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This Week in Hollywood: How Momentum Is Built Before the World Is Watching · Brighter Path: Data, Marketing, Entertainment, and Storytelling

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the Deep Dive. It is Saturday, January 17th,
• 0:04
  2026. Great to be here.
• 0:06
  You know, I want to start today with a feeling.
• 0:09
  You look at everything going on, movies and theaters, the apps on
• 0:11
  your TV, your social feed, and it all feels, well, busy.
• 0:18
  But here's the question, does it feel urgent?
• 0:21
  That is, the billion dollar question isn't?
• 0:24
  It it really is. And honestly, for a lot of
• 0:26
  studios right now, the answer is a hard no.
• 0:28
  We are just swimming in content, but we are not necessarily
• 0:31
  drowning in must see events. Yeah.
• 0:33
  And that's the perfect lead in. We've got a huge stack of
• 0:36
  insights today from Chris Colombo over at the consultancy
• 0:40
  Brighter Path. And the thing that jumped out of
• 0:42
  me right away was this, this framework they've set up,
• 0:44
  they're calling the big battle of this year momentum versus
• 0:48
  static. It's a brilliant way to put it
• 0:50
  actually. Static is the default state for
• 0:52
  everyone now. Right, you're at home.
• 0:53
  You're at home, you have a literal infinite library of
• 0:56
  stuff to watch, you're comfortable.
• 0:58
  I mean, the friction it takes to get you off your couch or even
• 1:01
  just to switch apps is higher than it has ever been in human
• 1:04
  history. It's inertia.
• 1:05
  Exactly. And momentum is the just immense
• 1:09
  energy it takes to break that inertia and the brighter path
• 1:12
  data, it shows that the energy needed to create that momentum
• 1:15
  to actually make someone move is just getting higher and higher
• 1:19
  every single year It's. Like the basic physics of the
• 1:22
  box office. And today, since this is our
• 1:24
  Behind the Curtain edition, we're going to look at the
• 1:27
  actual machinery behind that physics.
• 1:30
  Yeah, let's get into it. We're not just.
• 1:31
  You know, reviewing movies, we're looking at what they call
• 1:34
  the world building of marketing campaigns, the real estate wars
• 1:37
  on your smart TV. And the actual data behind who
• 1:40
  is winning the fight for your attention.
• 1:41
  We're going to look at everything from the sort of calm
• 1:44
  box office of mid January to the, I mean the absolute
• 1:48
  strategic chaos of what Marvel is doing.
• 1:51
  Oh, we have to talk about that. Plus we've got some hazard
• 1:53
  lights flashing for some massive, massive IP.
• 1:56
  Yeah, that data is. It's a little worrying.
• 1:58
  So basically Star Wars and Masters of the Universe, Yeah.
• 2:00
  But OK, First things first. Let's start with the ground
• 2:03
  truth, the theatrical landscape right now.
• 2:05
  Let's do it. So looking at the box office for
• 2:08
  mid January 2026, Brighter Path uses the word steady.
• 2:13
  Now, usually Steady's a good thing, But in Hollywood, does
• 2:18
  steady just mean you know? Boring.
• 2:21
  In this context, steady really means controlled.
• 2:24
  OK, it means the floor is holding up, but nobody is
• 2:27
  shattering the ceiling. The number one movie right now
• 2:30
  is Sony's 28 Years Later, The Bone Temple.
• 2:33
  The zombie franchise. Yeah, Danny Boyle is back.
• 2:36
  It is, yeah. And it did.
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  It took the top spot, but the performance is described as was
• 2:40
  controlled. It opened exactly where the
• 2:42
  financial models predicted it would.
• 2:44
  No. Surprises. 0 surprises.
• 2:46
  No massive breakout. No viral explosion that sent
• 2:49
  people running to theaters who weren't already planning to go.
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  But, and this is important, no underperformance either.
• 2:55
  So it's a single, maybe a double.
• 2:56
  Not a home run. It is a very, very safe double
• 2:59
  and that's pretty much the story for the whole top five right
• 3:01
  now. You've got Avatar, Fire and Ash
• 3:03
  still pulling in those $10 million plus weeks, which is
• 3:06
  just, I mean, it goes to show James Cameron's power to create
• 3:10
  holdovers. It's amazing.
• 3:11
  You have Primate from Paramount, which actually did a little bit
• 3:14
  better than Projections. The buzz was pretty decent on
• 3:17
  that one. Then you have Zootopia 2, the
• 3:21
  Housemaid. It's a functional, you know,
• 3:23
  healthy box office. But feels a little bit like
• 3:26
  maintenance mode. That is the calm on the surface
• 3:29
  that Braider Path is talking about.
• 3:30
  It's all stability over chaos right now.
• 3:32
  But here's the thing about Hollywood calm is terrifying.
• 3:36
  Right, because if you're not growing.
• 3:38
  If you're not growing, if you aren't creating some kind of
• 3:40
  mania, then you are slowly bleeding attention to video
• 3:44
  games, to TikTok, to everything else.
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  And I think that fear of calm is precisely why everyone is losing
• 3:51
  their minds over what Marvel is doing with Avengers Doomsday.
• 3:55
  Oh yeah. Because they are not waiting for
• 3:57
  the mania, they are manufacturing it.
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  This is, for me, the most fascinating piece of data in the
• 4:02
  whole report. We really need to unpack this.
• 4:04
  Avengers Doomsday is 11 months away. 11 months?
• 4:08
  That's an eternity in pop culture time.
• 4:10
  I mean, usually you drop a teaser maybe six months out.
• 4:13
  A full year seems insane. Don't you risk burnout?
• 4:17
  That used to be the thinking absolutely.
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  You don't want the audience to get tired of the conversation
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  before you can even sell them a ticket.
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  But Marvel is well they're rewriting the playbook for
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  tentpole marketing. They're building what Brighter
• 4:30
  Path calls a cultural appointment almost a full year
• 4:34
  in advance. OK, so walk us through the
• 4:36
  mechanics of that. I mean, how do you keep people
• 4:39
  interested for a year without, you know, showing them the
• 4:43
  entire movie and trailers? You change what the marketing
• 4:45
  is. Look at the chairs announcement.
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  The chairs, yes, it was literally just a photo.
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  An image of empty director chairs on a set with names on
• 4:54
  them. But look at the function of that
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  image. It wasn't a trailer you just
• 4:57
  watch passively. It was a puzzle.
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  A puzzle you have to solve. A puzzle you solve actively.
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  Who are these characters? Why are these specific ones
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  together? What does the font on that chair
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  mean? It turned the marketing itself
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  into a game. It wasn't promotion, it was a
• 5:12
  format. And the numbers seem to back
• 5:14
  this up. Brighter Path is saying video
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  views for doomsday content. They've already passed a
• 5:20
  billion. 1 billion. But here's the really critical
• 5:24
  nuance in that number. That billion isn't just people
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  watching the official trailer on YouTube, right?
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  That billion includes the entire reaction economy.
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  It includes the leak videos, the theory breakdowns, the frame by
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  frame analysis from teenagers in their bedrooms.
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  So Marvel is basically outsourcing its marketing
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  department to the entire fan ecosystem.
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  They are feeding the beast. They have finally accepted that
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  in 2026. Marketing lives in reaction,
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  reinterpretation and repetition. They're not even trying to
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  control the message anymore. They are just providing the raw
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  materials for the Internet to build the message for them.
• 6:00
  But isn't that incredibly risky? I mean, if the fans build up
• 6:04
  this version of the movie in their heads that the actual
• 6:07
  movie can't possibly deliver, don't you just get a massive
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  backlash? That is the risk, 100%.
• 6:13
  But the brighter path analysis suggests that the financial
• 6:16
  upside is just too big to ignore.
• 6:18
  They say the strategy doesn't necessarily raise the ceiling
• 6:21
  and Avengers movie is always going to be huge.
• 6:23
  Right, the ceiling's already high.
• 6:24
  Exactly. But what it does do is it
• 6:26
  tightens the downside. So it's an insurance policy?
• 6:29
  It's a massive insurance policy. By engaging the audience this
• 6:33
  early, you make sure that even if the reviews are just OK or
• 6:38
  there's a Blizzard on opening weekend, you've already built a
• 6:41
  cultural habit. You've made the appointment.
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  You've made the apartment. People will go because they have
• 6:47
  already invested a year of their lives talking about it.
• 6:50
  That is a cynical but probably brilliant way to look at it.
• 6:54
  You're shifting from advertising to, I don't know, conditioning.
• 6:57
  That's a good way to put it, and it stands in such stark contrast
• 7:00
  to some of the films actually coming out right now, where you
• 7:03
  can really see the difference between having a great idea and
• 7:06
  actually pulling off a great experience.
• 7:08
  Right, let's pivot to the reviews then, because we have
• 7:11
  two movies hitting theaters that seem like perfect case studies
• 7:14
  for this exact thing. I've got Mercy from MGM and send
• 7:17
  Help, directed by Sam Raimi. Let's start with Mercy.
• 7:20
  OK, so this is a classic concept versus execution battle.
• 7:24
  On paper, you'd think Mercy would be the clear winner.
• 7:27
  Well, yeah, It stars Chris Pratt.
• 7:28
  The concept sounds incredibly timely.
• 7:32
  It's about being judged by an AI system that claims to have
• 7:35
  perfect objectivity. I mean, that is a terrifying,
• 7:39
  brilliant hook for 2026. It raises all the right
• 7:42
  questions, you know, about automation, justice, human
• 7:47
  error. It's the kind of smart sci-fi
• 7:49
  that usually just crushes it, but the verdict from the
• 7:52
  insights is overly rigid execution.
• 7:56
  Ouch. What does that actually mean on
• 7:57
  screen? Like what's the problem?
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  The critique is that the movie just relies on heavy, heavy
• 8:02
  exposition and a lot of visual noise instead of, you know,
• 8:05
  character development. The old tell don't show problem.
• 8:07
  It's worse than that. It's tell via algorithm, right?
• 8:10
  They use this real time framing device that's supposed to feel
• 8:12
  urgent and immediate, right? But Brighter Path says it just
• 8:15
  ends up feeling like a gimmick actually distances you from the
• 8:18
  story. You feel like you're watching a
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  mechanism, not a human. Human drama.
• 8:22
  What? About Chris Pratt, is he any
• 8:23
  good? The note says he commits fully.
• 8:26
  He's trying his best to sell the stakes, but because the script
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  is so obsessed with the mechanics of the AI, the
• 8:32
  emotional core just doesn't land.
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  It's a cool concept you talk about at dinner.
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  But not a movie you feel. Exactly.
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  Not a cinematic experience you feel in your gut.
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  OK, so let's contrast that with. Send help Sam Raimi, Rachel
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  McAdams. This sounds much, much smaller
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  in scale. Much smaller, it's a confined
• 8:51
  island setting. A survival horror thriller.
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  I mean, let's be honest, we've seen this movie 100 times
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  before. So why is the verdict so much
• 8:57
  better on this one? 2 words.
• 9:00
  Tonal confidence. Tonal confidence.
• 9:02
  I like that. The film knows exactly what it
• 9:05
  is. It's not trying to lecture you
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  about society or AI, it is trying to scare the hell out of
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  you. Yeah, and it succeeds.
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  Completely. Rachel McAdams gives this raw,
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  really anchored performance. The pacing is super sharp.
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  The violence is inventive, which is, you know, classic rainy, and
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  it has these great little moments of really dark levity.
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  So in this case, simplicity beats complexity.
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  Not always, but tonal confidence almost always beats high concept
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  gimmickry. Send help works because it
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  commits to the character dynamics, especially this
• 9:39
  deteriorating relationship between the main characters.
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  It doesn't need to explain the island, it just forces you to
• 9:45
  try and survive on it with them. I love that distinction.
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  One film is trying to be smart, the other is just trying to be
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  effective. And in a crowded market,
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  effective usually wins. Especially when you're asking
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  people to leave the comfort of their home.
• 9:57
  Exactly. And Speaking of leaving the
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  house, or rather not leaving the house, I want to pivot to the
• 10:03
  hazard lights section of this report because this one really
• 10:07
  set off alarm bells for me. Yeah, this part is concerning.
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  We're talking about two of the biggest intellectual properties
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  in history. Star Wars and Masters of the
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  Universe. Specifically The Mandalorian and
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  Grogu movie and the Masters of the Universe reboot.
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  The report says both are trending downward in theatrical
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  intent. I mean, how is that even
• 10:27
  possible? Everyone knows Baby Yoda.
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  Everyone knows he man. And that is exactly the problem.
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  The data is showing this massive gap opening up between awareness
• 10:36
  and urgency. But isn't awareness like half
• 10:39
  the battle? Isn't that what you?
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  Want. Not anymore.
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  No, Brighter Path calls this the marketing challenge.
• 10:45
  Everyone on Earth knows who The Mandalorian is.
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  But because we have spent years, literally years, watching Mando
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  on our couches, right, simply knowing a movie exists doesn't
• 10:57
  trigger a purchase decision. It's the I'll just wait for it
• 11:01
  on Disney Plus effect. It's a textbook case.
• 11:03
  Disney trained us personally that The Mandalorian is what we
• 11:07
  watch in our pyjamas on a Tuesday night.
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  Now they're turning around and asking us to drive to a theater,
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  pay 20 bucks, buy popcorn to see essentially the same thing.
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  So the static is winning because the momentum isn't strong
• 11:18
  enough. Exactly.
• 11:20
  The inertia is just too powerful.
• 11:21
  OK, so how do they fix it? If you're the head of marketing
• 11:24
  at Disney, what do you do right now?
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  You have to fundamentally shift your strategy.
• 11:30
  You have to go from informing, as in hey, this movie exists, to
• 11:34
  eventatizing as in you absolutely must see this now in
• 11:37
  a theater. You have to promise something
• 11:38
  more. You have to promise a spectacle
• 11:40
  that television cannot contain. If that first trailer looks like
• 11:45
  season 4 but on a slightly bigger screen, it is going to
• 11:48
  fail theatrically, period. And what about Masters of the
• 11:52
  Universe? That hasn't been ATV show
• 11:53
  recently. No, but it suffers from a
• 11:56
  different version of the same problem.
• 11:57
  It's an IP that everyone recognizes but nobody feels is
• 12:00
  essential to their life right now.
• 12:02
  It's at risk of being seen as dated instead of nostalgic.
• 12:07
  The urgency just isn't there. Wow.
• 12:09
  That is a tough pill to swallow for these big studios.
• 12:12
  Just being a famous brand isn't enough to guarantee a billion
• 12:15
  dollars anymore. Not in 2026.
• 12:18
  The novelty has completely worn off.
• 12:19
  Now you need a hook. You need a reason, OK.
• 12:22
  Let's move from the theater to the living room.
• 12:24
  Then let's talk global streaming.
• 12:26
  Because if people are thinking of skipping The Mandalorian in
• 12:28
  theaters, what are they watching at home?
• 12:30
  Well, it's a fascinating mix. It's romance, it's action, and
• 12:34
  it's a whole lot of nostalgia. First up, we just have to talk
• 12:37
  about Netflix and the complete dominance of people we meet on
• 12:40
  vacation. The Emily Henry adaptation.
• 12:43
  I feel like I cannot open a single social media app without
• 12:45
  seeing someone talking about this movie.
• 12:47
  The numbers absolutely back that up.
• 12:49
  It's number one in over 30 countries, over 30 million hours
• 12:53
  watched in its first week. But the interesting part for us,
• 12:57
  you know, behind the curtain is what they call the Halo effect.
• 13:00
  Right the Halo how the movie impacts the original book sales.
• 13:03
  Exactly. The movie's release drove this
• 13:06
  huge renewed momentum for the book.
• 13:09
  It shot back up the New York Times bestseller list, back up
• 13:12
  the Amazon charts. It's a perfect little ecosystem
• 13:15
  loop the. Brighter path says that window
• 13:17
  is short. It's incredibly short.
• 13:19
  You can't wait a month to start pushing the book in stores.
• 13:22
  The coordination between the publishing arm and the streaming
• 13:24
  platform has to be incredibly tight to capture that value.
• 13:28
  If you miss that window, the buzz just it evaporates.
• 13:32
  It just goes to show how transient these cultural moments
• 13:35
  really are. So what about big action stars?
• 13:38
  Are they still a draw on streaming?
• 13:40
  Oh absolutely. Look at the RIP Matt Damon and
• 13:42
  Ben Affleck premiered at #1 in over 80 countries. 80 countries.
• 13:47
  That is just. It proves a very simple formula
• 13:50
  still works. Genre clarity plus movie stars
• 13:54
  equals global reach. It works.
• 13:56
  You don't need some complex, interconnected world building if
• 14:00
  you have Damon and Affleck in a thriller.
• 14:02
  People just click play. People click play because they
• 14:04
  know exactly what they are getting.
• 14:05
  It's the comfort food of cinema. It is.
• 14:08
  And Speaking of comfort food, let's talk about franchises
• 14:11
  reactivating their back catalogs.
• 14:13
  Stranger Things is a monster. Still.
• 14:17
  Still, even without a new season dropping, this week the
• 14:20
  documentary they released One Last Adventure, which is about
• 14:23
  the making of the final season right?
• 14:25
  It proved that behind the scenes content is a perfect engagement
• 14:28
  bridge. It keeps the engine warm between
• 14:31
  seasons. It does more than that.
• 14:33
  In the US, Stranger Things completely dominated the Nielsen
• 14:37
  streaming charts. 2.4 billion minutes watched.
• 14:41
  Billion with AB. Billions with AB that's people
• 14:43
  re watching old seasons all spurred on by this one
• 14:46
  documentary. And I saw a similar thing
• 14:47
  happened with Fallout on Prime Video.
• 14:49
  Yeah, yes, a perfect example. SIM 2 was released and it
• 14:53
  created this massive Halo for Season 1.
• 14:56
  Combined, the two seasons pulled in almost 800 million minutes of
• 15:00
  viewing time. So the lesson for the studios is
• 15:03
  that a new release isn't just about the new thing.
• 15:06
  It's basically a giant advertisement for all the old
• 15:09
  things in your library. Correct.
• 15:11
  Returning seasons are the single best way to reactivate your
• 15:14
  entire library. It reduces friction for the
• 15:16
  viewer. You don't have to convince them
• 15:18
  to try something totally new, you just have to remind them why
• 15:21
  they loved the old thing in the first place.
• 15:22
  That makes perfect sense. OK, let's get a little technical
• 15:25
  now. We talk a lot about the content,
• 15:27
  but we rarely talk about the menu, the user interface, the
• 15:30
  real estate of connected TV or CTV.
• 15:33
  This is where the war is really won or lost.
• 15:35
  These days, most people don't even realize that the layout of
• 15:38
  their smart TV screen, the banners, the little carousels,
• 15:41
  that's all bought and sold just like billboards on a highway.
• 15:45
  And December was basically the Super Bowl for CTV visibility.
• 15:48
  Of course, everyone's home for the holidays, everyone's off
• 15:51
  work, everyone's looking for something to watch.
• 15:54
  So who won the real estate war? Surprisingly, it were.
• 15:59
  Maybe not so surprisingly, it was Paramount Plus guy.
• 16:02
  Paramount plus guy? Really.
• 16:04
  I would have put my money on Netflix or Prime just based on
• 16:08
  sheer spending power. Well, Prime Video did spend the
• 16:10
  most. They had the number one at
• 16:12
  placement value, which was worth about $138 million in
• 16:16
  visibility. But Paramount Plus one on
• 16:18
  strategy. Yeah, they executed something
• 16:21
  brighter. Path is calling focused Breath.
• 16:24
  Focused breath? That sounds like a
• 16:25
  contradiction. Unpack that for.
• 16:27
  Me. OK, so usually a streamer will
• 16:28
  pick their biggest, most important title, let's say House
• 16:31
  of the Dragon for HBO, and they plaster it everywhere.
• 16:35
  They bet the entire farm on one horse, right?
• 16:37
  Paramount didn't do that. They placed four different
• 16:40
  titles and the top 10 most visible slots on people's TV.
• 16:43
  'S so they diversified their portfolio right on the home
• 16:45
  screen. Exactly.
• 16:46
  They combined their franchise strength so something like Land
• 16:50
  Man for the Yellowstone audience with family content with live
• 16:54
  NFL football. They saturated the interface not
• 16:57
  with one single message, but with a whole net of messages.
• 17:01
  So they're optimizing for the scan.
• 17:03
  If you don't like Cowboys, here's football.
• 17:05
  If you don't like football, here's a cartoon.
• 17:07
  Correct. And you can contrast that with
• 17:09
  someone like HBO Max who took a quality over quantity approach.
• 17:13
  They pushed fewer titles, mainly the IT prequel Welcome to Dairy.
• 17:17
  So they had higher impact per title, but less overall
• 17:21
  coverage. So what's the big take away here
• 17:23
  for the industry? Is it better to be broad or is
• 17:25
  it better to be deep? The big insight is that
• 17:28
  visibility isn't just about volume anymore.
• 17:30
  It's about precision. It's about using what they call
• 17:33
  device native creativity. What does that mean?
• 17:35
  It means using the specific features of the TV you're on.
• 17:39
  Voice prompts, seasonal rails. You know those rows that are
• 17:43
  labeled holiday favorites, Branded content hubs.
• 17:46
  You can't just buy a banner ad anymore and hope for the best.
• 17:49
  You have to integrate your content into the user's
• 17:52
  experience. You have to become part of the
• 17:54
  furniture. That is fascinating.
• 17:56
  We think we're choosing what to watch, but a lot of the time the
• 18:00
  menu is choosing for us. In many ways, yes, it absolutely
• 18:03
  is. OK, so let's talk about the
• 18:04
  people on those screens, the talent heatmap.
• 18:07
  Who's trending right now, and why?
• 18:09
  Because just glancing at this list, it looks like Stranger
• 18:13
  Things is dominating here too. It's a real mix of endings and
• 18:17
  new beginnings. Millie Bobby Brown is seeing a
• 18:19
  massive spike, but it's not just because of the show, right?
• 18:23
  It's driven by what they call the end game conversation.
• 18:25
  How is it all going to end for 11?
• 18:28
  But that's combined with her big pivot into being a lifestyle
• 18:31
  brand. She's trying to do the hardest
• 18:32
  thing in Hollywood, transition from being a child star in a
• 18:36
  huge franchise to being a multi category public figure.
• 18:40
  And she is succeeding. But Look at Her Co stars Jamie
• 18:43
  Campbell Bauer, who plays Vecna. His buzz is all about
• 18:47
  craftsmanship. People are dissecting his
• 18:49
  performance, his makeup process. It's a very different kind of
• 18:53
  fame. And what about Sadie Sink?
• 18:55
  For her, it's all fan driven debate and rumors.
• 18:59
  Ah, the Spider Man rumors. There are always rumors about
• 19:02
  Spider Man, Always, but for her, it just keeps her name
• 19:05
  circulating in the algorithm. And then you have Joe Kiri, who
• 19:08
  has this fascinating dual track career going.
• 19:11
  Right, the music. He's got the franchise heat from
• 19:13
  the show, but he also has his whole other music career as DJO.
• 19:17
  Which is really taking off. It is.
• 19:19
  He's sustaining relevance across two different mediums, so if the
• 19:23
  acting ever slows down, the music can pick pick up.
• 19:26
  It's a diversified portfolio of talent.
• 19:28
  I also saw a name on this list that I haven't thought about in
• 19:30
  a minute, but now is suddenly huge Tegan Croft.
• 19:34
  This is a classic casting height spike.
• 19:36
  She was just announced as Rapunzel in Disney's live action
• 19:39
  Tangled. Oh wow, that is a career maker.
• 19:42
  That is the golden ticket. Instantaneously overnight, she
• 19:46
  went from being a pretty well known genre TV actor from the
• 19:50
  show Titans to a global franchise lead.
• 19:54
  The data shows this massive surge in search traffic, social
• 19:59
  media conversation. It proves that the Disney
• 20:02
  Princess role is still one of the most powerful career
• 20:04
  accelerators in the entire industry.
• 20:06
  And it's not just actors anymore, right?
• 20:08
  The creator economy is bleeding into all of this.
• 20:10
  Oh absolutely. We have to talk about Mr. Beast.
• 20:13
  Jimmy Beast games. Season 2 is on the way.
• 20:16
  He's teasing a Super Bowl spot. He's everywhere.
• 20:18
  He uses scale to compound his narrative.
• 20:20
  He treats his own brand like it's a movie studio.
• 20:23
  He doesn't just make videos anymore, he launches full scale
• 20:26
  campaigns. And then you have these brand
• 20:28
  collabs. This part of the report was
• 20:29
  really interesting. Lego and Pokémon.
• 20:31
  Finally, I feel like people have been waiting for this for 20
• 20:33
  years. But look at the strategy behind
• 20:35
  it. It's for the 30th anniversary.
• 20:37
  Who are they actually targeting with?
• 20:38
  Us They are not just targeting kids.
• 20:40
  This is aimed squarely at adults.
• 20:42
  Right display sets nostalgia. People with disposable income
• 20:46
  who want to put a Lego Pikachu on their desk at work.
• 20:49
  It's about capturing the Millennial wallet.
• 20:51
  Precisely. And then Speaking of smart
• 20:53
  retail strategy, look at Lululemon collaborating with La
• 20:57
  La Land Kind Cafe. Wait, a coffee shop inside a
• 21:01
  yoga store? Retail is Habitat.
• 21:03
  That's the phrase Brighter Path uses.
• 21:05
  Oh, that It's not just about selling leggings anymore.
• 21:08
  It's about creating a service layer inside the store to
• 21:12
  increase what they call linger time.
• 21:15
  They want you to live in the store, not just shop there.
• 21:18
  That is diabolically smart because if you're sitting there
• 21:21
  drinking a latte, you are staring at the clothes for 20
• 21:24
  minutes longer than you would have otherwise.
• 21:26
  Exactly. And in the world of retail, time
• 21:29
  equals money. OK, let's.
• 21:31
  Zoom out to the boardroom for a minute.
• 21:32
  We have some major leadership shake UPS in the industry, news
• 21:35
  that I think signal where the big ships are trying to steer.
• 21:38
  And the biggest headline here is, without a doubt, Lucasfilm.
• 21:42
  Yeah, this is huge. Kathleen Kennedy is stepping
• 21:45
  aside. After a very long and very
• 21:47
  impactful run. But the real analysis isn't
• 21:50
  about her leaving, it's about who is stepping up to replace
• 21:53
  her. It's Dave, Filoni and Lynn when
• 21:55
  Brennan and they're taking on expanded oversight.
• 21:58
  Filoni is the creative guru, right?
• 21:59
  The guy who always wears the cowboy hat.
• 22:01
  He is the creative authority, He has the trust of the hardcore
• 22:04
  fans. He was George Lucas's
• 22:06
  apprentice. He understands the lore better
• 22:09
  than almost anyone. But, and this is the key, Lynn,
• 22:12
  when Brennan brings the operational execution, she's the
• 22:16
  business side. So it's a partnership, a
• 22:18
  creative brain and a business brain working together.
• 22:20
  It's a very deliberate pairing, and the goal is crystal clear.
• 22:24
  Stabilize the tone and the output after a decade of just.
• 22:28
  I think that's a perfect way to describe it.
• 22:30
  And Speaking of connecting markets, Legendary Entertainment
• 22:33
  just sold a $150 million stake to Tokyo Broadcasting System
• 22:39
  TBS. So is that just a cash grab?
• 22:41
  Does Legendary just need the money?
• 22:43
  It's never just about the money at this level.
• 22:45
  The report calls it capital as connective tissue.
• 22:48
  It's not just cash, it's access. Legendary gets a bridge to the
• 22:52
  Asian markets, They get Co financing Co production
• 22:54
  opportunities in Japan and TBS gets access to Hollywood level
• 22:59
  IP. It's a strategic alliance to
• 23:01
  globalize their content pipelines.
• 23:03
  And one more industry note that I thought was really cool.
• 23:05
  A 24. They're doing a new project with
• 23:08
  Helena Rain directing and Gracie Abrams starring.
• 23:11
  The musician. The musician.
• 23:12
  Yes, this is a trend that a 24 is really leaning into, taking
• 23:15
  musicians and putting them into acting roles, but under very
• 23:18
  strong, very specific directorial voices.
• 23:20
  So it's not just let's put a pop star in a movie to sell tickets.
• 23:24
  No, it's let's make something culturally specific and
• 23:27
  interesting. It signals that talent is more
• 23:30
  fluid. Now you're not just a singer or
• 23:32
  just an actor, you're a creative.
• 23:34
  And a 24 is the playground where you can cross those lines
• 23:37
  without losing your credibility. All right, we are nearing the
• 23:40
  end, but we have to shine a spotlight on one specific piece
• 23:44
  of content. And it's a documentary
• 23:47
  Disneyland handcrafted. Yes, this premieres January 22nd
• 23:50
  on Disney Plus base and it is an absolute must watch for anyone
• 23:55
  who's interested in how things actually get made.
• 23:57
  It's directed by Leslie Iworks. What makes it special?
• 23:59
  Is this just another Disney is magical puff piece?
• 24:03
  Because I mean, we've seen a lot of those.
• 24:04
  That is exactly what it is not, and that's why it's so great.
• 24:07
  The style is defined by one word, restraint.
• 24:10
  There's no modern narration. There are no talking heads
• 24:12
  explaining how great Walt. Was.
• 24:14
  So what is it then? It uses archival footage and
• 24:17
  period soundscapes, which were restored by Skywalker Sound, by
• 24:20
  the way, to show the frantic, chaotic final year of building
• 24:24
  the original Disneyland. Ah, the chaos year.
• 24:26
  The central theme is grit, not magic.
• 24:29
  It reveals all the trade-offs, the immense risk they were
• 24:32
  taking. You actually see the crews
• 24:34
  installing turrets on the castle under these impossible
• 24:37
  deadlines. You see the asphalt not trying
• 24:39
  in time for opening day. You see the sheer exhaustion on
• 24:42
  people's faces. I love that because we all look
• 24:44
  at Disneyland now is this inevitable perfect thing?
• 24:47
  We just assume it appeared out of nowhere.
• 24:49
  Exactly. But this film is a reminder that
• 24:51
  these great cultural landmarks, they aren't built on mythology.
• 24:55
  They're built on work, on iteration, on persistence.
• 24:59
  It's a reminder that behind every single magic moment,
• 25:02
  there's a guy with a hammer who hasn't slept in 24 hours.
• 25:04
  Precisely. And for our audience, the Behind
• 25:07
  the curtain crowd, that is the most inspiring message of all.
• 25:11
  It demystifies the whole process.
• 25:13
  So let's wrap this all up. We've covered a lot of ground
• 25:15
  today, from the marketing wars of Marvel to the UI wars of
• 25:19
  Paramount Plus. What is the big picture here?
• 25:22
  What's the thread connecting all this?
• 25:24
  If I had to synthesize it all down to one idea, I would say
• 25:27
  this. We are seeing a massive shift in
• 25:29
  the industry from broadcasting to architecting.
• 25:33
  Architecting explain that. Think about it, Marvel isn't
• 25:36
  just releasing a trailer, they are architecting an 11 month
• 25:40
  cultural on ramp for their audience.
• 25:42
  Lululemon isn't just selling clothes, they are architecting a
• 25:47
  retail habitat to live in. Paramount Plus isn't just
• 25:50
  dumping shows onto its service, it's architecting A focused
• 25:54
  breath strategy for your TV's real estate.
• 25:58
  So it's not enough anymore to just put the content out there
• 26:00
  and hope people find it. You have to build the entire
• 26:03
  structure around it first. Exactly.
• 26:05
  You have to build the world that the content lives inside.
• 26:07
  If you don't build the architecture, the urgency, the
• 26:09
  habit, the environment, the content just dissolves into the
• 26:13
  background static. And that connects right back to
• 26:15
  that Disney Disneyland documentary, doesn't it?
• 26:17
  It's all about the grit required to build that world.
• 26:20
  It is, and it connects directly to the Mandalorian morning too.
• 26:22
  If you don't architect the urgency, that feeling of must
• 26:25
  see you just fade away, you know?
• 26:27
  Here's a thought that's been nagging at me through this whole
• 26:29
  conversation. If Marvel is proving that you
• 26:32
  can generate huge interest 11 months out, and The Mandalorian
• 26:38
  is proving that massive brand awareness doesn't equal urgency
• 26:41
  anymore, are we entering an era where the campaign is actually
• 26:45
  more important than the I key itself?
• 26:47
  That is the provocative question, isn't it?
• 26:49
  Is the way you sell something becoming the art form?
• 26:52
  I think for 2026 the answer might just be yes.
• 26:54
  A scary thought or exciting one depending on where you sit in
• 26:57
  the industry. Indeed.
• 26:59
  Well, that is all for this deep dive.
• 27:01
  Thank you for listening. Keep your eyes on the screen,
• 27:03
  but more importantly, keep your eyes on the data.
• 27:05
  See you next time.