☀️Heartland Launches 'Twisters' into Box Office Stratosphere
New 'Suits' gets series order / DISNEY board member exits / Exec departures at CBS, FOX
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, July 21, 2024.
Where yes, the 2nd Presidential debate just got a recasting notice . . . but let’s start by sending a big 👏 out to the WNBA this weekend, for showing every other pro sports league how an All-Star game is done — particularly the NBA whose All-Star game has devolved into a bad joke (and whose NBA Olympic team barely beat South Sudan in an exhibition over the weekend 🤦♂️).
Saturday night’s WNBA game had players who actually, ya know, gave a crap about the game they were playing . . . an amazingly fun, on 🔥, record-setting “34 points in one half” performance from Arike Ogunbowale (get to know that name BTW — also a former DWTS contestant #funfact) . . . and a surprising end result to boot!
Kudos to Jason Sudeikis, Ty Dolla $ign and Aubrey Plaza for making the trip to Phoenix to up the celebrity wattage . . . which still could use more support Hollywood, ahem 🧐 (even if Aubrey tore her ACL again playing a game of “Knockout” earlier in the day Saturday).
So, hope it all pays off for ABC when the audience numbers come out.
PLUS: A kudos to Xander Schauffle for winning the British Open Open Championship, his 2nd win at the 4 golf majors this year. Enjoy that $3.1M payday.
It also marks the first year since 1982 where American golfers won all 4 major golf tournaments in a season.
Next up for Xander — playing in The Olympics next week.
OH: Just a note for any Bob Newhart fans — CBS is airing a Bob Newhart: A Legacy of Laughter special tomorrow night (Monday) at 8 p.m. (also streaming on PAR+).
AND: A thanks to the reader (who also has the best name in the world of Sean) who took a moment to say hello to me at STARBUCKS on my final day in L.A. — I told Richard getting an Ankler neck tattoo would pay off . . . your move Rushfield (ok fine, I was wearing my Ankler hat).
HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: Tuesday’s edition of The Wakeup will primarily be a #medianerd🤓 dive into the COMCAST numbers (and if any NBA/WBD thing transpires of course), and regular Wakeup will be back on Wednesday.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
A great weekend for my fellow Twisters optimists . . . although I feel confident saying no one was expecting this weekend’s results.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
Okay, May box office haters / “Americans don’t like going to the movies anymore” crowd — how are all of those #HotTakes from way back when holding up? Way back when being of course . . . about 6 weeks ago.
Add Twisters to the list of movies showing that the audiences are out there more than you know, especially when a studio goes above and beyond (the coasts, ahem) to reach an audience like UNI did on this one, which certainly has echoes of Elvis in 2022 but on a much larger scale.
The summer is also proof that it’s the movies, stupid.
Movies that aren’t considered good by most (Horizon, Fly Me To the Moon, The Watchers, Furiosa) are dropping like rocks in week 2 and beyond — -50% to -70%-type freefalls.
Movies that people, ya know, like . . . are consistently holding extremely well this summer, with week-to-week declines rarely even reaching -45% or so. And there are quite a few of those! Longlegs even surprisingly made this category, despite being in the horror genre.
So, take the latest look at the numbers to know and what they’re indicating about moviegoing, as we await what could be the summer’s biggest opening weekend for a movie — again from DISNEY, which is the current poster child for how “good product” can change everything in a year’s time.
