Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY December 6, 2021.

Where 70-somethings Jim & Renee Stanley of Oklahoma won the internet last week - they were enjoying their good seats for the OKC THUNDER NBA Game, and began chatting up the stylishly dressed young man sitting next to them, who apparently goes by the name DRAKE (🤷‍♂️).

He posted a pic on his INSTA with “his new parents”… who had no idea who DRAKE was and well, the internet took care of the rest.

It was Renee ftw, summing things up perfectly: “At the end of the game, he stood up to look at me and I said, ‘Drake, you are just lovely” And he kissed my hand." 

OKC THUNDER @okcthunder

dukes

OKC THUNDER @okcthunder

𝗇̶𝗈̶ new friends https://t.co/dimcM77Adm

December 2nd 2021

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AND: The College Football BCS Championship games are set for New Years Eve:

• ALABAMA vs CINCINNATI (330p on ESPN)

• GEORGIA vs MICHIGAN (730p on ESPN)

The winners will face off in the Championship game on January 10 (other bowl game matchups in the link).

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Brad Pitt racing project produced by Bruckheimer in the middle of a bidding war

Not many details known, other than Joseph Kosinski will direct (“Top Gun: Maverick”, “Oblivion”), and Ehren Kruger (“The Ring”, “Transformers” movies) is the writer attached. F1 driver Lewis Hamilton is also involved in… some capacity. So we’ll see what company buys the most DE’LONGHI coffee machines to show their dedication. /THR

BOX OFFICE

1. “Encanto” : $13 Million ($116 Million global)

   • Down 53% from the THANKSGIVING Fri-Sun period

2. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” : $10 Million ($102 Million US, $145 Million global)

   • Down 57% from THANKSGIVING weekend

3. “House of Gucci” : $7 Million ($33 Million US, $67 Million global)

   • Also down 53% from THANKSGIVING Fri-Sun total

4. “Christmas with the Chosen” : $4 Million ($9 Million 5-day US total)

   • A Christian/faith-based movie (in case the title didn’t give it away)

5. “Eternals” : $4 Million ($156 Million US, $384 Million global)

   • “Shang-Chi” topped out at $418 Million so this should come pretty close, and beat “Black Widow” ($376 Million) although that has the DIS+ rentals factor.

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

• “Licorice Pizza” stayed in just 4 theaters (1 LA, 3 NYC), had a $56k per screen average. Has made $760k from those 4 theaters so far

• “King Richard” likely won’t hit $20 Million in the US (currently at $13 Million). Has a $21 Million global total

• “Last Night in Soho” is topping out at $22 Million global

• “Belfast” hit $6 Million in the US, where it also hit PVOD this weekend

• “The French Dispatch” hit $15 Million in the US, but will very likely not hit $20 Million

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Tom Holland says he’s playing Fred Astaire in a biopic at SONY, produced by Amy Pascal. SONY had no comment, his deal apparently is not done nor is there a greenlight.

  • AMAZON PRIME is also doing a “Fred & Ginger” project starring Jamie Bell as Fred, and Margaret Qualley is Ginger. /Deadline

• “The Matrix Resurrections” gets Jan 14th CHINA release date. So we’ll see what 3 weeks of piracy does to the box office results. /Deadline

• Director Antoine Fuqua (“The Equalizer”, “Training Day”) sets first-look film & docu deal with NETFLIX. He recently did the Jake Gyllenhaal 911-operator pic “The Guilty” there, but his next films are at APPLE TV+ (Will Smith’s “Emancipation”) and AMAZON PRIME (“The Terminal List” with Chris Pratt). /Variety

• NY FILM CRITICS pick… “Drive My Car” as the best pic. Jane Campion gets best director nod, rest of the winners in the link. Follows up their choice of “First Cow” as best pic last year. /THR

📺 THE TV SET

AMAZON orders animated spinoff of “The Boys”

8 epsiodes of “The Boys: Diabolical” will premiere in 2022, and feature stories from folks like Awkwafina, Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, and Andy Samberg.

Other than the series being an anthology/collection of stories from that universe… no real story direction details released. /Deadline

Ana de Armas replaces Scarlett Johannsen as Chris Evans’s costar in APPLE TV+ movie

Movie is the action-adventure pic “Ghosted”, to be directed by Dexter Fletcher (“Rocketman”), and was written by the “Deadpool” guys Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick but no specifics on the plot.

Scarlett’s exit said to be due to a scheduling conflict - APPLE wants to get cameras rolling by February. /Deadline

NBC’s “Annie Live!” gets 5.1 Million viewers on Thursday night

That’s the lowest mark for NBC’s live musical events.

FOX’s Thursday Night Football won overall, their COWBOYS and SAINTS game got 11.3 Million

ABC’s Alec Baldwin interview got 4.1 Million in fast overnight ratings, though all will rise somewhat in final+same day ratings totals. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

• DISNEY+ cancels “Turner & Hooch” TV series after 1 season. /Collider

• AMC gives “Fear the Walking Dead” a Season 8. Kim Dickens returning as a series regular. /Deadline

• FOX orders a Season 3 of “Lego Masters”. /Variety

• Jeremy Strong gets the NEW YORKER profile treatment, as “Succession” approaches its Season 3 finale this Sunday.

AND ALSO: A few Sunday TV observations

1. Aaron Rodgers is now essentially nowhere to be seen in STATE FARM ads during NFL games.

2. The NFL officially has a Gambling app advertising saturation problem. In addition to the annoying bombardment during games, there were literally 3 ads back to back to back in the ad break on CBS right after their 4pm games yesterday. Shortly followed by an ad trying to tell us how to gamble “responsibly” featuring an ex-NFL coach 🤦‍♂️ .

3. “60 Minutes” chose to ignore TIKTOK in their 13 minute story on how CHINA’s government is cracking down on capitalism, and making all private businesses give them their user data. No look at how the fastest growing US social media platform is based in CHINA, or how CHINA’s government took a sizable financial stake in TIKTOK parent company BYTE DANCE this Summer.

   • NOR any mention of the Trump administration’s unsuccessful mandate that TIKTOK US be spun off, due to the exact actions of the Chinese Government profiled in the piece - all while prominently featuring a Special Advisor to his administration throughout the segment. #60MinutesFail

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

CONDE NAST is forecasting to be profitable… in 2023

The NY TIMES gives the profile treatment to the triumverant of CONDE leadership: Agnes Chu - Prez of Condé Nast Entertainment, Anna Wintour - Global Chief Content Officer, and CEO Roger Lynch.

2021 US revenues are expected to top $1 Billion, still mostly from advertising. Subscriptions & e-commerce make up 25% of revenue.

ALSO IN MEDIA

• As you probably saw… CNN fired Chris Cuomo, after discovering he didn’t tell them everything about his involvement in his brother Andrew’s sexual harrassment scandal… and a claim of sexual harrassment against Chris surfacing from his time at ABC didn’t help either. /NY Times

• Get a front row seat to what it’s like in a day in the life of a popular Creator on TWITCH. Hint - the sub-header is “How long can any of them last?”. /Washington Post

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

VIACOM rebounded 5% ($31.07), otherwise a rather uneventful Friday.

AND: BUZZFEED goes public today as BZFD, as the rest of the digital publishing world watches for clues about what their future holds.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

ESPN Monday Night Football - PATRIOTS at BILLS starts at 815p

ABC “A Very Boy Band Holiday” at 8p

NBC “Michael Buble’s Christmas in the City” at 10p

HBO “Landscapers” - 4 part limited series, Olivia Colman, David Thewlis at 9p

NETFLIX “VOIR” - Visual essays about movies and cinema from David Fincher. Stream or Add to Your List here

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

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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

HBOMAX “The Peacemaker” series trailer - Premieres Thu Jan 13

PARAMOUNT+ “1883” series trailer - (Very distant) prequel to “Yellowstone”, with Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Sam Elliot. Premieres Sun Dec 19

HBOMAX “Finding Magic Mike” trailer - Magic Mike, the Vegas cast reality show. Premieres Thu Dec 16.

AMAZON PRIME “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” teaser #4 - naturally centered on Joel (and Mei).

🕵️‍♂️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - ABC ”Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life” event; PEARL HARBOR Remembrance Day

WED - We might get some snow in NYC 😨

THU - SATC returns to HBO(MAX) with “And Just Like That…”

FRI - “West Side Story” dips a toe back into the “are older audiences are ready to return to the theater” conversation

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

ARIANA GRANDE & KID CUDI “Just Look Up” from the Adam McKay NETFLIX satire with Leo & J Law, “Don’t Look Up”, with some fun lyrics to hear Grande-style… “Get your head out of your ass… and listen to the goddamn qualified scientists”

Listen to the song here on SPOTIFY or:

If you need new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM