SNAP stock pops 60%, AMAZON PRIME raises prices
DAKOTA JOHNSON leading MARVEL SONY pic / STARZ profit plummets / Weekend new TV + Movie preview
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on FRIDAY February 4, 2022.
Where AMAZON PRIME is going up $20 a year to $140, or $15 a month, as once again HBOMAX proves vindicated in believing the market would come to meet them on pricing.
Plus hey I mean AMAZON only made $33 Billion in Profit in 2021. So - ya gotta start pulling your weight around here… esp as Jeff has to pay to partially dismantle a 95 yr-old ROTTERDAM bridge to get his new $500 Million “super yacht” out. So - new price starts in your March pay-cycle (or on Feb 18 if you’re a new signup - which also just happens to be “Mrs. Maisel” day).
ALSO: PRIME now has 200 Million subscribers globally, all of whom apparently streamed something… at some point. That’s seriously all the info they put out there. 😏
But WALL STREET loves a price increase (they’re good for the extra $20), $AMZN stock popped 14% after hours.
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
SONY / MARVEL sets Dakota Johnson as lead for “Madame Web”
It’s a spin-off pic in the “Spider-Man” universe 🕸, “Madame” is character introduced in the 80s - a clairvoyant mutant who can predict the future of Spider-themed superheroes. Well that’s certainly a handy skill in the current Box Office climate.
Script is from the “Morbius” team of Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless.
SJ Clarkson is directing (she was on MARVEL’s “The Defenders” series, and directed many other shows over the past decade at HBO and otherwise). /Deadline
ALSO IN MOVIES
WB adds Fantasia to “The Color Purple” musical pic, playing “Celie” whom she played on Broadway in 2007 (and the role Whoopi played in the movie). /THR
PARAMOUNT orders another “Scream” movie. Same writing and directing teams are returning, and plan is to shoot this Summer. /THR
ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE adds locations in Chicago, Birmingham, and St. Louis, and a new “kung-fu” themed location on Staten Island (and yes RZA is involved). /Deadline
📺 THE TV SET
APPLE TV+ orders “Presumed Innocent” limited series from JJ Abrams & David E. Kelley
Based on the Scott Turow book that was a Harrison Ford movie, about what happens when a lawyer in Chicago’s Prosecutors office is suspected of a grisly murder. 8 episodes.
Kelley plans to “reimagine” it in some way as Showrunner, adding this to his… just 🤯 roster of TV projects, running 3 active projects at NETFLIX and another at PEACOCK. /THR
AMAZON orders BLUMHOUSE “The Horror of Dolores Roach” series based on the podcast
Justine Machado (“One Day at a Time”) starring, playing a woman released from prison after 16 years who is driven to extremes to survive when she links up with an old stoner buddy in her hometown of Washington Heights.
OR: “a macabre urban legend of love, betrayal, weed, gentrification, cannibalism and survival of the fittest.” #DealersChoice. /Deadline
ALSO IN TV
SUPER BOWL ads hit $7 Million for 30 seconds as all slots sell out on NBC. /THR
PARAMOUNT NETWORK renews “Yellowstone” for Season 5. Will begin shooting in May. /THR
HBO renews “Somebody, Somewhere” Bridget Everett series. /THR
DISNEY+ renews “Doogie Kamealoha MD” for Season 2. /Deadline
EPIX orders 4-part docuseries “Women Who Rock” looking at female pioneers in music, and another called “The Making of a Haunting: The Amityville Murders”. /Deadline
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
Changing #MediaNerd from 🤓 to 🥴 after a week like this
SNAP stock blows up 60% after hours
This after dropping 23% during the day, before the After-the-Bell earnings call #WallStreetSoDramatic… Basically - a lot of solid news and they surpassed expectations and forecasts.
And they had very little “we decided to blow our cash & attention on the Metaverse instead of building a viable advertising strategy for IG Reels” talk.
And… the stock had been punished quite a bit the last couple of months. Even with the insane 60% pop, it’s not even back to its price 3 weeks ago.
SOME THINGS TO NOTE:
Made a profit for the first time ever. Granted just $23 Million, and when Revenue was $1.3 Billion… it’s not even ROI that would cover the bathroom construction bill at Evan Spiegel’s new house. But hey nice not to be in the red!
TO NOTE: They still lost almost $500 Million in 2021
+13 Million Daily Active Users from Q3, and increased Daily Users 20% in 2021.
No significant mention of impact from APPLE privacy thing that is sucking $10 Billion out of FB this year - Q1 guidance was actually more optimistic than expected.
TOTALS:
DAILY ACTIVE USERS: 319 Million, 97 Million in the US
NORTH AMERICA makes up under 33% of the user base, but over 75% of revenue.
NORTH AMERICA growth was just 6% for 2021, vs 41% for REST OF WORLD.
#ARPU was $4.06 (+18% in a year), but:
NORTH AMERICA: $9.58 (+33% in 2021)
EUROPE: $2.54 (+33%)
REST OF WORLD: $1.12 (only +1%)
TAKEAWAY: Global User growth continues to impress, but they’re adding most users in the region where ARPU is stagnant… and if US growth starts to flatline, i.e. the place where SNAP makes most of its money, 2022 headwinds could look a lot different.
Basically - get moving on that “REST OF WORLD” business strategy. Or heck even just EUROPE.
STARZ Streaming hits 19.7 Million subscribers, Linear down to 11.7 Million global
STREAMING totals:
US: 11 Million, +600k in Q4
INT’L: 8.7 Million, +1.1 Million in Q4
So growth is mostly fueled by International which generally is fine for most companies… but - STARZ makes very little money from International subscribers.
STARZ Q4 REVENUE:
STARZ US (incl Streaming and Linear): $362 Million
STARZ INTERNATIONAL: $26 Million
STARZ INTERNATIONAL business actually lost $42 Million in the quarter, and is on track to lose almost 30% more money this fiscal year vs. the previous one.
And… as with most other streaming services, costs are going up across the board. STARZ 2021 Profits were down about 65% vs 2020.
LOOKING AHEAD: While STARZ is often talked of as a hot acquisition target as parent co LIONSGATE is looking for options to unleash it, this “Growth in lower-revenue International subscribers and Flat in lucrative US subscribers” reality may not garner the paycheck they’re looking for if the trends continue long into 2022.
2021 STARZ TOTAL SUBSCRIBER GROWTH (Linear & Streaming):
US: lost 100k (20.9 Million)
INTERNATIONAL: gained 4.4 Million (10.5 Million)
At STARZ Parent Co. LIONSGATE
Pretty good quarter - MOVIE biz Revenue and Profits were up, and the TV biz is on track to 2X Revenue this year - it had 6 Series orders this Fall, including Network TV’s biggest 2021 hit “Ghosts” on CBS.
No word on the whole STX Films thing as you might expect.
They lost $45 Million for the quarter, but given the STARZ $ thing, and increased production costs vs a slow Covid year - WALL STREET was happy-ish, putting the stock +4% after hours.
WWE 2X+’s reach on PEACOCK vs their own streaming service
3.5 Million of PEACOCK PREMIUM’s 16 Million subscribers watched WWE content in 2021 (although no indication how many watch it monthly). The WWE Streaming service peaked at around 1.5 Million subs total before it ended.
Their deal has 4 years left as of this April.
WWE hit $1.1 Billion in annual revenue, its best year ever, with $260 Million in Profit.
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
FACEBOOK essentially bummed the market out at -26% ($237.76), the biggest one-day wipeout of value in history, at $230+ Billion…
But today should be just as nutty given the After Hours action last night.
SPOTIFY -17% ($159.76)
PINTEREST -10% ($24.51)
ROBLOX -8% ($60.67)
VIMEO -8% ($13.40)
ROKU -7% ($145.28)
NETFLIX -5% ($405.60)
WARNER MUSIC -5% ($40.64)
TWITTER -5% ($34.48)
If you don’t already SUBSCRIBE - here’s where you do it:
👩💻 THE FSS FEED:
(new Stuff to Watch this weekend, Friday - Saturday - Sunday)
FRIDAY
IN THEATERS:
PARAMOUNT “Jackass Forever” - Only in Theaters
LIONSGATE “Moonfall” - Only in Theaters
Of Note Eh?: Theaters re-open at 50% capacity in CANADA’s Ontario province (Toronto).
STREAMING:
MOVIES
AMAZON PRIME “I Want You Back” - Romcom with Jenny Slate & Charlie Day. STREAM HERE
SERIES
APPLE TV+ “Suspicion” - Uma Thurman series, 8 episodes - 2 eps drop today. STREAM HERE
AMAZON PRIME “Reacher” series drops - STREAM HERE
AMAZON PRIME “Phat Tuesdays” - Docuseries about the legendary Black comedy night at The Comic Strip in LA. STREAM HERE
NETFLIX “Steel Magnolias” Season 2. STREAM HERE
TV:
NBC WINTER OLYMPICS opening ceremony at 8p
SATURDAY
ABC - NHL ALL-STAR game at 3p
NBC - More OLYMPICS
SUNDAY
New “60 Minutes” at 7p
ESPN NFL Pro Bowl at 3p
STARZ “Power Book IV: Force” - Premieres at 915p
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
PEACOCK “Joe vs Carole” series trailer - Premieres Thu March 3
EPIX “Billy the Kid” series trailer - Premieres Sun Apr 24
NETFLIX 2022 Movie Image spot - Where… the actors break the 4th wall and talk to you at various points “in scene” . Well that’s new. New movie every week this year, and hard to beat this star firepower.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
As DOLLY PARTON is hosting the CMA’s on AMAZON PRIME March 7th… this seemed like an appropriate choice.
If you need some new tunes:
Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM