🎬 Marketing Masterclass

👋 Good morning! ‘Despicable Me’ and its Minions have officially become the first animated franchise to hit the $5B mark at the global box office. Yep, it’s true. With ‘Despicable Me 4’ adding fuel to the fire, Gru and his yellow buddies are laughing all the way to the bank.

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🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

Neon’s Marketing Win
‘Rust’ Case Unravels
Social Video Reigns Supreme
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 🎟️

🟡 Despicable Me 4: Universal’s Minions had a $44.6M domestic weekend, bringing the domestic cume to $211.1M and global total to $437.8M.
🦵 Longlegs: Neon’s Maika Monroe / Nicolas Cage horror opens with a solid $22.6M domestically. More on this in Wide Shots. 👇😏
🎈 Inside Out 2: Disney-Pixar’s sequel earns $20.7M domestically this weekend, boosting its cume to $572.6M domestically and an impressive $1.35B globally.
🤫 A Quiet Place: Day One: Paramount’s horror prequel adds $11.8M domestically, reaching a total of $116.2M. The film remains a strong performer in its third week.
🚀 Fly Me to the Moon: Sony/Apple’s rom-com starring Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson opens with $10M domestically and $19M globally, the lowest Apple debut yet. Positive reactions and an A- CinemaScore may help, but its $100M budget is a hurdle.
🚔 Bad Boys: Ride or Die: Sony’s action sequel gathers $4.4M domestically, taking its total to $184.9M as it enters its sixth week.
🌅 Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1: Collects $2.44M domestically, with a $27M cume in its third week, struggling to maintain momentum.
❌ MaXXXine: A24’s final chapter of Ti West’s trilogy makes $2.07M this weekend, becoming the highest-grossing entry with an $11.78M domestic total.
🔔 Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot: Angel Studios’ drama pulls in $1.34M domestically, reaching a $9.77M total.
🦁 The Lion King: Disney’s re-release of the classic animated film earns $1.08M domestically, setting the stage for the upcoming prequel ‘Mufasa: The Lion King.’

Animation continues to be the hero of the summer box office with ‘Despicable Me 4’ and ‘Inside Out 2’ leading the charge. The total domestic box office reached $127.5M this weekend, down 9% from last year.

🎬🔪 Neon's ‘Longlegs’ just slashed its way to a killer $22.6M domestic debut, becoming the distributor's biggest opener and the highest-grossing indie horror flick in a decade. Even more jaw-dropping? Rumor has it the budget was under $10M, with some whispering as low as $3.5M. Talk about a return on investment! The secret sauce? A marketing campaign that'd make the Zodiac Killer green with envy. Director Oz Perkins (yes, Norman Bates' kid) and Neon cooked up a promo blitz including:

Secret codes hidden in The Seattle Times
A creepy phone number where callers hear Nic Cage whispering threats
Cryptic LA billboards advertising said phone number
Elusive trailers and teasers that keep Cage's character under wraps
Surprise early screenings for genre fans and influencers

This '90s-set satanic slasher proved that in the age of spoiler trailers, less is more terrifying. Marketing gurus are calling it a masterclass in hype-building.

🧑‍⚖️⚖️ Alec Baldwin's ‘Rust’ shooting case was dramatically dismissed Friday by a Santa Fe judge. The decision came after Baldwin's lawyers revealed that prosecutors had withheld crucial evidence: live ammunition matching the fatal bullet, turned over to the sheriff's office in March but never disclosed to the defense. This prosecutorial misstep led to the case's dismissal with prejudice, barring a retrial. Meanwhile, ‘Rust’ armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, currently serving an 18-month sentence for involuntary manslaughter, is now seeking dismissal of her own case on similar grounds. Her lawyer plans to file a motion citing ongoing discovery violations. While Baldwin's legal battle may be over, the wider implications for on-set safety and accountability in Hollywood continue to unfold.

📱📈 Gen Alpha, the iPad-toting tots born after 2010, is ditching paid streaming for social video. According to Precise TV's 2024 kids survey, YouTube dominates this age group's viewing habits, with a whopping 81% of U.S. kids aged 2-12 consuming content there - up from 72% in 2023. TikTok has surpassed traditional linear TV despite age restrictions, while Twitch has become a surprise hit, with kids binge-watching gamers for hours. For this young demographic, paid streaming services are losing ground to social and user-generated content platforms. As Gen Alpha grows up, traditional media might need to hit that refresh button or risk becoming as outdated as your old Blockbuster card. The future of entertainment is looking mighty social, and traditional streamers better start taking notes.

Development 🗒️

‘Euphoria’ S3 begins filming in January 2025, with Zendaya and main cast members returning, despite previous delays. (more)
Emerald Fennell will direct a new adaptation of ‘Wuthering Heights,’ bringing her dark storytelling style to the classic novel. (more)
Regina King joins Austin Butler and Zoë Kravitz in Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller ‘Caught Stealing’. (more)
Bobby Moynihan and Lori Petty join CBS’s ‘NCIS: Origins’, debuting Oct. 14. (more)
Mandy Patinkin, Steve Howey, and André De Shields join the cast of NBC’s new medical drama ‘Brilliant Minds’, premiering Sept. 23. (more)