☀️SKYDANCE Buys New $80M Pic As It Awaits Shari's Answer
Summer movies bombard NBA Finals / AMAZON orders cop show / NETFLIX sets new Tyson date, and is sued again
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED-IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY, June 7, 2024.
Where Bad Boys 4 opens in theaters today — but good luck watching it in the Bronx. Yes, there is now only one movie theater . . . for the 1.4 Million residents of NYC’s northernmost borough of Da Bronx. One.
The “other theater,” near Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx, just closed after 30 years, when it couldn’t come to a new lease agreement with the landlord. #WelcomeToNYC2024💰
Still — that means there were only two before this closure . . . ya know, some industry’s wounds are just self-inflicted. But hey, I doubt there are too many Will & Martin fans in that borough anyway, right?
THEN: The ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE chain just lost 6 more locations: 5 in the North Texas area, and one in Minneapolis. These were all franchise locations, and the company that runs them has filed for Chapter 7, saying they infused $3.5M into the business in 2023 and lost $1M.
ALAMO now has 35 locations — 15 franchise, and 20 owned. The company of course went through its own bankruptcy process in 2021.
DON’T WORRY!: Roaring Kitty (aka Paul Dano in Dumb Money) is returning to YOUTUBE today at 12noon, so I’m sure AMC THEATERS will be just fine.
THEN: LIONSGATE set . . . lo and behold, a Thanksgiving 2026 release date for the next Hunger Games pic based on the upcoming book, as I put out into the universe yesterday. Today, I predict I will be given $1,000. Stay tuned.
PLUS: NETFLIX rescheduled its Tyson vs. Paul fight for Fri. November 15, still at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It also has its big Cameron Diaz / Jamie Foxx pic Back in Action dropping that date.
WELL: If there’s a football fan in your life, maybe get the Christmas shopping done before Sat. Dec. 21 this year — here’s your College Football Playoff and NFL schedule:
Noon: CFP Round 1, TNT
1 p.m.: NFL: TEXANS vs. CHIEFS, NBC
4 p.m.: CFP Round 1, TNT
4:30 p.m.: NFL: STEELERS vs. RAVENS, FOX
8 p.m.: CFP Round 1, ABC/ESPN
Good luck with those head-to-head ratings, TNT — better hope for some SEC action in those games instead of BIG 10 (Janice note: football allegiance definitely skews heavily to the college game in the South).
HUZZAH! #1: The UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA won its 4th women’s college softball World Series in a row last night! Defeating UT AUSTIN in 2 games last night. But we’ll see how OKLAHOMA does next year — 10 of their players are seniors, although that’s quite a class of players.
HUZZAH! #2: Let’s hear it for the U.S. cricket team! They stunned global powerhouse Pakistan in the T20 Cricket World Cup, beating them in Texas yesterday, thanks to winning something called a Super Over tiebreaker (🤷♂️ — for once, I know how Janice feels when I talk to her about sports).
Considering cricket is Pakistan’s national sport, and that it’s been finalists in the T20 tournament 3 times — really quite an achievement!
Best of all — the U.S. team is full of folks with other full time jobs, including one of the stars of the match for the Americans.
AND: Let the PARAMOUNT-UNIVERSAL hawks assemble! UNI’s CA & FL theme parks are installing new A Quiet Place haunted houses as part of their Halloween Horror Nights stunt starting circa Labor Day weekend.
BUT: If you’re looking for Sir Iger, he was over in Tokyo cutting the ribbon (pretty sure he uses scissors and not a sword) on the new $2 Billion expansion to the TOKYO DISNEY RESORT, with new areas inspired by the Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan franchises. It’s all about the theme parks, kids (and yes, Josh D’Amaro was also there).
SO: Any former WING members out there? Starting next spring you can stay in founder Ashley Gelman’s new Hudson Valley inn, her next act after running her Brooklyn homewares store in Cobble Hill.
D’OH: AXEL SPRINGER (Business Insider, Politico) is changing policy to require folks in the office 5 days a week, with CEO Mathias Döpfner espousing an “office-first” mantra, as the “people-first” one just wasn’t feeling right.
WELCOME: To the new NETFLIX, or at least something it’s trying on — this is a test or a “first effort” and could expand depending upon feedback, according to a company exec (other images and details in the link).
A REST IN PEACE: Goes out to Lee Gabler, a longtime TV agent, former co-chairman and managing partner at CAA, who died at the age of 84 this week.
A FAREWELL: To Pat Sajak, whose final episode of Wheel of Fortune airs today.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL RESULTS
Gotta love those 8%’ers . . .
And lotta bears in those Watchers woods.
HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: My Box Office breakdown will come out early Monday morning instead of Sunday night this week.
NEW ANKLER PODCAST EPISODE!
NBA FINALS AD REPORT
Well, game 1 was a blowout last night from late Q1 onward (final score 107-89 Boston), but thankfully Hollywood mostly showed up in the first half — and it was actually quite a showing last night for summer movie season!
Almost every studio bought ads, although oddly the NBA and ABC do not release ad time 💰 info like other events looking to be seen in a major light.
The only number I’ve seen out there is about $750k for 30 seconds, but that’s from 2018.
Either way — the audiences were more than 11M for game 1 in the past 2 years. Certainly sizeable . . . although still beneath most AMAZON Thursday Night Football audiences, and certainly well below any NBC Sunday Night Football audience, whose ads run roughly $850k.
So, here’s who was buying most . . .