☀️NETFLIX, MUBI Make Latest Sundance Buys
NETFLIX axes Prince project / DIS FY25 content spend trimmed / LGF TV biz thaws
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKEDIN if ya like or email me seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY, February 7, 2025.
Where I think I may need to start drinking more green tea in my mornings as coffee futures prices just hit a record high by a margin due to a bad year for the coffee crop in Brazil (mostly from climate change / drought) + a smidge of a Colombia tariff threat.
Ah, I can’t wait to see the reaction when WAFFLE HOUSE starts charging more for coffee ☕️ in a couple months on top of the new $0.50 per egg surcharge — a move that set off a turf war in Southeastern fine dining btw, as CRACKER BARREL is bringing the 🔥 about that pricing move from across the interstate.
Although in the end, kind of ironic that President Musk made his fortune in something meant to combat an underlying cause of climate change, no?
AND: AMC Stubs is raising the price from $25 a month to $28 in NY and CA (it’ll range from $20 to $26 everywhere else).
But you can now see up to 4 movies a week instead of 3.
$15 a month gets you 1 movie a week.
Just a reminder: Ad-free NETFLIX is now $18 a month; HULU is now $19.
BUT: AMC THEATRES could not have worse marketing for this product — try and find those benefits on this shitshow of a landing page. This is sad, and exhibit A of the need for fresh thinking in this industry. CinemaCon will be fun this year.
LOOK: Lo and behold, Canada’s production levels have seemingly returned after the strikes in Ontario, British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada, at least anecdotally in this THR piece. Then again, with these kinda tax credits . . .
Manitoba Province (Winnipeg): 45% (up to 65%)
Newfoundland and Labrador Province (home of Reacher): 40%
THEN: The NFL is very likely announcing that expected game in Ireland next season with the STEELERS according to FOS, on top of making that Australia game with the RAMS (and likely EAGLES) in 2026 official earlier this week.
That’ll make for a likely 7 NFL games overseas in the upcoming fall season. Next step for Roger Goodell here:
🙋♂️ When is he taking these games off of the frigging NFL NETWORK, an entity which has less distribution than almost every major U.S. streamer at this point?
A question that no one is asking him this week among the 5,000 very similar press stories everyone’s generating to justify their press trip costs to NOLA.
The NFL has authority with its players union to do up to 10 overseas games a season in its current agreement, which is up in 2030.
BTW: Still not too late to get a spot in the big game on Sunday! Uh . . . on TUBI. FOX is selling :15 Super Bowl TUBI ad slots for $500k (it gets the time that local TV stations have in the game on linear TV).
BTW2: THR puts the A-list paydays for these ads between $3M to $5M, so add that on to the $7.5M-ish for the airtime alone, and the rest of the creative/production costs.
AH: ELI LILLY’s Zepbound weight loss drug made up 14% of its total revenue in Q4 ’24. And look at that, Q4 profit doubled to $4.4B — thanks America!
OH: Look at RTO rates as we come up on 5 years since the onset of Covid! Okay yeah, an exclamation point there is not in the positive way. Some cities like Chicago see up to 70% attendance in the office some days of the week, but Fridays dip to around 36%.
BUT: Let’s round out the top here this week with some folks trying to help in a community that needs it — BET, the NAACP, the JSSK law firm and WME have come together to create an ALTADENA COMMUNITY PRESERVATION FUND in collaboration with local community organizations, established to give cash bridge grants to homeowners and small businesses in the Altadena area as they get back up on their feet.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Tight race this weekend! I’ll go with the Heart Eyes crowd myself.
NEW ANKLER PODCAST EPISODE
Will be coming very shortly! As always — follow the pod here on APPLE or SPOTIFY, or just search “The Ankler” wherever you listen.
🎥 THE SILVER SCREEN
