☀️ NETFLIX Enters Boxing, PAR in Talks for Next Asset Sale
ABC + Tim Allen threequel / HBO + new David Simon project / PGA's new media investment
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY, March 7, 2024.
Where DIAGEO has made an APPLE VisionPro experience where you can virtually travel to Mexico to feel like you’re experiencing the true essence of its DON JULIO tequila.
Or, just thinking out loud here 🤔. . . you could have taken the $3,500 you spent on your VisionPro and actually gone to Mexico to drink tequila on a beach in the IRL sun. At least three times.
PLUS: INSTA now allows you to edit any DMs you send up to 15 minutes after you send them. Although to note — it only appears to apply to text, and not to improve any, uh, special photos you may be sending out there.
THEN: In 2023, Americans' credit scores dropped for the first time in a decade. See you at the State of the Union tonight at 9 p.m.
P.S.: The TV audience for Super Tuesday was a combined 11.4 Million, down from 20 Million in 2020, so I guess it’s reassuring that franchise fatigue isn’t just a Hollywood problem? 🤷♂️ Either way — not great news for any studios forecasting / relying on higher TV engagement for their cable TV networks in Q3 and Q4.
ALSO: Just some APPLE business division perspective for you — It was spending $1+ Billion a year on its decade-ish APPLE car project according to Bloomberg, and the 2,000 employees working on it got an email for an all-hands meeting on Feb. 26 for the next morning at 10 a.m., which lasted for 12 minutes and shut the whole thing down ASAP.
Granted, it wasn’t a public-facing product — but make no mistake about how swift this company can move on business initiatives that aren’t progressing to its liking, if need be 😳.
OH: 40 state attorneys general sent META a letter saying essentially, “police your own damn product!” They let META know that complaints about accounts being taken over were up as much as 10x since just 2019 in the case of NY, and declared, “We refuse to operate as the customer service representatives of your company.”
Just a reminder: META cleared $39 Billion in profit / net income in 2023, and we pay the bill for the work of state attorneys general.
#FunFact: META’s largest advertiser in 2023? China retailer TEMU, which spent $2 Billion on FB and INSTA last year 🤯.
AND: Hopefully you and your ROKU don’t get into any legal tussles — according to the company’s new updated terms agreement, which users are forced to accept before continuing to use the ROKU device they already paid for (unless you write their legal department a handwritten note #truestory), anyone with legal complaints has to bring them to ROKU first for a "Meet-and-Confer" call before anything can proceed.
You doin’ okay there, ROKU?
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Kung Fu Panda 4 is on deck. The last one opened to $47 Million in 2016, and this one is tracking in the $50 Million range. So . . . whatcha thinking?
PLUS
Let your Oscar brilliance shine for all Ankler readers to bask in, and fill out your Oscar category winners here (voting ends at 9 a.m. PT on Sunday).
The winner gets some nice rewards, with all details and prizes listed here, including a mention in this here newsletter and an Ankler hat (I have one too! We can be hat buddies! Or, uh, something that doesn’t sound like we’re at a sleepaway camp for the first time).
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
NETFLIX gets next sport on their “We’re not interested in sports” punchcard, as network TV continues to look to the past for new ideas this year.
PGA sets new production investment, as PARAMOUNT looks to exit another one of theirs, and much more.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
