☀️ENDEAVOR talks WME Strike exposure and big $$ targets for 2023
Big shakeup at DUNE Prequel series / PAR passed on $3 Bil for SHO / DIS shuffles top TV exec oversight
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY March 1, 2023.
Where look at that, it’s March! 2023 is now 17% over, however it’s still not declaring an ARPU. 🥁 (closest I can get to rimshot in emoji).
ALSO: ED SHEERAN will drop his next album “-” on May 5. It’ll be a very personal acoustic album, written while Ed was dealing with some tough life situations in 2022 as he talked about in his post announcing the news.
PLUS: The Stranger Things creative team is doing an origin story of sorts… as a play. In London. It’s set in 1959 and called Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Stephen Daldry is directing, no cast as of yet.
THEN: The Back to the Future: The Musical BROADWAY show has cast Casey Likes as Marty McFly. Casey also played the Patrick Fugit role in the short-lived Almost Famous show. Roger Bart is already set to play Doc. Performances begin at the end of June.
AND: CNN’s Reliable Sources does an excellent job outlining how, in addition to the trouble FOX CORP is in from the DOMINION lawsuit alone… FOX is also exposed to some potentially very legitimate shareholder lawsuits should the DOMINION trial not go in FOX’s favor (regardless of the size of a potential financial judgement), and this could actually be a bigger issue…
Ya gotta tell your shareholders about potential serious threats to your business. Given the damning testimony over this past week from the FOX CORP mgmt side, the content of which the Board (aka Rupert) knew in advance, it sure seems tough to justify keeping FOX NEWS leadership execs in charge who have arguably shown gross negligence. And I’m not sure mentioning the DOMINION lawsuit risk in a paragraph deep in a 10-K form is gonna cut it (if indeed they did that).
I also don’t recall FOX talking much about the DOMINION lawsuit in their earnings call a few weeks ago, perhaps as a cursory mention at best - certainly nothing dire or along the lines of the testimony we’ve read in the past week or so.
WHAT’S YOUR TAKE RIGHT NOW?
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
ENDEAVOR talks Strike ramifications, gives a little WWE insight and breaks down their successful Q4 (minus a huge tax bill). A #medianerd🤓 look inside the Earnings Report numbers.
PARAMOUNT rejected a $3 Billion bid for SHOWTIME.
Studio pics & 2 pretty unknown films dominate the NETFLIX Film chart as David Harbour’s Ghost pic tops the list with so-so numbers.
DISNEY TV shifts top exec responsibilities, as AMAZON makes new Film leader official.
WGA switches lead negotiator with Studios.
LIV Golf fails to impress in CW debut.
AMC Theaters Q4 Earnings Report can’t win over their stock fanboys - just as Avatar couldn’t save their Revenue. A dive into their latest numbers and health of the largest Movie Theater chain in the US, and a look at Q4 comps from the past several years.
A lotta movie casting & project news from Hong Chau to Jenna Ortega to Justin Lin and much more.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
NETFLIX Film Global Viewership Chart Breakdown
usual caveats: back of the napkin math, assumes everyone finished the movie (including the credits), no one watched twice, or that a bunch of folks didn’t rewind certain parts, etc. so consider these minimum numbers. and it’s based on NETFLIX’s self-reported numbers.
The week of Feb 20 thru Feb 26:
We Have a Ghost, the David Harbour / Anthony Mackie social media ghost action-comedy opened at #1, but didn’t have an overwhelming debut. It would have ranked around #33 on the 2022 list.
OTHER NEW ENTRANTS
2 films with little promotion & no known stars took Top 4 slots on the chart - a new thriller, and a random 2020 action movie that wasn’t available on NETFLIX US, continuing this oft-recurring theme on the NETFLIX Film chart this year.
So, let’s take a dive into this week’s Top Global Films chart…
