Thanksgiving box-office down 46% vs 2019
ESPN distribution takes a big hit vs 2020 / Movie theater stocks take Omicron hit / LICORICE PIZZA has huge NY - LA debut weekend
Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY November 29, 2021.
Where if you’ve often seen The Rock in his pickup truck on his social channels… you won’t anymore - he gave it away to a deserving fan as a surprise after a “Red Notice” showing last week. See? The things you just don’t get in streaming…
AND - He was also able to throw some INSTA shade at a (likely former) company he worked with on “Red Notice”.
My original idea was to give away the Porsche Taycan, that I drive in the movie, Red Notice.
So we reached out to Porsche, but they said no.But I still said, yes 😉
I’ll do one better.
ALSO: Pretty light weekend as one would expect… so this’ll be quick. Which gives me plenty of time to enjoy the 90 days of free AMAZON MUSIC that I got for buying one $30 item on Black Friday weekend (I currently do not have a PRIME account, so AMAZON is really just giving this away to everyone it seems).
📽 THE SILVER SCREEN
BOX OFFICE (Wed-Sun grosses)
“Encanto” : $40 Million ($70 Million global)
An OK number… but nowhere near “Coco” or especially “Frozen” numbers, although it didn’t seem like DISNEY gave it the marketing budget of either
52% of audience was Latino
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” : $35 Million ($88 Million US, $116 Million global)
Positive T-Giving showing, and no new competition next weekend either. Global numbers could use a pop tho.
Only $7.5 Million total is IMAX (hence the shift back to “Dune” this Friday)
“House of Gucci” : $22 Million ($35 Million global)
Audience was 60% female
“Eternals” : $11 Million ($160 Million US, $368 Million global)
“Resident Evil: Racoon City” : $9 Million ($14 Million global)
“Clifford the Big Red Dog” : $7 Million ($43 Million US)
“King Richard” : $5 Million ($11.5 Million US, $16.6 Million global)
No huge Thanksgiving weekend bump… WB won’t come close to even making back Will Smith’s payday alone on this one.
ELSEWHERE AT THE BOX OFFICE
“Dune” crossed $100 Million in the US
“Licorice Pizza” had a huge $84k per screen average… across 4 screens. Had a $335k total
“Belfast” hit $1.3 Million, now at $5 Million US total.
“The French Dispatch” hit $853k, now at $14.4 Million US total
“Spencer” looks like it’ll top out around $7 Million, but is also now avail on PVOD.
Weekend Box Office was down 46% vs 2019 Thanksgiving (led by “Frozen 2” and “Knives Out”).
📺 THE TV SET
Quiet day. Thanks Ross. But a couple of ratings numbers:
NBC’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade had 21.7 Million viewers, which is basically what it got last year. /Deadline
CBS had the biggest audience for a regular season NFL game since 1990 - initial fast estimate is 38.5 Million watched the tight COWBOYS vs RAIDERS game at 430p on Thanksgiving. The game also had the most penalties of any game since 2016. /Yahoo Sports
💻 THE MEDIA BIZ
ESPN distribution has gone from over 100 Million to 76 Million in roughly a decade
More startling, it was in 84 Million Cable TV (and digital streaming bundle) households just one year ago (this is 76 Million number is as of October according to a company filing). Any bets where it’s at come 2030?
The company now has 17 Million ESPN+ streaming subscribers globally to go with the 76 Million Cable/streaming bundle households, but makes far more per cable customer vs streaming customer. /Deadline
Other losses from Oct 2020 to Oct 2021:
ESPNU went from 62 Million to 51 Million
ESPN NEWS from 62 Million to 59 Million
(ESPN CLASSIC is RIP as of Jan 1)
🏦 STOCK NOTES:
LIONSGATE was down 4.5% ($14.84)
AMC NETWORKS down almost 5% ($39.26)
IMAX down 7% ($17.17), CINEWORLD down 8% ($.67), CINEMARK down %5 ($16.00). #ThanksOmicron!
👩💻 NEW TO WATCH:
ESPN Monday Night Football - SEAHAWKS at WASHINGTON starts at 815p
ABC “CMA Country Christmas” at 8p
NBC “That’s My Jam” - new Jimmy Fallon led music competition show at 10p
If you were sent this newsletter or… just kinda found it:
🎥 TRAILER HOUSE
NBC “This Is Us” final season trailer - Premieres Thu Jan 4
EPIX “From” series trailer - Small town in middle America that traps anyone who enters. Except for the creatures that come out at night - they seem to come and go as they like. Premieres Sun Feb 20
PARAMOUNT+ “Rumble” trailer - About an underdog wrestler (Will Arnett) in a monster wrestling league. Was previously slated for theaters last summer, now dropping on the PAR+ on Wed Dec 15.
🕵️♂️ THE WEEK AHEAD
TUE - Mel Brooks memoir “All About Me!” hits shelves
WED - NBC Rockefeller Christmas Tree at 8p, followed by a Kelly Clarkson Christmas special
THU - PEACOCK “Baking It” holiday food competition series premieres, hosted by Maya Rudolph & Andy Samberg
FRI - “Dune” is coming back to IMAX screens. IMAX represents 13% of the film’s global total, and 20% of its US total thus far.
🎧 PLAYING ME OFF
FOGHAT“Slow Ride” - This one goes out to producer Don Phillips who died over the weekend at 80 years old - an influential casting director and producer who either discovered or fostered a lot of young talent in the 80’s and 90’s, including on “Dazed & Confused”, giving big early roles to McConaughey and Affleck in the same pic.
If you need new tunes:
Email me anytime - just reply to this email, or connect here on LINKED IN.
-SEAN MCNULTY
@theseanmac on TWITTER
@TheWakeupNews on INSTAGRAM