☀️A24's New A-List Spend, PAR Investor Wants Deal Details
Teamsters visit RNC as Hollywood deal looms / DISNEY's #SLACKhack / Streaming has biggest month yet
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY, July 15, 2024.
Where I’m thinking there’s a lotta folks searching (and deleting #toolate) their SLACK histories at DISNEY today, after a possible hack of its internal SLACK channels was discovered.
According to the WSJ, which was shown some select items, it includes matters regarding ad campaigns, interview candidates and studio tech for starters, although the thieves “hacktivists” group behind it says it has more far-reaching data.
As for the group’s motives here — apparently they’re not big fans of the DISNEY BA department (and Marketing, they’re watching you too), launching the attack “due to how it (DISNEY) handles artist contracts, its approach to AI, and it’s [sic] pretty blatant disregard for the consumer.”
THEN: TEAMSTERS Prez Sean O’Brien’s speech at the RNC last night: “Today, the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party.” Can’t wait for his possible corresponding speech at the DNC next month (he requested speaking slots at both parties, although I haven’t seen a confirmation for the DNC lineup out there yet).
HOWEVER: TEAMSTERS VP At-Large John Palmer had a . . . different take to Politico:
“The issue is that the Republicans aren’t doing anything to help us. And I don’t believe anybody could trust Donald Trump. I mean, why would you trust that man?”
The union donated money to both Republicans and Democrats this season.
Oh right, Hollywood: Negotiations with the AMPTP are ongoing as the July 31 date looms, but the hope is for an agreement by end of week. Money/pay rates seems to be the outstanding matter.
OH: TIFF set David Gordon Green’s Nutcrackers with Ben Stiller to open the fest this year at Roy Thomson Hall (UTA is handling the film sales). Rebel Wilson’s The Deb will close it.
THEN: The NY Comedy Festival set its headliners, including Judd Apatow, Dave Attell, Bill Maher and Tracy Morgan, and other acts for the November edition.
PLUS: APPLE’s India sales grew $2B (or +33%) YoY through Q1, hitting $8B according to Bloomberg, citing “a person familiar with the matter” (per Indian law, it’s required to report local sales to authorities each year). APPLE has of course increased local production of iPhones and its general focus on the market in recent years.
That’s still only about 2% of APPLE total sales last FY.
APPLE stock also hit an all-time high this week — a China sales slowdown putting clouds over APPLE’s business? That (erroneous) report was so Q1 . . .🙄. The stock is +38% since the start of May.
So, I’m gonna guess losing some money on a ‘60s space race rom-com isn’t at the top of its radar in the morning staff meeting.
OOF: If you thought Hollywood layoffs are tough, INTUIT just laid off more than 1,000 people due to “not meeting (performance) expectations.” 😳 This actually won’t even be a workforce reduction — it plans to make “fresh hires” to replace them, with a goal of focusing on products that use AI.
AH: AT&T reportedly paid about $400k in ransom money to have its stolen user data removed/destroyed from the massive breach earlier this year . . . that we’re just learning about here in mid July.
404 Media reports that an American hacker related to the incident is currently in a Turkish prison (no word on the charge there though). Sadly his name is John, not Joey. #Airplane
AHEM: Here on AMAZON “Prime Day” 🥳, just a little AMAZON story about the company shipping a used, formerly poopy swim diaper to a customer is something to keep in mind.
According to Bloomberg, until this year AMAZON never let outside vendors choose whether AMAZON re-sold returned products of theirs . . . including things like, uh, previously used swim diapers, and the overwhelmed AMAZON returns QC department somehow missed the . . . still 💩-stained swim diaper that a customer returned, and AMAZON sent it back out to another customer . . . who then naturally posted a scathing review of the third-party vendor who had nothing to do with this process in 2020.
Cue the married couple’s business going down the tubes and never recovering, despite several unanswered attempts to reach AMAZON to rectify this.
Previously they were projecting $3M in annual sales; now they might lose the mortgage on their house, and yes, the review was just addressed once Bloomberg got involved last month.
The story has more beyond this as well, and just keep in mind here —AMAZON cleared $30.4 Billion in profit in 2023, and no financial gesture was reported to have been made to the couple to right the situation.
DINGERS: Teoscar Hernández won the MLB Home Run Derby last night, as part of the MLB All-Star festivities, and picked up a nice $1M check for his efforts. Don’t feel too bad for 2nd place finisher Bobby Witt Jr. — he walked away with $750k for not winning.
NOTE: The NBA deals clock also moves another tick forward today with the NBA Board of Governors meeting in Vegas to ratify what Adam Silver has lined up . . . and tossing the final ball over to WBD on the 5-day clock afterwards.
AND: The NY Post is reporting that Skip Bayless is leaving FS1’s Unscripted sports talk series later this summer. The series will continue on (hosts TBA — Skip’s co-host Shannon Sharpe of course left last year)
FINALLY: If you’re looking for a good analysis of the WTF and HTF around how the Copa America championship disaster (some new images in that link) came to be, with many folks who spent thousands 💰 for tickets being denied entry among other major security snafus including people crawling through vents to enter Hard Rock Stadium — the Huddle Up did a good breakdown on the backstory between the CONMEBOL (South American soccer) and CONCACAF (North American soccer) organizations around this tournament, who was running what, and why this likely isn’t a big cause for concern when it comes to the impending U.S. World Cup.
IN THIS EDITION
Very active day across TV and Movie deal news which . . . seemingly always includes A24 this summer, and increasingly PARAMOUNT PICS too which is remaining very active, as PARAMOUNT GLOBAL’s favorite longtime investor shares what he’s looking for in his deal info request, and what’s ahead.
It’s Tuesday, so I have a new round of job postings, plus a big PR firm conglomerate makes another addition, the latest NIELSEN insights, and more.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
