☀️Hollywood dominates SUPER BOWL Ads, as MAGIC MIKE leads big Box Office drop

COMCAST ending free PEACOCK for Cable subs / NEW LINE wins another bidding war / DIS+HOTSTAR losing HBO content

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY February 13, 2023.

Where how about those Crypto ads huh? Sorry I forgot to amend the newsletter from a year ago. #FortuneFavorsTheBroke.

Hope you’re all done scanning that plethora of SUPER BOWL Ad QR codes by now 🙄 (who doesn’t love getting homework from TV Ads?), in a game that was not available on any SVOD Streaming service - and no I’m not counting watching it on your phone via NFL+.

But really quite a HOLLYWOOD showing last night on the biggest event of the year! And no I’m not counting Elon sitting with Rupert Murdoch in the FOX box. The paychecks rundown:

• Ben Affleck for DUNKIN as the first Ad in the game… that I thought would be funnier - though points to J.Lo for the end cameo.

• Anna Faris for AVOCADOS

• Kev Hart for DRAFT KINGS

• Alica Silverstone doing Clueless for RAKUTEN

• Ben Stiller and Steve Martin for PEPSI (separately)

  • So PEPSI has gone from sponsoring the music halftime show with artists like THE WEEKND, GAGA and JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE… to two ads featuring 57 and 77 year-old actors. Diet soda, you’ve changed man.

• Adam Driver for SQUARESPACE

• Will Ferrell for GM (and NETFLIX, who had back-to-back co-branding spots. The other was with MICHELOB ULTRA for the NETFLIX PGA show)

• Diddy for UBER

• Maya Rudolph for Ma&Yas M&Ms

• Danny McBride for DOWNEY

• Jon Hamm, Brie Larson, and Pete Davidson for HELLMAN’S

• Jennifer Coolidge for ELF COSMETICS

• Breaking Bad duo for POP CORNERS

• Miles & Keleigh Teller for BUD LIGHT

• Melissa McCarthy for BOOKING.COM

• Snoop for SKETCHERS

• John Travolta for T-MOBILE 5G Broadband (with the Scrubs guys #Zack&Donald)

• Bradley Cooper and his mom Gloria for T-MOBILE… who made a refreshing pivot to an ‘outtakes’ creative approach.

  • This was my favorite Ad even if it seemed like T-MOBILE was super pissed their creative turned into this, with their passive-aggressive VO line at the end. Then again it may very well have been the plan going in - but definitely didn’t seem like it.

PLUS: A Movie preview bonanza! And a little TV (outside of all the FOX network promo - nice try with the attempt at USFL excitement btw):

• UNI Fast X (I wonder which Fast movie actually first had the“What’s the plan Dom?” line in it 🤔)

• UNI / PEACOCK Poker Face

• DIS Indy 5

• DIS Ant-Man (with HEINEKEN)

• WB The Flash

• MGM Creed III

• AMAZON / MGM Air

• PAR+ Stallone brand spot

• FOX TUBI - in the biggest WTF ad of the night. Seriously, who thought that folks in bunny costumes kidnapping people and throwing them into a hole was the way to go? #hotmess.

  • Update: TUBI one-upped themselves in their 2nd Ad - showing people how to turn off the game they’re watching on FOX… to instead watch a movie from 20 years ago on TUBI 🤦‍♂️. From the parent company of the network airing the game no less. #fail

• DISNEY brand spot - this would have made for a great DIS+ spot actually, really well done. Wonder how much SUPER BOWL money 2023’s Marketing budget will have in it…

  • ALSO: The final 30 minutes of the pre-game YOUTUBE TV ‘pre kick’ leading into the game had a bonanza of “Transformers”, “65”, “Dungeons & Dragons”, “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” and “Cocaine Bear” all jammed in there.

  • AND: UNI’s “Strays” had an Ad right after the game.

OH: KANSAS CITY won in a down to the wire, high scoring game, 38-35.

NEW RULE: If your team of ‘experts’ all get the winner wrong - you can’t come back next time.

#fail #bigfail #fail #closefail. via my tv

• SPECIAL NOD: To Philly fans… who resoundingly booed DALLAS QB Dax Prescott when he received the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year humanitarian award for doing good in his community, the NFL’s highest honor. Oh wait sorry, they booed him twice. You stay classy Philadelphia (and no those weren’t KC fans mixed in on the boos).

ALSO: Just a reminder… newly pregnant RIRI was not paid for her Halftime appearance yesterday 😳 - The Huddle Up #norelation had a good breakdown of the SUPER BOWL halftime show economics.

PLAY BALL: Great news for YANKEES haters - Jeter is joining A-Rod as part of FOX’s official broadcasting crew this season.

ROCK ON: U2 will be the big act launching MSG’s SPHERE arena in Vegas this September (in some sort of residency). But uh… probably not the best week for the imagery of “mysterious spheres” floating in the sky in the promo 😳.

• Also no Larry Mullen - he’s having shoulder surgery.

PLUS: Sounds like you can credit Fast X director Louis Leterrier for a lot of what you saw in that movie’s trailer:

“I read the script four times on the plane, and I said I had some ideas, and they said, ‘Great, because the whole third act is changing. Can you rewrite it tonight?’

And when you rewrite the third act, and the first act, the second act has to go. So basically I had to on the fly rebuild the airplane.”

• Louis in Esquire Middle East about his eventful flight to the Fast X set after getting an emergency phone call from UNI to replace franchise director Justin Lin, once the shoot had already begun.

  • FWIW: Louis does not have a writing credit on the film.

A FAREWELL: Industry crisis PR stalwart and co-founder of the BNC PR firm Howard Bragman died over the weekend at 66 years old.

IN TODAY’S EDITION:

• The BOX OFFICE falls almost 40% from last weekend - a look inside the latest numbers.

• COMCAST sets another scale-back to the Free PEACOCK gravy train.

• AMAZON eyes streaming acquisition in INDIA market.

• NEW LINE wins another Horror bidding war.

• DISNEY+HOTSTAR likely losing HBO content in addition to IPL cricket.

• SHO & NETFLIX swap series and more.

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📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

maybe coulda used a little more of this? 🤷‍♂️ via giphy