☀️PEACOCK Growth Freezes, What's the Plan Here?
Gyllenhaal, Eddie set new pics / Top management firms look for 💰 / NFLX, AMAZON add more series
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY, January 30, 2024.
Where I hope you’re enjoying your cavalcade of cascading NETFLIX PR announcements!
Kudos on a fun “What’s Next” presentation yesterday (always love a tight 60 minutes), and gotta say that was one of the most extensive lists of embargo times I’ve ever seen.
AND: Enjoy the big FIREAID benefit concert tonight! Stream it . . . basically anywhere ya like starting at 9 p.m. ET.
PLUS: META is paying $3M in legal fees and $22M to Donald Trump’s Presidential Library in small bills in a briefcase personally delivered by Zuck wearing a MAGA hat to settle a lawsuit Trump brought against META over 3 years ago for being banned from FB and INSTA after the Jan. 6 tragedy at the Capitol. Okay, this better be one pretty sweet library . . .
YEAH: I think Gen Alpha may need a new name — the part of this generation that was in early education/grammar school years during Covid . . . is falling further back in their cognitive skills over time. Not sure AI is gonna fix this one.
ALSO: FOX wasn’t kidding when it indicated Hollywood was largely sitting out the $7.5M-ish Super Bowl ad buys this year — UNI, PAR and DISNEY are the only 3 studios buying time in the big game 🏈 according to Deadline, after a rather robust showing in the NFL Conference Championship games on Sunday.
THEN: Toss the APPLE SPORTS app into the ring for being the solve for the “Where is my team’s game airing/streaming?” problem via a new update — although only for nationally broadcast games.
FINALLY: Just sending a thought out to both all of folks affected by the horrific plane crash in D.C. last night as more news comes forth today, and also to a name that is a music personality mainstay for many Gen Xers from his years on MTV and otherwise — Matt Pinfield, who suffered a massive stroke a few weeks ago.
Matt actually came up on my local “alternative” radio station on the Jersey Shore before his MTV days, and it was always fun to see him at shows in the area and for us to feel cool knowing him before the country did on MTV (and presently out in the L.A. market on the radio). Keeping a good thought for his recovery.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
UNI’s Dog Man is looking to inject some much needed life at the box office as we enter February — but the prognosticators are all over the place:
Deadline puts it at $20M+.
Variety puts it more like $25M to $30M.
Some folks in exhibition and elsewhere think it could do well above $30M.
A couple comps — the first Paw Patrol opened to a little under $23M, and the 2017 Captain Underpants pic opened to $24M (Dog Man is part of that universe).
IN TODAY’S EDITION
COMCAST starts the day with . . . kind of a bummer earnings call. Dive into:
The flat growth at PEACOCK (and why no one bothered to mention it)
How the studio is finding profit and some key comps to look at
How #Cordcutting is eating into Wireless gains, and the Broadband problem COMCAST is trying to solve (remember where the money really comes from at this company).
The big 2025 on the horizon, and much more.
Major talent management firm are taking (or looking to take) 💰 for growth.
SONY PICTURES leads a busy day in new project news by bringing back another theatrical movie genre back that “we used to do” in its new A-List pic buy, while also making an exciting summer movie slate change.
The AFM takes the hint from last year’s debacle.
Curious things to note on the NETFLIX 2025 Film slate, plus news from DISNEY, DISNEYFOX, AMAZON, more NETFLIX, APPLE and . . . yeah let’s get moving.
COMCAST Q4 2024 — Onto to 2025!
Gotta say, I’ve heard more upbeat tones and better vision on other COMCAST earnings calls — and probably even at Sundance this year. This won’t be one for the books. Ah, the Olympics seem like a faint memory.
So, definitely not a “great quarter, guys” with these headlines (and subsequent stock reaction), but there are actually some bright spots to note here too: