Today In Entertainment

DECEMBER 07, 2020

What's news: Universal emerges as box office hero, The Croods wins a muted weekend, Bob Dylan sells his entire catalog to Universal Music, advertising market recovering faster than expected, Hulu's ad sales chief jumps to Discovery, Writers Guild says federal court cant end agency boycott. Plus: Netflix won't be adding a disclaimer to The Crown, and ACE has a new president. --Alex Weprin

 Universal Emerges As Box Office Lifeline

►Universal supplants Warner Bros. as Hollywood's box office hero. The Comcast-owned studio had been public enemy No. 1 after shortening the theatrical window to 17 days — until Warners came along and announced Dec. 3 that it will debut its entire 2021 slate on HBO Max and in cinemas simultaneously, Pamela McClintock writes.

--Warners didn't bring any exhibitors on board before issuing its proclamation. Universal, conversely, struck a key deal with market leader AMC Theaters before announcing its new PVOD strategy, "Universal, just a short while ago, was the enemy of the biz. With the Warner move, Universal has moved from the outhouse to the penthouse," says one rival studio executive. The story.

+Box office: Universal and DreamWorks Animation's The Croods: A New Age topped another tough weekend at the North American box office with $4.4 million for a 10-day domestic total of $20.4 million amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Focus Features, Universal's specialty label, took the No. 2 spot with the comedy Half Brothers, which debuted to $720,000. Blumhouse and Universal's Freaky came in third with $460,000 in its fourth weekend for a domestic cume of $7.7 million and $13.3 million globally.

+China box office: Tencent's big-budget video game adaptation Monster Hunter was yanked from cinemas one day into its release over a scene local audiences decried as derogatory. Domestic fantasy features The End of Endless Love and Soul Snatcher then took advantage of the breach, pulling in strong earnings of $22.6 million and $19.5 million, respectively. More.

 Bob Dylan Mega-Deal

►Bob Dylan has sold his entire catalog to Universal Music. The "landmark agreement encompasses more than 600 copyrights spanning 60 years, from 1962's cultural milestone 'Blowin' In The Wind' to this year's epic 'Murder Most Foul'," the music major said. Financial terms weren't disclosed, though the deal is reportedly worth as much as $300 million, according to Bloomberg.

--"To represent the body of work of one of the greatest songwriters of all time – whose cultural importance can't be overstated – is both a privilege and a responsibility." said UMPG chairman amd CEO Jody Gerson. "We look forward to working with Bob and the team in ensuring his artistry continues to reach and inspire generations of fans, recording artists and songwriters around the world." The details.

►On Saturday Night Live: SNL marked its return after nearly a month-long hiatus, starting the show with the recent Michigan hearings on alleged election fraud in the presidential election being the focus for its Dec. 5 cold open... In his monologue, host Jason Bateman discussed a sketch from his first SNL hosting gig, which starred a chimpanzee... 

--In a meta move, the episode poked fun at Morgan Wallen’s controversy from earlier in the season, when he was last-minute replaced as musical guest after photos leaked of him partying and not following the show’s strict COVID-19 safety rules.... Pete Davidson performed a Christmas-themed parody of Eminem's 2000 single "Stan" with help from the rapper himself...

►Writers Guild says federal court can't end boycott of CAA, WME agents. The union tells a federal judge he lacks jurisdiction to issue an injunction being requested by the two talent agencies. Eriq Gardner has the story.

 Advertising Rebound?

►The global advertising market is recovering faster than expected. Zenith's Advertising Expenditure Forecasts report, released on Sunday, estimates the global ad spend will shrink by 7.5 percent in 2020 to $587 billion, down from an earlier 9.1 percent drop predicted in July 2020. And Magna's latest advertising forecasts projects total global advertising revenues for linear and digital for 2020 will fall by $25 million, or 4.2 percent, to down to $569 billion, a smaller decline than a 7.2 percent fall predicted in June 2020. The story.

+Another major Hulu departure: Hulu's national ad sales chief Jim Keller is departing Disney to join Discovery Inc., where he will lead ad sales for Discovery+, as well as the company's other digital advertising efforts. More.

►To disclaim, or not to disclaim? As calls for Netflix to add a disclaimer to its royal series The Crown continue, the streaming service revealed that it has no plans and sees no reason to do so. "We have always presented The Crown as a drama - and we have every confidence our members understand it's a work of fiction that's broadly based on historical events. As a result we have no plans - and see no need - to add a disclaimer," a Netflix spokesperson tells THR.  The response comes shortly after U.K. culture secretary Oliver Dowden called on Netflix to add a "health warning" making it clear that it was a drama. The story.

►New ACE chief: Oscar nominated film editor Kevin Tent, a longtime collaborator of Alexander Payne on movies including Election, Sideways and The Descendants, has been elected to a two-year term as president of honorary society American Cinema Editors. He succeeds Stephen Rivkin, the Oscar-nominated editor of Avatar who served as president since 2016 and has reached his term limit. Rivkin is currently working on Jim Cameron's Avatar sequels. More.

►Film review: David Rooney reviews Education, the final film in Steve McQueen's Small Axe anthology, writing that "with its crisp narrative economy, tender emotional insight and gentle depiction of the sturdy bonds of a struggling working class family, the original script by McQueen and Alastair Siddons plays almost like a YA adaptation, in the best possible way." The review.

►Obituary: David L. Lander, who played Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman for all eight seasons of the popular ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley, has died. He was 73. The obituary.

+Related: Of all the hilarious moments in the beloved series Laverne & Shirley, Lander's Squiggy had arguably one of the all-time greatest. More.

In other news...

--Amazon and MGM announced a cloud computing deal that will see the studio search for "new revenue opportunities" using the tech giant's services.

--Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle paid tribute to fellow Marvel star Chadwick Boseman during the MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time, which aired Sunday night.

--President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday morning that he intends to name California Attorney General Xavier Becerra secretary of Health & Human Services.

--How Veep wrangled Bryan Cranston, Mark Hamill and more starry cameos for Georgia event.

--A regional state stay-at-home order went into effect for Southern California and San Joaquin Valley at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday amid rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

--Downtown Disney and a portion of California Adventure will continue to operate, however, some locations will be closed after the stay-at-home order had been triggered.

--Jeremih has been released from a Chicago hospital after spending weeks battling COVID-19.

--Whitney Collings, who starred in season three of the Oxygen network reality television show Bad Girls Club, died Thursday at a hospital near her hometown of Boston. She was 33.

--The Goonies gang reunited for a virtual fundraiser this Saturday to benefit No Kid Hungry and its work feeding kids and families amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

What else we're reading...

--"The home of the Sopranos is under siege: Inside the battle for the soul of HBO" [CNBC]

--"Candice Bergen, woman who's had it all" [NY Times]

--"OnlyFans is a billion-dollar media giant hiding in plain sight" [Bloomberg]

--"Warner Bros. has changed the game on movie windows, but consumers will have the last word" [CNN Business]

Today's birthdays: Noam Chomsky, 92, Aaron Carter, 33, Larry Bird, 64, Caleb Landry Jones, 31, Nicholas Hoult, 31.

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DECEMBER 07, 2020

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