🎬 Fantasy Box Office

👋 Good morning! Just when you thought "ghost writer" was just a job title, Agatha Christie takes it literally. The BBC has digitally resurrected the Queen of Crime using AI for their Maestro masterclass series, creating an uncanny 4K video instructor 50 years after her passing. The production required over 100 specialists to bring Christie's likeness to screen, while her estate insists all writing advice comes directly from her archives.

TGIF from the Dailies crew. We’ve collected all the industry intel so you don’t have to. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. 👈👀

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• Gen Z Marketing Tactics

• Tony Nominations Love Hollywood

• MoviePass Goes Fantasy Box Office

• Streaming Ads Dominate

• 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, it’s Friday, so let’s take a look at what people were watching this week… 👀

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

CLOSEUP
📲 Studios are fishing where the fish are…

After years of watching Gen Z ignore traditional marketing, studios are ditching old tactics and bringing content straight to where young audiences actually hang out—gaming platforms, YouTube, and social apps. Turns out billboards don't work when your target audience never looks up from their phones. Recent moves from the "how do you do, fellow kids?" playbook:

• 🌌 Disney's Fortnite premiere: Disney's premiering the first two episodes of ‘Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld’ directly in Fortnite today at 10am—before they even hit Disney+. This comes as part of their massive $1.5B Epic Games partnership, embracing gaming as a premiere content channel.

• 🎭 Sony's ‘Karate Kid’ revival: The nearly 40-year-old franchise is getting a Roblox experience ahead of ‘Karate Kid: Legends’ theatrical release. Players can train alongside Daniel LaRusso starting today.

• 🤖 Blumhouse's full-movie freebie: Taking a direct approach, Blumhouse posted the entire ‘M3GAN’ movie free on YouTube to hype the upcoming sequel. The studio tweeted: "Well isn't today your lucky day. Our legal team let us post the entire 'M3GAN' movie. Enjoy!"

The math checks out…

Feels like Hollywood finally opened the Screen Time report on their kids' phones and had a collective "aha" moment. Some numbers:

• 78% of Gen Z uses YouTube regularly

• Roblox users spend 144 minutes daily (vs. 112 on TikTok, 70 on YouTube)

• Gen Z averages 3.4 hours daily watching videos (approximately 3.39 hours more than they spend looking at billboards)

• 81% spend more than an hour daily on social media

Looking ahead… Expect more platform-specific experiences as studios fish where the fish are. Traditional marketing is out; meeting Gen Z in their digital habitats is in.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 Tony noms, fantasy box office, and streaming ads…

🎭🌟 Broadway and Hollywood are having a moment. The 78th Tony nominations dropped, and despite some high-profile snubs, they still rolled out the red carpet for plenty of screen stars. George Clooney, Sarah Snook (fresh from her ‘Succession’ victory lap), Sadie Sink, and Bob Odenkirk all snagged nods, highlighting the ongoing migration of A-listers joining the Broadway brigade. The crossover is paying dividends for everyone involved—Clooney's 'Good Night, and Good Luck' smashed records with a $3.3M weekly haul and $302 average ticket prices. And it's not just actors making the jump—industry heavyweights like Steven Spielberg, Jason Blum, and James Wan are on the producer team of 'Death Becomes Her,' which tied for the most nominations (10), showing the Hollywood-to-stage pipeline flows at every level. The Tony Awards ceremony is set for June 8, hosted by Cynthia Erivo.

🎬🎲 Fantasy box office is the new fantasy football. MoviePass is betting big on gamification with its new Mogul app, where film buffs can create virtual movie studios and compete against friends by picking upcoming films, actors, and directors—then earning points (and eventually cash prizes) based on real-world box office performance and awards. Think of it like fantasy sports, but for movie nerds. It’s yet another sign that Hollywood’s desperately looking for new revenue streams. Beyond the potential payday from users, the real goldmine could be the user prediction data that studios would kill for. The app has 400,000 curious users already waitlisted for the beta launch. After once declaring bankruptcy with its too-good-to-be-true pricing model, MoviePass claims two years of profitability—we'll see if this fantasy play can keep them in the black for the sequel.

📺💰 Remember when streaming meant no commercials? Yeah, neither do we. Nielsen just dropped some new data showing 72.4% of all TV viewing in Q1 2025 now happens on ad-supported platforms. The streaming revolution that once promised commercial-free bliss has pulled the ultimate bait-and-switch, with roughly 70% of streaming viewing now stuffed with ads. The pivot is paying off bigtime for platforms, though—Disney+ ad revenue nearly doubled to $197M (up 98% from last year), Netflix raked in $502M (up 88%), and Amazon Prime Video pocketed $476M (up 82%). As streamers embrace their inner cable network, content creators may need to start plotting those perfect pre-commercial cliffhangers again. Pour one out for the golden age of uninterrupted binge-watching…it was fun while it lasted.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• DC Studios has scrapped Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Sgt. Rock’ movie due to scheduling conflicts. (more)

• Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem will star as a troubled couple in Florian Zeller’s psychological thriller ‘Bunker.’ (more)

• Gal Gadot and Matthias Schoenaerts will star in Niki Caro’s World War II revenge thriller ‘Ruin,’ set to begin filming in 2026. (more)

• Nicholas Galitzine and Marisa Abela will star in ‘The Return of Stanley Atwell,’ mystery thriller from Steven Soderbergh and Brian Welsh. (more)

• Takashi Miike will direct ‘Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo’ for Neon, starring Shun Oguri, Lily James, and Liv Morgan, with sales launching at Cannes. (more)

• Chris Hemsworth will star in ‘Subversion,’ a submarine action thriller from Amazon MGM Studios. (more)

• ‘Hacks’ breakout Robby Hoffman will co-write and star in ‘Unentitled,’ a new comedy in development at HBO. (more)

• Guy Ritchie will direct ‘Road House 2’, with Jake Gyllenhaal returning as Dalton in the sequel to Amazon MGM’s hit action remake. (more)

• Rachel Zegler will star alongside Marisa Tomei in ‘She Gets It From Me,’ a comedy drama launching sales at Cannes. (more)

TV Development 📺

• FX confirms ‘Shogun’ S2 is officially happening, with Hiroyuki Sanada and Cosmo Jarvis returning and production set to begin in January 2026. (more)

• Blink49 Studios is adapting ‘Death on the Island,’ the debut crime novel by former Icelandic First Lady Eliza Reid, into a six-part TV thriller. (more)

• CNN will premiere three new original docuseries this summer: ‘JFK Jr.,’ ‘Live Aid’, and ‘Billionaire Boys Club’. (more)

Greenlights, Renewals & Cancellations ✅ ❌

• ‘Geek Girl’ is renewed for S2 by Netflix. (more)

• Netflix greenlights ‘Mating Season,’ a raunchy new animated comedy from the creators of ‘Big Mouth.’ (more)

Business 🤝

• ‘House of the Dragon’s’ Fabien Frankel and brother Max launch production company MarcelMonique Pictures. (more)

• Ari Emanuel is buying contemporary art giant Frieze from Endeavor to anchor his new global events and experiences company. (more)

• Roku is acquiring low-cost streaming bundle service Frndly TV for $185M to expand its platform and subscription offerings. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Netflix launches FYSEE LA, a two-week citywide Emmy campaign festival featuring star appearances and local community support. (more)

• The Peabody Awards 2025 winners have been announced. (more)

RELEASE RADAR
📅 What to watch this weekend?

🎥 THEATRICAL

• Thunderbolts*: Latest Marvel movie following a ragtag team of antiheroes starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan and more.

• The Surfer: Psychological thriller starring Nicolas Cage as a man tormented by locals while trying to surf with his son.

• Rosario: Horror film starring Emeraude Toubia and David Dastmalchian, directed by Felipe Vargas in his feature directorial debut.

📺 STREAMING

• The Four Seasons: (Netflix) Comedy miniseries created by Tina Fey, starring Fey and Steve Carell as friends whose vacations go hilariously wrong.

• Another Simple Favor: (Prime Video) Black comedy mystery sequel starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively

• Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld: (Disney+) The third installment in the Star Wars animated anthology premiering on Fortnite.

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW

Marvel's ‘Thunderbolts*’ kicks off summer with a projected $70-75M domestic opening ($175M globally), riding on the box office momentum that's seen every April weekend top $100M. ‘Sinners’ looks for $32-34M in frame three despite losing IMAX screens (which it'll reclaim May 15-21 in a special 70mm re-release), while ‘A Minecraft Movie’ inches toward $1B with another $10-14M—setting the stage for upcoming heavyweights ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ and ‘Karate Kid: Legends.’

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest trends & viral moments