Latest / Studio Signal / Studio Signal — Friday, September 25, 2026
Transcript
- Disney throws the Avengers back onto the big screen to plug a theatrical gap. Plus, why a major beauty brand is suddenly acting like a record label. --- It is a brand new day for industry intel, I am Kai Rivers, and you are listening to Studio Signal from Harkins Capital. Thursday previews are officially in, and the weekend box office is shaping up to be a fascinating collision of massive franchise nostalgia and gritty, original survival storytelling. According to Deadline, Disney and Marvel’s theatrical re-release, officially titled Avengers: Endgame: Encore, pulled in a very solid three point eight million dollars yesterday. That number actually outpaces the recent Revenge of the Sith re-release, which did about three point four million. For studio executives mapping out their theatrical slates, this is the ultimate low-risk, high-reward strategy. You take your biggest, most culturally dominant property, put it back on the big screen, and let the hardcore fans do all the heavy lifting for your marketing. It is a brilliant way to plug holes in the release calendar caused by recent production delays, while simultaneously keeping the core franchise top-of-mind before the next phase of films drops. Meanwhile, on the completely opposite end of the spectrum, David Ayer’s new survival thriller Heart of the Beast, starring Brad Pitt, pulled in two million dollars in its own previews. Ayer recently sat down with the IndieWire Filmmaker Toolkit podcast to talk about the grueling, stripped-down production of the film, which centers almost entirely on a man and his dog in the wilderness. It is a stark contrast to the massive green-screen Marvel machine, but pulling in two million on a Thursday proves there is still a highly viable appetite for mid-budget, star-driven original thrillers. When you strip away the massive visual effects budgets, every single creative decision becomes exponentially more important, but the path to profitability is also much clearer. Staying on the theatrical side of the equation, we are seeing a truly beautiful example of how classic catalog content can be eventized for a cause. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the iconic nineteen-eighty workplace comedy 9 to 5 is heading back to theaters for a special week-long run starting October ninth. This comes exactly a month after the tragic passing of the legendary Dolly Parton, and all net proceeds from ticket sales are going directly to support her flagship Imagination Library foundation. From a pure business perspective, this highlights the enduring power of legacy media and smart estate management. When a beloved cultural figure passes away, the immediate impulse for the audience is communal viewing. By organizing a coordinated theatrical return, the studio and exhibitors are giving fans a physical space to celebrate her legacy together, rather than just scrolling past a tribute on a streaming interface. It drives vital foot traffic to theaters in the fall, and it funnels real revenue directly to a literacy charity she deeply cared about. It is a win for exhibitors, a win for the estate, and an absolutely perfect tribute to the Queen of Country. Pivoting over to the music business, the traditional line between consumer brands and entertainment studios is completely dissolving right in front of us. Billboard is reporting that e.l.f. Cosmetics just dropped its second fully original music album, titled Mirror Mix. They partnered with rising stars like Flau'jae Johnson, Joaquina, and NEZZA to put the project together. If you are a traditional record label executive or a creative director at an ad agency, you need to be paying very close attention to this strategy. Historically, brands would pay millions of dollars to license hit songs from Universal or Sony just to use them in thirty-second commercials. E.l.f. is flipping the model entirely by funding, producing, and distributing the music themselves. They are transforming what used to be a sunk marketing cost into an actual, revenue-generating entertainment product. When the brand owns the underlying intellectual property, they capture the streaming royalties, they avoid exorbitant licensing fees for their TikTok campaigns, and they build a much deeper, authentic relationship with Gen-Z audiences who notoriously skip standard advertisements. Expect to see a lot more consumer brands bypassing the traditional gatekeepers to operate as their own boutique record labels. Time for a quick look at the infrastructure changing how content gets made. Variety reports that Rob Minkoff—the legendary co-director of Disney's original animated classic The Lion King—is in advanced discussions to board an AI-assisted film called Storm Dogs. When a legacy, A-list animation veteran crosses the rubicon into artificial intelligence workflows, it signals a massive validation for the technology in prestige production. It proves these tools are no longer just for experimental shorts; they are ready for prime time. Parallel to that, Cartoon Brew highlights some very pointed new comments from former DreamWorks chief Jeffrey Katzenberg. He is actively urging artists to stop fighting against the existence of generative technology, and instead focus their leverage on fighting for aggressive terms around consent, credit, and compensation. It is a major, pragmatic shift in the labor conversation. Katzenberg is essentially arguing that trying to ban the tools outright is a losing battle, so the guilds need to focus entirely on building licensing frameworks where creators actually get paid when their work or style is utilized by a model. Let us wrap up with a quick market check. The broader market was modestly higher today, with the S-and-P five hundred edging up about a quarter of a percent, but the media sector could not quite catch a bid, underperforming the broader market by roughly one percent. Looking at the significant movers, Starz Entertainment took a surprisingly heavy hit. Shares dropped just over eleven percent today on some aggressive selling volume. While there was no fresh negative headline driving the selloff later today, the stock has been on a massive run recently following an analyst upgrade and a forty-dollar price target from Citizens last week. It looks like institutional investors simply decided to lock in some of those massive gains and take profits off the table heading into the weekend. Aside from Starz, no other major media name cleared a five percent move today, leaving the rest of the tape relatively quiet underneath. If you want this level of industry intel at your fingertips every single day, head over to studiosignal-dot-app. That wraps up the board for today. I am Kai Rivers—keep grinding, and I will be back tomorrow.