☀️'Inside Out' + June Heatwave = Box Office Boom
APPLE gets new JLaw pic / NETFLIX out to new ‘Beef’ leads / Latest NHL, MLB audience numbers
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, June 23, 2024.
Where OPENAI’s Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati was back on the interview stage, and, uh, Hollywood came up somehow. Huh 🤷♂️. Just a refresher — Mira was the executive who told the WSJ earlier this year that she did not know if ChatGPT was using YOUTUBE videos to learn from 🧐. Remember, she’s the CTO.
In this interview at DARTMOUTH, the AI gang’s #doublespeak talking point of “it’s a tool” vs. “it’s gonna replace a lot of human jobs” was again in full effect . . . although this quote snuck in there 👇, and perhaps won’t go over well in certain circles: "Some creative jobs might disappear, but perhaps they shouldn't have existed in the first place."
Her comments in full on scripts and such (plus how AI will only increase people’s creativity — you know how bad people are when they do it themselves) are cued up here in the link. Although not to ruin it, she passes right over answering “Has it watched every TV show and movie in the world?”
OTHERWISE: Don’t worry about this, uh, mid-June U.S. heatwave folks 🥵 (plus hey, it’s apparently good for the movie theater business, so — all good), climate activists have a plan in hand — rushing the 18th hole of the PGA Travelers Championship today, and spraying smoke and powder. Yeah, that should do it. Oh right — Scottie Scheffler is also another $3.6M richer for winning said tournament, bouncing back from his U.S. Open debacle to win his 6th PGA tournament this year.
AND: Over at the Women’s PGA Championship, Amy Yang took home the trophy, and the $1.5M prize, and her first golf major tournament win 👏.
ALSO: It’s Clark 2, Reese 1 as the CHICAGO SKY narrowly beat the INDIANA FEVER today 88-87 in their 3rd head-to-head matchup this year (matchup #4 comes at the end of August — Note: The league goes on a break for The Olympics). We’ll see what the ESPN audience looked like for this one in a few days.
AND: SPOTIFY is providing a new music-only tier for $11 a month (vs. $12 including audiobooks). This mirrors efforts the company launched in other countries.
REST IN PEACE: Goes out to an executive who played a central role in the creation of both FOX and The WB TV networks, Jamie Kellner, who died at the age of 77 last week.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
Yes . . . all of the money from the biggest 2 hits of the summer so far has gone to the same studio — but for movie theaters, that doesn’t matter and this is all a much needed lifeline.
Here’s to A Quiet Place and Horizon (🤞) giving us a “4 movies over $10M” weekend on deck, and, uh, let’s see what the heat index gives us July 4th week.
Now, this week’s numbers breakdown 👇.