Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY, August 22, 2024.

Where I have bad news for folks clearing $2.2M a year — you’re now considered “slummin’ it” by CHARLES SCHWAB.

Yes, it seems the folks that it asked in its new poll about the level needed to be considered “wealthy” said that $2.5M was now the bare minimum, and if anything says “true reflection of America” — it’s a poll conducted by CHARLES SCHWAB.

UH: According to Deadline . . . CHICK-FIL-A is getting into the streaming business, taking pitches in the unscripted space. It’s nice when we get flashbacks of the 2021 streaming business environment here in 2024, isn’t it?

PLUS: DNC night 2 got a small bump up to 20.8M (+800k from Monday), across 12 networks (down from 13 for night 1).

Roughly 75% was still 55+.
That’s 6M over the RNC’s night 2 this year, which had a large drop on its night 2 (roughly -4M).
It’s also up from 2020 DNC night 2 (19.6M), but down from 2016 (24.7M).
The night peaked with former President Obama’s speech, at 21.9M.
Audience comp: DNC night 2 was about 1M bigger than The Oscars, which got 19.5M back in March (granted, only on 1 TV network, not 12).

THEN: COMEDIHA!, the company that bought the Just For Laughs festival out of bankruptcy, is starting the fest back up later this year with an edition in Australia in November. The “classic” Montreal festival will return July 16, 2025.

AND: A24 is doing a series of free Sing Sing screenings at AMC theaters, uh, today at 29 AMC theaters across the U.S. You can get a ticket here.

BUT: It won’t be preceded by LIONSGATE’s trailer for Megalopolis which . . . lo and behold, used some, uh, ~~fake~~ not-real derogatory quotes from critics about Coppola’s top films from his oeuvre as the intro to the trailer (essentially intimating — hey, critics have been wrong before), and has thus been pulled from circulation. #SoClose

WELL: Cali news organizations, hope you can get by on a collective $50M a year — that’s the amount that GOOGLE and the state settled on to pay to support news organizations in a 5-year deal, and thus the state agreed not to pursue legislation that would have made GOOGLE share some of the ad revenue it makes from the news organizations’ content . . . but does not, ya know, share with them.

OH: It’ll also start a nonprofit to help journalists use AI, so they can further accelerate their future obsolescence. #GreatWorkEverbody!

SO: How do you say our sales are hurting, without saying our sales are hurting?

KUDOS: To the latest folks selected to be the latest INEVITABLE FOUNDATION Accelerate fellows — Ashley Eakin, Jamey Perry and Simone Hawthorne. The program provides members of the disabled creative community with $40k grants, mentorship and educational opportunities, as well as access to health insurance. 🙌 It’s supported by NETFLIX’s Fund for Creative Equity.

WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL

Alright end of August . . . AMAZON MGM’s Blink Twice isn’t necessarily going to keep the boomtimes going — although we could still have 3 pics doing over $10M, which is something no one would have predicted for August 23 about 10 weeks ago.

Looking at about $7M to $8M here, so let’s go with 3 options.

IN THIS EDITION

I’m sure you can just see the excitement in my face (and the gesture my hand is making) as PAR’s Special Committee has extended its deal decision deadline by 2 weeks, to further consider an augmented bid by the Edgar Bronfman-led consortium . . . and for SKYDANCE to potentially revise their offer accordingly.
SO: Dive into 👇
- Some of the boldfaced names in the picture on this Bronfman thing
- The big, real question marks that still surround it
- And more importantly — the big picture comps to the SKYDANCE / REDBIRD proposal. “Deal frenzy” can really make folks lose the forest for the trees.
BTW: If you’re (somehow) a CHARTER cable TV bundle subscriber — you now get the PAR+ ad tier free as of today (on top of DIS+).