Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY January 24, 2022.

Where the nation’s blood pressure is probably up a couple of points after the 4 NFL games this weekend. 3 of the 4 visiting NFL teams won and even the 4th… basically shoulda as well if they had made a different kickoff call with 13 seconds left.

But - its CINCY at KC, and SF at LA in the big games this Sunday to determine who goes to the… ok well The Big Game, as any advertiser who isn’t an NFL sponsor has to legally call it.

ALSO: THE FUGEES are cancelling their March reunion tour citing Covid. They “hope to be able to revisit this again sometime soon” but nothing specific mentioned.

AND: Sending a kind thought out today to Regina King, who lost her son Ian Alexander Jr. to suicide at the age of 26 this weekend.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

1. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” : $14 Million ($721 Million US, $1.69 Billion global)

   • Goal of beating the“Avatar” $760 Million gross… is still very TBD, but gotta think SONY’s gonna pull-out every tactic possible in the next few weeks.

   • However globally, it beat “The Lion King” and “Jurassic World” to become the 6th biggest movie of all time.

2. “Scream” : $12 Million ($51 Million US, $85 Million global)

3. “Sing 2” - $6 Million ($128 Million US, $241 Million global)

   • Another low 28% drop weekend-to-weekend… even though it’s also on PVOD

   • But it will finish at around just 60% of the original’s blockbuster $270 Million US box office.

4. “Redeeming Love” - $3.7 Million

5. “The King’s Man” - $1.8 million ($32 Million US)

6. “The 355” - $1.6 Million ($11 Million US)

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

• “Licorice Pizza” down to $700k, now at $11 Million US total. /Deadline

SKYDANCE leaves PARAMOUNT, moves to new deal at APPLE

Only described as “multi-year” Film deal. SKYDANCE’s most recent movies have all been on streaming services (“The Tomorrow War”, “The Old Guard” and “Without Remorse” - although that one was PAR before they sold off to AMAZON).

• ALSO: PARAMOUNT moves “Mission Impossible” 7 & 8. Again. For the 5th time. Going to Summer 2023 and 2024. So 2022 now has “Top Gun: Maverick” all to itself for Cruise press. /Deadline

• THEN: UNIVERSAL moved Billy Eichner’s rom-com “Bros” from Aug to the previous MI:7 date of Sept 30 this year. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Kirsten Dunst starring in A24 pic “Civil War”, directed by Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”). Not much known other than it’s an “action epic set in a near-future America”…. and I’m guessing things aren’t going well. /THR

• PARAMOUNT picked up the animated movie “Blazing Samurai”, (unrelated to “Blazing Saddles”. unfortunately). Features voices of Michael Cera, Mel Brooks, Sam Jackson, and Ricky Gervias. Will release July 22.

• NAT GEO buys 2 docs at SUNDANCE:

  • “The Territory” - About Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people’s battle against illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, $1 Million deal.

  • “Fire of Love” - About a French volcanologist couple who chased volcano’s around the world, until a 1991 volcanic explosion in JAPAN. $4-6 Million deal. /Deadline

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• Former longtime WARNER BROS Comms exec Scott Rowe sets up his own PR shingle, SRowe2000 Media. /THR

• HULU exec Annie Luo comes over to PEACOCK as EVP of Global Partnerships and Strategic Development. /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

JUST ONE THING

• DISNEY+ STAR WARS adds Mary Elizabeth Winstead to upcoming “Ahoska” series with Rosario Dawson & Hayden Christensen. No word on Winstead’s role. /THR

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Major Ad firm buyers looking to 2X TIKTOK Ad spends in 2022

Which… isn’t great for FACEBOOK (and potentially SNAP to some degree). Money’s gotta come from somewhere.

Firms like HORIZON and MEKANISM said TIKTOK is now as much as 10 to 25% of the social media ad budget for some of their clients, when it was 0 as recently as 2 years ago. /TheInformation

ALSO IN MEDIA

• NBCU cutting ratings guarantees by up to half due to advertiser pushback given how TOKYO turned out. /BusinessInsider

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

It was a #notgreatbob Friday…

NETFLIX -22% ($397.50)

ROKU -9% ($152.13)

SNAP -8% ($32.12)

ROBLOX -8% ($68.93)

DISNEY -7% ($137.38)

AMC NETWORKS -7% ($35.97)

VIACOMCBS -7% (31.25)

AMAZON -6% ($2852.86)

SPOTIFY -6% ($195.53)

TWITTER -6% ($34.82)

ALTICE -6% ($14.15)

DISCOVERY -5% ($26.19)

But of course… BUZZFEED +10% ($4.44)

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

TNT “Snowpiercer” Season 3 at 9p

ABC “Promised Land” at 10p

HBO “The Gilded Age” at 9p

If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:

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🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - New Aziz special hits NETFLIX, VERIZON/Fios earnings in the AM

WED - AT&T earnings in AM

THU - COMCAST earnings in AM, APPLE in PM

FRI - Another quiet weekend for new wide releases at the Box Office

SAT - SNL is Willem Dafoe and KATY PERRY

SUN - NFL Conference Championship Games

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

PEACOCK “Joe vs Carole” series teaser - Premieres Thu March 3

NETFLIX “Steel Magnolias” Season 2 trailer - Premieres Fri Feb 4

APPLE TV+ “Everyone but Jon Hamm” - Ok this is just a minute-long commercial, but for any #HammFanns (that’s the hashtag right?) who didn’t watch NFL games this weekend (where APPLE spent some of that big $$ for ad time) - he’s apparently quite upset that everyone else in Hollywood is on the service… except him. Guessing the size of the check he got to do this helped soften the blow.

PARAMOUNT+ “Star Trek: Picard” Season 2 trailer - Premieres Thu March 3

AMAZON PRIME “Book of Love” movie trailer - Sam Claflin romcom about a reserved UK author who becomes famous in MEXICO when an author translates his book… into a steamy romance. Book tour and “unlikely” sparks ensue. From BUZZFEED STUDIOS. Premieres Fri Feb 11

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New CHARLIE PUTH “Light Switch” - #FunFact: we’re from the same hometown (ok well technically his is right next to mine but that’s just something we joke about when we hang out at the local soda shop).

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

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-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM