Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY April 22, 2021.

Where former VICE CEO Shane Smith sold the “Beverly Hills Cop” house in Santa Monica for over $48 Million, a 13 bedroom house he bought 6 years ago for $23 Million. Plus the house also apparently has powers that make you pretty much disappear from the media landscape after being unavoidable for most of the 2010’s.

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📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

NETFLIX close to deal for KISS biopic

Joachim Rønning (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”) directing, Mark Canton producing alongside Universal Music plus Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley. No word on ballpark price as of yet/deal not closed. /Deadline

STX picks up US rights to Daisy Ridley psychological thriller”The Marsh King’s Daughter”

Woman held captive by her father in the wilderness as a kid, has to deal with ramifications when he escapes from prison.

Shooting this Summer, no price disclosed (STX already had UK/IRE & India rights). /Variety

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”, “The Equilizer”) directing film adaptation of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”. He’ll also be a producer on the independent production. /Variety

• APPLE TV+ buys 2 documentaries on Black actors called “Number One on the Call Sheet”. Halle Berry and Angela Bassett among the producers about leading women, Jamie Foxx & Kevin Hart among the producers for the one about leading men. No price or premiere date indicated. /THR

• IMAGINE DOCUMENTARIES sets 5 picture deal with IMAX. First movie will be Mars themed, launching in 2022. No price indicated. /THR

• THR update on Scott Rudin to date, pointing out that his agency WME still counts him as a client, as well as a lack of comment so far from Barry Diller who is a backer of SCOTT RUDIN PRODUCTIONS. Director Gale Anne Hurd also chastising the Producers Guild for basically having no specific comment either. /THR

  • Hugh Jackman issues statement on “The Music Man”/Rudin, “applauding the people who have spoken up”. /Variety

• PARAMOUNT PICS sets Mika Pryce as SVP Production. Comes over from Don Cheadle’s production company, reports into studio co-heads Daria Cercek and Michael Ireland. /Variety

📺 THE TV SET

HULU orders “How I Met Your Father” series starring Hilary Duff

Same conceit, with “Ted” now “Sophie” (Duff) telling her son how she met his father, but updated to the 2021 dating world filled with apps providing limitless options. But if there’s no episode involving a pineapple, i’ll be very disappointed. #deepCut 🍍

10 episodes, no timeline given. “This Is Us” showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger will do the same here; “HIMYM” creators Craig Thomas & Carter Bays are Exec Producers. /THR

HBO / HBOMAX adds 2.7 Million Subscribers from Jan thru March

Now stands at 44.2 Million subscribers, with avg Revenue Per User (ARPU) at $11.62/month. Or about $3 below what NETFLIX makes in the US even though HBOMAX costs more (just email me if you want to know why - trying not to #MediaNerd out too hard here. I said trying).

This 44.2 Million represents about 33% growth from this time last year which is impressive. And the 2.7 Million subscriber addition number is 5X what NETFLIX added in the US in Q1. So the first full quarter with the addition of Theatrical Movies to HBOMAX gave them about a… 6% subscriber bump, so take that as you will (note: these numbers do not really include any “Godzilla” bump as it opened at the end of the quarter).

ALSO: AT&T seems like they’re no longer going break out how many people who have access to HBOMAX… are actually also using it - not a great look. (The number of actual active HBOMAX accounts stood at about 17 Million at the end of 2020).

But granted that’s less important in the end: 44.2 Million people are paying for it in the US whether they use it or not and that’s really what matters. Unless you or your client has a MAX ORIGINAL series/movie or a WB Movie premiereing on HBOMAX and kinda would like to know how many people could ya know, potentially see it. Ad-free version of HBOMAX coming in about 3 months, still no details.

GLOBALLY: HBOMAX subscribers stand at 64 Million (the extra 20 million are basically subscribers to International versions of HBO - HBOMAX not going outside the US until June TBD in a material way).

So your Global streaming service chart now looks like this:

• NETFLIX: 207.6 Million

• AMAZON PRIME: 200 Million potential users but…. who knows about actual active accounts.

• DISNEY+: 100 Million (as of early March)

• HBOMAX: 64 Million

• APPLE TV+: I mean it’s a global product in theory… but probably nowhere near this. Either way APPLE not telling anyone.

ALSO IN TV

• NETFLIX adding “Master of None” Season 3 in May TBD. Production reports had it shooting in the UK but no specifics indicated.

• NETFLIX renews “Floor is Lava” game show for season 2. /Variety

• Former PATRIOTS wide receiver Julian Edelman joining “Inside the NFL” on PARAMOUNT+ this Fall.

• ROKU branding QUIBI content as ROKU ORIGINALS. Will debut later this year still TBD, the library totals 75 shows in all. /THR

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

SONY PICTURES sets 5 year, 2nd window output deal at DISNEY

Essentially this is the Cable TV window for movies (about 2+ years after theatrical release), but this adds on streaming rights for DISNEY+ and HULU in addition to rights to air on DISNEY cable networks (FREEFORM, FX, etc). Also includes some SONY library titles.

SONY just closed a deal for their movies to hit NETFLIX in their initial PayTV Window in the US starting in 2022 (typically 9-12 Months after theatrical release). Movies will be on NETFLIX for 18 months, then go to DISNEY properties.

So essentially SONY movies will hit DISNEY+ 2.5 years after their theatrical release - the first film in the deal (likely “Morbius”) won’t hit DISNEY+ until sometime 2024. But this does mean that “Spider-Man” movies will now be included on DISNEY+. At some point.

Both this deal and the NETFLIX deal expected to bring in $3 Billion total to SONY over the next 5 years (2022-2026), and both deals are for US only. /Variety

ALSO IN MEDIA

• VERIZON FIOS loses another 82k video subscribers in Q1 2021. Adds 98k Broadband subscribers. Now has approx 3.7 Million TV customers (300k less than HULU LIVE TV), and 6.3 Million Broadband. That 3.7 Million is the same # of TV customers FIOS had in 2011. Peaked in 2017 at 4.6 Million. /NextTV

• Get to know WASSERMAN MUSIC - the rebranded name for PARADIGM’s huge Music division bought by Casey Wasserman (of those Wasserman’s) in a pandemic-induced fire sale last year for $150-200 Million. Their impressive roster include’s Kenny Chesney, Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, Kacey Musgraves, Imagine Dragons, Dave Matthews Band, and Janelle Monáe to just name a few. /Variety

• Golf’s PGA sets $40 Million bonus pool for the top 10 players each year… but not for winning. Based on who generates the most GOOGLE searches, biggest Q Scores, and media mentions among other popularity metrics. Regardless of how they played that year. Plus a bonus hat to wear on the course that says “Social Media Influencer” with the golfer emoji. /Golfweek

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

NETFLIX ended the day down 7.4% because… ya know.

LIONSGATE also dropped 7.4% because… honestly 🤷‍♂️

DISCOVERY up 8.5%, VIACOM up 7.7%, AMC MOVIE THEATERS up 5.4%, all rebounding after a weak few days as it was basically a day of people “buying the dips”.

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

HULU “M.O.D.O.K.” series trailer. Supervillain voiced by Patton Oswalt dreams of conquering the world… while balancing his crumbling marriage and family life. Premieres Fri May 21

HBOMAX “The Big Shot With Bethenny” - 7 part reality show ripoff of “The Apprentice” with contestants competing for a slot on Frankel’s executive team. Premieres Thu Apr 29

BLEECKER STREET “Dream Horse” movie trailer - Toni Collette and Damien Lewis in true story of small-town bartender who becomes a breeder of an underdog race-horse. Hits theaters and PVOD on Fri May 21

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

PEACOCK “Rutherford Falls” - New Ed Helms comedy series, Mike Schur (“The Good Place” & “Parks & Rec”) among the creators. Pilot episode hits PEACOCK free…. all episodes avail on PEACOCK PREMIUM here. Although…. PEACOCK was letting me watch all episodes for free this morning when I checked, and I don’t pay for PEACOCK (nor do I have COMCAST).

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS hosted by Melissa Villasenor on IFC at 10p

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

LUCY DACUS “Hot and Heavy” - if you’re into Phoebe Bridgers, thinking you’ll be into this.

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Enjoy your Thursday, except if you’re in NYC where we’re getting one (last?) cold 25 degree wind chill slap in the face 🥶. Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect on LINKED IN - my name below goes to my profile.

-Sean McNulty