PAR+ adds 6.8 Million subscribers, SHOWTIME & other streamers post loss
PAR+ adds 6.8 Million subscribers, SHOWTIME & other streamers post loss
UNI picks new FAST X helmer / COBRA KAI team sets new NETFLIX show / BRAVO makes exclusive home at PEACOCK
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on TUESDAY May 3, 2022.
Where somehow I don’t think the MET GALA is gonna lead the news cycle today… or frankly anything in this email for that matter so perhaps we just dive in.
FIRST: The TRIBECA FEST announced its Talks and Retrospective screenings this June, including:
50th Anniversary “The Godfather” screening which would be fun to see on the big screen with an audience, introduced by Pacino.
DeNiro-Pacino-Mann-Linson “Heat” reunion conversation that’s… somehow not hosted by Bill Simmons. Or perhaps it’s explicitly not hosted by Bill Simmons. Could see that one going either way. #TheRewatchables
ALSO: HARRY STYLES is celebrating the release of his new album on Fri May 20 by going to… the heart of Long Island. Well that’s new. He’s gonna play a show at the home of the ISLANDERS 🥅, UBS Arena with all tix just $25, incl fees. Oh that Harry… 🥰
AMEX card holders can pre-register today to be chosen to buy tix on Friday… with a more specific breakdown of the confusing instructions here in the VARIETY link.
AND: Ellen shot her last episode after a 19 year run.
PLUS: Kristin Cavallari and Stephen (did he have a last name?) are reuniting to do a ‘re-watch’ podcast of “Laguna Beach”, with TBA special guests. The show premiered 18 years ago. You’re welcome Millenials. #old
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
UNI picks “Lupin”, “Now You See Me” director to step in on “Fast X”
Louis Leterrier is currently working out a final deal… ok I really hate saying fast & furiously here but it really does apply. 🤷♂️
He would ideally join asap to pick up where Justin Lin left off after one week of shooting (more on that below).
Louis has made his career on action pics (“Transporter”, “Clash of the Titans”) so… while arguably a larger scale - this is 100% in his wheelhouse. And that concludes my pun quota for May.
ALSO IN MOVIES
A24 sets Tobias Menzies (“The Crown”) to co-star with Julia Louis-Dreyfus in “Beth & Don” from Nicole Holofcener. About a happily married NYC couple whose relationship… devolves after Julia’s writer character overhears Tobias’s husband character saying he hasn’t liked her writing in years. Now shooting. /Deadline
Elizabeth Banks’s next directorial outing “Cocaine Bear” will hit theaters from UNI in Feb 2023. Ok yes - this is 10 months away… but I will take any excuse to write about something called “Cocaine Bear” that also has Ray Liotta in it. /Deadline
📝 IN OTHER WORDS…
“This is not worth my mental health.”
- Director JUSTIN LIN just before walking out the door of a production meeting on the set of “Fast X” with Vin Diesel and 2 execs to address Vin’s new “script notes”… one week into shooting. He did not return.
The production budget alone is now reportedly up to the $300 Million range.
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📺 THE TV SET
NETFLIX sets Jeff Daniels to lead “A Man in Full” Tom Wolfe limited series
David E. Kelley is adapting because he needs to write just one more series at NETFLIX to get his “one free month!” subscription punchcard redeemed. 🤘
It’s about an Atlanta real estate mogul facing bankruptcy who has to defend his “empire” from haters coming for him from political and business spectrums.
Regina King will direct 3 of the 6 episodes. /THR
NETFLIX picks up TBS Vegas action-comedy series from “Cobra Kai” team
Called “Obliterated”, 8 hour-long episodes.
TBS ordered it to series in 2019 then… un-ordered it at some point, and doesn’t sound like this was part of Zaslav’s scripted series cupboard-cleaning going on at the TURNER Networks. But perhaps the rights got freed up now… or something.
About a special forces team who thwarts a bombing attempt in Vegas… and proceeds to party and get wasted in a way that only the guys who gave us “Harold & Kumar” can imagine. But turns out - the bomb was a fake and they gotta find the real bomb and save the town while drunk, high and horny.
Wait how this was a TBS series?? Also how is this a series and not a movie?? I’d be totally in. I mean I still am - but… this really sounds like a movie for John Cena no? /THR
BRAVO shows will now be on PEACOCK the next day
Guess the headline kinda said it all really. No longer on HULU, and for PEACOCK PREMIUM subscribers only. /THR
ALSO IN TV
AMAZON’s FREEVEE renews “Bosch: Legacy” for a Season 2. /Deadline
“Pictionary” ✍️ syndicated game show hosted by Jerry O’Connell sold into 90% coverage on primarily local CBS and FOX affiliates for a Fall launch. /Deadline
PEACOCK launching 8 episodes of a “Dateline” spinoff series with the feel-good name of “Dateline: The Last Day”. It’s… not referring to the school calendar. /Deadline
FOX’s TUBI adding 100 Movies & TV shows over the next year… although only 1 was mentioned in the DEADLINE piece - a sitcom called “Classmates” directed by Danielle Fischel. 🤔
TUBI said 51 Million people watched it at least once in the past month at the end of 2021.
Also renewed the animated series “The Freak Brothers” featuring the voices of Pete Davidson and Tiffany Haddish. /Deadline
IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE
Former SEARCHLIGHT exec Angela Johnson joins IDPR as a VP. Will rep filmmakers and other talent, as well as consult on Award season campaigns. She most recently consulted for MGM this year via her own AJ-PR shingle. /Deadline
The Russo Bros set NBCU exec Scott Nemes as Prez of TV, and longtime R&C-PMK exec Marian Koltai-Levine as Prez of Marketing & Comms at their AGBO production outfit. /Variety
UTA hires Nick Axelrod as VP of their Ventures department, working on business extensions for clients. He previously ran Courtney Cox’s homecare line, and before that launched a skincare line NECESSAIRE. /THR
📝 IN OTHER OTHER WORDS…
“I think everybody sort of woke up and smelled the coffee during the pandemic and recognized that not all movies are created equal.”
- UNIVERSAL PICS head Donna Langley announcing they’ll be producing 3 movies for PEACOCK in 2023:
A Lebron biopic
The previously announced “Praise This” from Will Packer - think “Pitch Perfect” set in a youth choir.
A remake of John Woo’s 1989 pic “The Killer”
Plan is to raise that to 7 to 10 movies a year by sometime mid-decade.
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
#medianerd is back for 2 days!
PARAMOUNT+ adds 6.8 Million global subscribers in Q1, hits 39.6 Million worldwide
PARAMOUNT GLOBAL total Q1 Revenue was -1%. But it was +5% if you remove the lack of a SUPER BOWL factor, in case you had any question as to the power of the NFL. Being down overall isn’t great, but I guess this is… OK to mixed?
Overall of note:
Streaming Revenue almost doubled (PAR+ & SHOWTIME) to $1.1 Billion vs a year ago, and +32% vs. end of 2021 due to impressive subscriber growth. But:
They lost $456 Million on Streaming from Jan thru March (similar to PEACOCK). These losses will only grow for at least the next year and a half.
SHOWTIME (and other small streamers like BET+ etc) lost 500k subscribers collectively in Q1.
OF NOTE: 68% of Streaming Revenue is from Subscription fees, 32% is from Advertising
Film & TV licensing also took a $360 Million hit vs. a year ago, due to selling off “Coming to America” and “Without Remorse” last year, and gotta think keeping their own Movies & TV Series for PAR+ vs. licensing elsewhere also has a small role.
PARAMOUNT+
SUBSCRIBERS: 39.6 Million globally. But
No breakdown of US vs Int’l subscribers
No specific Avg Revenue Per User #ARPUs indicated, other than ‘it grew’ from Q4, but basic math puts it around $5.40 globally according to an analyst on the call.
They did say US PAR+ subscriber ARPU is “around $9”
No Q2 projections given
NOTE: These are all metrics that NETFLIX has openly reported for years
REVENUE: Hit $585 Million, over 2X vs. a year ago. NETFLIX brought it $7.8 Billion.
No breakdown of US vs International revenue
PAR+ will enter INDIA next year, via PARAMOUNT GLOBAL’s VIACOM18 network, which is getting renewed investment and has a huge partner with RELIANCE, a huge media conglomerate if not the biggest there.
PAR+ will hit the UK in June, and most of EUROPE in 2nd half of the year.
SHOWTIME will become avail to add-on within PAR+ this Summer.
PLUTO TV
Added 3.1 Million new monthly users, now at 67.5 Million and still the largest free-streaming service #FAST by far.
REVENUE: Was $253 Million, +51% vs a year ago.
TAKEAWAY
6.8 Million subscribers is big growth for PARAMOUNT+, even if they didn’t define specifically where it came from. Still a long way to go in Revenue growth.
PLUTO TV is still the king of the growing free-streaming business.
But there are big Streaming spending losses ahead. For a long time.
And we’ll see how long the Cable TV Network Revenue holds to maintain the bedrock of PARAMOUNT GLOBAL Revenue to support the big Streaming investment deficits ahead.
LIONSGATE signs a “Pay 2” movie distribution deal with PEACOCK…
Presumably this comes after the “Pay 2” deal LGF just signed with ROKU last week. 🤔
LIONSGATE definitely slicing the pie very thin here… Sounds like their movies will go to STARZ in their first PayTV window, then to ROKU for a TBD moment, and then onto PEACOCK for a more meaningful Pay2 window.
Starts with this year’s releases which… should then begin to hit ROKU and PEACOCK in 2024. /THR
ALSO IN MEDIA
FACEBOOK is exiting the podcast business after a year. No one will be able to upload podcasts for hosting on the platform by end of week, and the whole thing will be removed by June 3.
Not shocking news but add this to the list of things FB had no shot at succeeding in and wasted a ton of resources on. /YahooNews
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
ROKU +11% ($103.13)
SPOTIFY +7% ($108.86)
WBD +6% ($19.25)
FACEBOOK +5% ($211.13)
NETFLIX +5% ($199.46)
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👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
ABC game show lineup returns: “Holey Moley!”, “The Chase”, “Who Do You Believe?”
BRAVO “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” reunion at 8p. Or watch on PEACOCK tomorrow!
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
WARNER BROS “Don’t Worry Darling” trailer - Well this movie definitely has a lot to live up to - this is the definition of provocative 😲. Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, and Olivia Wilde star, with Olivia also has taking her directing game up even higher by the looks of it. Sure to be the hot ticket at TIFF this year. In theaters Sept 23.
HBO “George Carlin’s American Dream” documentary trailer. 2 parts, from Judd Apatow, drops Fri May 20.
HULU “The Valet” movie trailer - Eugenio Derbez (“CODA”) and Samara Weaving star, about a Hollywood actress who pretends to date a Valet to hide a secret affair. Premieres Fri May 20
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
MIRANDA LAMBERT dropped her new album “Palomino” on Friday (stream here on Spotify). Definitely digging quite a few tracks, including this one:
If you need some new tunes:
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-SEAN MCNULTY
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