Latest / Studio Signal / Studio Signal — Friday, March 27, 2026
Transcript
- Hey, I'm Kai Rivers, and this is Studio Signal, your daily M&E intelligence briefing, brought to you by Harkins Capital. Let's get into it. Alright studio fam, it is Friday, March twenty-seventh, and I hope you’ve got your wallets ready, because it feels like the price of admission for… well, everything… is the big story today. First up, Netflix is raising prices again, and while subscribers are probably sighing collectively, Wall Street is basically throwing a party. Deadline reports that analysts are cheering the move, calling it a "welcome relief for investors." This is the clearest signal yet that the era of cheap, growth-at-all-costs streaming is officially over. The game now is pure profit, and Netflix is betting that its content library is essential enough that you'll just… pay up. They're probably not wrong, which is a tough pill for the rest of us. And the squeeze isn't just on streaming. If you've been holding out on getting a new gaming console, your time is officially running out. According to Variety, Sony is hiking the price of the PlayStation 5 by up to one hundred and fifty dollars starting next Thursday, April second. This is the second time they’ve raised the price in less than a year. So between your Netflix subscription and your gaming hardware, the cost of staying entertained at home is seeing some serious inflation. It’s a bold, confident move from Sony, essentially daring consumers to flinch. Meanwhile, at the box office, a little bit of horror is going a long way. The new scary movie 'They Will Kill You' just pulled in a solid one million dollars in Thursday previews. Deadline notes that's right on the heels of what 'Ready or Not 2' did, which is great company to be in. It just proves, once again, that in a crowded market, nothing cuts through the noise and gets people into seats quite like a good scare. It’s a genre that consistently punches above its weight. And speaking of horror, it looks like a new project is brewing that's snagging some serious talent. We have Variety reporting that 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' star Lola Tung is lining up a new horror film called 'Forbidden Fruits'. And at the same time, The Hollywood Reporter is talking about how Victoria Pedretti of 'Haunting of Hill House' fame is also attached to 'Forbidden Fruits', playing a character in a secret witch cult. When you see two rising, in-demand actors like Tung and Pedretti both circling the same spooky project… you know the script has to be something special. Keep an eye on that one. So today, it’s all about the money. Wall Street is happy, Netflix is more expensive, your PlayStation is about to be more expensive, but thankfully, the one thing that still delivers reliable bang for your buck… is a good horror movie. That's your signal for today. I'm Kai Rivers — thanks for tuning in.