Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY June 27, 2022.

Where 4 films cracked $20 Million this weekend at the Box Office, first time that’s happened on a non-holiday weekend since July 23, 2017. Too bad people just want to stream movies at home post-Covid isn’t it?

And yes that’s still -10% vs 2019… but that had “Toy Story 4” opening to $120 Mil so let’s just kill that conversation once again 🤏.

And if “Lightyear” had better-pulled its weight in week 2, it woulda made for five $20+Mil movies this weekend. But look! “Top Gun: Maverick” is now officially a $1 Billion movie 😎.

ACROSS THE POND: WIMBLEDON begins today 🎾 . And keep an eye out for James Corden in the stands - “Late Late Show” has shows from London all week. Including Carpool LIZZOoke! (ok yes admittedly I’m the only person calling it that).

ALSO: Congrats to the COLORADO AVALANCHE for winning the NHL Stanley Cup last night 🥅. The 3rd in the franchise’s history and first since 2001.

PLUS: Dave Grohl took the stage for the first time since Taylor Hawkins’s death at the GLASTONBURY Festival this weekend during PAUL MCCARTNEY’s set, alongside an appearance from SPRINGSTEEN.

AND: In the “that’s not creepy at all” category… AMAZON is developing a feature for ALEXA where you can make the voice mimic anyone, including say… a dead relative. And I’m sure people totally won’t use the function to recreate the voice of their Ex. Thanks Bezos!

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

1. “Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis” : $30.5 Million ($50 Million global)

   • Tip of the hat to WB marketing here on a campaign that paid off 🥳.

   • And look - old people! Who knew? 👵🏻 48% of audience was 45+ years-old, 30% was 55+.

   • And yes… $30 Mil isn’t breaking any records here for sure - but with a 2hr 40min run time, $30 Mil is more than solid. Some comps:

     • “Great Gatsby” opened to $50 Mil in 2013 (20mins shorter)

     • “The Lost City” opened at $30 Mil (with a 50min shorter running time)

   • It also has “the adults” to itself (with “Top Gun”) until “Where the Crawdads Sing” on July 15.

   • And with an $85 Million budget (which… most think is a bit low, ahem 🥴), this should be profitable with Int’l figured in, esp if the very positive audience exit scores keep the box office going in the next few weeks.

2. “Top Gun: Maverick” : $30.5 Million ($521 Million US, $1 Billion global)

   • Still just a 32% drop in week 5 even with all this competition 🤯.

   • Domestic gross is oddly larger than International here.

   • Has now beat “Doctor Strange…” in global box office.

   • I’m taking the over on PAR making a “Spend Independence Day with Maverick” 2nd marketing push this week.

   • Anyone wanna figure out what Tom Cruise’s first-dollar gross deal is making him on this one 😲?

3. “Jurassic World: Dominion” : $26.5 Million ($303 Million US, $747 Million global)

   • A 55% drop, still not great (last week was 61%) but not terrible.

   • Now at $112 Million total in CHINA (about $29 Mil of which goes back to UNI), the biggest US film there this year so far - although local product dominates (#1 movie this weekend was a Chinese drama taking $32 Million).

4. “The Black Phone” : $23 Million ($36 Million global)

   • Over-performed projections, a solid number here.

   • 64% of audience was 18-34 year-olds.

   • Budget was a BLUMHOUSE-friendly $18 Million so this will be a nice moneymaker for all, probably including Ethan 💰.

   • Its much-higher-than-usual for a horror pic B+ rating from audiences should help in the weeks ahead.

5. “Lightyear” : $17.5 Million ($89 Million US, $152 Million global)

   • A bad 65% drop from opening weekend - worst ever for a PIXAR film (not counting Covid-impacted “Onward”).

   • With “Minions” arriving on Friday, this film was just a misfire.

   • And cue the “PIXAR isn't the same without Lasseter” pieces in 3, 2...   Just remember to include the reasons why he was ousted.

6. “Doctor Strange…” : $1.7 Million ($409 Million US, $943 Million global)

   • Almost 2X’d the original’s 2016 box office in the US, although the confusing word of mouth on this one certainly sets a challenge for a 3rd film.

NETFLIX gets next pic from “Spencer” director Pablo Larrain

Called “El Conde”, a dark comedy with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a 250 year-old vampire who has finally decided to die once and for all. (he ruled CHILE from 1973 to 1990, and died in 2006).

The “Jackie” director also co-wrote the script and the movie is now shooting. /Variety

ALSO IN MOVIES & TV

• MARVEL is returning to COMIC CON this year (stars Thu July 21). No word on what pics/talent may be appearing. /THR

• HULU cancels “Woke” after 2 seasons. /Deadline

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💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

F1 Racing TV rights go to ESPN, at 15X+ the cost of their last deal

Wow. ESPN currently pays $5 Million a year for the rights to show the races… and from 2023-2025 they’ll now pay $75 Million to $90 Million a year. #ThanksNetflix!

AMAZON and COMCAST were the other contenders for the rights deal. ESPN+ will get some events, and the big races will air on either ESPN or ABC.

Also shows the continued power of “being on TV” to sway a deal for a sports league - AMAZON‘s bid was actually higher than ESPN / DIS.

Other good details on the bidding process in the link for fellow Sports Rights deal nerds 🤓. /SBJ

APPLE TV+, AMAZON and DISNEY are the 3 finalists in the NFL SUNDAY TICKET deal auction

All bids are in so… everyone is just waiting on the NFL. The SUNDAY TICKET package is in its last year at DIRECTV this upcoming season, so the deal will start with the 2023 season.

• Um 🙋‍♂️ WHAT IS NFL SUNDAY TICKET: It allows you to watch NFL games outside of your home market for about $300 a season. So - it’s for folks who love to flip between a lotta games on a Sunday afternoon…. or say you’re a MINNESOTA VIKINGS fan but live in LA, this lets you watch VIKINGS Sunday regular season games (also lets Sports bars show a ton of games on Sundays).

  • NOTE: This is except if the VIKINGS play the LA RAMS or CHARGERS, then you’d watch it on your local TV network, and it’s only for Sunday Afternoon games - not Monday Night, Sunday Night or Thursday Night Football - then you’d watch on NBC, ESPN or AMAZON respectively. #WelcomeToTheNFL

DIRECTV has famously lost a lotta money on their current $1.5 Billion a year deal so they didn’t show up for this auction, but they may still play a role (say a carve-out to still sell SUNDAY TICKET to bars & restaurants etc). More details on that in the link.

New price is at least $2 Billion a year, and the NFL’s new Mobile-viewing-only service NFL Plus might be thrown in as well.

The $300 consumer price won’t get any better due to contractual reasons with other NFL TV deals. So…. any day now NFL! Ok fine yes technically they have a year+ til they need to make the call. /CNBC

ALSO IN MEDIA

• Pretty much all media companies & agencies came out with statements on Friday reiterating their policies that their health insurance / they will cover travel costs for any employees traveling across state lines for an abortion.

  • While yes… most employees work in NY or CA:

    • The agencies do have significant music business in TN.

    • ABC, CBS and NBC all also own TV stations / employ people in top local markets around the country.

  • I did not see FOX CORP mentioned as making a statement… although that doesn’t mean they don’t have a policy on this.

  • Also seemingly absent were other major Cable companies (CHARTER, COX, DISH, etc) in just doing a basic Google search. They all of course have employees in many locations… but again it doesn’t necessarily mean they their health insurance doesn’t have the policy.

  • On the tech side, most companies issued similar statements including AMAZON, META, APPLE and GOOGLE, who also said employees can apply to relocate to work in another state if they want.

• ALSO: CHARTER was hit with a whopping $337 Million verdict in a murder case in TEXAS. A judge granted the payment for negligence on doing proper background checks on an employee who murdered someone on a cable install visit. CHARTER is obviously appealing the decision. /NextTV

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🏦 STOCK NOTES

Wall Street did a great job of reading the room on Friday once again.

DISH +11% ($18.85)

META +7% ($170.16)

AMC NETWORKS +7% ($30.78)

LIONSGATE +6% ($10.02)

IMAX +6% ($16.33)

CINEMARK THEATERS +6% ($14.81)

NETFLIX +5% ($190.85)

GOOGLE +5% ($2370.76)

PARAMOUNT +5% ($25.76)

SNAP +5% ($14.70)

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

Enjoy the late sunset!

🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - HULU drops new “Only Murders in the Building”

THU - Buy stuff for BBQ’s to avoid the riff-raff on the weekend

FRI - “Minions”!!!

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

nil

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

In honor of “Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis” coming alive… this was a beautiful new rendition of “Can’t Help Falling in Love” from KACEY MUSGRAVES.

And a rare video for a song from a movie that uses clips from the movie like in the olden days. Very powerful.

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM