🎬 Pilots Are Back

👋 Good morning! If 'Michael' is on your weekend plans, fair warning: you might get drafted into a performance. Word is that some screenings are drawing superfans in full Jackson regalia, and dance is breaking out in the aisles, particularly during the end credits. The reviews are rough, but the people are ready to dance. Pick your seat accordingly.

Welcome back to The Dailies. Before you clock out for the weekend, we've got fresh streaming numbers and the rest of the news worth knowing. In and out, promise. 👇

Sources: Top streamed chart (U.S.) via FlixPatrol; new release viewership data (U.S.) via Luminate

Remember pilots? The tested-before-you-commit model TV used for decades before the streaming era declared it obsolete. It's back. HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, FX, and NBC are all leaning on pilot orders again as the industry adjusts to leaner times.

The original logic was simple: shoot one episode for a few million, see if it works, then decide. Straight-to-series orders were a privilege of the peak TV era, when streamers in the talent arms race handed out full-season commitments to win projects (Simran Sethi at Hulu Originals calls it the "gold-rush period").

Now, with episodic budgets falling and overall volume down, executives are rethinking the math. HBO Max's Sarah Aubrey points to 'The Pitt,' just renewed for a third season, as the template her team is chasing: a drama with high episode counts that returns every year. Ordering pilots, she says, is how HBO Max is hunting for the next one.

The system at work: Netflix's 'A Different World' sequel, Hulu's 'Prison Break' reboot, and FX's 'Snowfall' spinoff all graduated from recent pilot orders into full series. Hulu's Chloé Zhao-directed 'Buffy' reboot didn't, which is also the point of the model: the streamer spent $12M finding that out (a lot cheaper than a full season).

Pilots aren’t for everyone: Big VFX swings like 'House of the Dragon' or 'Fallout' still skip pilots. The math only holds for mid-budget shows aiming for 15 episodes a year (a few million for a single hour stops being a cheap test once the hour costs $20M).

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A 26-year-old YouTuber just had two specialty-label deals announced in 48 hours. Focus Features picked up distribution on Curry Barker's new Aaron Paul horror 'Anything But Ghosts' yesterday, and A24 tapped him Tuesday for their 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' reboot. Barker came up making sketch comedy on YouTube before pivoting to horror. His big-screen debut 'Obsession' isn't even out yet: it sold to Focus at TIFF for $15M+ last fall and opens May 15.

Barker isn't the only YouTuber Hollywood's been courting, either. A24's been the most aggressive about it, but the pattern runs across specialty labels:

The bigger picture: Specialty labels know how to support craft, but manufacturing reach is a different job, and star power isn't the sure bet it used to be (see: 'The Smashing Machine,' 'Christy'). YouTubers come with two things these labels want: an audience that already follows them, and ideas that have already proven themselves. Markiplier made the case back in January when his self-distributed 'Iron Lung' turned $3M into $49.9M at the box office, and he kept roughly half.

🗳️ WBD shareholders greenlit the $111B Paramount merger yesterday, with nearly 99% of shares backing the deal. They also voted down CEO David Zaslav's $887M golden parachute, though that one's just advisory, so don't hold your breath. Next stop: regulators in the US, EU, and UK.

🇫🇷 Cannes padded its 2026 lineup with 16 more films, including James Gray's 'Paper Tiger,' which snuck into the main competition after missing the April 9 cut. Diego Luna's 'Ashes' and Judith Godrèche's 'A Girl's Story' landed in Un Certain Regard. The festival runs May 12-23.

🦁 Maggie Gyllenhaal's taking the Venice Film Festival jury president gig this year, heading up the group that hands out the Golden Lion and the rest of the top prizes. The 83rd edition runs Sept. 2-12. She follows last year's president Alexander Payne, who gave the Golden Lion to Jim Jarmusch.

💰 'The Simpsons Movie 2' is one of the first animated films to land California's tax credit, pulling in $21.9M after the state opened the program to animation last year. It's part of a $193M round spread across 38 projects, alongside 'Phineas and Ferb' and Netflix's '13 Going on 30' reboot.

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🎥 THEATRICAL

📺 STREAMING

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: 'Michael' is tracking for $65-75M this weekend, which would be the biggest music biopic opening ever (topping 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at $51M and 'Straight Outta Compton' at $60M). Some forecasters see upside to $80M+, though others are hearing softer pre-sales in key markets. Lionsgate is betting big on the eventized angle: roughly 3,900 of the film's screens are IMAX or premium large format, pushing audiences toward higher-priced tickets. And it's all happening despite a brutal 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, with fan enthusiasm doing most of the heavy lifting.