THE BATMAN shows impressive hold at the Box Office

POWER OF THE DOG sweeps big Award wins / Joe Buck likely leaving FOX SPORTS / NETFLIX getting Guy Ritchie series

Mar 14, 2022

Mornin! This is Sean McNulty and here’s the Hollywood + Media news to know on MONDAY March 14, 2022.

Where Tom Brady apparently watched “Dazed and Confused” over the weekend and thought “man, Affleck’s character is the coolest…” as he decided to come back to the NFL & TAMPA BAY in the Fall for another year, un-retiring less than 2 months after retiring.

So get ready for yet another year of 🙄 “is this his last year” conversations on NFL telecasts all year long. For being one of the best ever at reading defenses… those skills don’t extend to reading a room.

AND: Jane Campion took home the DGA Award for “The Power of the Dog” 🏆, which is probably the top Guild-to-OSCAR indicator Award, as the DGA winner has differed from the Best Director OSCAR winner just 7 times in the past 72 years. Full list in the link but other winners incl:

LIMITED SERIES: Barry Jenkins, “The Underground Railroad”
TV COMEDY: Lucia Aniello, “Hacks”; TV DRAMA: Mark Myelod, “Succession”

ALSO: “The Power of the Dog” took the top awards at the BAFTA’s as well… and the CRITICS CHOICE awards to boot. So this plus “CODA” strong SAG showing… seems to have given the OSCAR race some needed focus.

PLUS: Alec Baldwin made a move in the “Rust” case “for his fellow producers to bear his legal fees and other financial costs” saying that his contract insulates him from liability.

📽 THE SILVER SCREEN

eh this still works. and will next week too. via giphy

BOX OFFICE

“The Batman” : $66 Million ($239 Million US, $400 Million Global)
- Technically a 50% drop… but if you remove the “preview” box office $ last week, it’s only down 40% and had huge weekday business too.
- Hits CHINA on Friday
“Uncharted” : $9.2 Million ($113 Million US)
- Very modest 17% drop from last weekend
“BTS Permission to Dance” : $6.8 Million
- The fans showed up! Impressive tally from only 803 theaters on just Saturday night… although granted - tix were $35.
“Dog” : $5.3 Million ($48 Million US)
- Chan Fans still showing up as well - very slight 13% drop even though the film came to PVOD $20 home rental this weekend.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” : $4 Million ($792 Million US)

Shawn Levy directing “Deadpool 3” at DISNEYFOX

Franchise screenwriters Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick are currently at work on the script, but no word on any plot direction.

3rd pic in a row for Shawn and Ryan Reynolds (“Free Guy”, “The Adam Project”). /THR

SEARCHLIGHT putting 3 pics on HULU this Summer

“Fire Island” - Comedy with Bowen Yang, Joel Kim Booster and Margaret Cho set on the famous Summer getaway off Long Island, described as a “gay take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.” Fri June 3
“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” - Sex comedy with Emma Thompson that was picked up at SUNDANCE this year. Fri June 17
“Not Okay” - Stars Zoey Deutch and Dylan O’Brien, about an aspiring writer who fakes an Insta trip to Paris… when a major incident happens there IRL and… things get complicated. Fri Aug 5 /Deadline

📺 THE TV SET

the Guy Ritchie writing mantra. Via giphy

NETFLIX looks to be the home for that Guy Ritchie “The Gentlemen” series

Described as “in negotiations”, Guy co-wrote the pilot and would direct the first 2 episodes.

Presumably this would have a new cast but no word in that regard. Movie grossed $115 Million globally for STX. /Deadline

ALSO IN TV

NETFLIX cancels “The Babysitters Club” after 2 seasons. /Deadline

💻 THE MEDIA BIZ

gotta say, that’s pretty good. via Giphy

Joe Buck likely leaving FOX SPORTS for ESPN

This Fall will likely see the biggest change-ups in NFL sports broadcasting talent since Madden & Summerall went to FOX in the 90s 🎙.

Joe will likely now be the voice of MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, along with Troy Aikman who already reportedly has a contract there. Add in the Manningcast… and ESPN will be paying $50 Million a year for broadcaster talent alone in 2022.

Al Michaels is also looking for a new home from NBC SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. Was though to be close to an AMAZON payday for THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL but now with these FOX moves… who knows. /NY Post

PEACOCK baseball deal looks to be for a new Sunday MLB game package

This instead of the Monday & Wednesday games that was earlier reported by the NY POST. That package looks to now be still available.

The 18 exclusive-to-PEACOCK Sunday games would all be in the early afternoon or even pre-noon timeframe (ESPN airs Sunday Night games), no word on price. /WSJ

ALSO IN MEDIA

EWs Lynette Rice joins DEADLINE as writer and TV Awards Editor. /Deadline
HULU + LIVE TV making your virtual DVR Unlimited starting on April 13, matches what YOUTUBE TV already does. /Deadline
CNN+ launching on Tue March 29… just under the Q1 line. /Variety

🏦 STOCK NOTES:

VIMEO -8% ($11.14)

ROKU -6% ($103.85)

SPOTIFY -6% (124.29)

AMC THEATERS -6% ($14.30

SNAP -5% ($30.05)

ROBLOX -5% ($39.24)

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👩‍💻 NEW TO WATCH:

Nothing new, but you can check out certainly one of my all-time favorites “Broadcast News” here on HBOMAX (or you can borrow my DVD) in honor of William Hurt, who died yesterday at the age of 71 due to complications from prostate cancer.

🕵️‍♀️ THE WEEK AHEAD

TUE - “Young Rock” and “Mr. Mayor” return to NBC

THU - MARCH MADNESS begins… on St Patrick’s Day. This should be interesting. Here’s what this year’s bracket looks like

FRI - HULU drops the Ben Affleck / Ana de Armas erotic thriller “Deep Water”

🎥 TRAILER HOUSE

PEACOCK “Girls5Eva” Season 2 scene - Drops on Thu May 5, with Amy Sedaris & Neil Flynn joining the show as Busy Phillips’s character’s parents. Ah wait - 5/5, I get it.

AMAZON PRIME “The Boys” Season 3 teaser - Though I guess you’d really call this more of a music video? With a higher ratio of bodies exploding than most videos… Premieres June 3