Dont Tell NetflixDont Tell Netflix

by Emily Nagle

The long Independence Day weekend was the first box office weekend of the month, and has seen the releases of three new films, two of which ended up dominating ticket sales.

Top 5 Highest Grossing Films for July 2nd – 5th, 2021
5. The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard ($3.9 million)
4. A Quiet Place Part II ($5 million)
3. The Forever Purge ($15.6 million)
2. The Boss Baby: Family Business ($20 million)
1. F9: The Fast Saga ($30.1 million)

A follow-up to the 2017 DreamWorks film “The Boss Baby”, “The Boss Baby: Family Business” crawled into theaters and became available on Peacock on Friday. Having grossed $20 million in theaters over the three-day weekend, this animated flick shows that moviegoing is slowly making a return.

Also rolling out to the big screen this weekend was “The Forever Purge”. The final installment in Universal’s “The Purge” horror series, it follows a rancher family as they fight against the Purge, a masked killer group.

by Emily Nagle

With streaming services and networks pruning their show selections in preparation for the 2021-2022 television season – just last week, NBC cancelled “Good Girls”, finalizing their scripted lineup for this fall – Netflix has followed suit. The long-standing king of the streaming war has cancelled several of its shows at once.

Announced on Friday, the terminated Netflix Originals are “The Crew”, “Mr. Iglesias”, “Bonding”, and “Country Comfort”. Although his show has come to an end after two seasons, Gabriel Iglesias, who has previously filmed two comedy specials for Netflix, still has more content coming out on the platform. Iglesias announced in May that he would be filming his newest comedy special at the Tobin Center in San Antonio, TX on July 17.

In a similar fashion, Netflix made a deal with “The Crew” star Kevin James to produce and star in a single-camera comedy series. The streamer also made a deal with the creator and director of “Bonding”, Rightor Doyle. Even though the series won’t be continuing on Netflix, their talent will be returning to bring more content to screens around the world.

This news was first reported by Variety: ‘The Crew,’ ‘Mr. Iglesias,’ ‘Bonding,’ ‘Country Comfort’ Canceled at Netflix

by Emily Nagle

Allen Media Group announced Wednesday that they will launch a new streaming service later this year.

The platform, which will be named Weather Channel Plus, plans to offer over 50 news and entertainment channels for only $4.99/month. It will be available on a wide variety of devices, from smart TVs and smart phones to game consoles and computers.

“The Weather Channel has been voted the most-trusted news brand in America for eleven consecutive years, and the fifth most-trusted brand in America overall,” Allen Media’s founder Byron Allen announced in a statement, “which makes it the perfect brand for a direct-to-consumer streaming platform. We’ve aggregated some of the best news and entertainment content while keeping it affordable and accessible at the same time. We are highly confident that consumers will enjoy The Weather Channel Plus streaming service for decades to come.”

Following a $3 million deal, The Weather Channel was acquired by Allen Media Group in 2018. Weather Channel Plus is expected to attain 30 million subscribers in its first five years on the market. News of the upcoming streamer comes at the same time other media companies are unveiling their own streaming outlets – Univision recently announced plans to launch a Spanish-language platform, while Fox plans to launch a streaming weather service called Fox Weather in the next few months.

by Emily Nagle

As the streaming wars intensify, Comcast is dipping its toes into the world of streaming as chief executive Brian Roberts explores a deal with ViacomCBS or Roku.

However, unlike its competitors, Comcast isn’t jumping right into mergers or acquisitions – first, they will try their hand at building their streaming empire from the ground up.

Confirmed in a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday, the company aims to compete against Roku and Amazon in bringing streaming services to consumers. Currently in talks with Walmart and Chinese manufacturer Hisense, Comcast plans to create smart TVs that would run their own software, as well as heavily promote Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service.

by Emily Nagle

NBC’s crime dramedy “Good Girls” has been cancelled after 4 seasons.

Although there was initially talk of a deal between the channel and Netflix to bring the series to streaming for one more season, the negotiation fell through due to financial issues. As a result, season 4 will be the final season for “Good Girls”.

News of the show’s cancellation has been met with outrage from fans on Twitter, who are shocked and disappointed, as well as confused how the show got axed considering its popularity on streaming and live television.

Premiering in summer 2018, “Good Girls” was created by Jenna Bans, who is also known for her work on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal”. The series stars Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman, and Retta as three Michigan mothers who, struggling to make ends meet, begin laundering money for a crime boss.

Hendricks posted about the show’s cancellation on her Instagram, posting a still from the show accompanied by a screenshot of the news. She wrote in the caption, “Well, we gave it our all. We really did. Thank you to our amazing fans through the years for all your passion and support.”

“Good Girls” is the final scripted show on NBC to get denied from the networks’ 2020-2021 scripted lineup. Other shows that won’t be returning to NBC this fall include “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist”, “Manifest”, and “Debris”. Meanwhile, returning shows include “The Blacklist”, “Kenan”, and the entire “Chicago” franchise (“Chicago Fire”, “Chicago Med”, “Chicago P.D.”).

While no more new episodes of “Good Girls” will be created, fans needn’t worry about NBC leaving them hanging regarding what becomes of Beth, Ruby, and Annie. Five more episodes remain in season 4 that will continue to air Thursdays at 6:00 pm PST/9:00 pm EST. The series finale of “Good Girls” will air on July 22.

by Emily Nagle

Univision has unveiled plans to launch a subscription-based Spanish-language streaming service. The new platform is planned to launch next year in the United States and Latin America.

The news was first announced by Univision on Monday via press release. Similar to NBCUniversal’s Peacock, customers will have the choice between a free, ad-supported tier and a premium tier. Univision explained that the upcoming streamer will have more Spanish-language originals than any of their competitors – the ad-supported tier alone boasts 40,000 hours of content, and the premium plan adds over 6,000 hours onto the already vast catalogue.

And they won’t be doing it alone – by the end of 2021, Univision’s merger with Televisa, the largest Spanish-language studio in the world, will be finalized, meaning the streaming service will offer full access to their content library as well.

“The two-tier streaming service…will be fueled by full access to Televisa’s deep content library and iconic IP as well as an ambitious slate of new originals produced by the leading creators in the Spanish-speaking world,” the PR team wrote on Univision’s corporate site. “The best of the existing PrendeTV, VIX and Univision NOW services will be transitioned and unified into one global service and brand. Brand, pricing and specific launch date for the service will be announced following the close of the Televisa-Univision merger later this year.”

With the announcement of this new project, Univision has appointed new executives with years of experience working for streaming’s biggest competitors. One new addition is Rodrigo Mazon, who has been selected as the EVP and GM of SVOD after spending 6 years at Netflix.

Mazon declared of his new position, “I could not be more excited to join such a unique company and visionary team at a pivotal time in Univision’s growth and transformation trajectory. I am eager to help drive Univision’s global expansion through the launch of our SVOD service, which will enable us to engage global streaming audiences with compelling storytelling opportunities from our creative community.”