🎬 Playing It Safe

👋 Good morning! Emmy season is in full swing, and this past weekend, the industry's unsung heroes had their moment to shine at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Always held the weekend before the main ceremony, these awards honor the behind-the-scenes professionals crucial to television production—from makeup artists to sound editors. Check out a list of winners here. 👈👀

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🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• DirecTV-Disney Drama Escalates

• Vertical Series Surge

• Hollywood Plays It Safe

• Last Looks: 👀 Bite-sized scoops on developing stories/projects

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Martini Shot 🍸

But first, let’s take a look at what happened at the box office this past weekend!

LAST WEEKEND’S
🎟️ BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN 🎟️

1. 🦇 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: $110M domestic opening, $145.4M global debut. Tim Burton's long-awaited sequel exceeds expectations, scoring an A- CinemaScore and 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. Second-highest September opening ever, behind only 2017's ‘It’ ($123.4M).

2. 🦸‍♂️ Deadpool & Wolverine: $7.2M domestic weekend (-53%), $614M domestic total, $1.29B global. Now the 23rd highest-grossing film of all time globally.

3. 🇺🇸 Reagan: $5.2M domestic weekend (-32%), $18.5M domestic total. Strong hold for the biopic.

4. 👽 Alien: Romulus: $3.9M domestic weekend (-58%), $97.2M domestic total, $314.4M global. Crossed $300M globally and $100M in China.

5. ❤️ It Ends With Us: $3.75M domestic weekend (-49%), $141.3M domestic total, $309.4M global. Crossed $300M milestone globally.

6. 🙏 The Forge: $2.94M domestic weekend (-36%), $20.8M domestic total. Solid hold for faith-based drama.

7. 🌪️ Twisters: $2.25M domestic weekend (-71%), $264.6M domestic total. Sharp drop likely due to Beetlejuice competition.

8. 👀 Blink Twice: $2.1M domestic weekend (-56%), $20.29M domestic total.

9. 🟡 Despicable Me 4: $1.8M domestic weekend (-56%), $357.8M domestic total.

10. 🏠 The Front Room: $1.7M domestic opening. A24's horror film stumbles with poor reviews and word-of-mouth.

The Big Picture: 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' dominated the weekend, accounting for nearly 75% of all ticket sales and pushing the total box office to $150M, up 60% from last year. However, 2024 is still trailing 2023 by 13% year-to-date. The sequel’s phenomenal opening weekend can be attributed to a perfect storm of factors. Pre-release demand for the film tracked similarly to box office juggernaut 'Deadpool & Wolverine,' indicating strong audience anticipation. The sequel's cast, particularly Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega, generated significant buzz, appealing to both nostalgic fans and younger audiences. Horror-comedies typically outperform other genres in terms of demand, and September has proven to be an ideal release window for horror-adjacent films, avoiding October's crowded market. This combination of star power, genre appeal, and strategic timing, coupled with the enduring popularity of the original film, set 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' up for its impressive box office debut.

🎭🥊 The DirecTV-Disney fight is getting messier as the channel blackout hits week two. DirecTV's throwing a Hail Mary pass to the FCC, filing a complaint accusing Disney of negotiating in bad faith. The satellite provider claims Disney's pushing for a deal that would force them to carry unpopular channels—a no-go for DirecTV. In response, Disney’s brushing off the complaint as a typical DirecTV delay tactic. To make matters worse, DirecTV just announced price hikes starting Oct. 6. Talk about bad timing! With high-stakes content like Monday Night Football and a presidential debate on the horizon, neither side seems ready to budge. Caught in the middle are 11M subscribers, now staring at blank screens where ESPN used to be. In a plot twist, both companies are offering $30 credits for rival streaming services like Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, and Sling TV. It's a small consolation for viewers, but it's clear both giants are digging in for a long fight.

🎬📱 A new breed of entertainment apps is having a Quibi-esque moment—minus the spectacular flameout. ReelShort, ShortTV, and DramaBox are pioneering "vertical series" platforms, offering original, scripted TV shows designed for smartphone viewing. These bite-sized dramas, split into 1-2 minute episodes, saw a jaw-dropping 992% download surge to 37M in Q1 2024. While still dwarfed by TikTok's 137M quarterly downloads, the industry's growth is turning heads. User spending on these apps skyrocketed from $1.8M to $146M year-over-year—an 8,000% increase. Unlike Katzenberg's star-studded flop, these platforms bank on campy premises and pay-as-you-go models. With Millennials and Gen Z making up 75% of viewers, these bite-sized dramas are carving out a niche. ReelShort even briefly outpaced TikTok in App Store downloads last November. As the format gains traction beyond its Asian roots, it begs the question: is this the mobile-first future Quibi envisioned, just four years too soon?

🎬🗳️ Hollywood's playing it safe for the 2024 election. In an unprecedented move, studios are steering clear of major releases during the post-election weekend (Nov. 8-10). Traditionally prime real estate, this slot's being abandoned due to fears of political noise drowning out promotions and potential civil unrest. Ad rates are expected to skyrocket 30-40% in the lead-up, making marketing budgets balloon. Only smaller releases like Lionsgate's 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' and Crunchyroll's 'Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom' are braving the ballot-box aftermath. It's a stark contrast to previous elections, where films like 'Skyfall' and 'Doctor Strange' thrived. As Comscore's Paul Dergerabedian notes, studios are "erring on the side of caution" in what's shaping up to be "the most intense post-election weekend in modern history."

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Development 🗒️

• NBC’s ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ cuts back to a four-night weekly schedule amid budget tightening. (more)

• Eve Hewson is in early talks to star in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming untitled event film, set for a May 2026 release. (more)

• An authorized Jimi Hendrix documentary titled ‘Jimi’, directed by Bao Nguyen, is in production. (more)

• Disney+ is developing a YA reimagining of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ from Kenny Ortega and Giovanni M. Porta. (more)

• Patricia Arquette will star as Maggie Murdaugh in a Hulu limited series about the infamous Murdaugh murders. (more)

• ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are producing a horror anthology ‘Ice Cream Man’ for Screen Gems, based on the comic series by W. Maxwell Prince. (more)

• Lionsgate has pushed the release of Mel Gibson’s ‘Flight Risk’, starring Mark Wahlberg, to Jan. 24, 2025. (more)

• Jason Reitman’s ‘Saturday Night,’ about the lead-up to the premiere of ‘Saturday Night Live’, has shifted to a platform release starting on Sept. 27, with a wide release on Oct. 11. (more)

Fall Festival Updates 📽️

• Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘The Room Next Door’ won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. See the full list of winners here. 👈👀

• A24 has acquired U.S. rights to Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist,’ a Venice Film Festival winner starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce. (more)

✅ Renewed & Canceled ❌

• ‘Bosch: Legacy’ will end after S3 on Prime Video and Amazon Freevee. (more)

• ‘We’re Here’ is cancelled at HBO after S4. (more)

• MGM+ has canceled ‘Beacon 23’ after two seasons. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Kendrick Lamar will headline the 2025 Apple Music Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show. (more)

• Top actors are using this science-backed trick to memorize lines in record time. (more)*