yahya in addition to this project 🤯.
“The Matrix 4”
“Aquaman” sequel
George Miller’s “Mad Max” prequel “Furiosa”
“Emergency Contact” produced by The Rock
So – obviously WB bought pretty much all outstanding stock on this guy.
DISNEY+ “Jungle Cruise” US streaming rentals double in week 2 according to SAMBA TV tracking firm, hitting 1.5 Million
Opening weekend was roughly about 800k. Total DIS+ revenue for the movie would now stand at $45 Million if SAMBA’s data from its 3 million connected TV user database continues to hold true. /Deadline
SAMBA also put “The Suicide Squad” US viewing at 2.8 Million HBOMAX accounts. Again – mobile viewing is not included in SAMBA data, but this would put “TSS” -26% vs “Mortal Kombat”, though well ahead of things like “Justice League: Snyder Cut” and “Wonder Woman”. /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
AARDMAN (“Chicken Run”) sets Gurinder Chadha (“Bend It Like Beckham”, “Blinded by the Light”) to direct an animated movie about an elephant who wants to become a Bollywood dancer 🐘🕺. Chadha also co-writing. /THR
Bam Margera files lawsuit against PARAMOUNT, Johnny Knoxville & Spike Jonze for being fired from upcoming “Jackass Forever”. He was fired for testing positive for adderall, a violation of his employment contract. /Variety
IN THE EXECUTIVE SUITE
LIONSGATE promotes Marisa Liston to Global Marketing head. She joined the company in 2019 as EVP of Media & Comms, after a 17 year career at SONY. /Variety
UK publicists Donna Mills & Emma Jackson at PREMIERE break off to form their own shingle called TAPESTRY LONDON. Clients include Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Michaela Coel, and Claire Foy. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
APPLE TV sets Vince Vaughn for new show from Bill Lawrence (“Ted Lasso”, “Scrubs”)
Called “Bad Monkey”, 10 episode order, darkly comedic drama based on Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 book.
Vince plays a South Florida detective who’s now a restaurant inspector that somehow gets pulled into a world of greed and corruption when a tourist reels in a severed arm while fishing. No word on a timeline. /THR
NETFLIX sets Catherine Zeta-Jones as “Morticia” in their “Addams Family” series “Wednesday”
Tim Burton directing. Luis Gomez set as “Gomez” yesterday, Jenny Ortega is “Wednesday”. /THR
ALSO IN TV
HBO renews giant-wave surfing docuseries “100 Foot Wave” for a Season 2. /THR
FOX renews animated series “Housebroken” for a Season 2. /THR
HGTV renews everyone’s favorite show that’s shot in Mississippi, “Home Town” for 20 episode, 6th Season. Plus “Ben’s Workshop” for a 2nd season on DISCOVERY+. /Deadline
NETFLIX renews “The Circle” and “Indian Matchmaking” for new seasons. “The Circle” is actually getting 3 more seasons through Season 5. /Deadline
NETFLIX sets comedy special for their “Nailed It” host Nicole Byer. Will shoot in Sept, premiere later this year. /Variety
BRAVO CON cancelled again this year, so good luck finding someone else to throw wine at in October. /Variety
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
BARSTOOL in talks for rights to stream 2 MLB games a week starting next season
ESPN currently has the Monday / Wednesday game package, but apparently they’re not renewing so it’s out to bidders on the open market. No word on a potential price. /NY Post
ALSO: DRAFT KINGS is buying GOLDEN NUGGET online gambling service for $1.5 Billion. Nugget only operates in Jersey and Michigan. 🎲
DRAFT KINGS had about $300 Million in revenue from April thru June, but is not a profitable operation.
CHARTER hit with $400 Million copyright infringement lawsuit from major music labels
Basically says CHARTER did nothing to curb illegal music download behavior by their broadband users when labels sent notices requesting they take action.
COX was sued for this same thing back in the 2010’s and was ordered to pay $1 Billion in 2019, and CHARTER’s motion to dismiss was already shot down so… mabye just have that checkbook handy 💵. /MBW
DISH SATELLITE TV loses 132k subscribers in Q2
About 3X increase from April-June last year. Although not a lotta people cutting their TV in the heart of the pandemic back then.
But DISH did add 65k subscribers to their online bundle SLING. New total subscriber count is just a hair under 11 Million:
DISH SATELLITE TV subscribers: 8.55 Million
SLING online TV bundle subscribers: 2.4 Million
Mobile phone customers (mostly from their BOOST MOBILE subsidiary): 8.9 Million. /THR
However… they’re likely about to lose 108 local affiliate stations from their lineup, as station owner group SINCLAIR indicated they’re not optimistic about reaching a renewed carriage deal next week, which would affect about 1/3 of DISH’s customer base. DISH just re-added HBO after nearly a 3 year stand-off there.
ALSO IN MEDIA
SONY’s purchase of AT&T’s subscription video Anime service CRUNCHYROLL is complete, for $1.2 Billion. It has about 5 million paying subscribers globally. Money likely going to service AT&T’s large debt. /THR
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
VIMEO gets hit again, down almost another 6% on top of Friday’s 17% hit.
ROBLOX continues its Summer 2021 run, up almost 10%
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
HBO “Hard Knocks” with the Dallas Cowboys, 10p
FOX “Fantasy Island” at 8p
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
SHOWTIME “Back to Life” Season 2 trailer. Premieres Mon Sept 13
PEACOCK “A.P. Bio” Season 4 trailer. New season drops on Thu Sept 2.
HBOMAX “Doom Patrol” Season 3 teaser. The DC Universe show returns Thu Sept 23.
NETFLIX “Midnight Mass” teaser trailer. New horror series from the creator of “The Haunting of Hill House” with Zach Guilford and Hamish Linklater and… a lotta creepy shit. Premieres Fri Sept 24
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
GUNS N’ ROSES “Absurd”– first new song since 2008. Thinking this may be the “hey let’s go get a beer” song during their current tour.
If you need new tunes:
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-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
or I’m also here on CLUBHOUSE
