Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY April 22, 2022.
Where in honor of “The Dropout” finishing up… let’s have our Friday morning coffee poolside at the former home of Elizabeth Holmes and Sunni Balwani in the NoCal town of Atherton.
And for a cool $15.8 Million, it could have been yours. Sadly it sold to a plumber from Oakland a former ROBLOX engineer and his investment banking wife.
Plus hey – pre-wired for DIRECTV!
AND: The VMA’s are going back to glamorous downtown Newark, will hit the Prudential Center on Sun Aug 28.
PLUS: He’s still got it! Mike Tyson apparently A) flies JET BLUE and B) punched out a drunk passenger who wouldn’t leave him alone as his plane was waiting to take off yesterday according to TMZ. I’m not a fan of any plane rage but… #ImWithMike here.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
JUST 2 THINGS
The complaint made on the set of Aziz Anzari’s SEARCHLIGHT “Being Mortal” pic was against Bill Murray for inappropriate behavior… but no other details at this point. Investigation is still ongoing. /Deadline
DISNEY+ picks up rap musical comedy pic from Utkarsh Ambudkar (“Ghosts”). Called “World’s Best”, about a young kid with an aptitude for Math who wants to become the world’s greatest MC. Roshan Sethi (co-creator of “The Resident”) will direct, Utkarsh co-wrote it and will co-star, will shoot in May. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
APPLE TV+ sets Idris Elba to lead thriller series “Hostage”
Dris will play a business negotiator who has to put his skills to use on a hijacked plane flying to London. The announcement says this is a series and not a limited series but… curious how this goes with that logline.
Series is written by“Lupin” writer George Kay. /Deadline
AMC orders Bob Odenkirk series “Straight Man”
Bob’s playing an English department chairman at badly underfunded rural Pennsylvania college going through a midlife crisis. Well Bob’s character is, not sure about the school itself.
Based on a Richard Russo book, Peter Farrelly directing, Aaron Zelman (”Damages”) and Paul Lieberstein (“Toby” from”The Office”) are showrunning. /THR
ALSO IN TV
Giuliani’s “Masked Singer” episode on FOX this week was the lowest rated episode this season. It’s likely unrelated… but still – that tracks thematically. /Deadline
AMAZON adds Reid Scott as series regular for upcoming Final Season of “Mrs. Maisel”, reprising his “Gordon Ford” featured role from Season 4. /Deadline
TRIBECA FEST sets a bunch of TV premieres, incl AMAZON’s “A League of their Own” and ESPN’s Jeter series “The Captain”. /THR
FREEFORM’s “Cruel Summer” changes cast, storyline, and showrunner for Season 2. So… it’s now an anthology? /THR
WME partner & TV Agent Ashley Holland departing to join HULU’s ONYX Collective in a TBA senior Scripted role. Will leave in a few weeks. /Deadline
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💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
CNN+ : March 29, 2022 – April 30, 2022
As you probably heard, CNN+ is done. Some shows (likely the docuseries that are already produced) will move to HBOMAX eventually, others (like the daily TV shows and talk shows) will just fold.
Employees will be paid + benefits for 90 days, and then get a minimum of 6 months severance in a pretty generous deal as far as these things go.
Certainly sad to see… but I don’t think anyone is entirely surprised. This was a Jeff Zucker project with Kilar’s support, who launched it right before he left knowing Zazlav wasn’t a fan of the strategy, having already seen poor results from launching niche streaming services at DISCOVERY (FOOD NETWORK’s Kitchen among the highest profile).
And Zazlav is right that a product called CNN+ where you can’t watch a live feed of CNN just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Something ESPN+ already proved … after launching with the ‘docuseries only’ strategy initially too, but only finding growth once finally bundled with HULU, and finally adding some exclusive live sports (ie what the ESPN brand does). 🏟
But basically CNN+ will now be known as the streaming service with a shorter career than Bud Fox at BLUE STAR.
More to come on what happens to CNN+ talent (#ChrisWallace), and one has to think it’ll eventually just land as a tab on HBOMAX, included with your subscription. /THR
SNAP adds 13 Million Daily users, loses $360 Million so far in 2022
But total Revenue hit $1.06 Billion, up about 38% from this time last year. Approximate breakdown:
75% of their revenue was from the US
15% is from Europe
10% from Rest of World
DAILY ACTIVE USER wise:
US: 98 Million (+5% from a year ago)
EUROPE: 84 Million (+10% from a year ago)
REST OF WORLD: 150 Million (+36% from a year ago)
So SNAP’s biggest User growth continues to be… in the region where it makes the least amount of money. by far.
Followed by its 2nd smallest money generating region.
YoY REVENUE and USER growth percentages are both slowing down vs all Quarters in the last 15 months. A good business… yes, but one that’s beginning to shift into a mature one vs. a booming one. APPLE’s iOS privacy changes also not helping here either. Sound familiar?
SNAP stock was basically even in after hours trading.
ALSO IN MEDIA
VERIZON FIOS loses another 78k Video subcribers so far in 2022, which is… around the same number they’ve been losing every 3 months for a long time now. As always though they keep adding Broadband subscribers, 229k in Q1.
Although of note – 194k of the Broadband additions were “Fixed Wireless” customers, not ‘fiber to the home’ traditional Broadband customers. /THR
SPOTIFY’s podcast hosting platform ANCHOR now allows podcasters to upload video versions of their pods (both subscription and free ones). /TheVerge
Elon Musk has lined up the $46 Billion in financing to buy TWITTER at his $54.20 a share offer. It includes debt finance backing from folks like MORGAN STANLEY and… well, a lot from Elon Musk (about $21 Billion). The stock closed at $47.02 yesterday.
IN SO MANY WORDS…
Tough Thursday:
“A uniquely shitty situation”
Incoming CNN CEO Chris Licht announcing the CNN+ shutdown to staff yesterday
“Well, it’s a bitch”
NETFLIX CEO Reed Hastings to employees yesterday in a town hall, talking about… well ya know.
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
FACEBOOK -6% ($188.07)
VIMEO -7% ($9.87)
WARNER DISCO -7% ($21.45)
ROKU -9% ($99.55)
SPOTIFY -8% ($112.62)
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👩💻 THE FSS FEED:
(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday – Saturday – Sunday)
WEEKEND READS + LISTENS
The NY TIMES caught up with Julia Roberts for an interesting chat about her career role choice strategy… or lack of it really.
FRIDAY
IN THEATERS:
LIONSGATE “The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent”
UNIVERSAL “The Bad Guys” animated pic
FOCUS FEATURES “The Northman”
STREAMING:
SERIES
APPLE TV+ “They Call Me Magic” 4pt documentary – STREAM HERE
AMAZON PRIME – “A Very British Scandal” – STREAM HERE
SATURDAY
I’m going to the theater so you’re on your own
SUNDAY
HBO “Barry” Season 3 premiere at 10p
STARZ “Gaslit” limited series premiere at 8p
SHOWTIME “The Man Who Fell To Earth” at 10p
EPIX “Billy the Kid” series premiere at 10p
CNN “Navalny” doc at 9p
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
HBOMAX “The Staircase” limited series trailer. This looks really good… great spot! Premieres Thu May 5.
HBO “The Time Traveler’s Wife” series trailer. Consider me intrigued again! HBO Marketing 2 for 2 today. Though think I’d rather watch this as a limited series… but I’ll leave that to the professionals. Premieres Sun May 15
DISNEY PIXAR “Lightyear” trailer 2. In theaters June 17
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New FLORENCE + THE MACHINE “Free” – We’re now offically 3 weeks out from the full new album drop.
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime – just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
