☀️NEON's 'Monkey' Shines as 'Captain' Plummets at Box Office
AMAZON MGM marketing head out / 'High Potential' closes season on high / NETFLIX in talks for Sundance doc
Evenin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LINKEDIN here if ya like or email me at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on SUNDAY, February 23, 2025.
Where it was a good weekend for well-paid athletes! Okay yes, every weekend is a good weekend for athletes whose contracts hit 9-figures. 🤑
First up — new METS addition Juan Soto hit a home run on his first at-bat in spring training. Hopefully he doesn’t waste all of his dingers before the games actually, ya know, count . . . but METS fans naturally took it with just the right amount of perspective.
But then A-Rod said hold my beer, hitting this half-court 🏀 shot at the half of the BUCKNELL vs. ARMY game today (apparently A-Rod is available as halftime entertainment these days), wining one lucky student $10k.
THEN: As the 378 emails you may have gotten in your inbox from various trade publications this weekend indicated — the Independent Spirit Awards took place yesterday. Winners here as the Anora train continues . . . and the Aidy Bryant monologue is here 👇.
PLUS: The SAG Award winners are rolling out here tonight.
ALSO: Hockey has truly ruled the post-NFL / pre-March Madness sports window over the past week, with the big Thursday U.S. vs. CANADA 4 Nations final getting 9.3M viewers on ESPN.
The biggest NHL game since, uh, a 1973 Stanley Cup finals game . . . so basically the biggest NHL game ever.
It was also bigger than any Olympics hockey game since the big U.S. vs. CANADA 2010 gold medal final (over 27M).
It’s also far above the biggest NBA Christmas game (7.8M) in December on ABC.
In Hollywood terms, this was the same size as the Golden Globes . . . but on a cable TV network.
We’ll see what the Canadian viewership adds to the event soon.
THEN: APPLE added food recipes to its NEWS+ subscription product.
AH: Way to keep it real, February in NYC.
PLUS: PAR’s Spongebob will join the UNI IP at the Frisco, TX family theme park that NBCU is building, as will Gabby’s Dollhouse . . . which streams on NETFLIX but is produced by DWA.
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