There are a number of things

Or a bunch.

Language Log has a post about the phrases "there are a number/bunch of..." and "there's a number/bunch of..." I find myself occasionally changing "are" to "is", but "a number of" and "a bunch of" typically take "are" in my grammar unless I'm using the contracted form "there's".

Quantifiers are interesting things. I wonder whether "many" and, especially, "much" might be on the way out. I have problems using the latter without finding that "a lot of" comes more easily. I can say, "There isn't much butter" and "There's too much butter", but "There's much butter" just doesn't sound right whereas "There's a lot of butter" is unremarkable. I find via Google that there are some instances of "There's much + noun" which are grammatical to me.

There's much activity (141 hits; "There's not much activity" 596.)
There's much debate (976 hits; "There's not much debate" 270.)
There's much difference (19,400 hits, but kind of marginal to me; "There's not much difference" 80,600 hits and grammatically unexceptional.)
There's much fun (386; "There's not much fun" 789.)
There's much hope (929 hits; "There's not much hope" 25,300.)
There's much hype (117 hits; "There's not much hype" 48.)
There's much likelihood (127 hits; "There's not much likelihood" 257.)

"There's much" gets 1.05 million hits on Google, although "There's a lot of" gets 1.25 million, and "There's not much" gets 1.13 million. If I look at the elements which follow I get

There's much of: 57,600 hits
There's much to: 262,000 hits
There's much more: 688,000 hits
There's much more to: 294,000 hits
There's much more to it: 42,300 hits
There's much more to it than: 31,400 hits
There's much more than: 62,300 hits
There's much less: 55,900 hits
There's much less to: 691 hits
There's much less than: 70 hits
There's much that: 39,100 hits
There's much which: 40 hits
There's much else: 13,900 hits
There's much better: 25,900 hits
There's much, much more: 40,400 hits

It's harder to nail down numbers for "there's much + gerund" or "there's much + to-infinitive". I tried a search for "there's much going on", which got 811 hits, and "there's much happening", which got 200 hits.

There's much to like: 13,600 hits
There's much to learn: 20,600 hits
There's much to be learned: 961 hits (but, There's much to be learnt: 25 hits)
There's much to say: 10,400 hits
There's much to be said: 29,800 hits
There's much to do: 21,100 hits
There's much to be done: 12,600 hits
There's much to see: 17,600 hits
There's much to be seen: 40 hits

I would've thought that "There's much more + to-inf" might get a significant number of hits, but apart from "There's much more to do", the rest of the forms above don't even get 1,000 hits.

There's much more to do: 11,000 hits
There's much more to be done: 844 hits

The phrase "There's too much" gets 982,000 hits and "There's far too much" 65,000.

Note the following, though.

It's much less: 190,000 hits
It's much less to: 40 hits
It's much less than: 18,900 hits

As I noted above, "There's not much" is slightly more popular than "There's much".

There's not much of: 175,000 hits
There's not much to: 592,000 hits
There's not much more: 151,000 hits
There's not much more to: 64,000 hits
There's not much more to it: 875 hits
There's not much more to it than: 544 hits
There's not much more than: 632 hits
There's not much less: 14 hits
There's not much less to: 1 hit
There's not much less than: 0 hits (Huh? The phrase seems grammatical)
There's not much that: 133,000 hits
There's not much which: 88 hits
There's not much else: 181,000 hits
There's not much better: 925 hits
There's not much, much more: 0 hits

There's not much to like: 11,000 hits
There's not much to learn: 5,990 hits
There's not much to be learned: 43 hits
There's not much to say: 128,000 hits
There's not much to be said: 9,400 hits
There's not much to do: 88,200 hits
There's not much to be done: 20,100 hits
There's not much to see: 43,500 hits
There's not much to be seen: 108 hits

Positive forms are preferred overall, although in the first group there are ten forms which are predominantly positive, but only five which are predominantly negative; in the second group, the numbers are just about equal: five forms prefer the positive; four the negative.

Anyway, to get back to my original concern, there are some instances where "much + noun" is grammatical, but the range would appear to be limited.

I forgot "There isn't much" (1.31 million hits; negative forms total 2.44 million hits).

There isn't much of: 261,000 hits
There isn't much to: 494,000 hits
There isn't much more: 105,000 hits
There isn't much more to: 44,000 hits
There isn't much more to it: 397 hits
There isn't much more to it than: 218 hits
There isn't much more than: 492 hits
There isn't much less: 17 hits
There isn't much less to: 0 hits
There isn't much less than: 0 hits
There isn't much that: 147,000 hits
There isn't much which: 135 hits
There isn't much else: 114,000 hits
There isn't much better: 802 hits
There isn't much, much more: 6 hits

There isn't much to like: 197 hits
There isn't much to learn: 251 hits
There isn't much to be learned: 43 hits
There isn't much to say: 86,500 hits
There isn't much to be said: 730 hits
There isn't much to do: 83,900 hits
There isn't much to be done: 795 hits
There isn't much to see: 37,600 hits
There isn't much to be seen: 93 hits

In the main, not-forms exceed isn't-forms, although where the latter outnumbers the former, it's not by much. The number of not-forms with to-infinitives exceeds the number of isn't-forms by a large margin in several instances.