☀️'Godzilla' Destroys Tracking with Kong Assist
Theatrical sched gets more 2024 shifts / Latest March Madness audience #s / PAR+ trims kids series
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, March 31, 2024.
Where I hope you found all of your Easter eggs today! Then again, it’s always nice to find a surprise when putting up the Christmas decorations.
AND: Add Local 80 (Motion Picture Studio Grips) and Local 706 (Make-Up Artists and Hairstylists Guild) to the list of folks setting tentative agreements with the AMPTP. Local 700 (Motion Picture Editors Guild) is expected to continue negotiations tomorrow.
About 50% of IATSE’s West Coast local guilds have now made deals.
March Madness Weekend Two:
WHO’S PLAYING ⛹️:
Here is your men’s Final Four matchup this Saturday:
NC STATE vs. PURDUE
UCONN vs. ALABAMA
The women’s Final Four will be decided tomorrow night, with most eyes on IOWA vs. LSU at 7 p.m. on ESPN, followed by USC vs. UCONN at 9 p.m.
WHO’S BUYING💰(again, solely based on my ad experience watching games this weekend, and admittedly I was watching more women’s hoops, which had fewer movie spots by far):
UNI kept the Monkey Man ad spending going strong in the men’s games, and has added Abigail into the mix — a movie I’m thinking we should be paying more attention to on the April calendar . . . plus WB kept Godzilla x Kong spending going, especially on the TBS games, as well as the usual MAX and Penguin spending.
A24 has curiously been sitting out March Madness thus far with Civil War.
Of course, we’ll see who spends the big bucks 🤑 in Final Four and Championship game spending this weekend, where ad time reportedly nears $2M for 30 seconds for the men’s final game.
WHO’S WATCHING 👀:
Men’s March Madness got 10.2 Million viewers for the first day of Sweet Sixteen games on CBS/TBS/TruTV Thursday, about the same as last year.
NORTH CAROLINA’s loss to ALABAMA was the biggest game, getting 7.8 Million viewers, +27% from the equivalent game last year (featuring teams with smaller followings, UCLA & GONZAGA).
COMPS: Well, 10.2M is an aggregate number across many games . . . so it’s not apples to apples — but it’s:
A bigger audience than the Globes this year (9M)
About the same size as a top marquee regular season college football game
Opening night for MLB Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN got 1.6 Million viewers.
AND: Always helps to be 7’4” 👇
WAKEUP BOX-OFFICE POLL
The slight minority of Godzilla bulls won . . . by a mile. Tracking hasn’t been this wrong in some time.