Kevin Spacey owes $31 Million to HOUSE OF CARDS producer
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Kevin Spacey owes $31 Million to HOUSE OF CARDS producer
COMCAST may pull NBC shows from HULU / HBO orders The Weeknd's music biz drama / FOX & HBO re-do 2022 movie output deal
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY November 23, 2021.
Where all the promos I saw for Episode 2 of Tom Brady’s docuseries “Man In The Arena” during Monday Night Football last night made me realize… just how much I’ve heard no one talking about it. Brady may be the Michael Jordan of NFL Championships, but MJ owns the docuseries #TheLastDanceFTW
All Brady kidding from a GIANTS fan aside (for the record he kicked our ass last night 30-10…), it would be interesting to see what being on NETFLIX (74 Million US subscribers) vs ESPN+ (17 Million subs) would do for the “Man In The Arena” zeitgeist factor. Or - even just airing on ESPN itself, like “The Last Dance”.
ALSO: GRAMMY Nominations come out at 12noon 🤞
AND: Episode 1 of HBOMAX’s “The Sex Lives of College Girls” is now free to watch here on YT
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
“King Richard” got 707k HBOMAX views on opening weekend according to SAMBA
Note: this doesn’t include mobile views.
Total opening weekend movie tickets sold was under 500k, so HBOMAX ftw… as much as 707k views can be considered a win.
It’s about on par with “In The Heights” and “Cry Macho” opening streaming weekends. “Sopranos” movie was 1+ Million.
HBOMAX head Andy Forssell told DEADLINE over 50% of people who streamed it didn’t pause it once during the 2hr 24min runtime… but he declined to ya know - share how many actual people streamed it, as the BS streaming metrics show continues. /Deadline
AMAZON PRIME buys US rights to Sam Claflin rom-com
Called “Book of Love”, from a UK writer who wrote on “Veep” & “Avenue 5”.
A reserved British author (is that redundant?) drops a book that… totally bombs. Except in MEXICO for some reason, where he goes for a book tour with the local language translator who just happens to be a total hottie (Verónica Echegui), and who also… apparently re-wrote his book as an erotic novel in her translation of it.
BUZZFEED STUDIOS is among the producers (although doesn’t seem like the concept ever had anything to do with something on BUZZFEED), and the digital brand will also be involved in the promotion of the film when the movie drops on AMAZON in February. /THR
ALSO IN MOVIES
NETFLIX buys their own VFX house, SCANLINE. They’ve done work on “Stranger Things” and “Cowboy Bebop” and recent MARVEL and DC movies. Will remain a separate division and still work with outside clients, accquisition price not disclosed. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
HBO orders “The Idol” starring The Weeknd, co-created by Sam Levinson (“Euphoria”)
Abel - err The Weeknd plays an LA club owner who’s also a self-help guru and apparently a cult leader (LA amirite?) who starts a relationship with an up-and-coming pop star played by Lily Rose-Depp. And it totally goes great.
Amy Seimetz (”The Girlfriend Experience”) is directing all 6 episodes, and Suzanna Son who got notices in the “Simon Rex as a porn star returning home to Texas” festival hit “Red Rocket” this Fall, is joining as well. /Deadline
Kevin Spacey must pay “House of Cards” producer MRC $31 Million for breach of contract
Essentially to cover losses due to his sexual misconduct on set, including shutting down production, having the episode order cut and having to basically re-work the series.
Decision came down from an arbitrator. /THR
AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS get about half of 2019 show audience on ABC Sunday night
Matched the 2020 pandemic show last year at 3.8 Million viewers, but 2018 & 2019 audiences were around 6.7 Million.
Sunday Night Football was about on average / slightly below its usual number in fast ratings with 12.6 Million, but that will rise a decent amount in final numbers. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
PEACOCK renews “We Are Lady Parts” for Season 2. No specifics on a return timeline for the well-reviewed UK muslim female punk rock group comedy series. Co-production with UK’s Channel 4. /THR
“The Shield” & “SWAT” creator Shawn Ryan casts Gabriel Basso (“Hillbilly Elegy”) and Luciane Buchanan (“Mr Corman”) as the leads in his NETFLIX series “The Night Agent”. Basso plays a low-level FBI agent manning a phone in the White House basement that never rings — until it does 😳, and a top-level conspiracy ensues. 10 episode order. /THR
Bobby Flay changes his mind on FOOD NETWORK’s offer - Agrees to 3-year extension of his deal… after previously indicating he was ending his 27 year relationship with the DISCOVERY-owned network back in October as they were far apart on deal terms. No price/terms indicated as to where they landed. /Variety
“Outlander” Season 6 will premiere Sun March 6 on STARZ.
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
HBO & DISNEY re-negotiate final year of FOX’s movie output deal
The long-existing deal where FOX movies go to HBO (and HBOMAX) for their “Pay1” / first TV and streaming window after theatrical release ends with films released in December 2022.
So FOX aka 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS movies released in 2023 onward will go to DISNEY+… but the new plan for the year ahead is:
Half of the FOX 2022 movie slate will still be exclusive to HBO / HBOMAX in streaming & TV.
Then “A selection of titles” (presumably the other half) will be “co-exclusive” on both HBO/MAX and DISNEY+ and / or HULU.
In exchange for this sharing… HBO will get their exclusive FOX movies earlier than stipulated in the existing deal (which was typically 7-9 months after theatrical release).
As for the exact films on the 2022 slate that will be shared… that was not reported.
Except that it’ll actually start with FOX’s October animated movie “Ron’s Gone Wrong” - it will hit HBOMAX and DISNEY+ on Dec 15, just 7 weeks after its US theatrical release. /Variety
COMCAST considers pulling NBC content from HULU in 2022 to make it exclusive to PEACOCK
COMCAST has a HULU deal clause that would allow it to pull current NBC content (“The Voice”, “Chicago” shows, SNL etc) from HULU in late 2022. If it doesn’t exercise it, it’ll have to wait til 2024.
COMCAST still has a 1/3 stake in HULU that DISNEY must buy out in 2024 if COMCAST requests… but the two are in active arbitration as to the actual $$ value of HULU - currently somewhere between $27 Billion and $70 Billion so that’ll be fun. This removal of NBC programming in 2022 clause is unrelated to that buyout clause.
COMCAST will have to make the decision to remove the NBC content in ‘early 2022’ to trigger the actual ‘late 2022’ content removal… but given their somewhat recent acknowledgement about the need to seriously invest in PEACOCK, it’d be surprising if this didn’t happen. Not to mention - the new head of PEACOCK, is the former head of HULU. /WSJ
WALMART sets Jason Derulo to host their first TWITTER live stream shopping show this weekend
The 30 minute show will also include “guest stars”… as WALMART is trying out TWITTER’s brand new Live-shopping feature with the show on Sunday at 7p.
Oh it’s also on INSTAGRAM. And Walmart.com. And YOUTUBE. And TIKTOK. And FACEBOOK. But uh… I’m sure it’ll look best on the TWITTER version 😎. /TechCrunch
AND: BUZZFEED cut a 1 year deal with TIKTOK to produce multiple live series for the platform - TOK will provide the sponsors. Kicking off with a weekly, 8-part TASTY live cooking series “I Made This” through the holiday season, other series TBA. /Digiday
ALSO IN MEDIA
NIELSEN announces moves to begin giving individual commercials ratings in 2022. Eventual plan is to move onto a new measurement besides C3 (i.e. live+3 days of viewership after airing) which has been in place since 2007. /B&C
TIKTOK adds app to LG & SAMSUNG Smart TV platforms in North America, and GOOGLE TV streaming devices so you can better perfect the nuances of TOK dances on a 65 inch screen. /Variety
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
The ROBLOX exuberance came down a bit yesterday, as the stock was down 10%
Otherwise a slightly down day but no major moves. However in “things many Media folks own”… PELOTON continued its decline. Not a great month to own this stock.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
SONY “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City” hits theaters
NETFLIX “Jonas Family Roast” hosted by Keenan Thompson - Stream or Add to your List here
NETFLIX “Masters of the Universe: Revelation Part 2” - Stream or Add to Your List here
HBO “Black and Missing” docuseries - Premeires at 8p, episodes 1 and 2 back to back
BOOK RELEASE: “Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers” by James Andrew Miller- buy all 975 pages here on AMAZON. All shipped in separate boxes.
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
SHOWTIME “Ray Donovan: The Movie” trailer - Premieres Fri Jan 14
TBS / CARTOON NETWORK “HARRY POTTER: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses” trailer - Put your HP nerd-dom to the test in this 4 episode trivia competition show hosted by Helen Mirren. Premieres Sun Nov 28, airs Sundays thru Dec 17 on both networks.
PEACOCK “MacGruber” Jailhouse Interview - Grubes69 is back! And in prison… for now. Christmas comes early as All 8 episodes Arrive on Thu Dec 16
AMAZON PRIME “As We See It” trailer - And now for something completely different #thanksGrubes - a new series from Jason Katims (“Parenthood”) about 3 twenty-somethings on the autism spectrum living together and trying to be on their own (featuring 3 actors on the spectrum themselves). Premieres Fri Jan 21
NETFLIX “Inventing Anna” 30 sec teaser spot - First show Shonda Rhimes has written since “Scandal” - 9 episode limited series starring Julia Garner as a woman who was either a German-heiress or con-artist who made her way into NYC high society, in a story notoriously documented in NEW YORK Magazine. Anna Chlumsky plays the reporter, Laverne Cox also has a lead role. Premieres Fri Feb 11
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
TO make up for any Tom Brady slighting at the top of the email.. let’s go out with the Battle of the 80’s Boston Boy Bands - NEW EDITION and NKOTB from the AMA’s on Sunday. Take this Bieber… Watched this 3 times last night.
If you need new tunes:
Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM