☀️WBD Streaming Growth Stalls, Ad $ Falls, but Cash Abounds in Q2
LIONSGATE buys eONE / ALTICE CordCutting updates / UK Streaming Rev $$ numbers
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY August 3, 2023.
Where it was the 2nd best July at the Box Office ever… with $1.39 Billion in Revenue according to COMSCORE. Best was in 2011 with the last Harry Potter movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Captain America and more.
PLUS: Luc Besson’s next pic Dog Man got a SAG-AFTRA waiver for the cast to do promotion of the independently financed film on the festival circuit this Fall.
THEN: The Jonathan Majors trial has been moved to start on Sept 6.
AND: The A-List gives back! After the news of The Rock giving $1 Million to the SAG-AFTRA FOUNDATION last week - an update this week with more folks each donating $1 Million to fund, which gives financial assistance to members, and pushing the fund’s total over $15 Million.
George and Amal Clooney
Luciana and Matt Damon
Leonardo DiCaprio
Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness
Dwayne Johnson
Nicole Kidman
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively
Julia Roberts
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Meryl Streep
Oprah Winfrey
NETFLIX FILM Weekly Chart FOLLOW UP: Thanks to one of my international readers 👋, who let me know that the reason NETFLIX’s new animated movie based on French IP, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir: The Movie was not #1 in FRANCE last week was… because it went Theatrical there!
As it did in most of EUROPE apparently - it was independently produced, and NETFLIX acquired several territories globally. Global box office was about $17 Million on an… $80+ Million budget, so hope that NETFLIX check was nice!
Global folks 👋 - my email is always open with any tidbits like this of note that likely are not on our US radar, seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL, THE SEQUEL
Ok Meg 2: The Trench hits theaters tonight… tracking has it around $25 Mil to $30 Million.
The Meg opened to $45 Million 🤯 back in 2018, on its way to $145 Million US — but it didn’t have #Barbenheimer or TMNT as competition (MI:6 was in week 3… where it will have out-grossed MI:7 in week 4 👀).
#FunFact: BlacKkKlansman also opened to over $10 Million that weekend. Ah 2018 prestige market…
Let’s go straight up:
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
Today #medianerd🤓 is all about WBD. Come for the Subscriber losses and Ad Revenue declines, stay for the big Cash Flow and Leverage improvements…
Including over $100 Million cost savings from the Strike in just May/June alone, and a look at what’s ahead…
How the new metric used for top exec bonuses affects the numbers.
The effect of the MAX Ad-Tier on Revenues.
The WB takeaways from Barbie’s success… and much more.
Plus the latest from ALITCE on #CordCutting - oh and good news! They have an updated TV remote! 🥳 Corruption scandal? Uhh yeah, we’re looking into that too 🥴.
LIONSGATE gets eONE film biz.
And a dive into the official 2022 UK Streaming Revenue and Social Media usage report from their Gov’t Media arm, and much more!
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
