Leads for HUNGER GAMES prequel set at LIONSGATE

SHO orders series from FLEABAG producers / MEREDITH cuts off low $$ Mag subs / STRANGER THINGS sets new NETFLIX record. ish

Jun 1, 2022

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY June 1, 2022.

Where… it’s June. I know right? Relatively straightforward day as Hollywood cranks up the gears again so - let’s just get to it 📋.

ALSO: HARRY STYLES moved 521k “album equivalents” in his opening week for “Harry’s House”. Only the 4th album in the last 1.5 years to move 500k+ units in a week. 💿

182k of which were vinyl copies (or I guess… “album realities” 🤷‍♂️), the largest amount sold in the modern music era.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Rachel Zegler set to co-star in new “Hunger Games” prequel pic at LIONSGATE

She’ll play “Lucy Gray Baird” in the movie based on “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” book.

Co-starring with Tom Blyth (EPIX’s “Billy the Kid”) who’s playing the 18 year-old version of Donald Sutherland’s character “Coriolanus Snow” (he’s not related to Jon right? Can you tell I’ve never seen “GOT” or a “Hunger Games” pic? 😁).

Movie shooting later this year for a Nov 2023 release, Francis Lawrence returning to direct 🎥. /Variety

FOCUS FEATURES sets “Book Club 2” sequel with Keaton, Fonda, Bergen & Steenbergen all returning

The 2018 original did almost $70 Million in the US and $104 Million global.

The book club will take their act on the road to ITALY in this one, and Andy Garcia, Don Johnson and Craig T. Nelson supporting cast all returning. /Variety

ALSO IN MOVIES

“Top Gun: Maverick” 4.5 day US total rises to $160 Million in final #s, and hits $300 Million globally. /Deadline
TRIBECA FESTIVAL’s marquee presenting sponsor this year will be… OKX. Whaddda ya mean you have no idea what that is? Ok fine yes it’s Crypto. The 2nd largest crypto trading platform in the world… that is not available in the US will be all over the festival when it launches next week. Just when you thought you’d never miss AT&T in your life… /WSJ

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

UTA promotes 26 to Partner, and their names are… in the link. Across several divisions, many who work in business functions (IQ, MEDIA LINK, etc), but in terms of MP talent reps there were 3 names - Jenny Maryasis, Rob Carlson, and Scott Schachter. /Deadline
CBS STUDIOS EVP of COMMS Lauri Metrose is departing after 20+ years. Her next destination wasn’t specified other than it’s outside of the Entertainment biz 👋. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

SHOWTIME sets Brett Gelman to star in new comedy series from “Fleabag” producers

Brett of course was also in that show - this show is called “Entitled”, about an American widower who goes to ENGLAND to get to know his late wife’s estranged family who soon begin to compete for his newfound wealth.

8 episodes Tim Kirkby (“Brockmire”) directing, a Co-production with UK’s CHANNEL 4. /THR

“Stranger Things” sets new opening weekend viewership record at NETFLIX, but…

Again, that’s by total “minutes viewed”… on a series whose episodes were averaging about 75 minutes each with a 98 minute “Episode 7”. /Variety

A fact which… no outlet who “reported” on this yesterday seemed to point out (as far as I saw). I’m not saying it’s not their most watched thing on an opening weekend - I’m sure it is, but… This metric is so utterly meaningless if you give it 90 seconds of analysis. All shows are not the same length!

“Stranger Things” Season 4 = 547 minutes
Previous champ “Bridgerton” Season 2 = 507 minutes

ALSO IN TV

HULU will live-stream the NYC and LA Gay Pride parades this year 🏳️‍🌈. LA is Sun June 12 at 11a PT, and NYC is Sun June 26 at 12noon ET. /Multichannel News

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

WE GOT 5 THINGS

DOTDASH MEREDITH is letting go of their print subscribers who pay very little for their magazine subscriptions. They can either renew at a proper rate… or the subscription will end when their current deal is over.
- BETTER HOMES & GARDENS went from a 7 Million print base to 4 Million over the past 6-8 months. /Axios
- DDM cut their print output to just 7 remaining titles early this year.
JO BROS are backing a Celebrity text-message subscription service called SCRIBER (lose the Sus, it’s cleaner). Essentially the 2020’s equivalent of the 1-900 numbers of the 90’s… pay $5 a month (or whatever rate the celeb sets) and get special messages or videos via text 💬 from your favorite Band / Actor / Swimsuit Influencer with things like invites to secret shows, exclusive merch, or videos of Nick Jonas brushing his hair 🧔🏻.
- SCRIBER keeps $1 of every ~~sub~~Scription. More details & specifics in the link. /Axios
- Also a shout out to Sara Fischer’s AXIOS MEDIA TRENDS email, a read I enjoy that gave us these 2 items - you can subscribe to her here.
TIKTOK testing “Clear Mode” function that removes on-screen text and buttons from videos to see if it makes for a more seamless, less distracting (ie higher engagement) user experience. /Tech Crunch
FORBES abandons plans to go public via SPAC since… well SPAC’s are so 2021, and BUZZFEED’s experience doing so probably isn’t helping (see below).
- However gotta think their majority Private Equity owner INTEGRATED WHALE MEDIA INVESTMENTS #realname is looking for another exit / payday given they’ve had their stake for almost 8 years now… well beyond the range of usual PE investments. /NY Times
DISNEY+ is having great growth in INDONESIA, hitting 5 Million subscribers, making it the #1 service in the massive country. /THR
- This is under the DISNEY+ HOTSTAR brand service that also exists in INDIA
- BUT: It costs $2.80 a month, or $14 a year. #ARPU?
- NETFLIX charges about $4 a month for its entry Mobile-only plan in the economically challenged country (its in 3rd or 4th place there).

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

SNAP -9% ($14.11)

BUZZFEED -14% ($3.59)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

TNT “The Match” - Brady & Rogers vs Mahomes & Allen on the links, 630p 🏌️‍♂️

HBOMAX “My Dead Dad” pic - no Google-able link

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

DISNEY+ “Pinocchio” teaser trailer - Far be it for me to question a Kareem Daniels decision… but how the heck is this Tom Hanks & Robert Zemeckis collab a DISNEY+ movie? I know it’s for “Disney+ Day” but still. Well either way - Stream it as ya like on Sept 8

SEARCHLIGHT “The Menu” - Anya Taylor Joy, Nicholas Hoult as a couple visiting an exotic island for an exotic dinner from an… eccentric chef played by Ralph Fiennes. IN THEATERS NOV 18

FX ON HULU “The Bear” series trailer - Comedy from Christopher Storer (“Ramy”) about a guy who inherits his brother’s Chicago sandwich shop / restaurant, and it looks like it goes really smooth. All episodes hit HULU Thu June 23

DISNEY+ “Rise” - Origin story of Giannis, and the Antetokounmpos family. Missed this one a couple weeks ago but saw it promoted during NBA Playoffs this weekend so… 👏 DISNEY marketing. PREMIERES Fri June 24.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

ROCKIN 1000 “My Hero” - 1000 musicians all playing this FOO FIGHTERS song at the same time, in tribute to Taylor Hawkins 🤯.

If this just doesn’t get you both moved and pumped up at the same time… we gotta talk. Shout out to the TODAY SHOW who shared this last week.

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-SEAN MCNULTY

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