THU 1.28.21 : BRIDGERTON audience growth / Ton of TV Series renewals / FB user # news / WARNER MEDIA takes huge write downs and more.
Mornin! It’s THURSDAY January 28th, 2021. Where Apple took in $111 Billion dollars in just the last 3 Months of 2020. So yeah those 5 extra months of APPLE TV+ they just gave to current subscribers for free… probably not gonna hurt the bottom line.
Email me at Wakeupodcast@gmail.com with any ideas to make this email work better for ya. Or with any stock tips about video game retail stores. - Sean
MUSIC TO READ BY
CANNONS “Fire for You” Apple Music / Spotify / YouTube
This song topped BILLBOARD’s alternative chart this week, and I’m kinda diggin it for chill vibes to read by.
And if you haven't yet… do this now to get the newsletter each AM between 8-830a 🙏
THE SILVER SCREEN
± Another day with a lotta quick Movie things to know:
Cannes Film Fest pushes back to July. Get ready to fly July 4th weekend… new dates: July 6 - 17th.
PARAMOUNT / WWE Studios moves animated monster wrestling movie “Rumble” from May 14th to Feb 2022.
Dennis Quaid starring in MGM faith-based movie “On a Wing and a Prayer”. Produced by Roma Downey. A father must land a plane to save his family when the pilot dies mid-flight. Based on true story.
A24 buys Tilda Swinton movie “The Eternal Daughter”. Mother/Daughter confront secrets when they visit their former house. Shot in the pandemic.
THE TV SET
“Bridgerton” sets NETFLIX “viewing” record. 82 million households watched at least 2 minutes of it. And I think I have a pretty good idea which 2 minutes were watched most. #episode5
HBOMax exploring animated “GOT” spinoff. Between this story, the “Harry Potter” TV show ‘early development’, and the “GOT: Tales of Dunk & Egg” ‘exploration’… clearly a Hollywood journalist has hacked the calendar of an HBOMax development exec. OR… WarnerMedia is really trying to find ways to keep HBOMax in the chatter around town.
SERIES RENEWAL NEWS
HULU ending “Shrill” after season 3. That’ll air this Spring TBD.
FREEFORM renews “The Bold Type” for 5th and final sesaon. Will air later in 2021.
SUNDANCE CHANNEL gives season 2 to shortform series “State of the Union”. Will star Brendan Gleeson & Patricia Clarkson. (S1 was Rosamund Pike & Chris O’Dowd). Nick Hornby writing, Stephen Frears directing again.
FOX gives season 2 to “I Can See Your Voice” singing game show.
CBS renews “Love Island” for a 3rd season. It’ll return to an actual island this time, shooting in Hawaii. Season 2 was shot on the island of… Las Vegas.
Chuck Lorre will run CBS Thursday Nights starting April 1. All 4 shows (“Young Sheldon” “B Positive” “Mom” and new show “United States of Al”) are run by Chuck. CBS waiting to see if he has a take on a CSI for 10pm slot.
TV CASTING NEWS
Dylan McDermott joining new “Law & Order: Organized Crime” opposite Chris Meloni on NBC. Show to premiere later 2021.
Pamela Adlon & Rhys Wakefield (“True Detective”) joining “The First Lady” anthology series at SHOWTIME. Both will be in the Betty Ford storyline (Rhys playing Dick Cheney. Michelle Pfeiffer already cast as Ford).
Jason Scott Lee gonna play the dad in “Doogie Kamealoha MD” at DISNEY+. (aka the Doogie Howser reboot)
AND JUST GONNA PUT THIS HERE… Seth Rogen is releasing book about his early years in Hollywood in May called “Year Book”.
THE MEDIA BIZ
± FACEBOOK took in $28 Billion in 3 months, profit of $11.2 Billion (Deadline)
1.84 billion people used FACEBOOK daily in the Oct thru Dec period (+ 11% from end of 2019). 2.8 billion people use it monthly. Monopoly? What monopoly?
No specific numbers were broken out for INSTAGRAM.
Upcoming limitations on Ad Tracking from Apple and Google leave some uncertainty in their 2021 revenue projections.
± WARNER MEDIA makes Huge write-offs in Earnings call. (THR)
First, writing off $520 million dollars from lost 2021 box office for putting all of their movies on HBOMax this year (and… those deal payouts to talent. Hi Denzel). And just the fact that nobody’s going back to the movie theater for a while regardless.
Second, writing off $15.5 Billion from the valuation of DirecTV. Essentially saying DirecTV is now worth $15 billion dollars less than the $49 Bil they paid for it in 2014 ($66 bil including acquired debt).
DirecTV lost 3 million subscribers in 2020. Profit margins per subscriber have gone from mid 20% when they bought it to… 8%.
AT&T currently trying to sell a big stake in it. Not getting a ton of phone calls returned.
Also - an Advertiser-supported version of HBOMAX coming in the Spring (not clarified if free or subscription. probably subscription).
SEPARATELY BUT RELATED: If you’re a SLING customer, prices are going up.
PEACOCK hit 33 million account signups from its April launch through this week. Adding 5 million over the past 6 weeks or so. Aka THE OFFICE signup bump.
Still no info on # of Monthly users, or number of paid subscribers PEACOCK has.
± Select ENTERTAINMENT BIZ stocks are going crazy on Wall Street.
For seemingly…. no real reason.
LIONSGATE is +80% since Christmas… 1 month ago. DISCOVERY +60%. VIACOMCBS +60%. And not even gonna get into wtf is happening at AMC Networks the past month. or week:
Totally possible people are confusing it with the AMC movie theater chain, who just got financing to avoid bankruptcy. And whose stock price was up 300%… in one day yesterday.
Each company has a nascent or about to launch streaming business (PARAMOUNT+, DISCOVERY+, and LIONSGATE owns STARZ), but there’s been no material business/subscriber/revenue news about any of them in the past month.
The market is hitting a crazy level of volatility… likely thanks to riskier and less experienced Reddit and Robinhood day trading hitting a fever pitch. Which has always ended well before.
Case in point: Robinhood sent this out to its users last night.
GET 20% OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER of DEVOCION COFFEE : the Freshest Colombian Coffee experience you can have… without flying to Colombia.
They FedEx coffee beans from Bogota to their Brooklyn roastery every week so the coffee in your cup goes from Colombia to your mug in as little as 10 days (!!!). Taste what truly fresh coffee tastes like. They ship to all 50 states with a great deal:
FREE SHIPPING when you order just $50 worth.
And get 20% OFF YOUR FIRST ORDER - enter code WAKEUP at checkout.
PLUS 3 NEW YORK CITY locations to get a cup of coffee + bags of beans, 7 days a week IRL:
Flatiron District (E 20th at Broadway)
Downtown Brooklyn (Livingston at Bond)
Williamsburg Brooklyn (Grand at Wythe St)
Have some fun with your morning! And explore the best flavors that only truly fresh coffee can offer with Devocion Coffee.
TRAILER HOUSE:
nil
NEW TO WATCH
Nothin’ new.
But it’s Day 1 for the SUNDANCE FILM FEST, goes thru Wednesday Feb 3. Everything is screening virtually if you’re looking for things to do from your home in the great East Coast freeze this weekend.
And I’ll finish with a cheers to Cloris Leachman, so many great roles… even if the two that live in my head the most… are “The Facts of Life” and “Beerfest”. But that probably says a lot more about me really. Rest in Peace gam gam. And this just makes me smile a little bit.
Have a great day ya’ll - Share the newsletter here - one click! I should really patent that phrase…
See ya’s tomarrah!
-Sean McNulty
Listen to THE WAKEUP as a Daily AM Podcast: SPOTIFY APPLE STITCHER GOOGLE iHEART OVERCAST or just search “The Wakeup” wherever you listen.