Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY April 11, 2022.

Where AS I’M SURE YOU’VE HEARD Pt1: Bennifer 2.0 put a $10 Million green diamond ring on it. JLo announced the engagement in her newsletter… Ugh people and their newsletters amirite? 🙄 Also an intriguing move to use news of your 5th marriage engagement (I think? Does it count if one of them asked 2 times?) as an opportunity to add subs for your newsletter, but obviously I’m just jealous.

Jen’s is the much more creatively named OnTheJlo which… has a subway theme apparently. Any wagers on the last time JLo swiped a Metrocard? 🤔

CONGRATS ⛳️👏 to 25 year-old Scottie Scheffler who won THE MASTERS yesterday, his 4th PGA tournament win since… February 😳. Before that he won 0. So yeah, get to know that name.

AS I’M SURE YOU’VE HEARD Pt2: Will Smith is banned from attending the OSCARS for 10 years. He can still be nominated for, and win OSCARS - he just can’t attend the show or any Academy events. It’s also an odd feeling to be writing about a ban that will probably outlast the newsletter you’re writing about it in.

But now it’s moved to a situation that will add an unknown layer of politics (and endless chatter) around any of Will’s future Award-caliber roles… that will be entirely unrelated to the role itself.

While only 2 of Will’s 13 films in the past 10 years was OSCAR-caliber, (“Concussion” being the other), his choice to walk on stage and hit someone instead of dealing with his beef after the show (or in his speech) will now have a decade+ of reverberation vs. just being a lame joke we all forgot 24 hours later. For his part, Smith said "I accept and respect the Academy's decision." 

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

1. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” : $71 Million ($141 Million global)

   • 78% of the audience was under 34 years-old. It’s really too bad young people prefer to stream things at home (that’s nearly 4.5 Million tickets btw)

   • Beat original’s opening by 20+%. Yeah maybe Jim Carrey won’t be retiring from acting just yet…

2. “Morbius” : $10 Million ($57 Million US, $126 Million global)

   • An unsurprising 74% drop from opening weekend… which makes the prospects of it reaching its $75 Million budget in the US not great.

3. “The Lost City” : $9 Million ($69 Million US)

   • 38% drop shows its legs kicking in (was 52% last weekend)

   • This means it’s now earned back its budget in the US (minus sizable rev split with theaters of course)

4. “Ambulance” : $8.7 Million ($31 Million global)

   • Had a $40 Million production budget, so not a huge downside, and Int’l seems to be doing OK.

   • Although DEADLINE notes the iSpotTV tracking service has UNI’s TV spend in the US alone at $33 Million…

5. “The Batman” : $6.5 Million ($359 Million US, $735 Million Global)

6. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” : $6 Million ($8.4 Million US)

   • Pic expanded to 1200 theaters, for a good $5k a screen average.

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

“Fantastic Beasts…” got $58 Million globally, including an… eh $10 Million in CHINA.

MICHAEL BAY’s directing Box Office track record

With the relatively anemic “Ambulance” opening… my own mind went to: “When was Michael Bay’s last non-”Transformers” hit as a Director?”

While he’s extremely prolific, Michael Bay hasn’t directed a non-”Transformers” movie that made over $52 Million in the US in 20 years (since 2003).

He recently said on the “Ambulance” UK press tour that he “made too many of them” (about “Transformers”), and that Spielberg told him a similar thing, in that he should have stopped with 3 back in 2011.

• 2019 -“6 Underground” : NETFLIX pic

  • 2017 -“Transformers: The Last Knight” : $130 Million US, $602 Million global

• 2016 - “13 Hours” (benghazi pic): $52 Million US, $69 Million global

  • 2014 - “Transformers: Age of Extinction” : $245 Million US, $1.1 Billion global

• 2013 - “Pain & Gain” : $49 Million US, $81 Million global

  • 2011 -“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” : $352 Million US, $1.1 Billion global

  • 2009 -“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” : $402 Million, $836 Million global

  • 2007 - “Transformers” : $319 Million US, $708 Million global

• 2005 -“The Island” : $35 Million US, $163 Million global

• 2003 - “Bad Boys 2” : $138 Million US, $278 Million global

• 2001 - “Pearl Harbor” : $198 Million US, $449 Million global

• 1998 -“Armageddon” : $201 Million US, $554 Million global

• 1996 - “The Rock” : $134 Million US, $306 Million global

• 1995 - “Bad Boys” : $65 Million US, $141 Million global

  • Info via the-numbers.com

LIONSGATE sets Kerry Washington and Omar Sy to star in action pic “Shadow Force”

Joe Carnahan (“Smokin’ Aces”, “Copshop”) directing, also co-writing. Kerry & Omar will play an estranged couple who go on the run with their son once a bounty has been put on their head by their former employer. Unfortunately that employer was a shadow ops unit.

Yeah somehow I think Joe’s your guy for that one. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Brie Larson is joining “Fast 10” at UNIVERSAL, according to Vin’s INSTA.

• NETFLIX sets Mark Molloy to direct “Beverly Hills Cop 4”. The “Bad Boys For Life” guys were supposed to do it but are doing “BatGirl” at HBOMAX instead. This will be Molloy’s first feature-length movie. /Deadline

• NETFLIX adds Corey Stoll, Carey Elwes to next Zack Snyder pic “Rebel Moon”. /THR

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📺 THE TV SET

“Dancing with the Stars” going to DISNEY+ this Fall

Essentially ABC is gonna simulcast more Monday Night Football games on ABC to help the franchise (and ABC’s fortunes), and DISNEY+ has to start adding things for adults (that’s not of the racy variety), even if those adults are mostly of the 50+ demo.

DWTS also getting a 2 season renewal, and will be the first live DISNEY+ series.

So - expect a lot of “What channel is DISNEY+ on?” texts from older family members this September.

ALSO IN TV

• Larry David confirms “Curb” Is returning for a Season 12. /Deadline

• AMAZON PRIME renews “With Love” for Season 2. /THR

• CBS renews “S.W.A.T.” for a 6th season. /Deadline

• APPLE TV+ adds Christa Miller (“Scrubs”) to the Jason Segel - Harrison Ford comedy series “Shrinking”. /Deadline

• WB syndicated series “The Real” cancelled after 8 seasons. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

NETFLIX’s co-CEO’s both clear close to $40 Million in 2021

Reed Hastings got $675k in salary, and $39.7 Million in stock option grants.

• Reed also bought $20 Million worth of stock earlier this year at $390 a share after the large stock price fall from the Q4 earnings report. The stock has still been below that mark for the past 5 weeks (currently at $355).

Ted Sarandos still prefers small bills for walkin-around purposes and got $20 Million in salary, $17.1 Million in stock, and $900k for his security guys.

• Both Reed & Ted’s compensation was down by a couple million from 2020.

OTHERWISE: COO Greg Peters got $20.4 Million, and CFO Spencer Neumann got $12.5 Million for his efforts. /THR

Elon Musk does a #hardpass on joining TWITTER‘s board

So Yeah, gonna be a fun week at the TWITTER offices that… no employee ever has to go into.

No other info from Elon but he definitely keeps tweeting about the company… /WSJ

ALSO IN MEDIA

• CBS NEWS renews Norah O’Donnell’s contract for 3 more years (through 2024 elections). No price disclosed. /Puck

• WARNER MEDIA is officially out of AT&T, the WBD stock begins trading today. Zazlav’s town hall for employees will be Thursday.

• WSJ Media reporter Ben Mullin is going to THE NEW YORK TIMES. Also Jeremy Peters is moving over to cover Media as well. /NY TIMES

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

DISCOVERY +6% ($24.43)

AMC THEATERS -7% ($18.24)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

CBS CMT AWARDS at 8p

TBS “Chad” Season 2, 10p

🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

WED - “Father Stu” hits theaters from SONY

THU - HULU drops “The Kardashians”

FRI - ​​WB puts “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” in theaters; COACHELLA starts in the desert (ish).

SAT - SNL is LIZZO and LIZZO, NBA playoffs begin

SUN - Happy Easter, Easter Bunny!

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

SHOWTIME “The Man Who Fell to Earth” series trailer #2. Ahh now I get what this show is - looks realy good! Premeires Sun Apr 24.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New THE KNOCKS “Bang Bang” (featuring Donna Missal)

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-SEAN MCNULTY

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