Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY July 12, 2021.
Where it was a tough week for British sports fans – first Federer gets knocked out of WIMBLEDON and then… well, yesterday.
But it certainly was a unifying moment for the country, as viewership for the EURO final peaked at 31 million viewers, and the game averaged about 22 Million total, giving it an 82% share of the UK viewing audience yesterday. Plus hey – we’re now less than weeks away from TED LASSO season 2 🙌.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
Adele Lim, writer of “Crazy Rich Asians” to direct R-Rated comedy at LIONSGATE
Will star Ashley Park (the ‘deceased’ member of “Girls5Eva”) although the movie is a 4-hander about a group of Asian-American women traveling through Asia to search for one of their birth mothers – so more casting news here to come.
Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (“Family Guy”) & Teresa Hsiao (co-creator of “Nora from Queens”) wrote the script, Seth Rogen’s POINT GREY producing. Will shoot this Fall. /Variety
BOX OFFICE
“Black Widow” : $80 Million ($78 Million Internationally, $215 Million globally)
The $215 Million includes $60 Million worth of DISNEY+ PVOD rentals worldwide, the first time DISNEY has reported rental revenues from the app. At least $30 Million came from $30 DIS+ rentals in the US according to DEADLINE.
Breaking down that math – Only about 3% of US DISNEY+ subscribers ponied up the $30 (roughly 1 Million accounts out of the reported 37-38 Million DIS+ US…and Canadian subscribers).
And Yes, the $60 Million is a self-reported number – but DISNEY is also a public company so these official numbers from the company do matter.
Let’s assume a $10 average movie ticket (the actual number is about $9.20 according to most reports, but let’s assume an over-index in city moviegoing where the avg is higher):
Approx 8 Million people went to the theater to see “Black Widow” in the US.
About 1 Million chose to rent it at home. Granted, I’m sure there was a considerable amount of group viewing going on at home, but maybe the movie theater business isn’t quite dead after all.
There’s No China release date currently set, and it may not be until early/mid August, which given piracy by that point could make it a non-factor in its global 💰💰.
“F9” : $11 Million, about 1/3 of what it made last weekend ($141 Million US)
“Boss Baby: Family Business” : $8.7 Million ($35 Million US)
“Forever Purge” : $6.7 Million ($27 Million US)
“A Quiet Place 2” : $3 Million ($150 Million US)
ALSO IN MOVIES
John Slattery joins “Fletch” reboot at MIRAMAX with Jon Hamm. Movie now shooting, Greg Mottola directing. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
FX sets Kumail Nanjiani for limited series “Homeland Elegies”
Based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar novel, a father-son story about identity and belonging in post-Trump America.
Ayad adapting the book into 8 episodes, Oren Moverman (HBO’s “Bad Education”) will direct. /Deadline
AMC orders Western noir-thriller “Dark Winds”
Based on the book series about the characters “Leaphorn & Chee”, the show is created by Graham Roland (“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”). George RR Martin & Robert Redford among exec producers.
6 episodes, set in the 1970s Southwest – a psychological thriller about 2 Navajo police officers Leephorn and Chee, searching for clues in a double murder case where they must come to terms with past trauma. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
“Lovecraft Country” creator Misha Green goes to APPLE TV+ for an overall production deal. HBO passed on a “Lovecraft” Season 2 last week. /Variety
NETFLIX cancels fantasy series “Cursed” after 1 season. /THR
HBO sets Devon Terrell (“Barry”) in a lead role of Issa Rae produced new series “Rap Sh*t”. It’s about two estranged high school friends who reunite to form a Miami rap group. Devon will play one of their boyfriends. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
ESPN locks up WIMBLEDON rights thru 2035
So that means the winner of that tournament is probably… about 5 years-old right now. ESPN+ gets streaming rights to everything for the US / CAN, Latin America, and Brazil.
ABC will also air weekend matches. No price disclosed. /THR
ALSO IN MEDIA
FTC opens up in-depth investigation into the AMAZON – MGM deal so… yeah that’s not gonna close by end of this year. And then some. /The Information
APPLE TV kicking the tires on the NFL SUNDAY TICKET package that has been with DIRECTV for years. That current deal ends after next season (2022-23 season), although they reportedly lose billions on it… so thinking they may be willing to part with it early should the opportunity arise. ESPN/DISNEY also of course in the hunt too. /The Information
The Rock’s XFL and CFL (Canadian Football League) talks hit indefinite pause around merging or collaborating. /NextTV
CLUBHOUSE and TED Talks set a partnership to host talks on the app. CLUBHOUSE recently set TED’s former conferences head Kelly Stoetzel as their thought leadership programming exec. /THR
NEWS CORP shutting down their Knewz.com news aggregation site. Just can’t see how they missed with that killer branding…. /Variety
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
A mildly positive but overall quiet Summer Friday in Media stocks.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
AMC “The Beast Must Die” – Jared Harris, Cush Jumbo revenge thriller series, Premieres at 10p
HBO “Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes” docuseries – Based off of Ronan Farrow book and podcast, Premieres at 9p
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” Broadway tix go on sale, show begins in mid Nov. More info and link to buy tix here
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
A few more from the end of last week that I didn’t have room for:
FX ON HULU “American Horror Stories” trailer. First 2 eps hit HULU this Thurs July 15.
NETFLIX “Love is Blind: After the Altar” teaser trailer. 3-episode reunion special as the 2 couples who got married via the show celebrate their 2nd anniversaries. Drops on Wed July 28.
NETFLIX “The Witcher” Season 2 teaser, Premieres Fri Dec 17
EPIX “Chapelwaite” series trailer – Adrien Brody stars in this 1850’s set story based on Stephen King’s “Jerusalem’s Lot”. Adrien’s character moves his 3 kids back to his Maine hometown after his wife dies, and rekindles an old high school flame from the cheerleading squad. Ok that last part may not be true. 10 episodes, Premieres Sun Aug 22
🕵️♂️ THE WEEK AHEAD
TUE – MLB All-Star game on FOX ; EMMY noms announced
WED – Game 4 of the NBA Finals on ABC
THU – “Never Have I Ever” Season 2 hits NETFLIX
FRI – Lebron’s gives “Space Jam” a shot in theaters and HBOMAX. See what I did there? Yeah I’m not proud of it either.
SAT/SUN – BRITISH OPEN Golf tournament
GOOD READ FROM THE WEEKEND
Ok this has nothing to do with Entertainment or Media… but I thought this NY TIMES read on how Chicago has to deal with increasingly rising Lake Michigan water levels… and the increasing dangers for their uh, sewage system was pretty fascinating and had really great visuals. Apparently a set of May storms last Summer came damn near close to flooding a good part of the heart of the city 😳.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New BILLIE EILISH – “NDA”. Another track off her new upcoming album, out July 30.
Listen to the song here on Spotify or:
If you need new tunes:
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-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
or I’m also here on CLUBHOUSE
