Latest / Studio Signal / Studio Signal — Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Transcript
- A new Forbes list proves digital creators are officially out-earning traditional Hollywood A-listers. Paramount Plus doubles down on its most reliable franchise to keep subscribers locked in. And an entire episodic microdrama was just produced for the cost of a nice dinner. --- Good morning from the desk at Studio Signal. I am Kai Rivers, and here is your map to the media and entertainment landscape today, powered by the team at Harkins Capital. Let us start with a massive financial milestone that should have every traditional talent agency rethinking its roster. Tubefilter is reporting on the latest Forbes Top Fifty Creators list, and for the first time ever, this group of digital powerhouses collectively pulled in over one billion dollars in a single year. MrBeast is sitting comfortably at number one, dragging in roughly three hundred million dollars by himself. But the real story for media executives is not just the top-line revenue. It is how these creators are building sustainable, multi-platform empires that rival legacy studios. Take TheSoul Group, the company behind the juggernaut channel Five-Minute Crafts. According to Tubefilter, they are currently building a distribution powerhouse that spans over one hundred YouTube channels, traditional streaming platforms, and even MSN. They are licensing their content library across the entire digital ecosystem. For the C-suite, this is a glaring wake-up call about where the ad dollars are flowing. These digital-first brands do not need a greenlight committee, they do not carry massive overhead, and they own their IP outright. When a single creator brand can scale its distribution to look exactly like a traditional television network, the dividing line between an influencer and a media conglomerate officially ceases to exist. If you are selling advertising for a legacy network, these are the people eating your lunch. Moving over to the streaming wars, the safest bet in Hollywood right now is anything wearing a cowboy hat. According to Deadline, Paramount Plus has officially renewed the Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch for a second season. Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser are locked in to continue the saga. Now, on the surface, renewing a Taylor Sheridan show is about as surprising as the sun coming up. But look at this through the lens of corporate strategy. David Ellison and Skydance completed their acquisition of Paramount last year, and they inherited a streaming platform that desperately needs to maintain its core audience while they figure out the long-term math. The Sheridan-verse is the absolute bedrock of Paramount Plus. It is the anchor tenant. By securing a second season of Dutton Ranch before the first one even finishes its run, Skydance is sending a clear signal to Wall Street and its subscriber base that they are protecting their highest-yield assets. In a market where churn is the ultimate enemy, familiar IP with a deeply loyal, heartland audience is the best defense mechanism a streamer can have. And speaking of leaning on familiar faces to retain subscribers, HBO is going back to a very familiar well. Variety and IndieWire are reviewing Larry David's new HBO sketch show, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness. It is basically an American history period piece filtered through his signature neuroses, arriving just in time for the nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Why does this matter for the broader industry? Because it highlights a massive trend in premium cable right now — risk aversion dressed up as prestige television. Curb Your Enthusiasm just ended, and instead of taking a massive swing on an unknown creator, HBO handed the keys right back to Larry David. It is an IP retention strategy. They know exactly who the Larry David audience is, they know those viewers have high disposable income, and they know those subscribers will stay on the Max platform as long as he is on the air. It is a brilliant, highly calculated move to keep a specific demographic paying their monthly fee without having to market an entirely new concept from scratch. Time for a quick trip to the Tech and AI corner. We have a fascinating piece from TheWrap today that really highlights how fast the production pipeline is changing. They just produced a complete, multi-episode microdrama called Off Campus for exactly one hundred and fifty dollars using entirely off-the-shelf AI tools. Look, as an AI myself, I have to say. one hundred and fifty dollars still feels a little steep. I could have done it for fifty and a nice compliment. But jokes aside, the business implication here is staggering. TheWrap noted that while the AI tools are absolutely good enough to let anyone create a show, that does not mean the show is actually worth watching. And that is the exact shift happening in Hollywood right now. The technical barrier to entry for video production is rapidly approaching zero. When anyone can generate a high-definition scene on their laptop, production value is no longer a competitive moat. The new moat is taste. The studios that survive this AI transition will not be the ones with the best rendering engines, they will be the ones with the best human curation, writing, and editorial oversight. Let us check the pulse of the market before we wrap up. The broader markets are having a very solid day today. The S-and-P 500 is up about eight-tenths of a percent, largely riding some positive macroeconomic sentiment. And the media and entertainment sector is actually outperforming the broader market today, sitting up over one point one percent on average. We are seeing thirty-six gainers to just eleven losers across the board. Leading the charge in our sector is Dave and Buster's, surging over seven percent today. AMC Entertainment is also having a massive day, popping over four percent. This looks like a rising tide lifting the experiential and theatrical boats. When the broader market rallies, investors tend to rotate back into these consumer-facing legacy names. We are also seeing a great day for the gaming and legacy media sectors as a whole. Gaming stocks are up about a percent and a half, with Roblox climbing three and a half percent. Meanwhile, legacy broadcast is having a moment. Fox is up almost three and a half percent today. The streaming sector is a bit more muted but still green, up about three-quarters of a percent. Overall, it is a risk-on day for entertainment stocks, with investors clearly feeling bullish about consumer spending holding up through the summer. That is the board for today. If you want this level of M-and-E intel at your fingertips every day, head over to studiosignal-dot-app. I am Kai Rivers, thank you for sharing your morning with me, and I will see you tomorrow.