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The Wakeup

ETERNALS falls short of SHANG CHI, VENOM 2 openings

A24 gets Julia Louis-Dreyfus pic / AMC NETS stock pops 15% on earnings / Will Smith shares KING RICHARD HBOMAX payday with cast

Sean McNulty

Nov 8, 2021

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY November 8, 2021.

Where here’s to me getting more than 5 hours of sleep a night now that hardcore 3Q earnings season is over 👍👍. And hey look it’s Jay-Z!

Beyonce’s husband joined INSTA last week, promoted a movie he produced (NETFLIX’s “The Harder They Fall”)…. and then Jay promptly deleted his verified account a day later. Gotta say that’s kind of a boss move right there 🎤.

Unlike say Vin Diesel, who chose to ask Dwayne Johnson to return for “F10”… via his INSTA account. Sure Dwayne will respect putting it out that way vs. a phone call. Or including any acknowledgement of past behavior.

vindiesel

A post shared by Vin Diesel (@vindiesel)

ALSO: The lawsuits around the tragedy at Travis Scott’s ASTROWORLD festival this weekend have already begun. 8 people died and over 300 were treated for injuries on Friday night.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

A24 picks up US rights to Julia Louis-Dreyfus re-team with Nicole Holofcener

The two previously did 2013’s “Enough Said”, and this one’s called “Beth & Don” - about a happy couple whose marriage hits a rough patch when the novelist wife overhears her husband say he hasn’t liked her writing in years.

No rights price disclosed. /THR

BOX OFFICE

“Eternals” : $71 Million ($162 Million global)
- Roughly the same box office opening weekend as “F9”, but with the lowest audience approval exit scores of any MCU Film.
  - Slightly below”Shang-Chi” $75 Million opening
  - Definitely below“Black Widow” $80 Million opening
  - And way below “Venom: Let There be Carnage” $90 Million opening.
- IMAX was 10% of the US Box Office - kinda average, and was less than 10% globally (will not play in MIDDLE EAST or CHINA theaters).
“DUNE” : $7.6 Million ($84 Mil US, $330 Million global)
- 51% drop (up from a 62% drop vs. opening weekend) - not bad considering it lost all IMAX theaters to “Eternals” this weekend.
“NO TIME TO DIE” : $6.1 Million ($143 Million US, $667 Million global)
- Only down 20% from last weekend - Finally the low percentage drop that was hoped for… 4 weeks into its release.
- CHINA added another $21 million, will likely top out around $65 Million there.
- IMAX makes up just 6% of total box office ($42 Million)
“VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE” : $4.4 Million ($197 Million US, $424 Million global)
“RON’S GONE WRONG” : $3.6 Million ($17 Million US)
“THE FRENCH DISPATCH” : $2.6 Million ($8.4 Million US)
- Same gross as last weekend… despite adding 400 more theaters (a 33% increase)

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

“SPENCER” had an… ok opening, to put an optimistic spin on it. $2.1 Million total, per screen average was $2,100.

“HALLOWEEN KILLS” will likely top out around $95 Million in the US. The 2018 film hit $159 Million

“LAST NIGHT IN SOHO” and “ANTLERS” both fell around 55% in week 2, “Soho” likely to hit PVOD next week (“Antlers” can’t due to FOX’s HBO output deal).

ALSO IN MOVIES

Will Smith reportedly shared some of his “King Richard” WARNER MEDIA bonus 💰💰 for adding the HBOMAX distribution thing (reportedly $20+ Million) with some of his cast. /THR
ANNAPURNA promotes Interactive division head Nathan Gary to President, overseeing Film, TV and Theater as well.

📺 THE TV SET

Emilio Estevez not returning to DISNEY+ “Mighty Ducks” show for Season 2 due to vaxx requirement

Technically DISNEY made the choice not to pick up his option for Season 2, given the difficulty in getting him to commit to abiding by the policy. /Deadine

ALSO IN TV

Kim Catrall joins HULU’s “How I Met Your Father” with Hilary Duff. She’ll play the future version of Hilary’s character. /Variety
WARNER BROS TV pitching a daytime syndicated TV show hosted by Jennifer Hudson - will see if there are any major station group buyers. /Deadline
THR did a Q&A with WME’s co-head of TV Erin Junkin for anyone inclined for a front-row seat perspective on changes in Broadcast TV dealmaking, and the overall health of selling TV shows in 2021.
ROKU adds former CBS exec Kelli Raftery as VP of Comms. She joins from former CBS head Joe Iannello’s SPAC, ARGUS CAPITAL. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

A Look at the future of IMAX’s business growth (it’s not in the US)

While US Movie Studios increasingly suffer as CHINA prioritizes local movies, IMAX remains a big beneficiary either way. October US movies with IMAX versions -“Dune” and “No Time to Die” will both finish up well under $100 Million in CHINA, but local Chinese hit “The Battle of Lake Changjin”… which also has an IMAX version is at $780 Million. And IMAX gets to enjoy the spoils for all.

An interesting read into projections for anyone inclined, as their CEO indicated that JAPAN has the biggest per-screen average by far, followed by AUSTRALIA and… THE MIDDLE EAST. /THR

IMAX has 1580 total screens, almost half of which are in CHINA:

CHINA: 752 screens
US: 362 screens

AMC Q3 Revenue beats expectations

Hit $810 Million for the July thru Sept period, with $110 Million of profit. That Revenue # is about $80 Million below LIONSGATE for some reference.

Says they’re on track to hit 9 Million streaming subscribers by end of year, but no breakout how many are AMC+, SHUDDER, ALLBLK, etc.

Or ARPU for any of them. Or overall revenue for any of those endeavors. Wall Street dgaf…and stock was up over 14%. /THR

ALSO IN MEDIA

Attendance at the country’s 3rd largest movie theater chain CINEMARK in Q3 2021: 21.5 million, vs. 44.1 million in Q3 2019.
META exploring a launch of something called IRL stores to help sell their Virtual world OCULUS products. Still in development phase. /NY TIMES

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

LIONSGATE +22% on the news they’re looking to spin-off or sell STARZ

PELOTON -35% as people go back to gyms and use their bikes less and less according to their earnings call.

IMAX +5%, CINEMARK +8%

VIMEO takes another 4% hit, continuing from their earnings call last week

ALTICE +10% on news they’re no longer gonna cheap-out on upgrading their systems infrastructure now that they’ve squeezed out every possible other way to add new customers.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

ESPN Monday Night Football - BEARS at STEELERS at 815p

NY COMEDY FESTIVAL begins, goes thru Sunday. You can check out the shows/get tix here.

If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

SNL - Ok this isn’t a trailer, but new cast member James Austin Johnson totally nailed his Trump impersonation, it’ll make you almost forget Alec’s version. Not that one hopes fictional Trump is back on the show much… but great to see it’s in good hands.