☀️ 'Despicable Me' Dominates as '24 Box Office Crawls From Grave
SKYDANCE gets PAR committee nod / Christine McCarthy resurfaces / APPLE, AMAZON series cancellations
Evenin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on SUNDAY, July 7, 2024.
Where ya know, some say our tech titans have a tough time relating to the common folk, or are tone deaf to their own images . . . but I just don’t see it.
Now, who wants to tell Zuck what his song choice of “Born in the U.S.A.” is actually about?
SHOCK: The town is still coming to grips with the death of Jon Landau from cancer at the age of 63 over the holiday weekend. He of course was James Cameron’s longtime producing partner and CEO at LIGHTSTORM Entertainment, following a successful run at the FOX studio.
AWE: It looks like we’re actually getting closer to a PARAMOUNT deal, as the PAR “special committee” has agreed to . . . whatever deal SKYDANCE has put forth. Still not much known here other than the $1.75B check for Shari / NATIONAL AMUSEMENTS.
The PAR board as a whole is expected to approve the thing tonight — no word if Shari is still going to use her trip to Sun Valley and 45 deal-shopping days to see if there are any last-minute legitimate takers, or just get this done before the summer social season kicks into high gear.
BIGGER PICTURE: This ‘improved’ offer only adds $50M to Shari’s payday — granted, yes Richard and I would happily take that money as a consulting fee on the deal in a heartbeat — But if $50M has moved the needle for her that much . . . then her finances are a lot worse than we all think.
Thus yes, perhaps she’s also getting a bit more legal “protection” from Ellison & Co. against those “potential” shareholder lawsuits, as some have put out there, but perhaps she’s also realizing this is the best it’s gonna get (BAIN Capital money apparently isn’t as attractive as it used to be, sorry BAIN).
And if this is basically just the old deal +$50M and some new legal deal language . . . we could be looking at basically the same potential shareholder lawsuits that were feared a month ago.
So yes, the only certainty here is we’re all gonna get even more tired of this saga than we are now.
BOOM: NBC & PEACOCK got 7.6M viewers for the 2-hour MACY’s Fireworks show on Thursday, its highest number in 3 years, and an event which . . . really had zero counter-programming.
Really MLB? No nationally televised evening game on FOX? WNBA on ABC? Anyone? I know the fireworks had a Bell Biv DeVoe performance that you’re just not gonna top, but worth a try here, no?
AND: The ABC Biden interview got 8.5M viewers on Friday night, or less than 20% of the debate audience. Almost 8M of them were over 50 years old, and most 55+, by and large mirroring the demos of the debate.
BUT: About half of England tuned in to watch the end of the ENGLAND vs. SWITZERLAND Euros ⚽️ quarterfinal match this weekend, peaking at 26M across linear and streaming for the penalty shootout (ENGLAND won).
ALSO: Margot Robbie is having a baby! 🤰
ELSEWHERE: Other than an AI firm bringing the voices of dead celebrities like Burt Reynolds, Judy Garland and James Dean back to life for the noble cause of . . . “reading” you books by other people (you haven’t lived until you’ve had Burt read you The Bridges of Madison County), Hollywood thankfully was showing the world how to properly take a vacation, and of course go to the movies.
So, here are a few more dispatches from rich folks to make us feel great coming back into work tomorrow. Er sorry, “people of means” (as they always tell the help, they hate the “rich” thing 🙄)
FIRST: If Jeff Bezos owes you money, now’s the time to collect (I told him taking Yamamoto in the Nathan’s contest was a fool’s errand). He’s selling another $5B of AMAZON stock (shares hit an all-time high last week), making for $13.5B worth of AMAZON stock sales for him this year alone (he still has about 9% of the shares).
Jeff, I’ll get that $30 🌭💰 when I see you at the club this week, and for the last time — I’m a cash business, so no, you can’t VENMO me later.
AMAZON has also found a way to insert itself into the luxury market, taking a previously undisclosed minority stake in the $2.6B SAKS FIFTH AVENUE acquisition of NEIMAN MARCUS.
The new SAKS GLOBAL will have about $10B in annual sales, and AMAZON will of course gladly help out on logistic & tech matters . . . while sucking up all of the transaction intel and high-net-worth individual consumer data 🤑.
WHILE WE’RE AT IT: NVIDIA head Jensen Huang sold $169M worth of his shares in the company in June — following other NVIDIA employees who have sold $700M+ worth of shares in the first half of 2024.
Given that Jensen’s net worth has shot up well over $100 Billion, I’m thinking he won’t notice it on his next ATM slip.
Man, there really is a lot of money in creating products that make it much faster for “entrepreneurs” to steal copyrighted material to build new AI bots, isn’t there? Has someone told PARAMOUNT? #NewBizIdea
BUT: It’s always refreshing to see the “Everyone’s an Expert” motif surface in other industries . . . as JP MORGAN parted ways with its Chief Global Market Strategist last week. According to Bloomberg, it seems he:
Was “steadfastly bullish” in much of 2022 . . . when the S&P 500 Index dropped 19%.
Then he went over to the Wall Street bears in 2023 . . . just as the market hit its low point — thus missing out on last year’s 24% S&P 500 surge, and the 14% pop in the first half of 2024.
Again, this
iswas the head of, uh, global strategy at a top Wall Street bank. Don’t worry, I’m sure JP MORGAN didn’t pay him any annual bonuses the past 2 years.
FINALLY: This Axios chart on 401(k) disparity is quite something to behold.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Loved to see the 34% optimism . . . but still a nice showing for the 26%. Er, the second 26%.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
While a full recovery to 2023 box office levels by end of year still seems like a hot take the actual Minions would have — progress is being made, folks!
Time to dive into the numbers, including some very strong showings by younger demos (was TIKTOK down or something?), and a look at the path ahead to see about the odds of the momentum continuing. 🥴