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The Wakeup

THE 355 stumbles, SPIDER-MAN will top AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR this week

Industry reacts to BOB SAGET's death / WES ANDERSON doing NETFLIX pic / DRIVE MY CAR gets another top award

Sean McNulty

Jan 10, 2022

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY January 10, 2022.

Where Hollywood is reacting to news of the death of yet another far too young talent in BOB SAGET, who died yesterday at age 65 in his hotel room in Orlando while on tour.

Universally kind words continue to come in about, well his genuine and generous kindness from a wide swath of people across the industry, which only further speaks to his generosity.

No evidence of substances or foul play so will be a little while before a cause of death is determined.

John Stamos @JohnStamos

I am broken. I am gutted. I am in complete and utter shock. I will never ever have another friend like him. I love you so much Bobby.

AND: In a grouping of very different Tweets - the early “Scream” TWITTER reviews from movie press seem very positive for any franchise fans out there. Given that it has the box office to itself this month outside of Spider-Man, it has a solid shot at a long Box Office run like the original if both GEN X and GEN Y show up.

OBLIGATORY: In case anyone is curious about the ~~international junketeer~~ GOLDEN GLOBE winners, here’s the list.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

seriously - screw these folks. Go SCREAM!! via Giphy

BOX OFFICE

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” : $33 Million ($669 Million US, $1.53 Billion global)
- A still pretty low 41% drop from last weekend
- Beats “Titanic” gross, will beat “Avengers: Infinity War” ($678 Million) this week, and “Black Panther” ($700 Million) this month.
  - “Avatar” is probably safe at $760 Million… but given the lack of January releases 🤷‍♂️.
- Still no CHINA date, but had biggest Spidey opening in JAPAN to date ($12 Million).
“Sing 2” - $12 Million ($109 Million US)
- Also a sorta low 41% drop from last weekend, and clear sailing as the only family pic in theaters for… a long, long time.
- Although UNIVERSAL has now put it on PVOD which won’t help that cause.
“The 355” - $4.8 Million
- 3rd place… but a weak showing. Expect this to be on PVOD streaming rentals in 2 weeks, and onto PEACOCK sometime mid-Feb.
- Had a $75 Million budget.
“The King’s Man” - $3.3 million ($25 Million US)
“American Underdog” - $2.4 Million ($19 Million US)
“The Matrix Resurrections” - $1.8 Million ($34 Million US)
- A 50% drop from last weekend

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

“Licorice Pizza” dropped 21% in wide-weekend #3 with $1 Million, now at $8.2 Million total, keeping the 780 theater distribution level.
“House of Gucci” crossed $50 Million at the US Box Office (still the highest grossing “adult” skewing pic of 2021 by far).

Wes Anderson doing first pic for NETFLIX with Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley

Based on the Roald Dahl short story collection “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More” .

Cumberbatch plays “Henry Sugar”, a guy who steals a book showing him how to see through objects and predict the future, and misadventures commence.

This will be Benedict, Dev and Ben’s first Wes Anderson movie, shooting in the UK this month. /THR

Wes already shot his next movie in early Fall in SPAIN with Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks and a bunch of other folks (pretty sure that one’s at SEARCHLIGHT?).

DISNEY PIXAR “Turning Red” pic moves from theatrical release to DISNEY+

Keeping the same March 11 date (it’s the movie about a pre-teen girl who turns into a big red monster every time her strong emotions come out).

This is the 3rd straight PIXAR movie to go Direct-to-DIS+ (“Soul”, “Luca”). Last theatrical PIXAR pic was “Onward” which came out at the top of the pandemic and kinda switched mid-way to PVOD after that.

Next PIXAR Theatrical release is the “Toy Story”-inspired “Lightyear”, currently set for June 17. For now. /THR

In terms of reading the tea leaves - this is likely much more to do with a real need for top-shelf content on DISNEY+ than it is about the movie theater business, as DISNEY+ continues to wade thru a self-inflicted 2021 greenlight bogdown due to executive structure changes.

SO: March currently now only has 3 wide releases set for theaters: “The Batman”, the “Downton Abbey” sequel and “Operation Fortune” (the next Guy Ritchie/Statham pic).

ALSO IN MOVIES

Julia Garner (“Ozark”) starring in PARAMOUNT PLAYERS thriller/horror project “Apartment 7A”. Michael Bay and John Krasinski among the producers. No plot details avail, script still being finished. /Deadline
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS picks “Drive My Car” as Best Picture of 2021. NY and LA FILM CRITICS also picked the Japanese film as well. /Variety
APPLE TV doing a docu on Sidney Poitier. Exec produced by Oprah, directed by Reginald Hudlin (“Boomerang”). Currently in production. /Deadline

🎤 IN OTHER WORDS…

“He said, ‘I got a gun under my pillow, and I’m going to blow away the first guy that comes through that door.’”
- “In the Heat of the Night” director NORMAN JEWISON sharing the realities SIDNEY POITIER faced during their 4 days of production in MISSISSIPPI in 1966, as men in pickup trucks threateningly stalked them outside their hotel throughout their stay.
They had to make most of the movie in ILLINOIS, as the Deep South was just too unsafe in 1966. Their brief time there ended up reinforcing those instincts.

📺 THE TV SET

JUST A FEW THINGS

AMAZON PRIME cancels “I Know What You Did Last Summer” series, so it’s one and done for the series based on the 90’s pic. /Deadline
“Bel-Air” will drop on PEACOCK on SUPERBOWL Sunday Feb 13 (trailer down in the TRAILER HOUSE below).
“The Boys” Season 3 will hit AMAZON PRIME on June 3. /Deadline

TV biz confab NATPE-Miami cancels IRL version that was to take place Jan 18-20, looking at alternative way forward later in the year. /Deadline

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

20TH TELEVISION Head of Drama Michelle Mendelovitz is leaving this month, no word on a next destination. /THR
ROKU’s Head of Platform Scott Rosenberg is leaving after a 9 year tenure. Sounds like it’s for another gig… but no word there. Scott led ROKU’s distribution deals, The Roku Channel, and advertising busines. /THR
UTA Global Comms chief (and partner) Seth Oster is leaving after 5 years. Has another gig lined up… but not saying what it is. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

PODCASTING could use a hit…

The Top 10 most popular podcasts… are an average of 7 years old.

No podcasts started in the past 2 years are in the Top 25.

This is a good real-talk read from Lucas Shaw at BLOOMBERG on the state of all the spending in the Podcast space over the past 2 years.

Basically… it’s yielded few if any hits.

The industry is essentially mirroring streaming TV, in that a boom in content has resulted in… most content investment failing to yield hits, and stronger marketing is gonna need to take hold vs. relying on word-of-mouth or Celebrity followings to drive download growth.

Of course the upside revenue isn’t as great in podcasting and… there’s the rub. Anyway - a really smart read for anyone with an interest in the Podcast biz.

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

AMC NETWORKS +7% ($40.62) - The acquisition speculators continue to bid the stock up.

VIACOMCBS +8% ($35.39) - See above

ROKU -7% ($180.41) - Increasing concern about stagnating US user growth continues (and Friday’s departure of their Head of Platform not helping)

DISCOVERY +17% ($30.06) - An analyst upgraded/changed to a “Buy” reco based on her optimism for the future, likely influenced by the HBOMAX #s last week

NY TIMES -10% ($42.71) - Guessing this is delayed backlash to THE ATHLETIC buy?

CINEWORLD (REGAL Cinemas) -6% ($0.49)

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

ESPN College Football BCS championship - GEORGIA vs BAMA at 8p

HULU “The Golden Palace” - This one season spinoff of “The Golden Girls” sans Bea Arthur… put plus Cheech and Don Cheadle (??) drops on HULU today if you need some more Betty White in your life #duh. Couldn’t find the direct link, but here’s the TGG page so good place to start.