Mornin! Here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on WEDNESDAY March 31, 2021.
Where “Godzilla vs Kong” has been booked for over 10,000 private screenings at movie theaters in addition to playing in a pandemic-record 3,000 theater locations in the US & Canada starting today (“Tenet” had about 2800 back in Sept).
Or ya know, just grab your remote and tell it to open HBOMAX.
Also the NFL Season is now officially 17 games starting this Fall. Pre-Season goes from 4 to 3 games. Final regular season weekend will now be Jan 9, 2022 this season 🥶. SUPER BOWL is at So-Fi in LA on Feb 13.
And the MARCH MADNESS FINAL FOUR is set:
BAYLOR (1) vs HOUSTON (2)
GONZAGA (1) vs UCLA (11). Games begin Saturday at 515p.
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
VIACOM & DISCOVERY finally found their bottoms. Uh stock price wise, rising for the first time in over a week. DISC +5%, VIAC +3.5% yesterday.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
OSCARS setting up hubs in London & Paris for foreign talent who can’t/don’t want to travel to LA
But still no Zoom speeches from home. Exact locations TBA. /THR
ALSO IN MOVIES
Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) to play Dr Jonas Salk in BRON STUDIOS biopic. Based on NYT Best Seller “Splendid Solution” (also title of the movie). Shawn Levy among producers, but no director as of yet. /THR
WB moves “Mortal Kombat” release back a week to April 23. /Variety
UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD re-opening Apr 16. DISNEYWORLD set for Apr 30 re-opening (at limited capacities, Cali residents only). /THR
📺 THE TV SET
Ariana Grande replacing Nick Jonas on “The Voice” this Fall
Everyone else is returning. And Yeah I basically led with this for the gif. /Deadline
“Game of Thrones”… The Broadway Play – now in development
For anyone who had just too easy of a time getting “Hamilton” tickets. Wonder what role Nathan Lane is gonna do 🤔. /THR
ALSO IN TV
HULU sets Naveen Andrews (Sayid from “Lost”) as co-star in Elizabeth Holmes limited series “The Dropout”. Will play Holmes’s biz partner and secret boyfriend. /Variety
Jack Reynor (“Midsommar”, “Sing Street”) joins Chloe Grace Moretz in AMAZON series “The Peripheral” from producers of “Westworld”. Based on William Gibson book, involves cyberspace… and sounds like it gets kinda trippy. /Deadline
CBS renews “Young Sheldon” for 3 more years (thru ‘23-’24 season). /THR
Marci Proietto promoted to lead 20TH TELEVISION Animation group at DISNEY. 👏. Reports into DisneyTV chief Craig Hunegs. /THR
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
DISCOVERY+ has used $150 Million worth of On-Air Ad inventory in 3 months across DISCOVERY cable networks
PARAMOUNT+ is next with $53 Million across VIACOM cable networks, followed by DISNEY+ with $20 Million across ABC/ESPN/FREEFORM etc.
HBOMAX not even in the Top 8 according to iSpot.tv. /MediaPost
SPOTIFY buys the CLUBHOUSE-for-SportsTalk app LOCKER ROOM for about $50 Million
SPOTIFY planning to expand the live-chat app beyond Sports genres. And you don’t need to be invited to join. 🤜🤛 /WSJ
2nd largest US Radio Station group ENTERCOM rebranding to… AUDACY
Wait wasn’t that the club Tony Manero went to in “Saturday Night Fever” 🤔. Oh right that was Odyssey 🕺. ENTERCOM-er…. AUDACY own 200+ radio stations, CADENCE13 podcast producer and a few other smaller companies.
They also run Radio.com… which will now be rebranded under an AUDACY name TBD. So you’re sayin the Radio.com URL is available… /CNBC
ALSO IN MEDIA
FACEBOOK’s Revenue/Advertising head David Fischer is leaving after 11 years. Curiously just before APPLE launches an iOS update that severely limits tracking people’s activity in apps which is projected to cost FB Billions. FB has come across as it’s not gonna be too big of a deal… but this has to raise an eyebrow 😟. /CNBC
CAMEO now valued at $1 Billion after a new $100 Million round of funding to expand global footprint and B2B business. UTA and CHERNIN GROUP among investors. CAMEO made about $100 Million last year. /AXIOS
SUBSTACK newsletter service now valued at $650 Million after raising $65 Million this week. Somehow this SUBSTACK newsletter is still free. Is anyone out there a business manager? 🙇♂️ /AXIOS
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
HULU “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 4 trailer. Season Premieres on Fri Apr 28th.
LIONSGATE “Spiral”: From the Book of Saw” new trailer. Starring Chris Rock, with Sam Jackson as his dad… and it doesn’t look too great for him at the end of this 😳. Hits theaters Fri May 14.
PARAMOUNT+ “Younger” Final Season trailer. Premieres on April 15, but will also air on TV LAND later this year TBD.
DISNEY+ “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” trailer. Premieres in May… I’m pretty sure you can guess which day. And if not, then you probably don’t care about this trailer. Its the 4th. May the 4th. Are you happy now?
ADULT SWIM “Rick and Morty” Season 5 trailer. Talk about diversity of genres in today’s trailers… Premieres Sun June 20.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
“Godzilla Vs Kong” owns the day… HBOMAX + Movie Theaters.
Also LA Movie Theaters are going to 50% capacity on Monday.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
BLACK PUMAS – “Colors”. Not a new song, but the band just shot to #1 on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart after performing this at the Grammy’s this month 👏 . So – good to revisit, great soul/funk jam.
Watch on YouTube / Listen on Spotify
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