☀️What WBD Knows About NBA Viewers No One Else Does
Beavis moves to linear TV / New Hunger Games installment / Shane Smith back to VICE
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, June 6, 2024.
Where let’s start the day by taking a moment to commemorate the bravery and sacrifice made on the shores of France by a generation of Americans 80 years ago today on D-Day.
This moment in our history that was of course extremely well-portrayed by one of our country’s all-time top filmmakers in one of the best war films ever, Saving Private Ryan (avail to stream on PEACOCK here) — a film that was not recognized with the Best Picture award by the industry that year however . . . which instead went with Shakespeare In Love.
THEN: APPLE has made a deal of some sort with OPENAI to integrate it into the iPhone’s iOS according to Bloomberg, details of which will be revealed next week at its WWDC event.
The FTC is also proceeding with an investigation into MICROSOFT and OPENAI’s business dealings.
BTW: MCDONALD’S is now touting AI to let you talk to grandma as a part of its, IMO, bizarre McFlurry promotional campaign this summer (sorry grandpa, you’ll have to go to WENDY’S).
The fast-food chain just started running an ad promoting this AI-backed site called “Sweet Connections,” where you can “send a message” to grandma in her native language, with AI
using your emotions to learndoing the automatic translation for you.Or ya know — you could show grandma how much you really care by taking 10 minutes to learn how to say something yourself in her native language, and your own true cultural heritage, perish the thought.
OH: There will be a new Hunger Games book from Suzanne Collins, I’m guessing to the surprise of few, given the success of the film last year. This one will be called Sunrise on the Reaping, which as we all know really is the best place to enjoy the full beauty of the start of a day.
That’ll come at ya on March 18, 2025, so start your clocks on the LGF movie timing (Thanksgiving 2026?).
AND: Shane Smith is back as an on-air correspondent for VICE MEDIA, and editor-in-chief of VICE NEWS . . . while somehow having no managerial responsibility, according to the WSJ.
He’s also starting a
TV showvideo podcast calledRemember When This Thing Was Valued at $5 Billion😂?Vice News: The Truth? as part of Bill Maher’s podcast network (Bill will make appearances on the show with Shane), and the show will also run on the VICE cable TV network.The WSJ has a sit-down with Shane here for the inclined.
ALSO: GOOGLE will have to face a $17B lawsuit in the U.K. over de rigueur anti-competitive advertising practices, etc. However the trial likely won’t begin until late 2025. GOOGLE had more than $23B of profit in Q1 alone this year.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL TWOFER
Bad Boys: Ride or Die — yeah okay, no one has any idea . . . early tracking in the $50M-ish range, current tracking closer to $30M-ish, last one did $62M right before Covid on MLK weekend.
So let’s go pretty wide here.
The Watchers seems to be staying pretty close to horror crowd-only norms, with tracking around $10 Million. Will this one break out of the $10M to $12M ceiling on the genre so far in 2024?
IN THIS EDITION:
There’s a lot of talk today around the state of NBA rights as the NBA Finals tips off tonight — which I’ll recap TLDR-style, but no mention as far as I’ve seen of the one thing WBD has that no other player here does, which I’ll dive into as well.
A busy day for movie and deal news, plus the weekend sports TV ratings roundup and much more.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
