OLYMPICS opening ceremony ratings take 33% hit from 2016
OLYMPICS opening ceremony ratings take 33% hit from 2016
Underwhelming weekend Box Office dive / PS5 sets free APPLE TV+ deal / KANYE delays album at the last minute
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY July 26, 2021.
Where KANYE WEST unexpectedly pulled the mic away from himself on Friday… delaying the release of his new album “Donda” at the last minute. It will now reportedly drop on Fri Aug 6. In the meanwhile… according to TMZ he’s now living inside Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz stadium after doing an album release-preview event show there on Thursday. But at least he came out to enjoy some Soccer on Saturday… dressed in the same outfit he was wearing on Thursday.
ALSO: Here is your official VENICE FILM FEST lineup for the inclined. They’ll be sticking with their same covid protocols from last September’s IRL festival - theaters at 50% capacity, will need to show negative covid test in past 48 hours or, new to this year - proof of vaxx.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
LIONSGATE buys $1+ Million heist-thriller pitch with Kenya Barris producing
From William N. Collage (writer of upcoming APPLE TV+ Will Smith film “Emancipation”). Not many plot details outside of the heist theme, but it’ll be global in scale… and tonally think “The Thomas Crown Affair”, “Inside Man” etc. /Deadline
BOX OFFICE
“Old” : $16.5 Million ($23 Million globally)
“Snake Eyes” : $13.3 Million ($17.5 Million globally - $4 Mil total from 37 int’l markets)
“Black Widow” : $11.6 Million ($156 Million US, $315 Million globally)
A 55% drop for weekend 3, (weekend 2 was a 67% drop)
No DISNEY+ Streaming revenue reported once again…🤔
“Space Jam” : $9.5 Million ($51 Million US, $94 Million globally)
A hefty 70% drop in week 2…
“F9” : $4.7 Million, ($163 Million US, $621 Million globally)
First US film since Jan 2020 to cross $600 Million mark (“Jumanji” sequel was the last one). Still yet to open in Japan and Italy.
ALSO: The Bourdain doc “Roadrunner” is up to $3.7 Million.
AND: The Mark Wahlberg limited release “Joe Bell” took in about $700k from 1100 theaters for ROADSIDE. SOLSTICE initially paid $20 Million for the global rights at TIFF last Fall, but they sold it to ROADSIDE (and VERTICAL ENT) earlier this year, price not disclosed.
SO: Yeah… these weekend numbers aren’t great. You could take the stance that it’s not really covid related:
“Old” had a great marketing campaign… but not great reviews, and no box-office boosting A-List star.
“Snake Eyes” was an unknown property from a franchise with nebulous popularity to begin with (“GI Joe”)
And if you know someone who saw “Space Jam: A New Legacy” and recommended it… please send my way.
OR: You can see this as troublesome, since the top 2 films were only in theaters, had huge ad spends, and $16 Million is M. Night’s lowest opening weekend tally ever (and yes, I know -“Wide Awake” , but if you count that are you really even a fan?).
So - the performance of“Jungle Cruise” on Friday is now gonna be under much more scrutiny. As will the pressure/expectation on DISNEY+ to release streaming revenue data for it, if only to give the industry a heads up if greater theatrical biz contraction may be ahead.
ALSO IN MOVIES
Bradley Whitford joins 20TH CENTURY’s comedic “Romeo & Juliet” alt-take “Rosaline”, starring Kaitlyn Dever in the title role as the cousin of “Juliet” and recent ex of “Romeo”. /Deadline
CANNES Palm d’Or winner “Titane” will hit US theaters on Oct 1 from NEON. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
OLYMPICS Opening Ceremony ratings down by about 1/3 from Rio in 2016
NBC + PEACOCK/streaming audience was about 17 Million people. Rio had 26.5 Million viewers, and London had 40 Million back in 2012. /Deadline
BUT: PEACOCK is setting new (broadly defined) streaming records so that plan seems to be working - question becomes what must-see PEACOCK late Aug/Fall programming will NBC be promoting come the final days of The OLYMPICS to keep some of the audience coming back after the Closing Ceremony? 🤔
Damon Lindelof & Matt Reeves producing “magical-realist medical drama” for HBOMAX
Created by British filmmaker Oscar Sharp, who will write & direct. Called “The Human Conditions”, centers on young female doctor who must cure “fantastical” medical issues by addressing the underlying emotional issues. 🤕
No word on a timeline. Or if my sore hip has something to do with me not having a girlfriend in high school. /THR
HBOMAX sets new showrunner for “Dune”-prequel TV series
Called “Dune: The Sisterhood”, will take place before the events of the upcoming movies. New showrunner is Diane Ademu-John (NETFLIX’s “The Haunting of Bly Manor”).
Previous showrunner Jon Spaihts (“Prometheus”) had to depart the show to work on part 2 of the “Dune” movie franchise. Denis Villeneuve will direct the pilot of this show… at some point. /Variety
ALSO IN TV
“The Simpsons” Fall season premiere will be a musical, featuring Kristen Bell as the singing voice of… “Marge Simpson” 😲. /Variety
ALSO: A thank you goes out to the former VIACOM exec who pointed out that I confused “The Surreal Life” with “The Simple Life” on Friday. For the record - VH1 is rebooting “The Surreal Life”/celebs living together in a house series. “The Simple Life” is still enjoying it’s place in the Smithsonian TV library.
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
SONY sets APPLE TV+ deal giving free 6 month trials to PS5 owners
Just sign into the APPLE TV app on your PS5 and you should be good to go, details in the article. /The Verge
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
FACEBOOK +5%
ROKU up almost 13%, no specific news driving this… more about options trading activity apparently - always a good sign.
SNAP up almost 24% on their positive user # increase news from their 2Q earnings call.
My personal lack of wealth… yeah looks to be about the same. 👍👍
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
Nothing new… so, OLYMPICS primetime reruns it is.
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
HULU “Nine Perfect Strangers” final trailer. Gotta say this does look intriguing… nice work HULU Marketing 👏. Limited series premieres Wed Aug 18.
AMC “The Walking Dead” Final Season trailer. They’re breaking the final 24 episodes up into 3 parts… but still calling it all Season 11… for some reason 🤷♂️. The first part Premieres Sun Aug 22, other 2 will drop in 2022.
SHOWTIME “Dexter: New Blood” teaser trailer. 90 second look at the new season. Premieres Sun Nov 7.
NETFLIX “Army of Thieves” teaser trailer. A prequel to Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead” zombie-Vegas-heist movie… but the only thing in common is that Zack has co-story credit and is a producer on this. Otherwise entirely new characters, set in Europe, and no zombies in sight… at least in this. Hitting NETFLIX Fall TBD.
SHOWTIME “American Rust” series trailer. The small town (western) PA series starring Jeff Daniels & Maura Tierney. Premieres Sat Sept 12.
PARAMOUNT+ “The Harper House” series trailer. Mom moves her family into an old “fixer upper” house in Arkansas to save money, which… apparently has a the occasional dead body find in it. Premieres Thu Sept 16.
🕵️♂️ THE WEEK AHEAD
TUE - GOOGLE & APPLE earnings late afternoon
WED - FACEBOOK earnings/user updates late afternoon
THU - “Fboy Island” enters the world. NBA DRAFT also begins.
FRI - New Billie Eilish album drops, as does “Jungle Cruise”
SAT/SUN - more OLYMPICS anyone?
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New DEE GEES - “Night Fever”. A song from everyone’s favorite new BEE GEES cover band, fronted by Cave Shohl. Ok for the record Dave may actually be going by his real name with this project.
If you need new tunes:
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And a rest in peace goes out to Jackie Mason, who died at the age of 93 yesterday. Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
or I’m also here on CLUBHOUSE