☀️An old-fashioned day of Cancellation, Renewal and TV series deal news
Bad Thursday for Media Stocks / SONY sets their Carole King / HULU gets a Dan Levy show from his old TV deal
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY December 16, 2022.
Where - just me, or is it nice to have a day at the end of 2022 where no one is seemingly losing their job?
Plus today is a day we finally take the next step in finding out if DISNEY’s $71 Billion check for FOX in early 2019 was money well spent. Or at least - not money entirely overspent… outside of “The Simpsons”, a TV & Film library, the FX business, 30% of HULU and an Indian TV & Streaming powerhouse… who made $0.58 a Streaming subscriber in Q3.
BTW anyone seen an X-Man around here somewhere? Coulda sworn we packed them in the box from Century City almost 4 years ago…
AND: Trevor Noah is returning to host the GRAMMYS on Feb 5 in LA, now unencumbered by a day job.
ALSO: PARAMOUNT is paying Drew Barrymore a little something extra beyond her CBS syndicated TV show check to shill for PLUTO, and thus made her TV show audience then applaud her endorsement deal - audience warm-up person excitedly trying to get said audience to clap not pictured in the clip, which honestly is kinda painful to watch… until she gives them all Smart TV’s at the end that is. “Free PLUTO accounts!” probably wouldn’t have had the same impact.
Tagline: STREAM NOW. PAY NEVER, and the spot extolls the very wide variety of programming you can enjoy on PLUTO… without showing or mentioning one specific piece of ‘gently used’ content that you can watch on the service (honestly a little bit of a nod to “90210” and “Family Ties” reruns woulda got me in the door!). Which gotta say is pretty on brand.
FRIDAY Wakeup BOX OFFICE Poll: How much is “Empire of Light” going to- just kidding.
“Avatar 2” is off to a $15 Million start in CHINA, with estimates raised to $120 Million for the weekend from $100 Million at the start of the week… again with a big covid 🤷♂️* next to it. But let’s keep our focus on ourselves shall we?
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
TWITTER bans some journalists critical of Elon. Journalists actively tweet in outrage about it, thus generating more business for Elon. Yeah this is a tough one.
AMAZON buys another movie, SONY sets their Carole King.
Busy day in TV series renewals and cancellations, as HULU picks up a Dan Levy series.
Pretty bad day in the Media stock market, including DISNEY hitting its worst day under the Iger 2.0 era, matching the stock price on the day after the Chapek Q3 earnings call,
PLUS: A look at the new things to watch this weekend when you can’t get a ticket to “Avatar”, a (very brief) look at WB’s “Barbie” in the TRAILER HOUSE, and more.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
