Evenin! This is Sean McNulty (connect with me on LinkedIn here if ya like), and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on SUNDAY Nov. 26, 2023.
Where let’s first start our return from the holiday weekend with kudos to The Ankler’s Elaine Low, on making a very fine batch of homemade cranberry for THANKSGIVING… and a fine parfait with the remainder.
AND: To me for… well, uh, eating this for breakfast on THANKSGIVING (I did spray the whipped cream myself, for the record).
PLUS: A kudos to Janice for making a helluva… reservation! Really was tremendous (just kidding Janice, although I’m 60% sure that might be true).
AND: Here’s your PEACOCK deal – $2 a month for a year for new subs (ad tier), good thru tomorrow.
THEN: Well, just some people doing good in the world this weekend.
This 60 Minutes piece tonight on a U.S. Navy Seal working through his own trauma from three tours in IRAQ, who set up an AUSTRIA climbing expedition for widows and their children from UKRAINE (via his non-profit organization) just gives you hope and inspiration across the board, whether you’re in a position to help others right now… or frankly, could use some inspiration to get through a rough patch yourself.
This NY Times story of a 38-year-old mother, Casey McIntyre, who died of ovarian cancer this month, who in her final message to the world, asked folks to donate to RIP MEDICAL DEBT, which buys up the medical debt of folks below the poverty line for pennies on the dollar.
So the $675k that she’s raised will erase well over $60 Million of medical debt for folks (there’s a math here that is explained in the story).
Her goal was $700k in case you’d like to chip in a few bucks here.
Thing that sticks with ya… in her final days in hospice earlier this month, when a medical worker remarked how “sad” it was that such a young mother was dying – according to her husband, Casey remarked:
“‘I don’t have a sad life, I have a happy life. I have you, I have Grace (her daughter), I have my friends and my family, I live in the perfect apartment that we dreamed up together.’” #Perspective
WAKEUP BOX OFFICE POLL
Well – it was Bears 1, Bulls 1 (also – odd these are both Chicago pro sports teams 🤔).
AND THANKS! To the AMAZON folks for the invite to check out the first Black Friday NFL game at MET LIFE Stadium on Friday. Very considerate of setting things up so I could still do my QR code shopping during the game 🫶.
IN ONE LAST SPIRIT OF GIVING…
The Ankler’s weekend 25% off sale is over at 12 midnight PT tonight, and in that spirit – tonight’s edition of The Wakeup is free for all!
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📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
BOX OFFICE (3-day totals)
1. Hunger Games/Songbird: $28.8 Million, $41 Mil 5-day ($98 Mil U.S., $197 Mil global)
Strong -35% drop from opening weekend, esp. considering the B+ Cinemascore…
And it looks like this was likely the four-quadrant choice over the holiday weekend.
At a $100 Million cost, this is delivering nicely.
IMAX is $11 Million so far – a pretty low 5%, but considering the demo here… not too surprising.
2. Napoleon: $20.4 Million, $32 Mil 5-day ($79 Mil global)
The B- Cinemascore does… not bode well, and explains the drop in final numbers here vs. the lofty numbers thrown around on Wed./Thurs. from the early numbers.
But this is still significantly above tracking here.
Almost 50% of the day one audiences were 18-34… kids and their auteurs!
25-34’s were almost 33%.
65% Male/35% Female
57% Caucasian, 21% Latino, 12% Asian/other and 9% Black
IMAX was $5.3 Mil in NORTH AMERICA, a hearty 19%.
PLF screens were 34% overall.
COMPS: Bigger than Flower Moon’s $44 Million opening… but at a good 50 mins. shorter in length, plus just a more popular genre – the only thing that really merits a comp is that it’s… 👇.
Another $200 Million APPLE budget.
So again – math that only a company that made $23 Billion in profit in Q3 alone could love. Or not get fired over.
Deadline puts SONY’s distro fee at a relatively standard 8% of box office receipts (APPLE paid for marketing buys), but not as rich as the deal Jim G. negotiated for Flower Moon at PARAMOUNT.
3. Wish: $19.5 Million, $32 Mil 5-day ($49 Mil global)
Is it 2024 yet?
Not quite Strange World bad ($12 Mil 3-day open), but yeah. Well below tracking.
Following Trolls 3 certainly not helping.
A- Cinemascore
Elemental got an A, and yes… that’s the looming comp given that one had a similar #notgreatbob opening (although still much larger at $29 Million).
Encanto also did $40 Mil at 2021 THANKSGIVING #CovidWinter2:Delta.
But that one didn’t have another successful family animation pic already in the marketplace… with another one arriving in three weeks.
This one also has no new major marketplace entrants until Dec. 15, so we’ll see just how good that “A-” word of mouth is here.
$200 Million-ish budget here.
Note: Int’l had a limited footprint rollout to start (40% of markets), so more to come.
4. Trolls Band Together: $17.5 Million, $25 Mil 5-day ($64 Mil US, $146 Million global)
-42% drop from opening weekend.
$95 Million budget here, this will be in or near the black after next weekend.
5. Thanksgiving: $7.1 Million, $11 Mil 5-day ($24 Mil US, $29 Mil global)
Very strong -31% weekend 2 drop.
A $15 Million budget, so again this will be fine walk-on single for SONY…
But again – TBD the interest in a movie called Thanksgiving in December.
SPYGLASS is also a production partner here.
6. The Marvels: $6.4 Million, $9 Mil 5-day ($77 Mil U.S., $187 Mil global)
-37% drop from last weekend.
This will be a stretch to cross $100 Mil U.S. 🤯, and even make back half of its budget theatrically (not including the many tens of millions $ in marketing).
$200 Mil to $220 Mil budget.
7. The Holdovers: $2.7 Million, $3.7 Mil 5-day ($13 Mil U.S.)
A very nice even/100% hold from last weekend, on basically the same amount of screens 👏.
This and Priscilla are the two Autumn arthouse winners thus far.
8. Saltburn: $1.7 Million, $2.7 Mil 5-day ($3.1 Mil US, $6.2 Mil global)
An eh $1100 per screen average here on about 1500 screens – its NYLA opening was $45k a screen.
WB has the int’l business on this one.
9. Next Goal Wins: $1.7 Million, $2.6 Mil 5-day ($5.7 Mil US)
-37% drop from its small opening weekend.
This one just didn’t connect with audiences like it needed to.
10. The Eras Tour: $2.5 Mil 5-day ($178 Million US, $249 Mil Global)
-16% drop from last weekend.
This will just top the MJ film This Is It ($252 Mil global).
ELSEWHERE OF NOTE
Five Nights at Freddy’s is now BLUMHOUSE’s biggest movie ever globally.
A24’s Dream Scenario did $640k on 124 screens over the three-day, for a good $5100 per screen avg. Total is now $1.4 Million as it goes wide next weekend.
TOTAL BOX OFFICE THIS WEEKEND:
Was about $174 Million for the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.
2022: $134 Million
2019: $263 Million #Frozen2
2018: $315 Million (Ralph Breaks the Internet, Creed 2, Grinch wknd 2)
Get THE ANKLER discount! Hours left…
📺 THE SILVER TV 🎥
NEW REGENCY sold Bikeriders to FOCUS FEATURES, but…
This of course is the Jeff Nichols pic starring Tom Hardy & Austin Butler that was previously set to be a DISNEYFOX release, as per most NEW REGENCY pics.
But now NEW REGENCY has sold global rights to FOCUS, who will do a 2024 release to build a proper marketing campaign for it.
No word on the FOCUS check size for the $40 Million film. /Variety
BUT… WHAT’S NOT ADDING UP
So the conventional wisdom/unofficial company line on this is that DISNEY wouldn’t have had enough time to build a proper marketing campaign to release the film this year for OSCAR season, after its promising debut back at TELLURIDE in Sept. It had a previous release date of Dec. 1, but was removed in strike uncertainty in October.
Fair enough – but FOCUS isn’t releasing the film this year either to make the OSCAR race.
SO: What would have prohibited DISNEYFOX from mounting a proper campaign next year for the film, just as FOCUS is going to do?
OR: If there was concern about going through the ‘big DISNEY’ machine with this one – SEARCHLIGHT is in house there too.
Something is amiss in this narrative. Either DISNEY didn’t want it, or NEW REGENCY wasn’t crazy about DISNEY’s 2023 marketing, or handling of The Creator in Sept or… well, something.
Add in the fact that DISNEY cleared the spring decks last month and now doesn’t have a theatrical film release until… May 24 (next Planet of the Apes pic), and yeah – there’s more to this than “there wasn’t enough time to mount a proper campaign at DISNEY.”
Also – while certainly possible… the chances of FOCUS FEATURES laying out $40 million for this movie are 🧐 – again, no number was reported or even hinted at on this matter, so take it as you will.
ELSEWHERE IN TV & MOVIES
Jenna Ortega won’t be in Scream VII either… citing Wednesday shooting conflicts. /THR
Reid Scott is joining Law & Order as a series regular for the upcoming season. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
🏦 STOCK NOTES
eh it’s the holidays 😴.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH
ABC/ESPN NFL Monday Night Football: BEARS at VIKINGS at 8p
🕵️♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD
TUE – HBO premieres its South to Black Power docu
WED – Christmas at Rockefeller Center lights up the 30 Rock tree at 8p
THU –NETFLIX drops its Obliterated series
FRI – Beyonce takes movie theaters
SAT – Emma Stone does SNL
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🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
AMC THEATERS Renaissance new trailer – IN THEATERS FRIDAY
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
Ok, now that THANKSGIVING’s over, I can officially start playing the holiday music, and since it’s still November… well, I’ll ease into things – one of my favorites from Kelly Clarkson that’s in a holiday movie… but not a holiday song.
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime at seanmcnultynyc@gmail.com or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM
