☀️WICK soars as SHAZAM! plummets at the box office
☀️WICK soars as SHAZAM! plummets at the box office
Hamm doing MEAN GIRLS / SKIMM goes the in-house agency route / McMahon pays back WWE
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY March 27, 2023.
Where the #1 piece of inspiration this week (there will be a few) comes from the NCAA Men’s Final Four this Saturday, where the highest seed is a #4, and one of the teams had never won a MARCH MADNESS game in their history before this year.
The Women’s Final Four will be uh, finalized tonight on ESPN, but LSU and IOWA will definitely be going - with IOWA superstar Caitlin Clark scoring 40 point “triple double” last night (she also had 10 rebounds & 12 assists), the first time that’s been done Women’s MARCH MADNESS history while scoring 40 points in a game. No one had even done it by scoring 30+ points either actually.
Always keep trying - you never know what’ll happen unless you actually do something… and 2 million broken brackets prove that in Sports, just as in Hollywood, everyone’s an expert.
THEN: On the… other side of the coin, it was nice to see 60 Minutes back in top form last night, totally shedding light on some seemingly real slimey EBAY execs including the former CEO and Chief Comms Officer who allegedly instructed their security team to smear a couple who runs a website on the industry from their home in MA, after they published an item about publicly available info about how much the CEO made. Shockingly, the EBAY security execs were as inept as they were ethical. This is a must watch.
ALSO: It’s LIONSGATE deal week! Or at least they said it would be on their last earnings call (Q1 ends on Friday - their self-imposed deadline to announce a sale deal… or investment deal… or I guess spinning-off of STARZ is still in the mix too… or whatever is gonna happen). Place your bets on who makes a move.
The John Wick numbers can only help the valuation - along with the accompanying merch - I mean no living room is complete without this (probably not sanctioned) “Smells Like Keanu Reeves” candle.
AND: Jonathan Majors was arrested on Saturday in NYC in an assault incident, but as his lawyer is already pointing out there “is video footage from the vehicle where the alleged incident took place, witness testimony from the driver and onlookers and two written statements from the woman recanting the allegations,” according to Variety… this is likely not what the initial headline indicated over the weekend but more to come.
PLUS: ADELE will be shooting a concert movie of her time in Vegas (to be augmented in June with more dates through November), so let the bidding war between APPLE TV+ and DISNEY+ commence.
KUDOS: Goes out to the Wakeup Box Office crew, as pretty much everyone (83%) had John Wick 4 over the mid-range of tracking of $68 Million.
According to LIONSGATE, it’s only the 5th film franchise since 1983 to have both:
Its 4th film as its largest.
Each successive film to have made more than the previous one.
SO: What are the other 4 franchises? No seriously what are they - LIONSGATE didn’t tell us.
Thor counts here at least in US grosses (The 4th one missed on Int’l)
Rocky, Indiana Jones & Star Wars pre-date 1983. Twilight fell short on Breaking Dawn Pt1.
No on Fast & Furious #TokyoDrift, Transformers, Scream, Batman, Spider-Man, Insidious, Conjuring, Shrek, Hunger Games, Saw and the Jurassic’s.
Ah! Toy Story is in, so that’s 2.
OK that’s all my brain is giving me at the moment - email me seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or message me on Linked-In if you know the other 2! Or if you give in and Google-cheat.
IN TODAY’S EDITION:
Wick keeps March madness going at the Box Office… as Avatar’s chances at catching Top Gun look to be over, plus the latest in Specialty releases and more.
Jon Hamm joins Mean Girls.
Ousted MARVEL exec(‘s lawyer) strikes back.
The latest MARCH MADNESS ratings.
Ghostbusters adds cast, McMahon writes WWE a check, SKIMM goes the agency route and more.
OH!: Here’s my interview with PARAMOUNT+ Streaming president & CEO Tom Ryan from the NXStream event earlier this month for your podcast listening pleasure.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
