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☀️UNI puts one more thorn in Fall Box Office's side to boost PEACOCK's Q4
NETFLIX's Purple Hearts now one of their top movies ever / BE REAL hits new user# high / Bob Odenkirk gets co-star for AMC College show
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY August 24, 2022.
Where if I had a full head of hair 💇♂️ and a liver that was much more forgiving than the one I have now 🍸 (and a 1985 DeLorean) I’d be heading back to college right about now 🏫.
SO: If you had an amazing Intern this Summer or know someone heading to school with aspirations of learning the business - it’s never to early for them to learn the term #ARPU.
And let’s face it - given the way the business is going… the sooner the better.
IN THIS EDITION
In the spirit of giving - It’s a free one for all subscribers! So let’s just make today’s edition full of surprises as you go along. And yes by surprises, I mean gifs.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
NBCU shifts “Halloween Ends” to PEACOCK + Theaters on Oct 14
This is another:
A) Thorn in the Box Office’s side when it’s already kicked down.
B) Sign NBCU is pulling out as many stops as they can in their arsenal to get PEACOCK numbers going in Q4 as promised.
Although I’m pretty sure they won’t also pull this with George & Julia 2 weeks later. Or Spielberg in November. Tho I’d say even odds with “Violent Night” in early December.
It’ll be on both the $5 and $10 versions of PEACOCK. /THR
Yes, “Halloween Kills” was a PEACOCK & Theaters combo release last October too, in a still somewhat covid-affected marketplace, and it opened to $49 Million (topping out at $92 Million US).
So given this is the finale of this trilogy - yes theaters could still make out here and one can hope for an even bigger number. Although to note: the start of the trilogy “Halloween” in 2018 opened to $79 Million, on its way to $152 Million US.
AND: Let’s really hope SONY’s “Lyle Lyle Crocodile” opens big on Oct 7 to properly kick off Q4 🤞.
NETFLIX’s “Purple Hearts” romance really could overtake “Extraction” on the all time list
It still has a few days to go til it hits its “First 28 days” mark. It’s probably going to come up a little short but ya never know. And again, to be fair NETFLIX had a much smaller subscriber base when “Extraction” debuted. Either way pretty rich company to be in for a film of that limited budget and marketing spend.
“The Gray Man” finishes up solidly at #4, although views wise (again assumes everyone finished both movies at the same rate etc etc):
“The Gray Man” : 125 Million views
“The Adam Project” : 131 Million views
Anybody got an eta on “Extraction 2”?? Just curious.
Otherwise the Lili Reinhart ‘what if’ pic “Look Both Ways” topped “Purple Hearts” views on respective opening weekends.
“Purple Hearts” : 23.6 Million views
“Look Both Ways” : 26.2 Million views
Again these are all Global numbers. NETFLIX only indicates list ranking by country - no info on hours viewed by country because… they’re no fun.
Although SONY’s “Uncharted” looks to be doing really well for them in the US - it’s still at #8 on the Global list in its 3rd week, despite only being available in the US. “Angry Birds 2” also premiered at #7.
ALSO IN MOVIES
INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS are further emphasizing the Spirit part, declaring “Independent” now means films made for $30 Million or less (does that include tax rebates or…?).
All award categories will now also be gender neutral, so its just “Best lead performance” and “Best supporting performance” for acting, each now with 10 nominees.
Theatrical release for films also waived once again.
Show will be Sat March 4. (OSCARS are March 12). /THR
Matt Reeves signs first look film deal at WB, as he re-ups his WBTV deal. Also confirms he and writer Mattson Tomlin are teaming up to write “The Batman 2”. Mattson came in to do 3rd act rewrite work but was not an official writer on the first one. /Deadline /THR
AND: Stephanie Allain & Donald DeLine are your new Presidents of the PGA. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
AMAZON sets Toni Collette and Josh Charles as the new leads for their series “The Power”
Leslie Mann & Tim Robbins were previously set pre-pandemic but fell out when… well I’m just gonna guess you’re up to speed here on 2020. Raelle Tucker (“Jessica Jones”) is also now the showrunner.
Based on a book by Naomi Alderman, story is about all teenage girls in the world suddenly developing the power to electrocute people at will, and the uh, power dynamics that causes in the world. I’ll let the STARZ folks deal with this one themselves. /Variety
ALSO IN TV
Paul Rudd’s cameo in HULU’s “Only Murders in the Building” Season 2 will be turned into a more meaningful role in Season 3. /Variety
HBO renews “Curb” for a 12th Season. /THR
AMC sets Marielle Enos to co-star with Bob Odenkirk in his next series “Straight Man”. Bob plays an unlikely English department chair at a down on its luck PA college who must fix a divided department, and of course deal with students. Marielle will play his wife, and high school Vice Principal. /Deadline
NETFLIX sets new comedy special with Nick Kroll. Will drop in laete Sept. /Variety
FOX sets Dania Ramirez (“Sweet Tooth”) to star in missing persons police procedural “Alert”, from John Eisendrath (“The Blacklist”). Jamie Foxx is among the producers. /Deadline
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💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
BUSY DAY IN SPORTS MEDIA
AMAZON PRIME sets deal with DIRECTV to show “Thursday Night Football” games at bars & restaurants. This was pretty much expected to happen, again - games will be tracked by NIELSEN and advertisers need the most traditional way of tracking all of this. DIRECTV FOR BUSINESS works with over 300k locations. (The new Sunday Ticket owner will very likely have to work all this bar biz stuff out next year too). /THR
CBS will air the National Women’s Soccer League championship match on Sat Oct 29 in primetime (PAR+ has rights to the games in the season). /USA Today
NBC SPORTS sells its 2/3rd stake in NBC SPORTS WASHINGTON to their partner MONUMENTAL, who owns the NHL’s CAPITOLS and NBA’s WIZARDS. They’ll now own the network outright although NBC will still provide technical support. No price indicated.
NBCU still owns 6 regional sports networks. /THR
Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy team up with NBC SPORTS Golf top exec Mike McCarley to launch TMRW SPORTS, which will develop… “progressive approaches to sports, media, and entertainment.” Yeah always a good idea to make an announcement where you have no idea what the company will be doing - literally no other specifics were offered. /THR
AND IN… REGULAR (?) MEDIA
FRANCE-based Social Media app dujour BE REAL has now crossed 10 Million Daily Active Users. /The Information
And yes, FACEBOOK which is maintaining it’s “No Original Ideas since 2006” mantra (odd that they put that on t-shirts but ) is already testing an INSTA function to rip it off… with of course a much catchier name of “IG Candid Challenges”. Funny conventional wisdom says to rip-off one social media app a time but
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🏦 STOCK NOTES
Pretty quiet day. Well… yeah except for you know who.
AMC THEATERS -8% ($9.56)
CINEWORLD -12% ($0.038)
and TWITTER -7% ($39.86) on news of that former TWITTER exec Elon was very happy to add to the witness list yesterday.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
NETFLIX “Mo” comedy series - STREAM HERE
FX “Welcome to Wrexham” docuseries - Premieres at 10p, 2 episodes
FXX “Archer” Season 13 premieres
NETFLIX “Lost Ollie” Animated limited series - STREAM HERE
NETFLIX “Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee” docu- STREAM HERE
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
A24 “The Inspection” movie trailer - Based on a true story of a guy with a troubled past whose life was going nowhere who joins the Marines. Ok yes that sounds a bit like “Stripes” but definitely a different direction here - looks good! Also at TIFF and NYFF this fall. IN THEATERS NOV 18
HULU “The Reboot” series trailer - Satire of the streaming reboots-of-80s-sitcoms trend from Steven Levitan (“Modern Family”). Great concept & cast but I’m mixed on the trailer… however - killer end button on this. PREMIERES TUE SEPT 20
APPLE TV+ “Gutsy” docuseries trailer - Hillary & Chelsea Clinton travel around having conversations / doing profiles on some of the “world’s boldest and bravest women” including Gloria Steinem, Dr. Jane Goodall, and Amy Schumer. PREMIERES FRI SEPT 9
AMAZON PRIME “LOTR: The Rings of Power” new trailer - I am 100% not the demo for this… but I also still have 100% no clue what this show is about. PREMIERES THU SEPT 1
NETFLIX “A Jazzman’s Blues” movie trailer - From Tyler Perry, a story of forbidden love over time from the early 20th century Bayou. PREMIERES FRI SEPT 23
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
New KANE BROWN “Go Around” - ok hip-hop/trap music Kane is gone… back to country vibes Kane. From the new album out next month.
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM