| EXEC SUMMARY: Good evening from the TIME 100 gala in NYC. Scroll down for highlights... Plus the latest on the president's escalating attacks... But first, a look at one of the biggest media events of the year... | | We're in the Endgame" now
Frank Pallotta emails: I've been reporting on the box office for five years -- and nothing compares to what I'm hearing about "Avengers: Endgame" this weekend. The Marvel film -- which rolls out in every major international market on Wednesday before its US debut on Thursday night -- is set to shatter pretty much every box office record on the books. Analysts have said that its opening weekend could finish north of the record $258 million that "Infinity War" made last year and even has a shot at $300 million in North America this weekend. That's uncharted territory since only six films have opened to $200 million or more in North America and none have made $300 million in a weekend. In terms of the film's global launch, some estimates have it eclipsing $800 million this weekend.
What boggles my mind is that we just did this last year with "Infinity War." That goes to show just how powerful Disney's Marvel machine is. The brand has made $18.6 billion so far...
>> Fandango says that more than 4,000 showtimes have already sold out...
>> Beyond opening weekend... Brian Lowry notes: There's not much to get in its way through early May, as other studios have largely sidestepped the release, other than a few romantic comedies or kids movies largely viewed as counter-programming...
China could be heroically huge
Frank Pallotta continues: "Infinity War" nabbed the global box office record last April with a $640 million opening around the world -- without China. That won't be the case this time, since "Endgame" is opening in China on Wednesday. The film's potential performance in China is why this might, MIGHT, come close to being a billion dollar weekend for Disney...
Lowry's spoiler-free review
The review embargo lifted at 6 p.m. ET. Per Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, the early reactions are pretty darn positive...
Brian Lowry emails: Without being too grandiose about it, the three-hour epic feels like the culmination of everything Marvel Studios has built in conquering the pop-culture universe -- paying tribute to the output since "Iron Man" in 2008, while setting the stage for the company's next chapter. Read on...
Where does Marvel go from here?
Frank Pallotta adds: As much as "Endgame" may be the end of an era, it's hardly an end for Marvel. There are upcoming sequels to beloved series like "Black Panther" and "Guardians of the Galaxy," and Marvel heroes will have a ton of original shows on Disney+. Plus, let's not forget that when Disney acquired most of Fox's assets it also acquired the Marvel characters that were under the Fox banner -- such as the X-Men and Deadpool -- which could be brought into the fold...
IN OTHER NEWS...
He's still "acting," but...
"CBS Corp. has suspended its search for a chief executive and extended acting Chief Executive Joseph Ianniello's contract through the end of the year as the company weighs whether to merge with Viacom Inc. or plot its own course," the LAT's Meg James wrote Tuesday afternoon.
The CBS announcement has tongues wagging about CBS-Viacom merger talks. Indeed, the WSJ's Ben Mullin wrote, "at some point before the end of the year, CBS's board will likely evaluate a merger with Viacom."
>> And Ianniello? He "will still be paid $70 million if he's not the company's top boss at year's end," Mullin noted. Nice work if you can get it!
"Jeopardy!" needs a spoiler alert these days
Seriously! If you haven't watched Tuesday night's episode, scroll past this part...
Okay, are you ready for the news?
Here it is: On Tuesday's episode, James Holzhauer "became only the second person in the show's history to earn more than $1 million in regular-season (non-tournament) play when his 14th win brought his total winnings to $1,061,554." The game show sent out a press release to celebrate the news.
The record to beat is $2,520,700 by Ken Jennings. "Tune in Wednesday to watch Holzhauer's next game," the show said... And I definitely will...
>> Here's how he explains his winning "Jeopardy" strategy...
>> Holzhauer's streak has also given the game show a ratings boost, per TVNewsCheck...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Twitter stock closed up 15.7% on Tuesday -- at its highest level in nine months -- after shattering (subdued) Wall Street expectations. Seth Fiegerman has all the details...
-- Snap also had a great day... "Revenue for the quarter surged by 39%, hitting $320 million and topping Wall Street estimates..." Fiegerman and Kaya Yurieff have more here...
-- Facebook's turn is Wednesday afternoon. Jackie Wattles says "its earnings are expected to dominate..."
Mass layoffs at Brit & Co.
Recode's Theodore Schleifer calls this "another casualty of Facebook and Google's advertising duopoly:" Brit + Co, "a buzzy digital media brand for millennial women, is laying off most of its employees after an acquisition failed to pan out." CEO Brit Morin "told staff on Monday that the company is dealing with financial issues" after acquisition talks crumbled...
Mass exodus at The Markup after ouster of EIC | | Oliver Darcy emails: The Markup hasn't even launched yet, but it stumbled seriously on Tuesday when five of its seven editorial staff writers resigned following the ouster of the organization's editor-in-chief.Julia Angwin, who co-founded the site and served as its top editor, tweeted Tuesday morning that she had been "forced out" of the organization. Angwin wrote in a letter to Craigslist founder and major donor Craig Newmark that Sue Gardner, another co-founder and The Markup's exec director, wanted to "change the mission" of the site. Gardner, Angwin alleged, had argued The Markup needed "to be a 'cause' rather than a 'publication.'"
Gardner for her part disputed Angwin's characterization, stressing the site's mission had not changed and that Angwin's departure was, simply put, "a personnel matter about leadership and management." Despite the drama, the site is still attempting to launch in July. Jeff Larson, the third co-founder who served as managing editor, has been promoted to editor-in-chief. He tweeted on Tuesday he was "humbled and excited" to take on the role… Much more to come on this...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- "Myanmar's top court rejects final appeal by jailed Reuters journalists." That's the headline from Reuters about the case of their reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo... (Reuters)
-- "The California man charged for threatening to kill employees of the Boston Globe last year will plead guilty to all counts against him, his attorney said this week," Tom Kludt writes... (CNN)
-- Whitney Davis, a former exec at CBS, has penned an explosive letter asserting that the company "has a white problem..." She says that "CBS has opted to ignore its rampant discrimination issues and lack of inclusion..." (Variety)
-- The company says "we disagree with some statements in Whitney's story," but "we take all employee concerns seriously and remain committed to improving the workplace experience for everyone..."
Inside the TIME 100 gala
There was loud applause for Marc and Lynne Benioff, the new owners of TIME, at the magazine's annual TIME 100 gala Tuesday night. EIC Edward Felsenthal said "our shared objective is to ensure that TIME will expand and thrive, providing trusted guidance for humanity as we approach our 100th anniversary just four years from now."
Sightings: Ronan Farrow introducing his mother Mia Farrow to Jared Kushner... Gayle King deep in conversation with Dwayne Johnson... Nancy Pelosi talking with Tina Brown... King, Taylor Swift, Helen Mirren, and Trevor Noah taking selfies...
Plus: Susan Zirinsky, Phil Griffin, Arianna Huffington, Brian Bennett, Amy Entelis, Libby Leist, Diana Miller, Javi Morgado, Stephanie Ruhle, Gretchen Carlson, Nancy Gibbs, Danny Meyer, Richard Coraine, Hasan Minhaj, Chrissy Dunleavy, Sam Jacobs, Joanne Lipman, and many more...
>> The inaugural TIME 100 summit took place earlier in the day... Pelosi, Kushner, and Tim Cook were among the speakers... Here are the highlights...
Maria Ressa's message
As I mentioned above, Kushner was seated at a prime table at the TIME 100... Which made for two remarkable moments during the toasts... First, Hasan Minhaj suggested that Kushner should text Mohammed bin Salman on WhatsApp and urge the release of a Saudi dissident...
And then Maria Ressa of Rappler, a target of President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, spoke about the commonalities between Duterte and Trump. "Our leaders, these leaders use anger and fear to divide and to conquer," she said. "They create and they live a politics of hate. But I think everyone in this room realizes that anger and hate only destroy. What do you do when that's over? How do you BUILD?"
The question hung in the air for a moment. Ressa concluded by saying "the only way to build is with hope! It's with inspiration. It's with love. We will hold the line," she said...
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- For the first time, the Peabody jurors are presenting a Peabody Catalyst Award. ProPublica is the winner, "for a story that brought immediate change to a controversial government practice of family separation at the border." Remember that audio of sobbing children? (Peabody Awards)
-- Here are the other Peabody winners in the News and Radio/Podcast categories, announced on Tuesday...
-- CNN DC bureau chief Sam Feist spoke with Michael Calderone about the network's town hall strategy... (Politico)
Who had the highest-rated town hall on Monday?
The answer is: Kamala Harris. She had the biggest audience of the five candidates who fielded Q's at CNN's marathon town hall night on Monday. Harris, in the 10 p.m. hour, was surely aided by Bernie Sanders, who had nearly as big an audience in the 9 p.m. hour. TVNewser has the #'s here...
"The Buttigieg Podcast Blitz"
Hot Pod's Nick Quah picked up something that Pete Buttigieg's comms chief Lis Smith told me on "Reliable Sources" last month: Podcasts "are really hot right now, and I think underappreciated." 2020 contenders are using podcasts to reach primary voters in a big way -- Buttigieg especially. Quah calls it "the Buttigieg Podcast Blitz..." Read his full column here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- Buttigieg is booked for a town hall on Fox News on May 19... Chris Wallace, who previously interviewed the mayor on "Fox News Sunday," will moderate... (AP)
-- Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel says "journalists are too focused" on Buttigieg's sexual orientation... (The Atlantic)
-- Joe Biden's you-know-what announcement is set for Thursday... (CNN)
-- "If Biden can make it through the primaries, he's the one Dem. candidate who appeals to the white working-class voters who handed the election to Trump -- and could hand 2020 to Biden instead," Chris Christie told Tina Brown on the newest episode of her podcast... (Art19)
Trump's newest "order"
Last week, the Mueller report listed lots of examples of staffers ignoring Trump's orders. On Monday, Trump said "nobody disobeys my orders." And on Tuesday, the White House ordered Trump admin officials to boycott the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Per CNN's Jake Tapper, who broke the story, "the order came from Trump personally, though staffers have been trying to talk him out of it." Here's our full story about why it matters...
>> Bottom line, another DC tradition is on hold during the Trump years, and lots of Trump aides won't be going out to dinner on Saturday night. Trump's rally in Wisconsin is sure to feature his rage against the media...
Trump meets with @Jack
Oliver Darcy emails: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with Trump on Tuesday. The meeting came hours after the president accused the company of "discriminatory" behavior toward conservative users, writing that Twitter does not "treat me well as a Republican" and that it was "hard for people to sign on." Following the meeting, which was first reported by Vice, Trump tweeted a photo of it and wrote, "Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue!"
Also spotted in the photo: White House social media director Dan Scavino and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, policy, and trust & safety. A Twitter rep said they "discussed Twitter's commitment to protecting the health of the public conversation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis." All the details here…
>> More: WaPo's Tony Romm, citing a source, says Trump "grumbled at considerable length about losing followers... Once again, Twitter emphasized this happens as it roots out spam..."
| |
THE MUELLER REPORT
Today's headlines
 -- WaPo's Robert Costa snagged an interview with POTUS on Tuesday... Costa said the president originally called "in response to my request for comment on a profile story on a Trump World figure," but he was able to work in several questions about W.H. aides testifying to Congress, etc... Here's the story...
-- CNN's latest: "White House may seek to prevent McGahn from complying with House subpoena..."
-- Adam Liptak's new analysis in Wednesday's NYT: "Is Obstruction an Impeachable Offense? History Says Yes..."
-- Ryan Teague Beckwith tweeted: "The Mueller report is the popular book series. The congressional hearings are the HBO adaptation." Stay tuned...
Trump says NYT will have to "beg for forgiveness"
This is one of those tweets that will make people shake their heads 10 or 20 years from now. "I wonder if the New York Times will apologize to me a second time, as they did after the 2016 Election. But this one will have to be a far bigger & better apology," the president wrote Tuesday morning. "On this one they will have to get down on their knees & beg for forgiveness -- they are truly the Enemy of the People!"
Point of fact, the paper didn't "apologize," even though Trump keeps saying so. Joe Pompeo just filed a new VF story about how Trump has "weaponized" the paper's post-election message to readers...
>> Nicholas Kristof tweeted in response to Trump's "enemy" talk: "In my 35 years at the @nytimes, I've covered many authoritarians who lashed out at us (albeit rarely using this Stalinist language about Enemy of the People). Criticism is welcome, but our coverage has aged better than they have; Sudan Pres Bashir is the latest to be imprisoned."
"Morning Psycho"
Joe Scarborough responded to the president's nasty tweet about him -- "Morning Psycho (Joe), who helped get me elected in 2016 by having me on (free) all the time, has nosedived, too Angry" -- by addressing him directly. "Hi Donald, how are you doing?" he said Tuesday morning.
"Tell him to stop watching," Mika Brzezinski said. "This is a sickness. He's gotta stop."
But Scarborough reveled in the attention. He had the control room put a "MORNING PSYCHO" banner on screen... | | Point of fact, Willie Geist said, "the ratings have not nosedived since 2016."
"He just can't quit us," Mika sighed.
"If we could get people elected," Joe quipped, Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman or Jeb Bush "would be sitting in the White House right now."
Tammy Filler to E!
Tammy Filler, the exec producer of the fourth hour of the "Today" show, is leaving NYC. "I'm moving to Los Angeles to be EVP & Editor-In-Chief, E! News," she announced Tuesday.
Filler's hour has been in a state of transition, with Kathie Lee Gifford leaving and Jenna Bush Hager joining and Hoda Kotb going away on baby leave...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Sara Fischer's scoop: "TheSkimm, which started out seven years ago as a morning newsletter catered towards female millennials, has acquired the technology behind the texting platform Purple..." (Axios)
-- Reed Hastings "took home almost $302 million in 2018 after accounting for the actual value of stock he cashed out throughout the year..." (Axios)
-- Seth MacFarlane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday. Scott Huver spoke with McFarlane about his "empire spanning TV, film, music..." (Variety)
Unplug, buzzy, stan, and 637 other new words in the Merriam-Webster dictionary
"Merriam-Webster has added 640 new words to the dictionary, and together, they're a pretty good portrait of how we talk to each other online in 2019," CNN's AJ Willingham wrote Tuesday.
In the new class: Buzzy, stan, swole, garbage time, on-brand, screen time, unplug, and an additional definition for snowflake. Read on... | | Writers vs. Agents update
This is "a standoff without a script," Variety's Cynthia Littleton wrote in this state-of-play story on Tuesday. She says "dealmaking in the creative community is in a state of limbo." Get caught up here...
>> ICYMI, Monday night's development: "More than 7,000 WGA members have fired their agents en mass as the guild ramps up its campaign against talent agencies that refuse to sign its new Code of Conduct," Deadline's David Robb reported...
A reminder of Telemundo's ratings power
Brian Lowry emails: After an eight-year absence, the Telemundo telenovela "La Reina Del Sur" returned on Monday and picked up where it left off ratings-wise, topping all broadcast networks in the adults 18-49 demo at 10 p.m. OK. (However, it was outscored by TNT, CNN's sister cable network, which was airing the NBA playoffs.)
The Telemundo series stars Kate del Castillo, whose off-screen story -- including her role in the capture of drug kingpin El Chapo -- is a telenovela unto itself...
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- Lisa Respers France emails: On Tuesday "Young & the Restless" began bidding farewell to Kristoff St. John, who died from heart disease in February...
-- Chloe Melas emails: Alec Baldwin and Gabrielle Union sat down with me to discuss their new film "The Public." The film tackles many things, including "fake news..."
-- Another story by Lisa: Carson Daly was criticized for being insensitive to infertility problems after he joked about "baby making juice..."
-- And another story by Chloe: J.R.R. Tolkien's family does not support this upcoming biopic...
| | | Thank you for reading. Email me anytime. See you tomorrow... | | | |
