☀️🎧 The Disney Succession Challenge; Iger's Inner Circle
T-Swift movie pre-sale keeps growing / WGA & AMPTP set plan to talk / X hires head of content
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect here on LINKED-IN if ya like) and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY Sept. 15, 2023.
Where it’s been a while since we’ve had a Friday morning coffee ☕️, and it’s about time we class things up no? Or at least that’s what Janice keeps telling me.
So, let’s have it next to some awards! For just $1.89 million, these Williamsburg views can be yours… although I’m pretty sure Jeremy Strong and his family are taking the awards when they go.
Note to self: Take my Emmy out of the box I use as a microphone stand to record podcasts when I stage my apartment.
AND: The Eras Tour pic is up to $65 million in pre-sales for the big weekend on Oct 13.
KUDOS: To AMAZON for another smooth NFL Thursday Night Football premiere 👏 with the best in the business, Al Michaels, back in the booth…
ALSO: AMAZON still has the best ad experience, as once again I didn’t feel like I was watching the same six TV ads all game long, as I do on Broadcast TV.
AND: They took my advice! Ok probably not directly… but I did say on a few occasions last year that they should just automatically shift the game stream to a new AMAZON PRIME Series/Movie/Docu once the game (and post-game) is over…
Which they did with their new Jason Kelce docu Kelce last night! Which I also enjoyed for about 25 minutes before I had to go to bed.
PLUS: Well done 👏 on this “One Prime, One Password” ad, directly addressing how AMAZON solves a key, commonly heard complaint for folks in the streaming universe.
This is what re-bundling feels like folks 👇 (granted yes, a few major players are not included… ahem, but you can see the potential here).
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL RESULTS:
The bears return… and I’m joining them this week. This is being sold as a horror movie, and horror following horror (Nun II) is a dicey proposition.
🎧 FEATURED PODCAST
Doing something a little new and different today… and adding in a featured podcast!
Given the evolution of DISNEY’s business this month, I talked with CNBC’s Alex Sherman yesterday, who wrote a much-discussed piece with great new details on what went down through the Iger / Chapek debacle.
We discuss what Iger’s inner circle is looking like these days (and how it seemingly has affected the new Iger 2.0 that has baffled some this year), how the DISNEY board figures into all of this, and how the Chapek debacle is coloring Iger’s process as he looks to give away his ‘final rose’ in 2026.
Plus, what’s more immediate on Iger’s to do list, and much more from Alex, who has spoken with over 25 people in the DISNEY orbit in recent months.
📺 THE SILVER TV 🎥
