Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY May 3, 2021.

Where the award for biggest TV ratings in April goes to… the NFL DRAFT. Sorry OSCARS - Night 1 of the Draft drew 12.3 Million viewers across ABC, ESPN and the NFL NETWORK combined (mostly on ESPN). While I wasn’t technically drafted… I had a lot of chatter according to my agent.

ALSO: T-Pain just found out about the Message Request folder in INSTA DM’s… and discovered 2 years worth of messages from celebrities 🙇‍♂️ . Ah T-Pain… never change.

And just putting this handy button here:

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📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Kumail Nanjiani to star/co-write movie directed by Andy Muschietti (“IT”, “The Flash”)

Called “The Doubtful Guest”, based on a short story from the 50s about a penguin-like creature who shows up unannounced at a family’s manor, as penguins are known to do. Trouble and chaos ensues.

AMBLIN producing, Emily Gordon co-writing with Kumail. No studio/streaming home mentioned.  /THR

NETFLIX buys US rights to female assassins movie “Gunpowder Milkshake” from STX

Stars Karen Gillian, Lena Hersey, Angela Bassett and Paul Giamatti among others in a story of 3 generations of female assassins who try and stop a cycle of violence over the course of one night.

No sale price indicated, film will hit NETFLIX this Summer TBD, and movie theaters globally. /Deadline

BOX OFFICE

1. “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” : $6.4 Million ($32 Million US)

2. “Mortal Kombat” : $6.2 Million ($34 Mil US, $67 Million global)

   Both films dropped over 70% from their opening weekend.

3. “Godzilla vs Kong” : $2.7 Million ($90 Million US, $415 Million globally)

4. “Separation” : $1.8 Million

5. “Raya & the Last Dragon” : $1.3 Million ($41.5 Million US)

MEANWHILE IN CHINA: The top 3 films there made $65 Million, $40 Million and $20 Million respectively - all local Chinese films.

ALSO IN MOVIES

• APPLE TV picks up filmed version of “Come From Away” stage show. No price or premiere date indicated. /Variety

• “In The Heights” screening June 4 at Hollywood Chinese Theater for Latino Int’l Film Festival (pre-TRIBECA debut).

• VERVE talent agency re-opening offices after July 4th weekend. Company giving everyone the week off in advance. /THR

📺 THE TV SET

Finn Wittrock (“Ratched”, “The Big Short”) to star in HBOMAX “Green Lantern” series

He’ll play a Lantern named Guy Gardner from the 80s, but the show will feature several Lanterns from over the decades.

Greg Berlanti is Exec Producing. /Variety

HBOMAX sets Taika Waititi to direct and co-star in pirate comedy “Our Flag Means Death”

Will direct the pilot and play famed pirate “Blackbeard” in the project based on a real person from the 1800’s - an aristocrat who chooses to turn into pirate, played by Rhys Darby (Murray from “Flight of the Conchords”) in the 6 episode series. /THR

ALSO IN TV

• CBS sets Vanessa Lachey to lead “NCIS Hawaii”. If Nick doesn’t recur as the singer for a local bar band… that’s just a lost opportunity right there. /THR

• NBC renews “Young Rock” and “Keenan” for their Fall schedule. /Variety

• HBOMAX orders sequel or continuation (🤷‍♂️) of early 2000s series “The Brothers Garcia”. /Variety

• FOX’s free streaming service TUBI launching 140 hours of Original Programming this Fall. Some animated stuff from the “Bob’s Burgers” production company, and Reality/Docu stuff from FOX’s Alternative arm… but likely will get more details in the NÉW FRONTS this week. /THR

• Nikki Glaser hosting 2nd night of MTV TV AWARDS centered on unscripted/reality TV. Airs Mon May 17. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

HBOMAX with ads will be $10/month… which as far as I can tell means HBO is now $10/month

HBOMAX is not putting ads in the HBO Content on the ad-supported version… so I can now pay $10 and stream all of HBO on HBOMAX ad-free just like I would have on HBO GO in earlier times, as far as I can tell.

Plus I get HBOMAX and TURNER stuff with ads. The only thing I won’t get are the WB Theatrical premieres. Kinda makes paying $15 a month for HBO via a cable company seem a bit 🥴 .

This $10/month Ad-supported HBOMAX will hit the US in June TBD. /CNBC

Today in MORE People who made way more money than me last year…

LIBERTY MEDIA CEO Michael Fries made $44.9 Million in 2020 (mostly in stock grants and stock options) at the international cable TV giant run by John Malone.

DISCOVERY CEO David Zazlav made $37.7 Million (mostly in stock), down about $8 Million from his 2019 take-home. But hopefully the 355k private jet allowance softened the blow.

And AMC NETWORKS head Josh Sapan made $11.8 Million (mostly in stock and non-cash compensation), down from over $20 Million the previous few years. COO Edward Carroll made $6.7 million, down from $8.4 Million.

ALSO IN MEDIA

• TIKTOK promoted their CFO Shou Zi Chew to the CEO role, almost a year after Kevin Mayer left. (Their interim CEO is now shifting to the COO position). /Variety

• #2 US Cable company CHARTER lost 138k cable TV subscribers in the first quarter. Added 355k Broadband subs, 300k mobile phone subs. /CordCutterNews

  CHARTER totals now stand around:

  • 15.5 Million TV subscribers

  • 29.1 Million Broadband

  • 3.1 Million Mobile phone

• Cable company ALTICE (formerly CABLEVISION) lost 54k cable TV subscribers from Jan to March. Added 12k Broadband. Overall for 2020… they lost 234k cable TV subscribers. /Next TV

  ALTICE totals now stand around:

  • 2.8 Million TV subs

  • 4.3 Million Broadband

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

TWITTER dropped 15% on Friday based on their… less than stellar user growth projections from their earnings call.

ENDEAVOR had a popular day two, +9% as UFC fans may be rallying around the stock. This week will be very telling.

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

NETFLIX“Lucifer” Season 5, part deux trailer. Drops Fri May 28.

STARZ “Heels” Series teaser - set in the realm of a small town wrestling league. Premieres Aug 15.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

Nothin doin. But the digital advertising NEW FRONTS kickoff, so… should be another busy week for news.

Also the APPLE v EPIC (“Fortnite”) trial begins, the 30% cut of revenue that APPLE takes from apps in its AppStore is on the line. Trial expected to last about 3 weeks.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Brand new DROPKICK MURPHYS “Turn Up that Dial” - New album, also called “Turn Up That Dial” dropped this weekend.

Listen on Spotify or:

If you need new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Finishing up with a rest in peace goes out to Olympia Dukakis who died this weekend at the age of 89… make the most of your Monday ya’ll.

Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect on LINKED IN - my name here goes right to my profile.

-Sean McNulty or @theseanmac on TWITTER and on CLUBHOUSE