DISNEY+ growth plummets, HULU slows in 3rd Quarter
MGM wants to reboot ROAD HOUSE with Gyllenhaal / GOOD WIFE team sets PAR+ true crime series / Michelle Beadle signs with THE ATHLETIC
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on THURSDAY November 11, 2021.
Where it’s Veterans Day, so starting the day off with a moment of thanks here for everyone who’s shown the country what sacrifice for the better of others truly looks like.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
MGM looking to reboot “Road House” with Jake Gyllenhaal
Ok as much as I’m 👎👎 on 80’s movies remakes - I kinda love this casting idea (although Jake’s deal isn’t final yet). Doug Liman (“Bourne Identity”) in talks to direct.
Both already have movies to shoot in 2022 and the script needs a re-write so it’ll be a while. Kinda would be better if this kept a pre-social media era setting no? But I’m sure studio head Mike DeLuca has a vision here. /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
PARAMOUNT delays next Transformers movie “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” starring Anthony Ramos from next Summer to July 2023.
College Football drama “National Champions” starring Stephan James & JK Simmons from Nov 24 to Dec 10
Chris Pine + Ben Foster Special Forces action pic now called “The Contractor” from Dec 10 to March 18, 2022
NETFLIX buys rights to best-selling author Jodi Picoult’s next book “Wish You Were Here”. Jennifer Todd & Liza Chasin producing. /Deadline
PARAMOUNT PICS names Jenny Tartikoff as new EVP of Communications. She comes over from a brief stint at SPOTIFY and a long career at UNIVERSAL PICS before that. /THR
📺 THE TV SET
“The Good Wife” creators set new PAR+ series “Happy Face” based on the true crime podcast
About a 15 year-old girl who discovers her father is a serial killer, and centers on her adult life after cutting all ties with him and changing her name.
Series creators Robert & Michelle King are taking that starting off point to launch the series starting with the father reaching out to the daughter to take credit for another murder, which pulls her into the investigation.
Jennifer Cacicio, a writer on the King’s series “Your Honor” is handling the script. Podcast prouducer iHeart is an exec producer here, as well as the woman whose life it’s based upon. /THR
NETFLIX buys 80s/90s Saturday morning TV show parody from SNL’s Kyle Mooney
Appropriately called “Saturday Morning All Star Hits!”, will be a live-action and animation mix. Kyle will play the twin hosts of the show “Skip and Treybor”.
Series drops on Fri Dec 10. /THR
ALSO IN TV
DISCOVERY+ sets Melissa McCarthy home renovation show “The Great Giveback With Melissa McCarthy and Jenna Perusich” (Jenna is her cousin). 6 episodes, as they help renovate homes of people with moving life situations, will debut late 2022. /Deadline
PEACOCK buys docu on Rosa Parks, produced by Soledad O’Brien “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks”. /Deadline
HBOMAX renews “Selena + The Chef” for a Season 4 - this time at a beach house, and gives streetwear competition show “The Hype” a Season 2.
Michael Ealy co-starring with Kristen Bell in NETFLIX limited series “The Woman in the House”, about a heartbroken woman who constantly stares out her window drinking wine 🍷, when a neighbor (Tom Reily) & daughter move in. Then she thinks she sees a gruesome murder… but yeah not so sure on that 🤔. Ealy plays her ex. 8 episodes, will premiere Q1 2022. /Deadline
🙋♂️ A Little Help?
I’m about 200 subscribers away from my End-of-2021 goalpost I set at the end of the Summer. What happens then… I still gotta figure out.
SO: If you’re relatively new here, find THE WAKEUP of value and would like to help me out, here’s a button to easily share it with some Co-Workers, Clients or Folks you do business with. (but hey if you’re more of a Cynopsis person - totally get it)
Thank you and really even just a mention in any pre-Zoom meeting office banter is appreciated. And a sincere thanks to all of you who have done so thus far! 🙏
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
warning: #MediaNerd🤓 is back
DISNEY+ subscriber additions Q2: 12 Million… Q3: 2 Million
DISNEY+ now stands at 118 Million subscribers, as growth is leveling off in its primary US, INDIA and Western EUROPE user base markets. It was the worst quarter for DISNEY+ subscriber additions ever in its now 2 year existence.
CEO Bob Chapek had warned in late September that growth would be in the “low single digits” so… 2.1 Million it is, but still way below previous estimates. Bob blames a Covid-induced clog in the new content pipeline for the miss, and admittedly there were no big MARVEL, STAR WARS or PIXAR programming adds from July thru Sept.
Streaming revenue (DISNEY+, HULU incl LIVE TV, and ESPN+) grew to $4.6 Billion.
That’s over 2X WARNER MEDIA’s streaming revenue, although a lot of DISNEY’s is just from HULU, incl LIVE TV.
NETFLIX took in about 40% more than that $4.6 Billion DISNEY Streaming total.
DISNEY Streaming losses increased from $400 Million to $600 Million.
DISNEY+ Avg Revenue Per User is still problematic due to 1/3 of their user base paying $7 - $20 a year for it (INDIA customer base). DIS+ ARPU fell 4 cents to $4.16, that’s less than 1/3 of NETFLIX and HBOMAX.
LOOKING AHEAD: The just-announced DISNEY+ $2 for one month deal this week might help those Q4 numbers… as will the additions of SOUTH KOREA, TAIWAN and HONG KONG over the next week, and a new MARVEL series (“Hawkeye”) and STAR WARS series (“The Book of Boba Fett”) in the quarter as well. So Q4 will be the real canary in the coalmine litmus test for DISNEY+ #StrongMetaphorGame.
DISNEY+ is currently in 60 countries, plans to be in 120 by this time next year, and 160 by Fall 2023. NETFLIX is currently in 190+.
HULU & ESPN+
HULU streaming service added just 600k users, also below expectations - joining the great US streaming subscriber growth slowdown. Now at 39.7 Million.
HULU’s ARPU also fell for the first time in a long while, down about 40 cents to $12.75. Tho that’s still 3X DISNEY+’s.
HULU + LIVE TV finally had a decent 200k uptick to 4 Million subscribers. But still down from 4.1 at this time last year. Meaningful growth here also topped out long ago.
ESPN+ is still killin it though - added 2.1 Million subscribers in Q3 to hit 17.1 Million total. #GoManningCast!
ESPN+ #ARPU also hit a new high, at $4.74. Also higher than DISNEY+’s.
DISNEY stock fell 8% in after hours trading last night.
VIZIO SmartTV platform new user growth slowing, now at 14.4 Million
That’s +35% from this time last year… but they only added 400k new users to their SmartCast SmartTV streaming platform from July thru Sept.
However their Avg Revenue Per SmartCast User #ARPU is booming - now at $19.89, or 18% growth over just the past 3 months. +91% vs this time last year.
Which is good because their TV set revenue is down 8% vs last year, and they lost $14 Million in the quarter overall. VIZIO is the #2 Best selling TV brand in the US this year.
ALSO IN MEDIA
Former ESPN personality Michelle Beadle is entering the podcast biz with THE ATHLETIC. “What Did I Miss with Michelle Beadle” will drop 3X a week starting Mon Nov 15.
It’s part of a “multi-year podcast network” deal she signed there… but no other solid details as to what exactly that means as of yet. /THR
YOUTUBE will publicly hide Dislike counts going forward. You can still hit the thumbs down icon… but the count will no longer be displayed under videos. There’s not one of those on newsletters is there? 😳 /Variety
Billy Crystal bringing “Mr Saturday Night” to Broadway in March. /THR
John Legend leaves his label of 17 years SONY MUSIC for the UMG family at REPUBLIC RECORDS. /Billboard +Variety
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
A generally down day but nothing too extreme, although ROBLOX’s earnings call high wore off, was down 13% yesterday but still up huge overall.
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
FOX Thursday Night Football : RAVENS at DOLPHINS at 820p
PARAMOUNT+ “The Game” reboot - Stream or Add to Your List here
AMC+ “Ragdoll” - 6 episode limited series with Lucy Hale, about a serial killer. Stream or Add to Your List here
PEACOCK “Paris In Love” - Watch Paris Hilton get married…. over thirteen episodes. Stream or Add to Your List here
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
AMAZON PRIME “Being the Ricardos” trailer. The week-in-the-life of Lucy & Desi movie from Aaron Sorkin. Theaters Fri Dec 10, PRIME Tue Dec 21
FXX “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” Season 15 trailer. The gang goes to IRELAND. Premieres Wed Dec 1
HBOMAX “Gossip Girl” season 1, pt2 trailer. Premieres Thu Nov 25
AMAZON PRIME “Hanna” Season 3/Final season trailer. Premieres Wed Nov 24.
NETFLIX “Lost In Space” Final Season trailer. Premieres Wed Dec 1.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
CHRIS STAPLETON “Cold” - Country Music’s best showed ‘em how it’s done once again last night at the CMA’s and picks up the top male vocalist award to boot. Now if only Country Music radio would play his music in an equal manner…
If you need new tunes:
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-Sean McNulty
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM