Gal Gadot’s Heart of Stone and 109M
(Today’s edition is abridged as we wind down for Memorial Day)
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Netflix is engaged, Dennis Quaid has substance, Michel Gondry’s solutions, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice and a donkey named Napoleon.
Let’s go!
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Netflix released its second engagement report that detailed the number of hours each of its shows/films had been viewed in the last six months of 2023.
It continues to be a moment of slightly obfuscated transparency (films that debuted six months ago will have had more runway to rack up views). Netflix ultimately wins as their numbers dwarf everyone in the industry.
Top 5 most watched movies, ranked by views:
121 M - Leave the World Behind
109 M - Heart of Stone (congrats Tom)
83 M - The Out-Laws
It’s great to see Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, Adam Sandler, and Pierce Brosnan at the top of the ranking of Netflix’s most-watched stars. If those watch hours were translated into Hollywood box-office dollars, the world would be a different place.
Netflix, looking to bring more titles to its arsenal, bought one of the first major Palme d’Or contenders at Cannes, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, for $12M.
Netflix also paid $34M for Monsanto, a Michael Clayton-style film starring Glen Powell, Anthony Mackie, and Laura Dern.
Lionsgate cuts Starz and its losses. Lionsgate, now separated from Starz, has posted strong (fiscal) Q4 2024 numbers.
Here’s a breakdown:
$1.1bn revenue
↑ 3%
$39.5 M loss
59% reduction
$469.3 M TV revenue
↑ 61%
$410 M Movie revenue
↓ 23%
Jon Feltheimer CEO of Lionsgate stated:
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we also made some lower budget movies specifically for Starz…And we’re talking about that and thinking about the calculus for how that works.” The Lionsgate Studios separation from Starz is expected to be finalized at the end of the year.
Paramount Global agreed to a new deal with Charter Communications—a leading provider of cable TV and internet services.
Key points: Charter gets free, Ad-supported versions of:
Paramount+ Essential
BET+ Essential
Carriage negotiations, which determine the terms under which a cable operator like Charter can broadcast a content provider's channels, are critical as Charter currently distributes Paramount’s content to its 32 M subscribers.
The agreement averted immediate programming disruptions. And it was a big post-Bob Barish win for Paramount.
Tidbit: