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Every Sunday, more than 60,000 film industry professionals read the Screendollars Newsletter to follow the weekend box office results, stay current with the latest studio release calendar and catch up on the most important industry news stories from the week.
PROPOSED $43B MERGER OF AT&T'S WARNER MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT ASSETS & DISCOVERY INC. IS WIN-WIN FOR PRINCIPALS & LIKELY WIN FOR EXHIBITION. NEW PUBLICLY HELD ENTITY WILL NEED TO MAKE ITS THEATRICAL MOVIE BUSINESS WORK – UNLIKE AT&T, WHERE PHONE BUSINESS REVENUES TOTALLY DWARF EVERYTHING ELSE. STAND-ALONE VENTURE HAS PROJECTED REVENUES FOR 2023 OF ABOUT $52B WITH $15B+ TO COME FROM DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER STREAMING...
SPINOFF WILL HAVE HUGE ADVANTAGE OF BEING ABLE TO SHOWCASE DISCOVERY'S WEALTH OF ORIGINAL CONTENT ON HBO MAX. STREAMERS KNOW ORIGINAL IP IS WHAT RETAINS SUBSCRIBERS. ORIGINAL HITS LIKE MARVEL'S "THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER" & "LOKI" ARE DRIVING DISNEY+, NOT THEATRICAL MOVIES LIKE "RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON" OR "MULAN."...
BETWEEN WARNER MEDIA & DISCOVERY, SOME 200,000 HOURS OF PROGRAMMING WILL BE AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON HBO MAX. AMONG SOME 100 BRANDS FROM BOTH PARTNERS: WB, DISCOVERY, DC COMICS, HBO, CNN, CARTOON NETWORK, HGTV, FOOD NETWORK, TNT & TBS...
DISCOVERY CONTENT (CURRENT & LIBRARY) SHOULD QUICKLY BECOME NAME OF GAME AT HBO MAX, REDUCING PRESSURE TO GO DAY-AND-DATE WITH WB EVENT FILMS LIKE "GODZILLA VS. KONG" TO TRY TO ATTRACT SUBSCRIBERS. STREAMERS KNOW THAT ALTHOUGH TENTPOLES DRAW SUBS, ONCE PEOPLE HAVE SEEN BIG TITLE THAT BROUGHT THEM IN, MANY EXIT TO AVOID PAYING STEEP MONTHLY FEES -- $14.99 FOR HBO MAX – AND DON'T RETURN UNTIL THERE'S SOMETHING ELSE THEY REALLY WANT TO SEE...
DISCOVERY PRESIDENT & CEO DAVID ZASLAV WILL NEED TO MEND FENCES THAT WARNER MEDIA MANAGEMENT NEEDLESSLY DESTROYED WITH HOLLYWOOD COMMUNITY – INCLUDING, TALENT AGENCIES, HIGH PROFILE FILMMAKERS (LIKE "TENET'S" CHRISTOPHER NOLAN) & EXHIBITORS. WITH NEW ENTITY & NEW MANAGEMENT IN PLACE – WATCH FOR STUDIO CHANGES DESPITE ROUTINE REASSURANCES NOW – RECOVERY SHOULD BE POSSIBLE AS U.S. CINEMAS REOPEN & MOVIEGOERS RETURN...
CINEMAS START REOPENING IN UK TODAY (5/17) & IN FRANCE WEDNESDAY (5/19) AFTER BEING SHUT FOR OVER SIX MONTHS. INITIAL CAPACITY LIMITS ARE 50% IN UK & 35% IN FRANCE (WITH MAXIMUM OF 800 PEOPLE). FRANCE WILL EXPAND CAPACITY 6/9 TO 65% & WILL END 800 MAX 6/30. STUDIOS SHOULD SEE GLOBAL BOOST FROM RETURN OF TWO TOP EUROPEAN MARKETS AS STRONG MOVIEGOING RECOVERY CONTINUES IN CHINA...
SUMMER CONTINUES TO LOOK PROMISING AS TWO NEW TITLES OPENING 6/16 HIT TRACKING TODAY. SONY/MRC'S PG ANIMATED COMEDY ADVENTURE "PETER RABBIT 2: THE RUNAWAY" HAS AVERAGE DEFINITE INTEREST SCORE THREE POINTS OVER NORM. TOP DEMO: -25M (FIVE POINTS OVER NORM). FIRST "PR" OPENED 2/9/18 TO $25M & DID $115.3M/DOM + $236M/INT = $351.3M/WW. REPORTEDLY COST $50M TO MAKE...
LIONSGATE/MILLENNIUM'S ACTION CRIME COMEDY SEQUEL "THE HITMAN'S WIFE'S BODYGUARD" HAS AVERAGE DEFINITE INTEREST SCORE SIX POINTS OVER NORM. TOP DEMO: +25M (SEVEN POINTS OVER NORM) & +25F (EIGHT POINTS OVER NORM) ARE NEARLY EQUALLY STRONG. DIRECTED BY PATRICK HUGHES ("THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD"), IT STARS RYAN REYNOLDS, SALMA HAYEK & SAMUEL L. JACKSON. FIRST "BODYGUARD" OPENED 8/18/17 TO $21.4M & DID $75.5M/DOM + $101.1M/INT = $176.6M/WW. REPORTEDLY COST $30M TO MAKE...
