New piece in the NYT today How to Save Hollywood: Make Fun Movies nytimes.com/2026/03/28/opini… via @NYTOpinion

HBD SRK! The King! We never did our show smoldering chefs! @iamsrk

Cocaine Bear marketing team is next level

This Lively-Baldoni thing was a huge mistake. This sort of thing worked in 2017 when no one was suing. But now you have to bring actual facts to a jury with cross examination. That’s a good way to wrap your Ferrari around a palm tree. Insisting that she not be deposed by Bryan Freedman is just the cherry on top. Too late to walk it back now oh well. Baldoni could easily have $100M in damages.

No table, no snacks, no phones, no plants, no wall hangings. Looks like a safe house.

#OTD The Rockford Files premiered 50 years ago today on NBC. My grandfather Roy Huggins created it, with Steve Cannell, for the great James Garner. It was their second show together after Maverick. @MavrocksGirl

NFTs are the counter culture of this era, this era’s punk, Woodstock, hip hop …

I am not worried about the leaked opinions of Megalopolis. Most of the best things we did at Amazon were passed on by everyone. Truth is: lots of people have bad taste — especially studio executives — especially when something feels new. It could just mean it’s great.

With @DEANFUJIOKA and @nana_seino at fabulous Amazon Video event in Tokyo celebrating original series in Japan.

1/ Web3/Decentralization will improve Hollywood. ⬇️

Excited to announce the world class team on the Shiva trilogy TV series @authoramish @shekharkapur and @Suparn. Looking forward to bringing this best of all Indian novels to screen in the best way and helping the world toward its multipolar cultural future.

Asghar Farhadi, @AmazonStudios understands and supports your decision not to attend the Oscars.

It would be very interesting to know: - Who was shadowbanned? - Were accounts deboosted or also terms? - For how long? - What was the procedure? - Who managed this process? - Was this strictly an internal process or was it coordinated with any external parties?

He could get a lot of testimony that his career is over. Jury will believe it. Probably true. That's $400M.

Rome

Waltz was her least moderate option. This has put the race back on issues. For a couple weeks it was all vibes.

How did you put in $100M and have no ownership or control?

Dungeon Master’s Guide Probably also Player’s Handbook

- Inglorious - Willy Wonka - Raiders - Little Mermaid

Not sure why anyone is mad. Seems like a perfectly humble statement. And Spielberg did an amazing job on that movie.

Fraud is illegal by statute and common law. The DOJ and state ag’s can pursue criminal and civil fraud cases. Private citizens have a right of action. The SEC was not created to police fraud in general. It exists to regulate securities only. #ripple #libry #howey

Just as a reminder, Alien, The Matrix, Mad Max, Ghostbusters, and Star Wars were originals. People just made movies up in their heads back then!!

Great mangos & company @akshaykumar ! See you soon!

So Mark Duplass made this series on spec and then screened it at Sundance and sold it to Netflix -- indie film style. Rare model but has real benefits.

Oh no my friend. So much damage has been done and so many lives ruined over nothing that counter cancellations will be the least of it. And it is completely justified. Total revenge is coming.

I relocate to Beverly Hills and now there’s a new fire in the Hollywood Hills?? I get that there are Santa Ana winds but this is unprecedented.

Imagine if you had presciently stacked Stranger Things tokens in 2015 and now owned 10% of the show. The Duffer Brothers would own the underlying IP. The Discord would be thriving. You’d flex 721’s in your oncyber gallery. This is the future of Hollywood.

Make it a tag team — Rogan + Elon vs Bezos + Zuck.

Once you have enough kids, you can leave the poorly behaved ones at home.

Do you know that before that it belonged to the Comanches? And before that it belonged to the Hopis? Do you know that England used to own Northern France? And do you know that I used to have a place in Encino? So what?

With Elementals, Lightyear, Strange World and Indy 5, you have to start asking team questions at DIS. Can anyone around here still put the puck in the net? And why is everyone 70+ anyway? Is this Washington??? And what’s Lasseter’s availability?

Studios need to make 💵 again. Is your brand as a movie exec or producer all about - Political - Outdated - &/or dull films that people dislike? Well, the time for that has passed. This is a good time to walk that vibe back and pivot to fun stories that excite the audience.

1/The Fun Manifesto (f/acc) "I want to give a really BAD party... I want to give a party where there’s a brawl and seductions and people going home with their feelings hurt. You wait and see..." - F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender is the Night Remember fun?

It’s hard to campaign against your own administration and record. Eg, now she’s hardcore on tax cuts and the border? While pushing price controls & a tax on unrealized gains… With a supportive media, maybe you can be unburdened by what has been. Or maybe not.

🚀 Come join: How will a decentralized web3 media service be different (and why will it be the best thing ever)? @cameronmoulene @SethShapiroTV @anannra @Luke360 nitter.app/i/spaces/1mnGedvVonRKX

Twitter Media — A Plan 1 Sign many prominent news/opinion podcasters, YouTubers, ex news people to exclu deals — globally (US, EU, India, etc.) 2 Others contribute vids & pods self serve. 3 Enable longform video & podcasts on web & in app. 4 Launch Roku & other TV apps 5 Longform vid available through TWTR Blue: one, united subscription (not 2,500 subscriptions, not micro transactions) 6 Continually enhance logic for hands free vid and audio sequencing —> “couch” and “car” use cases. 7 Clips obvs available in free service 8 Add comedy —> a new SNL, South Park type cartoons… 9 Add audio and text commenting on videos ala BiliBili? 10 Grow subs and providers — flywheel

In other news, Google has limited searches to two per day per user.

Ever wondered how Marvel got started in showbiz? And what I had to do with it? More than you think. True story — When I was 9 or so I would often wear a Hulk t-shirt. My father (Frank Price) ran Universal TV. He noticed the shirt. He contacted agent Mike Levy (who represented Marvel Comics) about the TV rights. My father didn’t want to let Levy know he was interested in Hulk specifically or the price would go up so he said he was generally interested in comic book characters but wasn’t sure which ones. For an option price of $15,000 he got the right to pick 10. He selected Incredible Hulk, Dr Strange, Captain America, Human Torch, Aquaman… some others. Stan Lee came over for breakfast and was very nice. What a thrill to meet him! Once in possession of these rights, my father proposed five movies of the week to CBS President Bob Wussler. Incredible Hulk was the first movie made and CBS ordered a series. They also made Captain America and Dr. Strange. Incredible Hulk became a hit. At that time Universal could have bought the struggling Marvel Comics for $50 Million. Sid Sheinberg turned it down. Unfortunately, Bill Paley fired Bob Wussler. Paley didn’t want his Tiffany network to become the comic book network. (Wussler went on to run CNN.) And that’s how Marvel really got started. I had a very small — but significant — role. You’re welcome! Later, I tried to land Marvel TV rights at Amazon and came this close. A story for another day.

Not a sequel. No superheroes. That is some bold and beautiful movie making. Worth a watch.

Elon taking over Twitter is an important moment in web2 and in the American dialogue. But as much as I respect Elon Musk, we will look back on it as merely a steppingstone. #web3

Gotta be honest when I was young there were plenty of guns around. I’d say most boys shot at least at summer camp. But there were no mass shootings.

We can simulate discord in real life! Fun #mfers LA meetup today. @danielgothits @MooseLoveMusic @keyboardsims

Star Wars is dead-ish except on TV. Marvel is faltering. Does DC have brand power? Why are we so focused on these brands from the 30s-70s anyway? Feels like it’s time for a new wave of originals and born-in-the-21st century IP.

Weirdly similar vibe

Akshay Kumar serves mangoes to Amazon head Roy Price. Is a collaboration on the cards? indianexpress.com/article/en… via @IndianExpress

Newsletter today: “What percent of Hollywood’s metoo was real?” Link in bio. Thesis: there was a necessary, important, & legit part at the core. And then a lot of grifters tried to manipulate it to their advantage. We can have one without the other.

100% true. Which is reflected in IMDb data. The best Hollywood content is old (Succession, Yellowstone). Newer content is unambitious. Only ex-US content like Squid Game has edge. Developing in Hollywood now is like singing opera with an N95 mask on.

“Not a big culture war guy. I’m worried about the future of our country.” Culture is the future of our country.

I feel like the discussions on TV used to be a bit more high minded than they are today!

Don’t sleep on @countyhwy This Michael Lind piece is a funny and v insightful overview of American culture from Puritan times. This is frankly what The New Yorker should be but isn’t.

Amazon Japan Unveils Ambitious Original Content Strategy variety.com/2016/digital/asi… via @variety

A great night. Best show. Best actor. #honored #MozartInTheJungle #amazon

Is there anyone more tiresome and unfun than 2023 Sam Harris? Our culture needs to reject this enervating and boring ideology.

Welcome to Amazon @TedHope Let's make some great movies

Come to brunch Sunday w @davidzhorvath @nuclearnerds @DeadHeadsNFT @METACITZN @DCP_Foundation nitter.app/i/spaces/1yNxaYybegjxj

Assume several people already have your idea anyway.

The Reveal

With @perlmutations and @DanaDelany on "House of God" set with dir @MarcForster #amazonstudios

Maybe we should indeed…

Don’t confuse core values with day to day bickering. A policy of freedom and individual justice may lack the specificity of top down plans + retributive justice, but its lack of determinism is its virtue. Protecting your right to say and do what you want is a positive vision.

The critical question people don’t ask in media earnings calls: what is your break even SVOD (subscription video) target scenario? And what is your plan to get there? My pov: increasing prices is critical from here. If people cannot successfully do that because they face price elasticity, they have to reconsider their path. Because no one is growing very much. How many subs must a global SVOD service have anyway and what are the key levers? I’ll look at a generic service. KEY ASSUMPTIONS US ARPU is $13.99 but there are some promos and some goes through Amazon so your pocket price (amount you actually get) is $9.50. Assume avg ROW (rest of world) pocket price is 85% US Pocket Price, which is $8.08. Assume your ROW subs = 1.2US subs. (I’m dealing with India completely separately here. Assume 20MM subs there at $1/mo. Assume India is a break even operation so it doesn’t affect the rest of the calculation.) In this case, for every million USCAN subs, you wind up with $230.28MM/yr. total (excluding India). Assume you spend $8B on original content per year. After licensing, marketing, foreign originals and overhead, your total annual cost is $24B (NFLX is $25B). TARGET SUBS That means you need 104MM USCAN subs to break even. Way too many. Disney has 46. NFLX has 75.5. That doesn’t work at all. SOLUTIONS >Raise Prices What happens if our US pocket price goes from $9 to $15? Now you need 66MM USCAN subs. Achievable. >Cut Costs What if you keep pocket price at $15 and reduce annual cost from $24B to $16B? Now your break even USCAN sub target is 44MM. Much, much better 👏. Now profit is realistic. We can see here why people need to ⁃raise prices ⁃carefully examine third party distribution deals, and ⁃streamline selection such that only high impact titles are amortizing against the service. Everything else to FAST or cross-license. The big opportunity for Disney is to keep raising prices (and to release great content that keeps people around). PAR DRILL DOWN Paramount financials say they only spend ~$8B/yr on Paramount+. They have an ARPU of ~$9.25 ($111/yr), including ads. So they could theoretically break even at 72MM global subs (+12MM/20%). They have 60MM and added 750K in the last quarter. It’s a somewhat long and uncertain road to 72MM at that pace. I wd argue Paramount needs to increase their ARPU and also increase their growth rate. They have a low ARPU imo because the service on a relative basis — despite some highlights — isn’t that appealing and doesn’t offer brand consistency or benefit from high brand awareness. Assuming they don’t combine with someone else, real improvement will require stronger selection and more budget (which may increase losses in the near term). If they don’t do this, they probably remain loss making for years (and don’t think +750K subs per quarter is any kind of guarantee). I would say this slow road, where you keep bleeding cash and maybe slowly growing (with little hope of ever being very profitable), is a risky road. The trouble is that PARA’s other businesses aren’t growing either. Broadcast and cable are in secular decline. Movie studios on their own tend to go up and down year after year. Combine, or be more aggressive, or … it’s risky. Is there a more niche, targeted SVOD service opportunity where your total costs are, say, $3B? Target subs: 8.25MM. I think there is, but you have to have an exciting angle and brand. There isn’t time to get into it here, but I think services could reduce customer acquisition cost and churn by being more brand focused — projecting a clear and consistent brand for a specific (but large) audience. Except for Disney and increasingly NFLX, no one really does this, opting instead for a “here’s all the random, unrelated stuff we have made” strategy. That’s churn-maxing.

Trejo followed by Joe Don Baker and Jim Brown.

Prediction: Cocaine Bear will mark the start of a whole [substance] + [animal] genre. LSD Lions Methamphetamine Mongoose Adderal Cats Opium Ostrich Vodka Dogs MDMA Meerkats Crack Bats

Gm. Excited to welcome @toddlerpillars #6375 and #2752 to the @IntlArtMachine fam. @Tim_Molloy_Art and @jonbeinart 🔥

Suspect deepfakes will undermine confidence in random videos and increase importance of trusted brands. Not start wars.

What we didn’t have: therapy, talk about “mental health,” psychological drugs, “other” drugs. What has changed? Not the guns. I bet a repeating Henry is 99% as lethal as an AR15 in close quarters. I’m no psychologist. But is this new stuff working? Suicide rates are up too.

Well downtown we have a curfew, most stores and even apt buildings are boarded up, the 101 is blocked, tear gas has been deployed, and helicopters are constantly overhead. Which Los Angeles is “real world Los Angeles”?

Great show. I was such a fan of Gilmore Girls, this was an easy greenlight. ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Takes Its Final Curtsy nytimes.com/2023/04/11/arts/…

Developing IP in 2023 — Studios prefer to back movies that have a “built in” audience (IP or talent or both). It’s tough for original ideas. The answer: systematically plant and grow new ideas in lower stakes environments (YouTube, TikTok, Webtoons etc). Some will get traction, some won’t. If an idea is very dependent on the specific style of a director or on specific cast, this may work less well. But even then I suspect there shd be a way to get people excited about some aspect, perhaps the story. Gradual IP Creation Process example: 1 Mood video(s) (ripomatics) 2 Lore/short story 3 Designs 4 Originals: 7 min short + 1 min short 5 NFT/Discord 6 Grow universe Best approach: do this at scale and continuously improve understanding of best early content, optimal launch strategy, how to interpret feedback, etc.

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

You know the interesting thing is that as TikTok has ascended, consumption of Hollywood content has not declined. I’m trying to figure out what it is taking share from. I fear it may be … conversations and books.

Social media and finance co’s like PayPal are ramping up their agenda-driven deplatforming efforts. Section 230 and antitrust won’t stop this. Ideas on what could — spectator.co.uk/article/will…

Excited to premiere "Hello World" Noon PST Saturday in @OM100m by ex Disney Joe Horne, an 8 min musical imagining the origin story of NFTs. Featuring #mfers, #cryptodickbutts, @DeadHeadsNFT @nounsdao and others! Here: oncyber.io/6529om?coords=198… Thanks @punk6529 @mintface

Check it out

It’s a combo of crypto libertarianism, getting $ to artists, pseudonymous identityism, censorship resistance, and FU Lamboism. All of which decentralization delivers. Thanks, Hal Finney!

Prime Video didn't have a new TV show make the Nielsen Top 25 in 2023. Yikes. That would be zero new hit shows under the WGA definition. Oh, well! (h/t @EntStrategyGuy)

Innovative and fun @DeadHeadsNFT

I am still a member of the Kiss Army! @genesimmons nitter.app/genesimmons/status/836…

Love this. Would be interesting to set up an entity to finance these so the risk isn't so concentrated. Independent TV Pilots Are Having A Moment deadline.com/2024/05/indepen… via @Deadline

Including the nuclear subs?

If Twitter is going to become an island of text and Jpegs w no links, it’s going to get a lot smaller and Reddit, 4chan, telegram and discord will get bigger.

Maybe in the future every centi-billionaire will have their own political party, news platform, muse, sports team, and signature cryptocurrency. Everyone will be a Muskian, a Zuckerist, a Sorosite, or a Gatesist. Or we could regulate political donations, I guess.

Who is not making money in Hollywood? People are consuming a lot of entertainment. Why aren’t key contributors in Hollywood — and why isn’t Hollywood itself — making more money? 1/20

🪦 2017-2024

Watch as the press invest bureaucrats w esoteric authority, like Sumerian courtiers defending priestly initiates in 3000 BC. Only the devout (“a small group,” w “deep technical expertise”) may witness the sacred counting of the coins, lest we invite the wrath of the gods…

The Mission, Ennio Morricone

Link in bio

They were called monks.

A promising new addition to the @IntlArtMachine troupe. opensea.io/assets/0x6fc355d4… via @opensea @JeremyJenson_ @DeadHeadsNFT

The budget of Aliens (1986) in today’s dollars was $53MM. The budget of Haunted Mansion (2023) was $150MM. Is there another industry where technology has tended to increase costs? Maybe the military?

PFPs are the concert t-shirts of web3. They symbolize the philosophy and the energy of the moment. And you can only buy them once. And they will grow to be so much more.

Are these being composed in real time via quill and parchment, transposed via IBM Selectric typewriter, scanned, faxed to Twitter HQ, and then finally tweeted? What’s with the pace?

People are addicted to the false allure of “IP.” I once had lunch with a huge producer who said he never wanted to do a movie not based on IP 🤮 Newsflash: no one knows wtf Fall Guy is. (Or John Carter or …) Abandon the crutch and be open to the next Star Wars. Avatar. Etc.

When centralized entities like Random House and PayPal deplatform well known authors (eg Mailer) and pundits (Eg @ianmiles) for minor speech offenses, normies of all stripes see the risks of centralization. Institutions have won a skirmish and hastened their inevitable demise.

2/ IMO the best recent TV and film has come from people and teams operating outside the Hollywood development system eg Parasite, Squid, Atlanta, Arcane, Curb, Super Deluxe, Jojo, French Dispatch. I’m sure I’m missing a couple.

#web3hollywood will be the next subscription video in terms of its watershed impact on Hollywood and the global culture industry. People don’t quite get how big it will be or why. 🧵👇

17/ Web2: watch shows. Web3: watch shows you own.

A lot of takeaways here but one is that TWTR needs to organize a thread team and make threads faster and better. Threads have always been a hack and this shows the cracks in the system.

there's only room for one robot in this chat