DOCTOR STRANGE gets 2nd best opening since July 2019
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DOCTOR STRANGE gets 2nd best opening since July 2019
MGM leadership eyes WB move / DISH bleeds subscribers, stock -20% / ABC axes Fred Savage for inappropriate behavior
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY May 9, 2022.
Where I’ll take it as a cosmic coincidence that an 80-1 shot won the KENTUCKY DERBY on the same weekend that Movie Theaters opened a MARVEL pic to a number it very likely would have hit pre-pandemic. Never count out a longshot (uh meaning theaters and the horse, not a MARVEL pic).
Mr. Cruise, you’re on deck in 3 weeks.
AND: Here’s part of Pete Davidson’s NETFLIX IS A JOKE festival set where he discusses the YE stuff.
ALSO: NETFLIX’s festival YT page has a lot of great stuff to check out (Arsenio’s shows, Conan & Hader, Seth Rogen and friends doing table reads of popular movies etc).
PLUS: Here are your BAFTA TV Award winners.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
BOX OFFICE
“Doctor Strange…” : $185+ Million ($450 Million global)
Not “Spider-Man” / $260 Mil territory but… that’s really reaching for something - this movie’s a huge home run.
About the same opening as “Avengers…Ultron” and close to “Black Panther”.
Already beat the entire US Box Office run for “Eternals”, will surpass “Shang-Chi” by end of this week.
DISNEY called it $185 Million yesterday morning, but sounds like distribution folks think that’ll be revised up a bit since it’s been overperforming all weekend.
Movie theaters were up-charging about an extra buck for it, a la “The Batman”
“The Bad Guys” : $9.8 Million ($57.5 Million US, $148 Million global)
“Sonic the Hedgehog 2” : $6.2 Million ($170 Million US, $350 Million global)
“Fantastic Beasts… Dumbledore” : $4 Million ($86 Million US, $363 Million global)
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” : $3.3 Million ($42 Million US)
40% drop, pic also lost about 1/3 of its theater count (#ThanksDoctor!) and also had a small brief IMAX bump last weekend that was also lost to said MARVEL pic.
Co-star Stephanie Hsu (also in “Mrs Maisel”) signed with CAA last week.
“The Northman” : $2.7 Million ($28 Million US)
ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE
OPEN ROAD’s Liam Neeson pic“Memory” tied for the biggest drop of the week at 60%, hitting $1.2 Million for the weekend, and $5.5 Million US total.
ALSO IN MOVIES
APPLE TV+ is unsurprisingly moving Will Smith’s “Emancipation” movie to 2023. /Variety
WB orders script for “Crazy Rich Asians” spinoff pic from “Barry” writer Jason Kim. Will center on Gemma Chan and Charlie Wu’s characters. This is separate from the sequel also in development. /Deadline
AMAZON signs “Reacher” star Alan Ritchson to a 3 picture deal. No projects specified… but “Reacher” is among the Top 5 most-watched AMAZON PRIME shows ever, both in the US and globally so… clearly they’re doubling down. The show also already has a Season 2 order. /THR
IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE
WB likely to be the new home for Mike DeLuca & Pam Abdy… TBD if it’ll be in an exec capacity or a production imprint. Whatever happens - it’s gonna be a minute: they’re staying at MGM thru the Summer. /Variety
John Cena went to WME after his ICM agent Dan Baime moved into management. /Deadline
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📝 IN OTHER WORDS…
“At least you got smacked by someone of repute! I got smacked by a homeless guy with leaves in his hair.”
- DAVE CHAPPELLE to CHRIS ROCK at a surprise set on Thursday in LA. THR has all the details here, including the conversation Dave had with his apparently mentally ill attacker after the Hollywood Bowl show.
📺 THE TV SET
ABC fires Fred Savage from involvement in“The Wonder Years” after ‘inappropriate conduct’ investigation
Not too many details on Fred’s specific conduct as director and exec producer that triggered the dismissal… but the conduct is described as multiple incidents.
A 2018 lawsuit was also brought by a crew member on “The Grinder” against Fred’s behavior, accusing him of attacking and harassing her on the set. FOX found no wrongdoing, but the lawsuit was settled out of court. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
ABC cancels “Queens” and “Promised Land” after their initial seasons. /THR
AMC sets Jack Houston to play “Lasher” in series adaptation of ”Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches”. Alexandra Daddario is playing the lead in the series, currently shooting in NOLA. /Deadline
NETFLIX renews Tim Robinson’s “I Think You Should Leave” for a Season 3. /Variety
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
DISH has disastrous Q1, losing 462k customers in 3 months
This is one of their biggest quarterly losses ever.
DISH Satellite TV customers: 8 Million (-228k)
SLING Streaming bundle customers: 2.25 Million (-234k)
#ARPU went up a couple bucks so… looks like either these departing folks had lower-end packages, or DISH raised prices and folks cancelled. I’m going with #2.
DISH stock dropped almost 20% on Friday.
#3 US movie theater chain CINEMARK beats Q1 expectations, but…
Revenue is still down about 36% vs their business in 2019. They also internally don’t expect it to “normalize” until 2024, whatever normalize might mean 2 years from now.
Although keep in mind… Jan and Feb this year were still pretty heavy Omicron months, with few major releases outside of PARAMOUNT pics (“Scream”, “Jackass”) and then “The Batman”. All of which did well… but theaters just need more of them. Something Q2 is doing a better job of providing.
CINEMARK Q1 Revenue was $460 Million, slightly beating Wall Street’s estimates of $447 Million, but the stock was basically even on Friday. /Deadline
ALSO IN MEDIA
WSJ did a dive into the relentless 1990’s DISNEY-esque atmosphere that CHINA’s TIKTOK is apparently fostering at TIKTOK US offices. #IfYouDontComeInOnSaturday….
MSNBC moves Chuck Todd’s “Meet the Press Daily” show to NBC NEWS NOW streaming app. /Variety
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
CINEWORLD (REGAL Cinemas) +7% ($0.38)
ROKU -5% ($96.83)
FOX -5% ($32.06)
AMC THEATERS -6% ($13.76)
PARAMOUNT GLOBAL -6% ($27.91)
WBD -6% ($17.75)
SNAP -8% ($24.92)
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👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
HULU “Candy” - 5 part limited series, part 1 drops today, and a new ep drops daily this week.
FX “Breeders” - Season 3 premieres at 9p
🕵️♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD
TUE - FOX CORP earnings in the AM (plus AMC THEATERS late today so, both will be in tomorrow’s email).
WED - DISNEY+ subscriber updates late afternoon. #goodluck!
THU - New “Hacks” hits HBOMAX
ENDEAVOR earnings call late afternoon which… given the stock is down 33% in the past month, should have a lot of eyes on it.
FRI - ”Firestarter” is the only new pic in theaters, also on PEACOCK
SAT - SNL is Selena Gomez and POST MALONE
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
NETFLIX “God’s Favorite Idiot” series trailer - Premieres June 15
SNL Cold Open - Finally recaptures some freshness & edge to kick off the show, after a weak run of show-opens of late. A solid episode overall.
NEON “Crimes of the Future” trailer - New David Cronenberg pic. Hits theaters in June 3
AMC+ “The Ipcriss File” series trailer - Cold War spy series based on the 70’s pic and novel, premieres Thu May 19
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
BONO and THE EDGE played a surprise acoustic set in a bomb shelter / subway station in Kyiv, UKRAINE this weekend:
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
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