PARAMOUNT abandons 2021 box office - TOP GUN 2 & JACKASS 4 punted

TWITTER launches paid Super Follows / HULU orders VACATION FRIENDS sequel / CBS revamps B-POSITIVE

Sep 2, 2021

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY September 2, 2021.

Where “The Office” is doing the IRL pop-up thing, a la “The Friends Experience”. For the low low price of… $40, you can take pictures in various set-replications including the DUNDER MIFFLIN office of course, and Schrute Farms. Begins Oct 15 in Chicago, will eventually travel to other cities next year.

PLUS: Your Fall movie buzz is about to get a shot of Makers as the TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL begins out in Colorado today. Full movie slate is here, including:

Will Smith’s “King Richard”
Kristen Stewart’s Princess Di movie “Spencer”
Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog”
Kenneth Branagh’s somewhat-autobiographical“Belfast”

AND AS I’M SURE YOU’VE SEEN: Joe Rogan told everyone he has Covid, detailed how all his symptoms started, his quarantining efforts, and shared every drug he’s taking - including Monoclonal Antibodies, Z-Pak, Prednisone and horse-drug Ivermectin.

But he’s still not sharing, ya know, if he’s vaccinated. I mean that’s just personal. Also Joe Rogan is definitely not vaccinated.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

“Top Gun: Maverick” abandons pre-Thanksgiving weekend, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” moves in

Tom Cruise now moving the heck outta 2021 entirely, gonna kick off Summer 2022 on Memorial Day weekend instead. I mean when you’ve waited 35 years to put out the sequel… 🤷‍♂️

“MI:7” also now moves to Sept 30, 2022 as a result, so the “Tom Cruise still believes in the Movie Theater experience” story headlines will now move to Summer 2022.

PARAMOUNT is now fully abandoning 2021 entirely, also moving “Jackass Forever” from October to February.

“Ghostbusters” was previously set for just a week earlier on Nov 11, but SONY now moving to the Nov 19 slot along with the now-available IMAX screens. /Deadline

HULU orders “Vacation Friends” sequel, “Honeymoon Friends”

The producer and writer/director are all returning, and presumbly the cast. It was the most watched first weekend for a HULU original film ever… although no numbers were provided with that. 😏 /Deadline

PEACOCK buys James McAvoy / Claire Foy STX missing-person thriller “My Son” in the US

A man’s son goes missing, and he searches for him in his ex-wife’s town.

Remake of a French film, and McAvoy was not given a script or dialogue, only basic story/character arcs (the French film did the same thing, and this has the same director).

No price indicated, will premiere Wed Sept 15 on PEACOCK free. /THR

ALSO IN MOVIES

SONY changes directors on Whitney Houston biopic “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” - Kasi Lemmons (“Harriet”) comes in to replace Stella Meghie (“The Photograph”) who left over creative differences.
- Naomi Ackie (latest season of “Master of None”) still on board as Whitney. /Deadline
J. Lo hired and promoted a bunch of folks at her production company, which has a production deal at NETFLIX. /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

CBS revamps “B-Positive” story focus for Season 2

All cast returning, but Linda Lavin & 2 others upped to cast members, and show will now mainly focus on the assisted living facility where she works.

Thomas Middleditch is still in the show, but sounds like Chuck Lorre is doing the big ensemble approach moving forward. /THR

ALSO IN TV

NETFLIX adding “Seinfeld” on Fri Oct 1. /THR
TNT sets Dec 18 College Basketball doubleheader event with 4 historically Black colleges. Michael B. Jordan put the event together with WME SPORTS, will take place in Jordan’s hometown of Newark, NJ. /THR
NETFLIX renews “Unsolved Mysteries” for Season 3. /Deadline
Gregg Leaks, husband of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Nene Leaks, dies after a 3 year battle with colon cancer at age 66. /Variety
Jordan Peele moves his TV Production deal to UNIVERSAL, where his film deal is. His TV deal was previously at AMAZON. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

TWITTER activates “Super Follows” subscription ability

Essentially approved accounts can now charge people $3, $5 or $10 a month to see Super Tweets from their accounts that only their Super Followers can see. Unless they scroll past them. Wait how is this newsletter still earning $0 ?? 🙇‍♂️

Feature will be APPLE iOS-only so far, and TWITTER taking 3% of the revenue (after APPLE / GOOGLE take their 30% vig & STRIPE payment processing fees).

That is - until you make $50k, then TWITTER takes 20%. So if you’re really successful, you keep less than 50% of your money. Before taxes. I think people used to get a better cut of their earnings under mob protection.

To apply / qualify to have Super Followers - you must have at least 10k followers, and have tweeted 25x in the past 30 days. /The Verge

Major CHINA media & gaming company TENCENT ends all exclusive music lablel deals due to Gov’t crackdown

TENCENT has exclusive deals with the 3 major music labels (UNI, SONY, WARNER) for their major Chinese streaming services. But they also used to “sub-lease” those licenses to others… I’m guessing for a fee.

This is Another part of the Chinese Government’s continued crackdown on business and culture. /MBW