Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY June 20, 2022.

Where the NBA Finals finished out with 14 Million viewers on ABC Thursday night, the highest total of the series… but that’s 24% below the last game of 2019 Finals series.

Also… this 👇

Austin Karp @AustinKarp

ABC averaged 12.4 million viewers over 6 games of the Warriors-Celtics NBA Finals Good news: Well above Bucks-Suns 2021 (9.9 million in July) & Lakers-Heat 2020 (7.5 million in Sept.) Not-so-good news: Outside of 2021/2020, lowest for Finals since Spurs-Cavs 2007 (9.3 million)

8:15 PM ∙ Jun 17, 2022

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PLUS: Kev Hart is getting into the… plant-based restaurant biz 🌻, launching 2 HART HOUSE fast-casual restaurants in LA this year, in addition to a currently-operating food truck that serves food at private events.

SLAINTE!: To Aziz Ansari and data scientist Serena Skov Campbell who got married in Tuscany last week… which I’m just going to imagine was just like one of my favorite “Master of None” episodes 🥂. #MelonIsForGoodBoys

BUT: It was confirmed that Lauren Graham & Peter Krause split late last year after 10 years together.

AND: Happy Juneteenth! (observed)

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📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

1. “Jurassic World: Dominion” : $57 Million ($248 Million US, $622 Million global)

   • A 61% drop - not great but not terrible for a film this size, especially with the reviews it had.

   • Juneteenth holiday today should help.

   • Still #1 in CHINA with $24 Million, now at $96 Million total (about $24 Mil of which goes back to UNI).

2. “Lightyear” : $51 Million ($86 Million global)

   • Let the “What happened??” takes commence… as the film missed projections by $20 Million. This is bad.

   • PROS it had going for it:

     • “Toy Story 4” was recent and huge ($434 Mil in 2019)

     • The last new family pic in theaters was released 2.5 months ago

     • There hadn’t been a PIXAR pic in theaters since March 2020

     • DIS definitely didn’t skimp on the Ad buys

   • CONS:

     • Film had little appeal to girls

     • The tie to “Toy Story” was a bit meta and really unrelated to those films

     • Who knows what damage putting the PIXAR movies on DIS+ for 2 years did to perception

   • EITHER WAY: DIS will milk word of mouth as much as they can and count on kids being out of school beginning this week + Juneteenth to help the $$. And hey “Coco” opened to the same # in 2017 on its way to $210 Million…

   • BUT: “Coco” didn’t have “Minions” on its tail in its 3rd weekend, taking all the 💰💰 starting July 1. #notgreatBob

3. “Top Gun: Maverick” : $44 Million ($466 Million US, $885 Million global)

   • An unprecedented 15% drop 🤯. This movie is just killing it, not much else to say.

   • 2nd best 4th weekend for a movie ever (only behind “Avatar”).

   • Now Cruise’s biggest global hit ever, topping “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” in 2018.

   • Also producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s biggest US movie ever.

4. “Doctor Strange…” : $4.2 Million ($405 Million US, $942 Million global)

5. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” : $1.2 Million ($30 Million US)

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

• FOCUS’s “Brian and Charles” opened to $197k in 279 theaters ($706 per theater)

ALSO:

What’s going on with “The Black Phone”?? 🤷‍♂️ It’s in theaters Friday, and I feel like I heard such amazing early reviews & hype earlier this year… and the trailers were awesome… and I’ve seen absolutely 0 marketing-wise on this save for a poster at my subway stop, just 5 days before release. Am I just missing it?

AMAZON sets Nicole Kidman to star in thriller “Holland, Michigan”

Not much known about the plot other than it’s “Hitchcockian” and Nicole is also producing as part of her deal there.

Mimi Caro who did “Fresh” at HULU / SEARCHLIGHT is directing here. /Deadline

DISNEY sets Guy Ritchie to direct “Hercules” live-action update

An update of the 1997 animated pic (not necessarily the 2014 kinda flop with The Rock… although Hercules is Hercules 💪).

Russo Bros are producing, there’s a script draft but… it needs more work / new writers so it’s gonna be a minute. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Two actors died and 6 crew members were injured in MEXICO after an accident involving a crew transport van on NETFLIX’s "The Chosen One” (based on a Mark Millar project). /Variety

• Director Paul Haggis was arrested in ITALY on charges of sexual assault. /Variety

• UNI likely to be the new home of the Gal Gadot “Cleopatra” project that formerly was at PARAMOUNT. /Deadline

• Latest ICM exit: MP & TV talent agent Will Kercher, who’s pivoting into real estate. He’ll be joining a firm called JLL to work with entertainment clients in regards to their real estate needs. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

NETFLIX sets Will Forte to start in first scripted-drama series from The Obamas

Called “Bodkin” and described as both a drama and “darkly comedic” so… take from that what you will.

It’s about a group of podcasters who investigate the disappearance of 3 people in IRELAND #checkthepub. Alex Metcalf (“Sharp Objects”) is showrunning with Jez Scharf who created the 7 episode project. /THR

ALSO IN TV

• TNT’s “Snowpiercer” ending with its 4th season now in production, but at least Zaz/WBD is letting them still finish it out I guess? /THR

• ABC adds Britt Robertson to “The Rookie: Feds” series this Fall. /Deadline

• WSJ has a read talking to more creatives about working with Dana Walden if you’re inclined.

📝 IN OTHER WORDS…

“Timothée Chalamet… He’s a wonderful actor. Great looks.”

- AL PACINO at the TRIBECA FEST “Heat” reunion panel on whom he thought would be a great choice to play the younger version of his “Vincent Hanna” character.

The “Heat 2” book that Michael Mann co-wrote comes out in early August, although folks at the panel got early copies.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

ROKU CHANNEL to limit audience data sharing with channel partners

Kind of an AMAZON-esque move… ROKU told folks who have free streaming channels on the ROKU CHANNEL service that ROKU is now going to:

• Take 5% more of their Ad-rev share - Channels now keep 55%, ROKU keeps 45% (vs the previous 60/40 split). Yet another lever ROKU is pulling to increase Revenue as streaming box & ROKU TV device sales slow.

• Take control of the (Ad) tech powering the channels - So the companies running the channels will very likely have less access to data about their audiences… thus hurting each content provider’s ability to sell Ads & overall revenue. Madison Ave does love their data.

We’ll see if anyone pulls their channels as a result (unlikely)… but this lack of user data-sharing was one of the big reasons HBO left their distro deal with AMAZON CHANNELS last Fall and took a (temporary) subscriber dip in the millions. /Protocol

BALLY SPORTS NETWORK streaming app to launch Thurs, at $20 a month

In short - Regional Sports Streaming services are starting to become a thing in the 2nd half of 2022. A very expensive one, finally testing the long-questioned theory of just how many cord-cutter sports fans will pay a large fee to watch their favorite teams.

BACKGROUND: BALLY SPORTS Network is the collection of regional sports networks that were fka as FOX SPORTS Networks. SINCLAIR Network Group overpaid bought them when FOX had to sell them off to close the DISNEYFOX deal (DISNEY didn’t want them and couldn’t really own them while also having ESPN). This deal closed… not long before the pandemic started and sports ended.

SINCLAIR sold the name rights for the networks to gambling service BALLY’S to try and recoup some money, after already admitting they overpaid for them with a writedown of $4 Billion and here we are.

This new service will be called BALLY SPORTS+, and will only be available in 5 local regions to start where the company already has BALLY SPORTS networks avail on linear TV showing local MLB team games:

• Kansas City, Milwaukee, Detroit, Miami and Tampa Bay.

This is considered a soft launch, with a regional marketing push later in the Summer, and more cities more to launch by early Fall. /B&C

SO: With this launch at $20 a month #steep (or $190 for the year) on top of New England’s NESN+ D-to-C streaming product (RED SOX and BRUINS games) earlier in June at $30 a month… the public is starting to get a real taste for just how expensive sports rights really are when you want to “cut the cord”.

ALSO IN MEDIA

• In case you still had any question if CHINA is accessing your TIK TOK data here in the US - BUZZFEED documented audio from 80 meetings where this is made clear. And remember CHINA’s government is a legit part owner of TIKTOK’s parent co BYTE DANCE.

• AMC THEATERS CEO Adam Aron’s Twitter followers shareholders voted against granting his near $19 Million salary for 2021 by a large margin 🖕. The vote is non-binding so it’s mostly symbolic but… yeah that’s not good. /THR

• PAR+ is committing to produce 150 Int’l originals in the next 2.5 years (by 2025) through their Int’l studio VIS. They already committed to greenlighting 50 Int’l original project this year… so looks like this is continuing that rate of 50 a year for the next 2 years ahead. /THR

  • PAR+ just launched in SOUTH KOREA last week (via a local partner as a free add-on service), and in the UK / IRE this week for $8.50 a month.

🏦 STOCK NOTES

It was a relatively quiet end to the very chaotic week that was on Friday.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

Looks like book night 📖 unless you like Hockey - Stanley Cup Game 3 at 8p on ESPN

🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TODAY - Jimmy Kimmel is taking the rest of the Summer off even earlier this year… guest host begin tonight.

TUE - Joel Kim Booster’s “Psychosexual” comedy special hits NETFLIX

WED - ”Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” hits DISNEY+

THU - “Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe” drops on PARAMOUNT+

• NBA DRAFT on ESPN & ABC

FRI - “Elvis” comes to theaters

SAT - 😎

SUN - “Westworld” Season 4 premieres on HBO

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

Some spots from late last week that I just didn’t have room for:

HBOMAX “Tuca & Bertie” Season 3 trailer - PREMIERES SUN JULY 10 on ADULT SWIM, Sat July 11 on HBOMAX

NETFLIX “The Upshaws” Season 2 Trailer - PREMIERES WED JUNE 29

NETFLIX “Girl in the Picture” docu trailer - Latest true crime docu looking to break a mystery 30 years in the making. PREMIERES WED JULY 6

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

A rap from this guy:

This NY Times story about a 52 year old British docu-journalist who has very unexpectedly found fame on TIKTOK this Summer from a rap he did for a story in 2000 was the best thing I read all weekend.

Never know where life will take you… Here’s the song “My Money Don’t Jiggle Jiggle, It Folds” and here’s a TIKTOK that helped it go viral. #FunFact - he’s cousins with Justin Theroux. Also - Sir Anthony Hopkins apparently has a TIKTOK account.

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