The 11th Hour Dispatch — Thursday, August 16, 2018
BIG BUSINESS
Crazy Rich Asians is likely going to have a massive opening weekend. After its opening yesterday, it has already pulled in $5 million. Forbes projects that the Warner Bros. film will pull in anywhere from $27.5 million to $32.5 million this weekend, which is such a big deal because the film is the first major studio project with a primarily Asian and Asian American cast since 1993’s The Joy Club. It’s also pretty incredible because the film only cost a modest $30 million to make. The film currently has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and you can bet you’ll catch me seeing it with my Olympic swimming pool-sized Diet Coke in tow this weekend.
BINGE WATCH
Netflix has signed another megadeal, this time with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris. The multi-million dollar deal will see the Girls Trip writer leaving ABC, the home of his sitcom. Their breakup was officially announced last month. Barris and ABC had a disagreement after the network scrapped a political episode of Black-ish, likely spurring this decision. This ends his ABC agreement three years prior to its expiration date. Barris will join other content moguls like Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy on the streaming giant. Any television content produced from this deal will be funneled through Barris’ Khalbo Ink Society. In a statement, Barris said, “When my agents reached out to me about this little garage start-up called Netflix, I wasn’t sure what to think. But after I talked to Ted and Cindy, I started to believe that maybe this mom-and-pop shop with only 130 million subscribers might just be something … so I decided to take a swing … a leap of faith if you will, and take a chance with the new kids on the block.” When these megadeals come to fruition, Netflix is going to be so wild and as a TV nerd, I’m so excited.
WHAT GOES AROUND
Facebook’s head of product for social good Asha Sharma announced that use of Facebook’s fundraising feature for people’s birthdays has raised $300 million in donations this year. The feature allows Facebook users to easily donate to over 750K nonprofits through fundraisers run by friends. You’ve likely seen everyone from your Great Aunt Mary to that high school classmate you’ve tried to forget about getting that coin for their favorite charities. Even big names like Steph Curry have made use of the feature. For his 30th birthday, the point guard set out to raise $30K for Nothing But Nets, but instead ended up with $82K. Nice to see some good news about Facebook for once.
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
RIP to Ms. Aretha Franklin. You will be missed.
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