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FINALLY:

Just a sincere thanks to you all for reading - I know all most a few of my jokes may not have landed… but hopefully you’ve found it to be an entertaining read and an efficient way to keep in the know on all things Hollywood & Media each morning.

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As most of you know - I really didn’t start THE WAKEUP with a real plan, or… A plan - more just a belief that there was an opportunity to create something new in the daily entertainment biz newsletter space.

So we’ll see where this next phase in the adventure goes, and if you’re continuing with me - Earnings season starts next week and it’s likely gonna be one to remember.

However if not, I’m a big believer in not saying Farewell, but just See You Soon. Also - a big believer in always going out on a Jake Gyllenhaal gif.

Sean

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Where I actually have some news for once 🙋‍♂️ (it’s about time I start pulling my weight around here).

NEWS ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

The folks at THE ANKLER have kindly asked me to join their product, and after a tough negotiation over how many times I can use my favorite Colin Farrell gif in a given month… I’m excited to say that THE WAKEUP will be joining there starting tomorrow.

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BUT:

• If you don’t get THE ANKLER… or you’re like “Wtf is THE ANKLER??” -

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SO BASICALLY: More to come tomorrow and this week, just wanted to communicate that all to you today. And for any new readers - you can probably just skip to the Casey Kasem gif.

SEAN, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? I LOVE FREE THINGS!

Totally get it. I’ve seen your schwag closet. As some of my very first readers & friends know (and a big, BIG thanks to those key folks who helped me shape it in the pre-launch phase), I initially started THE WAKEUP to see “Is this a thing??”, without… any semblance of a real plan for it. Yes seriously.

And I love doing it - not too many people sit on earnings calls for fun 🥳 . Well maybe Rich Greenfield, although with the money he makes I’m sure he throws that in for free.

But while fun, THE WAKEUP takes several hours each day to put together. Being a #medianerd🤓 is a real time-suck. Who knew writing was like, a job?

AND: After 1.5 years of doing THE WAKEUP every weekday… the only way something like this becomes viable is either with Advertising (which I have 0 background in), or by making it a paid Subscription… which honestly I would have done myself at some point soon.

ALSO: As some of you know, my entertainment biz background is as an executive and a producer - not as a journalist, so the opportunity to work and learn from Janice, Richard and THE ANKLER team is frankly one I’m still wrapping my head around.

SO: As I probably wrote in your high school yearbook, it’s not the end of a journey but rather the start of a new one - and I really hope you’ll continue along with me!

No matter what - you can always you can connect with me here on Linked-In, and now, on with the countdown…

AND: Here are your 2022 TONY AWARD winners list. Also Jennifer Hudson beat Tracy Jordan to the EGOT, adding her “T” as a co-producer on Best Musical winner “A Strange Loop”.

ALSO: Dave Koechner was arrested for his 2nd DWI in 6 months earlier in June in Ohio. He previously was arrested on NYE in LA.

PLUS: If you’re having the shakes from Johnny & Amber withdrawal… your dealer NBC News has your fix with an hour-long primetime special with Amber & Savannah Guthrie this Friday at 8p 🥴.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

1. “Jurassic World: Dominion” : $143 Million ($389 Million global)

   • Pretty much matched the last one (“Fallen Kingdom” did $148 Million in June 2018).

   • Kinda between “Top Gun” ($127 Mil) and “Doctor Strange” ($187 Mil) 3-day openings.

   • 46% of ticket buyers were 18-34 year-olds.

   • IMAX was 8% of the total, which is basically their typical take on a movie.

   • But… 25% of Global tix were for 3-D screenings (13% of US gross) - it’s back!

   • $52 Million was from CHINA (tho remember UNI only keeps about $13 Million of that). Biggest US pic debut there this year by far… as “Top Gun” and “Doctor Strange” both are not being allowed to show there.

2. “Top Gun: Maverick” : $50 Million ($393 Million US, $747 Million global)

   • Still just a 44% drop, even more impressive when you factor in the loss of all higher-priced IMAX and Premium format screen $$ this weekend.

   • Will overtake “Doctor Strange” US total next weekend, already beat “The Batman” ($369 Million). But hey superhero movies had a nice run.

3. “Doctor Strange…” : $5 Million ($398 Million US, $930 Million global)

4. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” : $2.3 Million ($27 Million US)

5. The Bad Guys” : $2.3 Million ($95 Million US, $230 Million global)

6. “Downton Abbey: A New Era” : $1.6 Million ($40 Million US)

   • Has now hit it’s $40 Million budget with the US gross (minus rev shares with theaters).

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” fell 65% in week 2, to $375k. US total stands at $2 Million for NEON.

Matt & Ben’s NIKE Shoe-guy biopic at AMAZON adds big names

Viola Davis, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, Marlon Wayans and Chris Messina all taking roles in the currently-shooting pic.

Matt’s playing NIKE exec Sonny Vaccaro who put the whole Air Jordan thing together… although apparently Michael Jordan won’t be seen in the movie as a character - he’ll only be talked about. huh.

Ben’s playing NIKE founder Phil Knight (still🤞 his hair style matches what HBO did with Knight in “Winning Time”) and directing.

• Bateman is Vaccarro’s NIKE boss, Rob Strasser

• Viola is playing Jordan’s mom Dolores

• Tucker is playing an instrumental junior NIKE exec

• Wayans is playing a college hoops coach at U OF IOWA, who brokered the Jordan-Vaccarro relationship

• Messina is playing Jordan’s famous agent David Falk

Of note - former WB Pics head and rumored soon-to-be head of Matt & Ben’s new company Jeff Robinov is a producer on this too. /Deadline

PARAMOUNT sets Lindsey Beer to write + direct a “Sleepy Hollow” reboot

She just did their upcoming “Pet Sematary” prequel, no word on her take although it’s been 23 years since the Johnny Depp movie produced by Scott Rudin so… certainly updatable. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• NETFLIX adds Uma Thurman and Henry Golding to “The Old Guard 2”. Charlize & cast are returning, although it’ll have a new director - Victoria Mahoney, who did 2nd Unit on “Rise of Skywalker” and has directed a lot of TV. /Deadline

• SONY is gonna re-release “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in theaters Labor Day weekend, with an expanded “More Fun Stuff” version featuring expanded and additional scenes. /THR

• FANDANGO head Paul Yanover is leaving after a decade at the NBCU property. Will McIntosh, EVP of something called NBC Sports Next is adding the FANDANGO Prez role to his duties. Paul will leave later this Summer, next destination TBD. /Variety

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📺 THE TV SET

NETFLIX orders “Squid Game” Season 2

There’s not much else to know other than:

“Gi-hun returns. The front man returns. The man in the suit ddakji might be back. You also will be introduced to Young-hee’s boyfriend, Cheol-su.”

So. Kinda just here for the gif. /Deadline

NBA FINALS audience falls to about 8 Million in Game 4 on ABC

Games 1 thru 3 were doing about 11-12 Million each… although this is likely more due to being on Friday night when more people are watching out of home (the 8 Million doesn’t account for that yet).

Still this Finals matchup is gonna fall on the lower side of interest vs. other NBA Finals historically, despite being close so far (tied 2-2). Game 5 is tonight. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

• APPLE TV+ renews “Schmigadoon!” for a 2nd season. This one will be set in musicals from the 60’s & 70’s, and all cast are returning 🎶. /Deadline

• AMAZON renews “The Boys” for a 4th season. /Variety

• APPLE TV+ keeping Friday Night MLB games free for everyone through July ⚾️. /9to5Mac

• HBOMAX cancels “Made for Love” after 2 seasons. /Variety

• PEACOCK’s mysterious series from Jason Woliner (“Borat 2” director) is casting… adds Frank Grillo, Rosanna Arquette, Dennis Haysbert and others but still no details about what this is 🤐. /Deadline

• NETFLIX sets Kim Catrall to co-star in former CW pilot “Glamorous”. About a a gender non-conforming queer person (YT’er Miss Benny) who goes to work for a cosmetics queen (Catrall). 10 episodes, shooting this Summer. /Variety

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

NETFLIX is creating more mobile video games based on their series

“Money Heist”, “Shadow and Bone”, “Too Hot to Handle” and “The Queen’s Gambit” are up next. Wait a “Queen’s Gambit” game?? Oh right 😬. /Deadline

INDIA’S IPL Cricket Streaming rights go to VIACOM / PAR (and RELIANCE) for $2.6 Billion

That’s for a 5 year deal, starting with the next season in March 2023, and streaming rights only.

Although to note - this is very breaking news as of 830am, and some reports have SONY in the mix here (possibly they got the TV package?) so more to come tomorrow. This headline is from THR to note.

But more of note - current rights DISNEY+HOTSTAR doesn’t appear to be anywhere in the conversation.

Back to the $2.6 Billion - the service is called VIACOM 18 there, although PARAMOUNT GLOBAL only now has a smaller stake in the venture

• INDIA media conglomerate RELIANCE is a big investor

• As is James Murdoch… of those Murdochs (he’s the non #MAGA one), who put in a lot of money earlier this year with another guy with a lot of walkin around money, Uday Shankar.

DISNEY+ HOTSTAR (what DISNEY+ is called in INDIA, with 43+ Million subscribers) previously had the IPL rights for the past 5 years, both TV and Streaming for about half that price (about $500 Million a year), and has played a key role in the subscriber growth #s for DISNEY+.

The next IPL season isn’t until March thru May (in terms of popularity - it’s INDIA’s NFL), so DISNEY+ streaming numbers may not take an immediate hit… but certainly will come 2023:

• The subscriber bump from the start of this year’s IPL season represented half of DISNEY+’s total gains in Q1.

Granted - it’s hard to justify the $500+ Million a year cost when DISNEY+HOTSTAR total annual revenues are in the $500 to $750 Million range, but either way… likely another big headache for Bob Chapek. Although at least this headache isn’t entirely self-inflicted.

The TV rights are still up for auction today and expected to get around $3 Billion, and there are also much lower cost overseas rights and some smaller carve out packages avail, so more to come tomorrow. /THR

• FOR COMPARISON - IPL rights should total about $6 Billion for 5 years.

• NFL rights ran about $50 Billion for US rights alone over 5 years in their most recent renewals.

OF NOTE: AMAZON shocked everyone by dropping out on Friday before the process even started, as they were previously thought to be a very top contender.

ALSO IN MEDIA

• The Sheryl Sandberg FACEBOOK story may not be over… big internal review going on as to potential use of company resources on personal matters over several years. /WSJ

• GOOGLE paying out $118 Million to about 15k female employees to settle gender discrimination case (roughly $7800 per employee not accounting for any law firm fees etc… which I have in my head usually being about 35 to 40% of the payout typically, but I’m not 100 on that).

  • The lawsuit that spurred it cited a study that GOOGLE paid female employees approx $17k a year less than males with the same job titles. /Deadline

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

#InflationReport

NETFLIX -5% ($182.94)

AMAZON -5% ($109.65)

ENDEAVOR -5% ($21.34)

WBD -5% ($14.86)

SNAPCHAT -6% ($13.28)

LIONSGATE -6% ($9.51)

BUZZFEED -6% ($2.06)

CINEWORLD (REGAL Cinemas) -7% ($0.30)

SPOTIFY -8% ($102.23)

ROBLOX -9% ($27.76)

ROKU -10% ($82.71)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

HBOMAX “The Card Counter” - Paul Schrader pic with Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Haddish hit the service - STREAM HERE

ABC NBA Finals - Game 5 at 9p

🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - “Halftime” JLo doc hits NETFLIX

WED - New Melissa McCarthy series “God’s Favorite Idiot” hits NETFLIX

• NHL Stanley Cup begins, Colorado vs Tampa Bay

THU - “Father of the Bride” reboot hits HBOMAX

• NBA Finals Game 6 on ABC

FRI - PIXAR is finally back in movie theaters with “Lightyear”

SAT - Golf’s US OPEN today and tomorrow

SUN - Father’s Day!

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

No new trailers but a few good Michael Che on HOWARD STERN clips, talking about Chris Rock - the slap and Che’s relationship with him, and a “Half Viagra” SNL sketch that didn’t make the show that would totally kill.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New HALSEY “So Good”

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where after an… active 😳 day in the Hollywood executive suite (see THE MEDIA BIZ section), let’s relax with our Friday morning coffee at K-Stew’s Malibu Beach House.

Or well at least her former one - Kristen just sold it for $8.3 Million to AMC NETWORKS new Marketing head Len Fogge. I really gotta get a job at AMC…

ALSO: Congrats to Britney & Sam who got married last night in front of about 60 folks. Mostly townies with names like Paris and Madonna. Her 2 boys were not there, but reportedly said they were "happy" for their mom... via K-Fed’s lawyer.

AND: BROADWAY’s Brooks Atkinson Theater is being renamed the Lena Horne Theater this Fall. “Six” is currently playing there.

PLUS: The PGA has indefinitely suspended the 17 golfers who are playing in the Saudi (government) backed LIV golf league (Phil, Sergio, Louis and Dustin among them). This will not affect the US OPEN next weekend as it’s a USGA event. Which ya know, will be on National TV… unlike the LIV.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Angelina Jolie adds Salma Hayek-Pinault and Demian Bechir to her 5th directorial outing

It’s called “Without Blood” for FREEMANTLE. Currently shooting in ITALY, about “a girl’s quest for revenge and healing in a time of conflict.” /THR

ALSO IN MOVIES

• MARVEL sets Jeff Schrier (“Paper Towns”, FX’s “Dave”) to direct “Thunderbolts” movie, currently being written with plans to shoot next Summer. It’s about a group of supervillains who do missions for the government. Wait OK - I know I don’t watch these movies but isn’t that “Suicide Squad”? /Deadline

• APPLE TV+ sets first look movie deal with… NIKE 👟 (and producer Brad Weston’s MAKEREADY outfit) for pics to “inspire the next generation of athletes and celebrate the power of sport.” No initial projects indicated and not entirely sure what NIKE is bringing here outside of a paycheck & marketing muscle but… beyond my paygrade. /Deadline

  • To note - that Damon/Affleck NIKE Air Jordan Shoe Guy movie now shooting is at AMAZON. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

APPLE TV+ sets Colin Farrell to star in “Sugar” series from Mark Protosevich (”Thor”)

And… absolutely nothing was released about it other than it is “genre bending”, so I’m going with a sex comedy… set in space 👍.

Simon Kinberg (“X-Men” mastermind, APPLE’s “Invasion”) among the producers, Fernando Meirelles (”City of God”) is directing. /Deadline

STARZ’s “P-Valley” gets 4.5 Million viewers for Season 2 premiere in first 3 days

Pretty much all of them were via streaming (linear premiere got 240k viewers on Sunday), and the streaming audience was +1000% vs the first 3 days for the Series premiere last year.

STARZ’s streaming subscriber base may not be massive at 11.5 million… but they show up - that viewership translates to about 37% of subscribers watching the show. Strip clubs - who knew? 💸 /THR

AMAZON’S FREEVEE orders Season 2 of cancelled SHOWTIME series “American Rust”

Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney both returning, for the PENNSYLVANIA small town sheriff drama series. Deal to get rights to Season 1 currently being worked out. /THR

ALSO IN TV

• HULU adds 4 new food series:

  • ”Drag Me to Dinner”- drag queen dinner party competition show from NPH & David Burtka.

  • “Chefs vs. Wild” - 2 chefs cook in the wilderness in a competition series, and whomever attracts bears first wins. Ok I added that last part - but I’d totally watch that show.

  • “Secret Chef” - Chefs blind taste each other’s food and vote, from David Chang

  • “Burning Men” - A pepper growers competition show, oddly enough not from COMPLEX.

• FOX sets 3rd showrunners for “Call Me Kat” for the show’s 3rd sesaon - this year Jim Patterson & Maria Ferrari will take the reins (both are veterans of Chuck Lorre-land on CBS). /Deadline

📝 IN OTHER WORDS

“So, while I will no longer be riding along beside you, I wish you happy trails and hope that our paths will cross again.

Warmly and with gratitude,

Peter”

- The end of PETER RICE’s farewell email to DISNEY staff after… well, see below although pretty sure you’re up to speed.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

DISNEY CEO fires ENTERTAINMENT (TV) head Peter Rice - why and why now? The coverage overview

It was the axing heard around Hollywood yesterday (though the chatter at my neighborhood Queens bar during intermissions of the RANGERS game last night was nominal at best fwiw).

THE STORY:

DISNEY CEO Bob Chapek blindsided longtime DISNEYFOX (nee FOX) Head of everything TV Peter Rice on Monday evening, firing him in a very brief 7 minute meeting - THR really nailing down those specifics in the link - and effective immediately.

Peter’s longtime #2 exec Dana Walden is being promoted to take his place and oversee everything TV (HULU, ABC, TWENTIETH TV, ABC NEWS etc).

Peter’s firing and name in general was barely mentioned in the note about Walden’s promotion, nor was it in the DISNEY Board’s odd statement about supporting Bob Chapek’s management choices (more on that below).

THE WHY:

Analysis and chatter seems to fall into these buckets, most of which don’t make a lot of sense:

1. CULTURAL FIT: Chapek allegedly told Peter he was “not a fit in the new DISNEY culture”.

   • After being at the company 4+ years post DISNEY-FOX deal closure. And well over 2 years into working directly under Chapek. You’d think that might have come up earlier? 🧐

   • He was also known as a pretty universally well-liked executive both internally and with Hollywood creatives so… Yeah this tracks.

   • This is nowhere near an Ovitz at DISNEY in the 90’s situation that a “not a cultural fit” description implies.

2. FRESH APPROACH: While Peter & Dana’s personal styles & backgrounds are different, Chapek chose someone who… also spent their exec career at the more cutthroat FOX culture before DISNEY, and worked alongside Rice for well over 15 years. So… yeah not exactly a fresh start here.

3. NOT A TEAM PLAYER: Alex Sherman at CNBC who reports on DISNEY closely said on The Town podcast yesterday that a rationale he heard given was that Rice wasn’t a team player and didn’t share information well with other divisions. I mean maybe… but show me many Hollywood executives who do. And again - why do this now?

4. A CHANGE IN EXEC STRUCTURE: Chapek announced no other changes other than Peter is fired… so this obvious route was just ignored.

   • Peter’s contract was also just renewed for 3 years last Summer (he’ll be paid out hansomely), which was 1.5 years into Chapek’s tenure so… hard to believe Chapek all of a sudden discovered anything here about how he wants to run the company.

THE MOST OBVIOUS ANSWER IS USUALLY THE RIGHT ONE

There is definitely still more reporting to come here… but the simplest explanation at this point is that Chapek saw Rice as an increasing threat to take his job, and chose to act (in an extremely clumsy way) before more bad news came in.

The 1 thing that is true about this timing - it’s right before DISNEY is quite likely about to lose their DISNEY+HOTSTAR IPL Cricket rights in INDIA next week, which would very likely kick off a period of sizable losses in the overall DISNEY+ subscriber count (almost 1/3 of the DIS+ total is in this region), starting in Q3 and extending into 2023. At minimum it could cause some bad press beginning mid-next week if DIS+HOTSTAR doesn’t prevale. So I guess Bob wanted to get a jump start?

• TO NOTE: The start of the next IPL season is in March 2023, right after Bob’s contract is up in February.

• ALTHOUGH: Paying the likely $1 Billion+ a year pricetag for IPL rights is hard to justify at DISNEY, given that DISNEY+HOTSTAR’s 43 Million INDIA subscribers generate only about $500 to $750 Million in total revenue each year.

  • Still - explaining the nuance of a streaming subscriber count drop to Wall Street is just not gonna go well. #NetflixQ1

SO: Peter Rice is now on the market, with great experience across both TV & Film, and both SVOD and AVOD streaming businesses.

WBD is already a no (Peter had talks there last year but reportedly didn’t want to report into Zaz), so let the speculation begin… hopefully after the weekend.

Either way - From the THR coverage last night and DEADLINE piece rounding up (un-attributed) external exec reactions… this is generally being seen as a huge WTF, and another example of how Chapek still just doesn’t get how Hollywood works.

BOB CHAPEK’S FIRST 2 YEARS ON THE JOB:

• Generally seen as giving 🖕 to Bob Iger in his last year at the company

• The Kareem Daniels re-org that still confuses everyone 2 years in 🤔

• ScarJo Black Widow lawsuit disaster 🙇‍♂️

• #DontSayGay 🏳️‍🌈

• Firing one of your most talented and liked top execs with little explanation #MoraleInTheToilet 🤦‍♂️

• Let’s not forget the “Star Wars” movie franchise has come to screeching halt during his tenure. Sure, the series are great (so I’m told), but it’s going to be at least 5 years between 2019’s “Rise of Skywalker” and Taika Waititi’s TBD pic in 2024 (🤞).

Oh right! The DISNEY Board note - Chapek did get a vote of confidence in his overall management skills from the DISNEY Board yesterday in a very unusual statement… a Board who also hasn’t chosen to renew his contract less than 8 months before it expires.

A lot riding on the next 3-4 months if this 👇 doesn’t get turned around.

DIS stock ended the day down about 4% at $103.30, its lowest price in 4 years (except for the brief Mar 2020 crash).

OVER IN THE WBD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• WBD names US Prez of TELEVISA UNIVISION Luis Silberwasser as their new CEO of Sports.

  • Will oversee all of (essentially TURNER’s) sports rights for MLB, NBA, NHL and MARCH MADNESS.

  • Will not oversee WBD European sports efforts.

  • It does not appear that Luis has… much Sports business experience - he previously worked with Zaz in DISCOVERY Int’l Content where Sports (via their EUROSPORT network) fell under his purview… but he’s never had a pure Sports job like this, and has no experience in the US Sports marketplace. /THR

• WBD brings back Steve Spira as Prez of Business Affairs. He had a 35 year run there that ended in 2020, and will report into both Zaz and DeLuca & Abdy. /THR

AND AT SONY…

• SONY PICTURES TV head Jeff Frost is leaving after 15 years at SONY. Sounds like he was just ready to do something else - he’s staying til Sept as the exec search begins. Like a normal executive transition. /Deadline

MONEY TIGHTENING IS GETTING REAL AT FACEBOOK

• FACE META is drastically scaling back plans for their own line of AR glasses, as the Metaverse isn’t going to build itself people! The launch version of the glasses was slated for 2024 release, but:

  • Instead that version will now just be a “prototype”… with a commercially available product not expected for “several years”. Oh hi APPLE 😎. /The Information

• META also pretty much but the kibosh on a smartwatch they were making as well. /Bloomberg

• PORTAL is also done-for this Summer as a consumer product. It’s estimated they only sold about 800k in 2021. /The Verge

• FACEBOOK is likely going to end their payments to news publishers program too (except in countries that legally require it). /WSJ

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

ROKU -9% ($92.37)

SNAP -7% ($14.10)

WBD -6% ($15.63)

PARAMOUNT -5% ($29.15)

NETFLIX -5% ($192.77)

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👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday - Saturday - Sunday)

WEEKEND READS + LISTENS

What’s MICHAEL FASSBENDER been up to? Becoming a racecar driver apparently. He’s racing in the infamous 24 LE MANS race this weekend after seemingly using his pandemic to dive hardcore into training, pursuing a lifelong dream. Now there’s a smart addition to Brad Pitt’s F1 movie at APPLE TV…

FRIDAY

IN THEATERS:

• UNI “Jurassic World: Dominion” - ONLY IN THEATERS, also hits CHINA (or whatever theaters are open there).

STREAMING:

SERIES

• NETFLIX “Peaky Blinders” Season 6 - STREAM HERE

• APPLE TV+ “For All Mankind” Season 3 - STREAM HERE

SPECIALS

• NETFLIX “Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget Tribute” - STREAM HERE

TV:

• ABC NBA Finals Game 4 - 8p

SATURDAY

• NBC Belmont Stakes - Race is around 645p

SUNDAY

• CBS TONY AWARDS at 8p, with the pre-game hour with some Awards on PAR+ from 7-8p

• PARAMOUNT “Evil” Season 3 - STREAM HERE

• STARZ “Becoming Elizabeth” - guessing 9p? Starz.com wasn’t too helpful.

• AMC “Dark Winds” - STREAM HERE (also on AMC linear)

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

UNIVERSAL “NOPE” final trailer - Now with more words! Looking good 👍 - IN THEATERS JULY 22

HBOMAX “Menudo: Forever Young” docu trailer - No Ricky Martin in this… although maybe he participated by didn’t grant promo rights? PREMIERES THU JUNE 23

NETFLIX “Stranger Things” Season 4 vol 2 - 30 second promo. PREMIERES FRI JULY 1

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Gonna go with just a really great watch from last week on a tumultuous day like this, with ERNIE JOHNSON writing a “Note to Self” for CBS MORNINGS. Some inspiration, and a lotta heart from one of broadcasting’s all time greats.

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

(NOTE: SUBSTACK is again having major tech “issues” this morning so if you’re getting it late, that’s why. Also the reason if there any errors in this newsletter today naturally)

Where we’ll start with one especially for my fellow old & current HBO folks.

I was in Bryant Park yesterday, and in a sign of the times for the TV / streaming business that couldn’t be more apt… the decades-long home where HBO was built into one of the strongest brands in media history… is now fully stripped and rebuilt as a BANK OF AMERICA building.

I don’t even wanna know what they turned CINEMAX into.

AND: The FOO FIGHTERS will play their first shows without and in tribute to Taylor Hawkins in September. Sept 3 in London at WEMBLEY, and Sept 27 in LA at the KIA Forum. Additional guests TBA.

ALSO: “Come From Away” is the latest BROADWAY show to call it a day, will go dark in October.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Damon & Affleck firing up new production outfit

Their former company was PEARL STREET for many years, and this one is… well, Untitled (was WICKED SMAHT PICTCHAS taken?). But it’s going the en-vogue, private equity funding route from REDBIRD CAPITAL.

No word on the funding size as the details are not quite 100 yet, but former WB PICTURES head Jeff Robinov is in talks to come run it.

Ben just started directing Matt in the biopic of Sonny Vaccaro over at AMAZON this week (aka the guy who built NIKE’s hoops empire with Michael Jordan).

REDBIRD also has stakes in SKYDANCE, Lebron’s SPRING HILL and… the XFL. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• NETFLIX adds Anthony Hopkins to Zack Snyder’s Sci-Fi pic “Rebel Moon”, although in voice only - he’ll be playing a sentient robot. A robot that sounds like Hannibal Lecter - yeah ok i’m in for that. /Deadline

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• WB PICS COO Carolyn Blackwood is the latest WBD C-suite exec to depart, after a 23 year run at the company. Move not unexpected with the departure of Toby Emmerich, whom she worked alongside for many of those 23 years. /THR

• HULU’s ONYX COLLECTIVE names former WME partner Ashley Holland as SVP of Scripted TV, reporting into ONYX head Tara Duncan. 2 other VP’s in scripted hired as well. /Deadline

• LIONSGATE Prez & EVP of marketing, Marisa Liston & Dave Edwards are both leaving. No word on next destinations, and replacement search is underway. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

NETLIX adds Timotheé Chalamet, Vanessa Hudgens, Jessica Williams and Macaulay Culkin to “Entergalactic” animated series

It’s from KID CUDI and Kenya Barris and will feature music from his album of the same name. Teaser spot below in the TRAILER HOUSE.

About a young artist (voiced by CUDI) trying to balance life and love. Aren’t we all Scott.... /Variety

ALSO IN TV

• NETFLIX orders Season 2 of Kevin Smith’s “Masters of the Universe” animated series. /Deadline

• AMAZON renews YA series “The Summer I Turned Pretty” for a Season 2, ahead of its Season 1 launch next week. /Variety

• HBO buys docu short about former KNICK Jeremy Lin called “38 at the Garden” . It’s also at TRIBECA this week. /Deadline

• CBS sets Bill Martin & Mike Schiff as showrunners for “The Neighborhood” Season 5. Both worked with Cedric the Entertainer on his TV LAND show “The Soul Man” and most recently created “The Unicorn” at CBS. /Deadline

• NETFLIX renews animated series “Inside Job” for a 2nd season. /Deadline

📝 IN OTHER WORDS

“I can confidently say that this model in its totality is doing way better than you think.”

- SPOTIFY CEO Daniel Ek at an investors day conference yesterday… not instilling much confidence in me by saying that, and by outlining future business extensions as “X, Y and Z.” #notajoke

Their podcast biz was about $110 Million in the red for 2021, and their CFO said podcast investments would become profitable in “one to two years”. So 2 years.

I actually think SPOTIFY is doing a good job with their business… but I wasn’t hearing a lot specifically about how they’re going to grow from a company who gives the vast majority of their revenue back to the Music Labels… into one with far diversified and impressive other revenue streams where SPOT gets to keep the money. Love the Audiobooks idea… not sure it’s gonna break the bank.

Wall Street felt otherwise when they heard SPOTIFY say “1 Billion users by 2030”… and you know how easily distracted Wall Street gets by big numbers. SPOT stock was up about 7% yesterday.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

NETFLIX buying ROKU speculation heats up on employee stock freeze

BUSINESS INSIDER reported that ROKU froze the ability of employees to cash out any vested stock this week which… well, could mean a few things. Or nothing. But the most likely scenario is something’s cooking, and the house money is on NETFLIX. /NextTV

The case for the deal:

• NETFLIX needs streaming Ad sales tech know-how, and Ad biz relationships… fast. ROKU’s got both.

• ROKU’s annual user growth rate in Q1 fell to 14% vs 35% the year before, and with underlying supply chain & US market saturation issues not going away anytime soon - plus given a quite depressed stock price (-70% vs about a year ago), selling now isn’t a terrible idea for the right price, even if NETFLIX’s appetite for owning the device part of the company is likely not too high.

  • BUT: NETFLIX’s relationships and penetration in global markets could also help ROKU device growth, which has been primarily US focused to date.

  • #FunFact - ROKU was created in the 2000’s by a former NETFLIX employee when the company wasn’t interested in building streaming devices.

YES: This is all high speculation….

BUT: If NETFLIX is gonna have an Ad-supported version live within 6 months… a plug-and-play acquisition of a company already well versed in that biz makes the most sense, vs. building an internal Ad sales team and Ad-Tech Engineer group from scratch.

ROKU’s worth about $14 Billion these days, NETFLIX is standing around $90 Billion.

ROKU stock was +9% yesterday.

WBD is asking for 2X the Ad rate price hikes that other Media co’s are asking for in Upfront negotiations

They’re also withholding placements in their top content unless advertisers agree to very large Ad buys across networks. Madison Avenue is not happy. And from the sounds of it - not agreeing to said terms (as of yet).

• AGAIN - Zaz’s promised $3 Billion in cost efficiencies from the WBD deal has to kick in from a lotta places… /Variety

ALSO IN MEDIA

• CNN Digital’s interim head Alex McCallum is leaving on June 30. She previously was GM for CNN+ before moving into the “interim” title when… well I think you know what happened. CNN Digital CTO Robyn Peterson is also leaving. /Variety

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

ROKU and SPOTIFY were the big movers but…

BUZZFEED kept on… not truckin, -5% ($2.16)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

HBOMAX “Roadrunner” - The Bourdain doc from last year hits the streaming service… ok yes this is mainly a reminder for me to add to my List.

PEACOCK “Queer as Folk” reboot

The infamous Saudi (Government) backed “LIV Golf Tournament” tees off in the UK with all the PGA golfers they could buy (Mickelson & Dustin Johnson took the $150-$200 Million paydays… with DJ leaving the PGA yesterday. Tiger & Rory passed) .

• But the tournament has no US TV deal so you can only watch it on FACEBOOK or YOUTUBE - like any true world-class athletic league.

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

HULU “Mike” limited series teaser - Bioseries on Mike Tyson that Tyson has already thoroughly denounced, from the producing braintrust behind “I, Tonya”. PREMIERES THU AUG 25.

WB “Black Adam” movie trailer - The Rock’s DC pic, and I suppose I get the character… but not really sure what this is about. Then again I’m not the target demo here so I’m guessing the fanboys are more excited. IN THEATERS OCT 21

APPLE TV+ “Blackbird” series trailer - This is certainly on brand for the guy who gave us “Mystic River”…. New Dennis Lehane series (although funny how this trailer really felt more like it was a movie to me), inspired by a true story of a felon convinced to befriend a mentally unstable guy who kills young women in order to get a confession. Also with Ray Liotta, looks very good… intense, but good. And a solid role for Taron Egerton in the lead. PREMIERES FRI JULY 8

NETFLIX “Dirty Daddy: The Bob Saget Tribute” trailer - Recorded at the Comedy Store soon after his death, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Jeff Ross, John Mayer and Stamos among others. PREMIERES TOMORROW

NETFLIX “Entergalactic” teaser spot - the KID CUDI show from the TV SET section today. PREMIERES “This Fall”

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Let’s throw it back over to KID CUDI for some classic “Day N’ Nite” … club mix to go out on today, if only for PAULY D.

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where… anyone up for a sequel? Not a bad way to start off your era running WARNER BROS (assuming Joaquin’s deal finalizes. Sure Zaz has some pull with the POLO LOUNGE chef to make a vegan dish to close this out).

PLUS: The TRIBECA FEST begins today, if you’re looking to pick up some tix for things this weekend in NYC 🎟, here’s your link.

ALSO: “Dear Evan Hansen” will close on BROADWAY on Sept 18 after nearly a 6 year run. “Tina” will close on August 14, it opened in Nov 2019.

AND: Chris Rock & Chappelle are teaming up for a huge double bill show in London on Sat Sept 3 in case you wanna hop across the pond for Labor Day. Tix go on sale Friday.

AND AND: Half of USA NETWORKS’s linear schedule just went up in flames as Todd & Julie Chrisley were found guilty of Tax Evasion and Bank Fraud 😬. They face 30 years in jail, sentencing is Oct 6.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

SONY buys Dolly Parton movie project “Run, Rose, Run”

Based on the best-selling book she did with James Patterson this Spring, about a woman who goes to Nashville to make a her music biz dreams come true… and a Country icon takes her under her wings 🎤.

Dolly is co-starring, writing original songs and producing with Reese Witherspoon / HELLO SUNSHINE. No word on a director. /THR

APPLE’s Brad Pitt F1 racing movie sets new pay structure for a Streamer pic

THR has all the details in the link ☝️, but essentially the movie whose deal closed yesterday will get at least a 30-day wide global theatrical release - APPLE will have to partner with a studio to release it (👋 SONY), and then it’ll come to APPLE TV+.

Filmmakers would split APPLE’s theatrical take 50/50 - presumably that’s Brad, director Joseph Kosinski (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer - and then also get paid additional fees that align with more typical streaming deals… 🤑

It’s a pretty interesting read. And probably only a deal that a company who made $25 Billion in profits in the first 3 months of this year would, or could make.

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Julia Garner (“Ozark”, “Inventing Anna”) looks to be in the lead for the bake-off to play MADONNA in the biopic at UNIVERSAL that Madge is also directing. /Variety

• Jason Bateman exits directing gig for $100 Million APPLE TV+ pic “Artemis” with Chris Evans & Scarlett Johannson. Said to be creative differences, pic involves the space race but… not much known about it. /Deadline

• AMPAS will now be led by Bill Kramer as Dawn Hudson departs. /The Ankler

• NETFLIX bought TAIWAN’s biggest box office hit of 2022 - granted that’s a box office of $5.7 Million… but they’re gonna give the horror pic a whirl to see if it takes off globally on July 8. Oh - it’s called “Incantation”, about a family of cult worshipers and shot in a found footage style. No word on acquisition price. /THR

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📺 THE TV SET

APPLE TV+ adds Carol Burnett to Kristen Wiig comedy series “Mrs. American Pie”

Ok I’ve mentioned this show several times in the past month with casting news (it’s the show set in 1970’s Palm Beach high society) so yeah - this is mainly up first here so I could use that gif. /THR

HBO kills JJ Abrams series “Demimonde” over budgetary conflict

WBTV will now see what streaming service bites (👋 APPLE TV) on the sci-fi series with a $200+ Million pricetag. (for reference, the new GOT series “House of the Dragon” is sub $200 Million).

JJ’s WBD deal goes until 2024… although at this point perhaps Zaz would let it go early upon request to pocket the cost savings. Although pretty sure deals that size don’t work that way 💰.

Granted WBTV will get $$ if when it lands elsewhere… but THR has a good overview in the link about just how productive the deal has been in the first 2.5 years at getting content onto HBO/MAX.

ALSO:

Today provides nice succinct snapshot preview for the next phase of the Streaming Wars:

• Tech co’s (APPLE and AMAZON) have committed to being players in streaming after an iffy first few years in the late 2010’s, and are bringining their limitless checkbooks to play to win at their heart’s content (see Brad Pitt deal above, the LOTR series at AMAZON etc).

• Traditional media co’s (WBD, PAR, DIS, NBCU) are having to look more closely at expenditures, as their several hundred million dollars in streaming losses each quarter become an increasingly bad public look every 3 months in an economy facing recession:

  • Granted while HBOMAX doesn’t have the same extreme quarterly losses as the other streamers (PAR+, DIS+, PEACOCK) thanks to the core HBO business it’s built on, Zaslav has to find $3 Billion in cost savings.

• Then there’s NETFLIX - kinda in the middle right now: they’re clearing $1 Billion+ in profit a quarter… but obviously the spending gravy train there has peaked.

  • AND: I still give even odds for a GOOGLE deal at some point mid-decade. (remember - this is a free newsletter so there’s not a big purse here on that bet).

HBO picks up Clooney-produced docu project on OHIO STATE U abuse scandal

It’s about their physician sexual abuse scandal where Dr. Richard Strauss was accused of abusing over 300 athletes over decades. Eva Orner (”Taxi to the Dark Side”) is directing. /THR

SHOWTIME sets Allison Williams to co-star with Matt Bomer in limited series “Fellow Travelers”

8 episodes, based on a book set over decades in politics, about a volatile relationship between two men beginning in McCarthy-era Washington DC.

Allison is playing a lifelong friend of Bomer’s character, and daughter of a US Senator. Other main male role still to be cast.

Ron Nyswaner (“Philadelphia”) is writing, will shoot later this Summer. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

• NBA FINALS gets same not-so-great audience for Game 2 on Sunday night, of 11.9 Million across ABC & ESPN2. It’s the 6th smallest audience for a Game 2 in the last 20 years (includes the last two covid years). /THR

• MTV MOVIE & TV Awards got 2.5 Million viewers across… 7 networks on Sunday night. Up from 1.7 Million last year. /TheWrap

  • 430k of the viewers (almost 20%) were on TheCW.

• HBOMAX renews “Tokyo Vice” for a Season 2. /Variety

• Sam Waterston is gonna do one more season on NBC’s “Law & Order” reboot this Fall. /Deadline

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• MTV CMO Jason White is out after a year, longtime MTVN veteran EVP Amy Campbell is replacing him and will report into MTVN Prez Chris McCarthy. /Deadline

• SUNDANCE FILM FEST Director Tabitha Jackson is departing after about 2 years in the role. Replacement search is underway. /Variety

• FOOD NETWORK prez Courtney White joins WHEELHOUSE ENTERTAINMENT (Kimmel is a co-backer) with her food, home & lifestyle programming outfit called BUTTERNUT. Will be based in CT. /Variety

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

JUST 2 THINGS:

• Kara Swisher is leaving the NY TIMES after a 4 year run and returning to VOX MEDIA. “Sway” podcast will end in July, but she’ll naturally start a new TBA one at VOX this Fall to go with her Galloway pod that never left VOX. /Bloomberg

• Rob McElhenny is among the backers of a new creator-focused production company called ADIM, with an aim of encouraging collaboration among them “to create and own a new generation of content.” /Deadline

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

AMC THEATERS +9% ($13.07)

CINEWORLD (REGAL Cinemas) -5% ($0.32)

otherwise a pretty quiet Tuesday.

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

ABC NBA FINALS Game 3 at 8p, also President Biden is on KIMMEL

DISNEY+ “Ms. Marvel” - STREAM HERE

• Plus here’s an NY TIMES profile on the lead actress… doing her first role ever in this show.

NETFLIX “Hustle” Adam Sandler hoops pic - STREAM HERE

DISCO+ “Hungry for Answers” - 4pt docuseries on Black food history - no link avail

HBO “The Janes” - Docu on an early 70’s underground safe abortion network - Premieres at 9p

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

SONY “Bullet Train” trailer #2 - Look! It’s Sandy Bullock in a cameo role. The tone is much better communicated in this spot (equal action & comedy), and… still looks fun! IN THEATERS FRI AUG 5

NETFLIX “The School for Good & Evil” movie teaser spot - PREMIERES IN SEPT

AMAZON PRIME “Don’t Make Me Go” movie trailer - Father / teen Daughter road trip movie with a bit of an emotional twist - looks promising if they nail the tone properly! 🤞 PREMIERES FRI JULY 15

NETFLIX “The Sea Beast” movie trailer - From the director of “Moana” and “Big Hero 6”. PREMIERES FRI JULY 8

HULU “Prey” movie trailer - A“Predator” movie set amongst a Native American tribe. PREMIERES FRI AUG 5

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

I’ve been really enjoying revisiting one of my favorite Summer playlist albums from BEST COAST, here’s “California Nights”

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where this Fall you’ll finally be able to edit iMessage texts after you send them or even recall them as well, with the release of iOS 16 (is there also an “automatically activate after 3 beers 🍻” function that one could sync with an Apple Watch? asking for a friend).

Although SUBSTACK still somehaw can’t hook a brother up with the same ability ofr his newsletter. Not that I need it 😁.

PLUS: The COLORADO AVALANCHE will be in the NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS, blanking the EDMONTON OILERS 4 games to 0 last night. Will play either the TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING or NY RANGERS 🙏.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

AMAZON PRIME closing deal to buy David Oyelowo / Kaley Cuoco thriller pic “Role Play”

AMAZON looking to buy US & a few international territories, and both talent have clauses in their deal for AMAZON execs to save all the “fun” name rhyming comments in meetings with them.

About a married couple who have secrets come out about each other’s pasts and… everything’s totally cool 👍. Will shoot this Summer. /Deadline

APPLE TV+ gets next film from Steve McQueen

The “12 Years A Slave” filmmaker’s next pic is “Blitz”, set in WWII England.

Will shoot later this year, NEW REGENCY is producing, no price indicated or talent attached as of yet. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• The Box Office keeps underestimating “Top Gun: Maverick” - The film made $90 Million this weekend (not $86 Mil), making for an even more 🤯 29% drop from its opening 3-day total. /THR

• PARAMOUNT is also being sued for not securing the rights from the original article that was “sourced” for the original “Top Gun” pic (“sourced” was the credit given in the movie). The rights reverted to the writer’s family after 35 years and PAR didn’t think it important to get them again… and the family uh disagrees. Seems like something that will go on for a while despite the family’s request to immediately pull the movie from release #yaHuh. THR has more legal minutia in the link 👆 if you’re inclined.

• “Borat 2”’s Maria Bakalova is joining “Galaxy of the Guardians Vol. 3” - role not disclosed. Shooting just wrapped, will hit theaters in May next year. /Deadline

• TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL Senior programmer Steve Gravestock is leaving after this year’s Fest, capping off a 25 year run with TIFF, primarily programming the Canadian films 🇨🇦. /THR

📝 IN OTHER WORDS - SCREAM edition

“I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise.”

- NEVE CAMBELL passing on PARAMOUNT’s $$ offer for “Scream 6”. Pic is shooting this Summer, so… hoping writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick didn’t have any important plans for the rest of June.

No word on what the offer actually was - although perhaps PARAMOUNT may dig into that extra $4 Million “Top Gun” money they found from the weekend to make it happen.

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📺 THE TV SET

FX sets Jon Hamm, Juno Temple and Jennifer Jason Leigh starring in Season 5 of “Fargo”

Where FX apparently took advantage of CAA’s famous “J talent” packaging discount… (ok fine yes Juno is at UTA 🙄). Not many details other than it’s set in 2019 and deals with 2 questions:

• When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?

I mean, clever - but is it seriously that hard to just write a logline? 🤷‍♂️ Series creator Noah Hawley returning for this round as well. /Variety

HULU orders drama series starring Kathryn Hahn based on a book from “Wild” author Cheryl Strayed

Called “Tiny Beautiful Things”, about a woman who becomes an anonymous, revered advice columinst as her life is falling apart.

Eight, 30 min episodes. Reese Witherspoon & Laura Dern are exec producing, Liz Tigelaar (“Little Fires Everywhere”) is showrunning. /THR

ALSO IN TV

• FX orders 2 more seasons of “What We Do In The Shadows” (seasons 5 & 6). /THR

• NETFLIX renews South Korean YA zombie series “All of Us Are Dead” for a Season 2. /Deadline

• Here’s the FOX Fall 2022 schedule which… is a lot like the Fall 2021 schedule.

  • Minus Thursday Night Football which will now be “Hell’s Kitchen”, “Welcome to Flatch” and “Call Me Kat”.

  • Delayed Country series “Monarch” will be Tuesday’s at 9p (with a Sunday night premiere launch following NFL Football on 9/11). /THR

• NETFLIX adds Goran Visnjic (“ER”) to “Vikings: Valhalla” Season 3. /Deadline

• WBD is launching a Comedic Voices bootcamp program from their DEI initiatives - a week-long program to find new voices for Late Night & Unscripted genres. Application process open til July 1 here, bootcamp will happen in October. /THR

📝 IN OTHER WORDS - LASSO edition

“We are writing it like that. It was planned as three. Spoiler alert: Everyone dies.”

- “Ted Lasso”’s BRETT GOLDSTEIN #RoyFuckingKent in the UK’s Sunday Times sharing that they’re writing the end of upcoming “Ted Lasso” Season 3 as the Series finale.

No word if the WBD #MoneyTruck (you know Zaz loves to ride shotgun) has made it’s way to Brett’s house after being rebuffed at Sudeikis’s.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Elon Musk….

Eh honestly I’m tired of writing about him and TWITTER and the worst case of buyers remorse since AT&T and… well everything they bought in the 2010s.

So here’s a link if you’re more inclined than I am for his latest attempt to back out of his deal yesterday… but otherwise - moving on.

BUZZFEED stock drops 40%, now worth just 25% of what it went public at 6 months ago

Essentially… a stock lockup period expired at the 6 month mark after going public this week, thus allowing many of BUZZFEED’s initial investors to dump the stock if they deem that uh, well they want to. /Yahoo Finance

Thus everyone fears a bunch of shares will be dumped on the market which would lessen the value of said BZFD shares. #toolate

ROKU launching a Hispanic programming hub called Espacio Latino on their free ROKU CHANNEL

Mostly licensed TV Shows & Movies in Spanish, or English programming dubbed in Spanish, although there is some original exclusive content.

The Espacio will also have over 50 streaming channels to watch so… kind of a hub within a hub deal, plus the ability to add on Spanish pay-streaming services. /Deadline

ALSO IN MEDIA

• Tom Brady & Michael Strahan’s RELIGION OF SPORTS production company raised another $50 Million in a Series B round of funding (how much is that in crypto?).

  • Primarily from SHAMROCK CAPITAL, infamously known as being the owner of TAYLOR SWIFT’s uh… old (?) catalog.

  • ROS co-founder Gotham Chopra says the money will be used into non-sports programming and music. #BradyComesAlive /Variety

  • This is on top of about $13 Million raised in previous financing rounds. /Forbes

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

Relatively quiet day outside of BUZZFEED.

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

OWN “All Rise” season 3, 8p

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” hits PVOD $20 home rental

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

NETFLIX “Locke & Key” Season 3 teaser trailer - The final season PREMIERES WED AUG 10

NETFLIX also launched their Geeked Week thing yesterday and uh… I mean they basically threw up too many spots for me to put here so - a list of some things:

• “Resident Evil” series trailer

• “The Sandman” series teaser

• “Manifest” S4 sneak peek

• “The Midnight Club” series teaser

• “1899” series teaser

HBOMAX “The Gordita Chronicles” series trailer - Exec produced by Eva Longoria & Zoe Saldana, about a family of 4 from the DR who moves to Miami in 1985. Nice spot, looks fun! PREMIERES THU JUNE 23

AMAZON PRIME “A League of Their Own” series teaser - 30 secs of images set to “Edge of Seventeen” so… very tease-y. PREMIERES FRI AUG 12

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

I love the perfect outdoor evening firepit hang vibes… or Summer sunset hike vibes from LORD HURON - new track “Your Other Life”

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where… can someone seriously explain to me why we’re doing this…👇 and why there will be a 2nd league of “Spring Football” next year (XFL)?

I get that the “math” might work for NBC & FOX (+ FS1) on the approx 800k viewers the USFL games are averaging… but seriously - this is embarrassing for a sport on national TV. Football rec leagues get bigger crowds.

AND: Anyone with a take on why DISNEY+ is promoting the heck out of the Giannis Antetokounmpo origin story movie “Rise” during the NBA FINALS but choosing not to premiere it until… June 24 🤔 - I’m all ears (note: even if the Finals goes all 7 games it’ll end the 19th).

It’s a streaming movie that people could go watch after a game or add to their list immediately… not a theatrical release you’re looking build “intent to see” - so I’m a mix of these whenever I see the ads 🤯🤔🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️.

Kudos @NETFLIX for timing the new Sandler pic “Hustle” perfectly this Weds 👏.

PLUS - SAD NEWS / HAPPY NEWS :

• SHAKIRA and her partner Gerard Piqué have split after 12 years and 2 kids.

• MANDY MOORE announced she’s pregnant with her 2nd kid with Taylor Goldsmith of the band DAWES.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

1. “Top Gun: Maverick” : $86 Million ($292 Million US, $549 Million global)

   • Weekend-to-weekend drop was 32% :

     • The Lowest 2nd Weekend drop for a $100 Million+ opener since… ever. “Shrek 2” came close in 2004 with 33%.

   • This is Tom Cruise’s biggest US movie… ever.

   • Audience grew younger as the kids take the buzz from the olds for once… 49% were under 35 years-old, +4% vs opening weekend.

   • IMAX & “Premium format screens” were 33% of the gross.

     • IMAX alone was still 13% of US $$… (IMAX avg is about 8-10%)

     • All IMAX screens go to “Jurassic World” this Friday… which is now facing a much more formidable challenger this Friday than UNI was likely expecting.

       • Even a 50%-ish drop would mean a $45 Million competitor.

2. “Doctor Strange…” : $9.2 Million ($389 Million US, $910 Million global)

   • Weekend to weekend drop of 42%.

3. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” : $4.5 Million ($22 Million US)

   • A 63% drop, not unexpected for a hard-core fanbase movie in week 2.

4. The Bad Guys” : $3.3 Million ($87 Million US)

   • Still a very slight 24% decline

5. “Downton Abbey: A New Era” : $3 Million ($36 Million US)

   • Still another big 48% drop

   • Will slightly exceed its $40 Million budget with the US gross (minus rev shares with theaters).

   • Now avail for $20 PVOD home rental

6. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” : $2 Million ($60 Million US)

   • Still an incredibly slight 17% drop from last weekend

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

NEON’s Cronenberg pic “Crimes of the Future” 🔪 opened to $1.1 Million from 773 screens for an eh $1400 per screen average… as the Specialty space continues to be challenged post-covid except for “Everything Everywhere…”.

“Jurassic World: Dominion” 🦖 got off to a $55 Million headstart in Int’l markets this weekend, including $18 Million in MEXICO (33% of the total), which was UNI’s biggest opening weekend there ever.

PLUS:

Anytime you still see chatter / headlines about “The total box office is still down from 2019 / xxxx period in the 2010’s…” - know this is overwhelmingly due to lack of product… and NOT the “people don’t like going to the movies as much anymore” sentiment this chatter is continually trying to suggest:

• The post-Memorial Day weekend in 2019 opened 3 films (a “Godzilla” pic, “Rocketman” and “MA”) plus had week 2 of “Aladdin”.

• This 2022 equivalent weekend had 0 new wide releases… and was only down 31% vs 2019.

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📺 THE TV SET

NBA FINALS audience did not return

Apparently the Game 1 CELTICS-WARRIORS audience was the lowest in 15 years (except for the past 2 covid years), with 11.9 Million people watching on ABC & ESPN2 combined last Thurs.

Out of home viewing may lift this a bit… but it’s the smallest audience for an NBA FINALS game featuring Steph Curry ever, and about 11% below the 2019 WARRIORS-RAPTORS opener. /SportsMediaWatch

ALSO IN TV

• HBOMAX cancels “Raised by Wolves” after 2 seasons. /Variety

• HBO bringing James Marsden for “Westworld” Season 4. /THR

• DISNEY BRANDED CONTENT & NAT GEO Marketing head Janyata Jenkins is departing after a year and a half. No word on next destination. /Deadline

COUPLE OF CASTING NOTES:

• NETFLIX adds Sarah Silverman to Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” pic. She’ll play the sister of Bradley’s Leonard Bernstein character. /Deadline

• PEACOCK adds Lil Rel Howery & Dasha Polanco to Rian Johnson’s “Poker Face” detective series with Natasha Lyonne. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

JUST A FEW THINGS

• NY TIMES does a look inside the first month at CNN with Chris Licht at the helm.

• Peter Chernin-backed Digital Food content brand FOOD52 laid of 15% of their workforce, and the remaining content & creative team have been moved to a 32 hour work-week. /Digiday

• CLUBHOUSE lost 4 senior leaders this spring, as downloads fell 80% from first half of 2021 to first half of 2022. Departures were the heads of News, International, Community and ‘Brand Evangelism & Development’. /Protocol

• The advertising business cut 2400 jobs in May according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Just gonna leave that there for those who also get the significance, even though it’s a broad gov’t supplied #. /AdAge

• It’s APPLE WWDC day so you’ll be seeing headlines later today, possibly including further ad-tracking limitations in the next iOS. 📱

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

ROBLOX -10% ($30.00)

ROKU -9% ($87.28)

AMC THEATERS -6% ($12.45)

BUZZFEED +6% ($3.76)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

HBO “Irma Vep” with Alicia Vikander - Apparently this is a limited series and not a movie like I thought this whole time… well anyway it premieres at 9p

HULU “Maggie” (former ABC sitcom) - no link avail

NETFLIX “Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill” - STREAM HERE

🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - “Everything Everywhere All at Once” hits PVOD $20 home rental

WED - “Ms. Marvel” hits DISNEY+ as the service launches in 41 mostly Middle Eastern countries.

• Adam Sandler’s hoops pic “Hustle” hits NETFLIX

THU - “Queer as Folk” hits PEACOCK

FRI - “Jurassic World: Dominion” hits theaters. and our hearts.

SAT - Belmont Stakes on NBC

SUN - INDIA’s IPL Cricket League rights auction begins… with the DIS+ total subscriber count 👀 with keen interest.

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

APPLE TV+ “Loot” series trailer - Maya Rudolph as a newly-divorced woman who gets $87 Billion in the settlement… and finally has to run the foundation she’s apparently had all along. This definitely feels like it could be a “White Lotus” for Summer 2022, funny spot! PREMIERES FRI JUNE 24

FX “What We Do In the Shadows” Season 4 teaser - PREMIERES TUE JULY 12

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New PANIC! AT THE DISCO “Viva Las Vengeance” from their new album.

If you need some new tunes:

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-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where sure, paying $40 to visit “Central Perk” ☕️ or “Luke’s Diner” 🥞 for a photo op is great (well maybe not the $40)… but how about the “The Golden Girls” kitchen?!

Yes this July in Beverly Hills, you too can get your photo taken while enjoying “Blanche’s Georgia Style Cookies” or something called a “Dorothy Sandwich” (was there that much cooking on this show??) while making your own 80s style sexual innuendo.

ALSO: “Almost Famous” The Musical will hit BROADWAY staring Sept 13 in previews. Cast is set, and here is an IG Reel with pics of the respective cast.

PLUS: Michelle Wie is retiring from Golf at 32. Just something that caught my attention this week.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

AMBLIN remaking “Arachnaphobia”

Christopher Landon (“Freaky”, “Happy Death Day”) is writing and directing, but no real details on the new take. /THR

AMAZON PRIME sets Uma Thurman as lead star in “Red, White & Royal Blue” rom-com

Based on a best-selling book, Uma plays a newly elected US President whose attractive Mexican-American son becomes a media darling in a JFK Jr. kinda way… until his long running feud with a British Prince begins to cause issues with US / UK relations. When they meet to mend fences, the opposites begin to attract.

TONY winning playwright Matthew López (”The Inheritance”) is writing & directing. /Deadline

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• Longtime JERRY BRUCKHEIMER TV head Jonathan Littman is leaving after 25 years, and is going to launch his own TBD shingle. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

APPLE TV+ adds John Malkovich to “The New Look” Dior / Coco Chanel series

A look at the rivalry that began as FRANCE came out of WWII, Ben Mendelsohn is set as Dior, Juliette Binoche is Chanel 👜.

Emily Mortimer also joining the cast, and Malkovich is playing Lucien Lelong, head of influential fashion house Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture… which I’m very glad that I only had to type and not pronounce 👍. /THR

ALSO IN TV

• SHOWTIME sets “NYC Point Gods” docu from Kevin Durant about the greats from 80’s & 90’s hoops scene 🏀 (Kenny Anderson, Mark Jackson, Rod Strickland etc). Will Premiere Fri July 29.

• “60 Minutes” is launching its own streaming channel on corporate-sibling PLUTO free streaming service later this year. See now - this is a good idea 👏. /Variety

• HBO renews “Black Lady Sketch Show” for a Season 4. /THR

• NETFLIX renews “Is it Cake” for a Season 2, Mikey Day returning to host. /Variety

• DISNEY+ adds Megan Mullally, Jason Mantzoukas to “Percy Jackson” series’s recurring cast. /Variety

📝 IN OTHER WORDS

“We are truth-tellers, focused on informing, not alarming our viewers.”

- CNN CEO Chris Licht telling staff to (wisely) cool-it on whipping out the “Breaking News” graphic all the time. Basically - you’ve overused it, time to apply some judgement to the term so people actually pay attention when CNN does use it. Smart.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

@jercho1Me when this happens‼️🔥 #foryou #monsterenergy #7/11

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TIKTOK getting into the subscription series business

Launching with a project from PEARPOP, which is a production outfit that counts Guy Oseary as one of the backers.

The show is called “Finding Jericho” hosted by creator Jerico Mencke (see above, click to play if you’re curious like I was about the mullet). The show is basically an interview series with other digital personalities.

8, 30-min episodes for $5, with the first two avail for free and on the platform now at PEARPOP and Jerico’s accounts, as TIKTOK looks to further test pulling the monthly-subscriptions lever with select creators. /THR

VICE MEDIA brings in consultancy to help cut costs

Something that always works great in Media… bring in folks who have never worked at a Media company to tell you how to run it better - then the $$ saved in cost-cutting & hiring freezes / layoffs goes right back to the consultancy firm in fees.

Ok yes that’s a bit harsh… but it’s usually an excuse to pay someone else to blame for cuts that upper management already knows need to be made to prep a business for sale, but doesn’t want to do themselves.

Essentially VICE is trying to get to a modicum of EBITDA profit ($25 Million on expected $700+ Million in 2022 Revenue) to position the company (or at least the Studio division) for a sale, as they need to generate $$ to pay primary investor TPG Private Equity. /The Information

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

FACEBOOK +5% ($198.86) Not quite sure how Sheryl should take that honestly.

ROKU +5% ($95.85)

NETFLIX +6% ($205.09)

SPOTIFY +6% ($116.50)

ENDEAVOR +6% ($23.50)

SNAP +7% ($14.90)

ROBLOX +15% ($33.48)

and… LIONSGATE -6% ($9.67)

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👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday - Saturday - Sunday)

FRIDAY

IN THEATERS:

• SPC “Phantom of the Open” - NY/LA - Mark Rylance, Saly Hawkins golf pic about a guy who shot the worst round ever in British Open history in 1978.

• NEON “Crimes of the Future” limited release (I think).

STREAMING:

SERIES

• AMAZON PRIME “The Boys” Season 3 - STREAM HERE

• APPLE TV+ “Physical” Season 2 - STREAM HERE

• STARZ “P-Valley” Season 3 - STREAM HERE

• NETFLIX “Floor is Lava” Season 2 - STREAM HERE

• AMC+ “This Is Going to Hurt” medical drama - no google-able link avail, but the reviews on this have been quite good.

MOVIES

• HULU “Fire Island” - STREAM HERE

• PEACOCK “The Northman” - STREAM HERE

SATURDAY

• 😎

• Tennis’s FRENCH OPEN streams on PEACOCK and airs NBC as well starting at 9am, again on Sunday. 🎾

• WOMEN’s GOLF US OPEN 🏌️‍♀️streams on PEACOCK, airs on NBC at 3p, again on Sunday.

SUNDAY

• MTV MOVIE & TV AWARDS at 8p

• ABC NBA FINALS Game 2 at 8p

WEEKEND READS 

2 #goodreads on Guns & Hollywood with fresh takes:

• THE ANKLER’s latest piece from Richard Rushfield

• NY TIMES Opinion section read from Pamela Paul

FIRST - These are not pieces about:

1. The always tenuous and imo not great argument of violent TV or Movies inciting real life violent events or driving people to shoot people.

2. Rants about HOLLYWOOD making too much violent content

3. Gun law reform

As Richard opens with: “I wanted to write a column at this moment on Hollywood and gun violence like I want to be made to rewatch the final season of Nip/Tuck.” I might have gone with “The O.C.” but to each their own in the aughts.

RATHER - They’re two smart reads about the amnesia that seems to have taken hold in HOLLYWOOD about their ability to be an influence in larger cultural shifts, through subtle but conscious changes about its content — that is when it finally decides it cares enough to do so. 

It’s not that HOLLYWOOD content is too violent per se, but more that perhaps it can do more to be a catalyst, instead of just treating guns as “business as usual” in content. It’s one thing to make a social media post the day after a shooting - it’s another to do something about it in your work that could actually help 2 months later.

Both reads struck me as fresh takes on the subject and potent food for thought.

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

PARAMOUNT+ “Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe” movie trailer - Very glad to see the only real change to the animation style is updating to 16x9 and HD. Looks like the classic B&BH I went to college with… across all aspects 🤘. PREMIERES THU JUN 23

HULU “The Princess” movie trailer - Joey King stars in this comedy action pic about a Princess who escapes her arranged marriage… and has to fight her way out of the kingdom. Looks fun! Nice cut. PREMIERES FRI JULY 1

HBO “Irma Vep” movie trailer - Alicia Vikander as an actress playing the lead character in the…unique remake of the French silent film. PREMIERES MON JUNE 6

TNT “Animal Kingdom” Season 6 trailer - PREMIERES SUN JUNE 19

AMAZON PRIME “Anything’s Possible” movie trailer - Billy Porter’s directorial debut that was… formerly an MGM ORION movie. High school romance about a high school girl who is trans, navigating love and her senior year. PREMIERES FRI JULY 22

🤦‍♂️ D’OH

Thanks to one of the very first WAKEUP readers for pointing out HBOMAX renewed “Our Flag Means Death”…. Not “Our Flag Means War”, which I believe is the FLORIDA state motto. Always get those 2 confused.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New POST MALONE album dropped today - link to stream here on SPOTIFY. I haven’t listened to the whole thing this morning…so let’s just go with this one for a track.

If you need some new tunes:

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-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where the $10 Million / $2 Million Depp-Heard verdict was obviously split to a degree yesterday… as was the reaction at the vaunted Network News level.

As far as I saw, ABC and CBS kept with their regularly scheduled afternoon programming - but NBC NEWS & Savannah Guthrie decided to do the same as uh, TMZ LIVE and Harvey Levin on FOX for what seemed like a good hour+ of “Breaking” live “Special Report” coverage waiting for the verdict.

See ya at the appeal!

BUT: Canadians really get all the fun this week… as Biebs goes all EMINEM 2001 in his look for this new 60 sec TIM HORTONS ad promoting his “Biebs Brew” - a “signature” vanilla cold brew.

Don’t forget to make it a “Biebs Bundle” with 10 Timbits mini donuts in Justin-approved “Chocolate White Fudge, Sour Cream Chocolate Chip and Birthday Cake Waffle” flavors to round out a sugar intake that… only a 28 year-old’s body could handle.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

PARAMOUNT moves Owen Wilson family-adventure pic “Secret Headquarters” to PAR+

The Bruckheimer-produced film had an August 5 release date in theaters so… gotta think the test screenings didn’t go great?

It’s about a group of kids who find the world’s most powerful superhero’s headquarters beneath one of their homes, and must team up when villains attack.

Will also hit PAR+ globally where the service is avail on Aug 5, and I guess theaters in other territories. /THR

WB PICTURES head Toby Emmerich out, Mike DeLuca & Pam Abdy to run WB & NEW LINE

The execs are coming over from MGM, after being relieved of their duties there by AMAZON last month. Move could happen sometime in July - Mike & Pam’s exit date was slated for ‘later in the Summer’ when AMAZON announced they were out at MGM.

There will be separate TBD heads for DC FILMS and ANIMATION film groups, with all 3 (well, 4) heads reporting into Zaslav.

• DC FILMS Prez Walter Hamada will report into Mike & Pam until Zaslav sorts out the situation there.

AS FOR THE WHY - Gotta think the duo’s emphasis at MGM on working with respected filmmakers from the Hollywood establishment (Ridley, PTA, George Miller etc) carried a lot of sway with Zaslav (who seems to be choosing to ignore the lack of huge box office column to go with it there).

• But if Zaz was looking for a clear signal to the creative community that this is not the same Kilar/HBOMAX streaming WB PICTURES, this certainly backs up that line of thinking (in addition to restructuring the direct report setup to mirror DISNEY’s with MARVEL/STAR WARS, PIXAR and DISNEYFOX).

• Also the shift to creating 3 different Film division heads reporting into Zaz likely had something to do with it on Toby’s end - previously all WB movie divisions were under him.

No word if NEW LINE head Richard Brenner is staying on, although obviously he and DeLuca go back a ways.

Emmerich is segueing to a customary production deal at WB, said to be 5 years for movies & TV.

AMAZON has still yet to announce their new plans & strategy for MGM leadership and… kinda how it’ll all work overall under AMAZON STUDIOS head Mike Hopkins and direct report Jen Salke. /THR

ALSO IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXEC SUITE

• NETFLIX Director of Comms Jonathan Bing departs to be Chief Comms Officer at VICE MEDIA. /Deadline

• WME had 18 covid cases in the past 2 weeks according to county data, close to LIONSGATE’S 21 after CINEMACON earlier in May. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• A24 adds Orlando Bloom to Pete Davidson stoner pic ”Wizards!” about 2 beach-bar operators who stumble across stolen money and… thinking hijinx ensue. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

2021-2022 TV Season Final numbers

In case there’s any question remaining about how much the NFL and Cop shows still mean to Nielsen TV ratings… let the 2021-22 season speak for itself (these are Live + 7day audiences).

Also there are just 2 comedies in the top 30 (“Young Sheldon” and “Ghosts”) if you’re wondering why there were so few on the Fall Schedules (and none on NBC).

For any fellow numbers nerds - some great charts in the VARIETY link showing where overall TV audiences are, and where the younger ones are across Broadcast & Cable (yeah… they’re not in the same places).

PAR+ adds Amanda Peet to “Fatal Attraction” series

Will play the wife of Josh Jackson’s character (played by Anne Archer in the movie). Lizzy Caplan is playing the Glenn Close character. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

• Soccer’s CHAMPIONS LEAGUE final got 2.75 Million viewers on CBS Saturday afternoon. #RealMadridvLiverpool /AP

  • That’s over 2X what the final match for NBC’s UK PREMIERE LEAGUE got the week before. Both figures do not include PAR+ or PEACOCK streaming.

• APPLE TV+ plus renews “Slow Horses” for Seasons 3 & 4. Season 2 will drop later in the year. /THR

• HBOMAX renews “Our Flag Means War” for a Season 2. /THR

📝 IN OTHER WORDS

“If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”

- ELON MUSK channeling 90’s era Katzenberg in a memo to employees that they’re all expected back at TESLA offices, working 40 hour weeks. (40? ha right). Sure this went over really well at the “work wherever the hell you want” policy that TWITTER employees currently have.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

Sheryl Sandberg leaving FACE META this Fall

The COO been at the company for 14 years, first 7 were great… but since 2016 - maybe not so much, and definitely not the past year+. #ThanksiOS

No next destination or plan indicated other than she intends to work on her philanthropy, but let the META succession contest begin. #notyouGreg

Speaking of the “meta”, sounds like she wasn’t too involved in it, and likely did not have much interest in this phase of the company according to the WSJ, so now was the time to go.

She will remain on META’s board, and I’m guessing get to keep all of her real estate next to Zuck’s house in the Metaverse. /Variety

ALSO IN MEDIA

• The US’s 3rd largest movie theater chain CINEMARK hit 1 Million paying subs for their $10 a month Cinemark Movie Pass subscription program. /Deadline

  • Pre-pandemic it stood around 850k.

• The RED SOX & BRUINS sports cable network NESN is launching a stand-alone streaming version called NESN 360 for $30 a month (or $330 a year). Juuuust in case there was any question how much everyone’s cable bills truly subsidize sports programming.

  • 360 will be free for any cable bundle subscribers, but geotargeted to the New England market only. /NextTV

• Former Head of Product for top NFT trading site OPEN SEA was arrested for insider trading, reportedly putting NFT’s that he just bought in top prominence on the homepage… and making 2X to 5X sales margins.

  • Is it weird that I find it a bit refreshing that fraud looks absolutely no different in Web3? And that the old-fashioned “front page” matters as much there as it did to… print media for hundreds of years? /Quartz

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

CINEWORLD (REGAL CINEMAS) +6% ($0.34)

AMC THEATERS -10% ($12.81)

PARAMOUNT -6% ($32.35)

BUZZFEED -5% ($3.39)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

HULU “The Orville: New Horizons” - STREAM HERE

PARAMOUNT+ “South Park:The Streaming Wars” - next PAR+ movie, no Google-able link

ABC NBA Finals Game 1 at 8p

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

NETFLIX“The Man From Toronto” movie trailer - Kev Hart as a guy who gets mistaken for an infamous torturer / assassin (enter Woody Harrelson) in this action comedy that was once set up at SONY. PREMIERES FRI JUNE 24

PEACOCK “Rutherford Falls” Season 2 trailer - Premieres Thu June 16

SHOWTIME “American Gigolo” series teaser - Jon Bernthal notches the 2nd mark on his 2022 PayTV network punchcard (come on STARZ! #freesub!), in the leading role for this series adaptation of the early 80’s Richard Gere movie. Listed as COMING SOON

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Brand new YEAH YEAH YEAHS “Spitting off the edge of the world”

If you need some new tunes:

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-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where… it’s June. I know right? Relatively straightforward day as Hollywood cranks up the gears again so - let’s just get to it 📋.

ALSO: HARRY STYLES moved 521k “album equivalents” in his opening week for “Harry’s House”. Only the 4th album in the last 1.5 years to move 500k+ units in a week. 💿

182k of which were vinyl copies (or I guess… “album realities” 🤷‍♂️), the largest amount sold in the modern music era.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Rachel Zegler set to co-star in new “Hunger Games” prequel pic at LIONSGATE

She’ll play “Lucy Gray Baird” in the movie based on “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” book.

Co-starring with Tom Blyth (EPIX’s “Billy the Kid”) who’s playing the 18 year-old version of Donald Sutherland’s character “Coriolanus Snow” (he’s not related to Jon right? Can you tell I’ve never seen “GOT” or a “Hunger Games” pic? 😁).

Movie shooting later this year for a Nov 2023 release, Francis Lawrence returning to direct 🎥. /Variety

FOCUS FEATURES sets “Book Club 2” sequel with Keaton, Fonda, Bergen & Steenbergen all returning

The 2018 original did almost $70 Million in the US and $104 Million global.

The book club will take their act on the road to ITALY in this one, and Andy Garcia, Don Johnson and Craig T. Nelson supporting cast all returning. /Variety

ALSO IN MOVIES

• “Top Gun: Maverick” 4.5 day US total rises to $160 Million in final #s, and hits $300 Million globally. /Deadline

• TRIBECA FESTIVAL’s marquee presenting sponsor this year will be… OKX. Whaddda ya mean you have no idea what that is? Ok fine yes it’s Crypto. The 2nd largest crypto trading platform in the world… that is not available in the US will be all over the festival when it launches next week. Just when you thought you’d never miss AT&T in your life… /WSJ

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• UTA promotes 26 to Partner, and their names are… in the link. Across several divisions, many who work in business functions (IQ, MEDIA LINK, etc), but in terms of MP talent reps there were 3 names - Jenny Maryasis, Rob Carlson, and Scott Schachter. /Deadline

• CBS STUDIOS EVP of COMMS Lauri Metrose is departing after 20+ years. Her next destination wasn’t specified other than it’s outside of the Entertainment biz 👋. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

SHOWTIME sets Brett Gelman to star in new comedy series from “Fleabag” producers

Brett of course was also in that show - this show is called “Entitled”, about an American widower who goes to ENGLAND to get to know his late wife’s estranged family who soon begin to compete for his newfound wealth.

8 episodes Tim Kirkby (“Brockmire”) directing, a Co-production with UK’s CHANNEL 4. /THR

“Stranger Things” sets new opening weekend viewership record at NETFLIX, but…

Again, that’s by total “minutes viewed”… on a series whose episodes were averaging about 75 minutes each with a 98 minute “Episode 7”. /Variety

A fact which… no outlet who “reported” on this yesterday seemed to point out (as far as I saw). I’m not saying it’s not their most watched thing on an opening weekend - I’m sure it is, but… This metric is so utterly meaningless if you give it 90 seconds of analysis. All shows are not the same length!

• “Stranger Things” Season 4 = 547 minutes

• Previous champ “Bridgerton” Season 2 = 507 minutes

ALSO IN TV

• HULU will live-stream the NYC and LA Gay Pride parades this year 🏳️‍🌈. LA is Sun June 12 at 11a PT, and NYC is Sun June 26 at 12noon ET. /Multichannel News

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

WE GOT 5 THINGS

• DOTDASH MEREDITH is letting go of their print subscribers who pay very little for their magazine subscriptions. They can either renew at a proper rate… or the subscription will end when their current deal is over.

  • BETTER HOMES & GARDENS went from a 7 Million print base to 4 Million over the past 6-8 months. /Axios

  • DDM cut their print output to just 7 remaining titles early this year.

• JO BROS are backing a Celebrity text-message subscription service called SCRIBER (lose the Sus, it’s cleaner). Essentially the 2020’s equivalent of the 1-900 numbers of the 90’s… pay $5 a month (or whatever rate the celeb sets) and get special messages or videos via text 💬 from your favorite Band / Actor / Swimsuit Influencer with things like invites to secret shows, exclusive merch, or videos of Nick Jonas brushing his hair 🧔🏻.

  • SCRIBER keeps $1 of every subScription. More details & specifics in the link. /Axios

  • Also a shout out to Sara Fischer’s AXIOS MEDIA TRENDS email, a read I enjoy that gave us these 2 items - you can subscribe to her here.

• TIKTOK testing “Clear Mode” function that removes on-screen text and buttons from videos to see if it makes for a more seamless, less distracting (ie higher engagement) user experience. /Tech Crunch

• FORBES abandons plans to go public via SPAC since… well SPAC’s are so 2021, and BUZZFEED’s experience doing so probably isn’t helping (see below).

  • However gotta think their majority Private Equity owner INTEGRATED WHALE MEDIA INVESTMENTS #realname is looking for another exit / payday given they’ve had their stake for almost 8 years now… well beyond the range of usual PE investments. /NY Times

• DISNEY+ is having great growth in INDONESIA, hitting 5 Million subscribers, making it the #1 service in the massive country. /THR

  • This is under the DISNEY+ HOTSTAR brand service that also exists in INDIA

  • BUT: It costs $2.80 a month, or $14 a year. #ARPU?

  • NETFLIX charges about $4 a month for its entry Mobile-only plan in the economically challenged country (its in 3rd or 4th place there).

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

SNAP -9% ($14.11)

BUZZFEED -14% ($3.59)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

TNT “The Match” - Brady & Rogers vs Mahomes & Allen on the links, 630p 🏌️‍♂️

HBOMAX “My Dead Dad” pic - no Google-able link

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

DISNEY+ “Pinocchio” teaser trailer - Far be it for me to question a Kareem Daniels decision… but how the heck is this Tom Hanks & Robert Zemeckis collab a DISNEY+ movie? I know it’s for “Disney+ Day” but still. Well either way - Stream it as ya like on Sept 8

SEARCHLIGHT “The Menu” - Anya Taylor Joy, Nicholas Hoult as a couple visiting an exotic island for an exotic dinner from an… eccentric chef played by Ralph Fiennes. IN THEATERS NOV 18

FX ON HULU “The Bear” series trailer - Comedy from Christopher Storer (“Ramy”) about a guy who inherits his brother’s Chicago sandwich shop / restaurant, and it looks like it goes really smooth. All episodes hit HULU Thu June 23

DISNEY+ “Rise” - Origin story of Giannis, and the Antetokounmpos family. Missed this one a couple weeks ago but saw it promoted during NBA Playoffs this weekend so… 👏 DISNEY marketing. PREMIERES Fri June 24.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

ROCKIN 1000  “My Hero” - 1000 musicians all playing this FOO FIGHTERS song at the same time, in tribute to Taylor Hawkins 🤯.

If this just doesn’t get you both moved and pumped up at the same time… we gotta talk. Shout out to the TODAY SHOW who shared this last week.

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-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where if after watching “The Conuring” your main thought walking out of the theater was “Ooh how much for the house??” - first, we really gotta have a talk.

But apparently you’re not alone since the 3br / 1.5 bath / 4 death RI “Conjuring” home just sold for $1.5 Million… $300k over listing, which if there was ever an ONION headline about an overheated Real Estate market, I can’t think of a better one.

PLUS: UK police have ceased all investigations of sexual predation and bullying allegations against Noel Clarke, not finding enough evidence to make any criminal cases. He is currently suing THE GUARDIAN, GQ and BAFTA for defamation.

BUT: Kevin Spacey will voluntarily appear in UK court to face the new sexual assault charges he faces there.

AND: Johnny Depp spent his first post-trial weekend… on stage giving a concert. Yeah that tracks. He took the stage at 2 JEFF BECK shows in Sheffield, ENGLAND. Here’s a bit of a “Little Wing” cover for any inclined for some JD-JB musical stylings.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

(4.5-day totals - incl “Top Gun” Thurs night “previews”… so basically it was released Thursday night)

1. “Top Gun: Maverick” : $156 Million ($280+ Million global)

   • Biggest MEMORIAL DAY weekend opening ever, almost making back its $170 Million budget in its first 4.5 days in the US alone.

     • Of Note: MARVEL pics don’t open on MEMORIAL DAY weekend.

     • While not “Doctor Strange”/”Avengers” territory, this is on par or higher than quite a few MARVEL pics over the past 5 years.

   • 3-Day total was $127 Million.

   • 45% were under 35 years-old, 55% were 35+.

   • Makes all the talk of Cruise’s impending serious “women under 34 yrs-old problem” for this movie look even dumber than it was a month ago.

   • IMAX & “Premium format screens” were 37% of global gross.

     • IMAX alone was 13% of US $$.

   • May saw 2 films open to $156 Million and $185 Million. It’s really too bad the pandemic caused everyone to change their moviegoing habits forever and the movie theater business is over.

2. “Doctor Strange…” : $20.5 Million ($375 Million US)

   • 3-day weekend to weekend drop of just under 50% again.

3. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” : $15 Million

4. “Downton Abbey: A New Era” : $7.5 Million ($30 Million US)

   • Fri-Sun total was $6 Million, a 63% drop - so… looking more like a sequel most weren’t asking for situation vs. some judgement on older audiences and the movies. Although again - it’s really whatever narrative you wanna pick.

     • Either way - this franchise and a Part 3 - likely not so much.

   • Budget was $40 Million so it’ll reach that in the US, and be profitable with International… but nowhere near the original’s $194 Million global total.

   • Will hit $20 PVOD home rental after this weekend.

5. “The Bad Guys” : $6 Million ($83 Million US)

   • Still a very slight 25% decline, and still the only Family pic out there for 3 more weekends.

   • Pic has also been avail for $20 PVOD rental at home for a few weeks.

6. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” : $3.2 Million ($58 Million US)

AND: A24’s “Men” dropped 63% in week 2 with $1.5 Million for the 4-day weekend, stands at $6.3 Million total.

AMAZON buying next Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) pic “Saltburn”

No price indicated, but deal isn’t final yet. Will star Rosamund Pike, Jacob Elordi, and Barry Keoghan and shoot this Summer. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• Here are your 2022 CANNES Award winners 🏆, with the Palme d’Or going to NEON US acquisition, the satire “Triangle of Sadness” featuring Woody Harrelson.

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📺 THE TV SET

Tim Robbins and Leslie Mann both depart AMAZON series “The Power”

This is another one of those projects that started and stopped right as the pandemic hit, and recently started up again.

Both roles will be re-cast (and re-shot), no specifics on reasons for each departure.

It’s a 10 episode drama based on a book, in a world where teenage girls suddenly develop the power to electrocute people which uh… yeah causes some role reversals around the world ⚡️. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

• Alexis Bledel not returning to HULU’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” for Season 5. /Variety

• HBO’s “Avenue 5” series from Armndo Iannucci likely to end with upcoming Season 2. It has a tenative Fall premiere timeline, and the options on the cast have been released. /Deadline

• PAR+ “The Good Wife” to end with its 6th Season, which drops in September. /THR

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

The Media Biz was too busy at parties I was not invited to in the Hamptons this weekend to make news…

OR

Wondering why they weren’t invited to Ari Emanuel’s wedding in the St. Tropez this weekend (although Diddy, Wahlberg, Emily Ratakowski and naturally Elon Musk all were. Plus Larry David who officiated the ceremony between Ari & Sarah Staudinger)

But no sign in the crowd of this guy who… kinda looks like he could be Sydney Pollack’s brother no?

But if you missed this photo in your social feeds - consider it today’s #POPQUIZ. Answer down at the bottom.

And a Slainté goes out to Margaret Qualley and Jack Antonoff who are now engaged 💍.

AND 2 READS

1. This Ted Sarandos piece with Maureen Dowd in the NY TIMES this weekend got a lot of notice amongst the media reporter, uh… literatti (🤷‍♂️) - not because much was said that was particularly newsworthy business-wise IMO, but more that Ted’s first big interview since the Q1 Earnings call fiasco was with… the NYT Styles section. So not a lotta talk about the new ad-supported service strategy.

2. A long excerpt from Ken Auletta’s highly anticipated Harvey Weinstein book coming out in July.

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

AMC THEATERS +18% ($14.43) #thanksMaverick

ROKU +9% ($96.46)

IMAX +8% ($17.39)

CINEMARK +6% ($17.14)

SNAP +5% ($15.58)

LIONSGATE -5% ($10.07)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

HULU “Pistol” - Danny Boyle limited series about SEX PISTOLS - STREAM HERE

HBOMAX “Fantastic Beasts:  The Legend of Dumbledore” - STREAM HERE

FOX ”Lego Masters”, “Fantasy Island” premieres

🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

WED - TNT “The Match” - Brady & Rogers vs Mahomes & Allen on the links ⛳️

THU - ABC NBA Finals Game 1 : CELTICS vs WARRIORS 🏀

FRI - Tom Cruise has the box office to himself but:

• AMAZON PRIME “The Boys” Season 3 drops, as does HULU’s “Fire Island”

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

No new Trailers today but if you haven’t seen HARRY STYLES & JAMES CORDEN surprise 4 young women in their NYC apartment to shoot a video for “Daylight”… this is just pure joy 🥳. You’ll be glad you watched this.

HARRY is also giving $1 Million in proceeds from his Summer tour to EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY, with his promoter LIVE NATION giving $1 Million to match as well. Let’s see who follows.

#POP QUIZ Answer

That guy would be… BRADLEY COOPER, in the first images released from NETFLIX for his Leonard Bernstein biopic (more pics here, including the Bernstein younger years).

If you need some new tunes:

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Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where your inboxes and social media feeds will finally be getting a break after today… yes, Johnny v. Amber finally reaches the Closing Arguments stage 🙏.

ALSO: Kevin Spacey was charged with sexual assault on 3 men in the UK. The incidents allegedly happened between 2005 and 2013. He’s currently in the US dealing with the civil case against him from Anthony Rapp, no word on extradition.

AND: In theaters, June 30, 2023 👇.

Is it odd that “Flashdance” very briefly came to mind when I first looked at this? Yeah I thought so.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

“I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas.

Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the same…Ray Liotta.”

- LORRAINE BRACCO remembering her co-star RAY LIOTTA.

Ray’s final completed TV project, the APPLE TV+ psychological thriller limited series “Black Bird” starring Taron Egerton from Dennis Lehane, premieres July 8.

And he’ll be in the Elizabeth Banks UNI movie “Cocaine Bear”, release Feb 2023.

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📺 THE TV SET

Jude Law to star in STAR WARS series “Skeleton Crew”

This is the one from Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: Far From Home”) whose involvement in the SW universe was reported earlier this month after leaving the "Fantastic Four” reboot.

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” writer Christopher Ford also involved (which Watts also directed).

Project was nicknamed “Grammar Rodeo” and I’m not so sure they’re making the right call here in changing it.

Set in the New Republic era if that does somethin’ for ya, and it’s about a group of kids lost in the Star Wars galaxy trying to get home. /THR

HBO sets Jodie Foster to star in “True Detective” Season 4

Called “True Detective: Night Country”, will center on 2 detectives investigating the disappearance of 6 men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station in Ennis, ALASKA… right at the dead dark of Winter. Well that’ll be a fun shoot.

No word on who Jodie’s co-star might be. Barry Jenkins is an Exec Producer. /THR

ALSO IN TV

• Anthony Anderson not returning to “Law & Order” on NBC next year. He had only signed a one year deal for this year. /Deadline

• NETFLIX star Omar Sy signs first look TV development deal with… HBOMAX. /THR

📝 IN OTHER OTHER WORDS…

“I don’t have any plans to leave just yet.”

- MICHAEL CHE on The Bill Simmons Podcast about whether he’ll be back on SNL this Fall. Nothing final… but sounds likely.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

#medianerd 🤓 returns!

STARZ grows big in Q1… in the wrong region. Sale or spin-off will happen by end of Summer

GLOBAL STARZ SUBSCRIBER total: 35.8 Million (+4.4 Million in Q1)

• US Streaming: 11.5 Million, +500k in Q1

• US Linear: 9.5 Million, -400k in Q1

• INT’L streaming: 11 Million, +4.3 Million in Q1

• INT’L Linear: 1.8 Million (flat in Q1)

  • Plus 2 Million STARZPLAY ARABIA subs (flat in Q1)

TAKEAWAY:

• STARZ US biz has not had material subscriber growth in 18 months, stuck at around 21 Million (linear & streaming combined).

  • Streaming has grown at pretty much the same rate…. that Linear has declined since Sept 2020.

  • Q1 2022 was net +100k subscribers

• STARZ INT’L streaming killed it in Q1 - their biggest quarterly growth # ever.

HOWEVER… STARZ makes basically no money from those fast-growing International subscribers (aka the DISNEY+ INDIA problem).

In fact, they keep losing money.

STARZ Q1 REVENUE:

• STARZ US (incl Streaming and Linear TV): $350 Million

• STARZ INTERNATIONAL: $30.5 Million

  • Q1 Loss = $45 Million

  • Annual Loss = $165 Million, up 18% from 2020 FY

  • A rough AvgRevenuePerUser #ARPU of $0.78 a month

Meaning 50% of STARZ subscribers (its US biz) create 90% of its Revenue. The other 50% are kinda useless. (note: NETFLIX does not have this problem. at all).

While STARZ still turns a profit ($33 Million in Q1) thanks to the US business, the Linear business that still makes up most of STARZ revenue… continues to die off, losing several hundred thousand customers each quarter.

• STARZ US Revenue: $350 Million

  • $165 Million from Linear (9.5 Million subs)

  • $135 Million from Streaming (11.5 Million subs)

    • this is approx, based on a rough $5.75 US Linear ARPU given on the earnings call.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT:

With LIONSGATE actively working to sell or spin-off STARZ by sometime this Summer, question is - what are people potentially buying?

The big total global 35.8 Million subscriber number sounds impressive, but when you look under the hood - it’s hard to find a positive 💰 story to go with it.

STARZ also doesn’t really own most of the programming it airs (parent co LIONSGATE does). Granted this could change in a sale or spinoff deal, and/or I’m sure any big buyer or investor would insist on a clause that LIONSGATE will continue to supply STARZ with its marquee programming

But - in terms of what they’re actually getting with STARZ… it’s not ownership of “Power” or “Outlander” IP.

You’re getting:

• Very little meaningful IP

• a Declining core business (Linear TV subs)

• a Growing business but in a maturing market (US streaming)

• a High user growth business… that’s increasingly unprofitable with extremely low #ARPU (International streaming)

AND: Fiscal Year Annual Profit for STARZ was -53% vs the previous year.

So. The Summer should be interesting. Of note - any deal that happens by end of Summer likely won’t close until early 2023.

AT LIONSGATE

• The TV group went 15 for 15 in renewals this Spring! 👏

• But… the company lost $107 Million in Q1, and slightly missed their revenue forecast at $930 Million.

But Wall Street was being Wall Street - missed Revenue exepctations?? pffft. Did you see that big Subscriber number add??? totally boss. The stock was +4% after hours.

ALSO IN MEDIA

• NBC had 950k viewers for PREMIERE LEAGUE season finale match last Sat.

  • 12 matches got over 1 Million viewers this season, highest total ever for NBCU’s deal which started in 2013.

  • 2021-22 season Matches averaged 500k viewers across NBC & the 3 cable networks they aired on - 2nd best year of NBCU’s deal.

  • So - small-ish, but growing, and Zero PEACOCK info offered. /AP

• DAZN lays off 50 in UK office, about 2% of global workforce as the company focuses growth efforts on other Euro territories. /Deadline

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

TWITTER +6% ($39.52) and otherwise a rather positive day for almost all.

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👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday - Saturday - Sunday)

WEEKEND READS + LISTENS

• “Elvis” star Austin Butler gets the NY TIMES profile treatment as he sits on the cusp of a potentially life-altering Summer, getting many positive nods in CANNES this week.

FSS TRIVIA

How much did the original “Top Gun” make in the US? I’ll even give you an over/under of $200 Million. Answer at the bottom.

FRIDAY

IN THEATERS:

• PARAMOUNT “Top Gun: Maverick”

• DISNEYFOX “Bob’s Burgers: The Movie”

STREAMING:

SERIES

• NETFLIX “Stranger Things” Season 4, vol 1 - STREAM HERE

• DISNEY+ “Obi-Wan Kenobi” 2 episodes drop - STREAM HERE

• APPLE TV+ “Carpool Karaoke” Season 5 - STREAM HERE

MOVIES

• DISNEY+ “We Feed People” - Ron Howard docu on chef José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen efforts around the world. No Google-able link

SATURDAY

• 😎

SUNDAY

• SEE Saturday

MONDAY

• CNN “Julia” - Julia Child docu 8p

• NETFLIX “Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special” - STREAM HERE

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

DISNEY+ STAR WARS “Andor” teaser trailer - Premieres Wed Aug 31 (and new “Mandalorian” season coming Feb 2023 for those keeping track)

DISNEY+ “Willow” teaser trailer - Premieres Nov 30

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Going out with a brand new ED SHEERAN song, “Welcome to the World” - i’ll leave the interpretation of the inspiration up to you.

TRIVIA ANSWER:

Hope you took the under… “Top Gun” made $180 Million in the US in 1986.

Global total was $357 Million, which accounting for inflation would be about $950 Million today.

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-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE is $100 Million richer this morning… and I don’t mean in spirit. Although I’m sure that’s doing just fine as well. JT is the latest artist to sell off their song catalog ownership rights to a private-equity backed firm (in this case - popular choice BLACKSTONE) in partnership with music rights manager HIPGNOSIS for a 9-figure fee.

Although of note - this has usually been the domain of older artists whose most profitable years are well in the rear-view: Justin’s is only 41, and this deal doesn’t cover any of JT’s music going forward.

AND: Apparently all the jokes about the Upfronts being Covid super-spreader events last week… are proving to be true this week according to DEADLINE.

ALSO: If you fly DELTA - they’re adding MASTERCLASS videos to the in-flight entertainment systems.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

JUST ONE THING

• Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta”) to star in “Flint Strong” pic at MGM. It was formerly a UNI project… and formerly starring Ice Cube. They shot 2 days before the pandemic shut everything down, and it’s now returning in this iteration to begin shooting next week. About the first woman to win an OLYMPIC gold medal in boxing. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

AMC NETWORKS buys US rights for Clive Owen series helmed by “Queens Gambit” director

Drama called “Monsieur Spade”, about famous detective “Sam Spade” 🕵️‍♂️ (“The Maltese Falcon” character) living out his golden years in the south of FRANCE … only to find his tranquility interrupted. Damn kids next door 🙄.

Tom Fontana (“Homicide”, “City on the Hill”) and Scott Frank (“The Queen’s Gambit”) co-created, with Frank directing all episodes.

Will shoot in Jersey the French Riviera this Summer 🥖. /THR

APPLE TV+ orders “Speed Racer” TV series, exec produced by JJ Abrams

Hiram Martinez (”Snowpiercer”) and Ron Fitzgerald (“Westworld”) are currently writing scripts centered on a take on the franchise from Hiram… but no specific details on what said take is.

Both guys will be showrunners. WBTV producing. /THR

WBD putting the (Zaslav?) magnifying glass to JJ Abrams’s HBO “Demimonde” series budget

The Sci-fi show… 4 years in the making is still in pre-production, but JJ & team are holding firm to the show’s mid-$200 Million budget for the season… which it sounds like new WBD management may balk on. Oh hi APPLE TV+ 👋, didn’t see ya there.

JJ’s massive WB production deal for his BAD ROBOT outfit is also said to be under scrutiny (can those $$ things be changed??). He’s 3 years into that 5 year deal, signed in the 2019 heyday of big ticket deals at streamers.

When you gotta find the $3 Billion in cost savings… gotta start turning over a lotta rocks to find it. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

• NBC’s “This Is Us” goes out on Season-high audience with 6.4 Million on Tuesday. Has been the top-rated Broadcast TV drama in 18-49 demo for each of its 6 seasons. /THR

📝 IN OTHER WORDS…

"20 years ago if you complained about something, you get out a pen and paper and go, 'Dear BBC.'

Now they can fire off a tweet, and the fucking press pick up the tweet. They'll say, 'People are mad, said 69341' ... most people aren't mad. Most people don't know about it."

- RICKY GERVAIS on his context of the ‘uproar’ about his new NETFLIX special this week on SIRIUS XM.

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

NFL launching its own NFL+ mobile streaming service for games this Fall

You’ll only be able to:

• Watch games that are avail on TV in your local area

• But only watch them on your phone or tablet. And you have to ask Siri “please”.

It’s basically similar to their VERIZON & YAHOO deals in the past for the same thing.

So - not a game-changer per se (and yes I feel lame choosing that term), but rather just an on-the-go way to watch NFL games 🏈 if:

• You’re not home to watch via a cable package… or your $25 digital antenna attached to your TV if you’re like me.

• You don’t wan’t to stream on PAR+ or PEACOCK Premium.

• Your team is on FOX (#noStreamingOption). Or if you just love squinting.

Pricing is tentative at $5 a month. /SBJ

ALSO: The NFL is considering scrapping the PRO BOWL since… no one watches, getting hurt in a PRO BOWL is a bad look, and NFL players can afford to send themselves on their own boondoggle to HAWAII after the season if they want. /Sportico

ALSO IN MEDIA

• TWITTER fined $150 Million by FTC for user privacy violations. TW has been expecting the fine for about 2 years now so… it’s nothing new that Elon can use for deal wiggle room. /Variety

  • Essentially ya know the email & phone that TW asked for only in regards to security verification purposes? Yeah they also used it for Ad targeting with 3rd parties.

• Zuck says FACEBOOK will lose “significant” money in the next 3 to 5 years on building the METAVERSE, but eventually will make it back from the ‘creator economy’ that arises upon it. I mean FB’s track record on launching new innovative products speaks for itself so what’s to question really. /Bloomberg

🏦 STOCK NOTES

It was Buy-The-Dip day on Wall Street

AMC THEATERS +14% ($11.88)

SNAP +11% ($14.15)

ALTICE +9% ($11.15)

PINTEREST +9% ($18.90)

ROKU +7% ($84.79)

ROBLOX +7% ($28.93)

DISH +6% ($21.96)

SPOT +5% ($108.79)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

HBOMAX “That Damn Che” Season 2 - STREAM HERE

Final “Ellen” show airs 🪩

LIONSGATE Q1 earnings call late afternoon, #medianerd returns tomorrow with a STARZ breakdown to round out the quarter analysis.

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

UNI “Beast” trailer - Dris brings his 2 daughters to AFRICA to reconnect with their roots, and they encounter a… well - see title, and must find a way to survive. IN THEATERS AUG 19

BLEECKER STREET “Mr. Malcolm’s List” movie trailer - Freida Pinto and Zawe Ashton (”The Handmaid’s Tale”) star in this London period comedic romance, based on a book. IN THEATERS FRI JULY 1

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New SKY FERREIRA “Don’t Forget” - Kinda post-modern pop vibes Sky is known for, for any fellow fans out there.

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where CBS pulled the school-shooting themed season finale of “FBI” that was to air last night, as we all awake to more detail on the 2nd large mass shooting in the US in 2 weeks. Please pardon the lack of gif opening today.

• AND: If you ever wondered why the UK bans guns or when it started - I was surprised to learn it was actually not until 1996. After a mass school shooting.

ALSO: Sending a supportive thought to Steven Tyler who entered rehab this week, after falling back into addiction after taking meds for a foot surgery. AEROSMITH has subsequently canceled their planned Summer residency in Vegas.

PLUS: Gaten Matarazzo (“Stranger Things”) will be spending most of his Summer on Broadway in “Dear Evan Hansen”, starting July 19.

OTHERWISE: Another relatively quiet news day in Hollywood yesterday, but definitely not on Wall Street as expected.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Sam Jackson joins “Garfield” animated movie with Chris Pratt

From ALCON, and SONY is distributing globally. Chris is playing the titular feline and Sam is playing… his dad, Vic. Sure why not. /Deadline

CANNES BUYS:

A24 bought the Paul Mescal (“Normal People”) led-pic “Aftersun”

A father-daughter movie about a 30-something woman reminiscing about a trip she and her father had in TURKEY when she was 11, that got a lot of positive notices last week. Err the movie, not the trip.

Deal said to be about $4-6 Million for US / CAN rights. /IndieWire

NEON bought US rights to satire “Triangle of Sadness” for a reported near $8 Million price

About an influencer couple who’s invited onto a yacht after FASHION WEEK for an extravagant cruise for rich folks, whose captain is a “rabid Marxist” played by Woody Harrelson, and somehow things seem to take turn 🤔.

From the director of the OSCAR-nominated foreign pic “The Square”. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• UNI adds Rita Moreno to “Fast X” as Vin’s grandma. /THR

• SONY adds Celeste O’Connor (“Ghostbusters: Afterlife”) to “Madame Web”, Dakota Johnson’s MARVEL pic in the Spider-Man universe, with a July 2023 release date. /Deadline

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• WBD promotes DISCOVERY Comms head Nathaniel Brown to Chief Comms Officer for the new combined WBD entity. He reports into David Leavy, WBD Chief Corp Affairs Officer, not Zaslav. /Deadline

• And one of the few WB C-suite execs left is now also departing after a many-decade tenure - Chief Research Officer Liz Huszarik, who was there for 32 years. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

JUST ONE THING

• APPLE TV+ adds Josh Lucas to “Mrs. American Pie” - Kristen Wiig’s 1970’s Palm Beach high society series. Josh is playing Kristen’s husband. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

PEPSI dumping their sponsorship of the SUPER BOWL Halftime Show

NFL now on the hunt for a new sponsor, who they hope will find ways to make the show “stand way outside of the 12 minutes”… uh, incase you have a take on that. /THR

NBC signs Al Michaels to a side broadcasting deal, described as “emeritus”

Basically it’s to still call OLYMPICS events, and be part of their NFL PLAYOFFS coverage… although not exactly spelled out how that’s gonna work with his NFL booth replacement Mike Tirico.

Also no word on $$. Al’s AMAZON PRIME Thursday Night Football regular season deal is unaffected. /THR

ALSO IN MEDIA

• Marc Maron moves WTF podcast to ACAST hosting platform from SIRIUS XM’s OMNY in a 3 year deal. Not much will change if you’re a fan except that most episodes from the archive will now be avail for free in the WTF feed as of July 1, save for a few that will be in something called ACAST+, which will also have TBD “bonus” WTF content. No deal price indicated. /THR

• SPOTIFY brings back political ads, a category which they suspended in early 2020. How much is that APPLE MUSIC subscription again? The need to do this is also not a great sign for the digital Ad market following the SNAP thing. /Protocol

• Montreal’s JUST FOR LAUGHS fest adds to headliner shows lineup. /THR

• FOX sees its future growth in expanding lifestyle content (WEATHER, books) and FOX NATION into a Conservative lifestyle streaming service.

  • Streaming division (FOX NATION, TUBI) won’t be profitable for “a few years” according to Lachlan Murdoch, who chimes in on a few other FOX related things in the link. /Axios

• Some MORNING BREW (free) subscriber number updates from AXIOS as well:

  • Morning Brew: 4 million

  • Marketing Brew: 250,000

  • Retail Brew: 180,000

• Jen Psaki’s MSNBC ON PEACOCK streaming show will launch in 2023, but she’ll be on MSNBC Network starting this Fall for midterms. /Variety

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

#SNAPCHAT Fallout

Essentially… any business whose Revenue is heavily reliant on digital marketing budgets took a hit on Wall Street yesterday. Basic thinking - whatever pullback SNAP is seeing… is likely going to hit everyone else (or already is behind the scenes).

And you know Elon is totally it’s happening at TWITTER too so he can try to find another way to legally back out of his deal offer.

While it’s hard to envision video advertising around premium scripted content (HBOMAX, HULU etc) as vulnerable (also - a business SNAP is not in), trying to launch an ad-supported version of your streaming product in Q4 2022 could prove out to be one of the worst times to do so… especially if the projected Recession headwinds take hold this Summer.

Particularly if you’re looking for immediate dividends to make up for growth shortcomings in other parts of your business. #Netflix

SNAP -43% ($12.79)

PINTEREST -23% ($17.25)

ROKU -13% ($79.16)

ROBLOX -10% ($27.07)

AMC THEATERS -10% ($10.39)

CINEWORLD (Regal Theaters) -9% ($0.28)

WBD -8% ($16.86)

FACEBOOK -7% ($181.28)

LIONSGATE -6% ($11.28)

SPOTIFY -5% ($103.50)

TWITTER -5% ($35.76)

NY TIMES -5% ($32.55)

WARNER MUSIC -5% ($27.56)

FOX -5% ($30.00)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

PAR+ “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” - Now streaming… but link didn’t come up in a Google search so you’re on your own. Thanks to reader Dan for this heads up!

NETFLIX “Somebody Feed Phil” new season - STREAM HERE

ABC “The Great American Tag Sale with Martha Stewart” at 8p

• and “The American Rescue Dog Show” at 9p

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

NETFLIX “The Gray Man” movie trailer - $200 Million worth of Gosling vs. Evans in a European cat and mouse action pic from the Russo Bros. Which thankfully addresses Chris Evans’s mustache situation here pretty early on. PREMIERES FRI JULY 22

HBOMAX “My Dead Dad” movie trailer - Indie film about an aimless twentysomething guy who inherits a rundown apartment building in LA when his… well, see title. Really nice spot - count me in for this one. And not just for the Simon Rex cameo. PREMIERES WED JUNE 1

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Brand new KANE BROWN “Like I Love Country Music” - Kane going a bit more honkytonk here….

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

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-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where it was a pretty quiet Monday… except for SNAPCHAT reminding everyone again that Q2 is looking real dark 🫣. But hey - The Boss is back in 2023! And if my friend Chris is reading this - I’m in for Dublin next May. (US dates TBA).

AND: Vanessa Hudgens will host the MTV Movie & TV Awards on Sun June 5.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

📺 THE TV SET

AMAZON orders 2 seasons of animated series “The Hospital” with Maya Rudolph and Natasha Lyonne

Both are also EP’s, created by Cirocco Dunlap (”Russian Doll”). About 2 alien best-friend surgeons who risk their careers on a case that puts existence itself in jeopardy.

Keke Palmer, Grace Lee, Sam Smith, and Kieran Culkin also amongst the voice cast. /THR

ALSO IN TV

• AMC sets Okieriete Onaodowan (“Station 19”) to lead “Demascus” sci-fi comedy series, where a Black man uses a new technology to experience different versions of his own life. /THR

• NETFLIX sets Phil Abraham (“The Sopranos” DP, eps of “Mad Men”, “Daredevil” and more) as lead director for Schwarzenegger father-daughter spy series. /Deadline

IN THE HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE SUITE

• ABC SIGNATURE EVP of Current Programming Stephanie Liefer is leaving after 28 years at the company. No word on a next destination. /Deadline

• WB Chief Strategy Officer Jay Levine is the latest departure from the WBD empire, after a 13 year tenure. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

SNAP stock drops 31% on revised Q2 earnings guidance due to economy woes

This is a revision from the Q2 Revenue guidance that they gave… just a little over 3 weeks ago.

SNAP said they’ll come in on the low side of the 20% to 25% revenue growth they had indicated on that end of April Q1 earnings call.

As for the reasons cited “why” - pick your poison:

1. #Ukraine

2. #iPhonePrivacyChanges

3. #SupplyChain

4. #InterestRates… All the greatest hits were there.

But as for which of any of these were new since 3 weeks ago… yeah notsomuch.

While companies will occasionally do a revision like this (mainly because they have to as a public company), it is rare and usually a rather drastic step indicating a sizable shift going on in its business. Or in short - this is a bad look.

Hiring will be slowed for the rest of the year as a result and expenses will get a closer look. #soundfamiliar? 🤔 /CNBC

NETFLIX at least already said Q2 was gonna be bad, and pair this with DISNEY now giving away HULU for $1 a month for 3 months and I think everyone’s just doing a lot of this 🤞 at this point.

Conan O’Brien sells TEAM COCO podcast & digital biz to SIRIUS XM for $150 Million

The 11 podcast shows produced by TEAM COCO will now join the SIRIUS podcast network (fka STITCHER), so they’ll sell the ads and keep the revenue.

Podcasts will still be avail for free wherever you listen to them now.

Also includes TEAM COCO merch, TBD live events and a 5 year talent deal for Conan, where he also will program a new Comedy radio channel for SIRIUS.

And a nice life lesson that sometimes getting booted from your “dream job” can work out pretty well in the long run with a good work ethic #TeamCoco. /WSJ

ALSO IN MEDIA

• CANDLE MEDIA buys Spanish-language production outfit EXILE, which produces series for all the major streamers with a global presence. No price indicated. /NY Times

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

A relatively quiet Monday on Wall Street. Guessing today will not be.

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

PEACOCK “Ambulance” is now avail to STREAM HERE, 6 weeks after the theatrical release as a result of PEACOCK’s UNI deal to get their pics 45 days post-release struck at the end of 2021.

APPLE TV+ “Prehistoric Planet” - STREAM HERE

NBC “This Is Us” finale

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

WB “Baz Lurhman’s Elvis” trailer 2 - IN THEATERS FRI JUNE 24

DISNEY MARVEL “Thor: Love and Thunder” new trailer - IN THEATERS FRI JULY 8

FOCUS FEATURES “Vengeance” movie trailer - BJ Novack writes, directs and stars in a comedy about a ‘coastal’ journalist in West Texas documenting the murder conspiracy theory of a girl he hooked up with a couple times. And look - Kutcher back on the big screen! IN THEATERS JULY 29

NETFLIX “Stranger Things” Season 4 final trailer - PREMIERES FRIDAY

PARAMOUNT MI: 7 Pt 1 teaser trailer - Coming 2023

NEON “Moonage Daydream” teaser trailer - Narrated by Bowie himself, looks intriguing. IN THEATERS IN SEPTEMBER

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

New RINA SAWAYAMA“This Hell” - Rina is new to me, but this is a fun pop song with kinda earlier KATY PERRY and FAITH HILL vibes.

If you need some new tunes:

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Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

While it was kinda hard to watch… as a “golfer”, I gotta say it was a little reassuring to see a pro golfer just totally blow a tee shot on the 18th hole of the PGA CHAMPIONSHIP yesterday ⛳️.

Feel terrible for Mito Pereira who lost his lead on the last hole… but gotta think it’s a name we’ll be hearing a lot more of this Summer, and congrats to Justin Thomas for winning his 2nd PGA Championship in 6 years.

ALSO: Here are the TONY AWARDS nominations, to be given out Sun June 12.

AND: Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney all said goodbye to SNL (this is a post from Pete before the show, using his co-writer Dave’s account).

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

1. “Doctor Strange…” : $30 Million ($803 Million global)

   • A… somewhat better? 50% week-to-week drop (vs. 67% last weekend).

   • Tops “The Batman” for #2 global movie since the pandemic.

2. “Downton Abbey: A New Era” : $16 Million ($51 Million global)

   • Budget was $40 Million so… if the movie shows some legs over Memorial Day weekend, pic should be OK (int’l doing well regardless).

   • Will hit $20 PVOD home rental after the first weekend of June.

   • More on this below.

3. “The Bad Guys” : $5.7 Million ($74 Million US, $182 Million global)

   • Will soon become #1 grossing US pic in CHINA this year ($25.5 Million and climbing).

4. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” : $4 Million ($181 Million US)

   • Both “Sonic” & “Bad Guys” had weekend-to-weekend drops under 20%, as they continue to have the Family audience to themselves… for another month. #Lightyear

5. “Men” : $3.3 Million

   • For a movie launched on 2200 screens… not great.

   • Clearly making a play counting on buzzworthy word of mouth, but gotta think it may have a problem keeping screens if theater chains blowout “Top Gun” screen-count wise this weekend.

6. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” : $3.2 Million ($52 Million US)

   • The movie-that-could continues to astound… staying even with last weekend.

   • Now A24’s highest grossing pic in the US ever.

AND: “Firestarter” dropped 55% in week 2 to $1.7 Million, $6.8 Million total.

About “Downton”….

What does this say about the movie business? Well. Whatever narrative you’d like to fit really - which I’m sure you’ll see plenty of today.

ONE CERTAINTY: No matter how you cut it - “Downton”-mania is clearly a thing of the mid 2010’s, and any hope at UNI for a lot of runway left in this franchise is kinda dashed.

• Save for perhaps a major reboot or spinoff to extend the franchise (and lower the production costs).

THE OLD’S: While 48% of the audience was 55+ years-old (with a heavy female skew), clearly not enough showed up, but anyone saying this is due to a reluctance to go to the movies vs. just not being that interested is 💯 making their own interpretation.

• Pair this with the fact that the specialty market has yet to rebound… and contrary to popular speculation - the movie business seems to have an older audience problem, not an 18-34 demo problem - they’ve been showing up in solid numbers repeatedly this year (“Scream”, “Jackass”, “The Batman” etc).

• Older demos have been MIA since 2020 - the only true specialty hit to date in the pandemic is the one with younger demo appeal (“Everything, Everwhere…”).

Bong Joon Ho adds Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette and Naomi Ackie to next pic at WB

Robert Pattinson already on board to star in the sci-fi pic based on an upcoming book “Mickey7”.

It’s about a man who takes risky jobs on an expedition to colonize an ice planet. Whenever he dies, he’s cloned with his memories intact but… apparently #7 didn’t die as thought, and meets #8🫣. /THR

NETFLIX makes $50 Million buy on Emily Blunt pic at CANNES

Called “Pain Hustlers” - a Pharma industry pic about a single mom, high-school dropout in FLORIDA who gets a job at a failing pharmaceutical start-up where she excels at sales to raise her fortunes (and the company’s) … and wouldn’t ya know it - also becomes the center of a criminal conspiracy at the same time 🤦‍♂️.

David Yates (bunch of “Harry Potter” pics and the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise) is directing. /Deadline

ALSO IN MOVIES

• APPLE buys“Fingernails” at CANNES - Riz Ahmed and Jesse Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”) starring in the sci-fi love story, about a world where married couples can test if they’re truly in love. A woman is skeptical of her positive result with her husband 🤔, and begins working in the institute where couples are helped, alongside Ahmed’s mysterious instructor.

  • Will shoot later this year, no price disclosed. /Deadline

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📺 THE TV SET

PEACOCK adds Neve Campbell to “Twisted Metal” video game adaptation series

Will co-star with Anthony Mackie, Thomas Hayden Church and Stephanie Beatriz in the half-hour action comedy series. The “Deadpool” writers get the ‘idea by’ credit, and it’s written by “Cobra Kai” writer Michael Jonathan Smith.

Mackie plays a motormouth milk-man offered a chance at a big payday if he delivers a mysterious package across a postapocalyptic wasteland. Neve is playing “Raven” for any fans of the game. /Deadline

Lupita Nyong’o leaves APPLE TV+ limited series “Lady in the Lake”, currently in production

Natalie Portman is co-starring in 1960’s Baltimore set series, about a mother who reinvents her self as an investigative journalist looking into a murder, which ‘sets her on a collision course’ with another mother who is trying to advance Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda (Lupita’s former character).

Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”) is directing. No reason indicated for the departure. /Variety

ALSO IN TV

• APPLE TV+ adds Ricky Martin in a lead role for “Mrs. American Pie” starring Kristin Wiig, Laura Dern, and Alison Janney, set in 1970’s Palm Beach high society. /Deadline

• DISNEY+ renews “High School Musical” series for a Season 4. Season 3 drops in July. /THR

• NETFLIX renews recently-debuted UK series “Heartstopper” for 2 more seasons. /THR

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

JUST 2 THINGS

• Mayer & Staggs’s CANDLE MEDIA hires UTA exec Kendall Ostrow as SVP of Biz Dev & Community, reports into fellow former UTA’er Brent Weinstein, CANDLE’s Chief Development Officer who joined in Feb. /Deadline

• CNN DIGITAL’s Editor in Chief Meredith Artley is leaving after a 13 year run at the company. No next destination indicated. /Axios

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

AMC THEATERS -8% ($12.03)

ROBLOX -8% ($31.60)

ENDEAVOR +6% ($20.91)

BUZZFEED +9% ($4.37)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

FOX ”Don’t Forget The Lyrics!, “Beat Shazam” premieres starting at 8p.

🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - “This Is Us” says goodbye

• NEW Ricky Gervais NETFLIX special “Supernature” drops

THU - “That Damn Che” new season hits HBOMAX

• “Ellen” says goodbye

FRI - ​​”Top Gun” day at theaters, “Stranger Things” day at home.

As does “Obi-Wan”, who seems to be getting a… considerably smaller marketing/PR budget on DIS+ (Or am I just not seeing it?)

• Depp-Heard trial should end. For now.

SAT - Beach 😎

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

MGM “Three Thousand Years of Longing” movie trailer - In theaters Aug 31

SNL “Forgot About Lorne” - I don’t think this made the show which is a shame - amazing EMINEM cameo in this. Also Pete’s last rap/music video.

SNL - Kate McKinnon’s farewell to the show

HULU “Love, Victor” Season 3 trailer - Premieres Wed June 15

And if this 60 MINUTES piece from last night on South Chicago schools doesn’t lift your spirits a bit and make you wanna give it your best today…

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Going out with a congrats to ED SHEERAN and his wife CHERRY SEABORN on their new baby girl, joining her 2 year old sister Lyra. Slainté!

If you need some new tunes:

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-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where let’s have our Friday morning coffee enjoying the views at Emma Stone’s MALIBU house (she won’t mind, she already bought a new place outside Austin).

And for just $4.295 Million (use the extra $5k to splurge on the coffee), it can be all yours everyday.

ALSO: Congrats to RiRi on her BiBi! Ok yes fine, baby. No word on a name.

PLUS: Dave Chappelle’s on-stage attacker was arrested for allegedly stabbing a man back in December at a transitional housing facility.

AND: HARRY STYLES’s “One Night Only In New York” (on Long Island) concert tonight will live stream on APPLE MUSIC for their subscribers. Link to watch is here, and kicks off at 9p EST.

Link to his… rather chill new album Harry’s House down in the PLAYING ME OFF section at the bottom of this email of course.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

WB looking to revive “Oceans 11” franchise with Margot Robbie starring

Jay Roach is on board to direct, pic will be set in 1960’s Europe so this sounds more like an attempt to create a new take on a… pretty perfect movie, which always works out well.

Carrie Solomon is writing the script (she doesn’t seem to have any produced writing credits?). No greenlight yet but WB is hoping to shoot Spring 2023. /THR

UNI sets Jason Momoa to star in action comedy “Shots! Shots! Shots!”

Which should make a nice double feature someday with Pete Davidson’s upcoming “Bodies Bodies Bodies”. Also… I think Jason Momoa is now booked through 2025.

Oh right the movie - described as “True Lies” + “Taken” + “The Lost City” so… it’s an action pic. Script being written now, Jason also producing. /THR

SEARCHLIGHT / HULU sets $25 Million deal for Amy Adams comedic horror pic from ANNAPURNA

Called “Nightbitch”, about a mom raising a toddler in the suburbs who thinks she’s slowly turning into a dog.

Based on a book by Rachel Yoder who also wrote the script for the “darkly comic neo-horror” project to drop on HULU in the US.

So, guessing “Fresh” did pretty well for HULU this year. Marielle Heller (”Can You Ever Forgive Me?”) directing. /Variety

ALSO IN MOVIES

• “Top Gun: Maverick” will not be on PARAMOUNT+ 6 weeks after theatrical release… will forgo keeping the 45-day theatrical window PAR has been doing for their movies this year. /WSJ

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📺 THE TV SET

“Stranger Things 4” MONOPOLY game mistakenly drops early… reveals spoilers

Ah retailers… sounds like games were shipped a bit early and like a sneaker drop gone wrong, some were either sold to people… fell off a truck… or a guy knew a guy… but either way images of cards that reveal S4 plot points have been showing up online before the game’s official planned release.

Duffer Bros were… not a fan. Especially as it sounds like they weren’t consulted about the game. /THR

• No such issue with their very wide-reaching QUICKSILVER merch apparel line dropping today.

STARZ orders potential 3 seasons of new Ava DuVernay drama

Script to series commitment (so if STARZ likes the initial script/s, the show gets a 3 Season order), untitled half-hour relationship drama starring Joshua Jackson and Lauren Ridloff (“Eternals”).

About two opposites who attract (one is ambitious, commitment centric, Black and deaf, the other is restless, not-so-much on relationships, White and hearing. Thinking you’ve figured out who is playing whom).

Ava now overseeing the writing with her team. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

• PEACOCK adds Thomas Hayden Church to “Twisted Metal” series created by the “Deadpool” guys and based on the popular video game. Anthony Mackie starring as a “motor-mouthed Milkman” navigating a post-apocalyptic world filled with savage vehicles as he brings supplies between settlements. /THR

• HBO renews “Barry” for a Season 4. Hader directing all 8 episodes. /THR

• DISNEY+ / MARVEL puts new “Daredevil” season into development. Matt Corman and Chris Ord (USA’s “Covert Affairs”) writing. /Variety

• APPLE TV+ sets Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”) as lead director for their upcoming GODZILLA and the TITANS series. /Variety

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

JUST 3 THINGS

• NBA Games are back on TV in CHINA, for the first time since the whole Hong Kong freedom tweeting of Oct 2019. Although… neither the NBA nor CHINA are talking / touting this fact. /ESPN

• THE INFORMATION looked at what happened at CAMEO, where they were targeting $200 - $300 Million in 2021 revenue… but came in at just $100 Million, which affected their recent significant layoffs.

• Pete Williams retiring from NBC NEWS this Summer after a 30 year run. /THR

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

Relatively quiet Thursday. finally.

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👩‍💻 THE FSS FEED:

(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday - Saturday - Sunday)

WEEKEND READS

“It’s not show friends, it’s show business.”

- “Jerry Maguire” quote that WBD CEO David “Zaz” Zaslav has reportedly been using often on the lot according to the WSJ’s look at Zaz’s early days at WBD, including:

• Questioning why WB still makes Clint Eastwood pics

• Asking WB Movie stars to promote Shark Week

• and… making the lot STARBUCKS open earlier to make him his mocacchino among other insights. Ok yes the drink is just a guess.

THE ANKLER asked around town for thoughts on working with DISNEY Streaming Strategy decider Kareem Daniels since… there is very little written about the person who decides where DISNEY kingdom Movie & TV projects will be released.

• #FunFact - While Chapek’s contract is known to be up in December, Peter Rice’s contract is also apparently up later in the Fall….

Here’s the story of SNL’s Please Don’t Destroy comedy trio for any other big fans out there. Turns out they were literally still doing day jobs at ice cream shops and temp jobs in NYC when they debuted on the show. /THR

This Q&A with IFC head Arianna Bocco on the state of the Independent Film Theatrical and Streaming biz in 2022 had some good, front line perspectives. Plus she’s renovating a movie theater near where I’m from in Jersey so - #family.

FRIDAY

IN THEATERS:

• FOCUS FEATURES: “Downton Abbey: A New Era”

• A24: “Men”

STREAMING:

MOVIES

• HULU “The Valet” - STREAM HERE

SERIES

• NETFLIX “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman” - STREAM HERE

• AMAZON PRIME “Night Sky” - JK Simmons, Sissy Spacek series- STREAM HERE

TV:

• HBO “George Carlin’s American Dream” - Docu from Judd Apatow & Michael Bonfiglio, at 8p

• FX ON HULU “Elon Musk’s Crash Course” - NY TIMES docu, at 10p

• HBO “Pause with Sam Jay” - New Season at 11p

SATURDAY

• SNL season finale is Natasha Lyonne and JAPANESE BREAKFAST

SUNDAY

• PGA CHAMPIONSHIP on CBS all afternoon.

• New “60 Minutes” CBS at 7p post golf

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

AMAZON PRIME “The Terminal List” series teaser - Chris Pratt stars in a series about a Navy Seal operation that went south… which may not have been what it seems, co-starring Taylor Kitsch. Premieres Fri July 1

NETFLIX “The Umbrella Academy” Season 3 trailer - Premieres Wed June 22

APPLE TV+ “Prehistoric Planet” trailer 2 - Premieres Mon May 23

PARAMOUNT+ “Evil” Season 3 trailer - Way different tonal presentation for this show than what CBS used to do… and I’d personally say more intriguing. Definitely not as just, well, dark. Premieres Sun June 12

NETFLIX Letterman with Ryan Reynolds, about the time he got an earring at 12 years old, and last clip I’ll post! You can Stream whatever ya like here.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

Here’s the new HARRY STYLES album on Spotify, and man is this a chill album… but here’s a song that I’m guessing will get a lot of chatter this weekend, speculating on the lyrics.

If you need some new tunes:

THE WAKEUP Spotify playlist

Email me anytime - just Reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.

-SEAN MCNULTY

@theseanmac on TWITTER

@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM

Where we’re one day away from the release of what has a solid shot at being the biggest album of 2022, HARRY STYLES’s “Harry’s House” 😱 (how is he not doing the SNL finale this weekend btw?)

• Also - just watching his “As It Was” perf on The Today Show this morning before hitting send on this…I just do not get this song. Unlike the hundreds of GenZ girls who clearly skipped class today to go to the 30 Rock plaza.

For any HARRY fans - BILLBOARD did a good recap of highlights from his appearance on Stern this week, and no… the song that you’ll think is about T Swift on the album, is not. Well. At least he gave a very “Harry” answer to it. (no online clips yet).

AND: We’ll find out how “Sweet Caroline” plays in NYC on a nightly basis this December when NEIL DIAMOND musical “A Beautiful Night” hits BROADWAY. 💎

ALSO: This… probably won’t help celebrity TESLA sales in LA.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

Channing Tatum sets new MGM movie based on his children’s book

He’ll produce and star in the pic based on the book “The One and Only Sparkella” ✨ about a father who teaches her to be herself when she’s ostracized at school.

He’s dropping a 2nd “Sparkella” book at the end of the month. Script is being written by Pamela Ribon (”Ralph Breaks the Internet”). /Variety

ALSO IN MOVIES

• OSCARS bring back requirement that contenders premiere in a movie theater (day & date w/streaming OK) in one of 6 cities (NY, LA, SF, ATL, MIAMI or CHI). Sorry Texas. They did however reject my “no Trap music” suggestion to the Best Song category 👎. /THR

• Simon Rex joins “Pussy Island” at MGM. There’s just something about that sentence that sounds right. (that’s the Zoe Kravitz-directed thriller on a sex mysterious island with Channing Tatum). /Deadline

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📝 IN OTHER WORDS… final UPFRONTS edition

“Today, Warner Bros. Discovery makes it number five.”

- DAVID ZASLAV at the WBD Upfront, pulling a fetch re: WBD being essentially now the 5th network (“Big 5” instead of the “Big 4”) - a terrible analogy especially at a time when WBD is basically selling the one actual national broadcast network they do have, and cutting its remaining output by about 40%.

Here is TheCW’s Fall schedule btw for any inclined.

AND

“No one’s imaginations ever had a problem with a talking dog solving mysteries, so I think we can handle a brown Velma”

- MINDY KALING at the WBD Upfront on her new role as “Velma” in the “Scooby-Doo” HBOMAX animated series for adults.

OVER AT PARAMOUNT

“I can’t wait for ‘1997’- It’s mostly Kevin Costner rollerblading.”

- JAMES CORDEN referencing the even more “Yellowstone” spinoff announcements yesterday. I’ve given up on keeping track.

📺 THE TV SET

HBOMAX orders LIZZO docu

Will drop this Fall… but no real other details, other than it’s produced by her music label, her touring promoter, and LIZZO herself so I’m not sure “documentary” is the word here 🤔.

But #funfact: LIZZO’s production company is called Lizzobangers 👏👏. /Variety

DISNEY buys $30 Million Elton John docu + final tour performance

Called “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, RJ Cutler (“Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry”) is directing with John’s partner David Furnish, and will include performances from his current final tour.

Disney will give it a festival run and limited theatrical release before a drop on DISNEY+… and the deal reportedly includes a live stream of his final show at DODGERS STADIUM in November. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

• MTV found a couple more things to reboot as they keep that BRAVO for GenZ vibe going - “Jersey Shore 2.0” and “Teen Mom: The Next Chapter”, coming soon, as is “The Hills: Next Gen”. Can we really call the group where these came from “Development” anymore?

  • ALSO: Andy Samberg is doing an animated series he also co-created for COMEDY CENTRAL called “Digman!” about a cool archeologist, and Colbert’s “Tooning Out the News” is also moving to CC. /Deadline

• PARAMOUNT NET premiering “Yellowstone” Season 5 and PAR+ Stallone series “Tulsa King” on Sun Nov 13.

• ADULT SWIM orders “Rick & Morty“ anime spinoff series. 10 episodes. /THR

  • ALSO: Renews “The Eric Andre Show” for a Season 6. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

CNN’s new CEO emphasizes… news

I’ve long been a fan of new CNN CEO Chris Licht’s ability to see white space in the TV media landscape, and successfully execute on it.

Not just helping to turn Colbert into a winning show for CBS in late night, but also making “CBS This Morning” a contender (and simply just a far better show during his tenure) … and while I’ve never watched it, making “Morning Joe” a thing on a network never known for their morning programming.

So when Chris appeared at the WBD day yesterday, it was heartening to hear his strategy of… simply doing real news:

• More topical docus are on the way

• As is a Sunday night Primetime OP block anchored by Chris Wallace’s weekly version of the interview show he did for 3 weeks on CNN+.

  • Will premiere this Fall, and also stream on HBOMAX.

• To be paired with a longform journalism “60 Minutes”-ish show.

• And unsurprisingly he’s revamping CNN’s morning show this Fall too.

ALSO Eva Longoria’s former CNN+ series “Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico” also moving to CNN linear. /Variety

THOUGHT FWIW: Granted - it remains to be seen if this will translate into an audience gain (or loss), but he’s choosing to lean into the core brand upon which CNN was built and known for globally, vs bordering on the more ‘becoming a punchline’ vibes that CNN had during the Zucker years.

And given the fact that no matter what “shows” they do, CNN’s audience size truly correlates to the news & political cycles anyway … so returning to the “most trusted name in news” ethos sounds smart to me, even if only since it will go a long way in helping heal the damaged morale among a company of journalists after the Zucker and CNN+ disasters in 2022 thus far.

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

WALL STREET had the biggest one day drop since almost 2 years ago / Summer 2020. Thanks retail!

• APPLE -5% ($140.82)

• WBD -5% ($17.46)

• FACEBOOK -5% ($192.24)

• NETFLIX -7% ($177.19)

• AMAZON -7% ($2142.25)

• SNAP -7% ($22.73)

• aaannnd… BUZZFEED +13% ($3.81). Of course.

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

PEACOCK “Angelyne” - all episodes drop today - STREAM HERE

NETFLIX “The G Word with Adam Conover” - STREAM HERE

HBOMAX “Legendary” new season - STREAM HERE

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

UNIVERSAL “Bros” trailer - Billy Eichner / Judd Apatow produced comedy. Premieres Sept 30

PEACOCK “Queer As Folk series trailer - Premieres Thu June 9