Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY December 27, 2021.

Where mailing out almost a thousand Christmas cards is not in THE WAKEUP budget (#2022goals), here’s a Seasons Greetings from my post-Christmas walk. We’re back to sunsets after 430p! (this was 4:32p)

AND: Some unexpected and sad news from the weekend - “Big Little Lies” and “Dallas Buyers Club” director Jean-Marc Vallée was found dead at his cabin outside of Quebec City. No cause of death known yet, he was 58 years old.

ALSO: PHISH is rescheduling their annual, days-long late December / NEW YEARS stint at MSG to April, beginning on… 4/20. Way to keep it on brand fellas.

PLUS: Aaron Rodgers was back all-over STATE FARM commercials this weekend so kudos to whomever had 6 Weeks in the pitchman penalty box pool.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

BOX OFFICE (5-Day totals)

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” : $139 Million ($467 Million US, $1.05 Billion global)
- Weekend-to-Weekend a 70% drop to $81 Million
- 38 Million people have bought tickets to see it in the US so far
- Will become the highest-grossing “Spider-Man” pic ever this week… even with no current or planned CHINA presence. still.
- It’s also the highest grossing movie of the pandemic, period. (including CHINA films)
- DISNEY’s paycheck for this is $250 Million and counting, which should just about cover at least the production losses from their Fall DISNEYFOX releases.
“Sing 2” - $41 Million ($65 Million global)
- Budget was $85 Million so this should do well for UNIVERSAL
“The Matrix Resurrections” - $22.5 Million ($70 Million global)
- It’s 3-day total was below “Wonder Woman 1984” last Christmas (which was also on HBOMAX). And we all remember what it was like last Christmas
- 1.75 Million people bought tickets for it, to compare to any SAMBA TV numbers that come out this week
- B- Cinemascore from those moviegoers does not bode well
- $6.6 Million came from IMAX movies globally (a pretty avg 8%)
“American Underdog” - $6.2 Million (2 days only)
“The King’s Man” - $10 million but just $6.1 Million in the 3-day weekend ($17 Million global)
- Opened in the UK yesterday
- As this puts DISNEYFOX 0 for 4 this Fall alongside“The Last Duel”, “West Side Story”, and “Nightmare Alley”.
- Looking at well over $200 Million in red-ink from these 4 movies alone, not including marketing costs.
“West Side Story” : $4.2 Million ($24 Million US)
- Finally a low -23% weekend-to-weekend drop but…

ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE

“A Journal for Jordan” was a no-show, $2.2 Million on 2500 screens over 2 days (same as “Encanto”… which was also on DISNEY+)
“Licorice Pizza” went from 5 screens to 786… but only doubled its total gross. Made $2.3 Million this 3-day weekend, now at $3.6 Million total.
- 2/3rds of moviegoers were 18-34 years old
“Nightmare Alley” looking bleak, -55% to $1.3 Million for the weekend, at $5.5 Million total on $60 Million production budget (not incl mktg costs).

A SLIM JANUARY AWAITS…

Jan 7: “The 355”
Jan 14 / MLK weekend: “Scream” and WB still has the “Sesame Street” movie listed… but there are basically 0 marketing materials out for it as of yet.
Jan 21: Nada
Jan 28: “Morbius”, and “Cyrano” goes a bit wider

And… there ya go.

OF NOTE: “Scream” and “Morbius” are from studios that have been very covid-surge sensitive in terms of moving pics (PAR and SONY).

And If you wanna go to SUNDANCE this year…

Best to get your booster shot this week - they’re requiring everyone to have a booster that’s at least 2 weeks old to come to any festival screenings / events (fest starts Jan 20).

Everyone will also need to rapid test upon arrival or show proof of negative test within 48 hours, and rapid testing will be avail throughout the festival.

Theater capacity will also be “limited” but no indication how much. Although just me or does Jan 20 seems like a year away in Omicron-years right now?

📺 THE TV SET

JUST 2 ITEMS

SNL’s head writer Anna Drezen is leaving, will work fulltime on the animated series “Praise Petey” that she just sold to FREEFORM with Greg Daniels and Mike Judge. No word if SNL will replace her - Che, Jost and Kent Sublette also hold the Head Writer title. /Deadline
NYC limits NYE Times Square audience to 15,000 this Friday, about 1/4th of the usual size. Proof of vaxx & masks required, and no one will be admitted before 3p… so be sure to avoid the entire area even more than usual on Dec 31. /NY Times

AND I JUST FOUND THIS INTERESTING

Plus hey it’s a light news day so - 2 NY TIMES reads for anyone else with a passing interest in Real Estate / Housing:

Builders know how to construct concrete Tornado-proof rooms in Apartment buildings and offices (cost of about $7k for a home to $15k for a larger building), but making such a space mandatory for new buildings in Tornado-prone states has been blocked by the commission that sets US building standards.

Engineers can also make additions to home construction to make structures survive most Tornados that only run about $3k (shatter-proof window glazing, stronger roof attachments to structures etc) which again have been resisted, although local municipalities can mandate them (one OKLA town hit by a tornado did). #followthe$$

And then this on people building Fire and Hurricane-proof homes in regions known for those calamities.

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

VIACOMCBS +5% ($30.58)

ENDEAVOR +4.5% ($33.47), stock is now trading at an all time high since it went public earlier this year

👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

ESPN Monday Night Football - DOLPHINS at SAINTS, Starts at 815p

NETFLIX “Death to 2021” special - Stream or Add to Your List Here

And READ:

I’m not really one for “a look back at 2021” reads… but this THR piece from Kim Masters had some great seasoned perspective. Plus a very cringe-worthy anecdote about John Stankey’s video “Holiday Card” to WARNER MEDIA employees with him dressed in a Santa onesie. yikes.

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

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

FX “Atlanta” Season 3 teaser - Premieres March 24

SONY “Uncharted” trailer #2 - Still in theaters Fri Feb 18

HBOMAX 2022 Image - 2 min spot with many looks at things that… uh well I’ve been writing about going into production here throughout the year.

NETFLIX “Bridgerton” Season 2 date announcement - Premieres Fri March 25

🎅 THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - Celebrate “2021 and Done” with SNOOP + Kev Hart on PEACOCK

WED - DISNEY+ “The Book of Boba Fett” series drops

THU - Figure out ways to celebrate NEW YEARS EVE on Zoom

FRI - NETFLIX “Cobra Kai” Season 4 drops, COLLEGE FOOTBALL BCS playoffs, 2021 ends

SAT - “Harry Potter” cast reunion special, and figure out why you’re still hungover even though you weren’t out til 2am last night for once.

🎧 PLAYING ME OFF

I fell into a “Streets of Fire” rabbit hole recently (don’t ask) but this deep cut from underrated 80’s band THE FIXX still holds up solid:

I’m guessing there won’t be much to merit a daily newsletter this week so - I’ll see ya again, this side or the othah…

If you need 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

The Wakeup

KING'S MAN falters, MATRIX underperforms…