KING RICHARD tanks, GHOSTBUSTERS tops box office expectations

ROKU developing 50 original shows / HULU + LIVE TV raises prices 2nd time in a year / APPLE pushes return to office again

Nov 22, 2021

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY November 22, 2021.

Where - short work week 🙌 . And while this is similar in spirit to a great Tom Hanks “Black Jeopardy” sketch from 2016… this “Republican or Not” sketch from SNL this weekend was a very funny nod to how 2021 has made party lines… a bit more confusing.

ALSO: While on the topic of SNL - this weekend I enjoyed the “Saturday Night” docu that James Franco did as his NYU thesis (to note: he’s in it sparingly) looking at how a 2008 SNL episode hosted by John Malkovich came together inside 30 Rock - from the pitch sessions, to the writing, choosing the sketches, the dress rehearsal etc. The film wasn’t put out until 2014 and even then it was only really shown at film festivals so it was great to finally check it out.

It’s also a fun throwback to the era of Hader / Sudeikis / Wiig / Forte / Samberg and others (although it’s odd that Wiig is barely included in this), and also includes a young writer named John Mulaney. Would be cool if SNL did this kind of thing itself every 5 to 8 years even if just for the ‘vault’.

And a thanks to Whitney Matheson 🙏 for including it in her weekly email on Friday - Her email is a fun weekly read (she did the popular Pop Candy column at USA TODAY for years) with links to fun songs and movies and other things going on in her world - you can check it out here.

AND: Tiger’s back out on the range…

Tiger Woods @TigerWoods

Making progress

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” : $44 Million ($60 Million global)
- This is much stronger than projections going in, although to note this is over 4+ days (opened with Wednesday night screenings).
- Slighlty below the 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot opening ($46 Million), but SONY hoping to be the 4-quadrant movie of THANKSGIVING weekend, esp with the weak“King Richard” showing (see 4th place).
- IMAX was 8% of global total ($4.7 Million)
“Eternals” : $11 Million ($136 Million US, $336 Million global)
- SOUTH KOREA is the biggest market outside of the US ($25 Million)
- Another 60% drop, same as week 2
“Clifford the Big Red Dog” : $8 Million ($35 Million US)
- Roughly a 50% drop, good hold for a film also avail on streaming (PAR+)
“King Richard” : $5.7 Million (Also avail on HBOMAX)
- 41% of US audience was 45+, and 40% African American overall
- Had an A Cinemascore, so WB counting on THANKSGIVING weekend to turn the tide but…
- Considering Will Smith’s payday for this film was $40+ Million alone (including the HBOMAX streaming bonus) - this looks to be a costly misfire, but we’ll see what the SAMBA TV streaming numbers show this week in case there any big surprises.
“Dune” : $3 Million ($98 Mil US)

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

As expected “No Time To Die” became the highest grossing movie of the pandemic, now at $734 Million. It’s still taking in about $16 Million a week, so it will likely end up well within $100 Million of “Spectre”.

“Belfast” dropped almost 50% to $940k, now at $3.4 Million US total.

“Spencer” dropped 54% to $690k, now at $6.1 Million US.

“The French Dispatch” dropped 45% to $970k, now at $13.3 Million US total.

A24’s “C’mon C’mon” with Joaquin Phoenix opened to $134k from 5 screens in NY & LA, solid $27k per screen avg.

ALSO IN MOVIES

Delroy Lindo joins MARVEL’s “Blade” movie starring Mahershala Ali. Bassam Tariq (“Mogul Mowgli”) is directing. /THR
For anyone curious about that South Korean company that bought 80% of ENDEAVOR CONTENT - VARIETY has a good dive into the business of CJ ENM.
WME adds CAA agent Elan Ruspoli as a partner. Not clear what clients will be joining, but he’s worked with folks like Jonathan Majors, Daniel Kaluuya, Toni Collette and Henry Golding at CAA. /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

HULU sets Jackson White (“Mrs Fletcher”) as lead for new series “Tell Me Lies”

He’s co-starring with Grace Van Patten (“Nine Perfect Strangers”), series is based on a book about a relationship as it unfolds over the course of 8 years, starting in college. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

Nikki Glaser doing HBO Comedy Special. Will shoot end of month. /Deadline
ROKU CHANNEL planning to develop 50 original shows over the next 2 years. No word on how many they plan to actually order, but pitch away if you have a project that falls into the TV standards/style of Free Streaming. /WSJ

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

HULU + LIVE TV raises price to $70/month and adds DISNEY+ and ESPN+ to subscription

If you want the ad-free version of HULU, its $76. Takes effect on Dec 21.

So ESPN+ and DIS+ will be adding up to 4 Million US subscribers in December (that’s the HULU + LIVE TV user base) - some current ESPN+ and DIS+ subscribers already get HULU + LIVE TV so those would be duplicate. But this move alone could bump the ESPN+ subscriber base up 15-20% just before Q4 closes 🤔.

Although will be curious to see how DISNEY breaks these customers out in that next Q4 earnings report, especially as to how it affects Avg Revenue Per User, as well as HULU + LIVE TV cancellations due to the price hike - they just raised the price $10 a month to $65 one year ago. /THR

ALSO IN MEDIA

APPLE pushes back return to office until February. Will be 1 to 2 days then, and scale up to 3 sometime in March. /CNBC

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

LIONSGATE was down well over 8% (closed at $16.35)

DISCOVERY down almost 6% (closed at $25.26)

ROBLOX gonna ROBLOX… ends the week up 7%. Not a bad month.

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

ESPN Monday Night Football - GIANTS at BUCS, starts at 815p

If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

PEACOCK “Baking It” trailer - Christmas baking competition show 👩‍🍳 judged by grandmas 👵🏻, hosted by Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg. This looks fun! Premieres Thu Dec 2

HBO “The Slow Hustle” trailer - Docu about the murder of a Baltimore Cop who is later revealed to have been killed on the day before he was to testify about police corruption. Looks like quite a story! Premieres Tue Dec 7

HBO “DMX: Don’t Try to Understand” trailer - Docu about his life starting with his release from prison for tax evasion in 2019. Part of Bill Simmons’s Music Box docu-series. Premieres Thanksgiving at 8p

HULU “Mother/Android” - A robot-filled world goes off the rails when the robots start killing the humans, and a pregnant Chloe Grace Moretz must get to the apparent safe haven of… Boston, because the Androids’ Boston accents are so terrible that they easily stand out. Ok that last part is just a theory but I’m pretty confident. Premieres Fri Dec 17

PARAMOUNT+ “South Park: Post Covid” teaser - The first of 14 “movies” for the service, and this one also features an adult Kyle and Stan. Premieres on Thanksgiving

AMAZON PRIME “Encounter” trailer - Riz Ahmed as a Marine who takes his 2 young sons on a road trip to escape an alien force of some kind which seems to be infiltrating humanity. With Octavia Spencer, In theaters Fri Dec 3, PRIME on Dec 10.