☀️ SAG weighs LBFO deal & options, as 'Freddy's' Plummets in Wknd 2
STARZ makes more cuts / TNF #s hang strong for AMAZON / Earnings Week 3 preview
Evenin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on SUNDAY Nov. 5, 2023.
Where if this newsletter doesn’t come out next Sunday - know that I was called in to be available as a backup QB for the NY GIANTS.
Seriously, can we just end the season now and avoid an empty MET LIFE stadium for the last 2 home games in… dead-of-winter end of December/early January? 🙏
Then again - at least we didn’t absolutely blow it inside the 10-yard line in the last minute of the game tonight. 😂
CORRECTION from Friday: PARAMOUNT Q4 streaming losses will be similar to the past Q4 ‘22, not this past quarter Q3 ‘23 (apologies for my brain haze there on Friday). So, probably back to circa -$550 Million for PAR Streaming losses in Q4… not circa Q3’s -$238 Million.
The timing of sports costs/payments was mentioned as a factor, and 2023 PAR streaming losses are still projected be less than 2022… but yeah, definitely will be a lot of eyes on where their Q1 ‘24 loss projections land closer to Q1 ‘23 (-$511 Mil) or this past quarter (-$238 Mil), or hey - maybe better! #optimism2024
IN THIS EDITION
The box office has its 4th lowest weekend of the year to… no one’s surprise #ThanksDune2. Then again with the way 2024 looks right now - it’s probably more important to have it there. Get the full Sunday night Box Office breakdown.
STARZ cuts more staff, goes NORTH AMERICA-only as they prep for spin-off.
SO: I’ve been in the Catskills this weekend, and oddly no one was asking me about the strike at the local bar this evening 🤷♂️ (frankly, we could have used the change in conversation while watching the GIANTS try and play football).
Thankfully Elaine has been on it all weekend, and here’s the very latest 👇:
THIS JUST IN… ELAINE LOW ON SAG’S NUCLEAR OPTION
The week may have begun with high hopes for a new three-year contract — it was absolutely going to happen, said some of industry armchair quarterbacks — but it is instead closing out with 160,000-plus SAG-AFTRA performers still out on strike. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers presented the actors union with a last, best and final offer on Saturday, verbiage that indicates it is not interested in more back-and-forth. SAG-AFTRA has spent Sunday poring over the latest counter, the details of which aren’t public.
But those allied with the union see the LFBO language not as the final word but as a negotiating tactic intended to apply pressure to SAG-AFTRA.
The very real issue, of course, is that if talks break down again this week, the industry is expected to shut down through the rest of the year. It’s early November: the 2023-2024 broadcast season is close to being unsalvageable, more 2024 theatrical release dates are already being pushed back, and the hope of restarting production in January is beginning to fade, even with the town’s writers back at work.
The union has also bandied about other levers that is has not yet pulled, one source close to the talks says — specifically…a consumer boycott that would call on viewers to start canceling subscriptions to streaming services in an attempt to pressure the AMPTP to cut a deal. How seriously it is being discussed today is unclear. For now, we wait and see. No announcements yet about the next meeting, but odds are good they’ll want to meet again Monday.
Hear something? Talk to me: elaine@theankler.com.
OF COURSE: Get the very latest from Elaine at Strikegeist tonight here and ongoing this week - as always, totally free to subscribe.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
