PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT
Top 10 Weekend Domestic Box Office Estimates: April 27-29, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War (Buena Vista) $250.0 million, opening weekend
A Quiet Place (Paramount) $10.7 million (week 4), cume revenue $148.2 million
I Feel Pretty (STX) $8.1 million (week 2), cume revenue $29.6 million
Rampage (Warner Bros.) $7.1 million (week 3), cume revenue $77.9 million
Black Panther (Buena Vista) $4.4 million (week 11), cume revenue $688.0 million
Super Troopers 2 (Fox) $3.6 million (week 2), cume revenue $22.1 million
Truth or Dare (Universal) $3.2 million (week 3), cume revenue $35.3 million
Blockers (Universal) $2.9 million (week 4), cume revenue $53.2 million
Ready Player One (Warner Bros.) $2.4 (week 5) cume revenue $130.7 million
Traffik (Lionsgate) $1.6 million (week 2), cume revenue $6.7 million
Source: comScore
NEW & RETURNING SERIES
Highlights of Freeform’s May slate include the two-hour season finale of Shadowhunters (Tuesday, May 15 at 9p) and season finales of Famous in Love (Wednesday, May 30 at 8p) and Siren (Thursday, May 24 at 8p). To celebrate the Royal Wedding, Freeform will air a special Happily Ever After-themed Funday Weekend Movie Marathon on May 12 and 13, with Disney Princess movies, and a “Royal Wedding Slumber Party” on Friday, May 18.
TLC’s Who Do You Think You Are? returns Monday, May 21 at 9p. This year’s crop of celebs tracing their ancestry includes Hilary Duff (Younger), Jean Smart (Legion), Two and a Half Men’s Jon Cryer, Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black), Megan Mullally (Will & Grace), and SNL alum Molly Shannon.
Season two of Travel Channel’s Caribbean Pirate Treasure debuts with back-to-back episodes on Wednesday, June 13 at 10p and 10:30p. Docu-series follows the underwater adventures of Philippe Cousteau and his wife Ashlan.
New ID series The Last 24 has its first episode Friday, May 11 at 9p, with investigators reconstructing the final hours of victims’ lives to crack murder cases.
COMING UP
A special edition of NBC’s Hollywood Game Night, hosted by Jane Lynch, will join the Red Nose Day celebration on Thursday, May 24 at 9p. Kelly Clarkson (The Voice), Sean Hayes (Will & Grace), Jack Black (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Chelsea Handler (Chelsea), Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers), Sarah Silverman (I Love You, America), Sasheer Zamata (Saturday Night Live) and Cedric the Entertainer (Why Him) will compete in support of the mission to end child poverty.
GOING GLOBAL
DirecTV announced the launch of a 4K Ultra High Definition channel for Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay. The channel, number 4000 on the programming guide, offers live and recorded content across a variety of genres.
FremantleMedia International acquired distribution rights to new series Jamie Cooks Italy. Commissioned by Channel 4, show follows Jamie Oliver and mentor Gennaro Contaldo exploring Italian cuisine.
ADVERTISING
Branded Entertainment Network announced record revenue for 1Q18, the strongest quarter in the company’s history. With 1500 brand integrations delivered in the first quarter, the company is on track to deliver more than 6,000 integrations in 2018. Helping BEN’s growth were the additions of Cheerios (General Mills), Greyhound, Suave (Unilever), Pizza Hut, Secret (P&G), and WowWee as new clients.
Walmart is the most-talked-about brand offline (via face-to-face conversations), according to Engagement Labs, followed by Coca Cola and Samsung. Most-talked-about brand online (via social media) was Fox News; the NBA and the NFL were second and third. “These brands compete fiercely on the playing field by investing in talkworthy advertising, designing talkworthy products and cultivating relationships with loyal customers who advocate for the brand,” said Engagement Labs CEO Ed Keller.
Discovery is partnering with Swedish Fish candy for a campaign for this summer’s “Shark Week.” Elements include a mobile game and co-branded packaging.
DIGITAL DATA
Hulu is approaching 20 million subscribers, according to the Hollywood Reporter, which means it’s grown nearly 18% since January. The company has been investing more in library and original content, including buzz-worthy, Emmy-winning The Handmaid’s Tale.
Upfront digital video ad spend will rise 25.4% for the September-August broadcast year, to $3.64 billion, according to eMarketer. The research company also projects the number of people in the U.S. who watch digital video will rise 2.7%, to 228.8 million.
BritBox, the subscription service from BBC Studios and ITV, is celebrating the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle with ITV’s live broadcast of the big event. Live stream begins on BritBox at 10:30a BST and will also have time-shifted streams for EDT and PDT viewers. An hour-long Royal wedding highlights show will be available soon after the wedding concludes.
Tidal struck a partnership with LeBron James’ digital media company, Uninterrupted, to exclusively premiere Becoming Bobby Feeno, a docu-series following former NFL Pro Bowl running back Arian Foster from his mid-season retirement through recording his debut album, “Flamingo & Koval.” Project was first incubated on the Tongal platform.
Help Us Get Married!, hosted by Tamera Mowry-Housley, will premiere over two nights, starting Thursday, May 3 on Facebook Watch. Interactive docu-series follows three newly-engaged couples planning their weddings with the help of the Facebook community.
Comedy Motherland, from Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), debuts on Sundance Now Thursday, May 10.
