☀️ Iger Defends Disney Creative Process to Wall Street
McMahon sells large TKO stake / NETFLIX gets more Airbender / Caitlin Clark beats most NBA audiences
Morning! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY, March 6, 2024.
Where yes, the infamous Sopranos finale “booth” was auctioned off by Holsten’s Ice Cream shop in Jersey this week, as the furniture was over 60 years old and no longer repairable.
The winning bid was $82,500, which will more than cover the renovations the owner is undertaking (don’t worry, he’s keeping the same aesthetic — btw he was expecting to get $10g’s for the booth. Come on bro 😂).
So, a kudos to the new owner, and may the addition to your garage raise fewer eyebrows from the neighbors than that Bada Bing stripper catwalk that I bought — I really shoulda listened to Richard on that one 🤦♂️.
PLUS: Hope you all had a fine early start to the week — I of course spent my day off relaxing with Nelson Peltz’s 130-page uh, 2.0 (🤷♂️) Restore the Magic DISNEY presentation, where, and this may surprise you, the real problem at DISNEY for the past six years has been . . . the board 🤯 🤫.
AND: Vince McMahon sold about $412 Million worth of TKO stock this week (or about 5.3M shares, roughly 25% of his remaining stake) — TKO execs were asked by an analyst on the earnings call about a week ago if Vince had any intentions to sell his stake/would TKO buy shares, and they basically reiterated we have no idea what Vince’s plans are with his stake.
JOB OPENING: The co-CEOs of C-SPAN are gonna call it a day after 14 years and 35+ years at the company overall so . . . if you’re looking for job security — apply within.
AH: The parent company of the Just For Laughs comedy fest has filed for bankruptcy, and there will be no JFL festival this year. The hope is to return in 2025 after its debt restructuring is complete.
THEN: For a guy who has complained loudly about how much DISNEY has been charging his company . . . CHARTER CEO Chris Winfrey sure seems fine accepting an $89 Million one-year pay package from his own company in 2023, his first full year as CEO. His 2022 pay package as COO was about $15 Million.
Yes, most of it is in Zaslav-esque stock-based awards ($84 Million), which are somewhat tied to performance of the stock over the next five years.
Of note: President of tech & product, Richard Geronimo, got a $53M package, and CFO Jessica Fischer received almost $29M, again largely in stock-tied compensation, and this is likely a one-time event — would be surprised to see this happen again next year at anywhere near this level.
But still, bottom line — that’s over $165M in compensation to just three executives for one year 🤯.
Then again, as CHARTER stock is -22% in the past 3 months, having not recovered from its #badnews Q4 earnings report (and stagnant-to-falling broadband business outlook), they have some work to do — the benefits of which I’m sure they’ll totally share with the rank and file who make it actually happen 😁.
OH: As for those WBD C-suite stock options tied to future stock performance, things ain’t looking so great — WBD hit a new 52-week low yesterday at the $8.02 a share mark.
TODAY: At the MORGAN STANLEY Conference (links to listen in bold, all times ET):
TKO at 10:15 a.m. Prez Mark Shapiro
PARAMOUNT at 11 a.m. CFO Naveen Chopra
COMCAST at 11:45 a.m. CFO Jason Armstrong
IN THIS EDITION:
Summer movie season gets 2 more additions, as NETFLIX, CBS, AMAZON, PAR+wSHO, FOCUS and APPLE all add to the casting & deal news mix.
Sandler’s NETFLIX magic comes up short on the films chart, as the Amell brothers have the most popular movie in the world, on its largest streaming service.
BYTEDANCE is closing in on META revenue levels.
Exec moves & news at NETFLIX, AMAZON, IMAGINE and more.
An update on the LIONSGATE/STARZ split and a busy day in the media business, plus… ok yeah I already took a day off this week — let’s just get moving.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
