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 15, 2023.
Where as it’s another quiet day in the neighborhood… 🪧👀, so I’m just gonna take a moment to send Richard & Janice a 🥂 to mark my one-year anniversary since they invited The Wakeup to join The Ankler family.
As those of you who knew me before this (at HBO or elsewhere) – writing is not my professional background. Something that my history of an ‘occasional correction’ certainly reinforces (and thank you all for being understanding when I’ve spelled your name wrong).
While I had been doing The Wakeup on my own for a while, most of you got to know me here. it was a leap of faith on their part, and one I’m grateful that they took with me 🙏.
Since Day 1 when I wrote my first Wakeup and sent it to some trusted industry friends asking “Is this a thing…?”, my North Star continues to be writing something smart, entertaining and useful to you, and trying to always stay “to the point” to respect your time (outside of this small indulgence).
I have a few ideas for expanding The Wakeup in the months ahead (and would love to hear yours – my contact info 👇)… but for now – thank you for being part of my nearly 250 columns / newsletters / whatever you call this thing that have gone out here at The Ankler (250 being back of the napkin math of course – gotta keep things on brand).
AND: A sincere thanks to all of you as well for reading, connecting here on LinkedIn, sending notes along the way this past year (seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com). It’s been great to meet many of you for the occasional coffee & lunch, and introduce myself in person.
It’s something I truly enjoy, and I look forward to meeting & corresponding with more of you in the year ahead. Also I had no idea so many people I went to high school & college with are avid CNBC viewers 🤷♂️.
WITH THAT: Uh… No Wakeup Tomorrow 😬 (probably):
I have a family graduation later today – so unless Tom Freston returns to run PARAMOUNT or something, I’ll see you in your inbox on Tuesday morning.
But in the spirit of a one-year anniversary gift being paper… the closest I can get is making today’s edition free for all.
OH: Add UBER 🚘 to the list of highly paid company executives who devised the very unique idea of “Now hear me out… Let’s add commercials! That’ll save our numbers!” to their overwrought strategy decks. Yes, per the WSJ – Video Ads are now coming to your UBER app while you wait for your car, and as you track your ride too.
“We have two minutes of your attention. We know where you are, we know where you are going to, we know what you have eaten. We can use all of that to then basically target a video ad towards you.”
– UBER VP & GM of Ads, Mark Grether, citing data that the average UBER user is in the app for about 2 minutes of their average 15 minute ride.
Can’t wait until they add a series of FAST channels to watch on your ride to kill time too (and yes, I expect a 5% cut of revenue from that idea).
PLUS: GOOGLE is reminding/telling its employees to remember to not tell BARD (or ChatGPT) anything about how GOOGLE itself operates. You know what gossips AI bots are 🙄. But um, no its… totally fine for you to interact with it no holds barred 🥴.
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
The Flash is finally here! Well a few hours away at least. Tracking is around $70 million, although some think that’s a bit low… then again Black Adam and Aquaman each did about $68 Million, which both had the stars of the movie doing actual press.
So, what say ya’ll?
AND: Just a kudos to the folks handling the MI:7 “behind the scenes” marketing – another awesome spot. Just as with Top Gun – doing things IRL > CGI every time.
🪧 STRIKE FORCE
DISNEY has put the kibosh on Daredevil: Born Again until after the Strike, and WBD did the same on their DC series The Batman. Both series were shooting in NYC/East Coast. /Deadline
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
SEARCHLIGHT gets Bradley Cooper directorial outing, Will Arnett co-starring
It’s called Is This Thing On?, co-written by Arnett and Mark Chappell (See How They Run, Flaked).
No word on plot details, but Cooper will likely do a pass on the script next so… yeah this is in a holding pattern for a while. Bradley is of course finishing Maestro at NETFLIX to hit streaming later in the year. /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
JUST A FEW ITEMS
NETFLIX renewed XO, Kitty for a Season 2. /THR
HULU ordered a kinda ‘Pimp My Trailer’ show called a Big RV Remix series starring BigBoi from OUTKAST who apparently does over-the-top custom large vehicle renovations.
PLUS: Rachel Ray Rebuild, where Rachel helps folks rebuild their homes after natural disasters, fires etc. /Deadline
IN THE EXECUTIVE SUITE
UTA is opening their London office near Soho, with about 100 employees and co-led by music agents Neil Warnock and Obi Asika. /Deadline
CANADA’s top broadcaster BELL is laying off 1300 people, or 6% of their workforce, and is closing 6 of their radio stations. Cord cutting and the bad Ad market were cited. /THR
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💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
A FEW ITEMS
TWITTER is being sued by a consortium of 17 major music publishers for up to $250 Million for copyright infringement/non-payment for music being used on its platform. Talks between the 2 parties about reaching an agreement here broke down about 2 months ago… so here we are. /NY Times
DISNEY is shutting down 6 TV networks in Southeast ASIA (2 NAT GEO channels, 4 STAR branded ones), this after closing 18 networks in the region in 2021. They’ll still operate a small network portfolio in JAPAN, AU/NZ, and CHINA. /TBI
NEXSTAR is shifting 3 of their owned-local TV affiliates in Philly, SF and Tampa to be CW stations (they’re currently MY Network TV stations). This is somewhat making up for the big hole created for TheCW when CBS announced they were turning 8 of their major market local stations from CW affiliates to Independent status. /NextTV
The Insider employee union settled with management, ending a 13 day strike. The new CBA includes a 3.5% pay raise this year (for those who haven’t gotten one), 3.75% for everyone next year, no more layoffs for the remainder of 2023, and a minimum pay floor of $65k. /Daily Beast
I guess Insider Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Carlson’s quest to personally remove every Pro-Union lamppost flyer from the streets of Brooklyn was for naught.
If you were forwarded The Wakeup, get it as part of your subscription to The Ankler:
Hits your inbox weekdays by 9am (ish) East Coast time
🏦 STOCK NOTES
CINEMARK -6% ($17.23) but otherwise a very even Wednesday as the Street couldn’t get exuberant over a no interest rate increase… when at least 2 more were still promised in the 6 months ahead this year 👀.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
PAR+ Star Trek: Strange New Worlds new season
NETFLIX Black Mirror season 6
GOLF CHANNEL US Open begins
HULU Bonnaroo Music Festival will be streaming all weekend
👩💻 THE FSS FEED:
Since I won’t be here tomorrow….
FRIDAY
IN THEATERS:
WB The Flash
DISNEY PIXAR Elemental
LIONSGATE The Blackening horror comedy
FOCUS Asteroid City limited
SCREEN MEDIA Maggie Moore(s)
STREAMING:
MOVIES:
NETFLIX Extraction 2
HULU Chevalier
PEACOCK Polite Society
TV:
STARZ Outlander Season 7, pt1
SATURDAY
NETFLIX TUDUM at 430p
US Open golf on NBC
SUNDAY
US Open golf on NBC
AMC The Walking Dead: Dead City at 10p
HBO The Righteous Gemstones new season at 10p
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
SPC Shortcomings movie trailer – Directorial debut from Randall Park, this looks great! Count me in, feels kinda 90’s indie (I say that with great love). IN THEATERS AUG 4
NETFLIX Quarterback trailer – Uh… I think this is a docuseries? (is it really that hard for Streamers to delineate what something is in their spots/Ad copy?). It follows 3 top NFL QB’s through last season. Looks really good, whatever it is!
And as with HBO’s Winning Time – NETFLIX is programming this for the starving Summer Sports fan (curious why they didn’t at least wait until August/pre-season tho…). However it’s safe to assume none of these athletes will be playing in the NETFLIX Golf Invitational this Fall. PREMIERES JULY 12
STARZ Minx Season 2 trailer – Yeah this would have been a real shame if it didn’t find a home! Nice work STARZ. PREMIERES JULY 21
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
I’ve been enjoying the new JASON ISBELL AND THE 400 UNIT album, including this one called “This Ain’t It”.
If you need new tunes:
Email me anytime at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
