☀️ NETFLIX Films Animation can't find a new hit
Nevins & Chernin team up / WWE's big weekend in London / Zendaya to open Venice / Meet META's THREADS
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 July 6, 2023.
Where ok yeah I forgot the NETFLIX Films chart doesn’t abide by vacation rules… so since I had to do the numbers anyway - I mean what else to do when it felt like 95° out at noon in NYC 🥵… and we couldn’t breathe the air again yesterday because of, yes, smoke from the fireworks staying trapped in the city.
You’re welcome America!
FIRST
Just a rapid fire of things from the past couple of days:
NEW JOB: David Nevins is joining Peter Chernin’s NORTH ROAD as CEO, which apparently has 85 productions “in the works” and just lined up an additional $150 Million from the Qataris, on top of the $800 Million in funding & debt financing Chernin already lined up.
VENICE + ZENDAYA: She and Luca Guadagnino will open the VENICE Film Fest with MGM’s Challengers in September. I dunno… sex and tennis, think it’ll play with the European crowds? 🤔
NBA LAUNCHING FINAL FOUR… ish: Pro Basketball is set to launch a separate, in-season 2-day tournament this Dec 7 & 9 in Vegas according to ESPN. More details coming Saturday.
IT’S HERE 😱: META’s latest “original” product, the rumored TWITTER competitor app THREADS, has arrived. WSJ has a good primer in the bottom half of this link as to the differences with TWITTER at launch. Yes you need INSTA to use it… but it’s a new app to download & manage 🥳.
ALTHOUGH: Not for folks in the EU, where it’s not yet available as they actually have legal privacy protections for their citizens… so yes, THREADS may collect info from your digital footprint (without specifically asking) including: “health & financial data, precise location, browsing history, contacts, search history and other sensitive information.”
AND YES: Elon has already reversed another thing he knew people would hate #visionary, so you can now view tweets again in a web browser without having to be logged in.
ALSO: Greta Gerwig is looking to bring back the Narnia books to the big screen next, according to a New Yorker profile.
FOR SALE: Anyone wanna buy COMPLEX for $150 Million? It’s available according to The Information, and I mean if VICE was still worth $300+ Mil… what a bargain. Call 1-800-BUZFEED (the 2nd Z woulda cost extra).
5 LETTER WORD FOR ADS: If you play WORDLE on mobile but not in the NYT’s apps, get ready to see a lotta ads for DOORDASH. Anyone else type in Greed as their first word today?
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL:
SONY’s Insidious is officially tracking around $18 Mil to $20 Mil… but most think that’s very low and likely will be low to mid $20’s… around what Indy is projected to do in weekend 2.
Assuming Jim Caviezel doesn’t rise to beat them all with his ANGEL STUDIOS faith-audience child trafficking pic Sound of Freedom with $10 Million in pre-sale tickets, and got a head start on the weekend already.
PLUS: AMAZON CEO Andy Jassy is reportedly starting to ask questions at AMAZON PRIME VIDEO like… say: “Um, what’s the actual ROI on these hundreds of millions ya’ll are spending?” according to Bloomberg (southern accent added by me in this made-up, but probable quote). But hey - everyone who’s ever worked in corporate America knows it’s uh, probably nothing… ahem 😳.
Again - keep in mind…