Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY October 29, 2021.

Where Brad Pitt went with Coffee machines, Ben Affleck went with his “affinity” for Gambling, and now Matt Damon is pitching for… Crypto? Huh. Well fingers crossed for Denzel’s NFT Super Bowl commercial. So - when did advertisers start getting this kind of cash to burn??

AND: As I’m sure you saw, The new name for FACEBOOK corporate is… META. Hmm. Did they try adding a “the” in front of it? Company stock ticker will change from FB to the much catchier and sure to be Zuck’s new license plate on his hydrofoil board, MVRS in December.

FACEBOOK, the beloved social media platform, will still be called FACEBOOK - META will just be the parent company housing FB, INSTA, WHATS APP, and OCULUS. But at least the announcement totally didn’t look like something out of an evil sci-fi movie… 😳

ALSO: INSTA is now letting all users link to external websites in your STORIES. No more annoying “swipe up” for the link - just add a “Link Sticker” on your post so people can finally enjoy the wonders of your daily newsletter right from IG STORIES! Wait I’m the only genius here doing a free daily newsletter every day aren’t I…🤦‍♂️

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Phoebe Waller-Bridge joins Ryan Reynolds in John Krasinski’s next directorial effort at PARAMOUNT

John also writing and co-starring, no real plot details other than it’s about “a child’s journey to rediscover their imagination". Will shoot this Summer for November 2023 release. /THR

“Dune” watched by 1.9 Million HBOMAX US accounts opening weekend - SAMBA TV

Decent number via the trusted SAMBA TV tracking firm - also the kind of movie hardcore fans may go see in theaters, and watch again at home.

But that’s lower than recent WB Box Office events “The Suicide Squad” (2.8 Mil) and “Space Jam” reboot (2.1 Million) despite making more $$ at the box office than both, so definitely confirms the must-see in a Movie Theater draw for “Dune”.

“John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina” in talks with Ana de Armas for the lead at LIONSGATE

Ana (“Knives Out”, “No Time to Die”) will play a hitwoman out for revenge so… kind of a similar setup, minus the dog.

Len Wiseman (“Underworld”) directing, and the writing & producing team are all from the “Wick” family. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Ellen Barkin & Nina Dobrev join NETFLIX wedding comedy “The Out-Laws”, starring Adam Devine and Pierce Brosnan. Adam plays a groom-to-be whose bank is robbed, and he thinks his newly arrived in-laws are the crooks. Sandler’s HAPPY MADISON producing. /THR

• ENDEAVOR CONTENT getting bids valuing the production outfit at $750 Million (bidders not disclosed). Parent company ENDEAVOR has to sell at least 80% of the company per their WGA agreement.

  • Bids are due by… today, so a deal could get done by ENDEAVOR’s Nov 15 quarterly earnings call. /CNBC

📺 THE TV SET

Jon Hamm starring in FOX Animated Series “Grimsburg”

“The greatest detective ever” moves back to his hometown to solve mysteries and redeem himself with his ex-wife whom he still loves, and hang out with his son whom he never got to know. Will premiere 2023 TBD. /THR

HBO sets Benedict Cumberbatch to play poisoned Russian operative in limited series

Project called “Londongrad” is still technically in development but this certainly takes it up a notch. Centers on the IRL story of KGB AGENT turned defector Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned & killed by the Putin regime in London in 2006.

Bryan Fogel (OSCAR-winning “Icarus” docu) will direct. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

• MARTIN LAWRENCE is returning to TV… somewhere. Doing adaptation of Israeli TV series “Nehama” for TOPIC STUDIOS. Playing a father of 5 kids who quits his tech job to pursue a dream of being a stand-up… when his wife suddenly dies and he has to reconsider his new plan. No Streaming or TV home announced for it yet. /Variety

• DISNEY+ sets Lisette Alexis to lead series version of “National Treasure”. Will center on a DREAMer in search of answers about her family, while trying to save a lost Pan-American treasure. Bruckheimer producing, and show is created by the writers of the movies. Lisette is a relative newcomer, her IMDB here. /Deadline

IN THE EXECUTIVE SUITE

• AMC promotes Dan McDermott to President of AMC and AMC Studios. Parent company AMC NETWORKS still looking for a sale-I mean CEO, after the sudden-ish departure of longtime CEO Josh Sapan at the end of the Summer. /THR

• CAA news agent and former “60 Minutes” producer Alison Pepper returns to CBS NEWS as SVP of Talent Strategy (i.e. news anchor talent relations and contract negotiations). Gayle and Norah’s contracts are up for renegotiation next year. /Variety

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

CHARTER Broadband growth rate slows, adds 265k subscribers in Q3

The country’s #2 Broadband provider behind COMCAST saw similar trends as COMCAST.

Although somehow CHARTER (aka SPECTRUM) has managed to better mitigate their Cable TV subscriber losses, down 121k there to 15.9 Million. They’ve only lost about 300k Cable TV subscribers in the past year.

CHARTER’s Broadband to Cable TV subscriber ratio also now at pretty much at 2 to 1: 30 Million to 16 Million.

• Home Phone customers also keep dropping (-216k to 10 Million total)… more or less equaled by Mobile Phone customer additions (+244k, now at 3.1 Million total).

But again, the Covid Broadband customer boom is over here too.

APPLE brings in $83 Billion from July thru Sept, incl $20 Billion in profits… and yet still disappoints

Funny I had no idea APPLE had Irish Catholic parents too. No APPLE TV+ or MUSIC numbers reported… then again when your quarterly profit is bigger than NETFLIX’s 2021 total programming spend, it is what it is.

Otherwise - chip shortages… supply chain issues… etc etc. /Deadline

Almost half of total APPLE revenue comes from iPhones ($39 Billion), and:

• 45% of total Revenue comes from the US

• 24% from EUROPE

• 17% from CHINA

AMAZON brings in $110 Billion from July thru Sept

But… profitability took a big hit at $3.2 Billion. Which sounds impressive, but it’s only half of what it was last year. Essentially, higher pay to attract workers and supply chain issues / increased shipping costs are cutting into profitability. Plus hey - “Mrs Maisel” isn’t cheap.

Forecast for Q4 isn’t great for those same reasons as Q3 basically. Actually - AMAZON says it could lose money this holiday seeaon. /Deadline

70% of AMAZON income comes from the US (does not include AWS Cloud computing division).

AMAZON subscription revenue was $8.1 Billion - includes PRIME, MUSIC and AUDIBLE - but as always, gfy if you want PRIME, FIRE STICK, or MUSIC subscriber numbers or any breakout of that $8.1 Billion.

• For reference, NETFLIX revenue was $7.5 Billion, so - closing in on AMAZON’s total subscription entertainment revenues.

Some additional notes on COMCAST

A few brief #medianerd🤓 thoughts for context around the COMCAST earnings news yesterday since I had about 25 minutes to analyze all the numbers to be just be mildly late in sending the newsletter.

Or just scroll to the WEEKEND FSS FEED and new “House of Gucci” trailer.

• The PEACOCK no-show on Paid Subscriber, Free Users… or any real info at all is even more glaring considering 3Q was the quarter of THE SUMMER OLYMPICS, which had been built up for over a year as the moment when PEACOCK would really shine.

  • COMCAST pretty much buried PEACOCK in the earnings call except for the APPLE TV+ distro deal & UK/SKY launch timeline news, and NBCU CEO Jeff Shell only really talked about it when one analyst finally asked “uh, I noticed you haven’t mentioned PEACOCK #s” about 50 minutes into the call - at which point Jeff said they “couldn’t be more excited about where PEACOCK is…” and other broad statements delivered with the tone and level of detail of someone who was just asked how their kid is doing on the Crew team at USC this semester.

  • ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING rules: When he did discuss it, Shell emphasized how much PEACOCK Original Programming is coming in 2022, as well as the start of the UNIVERSAL PICTURES output deal (the HBO deal ends in December) where PEACOCK will get UNIVERSAL’s movies 4 months or less after their theatrical release. So reading thru the lines… it seems like the realization of needing to spend big or go home is now firmly in place.

• The Covid broadband booming growth story is over. COMCAST is the country’s largest broadband provider, and their 300k new broadband adds is less than half of the additions in Fall 2020, and even less than the typically slow Q2 additions as well.

• COMCAST is now truly a Broadband provider, not a Cable company - Ratio of Broadband to Cable TV subscribers is now almost 2 to 1 (32 Mil to 18 Mil), and it makes far bigger profit margins from the Broadband subscriptions than the Cable TV Bundle ones.

ALSO IN MEDIA

• Morgan Wallen banned from AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS next month… but gets 2 nominations. AMA nods are determined by BILLBOARD numbers, but winners are voted on by fans. Which I’m guessing he’ll also win. Show is Sun Nov 21 on ABC. /Deadline

• SONY MUSIC makes $1 Billion in Streaming revenue from just July thru Sept, the first time they’ve crossed that mark. Thanks SPOTIFY! 👍 /MBW

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

SPOTIFY up almost another 6%, as its good week post-earnings continues.

👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday - Saturday - Sunday)

FRIDAY

IN THEATERS:

• FOCUS FEATURES “One Night In Soho” - Edgar Wright’s thriller-mystery with Anya Taylor-Joy. Wide release in Theaters

• FOX SEARCHLIGHT “Antlers” - Horror-Thriller from director Scott Cooper (“Crazy Heart”, “Black Mass”) starring Keri Rusell and Jesse Plemmons. Only in Theaters
  

STREAMING:

MOVIES

• PARAMOUNT+ “Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin”

• NETFLIX “Army of Thieves” - prequel to “Army of the Dead”. Stream or Add to Your List here

SERIES

• APPLE TV + “Swagger” - O’Shea Jackson plays a high school basketball coach guiding a 14 year-old phenom, loosely based on exec producer Kevin Durant’s upbringing. Stream or Add to Your List here

• NETFLIX “Colin In Black & White” - Colin Kapernick as a teenager story, Created by Ava Duvernay & Colin, 6 episodes. Stream or Add to Your List here

SATURDAY

Dress up to your heart’s content. I’m going as Ted Lasso (Season 1) 👻

SUNDAY

• New “60 Minutes” at 7p on CBS

• NBC Sunday Night Football - COWBOYS at VIKINGS at 8p

GOOD READS

WILL FERRELL profile by Lacey Rose in THR, including his POV on splitting off from longtime producing partner Adam McKay.

Fresh take on a RYAN REYNOLDS piece at the WSJ Magazine, looking at Ryan’s marketing acumen and growing his agency MAXIMUM EFFORT.

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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

MGM “House of Gucci” trailer #2. Gaga definitely in the front seat in this new spot. In theaters on Thanksgiving

HBO “Landscapers” limited series teaser. 4 part what we used to call mini-series, based on a true story with Olivia Colman and David Thewlis playing a British couple who… apparently have 2 dead bodies buried in their backyard. Yeah that’ll raise some questions. Premieres Mon Dec 6

EPIX “FROM” series teaser. A random group of folks led by Harold Perrineau find themselves in an exit-less town that they can’t escape. And then some sort of aliens or monsters (?) come out every night. Worst part - the town pizzeria calls themselves “New York Style”… but it really isn’t. Premieres Fri Feb 20

NETFLIX“Masters of the Univers” Season 1, part 2 trailer. Premieres Tue Nov 23.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Renown math lover ED SHEERAN drops his new album today “=”. Sorry that should be Maths shouldn’t it? Odd that the Brits have held onto that one all these years. Anyway - Link to listen to the album on SPOTIFY is here

And here’s a ditty to check out called “2step”:

If you need new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

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-Sean McNulty

@theseanmac on TWITTER

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