🎬 Bye bye, Park City! 👋

👋 Good morning! Social media’s been flooded with Studio Ghibli-style AI memes courtesy of OpenAI's new 4o image generator. While the pastel transformations are everywhere, fans and purists are pointing out the irreplaceable artistry of the real Studio Ghibli. Hayao Miyazaki himself condemned AI animation in 2016, describing it as "an insult to life itself." The studio's actual work represents mind-blowing dedication: 60,000+ hand-drawn watercolor frames per film. One animator even spent 15 months creating just 4 seconds of ‘The Wind Rises.’

Happy Friday and welcome aboard The Dailies. Grab your coffee, and we’ll catch you up on the latest industry happenings before your first meeting. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here and join the cool kids. 😉

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• YouTuber Upfronts

• Sundance Leaves Utah

• Amazon MGM Shakeup

• CA Tax Credits

• Last Looks: 👀 Bite-sized scoops on developing stories/projects

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Release Radar: What to watch this weekend

• Martini Shot 🍸

But first, let’s take a look at what people were watching this week… 👀👇

TOP STREAMED
📊 What U.S. audiences were watching this week…

CLOSEUP
💰 YouTubers are pitching advertisers…

YouTube's top creators put on their own upfront-style event yesterday, competing directly with traditional media giants for advertisers' dollars. MrBeast, Dude Perfect, other YouTube elite headlined the first-ever ‘Spotter Showcase,’ bypassing YouTube's traditional Brandcast intermediary.

For the uninitiated: Upfronts are the TV industry's annual ritual where traditional media companies like NBCUniversal, Disney, and Paramount showcase upcoming programming to advertisers, hoping to secure billions in advance commitments. These glitzy presentations have been the exclusive domain of "legitimate" TV businesses—until now. Some numbers:

• 💸 YouTube raked in $36.15B in ad revenue in 2024 (compared to WBD's $8.09B and Paramount's $10.3B)

• 📉 Traditional TV upfront ad sales plummeted 13.7% to $18.4B for 2024-25

• 📈 Streaming ad dollars surged 35.3% to $11.1B in the same period

• 🚀 Spotter (the creator-focused firm hosting the event) saw its creator roster generate 77B minutes watched by US adults (18-49) in 2024

Why it matters right now: The event aims to demonstrate that these YouTubers operate more like TV networks than one-off influencers. Many creators have entire year's worth of content already planned and banked—a revelation that might surprise traditional advertisers. As creators like Kinigra Deon release three 20-minute scripted videos weekly while Dude Perfect produces TV-quality content on predictable schedules, they're positioning themselves as direct competitors to broadcast and cable networks.

Looking ahead… With both YouTube trying to become more like premium TV and streamers trying to capture YouTube's audience magic, the lines between creator economy and traditional media are blurring faster than ever. Creators are becoming Hollywood quicker than Hollywood is becoming creators—and Madison Avenue is taking notice.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 Boulder, Amazon MGM shakeup, and CA tax credits…

🎬🏔️ Goodbye, Park City! The iconic Sundance Film Festival is ditching its Utah home after 40+ years for Boulder, Colorado starting in 2027. The festival explicitly cited affordability concerns for filmmakers and attendees as one of the main reasons for the switch. It’s another sign of the growing financial pressures currently reshaping the indie film world, where skyrocketing costs have made premiere festivals increasingly inaccessible to emerging talent. Some of Boulder’s perks: a walkable downtown, proximity to Denver’s international airport, a vibrant arts scene, and—crucially—pre-negotiated hotel rates locked in for the next decade. The festival will take place around Pearl Street Mall and University of Colorado venues—likely an answer to major headaches in recent years, including lost Park City venues and pricey conversions of non-theater spaces. In short: new mountains, same mission.

🎬⚙️ Amazon MGM Studios head Jen Salke is stepping down. The studio head is reportedly leaving to start her own production company with a first-look deal. Rather than replace her, Amazon is simplifying its structure—film chief Courtenay Valenti and TV head Vernon Sanders will now report directly to Prime Video boss Mike Hopkins. The change comes as Amazon finalizes greater control of the James Bond franchise and prepares for its CinemaCon debut. During her six years at the helm, Salke oversaw major projects including the $465M ‘Rings of Power,’ ‘Fallout,’ ‘Reacher,’ and ‘Saltburn.’ 

🎬💸 Double or nothing: California's betting big on a tax credit expansion. The Golden State is pulling out all the stops in effort to reclaim its throne as production capital with game-changing amendments to bill SB 630 that would transform its film and TV tax relief program. The revisions would supersize the program's annual cap from $330M to $750M while raising the base credit from a modest 20% to a competitive 35%. California's expanding what qualifies for tax breaks to include way more content types—shorter TV episodes (now just 20+ minutes instead of 40+), animated projects, and certain competition shows that were previously left out in the cold. This represents the biggest overhaul since the program launched in 2009 and comes during what insiders call a "historic downturn in filming" in the state.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Barry Jenkins will direct A24’s ‘Be My Baby,’ starring Zendaya as Ronnie Spector in a stylized biopic of the iconic singer’s life. (more)

• Leonardo DiCaprio and Appian Way have joined the powerful documentary ‘Nine Little Indians.’ (more)

• 20th Century has acquired Martin Scorsese’s Hawaii-set crime thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Dwayne Johnson, and Emily Blunt. (more)

• Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page will star in Universal’s mystery project ‘Italianna,’ directed by Kat Coiro and produced by Will Packer. (more)

• Vertical has acquired North American rights to Emma Thompson and Judy Greer’s action thriller ‘The Dead of Winter.’ (more)

• Jonathan Majors will star in ‘True Threat,’ an action thriller about a Special Forces operative seeking vengeance for his son’s murder. (more)

• Mel Gibson’s ‘The Resurrection of the Christ’ is set to begin filming this August at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Renée Zellweger is joining S5 of ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ adding more star power to the hit Hulu series. (more)

• CBS is exploring a ‘Yellowstone’ spinoff starring Luke Grimes. (more)

• Apple TV+ has rounded out the cast of ‘The Dispatcher’ with Maxine Peake and others, as Christian Schwochow joins to direct. (more)

• Oscar Isaac will star as infamous conman Juan Carlos Guzmán in ‘Stowaway,’ a new Apple TV+ series he’ll also executive produce. (more)

• Netflix is adapting ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ into a steamy K-drama titled ‘Scandals,’ starring Son Ye-jin, Ji Chang-wook, and Nana. (more)

Greenlights, Renewals, & Cancellations ✅ ❌

• Netflix has greenlit a live-action ‘Scooby-Doo’ series. (more)

• Netflix has ordered ‘Age of Attraction,’ a new dating series. (more)

• ‘Watson’ is renewed for S2 at CBS. (more)

• CBS has canceled ‘After Midnight’ after S2. (more)

Business 🤝

• Emma Stone and Dave McCary’s Fruit Tree has signed a first-look TV deal with Fremantle. (more)

• Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort has signed a first-look TV deal with 20th Television to develop series across Disney platforms. (more)

• Rodeo FX has acquired Mikros Animation from Technicolor Group. (more)

Other News 🚨

• James Patterson and MrBeast are co-authoring a thriller novel sparking an eight-figure bidding war for film, TV, and book rights. (more)

• Whether you’re financing, producing, or packaging horror, the Horror Movie Report has the data investors want to see. (more)*

  _*sponsored

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RELEASE RADAR
📅 What to watch this weekend?

🎥 THEATRICAL

• Death of a Unicorn: A24 comedy-horror starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega.

• The Woman in the Yard: Blumhouse psychological horror starring Danielle Deadwyler and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.

• A Working Man: Jason Statham action-thriller.

• The Chosen: Last Supper — Part 1: Biblical historical drama from creator Dallas Jenkins.

📺 STREAMING

• The Studio: (Apple TV+) Satirical comedy series starring Seth Rogen as a studio executive trying to save a floundering company.

• MobLand: (Paramount+) Guy Ritchie’s latest crime saga starring Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Tom Hardy.

• Holland: (Prime Video) Mystery thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Matthew Macfadyen.

• The Life List: (Netflix) Rom-com drama based on Lori Nelson Spielman's novel, starring Sofia Carson.

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip: (Disney+) Family road comedy starring Eva Longoria and Jesse Garcia.

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW

With four new wide releases competing for attention, the overall weekend box office is projected to land around $60-65M total, marking another soft frame compared to last year's Easter weekend when ‘Godzilla x Kong’ powered the box office to nearly $140M.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments