🎬 Biggest Broadway Debut Ever

👋 Good morning! Philip Barantini just directed an entire Ed Sheeran special without once yelling "cut." Fresh off 'Adolescence' and its four hour-long takes, Barantini filmed Sheeran performing across Manhattan on his way to a gig, all in a single, uninterrupted shot. The production involved 1,000 people while camera operators had to dive into car trunks mid-take to keep the shot going. Ed admits it "could have been a f****ing disaster" but now calls it the most impressive thing he's done in his career. It's on Netflix now.

Welcome back to The Dailies. The industry's winding down for Thanksgiving, but there's still news to catch before everyone disappears. Let’s get you caught up!👇

The bigger picture: Hollywood got the Thanksgiving boost it desperately needed as 'Wicked: For Good' single-handedly lifted the pre-holiday weekend to $185.5M, though that's still down 8.4% from last year's $202M frame that included 'Gladiator II's’ male-skewing counterpunch. 'Zootopia 2' arrives Wednesday to battle for family audiences. Through 11 months, 2025's box office remains essentially even with 2024.

Here’s an industry head-scratcher: Gen Z is 70M strong (the second-largest demographic in America), yet Hollywood has basically given up trying to make shows for them. Only a handful of series like HBO's 'I Love LA,' FX's 'Adults,' and Prime's 'Overcompensating' are even targeting 20-somethings right now. A senior development exec straight-up admitted: "I don't see in the short term that I'm telling the creative community that I'm looking for a young ensemble."

What they're actually watching: Gen Z's top streaming shows are all library content like 'Friends,' 'Gilmore Girls,' 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'Family Guy.' If 65% of young viewers are rewatching old shows instead of discovering new ones, acquiring proven comfort watches might actually be smarter business than greenlighting risky originals. Netflix's 'Friends' acquisition suddenly looks like genius-level strategy.

Plus, the most vibrant Gen Z comedy isn't on TV at all. It's on TikTok and YouTube. Twenty-two-year-olds are narrating their dating disasters, roommate betrayals, and quarter-life freakouts directly to millions of followers in formats that evolve by the hour. The creator economy didn't just steal viewers, it stole the entire genre.

Why the retreat happened: The decline of cable gutted Comedy Central and TBS as comedy incubators, erasing the ecosystem that once nurtured young-skewing content with young execs developing for young audiences. But there's also a harder truth: with Gen Z facing 10.8% unemployment (compared to 4.3% overall), fewer dating, and buying homes out of reach, the traditional milestones that drove 'Friends' or 'How I Met Your Mother' (finding love, career wins, apartment upgrades) work as escapist fantasy in reruns but feel far less relatable as stories for new content.

The bigger picture: When it comes to TV, Hollywood is essentially waving the white flag and conceding an entire generation to social platforms. The industry has retreated to serve older demos it understands rather than compete where Gen Z actually is.

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Can you compress a decade of film ecosystem building into one festival week? Qatar thinks so, and it's putting serious money behind the gamble. During the inaugural Doha Film Festival's Industry Days, the country's new Film Committee unveiled everything at once: rebates, studio deals, post facilities, and data partnerships that most regions build gradually over years. The rollout:

Why Gulf states are suddenly in the content game: Post-consolidation Hollywood needs risk-sharing on mid-budget projects. Qatar's pitch is specific: co-finance Arabic-language IP with Western distribution already locked in. Instead of just being a filming location, they're buying into ownership and know-how from day one. The details (budgets, timelines, specific titles) remain under wraps, and nothing's been produced yet. But the coordinated rollout shows how sovereign-backed capital is attempting to manufacture a seat at the table overnight.

Worth noting: Qatar's production push comes against a backdrop of broader Gulf ambitions in Hollywood ownership. Reports surfaced last week (though disputed) that Qatar's Investment Authority could join Saudi and Abu Dhabi sovereign funds in a potential $71B bid for Warner Bros Discovery. Whether or not that deal materializes, the pattern is clear: Gulf states are moving beyond just hosting productions. They want equity stakes and decision-making power in the global entertainment ecosystem.

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