☀️ APPLE TV+ Finds Its Franchise Series
Tarantino abandons 'Critic' pic / Kassan resurfaces in Miami / Sports Gambling’s Latest Warning Shot
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, April 18, 2024.
Where yes, the day is finally here folks . . . the next earnings season is here! NETFLIX kicks the Q1 festivities off after the bell later today, and just a mere 6 weeks or so after the last season ended. It’s like Christmas in July. Well, April really.
Wall Street’s NETFLIX Q1 subscriber add estimates vary about as much as their stance on entering the sports business 🥁 (I’m here all week), but we’ll see where the numbers come in this afternoon, with my full dive into the numbers to know tomorrow a.m. of course.
AND: Here is your Tribeca Festival lineup for June, including a Liza Minelli doc, a HULU Diane von Furstenberg doc and the Brat Pack doc from Andrew McCarthy that I actually really want to check out.
PLUS: Sundance is at least opening up a bidding process to consider a new location once its current deal in Park City is up after the 2026 festival. I do hear San Diego can be nice in January . . . #justsayin
MILLENNIAL ROYALTY: Ashanti and Nelly announced they are having a baby, and are now engaged.
ALSO: More video-game biz layoffs arrive — this time TAKE TWO is cutting 5% of its workforce, or circa 600 folks, saving about $165 Million when all is said and done.
YEAH: That TIKTOK U.S. sale thing just went up a notch — House Republicans have attached it to the Ukraine aid bill (don’t ya just love how that’s perfectly legal, and in fact customary in D.C.?), so the Senate will need to address this much sooner than expected, possibly even next week.
Although to note — the time period for BYTEDANCE to sell the U.S. TT biz is now roughly a year from the bill’s (potential) date of enactment, up from 6 months in the original bill.
Cue the lawsuits in 3, 2 . . . and yeah, this is gonna be a while.
ECONOMY CHECK: The main issue with continued higher-than-we’d-like inflation rate here in Q1 is basically that rent costs are not coming down, according to Bloomberg.
BTW homeowners insurance, which isn’t even factored into the CPI, has seen an astounding boom in costs over the past two years, with climate change likely to keep that train moving in the years ahead (👋 “extremely high” Atlantic hurricane season ahead).
AH JEEZ: FANATICS & NIKE are having a year — first the uh, revealing MLB uniforms 👀, and now they’ve already run out of Caitlin Clark INDIANA FEVER jerseys . . . which are now on back-order until August. 🤦♂️ The season starts on May 14.
BUT: Caitlin Clark is reportedly in talks with NIKE for an eight-figure ($10M+) sponsorship deal — yes, including a shoe.
BTW: A VILLANOVA guard (and student of course) named Lucy Olsen, who averaged more than 23 points per game last year, has “entered the transfer portal” (i.e. traded herself) to IOWA to join the team next year. Uh, and enroll in the fine academic offerings of the UNIVERSITY OF IOWA of course.
#FUNFACT: The top 3 music streaming services, SPOTIFY, APPLE and YOUTUBE, now make up about 40% of annual revenue at both UNIVERSAL MUSIC (#1 label) and WARNER MUSIC (#3).
ALSO: 50% of UNIVERSAL MUSIC’s 2023 revenue came from the U.S. No other market globally crossed 10%.
#SADFACT: 23 & ME has gone from a valuation of $6B to $200M — Anne Wojcicki is now looking to take it private, as revenue pivots to things like subscriptions haven’t panned out. Don’t worry, I’m sure the future of your DNA data (and family secrets) is fine.
THEN: The NHL and NBA both set regular-season game total attendance records this year:
NBA: 22.54 Million
NHL: 22.56 Million (the number with 18 games left to play)
WAKEUP BOX-OFFICE POLL
UNI/BLUM’s Abigail is tracking circa $12+ Million, which is about where Night Swim opened back in early January ($11.8M). So, how ya feelin’ about a killer vampire pre-teen? (Although note — this one doesn’t have a TIKTOK dance.)
FINAL VOTE: Okay yes, to no one’s surprise — The Donut is beating everyone in The Webbys (Note: The site has nothing to do with actual donuts 😏).
But as voting ends today — if you’d give a click here to vote for The Ankler, it would bring . . . well, I’m not gonna call it a smile to Richard’s face, but you can see it in his eyes.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
