🎬 Ghosting Subscriber Counts

👋 Good morning! For the trailer enthusiasts who've been secretly wishing the movie would never start, your prayers have been answered. Select theaters nationwide are offering a 70-minute ‘Sneak Peek Showcase’ of trailers and footage from CinemaCon 2025 on April 22 and 24. For $3, fans can experience the thrill of watching advertisements in their natural habitat—all without the inconvenience of having to watch a complete film afterward.

Happy Friday welcome aboard The Dailies. Grab your coffee, and we’ll get you caught up with the fast-paced world of Hollywood, all before your first meeting. Forwarded this email? Stop mooching and get your own subscription. Sign up here. 👈👀

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• Netflix Enters a New Era

• Nick Chooses YouTube

• 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
📊 Netflix is breaking up with subscriber counts…

Netflix's Q1 earnings announcement yesterday blew past Wall Street expectations, with shares climbing on strong numbers. $NFLX ( ▲ 1.19% ) But here’s the real story: the streaming giant is officially retiring subscriber numbers from their reporting—the very metric that’s defined streaming success for decades.

This isn't just Netflix tidying up their spreadsheets. It's them planting a flag on Mount Streaming and declaring "We won this race, time for a new one!" Meanwhile, their competitors are still huffing and puffing up the subscriber hill.

Research firm Antenna estimates Netflix actually lost around 670,000 subscribers in the US during Q1. Nothing says "time to change the conversation" quite like hitting the ceiling in your most established market. Rather than dwelling on those numbers, the company is highlighting areas with runway for growth:

• 🌍 Global expansion continues with content production now operating in over 50 countries, including significant investment in UK infrastructure

• 🥊 Live programming strategy growing with WWE Raw, upcoming Taylor vs. Serrano boxing match, and NFL Christmas games

• 💰 Ad revenue expected to "roughly double" in 2025 as Netflix rolled out its first-party ad tech platform in the US on April 1

• 🎮 'Squid Game's' final season arrives June 27, accompanied by related games and merchandise

It's YouTube (not Disney+) that keeps Netflix execs up at night…

While Disney+ and Peacock chase elusive subscriber growth through discounts and bundles, Netflix is turning its sights toward a new battle—against TikTok, YouTube, and other attention merchants for viewers' limited time.

The numbers don't lie (though Netflix wishes they would): YouTube now captures 12% of all US TV streaming time, more than several major streamers combined. Meanwhile, Gen Z spends 54% more time on user-generated content than other demographics.

Netflix's strategy against these attention competitors is becoming clear:

• Bringing popular YouTube creators like Ms. Rachel onto the platform (if you don't know who that is, congrats on not having toddlers)

• Sarandos specifically predicted top video podcasts will "migrate" to Netflix soon (translation: "We have money and will use it")

• Focusing on "content efficiency" (getting more viewer hours and revenue from each dollar spent), which has improved by 35% since 2021

The bigger picture: The entire earnings call felt like one long acknowledgment that Netflix has fully entered the attention economy hunger games. While competitors celebrate merely reaching profitability, Netflix is already playing a different sport entirely. The question isn't "How many subscribers did you add?" anymore but "Can your content compete when TikTok's algorithm knows exactly what that weird part of your brain wants to see next?" May the odds be ever in your content's favor.

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CLOSEUP
📺 TV network launches show… on YouTube?

Nickelodeon, a cable TV staple since the 80’s, just made the unprecedented move of premiering 'Kid Cowboy,' a show developed for its own network, directly on YouTube instead. It's the entertainment equivalent of a brick-and-mortar store deciding its next big product launch belongs on Amazon.

The scoop: This isn’t just posting some promo clips online—Nickelodeon is the first TV network to debut a full original series on YouTube. Created by Grammy-nominated songwriter Freddy Wexler, 'Kid Cowboy' launched in January with episodes averaging 200,000 views each. They're bite-sized 4-12 minute episodes designed for social media’s goldfish-attention-span algorithms.

What's most surprising: Nickelodeon is deliberately losing money on the YouTube release, betting on long-term franchise potential rather than immediate returns. By year's end, they'll have 200 minutes of content—all before it potentially graduates to "real TV."

So, why ditch cable for YouTube?

• Cable viewership continues to plummet while kids 4-18 spend an average of 70 minutes daily on YouTube.

• The company's already got 48+ YouTube channels to leverage, with Nick Jr. alone boasting 33M subscribers (that's a lot of potential lunchbox buyers)

• YouTube effectively turns millions of kids into a massive focus group—way more efficient than traditional testing methods.

The bigger picture: This isn't just a Hail Mary—it's strategic. Ashley Kaplan, who's leading the 'Kid Cowboy' strategy, cut her teeth at Fullscreen (one of the original YouTube network powerhouses). Meanwhile, Nickelodeon boss Brian Robbins founded AwesomenessTV before taking the helm at Nick. These aren't TV execs reluctantly scrolling through trending hashtags—they're savvy digital natives who realize YouTube now captures a stunning 12% of all TV viewing according to Nielsen.

Looking ahead... By year's end, Nickelodeon will assess whether ‘Kid Cowboy’ gets a promotion to cable, theatrical releases, and the holy profit grail—merchandise. With Nickelodeon blazing this trail, don't be surprised if other networks start following the eyeballs to YouTube.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Glen Powell is teaming up with Judd Apatow for a Universal comedy. (more)

• Michael Keaton has joined Robert De Niro in Netflix and AGBO’s crime thriller ‘The Whisper Man.’ (more)

• ‘Star Wars: Starfighter,’ a new standalone film starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy, will hit theaters May 28, 2027. (more)

• Jennifer Lopez will star in and produce Netflix’s ‘The Last Mrs. Parrish,’ directed by Robert Zemeckis. (more)

• Michael Shannon will play legendary coach Bill Parcells in Skydance Sports’ NFL drama about 1983’s “Mr. Irrelevant,” John Tuggle. (more)

• Will Ferrell and Jessica Elbaum will produce a film adaptation of Leslye Headland’s dark comedy ‘Cult of Love,’ with Headland set to direct. (more)

• Pete Davidson will co-star with Nicholas Hoult in ‘How to Rob a Bank,’ a heist film directed by David Leitch for Amazon MGM Studios. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Nate Bargatze will host the 77th Emmy Awards this September. (more)

• Lindsay Lohan will star in and executive produce ‘Count My Lies,’ a Hulu drama from ‘This Is Us’ alums based on Sophie Stava’s novel. (more)

• Henry Cavill’s ‘Highlander’ reboot is moving from Lionsgate to Amazon MGM and United Artists, with Chad Stahelski still set to direct. (more)

• A ‘Clueless’ series starring Alicia Silverstone as Cher is in development at Peacock, with original director Amy Heckerling onboard. (more)

• Jimmy Fallon will host NBC’s new marketing competition series ‘On Brand,’ featuring real campaigns for major brands. (more)

• A live-action ‘Pacific Rim’ prequel series is in development at Amazon, with Eric Heisserer set to write and executive produce. (more)

• Amazon has canceled ‘Citadel’ spinoffs ‘Honey Bunny’ and ‘Diana,’ folding them into S2 of the main series set for 2026. (more)

Business 🤝

• Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps Entertainment has named Robert Atwood as Head of Television to lead its Netflix-based TV slate. (more)

• A California appeals court has temporarily blocked Sony from taking over distribution of ‘Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune’ allowing CBS to continue airing the shows while the case proceeds. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Tribeca has officially unveiled its 2025 film and TV lineup.

• Stop reading scripts. Start listening to them with Screenplayer. (more)*

  _*sponsored

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RELEASE RADAR
📅 What to watch this weekend?

🎥 THEATRICAL

• Sinners: Ryan Coogler’s supernatural vampire-horror starring Michael B. Jordan with Hailee Steinfeld and Delroy Lindo.

• Sneaks: Animated sports comedy featuring the voices of Anthony Mackie, Martin Lawrence, Laurence Fishburne, directed by Rob Edwards.

• The Wedding Banquet: Romcom starring Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone.

• The Legend of Ochi: (Limited) A24 fantasy adventure starring Helena Zengel and Willem Dafoe, featuring practical puppetry effects with no CGI.

📺 STREAMING

• The Rehearsal: (Max) S2 of Nathan Fielder's acclaimed docu-comedy.

• Ransom Canyon: (Netflix) Romantic western series set in Texas Hill Country starring Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly.

• Law & Order: Organized Crime: (Peacock) S5 of the crime thriller starring Christopher Meloni.

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW

Warner Bros. is set to dominate the Easter box office with both top spots, though which film takes #1 will be a photo finish. Ryan Coogler's ‘Sinners’ (which already has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes) is tracking for a $35-45M debut, possibly higher if word-of-mouth spreads. Meanwhile, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ looks to collect another $40-45M in its third weekend as it sails past $300M domestic.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments