Latest / Brighter Path: Data, Marketing, Entertainment, and Storytelling / Spider-Man, GTA VI and Disney+ Show Where Entertainment Demand Is Really Moving

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Spider-Man, GTA VI and Disney+ Show Where Entertainment Demand Is Really Moving · Brighter Path: Data, Marketing, Entertainment, and Storytelling

• 0:00
  There's a difference between people knowing something exists
• 0:02
  and people changing their behavior because of it.
• 0:05
  That's really the story of entertainment right now.
• 0:07
  On the surface, this week look like a lot of headlines.
• 0:10
  Spider Man crossed $1 billion at historic speed.
• 0:13
  The Odyssey crossed $1 billion through a completely different
• 0:16
  engine. Universal passed 4 billion
• 0:18
  globally. GTA6 is acting like it already
• 0:21
  launched even though consumers cannot play it yet.
• 0:24
  Disney is bringing TikTok creator culture into Disney
• 0:26
  Plus. Ariana Grande took over Spotify.
• 0:30
  Love Island delivered a huge finale week.
• 0:32
  So yes, there was a lot of activity.
• 0:34
  But activity is not the point. The point is that the
• 0:38
  entertainment business is getting better at moving
• 0:40
  audiences from one behavior to another, From awareness to
• 0:44
  search, from search to ticket purchase, from ticket purchase
• 0:48
  to premium format, from theatrical to streaming, from
• 0:51
  fandom to product from product back into the franchise.
• 0:56
  That loop is the story, and I think this is where a lot of
• 0:59
  industry conversations still get too simple.
• 1:02
  Awareness is not demand, interest is not intent, and
• 1:05
  intent is not behavior. Behavior is when someone
• 1:08
  actually does something. They buy the ticket, they choose
• 1:11
  IMAX, they pre-order the game, they stream the song again, they
• 1:15
  buy the toy, they search the character, they enter the
• 1:17
  ecosystem. That's what matters.
• 1:21
  As we close the summer blockbuster window, the market
• 1:23
  is entering A sorting moment. Not a crisis moment.
• 1:26
  Not a theatrical is dead moment. We've had enough of those.
• 1:30
  This is more interesting. It is a moment where the market
• 1:32
  is separating properties that are simply familiar from
• 1:35
  properties that are behaviorally alive.
• 1:37
  And those are not the same thing.
• 1:40
  A familiar brand can still open soft.
• 1:42
  A huge trailer can still become a vanity metric.
• 1:45
  A consumer products program can still sit on shelves if the
• 1:48
  audience does not feel a reason to participate.
• 1:50
  But when the audience memory is strong, When the campaign
• 1:53
  creates urgency, When the format matters, when the product
• 1:56
  ecosystem is ready, when the timing feels culturally right,
• 2:00
  then you get a very different kind of response.
• 2:03
  That is what we saw this week. Let's start with theatrical.
• 2:06
  Because Spider Man, Brand New Day and The Odyssey both crossed
• 2:10
  $1 billion globally, but they did not get there the same way.
• 2:13
  And that's what makes this useful.
• 2:15
  If you only look at the headline, both stories look
• 2:18
  similar. Big movie, big number, global
• 2:21
  audience. Theatrical is back, fine, but
• 2:24
  the audience behavior underneath those two movies is very
• 2:26
  different. Spider Man is franchise demand
• 2:29
  moving at maximum speed. This is what happens when years
• 2:32
  of character equity, fan memory, cast interest, event
• 2:35
  positioning, and marketing urgency all convert at once.
• 2:39
  The keyword is convert, not awareness conversion.
• 2:43
  People already knew Spider Man existed.
• 2:45
  That was never the question. The question was whether that
• 2:48
  awareness would turn into immediate theatrical action.
• 2:51
  And it did. Crossing $1 billion worldwide in
• 2:55
  six days tells us this was not only a large fan base showing
• 2:59
  up, it was a coordinated global behavior.
• 3:02
  Audiences decided almost at the same time that this was
• 3:05
  something they needed to see now, not later, not on
• 3:09
  streaming, not when it was convenient.
• 3:11
  Now that is the highest value behavior in theatrical urgency.
• 3:16
  And that is why Spider Man is such an important case study.
• 3:19
  The entertainment business sometimes talks about franchise
• 3:21
  strength as if it is static. As if a franchise is strong
• 3:24
  because people recognize the logo.
• 3:26
  That is not enough anymore. Franchise strength is active
• 3:29
  when it changes what people do. Spider Man did that.
• 3:33
  It moved people from awareness to ticket purchase almost
• 3:35
  immediately. And then the momentum held
• 3:37
  beyond opening weekend. That is the other important
• 3:40
  part. A massive opening is 1 signal
• 3:43
  sustained first week. Momentum is another.
• 3:45
  That tells you the campaign did not only front load demand, it
• 3:49
  activated a broader audience wave.
• 3:51
  Core fans, casual fans, global audiences, premium screen
• 3:55
  urgency, social conversation. That is why this kind of run
• 3:59
  becomes bigger than box office. It becomes participation.
• 4:02
  And when a movie becomes participation, the ceiling
• 4:05
  changes. Then you have the Odyssey.
• 4:07
  And the Odyssey is fascinating because it is not working
• 4:10
  through the same engine. This is not franchise velocity.
• 4:13
  This is filmmaker equity, premium presentation, theatrical
• 4:17
  trust, and the idea that the movie itself is an experience
• 4:20
  worth leaving home for. With Spider Man, the audience is
• 4:23
  pulled by franchise urgency. With The Odyssey, the audience
• 4:26
  is pulled by event craftsmanship.
• 4:28
  The Christopher Nolan factor matters here, not because every
• 4:31
  filmmaker can do this, most cannot, but because Nolan has
• 4:34
  trained audiences to believe that the theatrical format is
• 4:37
  part of the product. For most films, theatrical is a
• 4:40
  window. For Nolan, theatrical is part of
• 4:42
  the value proposition that changes the audience decision.
• 4:45
  People do not only ask do I want to see this movie, they ask how
• 4:49
  should I see this movie? That is a huge difference.
• 4:52
  Once the consumer is thinking about format, the movie has
• 4:54
  already moved beyond passive interest.
• 4:58
  Now the audience is making an experience decision.
• 5:00
  IMAX premium, large format, best screen, best sound.
• 5:04
  That is why the Odyssey continuing to hold this deep
• 5:07
  into its run is so meaningful. It is not only that it opened
• 5:10
  well, it is that it retained attention in a crowded market.
• 5:13
  It kept holding even as new competition arrived.
• 5:15
  That tells us the demand was not only launch driven, it was
• 5:18
  durable. And durability is one of the
• 5:20
  most important signals in the current market.
• 5:23
  A lot of movies can create noise for three days.
• 5:25
  Fewer can create behavior for several weeks.
• 5:27
  The Odyssey did, and Universal passing 4 billion globally
• 5:31
  matters because it shows that a studio can win with multiple
• 5:33
  theatrical engines. Not 1A franchise engine, a
• 5:37
  filmmaker engine, a premium format engine, A family engine,
• 5:42
  a horror engine, a licensing engine.
• 5:44
  A slate works best when those engines do not all depend on the
• 5:47
  same audience behavior. That is the bigger take away.
• 5:50
  The theatrical market is not dead.
• 5:52
  It is fragmented by motivation. Different audiences need
• 5:55
  different reasons to leave home. For Spider Man, the reason is
• 5:58
  event participation. For The Odyssey, the reason is
• 6:01
  premium experience and filmmaker trust.
• 6:03
  For family films, it may be shared outing behavior.
• 6:06
  For horror, it may be communal tension.
• 6:09
  For gaming adaptations, it may be authenticity.
• 6:11
  The mistake is assuming all theatrical demand comes from one
• 6:14
  place. It does not.
• 6:16
  The strongest releases are the ones that understand the
• 6:18
  specific behavior they are trying to create.
• 6:20
  That matters when we look ahead because the next wave of
• 6:24
  theatrical releases is not only competing for awareness, they
• 6:27
  are competing for behavior. Paw Patrol the Dino Movie may
• 6:31
  not be the biggest theatrical title on the calendar, but from
• 6:33
  a consumer products perspective, it has one of the cleanest
• 6:36
  demand paths. Parents know what to search for.
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  Kids know what to ask for, retailers know how to
• 6:41
  merchandise it. Dyno Mobile HQ, Megasaurus
• 6:44
  vehicles, Rex Plush pup vehicles and role play sets.
• 6:48
  Those are specific purchase behaviors and this is a reminder
• 6:51
  that box office ceiling and consumer products value do not
• 6:54
  always move together. A film can be mid sized
• 6:56
  theatrically and still be very powerful commercially if it
• 6:59
  creates clear search to purchase behavior.
• 7:02
  For Paw Patrol, the movie is not only a theatrical event, it is a
• 7:06
  catalyst. It refreshes the shelf.
• 7:08
  It gives parents a reason to buy the next thing.
• 7:10
  That same distinction applies across the upcoming slate.
• 7:13
  The Cat in the Hat has recognition, but the campaign
• 7:15
  has to make it feel fresh enough for families to act now.
• 7:19
  Resident Evil and Street Fighter have gaming awareness, but game
• 7:22
  recognition is not the same as movie demand.
• 7:24
  The core fan asks is this authentic?
• 7:27
  The casual audience asks why should I care?
• 7:30
  The Hunger Games Sunrise on the Reaping is important because the
• 7:33
  book to screen loop is already active.
• 7:35
  The fan base is already reading, debating, searching and
• 7:38
  revisiting the mythology, the consumer products.
• 7:41
  Halo is not toy driven, it is identity driven.
• 7:44
  Books tie in additions, jewelry, apparel, cosplay and symbolic
• 7:49
  objects. The key question is whether
• 7:51
  publishing momentum becomes opening weekend urgency.
• 7:54
  Because fandom activity is not automatically ticket buying
• 7:57
  behavior, The campaign has to make the movie feel like the
• 8:00
  next essential chapter, not another adaptation.
• 8:04
  In a crowded market, audiences are constantly deciding what
• 8:07
  they can skip. The strongest franchise
• 8:09
  campaigns make the audience feel like skipping means missing the
• 8:11
  moment. That is what Avengers Doomsday
• 8:14
  will try to do At the highest scale, Avengers has the clearest
• 8:17
  blockbuster mechanics ahead, Doctor Doom, the crossover
• 8:20
  event, Marvel nostalgia, character convergence and
• 8:23
  consumer products people immediately understand.
• 8:26
  The question is not whether people are aware.
• 8:28
  Of course they are. The question is whether the
• 8:30
  campaign can make the event feel culturally necessary after a
• 8:34
  period where Marvel has had to rebuild some audience trust.
• 8:37
  That necessity matters. It cannot simply be big, it has
• 8:40
  to feel consequential. Dune Part 3 is a different kind
• 8:44
  of event. It's commercial power sits in
• 8:46
  premium format, collector behavior, cultural seriousness,
• 8:49
  and world immersion. This is a franchise where the
• 8:52
  audience behavior is more about prestige, participation, the
• 8:55
  desire to see it properly, to be part of a serious cinematic
• 8:59
  event, to engage with the world as culture, not just content.
• 9:03
  Then there is Hexed, and I keep coming back to Hex because it
• 9:06
  represents something the industry needs right now.
• 9:09
  Original IP with franchise potential.
• 9:11
  That is difficult. Early interest is there.
• 9:15
  People are curious about the world, the cast, Billy Hex and
• 9:19
  the idea of a Disney witch movie.
• 9:21
  The consumer products upside is easy to imagine, but right now
• 9:24
  the demand is still mostly conceptual.
• 9:26
  People are asking what is this? That is not a bad place to
• 9:30
  start, but the next phase has to move the audience to a different
• 9:33
  question. Not what is this movie, but who
• 9:36
  is my favorite character? What is that world?
• 9:38
  What is that product? Where can I buy that?
• 9:41
  That is when original IP starts becoming commercially alive.
• 9:45
  A world is not enough. Characters have to become
• 9:47
  sticky. Symbols have to become
• 9:49
  recognizable. Products have to become
• 9:51
  nameable. That is, the bridge hexed has to
• 9:54
  cross. Streaming showed the same
• 9:56
  pattern in a different form. Netflix had scale with 72 hours,
• 10:00
  which held the top movie spot with more than 40 million hours
• 10:03
  watched globally and ranked number one in more than 50
• 10:06
  countries. That is broad platform behavior.
• 10:09
  Demon Slayer entered the global top ten with almost 9 million
• 10:12
  hours in a partial release week, even though it was only
• 10:15
  available in select Asian markets.
• 10:17
  That is concentrated fandom behavior.
• 10:20
  Anime continues to be one of the clearest examples of global
• 10:23
  audience intensity, not just volume intensity.
• 10:27
  The audience follows the property across formats,
• 10:29
  theatrical, streaming, merchandise, music, events, and
• 10:33
  characters. And when Demon Slayer moves
• 10:35
  platforms, the audience moves with it.
• 10:38
  Ted Lasso is also interesting because the return is not only
• 10:41
  nostalgia. The premise is widening around a
• 10:43
  women's football team that matters.
• 10:46
  A returning show has two possible paths.
• 10:48
  It can reactivate the old audience, or it can expand the
• 10:51
  audience architecture. Ted Lasso has a chance to do the
• 10:54
  second. The nostalgia gets people back
• 10:57
  in. The new premise gives the
• 10:58
  franchise a reason to keep moving.
• 11:00
  A returning franchise can not only ask people to remember how
• 11:03
  much they liked it, it has to give them a reason to form a new
• 11:06
  habit. Streaming is habit behavior.
• 11:09
  Theatrical is often urgency. Streaming is often routine.
• 11:13
  A show wins when it becomes part of the viewer's rhythm.
• 11:15
  That is why Love Island US as finale week on Peacock is so
• 11:18
  meaningful. Almost 2 billion minutes watched
• 11:21
  in the US during the final week season, up double digits versus
• 11:26
  last season. That is not only content
• 11:28
  consumption. That is appointment behavior
• 11:30
  inside streaming. Reality can still do that very
• 11:33
  well. There is a social penalty to
• 11:35
  being behind. You want to know who won before
• 11:37
  the conversation expires. A lot of streaming is catch up
• 11:40
  behavior. Love Island is now behavior.
• 11:43
  Disney Plus had a different kind of movement with The Devil Wears
• 11:46
  Prada too. The title arrived on Disney Plus
• 11:49
  and immediately drove 15 million views in five days, becoming the
• 11:53
  number one overall title in more than 70 countries.
• 11:56
  What stands out is the conversion from theatrical
• 11:58
  momentum and nostalgia into immediate streaming viewing.
• 12:02
  This is where the old theatrical versus streaming debate becomes
• 12:04
  too simple, because in many cases, theatrical does not
• 12:09
  weaken streaming, it strengthens it.
• 12:11
  The theatrical window creates cultural memory.
• 12:14
  Streaming captures the next behavior.
• 12:16
  Someone sees the movie, Someone talks about it.
• 12:18
  Someone remembers the original. Someone watches at home.
• 12:21
  Someone searches the fashion, The ecosystem compounds.
• 12:25
  Not theatrical versus streaming, Theatrical into streaming,
• 12:28
  streaming into fandom, fandom into search, search into
• 12:32
  product, product back into engagement.
• 12:35
  Music gave us another version of this.
• 12:37
  Ariana Grande released new music and immediately took over
• 12:40
  Spotify. That is fanbase, activation,
• 12:43
  major artist, large audience, new album, immediate streaming
• 12:47
  concentration. But the more interesting music
• 12:49
  story to me, is closer. Because closer.
• 12:51
  Jumping 57 spots on Spotify's Top Songs Global is not a normal
• 12:56
  new release story. It is memory becoming behavior.
• 13:00
  The song is tied to a very specific cultural moment, a
• 13:03
  particular era of pop, a particular online memory, a
• 13:06
  particular emotional texture. And this week, nostalgia had a
• 13:10
  current trigger. The 10th anniversary brought the
• 13:12
  song back into conversation. The Chainsmokers Lollapalooza
• 13:16
  performance gave it a live event boost, and suddenly cultural
• 13:19
  memory turned into Spotify behavior.
• 13:22
  People did not just remember the song, they streamed it.
• 13:24
  That is the difference. Nostalgia is not valuable
• 13:28
  because people have warm feelings.
• 13:29
  It is valuable when those feelings become action.
• 13:32
  A rewatch, a stream, a ticket, a post, a purchase, a playlist.
• 13:37
  Without the action, nostalgia is sentiment.
• 13:40
  With the action, nostalgia is demand.
• 13:43
  Gaming may be the clearest example of where this is all
• 13:45
  heading. GTA6 is behaving less like a
• 13:48
  game release and more like a global entertainment event.
• 13:51
  Take Two said pre-orders have been unprecedented and far above
• 13:54
  internal expectations since orders opened June 25th.
• 13:58
  There are outside estimates suggesting massive pre-order
• 14:01
  volume and potential value in the billions.
• 14:04
  Whether every outside estimate proves exact is almost beside
• 14:06
  the point. The behavior is the signal
• 14:09
  people are committing months before they can play.
• 14:11
  That is extraordinary. GTA 6 is not simply generating
• 14:15
  awareness, everyone is aware. It is generating commercial
• 14:18
  action before availability. pre-order behavior is not casual
• 14:22
  interest, it is future purchase already converted.
• 14:25
  And GTA is doing this before release, before reviews, before
• 14:29
  gameplay is in consumers hands. That is franchise trust at an
• 14:32
  enormous scale. But the even more interesting
• 14:35
  move is the Netflix partnership. The next look at GTA6 is
• 14:39
  becoming a streaming event. Rockstar is premiering Grand
• 14:42
  Theft Auto 6, an extended look on Netflix with a six hour
• 14:45
  window before it reaches Rockstar's YouTube channel and
• 14:47
  website. Think about that.
• 14:50
  A game marketing asset is being programmed like premium
• 14:52
  entertainment. That is not a normal trailer
• 14:55
  drop. That is appointment viewing.
• 14:57
  For Netflix. It is a way to get closer to
• 14:59
  gaming culture as an attention platform for Rockstar.
• 15:02
  It turns a marketing beat into an entertainment event.
• 15:05
  We are going to see more of this trailers becoming programming,
• 15:09
  game reveals becoming streaming events, creator reactions
• 15:12
  becoming part of distribution. The marketing asset itself
• 15:15
  becomes content, and when the marketing asset becomes content,
• 15:18
  the audience journey starts earlier.
• 15:20
  Disney and TikTok are moving in a different direction, but it
• 15:23
  connects to the same ecosystem. Disney is bringing selected
• 15:26
  TikTok creators into Disney Plus through approved characters,
• 15:29
  scenes and assets from franchises like Marvel, Pixar
• 15:33
  and Star Wars. Some of those creator videos
• 15:36
  will appear inside Disney Plus through the Vertical video Verts
• 15:39
  feed. This is more important than it
• 15:40
  may look. Disney Plus has traditionally
• 15:42
  been a place to consume Disney content, movies, series,
• 15:46
  libraries, franchises. But with creator videos inside
• 15:50
  the platform, Disney Plus starts to become a place where fan
• 15:53
  culture can surface too. That changes the function of the
• 15:56
  platform. It is not just viewing, it is
• 15:58
  discovery. It is not just official content.
• 16:01
  It is curated participation, and for Disney that matters because
• 16:05
  a lot of franchise energy happens outside the owned
• 16:07
  ecosystem. TikTok, YouTube, Instagram,
• 16:10
  Reddit, Discord, fan edits, reaction videos, cosplay, memes
• 16:15
  and analysis. Disney is trying to bring some
• 16:18
  of that energy back inside the walls.
• 16:20
  Not all of it, that would be impossible, but enough to create
• 16:23
  a loop. A creator video leads to a clip.
• 16:26
  A clip leads to a movie. A movie leads to a series.
• 16:30
  Streaming platforms are going to become less like shelves and
• 16:32
  more like ecosystems. Collaborations are another
• 16:36
  version of audience movement. A lot of people still treat
• 16:39
  collaborations as marketing stunts.
• 16:41
  Some are, but the best ones are behavioral bridges.
• 16:44
  They move an audience from one context to another, from
• 16:46
  celebrity to grocery, from music to sport, from film to travel,
• 16:50
  from fantasy to beauty. Sydney Sweeney and Airwan is
• 16:54
  easy to dismiss if you only see it as another celebrity
• 16:57
  smoothie, but Airwan has quietly become one of the clearest
• 17:00
  examples of retail as media. The product is not just a
• 17:04
  product, it is content, a social object and a limited time
• 17:07
  participation moment. Talent gets a consumer
• 17:10
  touchpoint outside film, television or a traditional
• 17:12
  endorsement and Airwan converts celebrity attention into
• 17:16
  location based consumer behavior.
• 17:18
  Lego and The X-Files shows the continued commercial value of
• 17:21
  older IP when the product format is right.
• 17:24
  The X-Files is not a current mainstream franchise in the way
• 17:27
  Marvel or Spider Man is. But Lego does not need the whole
• 17:31
  general audience. It needs enough concentrated
• 17:34
  demand from the right audience. Because the set originated from
• 17:37
  a fan submission and vote, Lego had a demand signal before
• 17:41
  launch. This was not just a brand
• 17:43
  deciding to revive something, it was a fan base indicating
• 17:46
  interest in a specific product expression, not by forcing it
• 17:49
  back into the center of culture. By giving the existing audience
• 17:53
  a premium object that validates their attachment.
• 17:56
  That is collector behavior. Travis, Kelsey and Six Flags
• 18:00
  turns fandom into a visitation and season pass conversion
• 18:03
  mechanism. That is the behavior, not
• 18:07
  awareness, of Six Flags. Most people know Six Flags.
• 18:10
  The goal is to create a reason to act.
• 18:12
  Enter, visit, buy the pass, plan the trip.
• 18:16
  The best celebrity partnerships are not only about borrowed
• 18:19
  fame, they connect fame to a measurable consumer action.
• 18:22
  The FC Barcelona, Spotify and Ed Sheeran partnership moves across
• 18:26
  music, fandom, sports, fandom, merchandise, live events, travel
• 18:31
  and streaming. That is not only sponsorship, it
• 18:34
  is audience transfer. Universal's Minions and Monsters
• 18:37
  activation with Prince Hotels in Japan gives audiences a way to
• 18:40
  physically enter the world while the movie is active.
• 18:43
  For family IP especially, that can be powerful.
• 18:47
  Kids do not only want to watch the world, they want to visit
• 18:50
  it, eat it, wear it, sleep in it and play inside it.
• 18:54
  She Glam and The Lord of the Rings takes us into beauty,
• 18:56
  which is becoming a more important licensing category for
• 18:59
  entertainment IP. The easy version is putting a
• 19:02
  logo on a pallet. The better version is
• 19:04
  translating the visual language of a world into usable products
• 19:08
  that also feel collectible. Middle Earth has that advantage.
• 19:12
  It lets fans perform identity in a more subtle way.
• 19:15
  Not everyone wants to wear a giant franchise logo, but they
• 19:18
  may want a product that feels connected to the world.
• 19:21
  That is a different kind of fandom expression.
• 19:23
  So when you step back from the week, the pattern becomes clear.
• 19:27
  Entertainment is no longer moving in a straight line.
• 19:29
  It is not theatrical, then streaming, then merchandise.
• 19:33
  It is all happening at once. A movie drives a song.
• 19:37
  A game reveal becomes a Netflix event.
• 19:39
  A TikTok creator becomes a Disney Plus discovery tool.
• 19:42
  A theatrical launch becomes a hotel package.
• 19:45
  A legacy show becomes a Lego collector set.
• 19:48
  A streaming reality finale becomes appointment viewing.
• 19:51
  A premium format release becomes part of the product itself.
• 19:54
  This is the ecosystem now, and the companies that win are not
• 19:58
  the ones with the most headlines, they are the ones
• 20:00
  that understand which behavior they are trying to create.
• 20:04
  That is why I am spending more time over the next few weeks on
• 20:07
  2 bigger frameworks. 1 is the franchise theatrical release
• 20:10
  framework and the broader transmedia ecosystem.
• 20:14
  Because the question of when to bring a franchise back is not as
• 20:18
  simple as waiting a certain number of years, The real
• 20:20
  question is whether the audience is behaviorally ready.
• 20:24
  Do they remember the property in the right way?
• 20:26
  Is the franchise rested or fatigued?
• 20:29
  Is the product ecosystem ready? Is there a new reason to care?
• 20:33
  Is the cultural timing right? Is there a format or transmedia
• 20:37
  loop that can support it? That is the actual question.
• 20:41
  Bringing back a franchise too early can feel unnecessary.
• 20:44
  Bringing it back too late can lose momentum, but bringing it
• 20:47
  back at the right behavioral moment can unlock a much bigger
• 20:50
  return. The second area is premium movie
• 20:53
  going. Premium formats are not just an
• 20:55
  upsell anymore. They are becoming part of the
• 20:57
  demand equation for certain movies.
• 21:00
  Premium is not the expensive version of the ticket, it is the
• 21:03
  reason to buy the ticket now. IMAX, Dolby 4D, XPLF and other
• 21:08
  formats are increasingly shaping how audiences perceive urgency,
• 21:12
  value and theatrical necessity. The format can tell the audience
• 21:16
  this is not the same as watching at home.
• 21:18
  That matters because the biggest competitor to theatrical is not
• 21:22
  always another movie. Sometimes it is convenience,
• 21:25
  streaming, waiting, doing something else.
• 21:28
  Premium formats help fight that by making the experience feel
• 21:31
  scarce, better specific, worth planning for.
• 21:35
  But not every movie benefits equally.
• 21:37
  The audience has to believe the format adds value.
• 21:40
  That belief is the demand driver.
• 21:42
  And that brings me back to the opening idea.
• 21:44
  The entertainment industry is not short on awareness.
• 21:47
  Actually, we may have too much awareness.
• 21:50
  Too many trailers, too many drops, too many announcements,
• 21:54
  too many partnerships, too many headlines.
• 21:56
  The scarce thing is not attention.
• 21:59
  The scarce thing is action, getting people to do something.
• 22:03
  Spider Man got people to act immediately.
• 22:06
  The Odyssey got people to choose the theatrical experience.
• 22:09
  GTA6 got people to commit before release.
• 22:12
  Love Island got people to stay current.
• 22:15
  Demon Slayer got fans to move platforms.
• 22:18
  The Devil Wears product two turn nostalgia and theatrical
• 22:21
  momentum into streaming behavior.
• 22:24
  Closer turn memory into streams. Disney and TikTok are trying to
• 22:28
  turn creator culture into platform discovery.
• 22:31
  Lego turned X-Files fandom into a collector product.
• 22:36
  Minions and Monsters turned a film opening into a hotel
• 22:39
  experience. That is the through line, not
• 22:42
  buzz behavior. And I think that is the lens the
• 22:45
  industry needs more than ever because the next phase of
• 22:49
  entertainment will not be won by the properties.
• 22:51
  People simply recognize it will be won by the properties.
• 22:54
  People move for, buy for, search for, watch now, share, collect,
• 23:01
  visit, wear, play, and come back to.
• 23:05
  That is the difference between IP that exists and IP that is
• 23:08
  alive. That is what I'm watching.
• 23:11
  It was not one big story this week.
• 23:13
  It was the same story showing up across the entire ecosystem.
• 23:17
  The audience is still there, the money is still there, the demand
• 23:21
  is still there, but the bar is higher.
• 23:24
  You have to give people a reason to act.
• 23:27
  Not someday now.