In Indonesia, Tjahjanto started off by working with Kimo Stamboel as a filmmaking duo (they called themselves the Mo Brothers), on movies like “Macabre” and “Headshot” – films that gleefully combined elements of horror, film noir and action. His first film as a solo filmmaker, 2018’s “May the Devil Take You,” was a straight-up horror movie, while “The Night Comes for Us,” also released in 2018, is a truly insane action movie that reunited two of the stars of “The Raid” (Iko Uwais and Joe Taslim) and put them through the ringer. Tjahjanto also worked with “The Raid” director Gareth Evans on a standout segment for horror anthology “V/H/S 2.”

He subsequently released films in 2020 (“May the Devil Take You Too”), 2022 (“The Big 4”) and 2024 (“The Shadow Strays”), which had its world premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. These films further cemented him as one of the most exciting filmmakers working today and, thanks to his distribution agreement with Netflix, Tjahjanto’s unique sensibilities gained purchase with a decidedly global audience.

But “Nobody 2” marks a test of whether his homegrown style translates to a theatrical mainstream Hollywood blockbuster distributed by a legacy studio in Universal and stocked with established A-list talent. Tjahjanto talked to TheWrap about what drew him to the project, cultural differences in filmmaking and what he has coming next.

Getting “Nobody 2”

When Tjahjanto’s agent sent him the screenplay for “Nobody 2,” which follows the events of 2021’s sleeper hit, which grossed more than $57 million on a $10 million budget, the filmmaker was intrigued. In the sequel, Hutch and his family, attempting to enjoy a vacation, are drawn into a small town’s connections to a ruthless gangster (played, with aplomb, by Sharon Stone).

Tjahjanto was struck by the tone, noticeably brighter than the films he’s made in Indonesia. “There’s a family-friendliness to it,” he said. “And that’s not a bad thing, because the film is about a man discovering that he’s not a lone wolf. That he also needs his family to exist, to be a whole person.”

The theme of a family was one that he was particularly drawn to, especially since he to leave his own family to make the movie.

“I went to shoot ‘Nobody’ and by the time I went back to Jakarta, my eight-year-old is suddenly nine-years-old, and she’s a different person,” Tjahjanto said.

He discussed this constantly with Odenkirk, who is also a producer on the film and whose childhood trips to a Wisconsin water park as a kid inspired the story for “Nobody 2.” “I felt like I could make a dark, violent film or I could make this film that is somehow warm,” Tjahjanto said. “I want to make something where people come out and are feeling good about it.”

To Tjahjanto, “Nobody 2” felt like challenge. “Making this, which is out of my comfort zone, is actually a good starting point,” he said about his initial foray into Hollywood. He’s already got his next project lined up – a sequel to the Jason Statham action movie “The Beekeeper,” for Amazon MGM Studios. Tjahjanto admits that “Beekeeper 2” will be a “darker” film but one that he probably wouldn’t have been able to tackle without his experience on “Nobody 2.”

One of the ways that “Nobody 2” will prepare Tjahjanto for his next job is the experience gained by working with a bona-fide movie star. In the case of “Nobody 2,” that’s Stone.

Tjahjanto was a huge fan of Stone’s western “The Quick and the Dead,” which she made with Sam Raimi. “Just to hear that Sharon Stone is willing to do this role and tapping back into what makes her a great genre queen, that was a great experience,” Tjahjanto said. “Sharon is a very smart woman. She always knows a lot about what makes a character great. She always said, ‘Hey, Timo, like, if I do this thing with this knife, then it’ll feel much more dangerous.’ And she’s right. Her instinct is always, usually right. I’m getting the fast lessons from her.” He’ll take those lessons onto “Beekeeper 2,” undoubtedly, and beyond.

Action Adjustment

Partnering with Tjahjanto on “Nobody 2” was another action movie heavyweight – David Leitch.

Leitch started in stunt work before transitioning to second unit photography and finally feature filmmaking. He co-directed the first “John Wick” with his longtime partner Chad Stahelski before helming projects like “Atomic Blonde,” “Bullet Train” and “The Fall Guy.” Leitch and his production company 87North produced both “Nobody” films and have their own unique take on action filmmaking, favoring clear geography, defined spatial relationships and smoother camerawork.

Tjahjanto described Leitch as “one of the greatest action directors,” and said that their own takes on action filmmaking meshed well. “He’s strangely very generous when it comes to knowing what I am comfortable with, in terms of how I want to show my action,” Tjahjanto said. “And he’s usually acting more as a guiding voice if I’m stuck, rather than telling me what to do.”

The filmmaker described Leitch, who produced the film with his wife and business partner Kelly McCormick, as always there and always watching – taking everything in and watching how Tjahjanto is progressing with things. “He’s always a giving producer,” Tjahjanto said. When he found himself saying, “I guess I’m happy with this,” it was Leitch who would say, “Why don’t we push it a bit more?”

There’s a moment in the movie where bad guys swarm the waterpark where Hutch is hiding out. It was Leitch who suggested a moment where Hutch sets up spikes in a water slide in order to off some baddies. Tjahjanto remembers Leitch saying, “We already have a water slide here. Why not make a meal out of it?” “All we need is a bunch of spikes and we can relive, like, people’s most, the biggest fear, which is, like, getting a freaking nail stuck in your leg as you are sliding down the water. But this is the extreme version of it,” Tjahjanto said.

Leitch, Tjahjanto said, is “the kind of person who get excited when you do the explosion and then you see him like a kid, he’s so excited for it. I love that in him.”

Learning Curves

The transition from the way that Tjahjanto was used to making movies in Indonesia to how things are done with a western production, wasn’t totally frictionless. He said that “Nobody 2” was a movie where he learned a lot – chiefly “the difference between how we run things over in Asia and how Hollywood do things.” Tjahjanto added, “I think the fine line is always to be able to marry what’s the best from the two.”

While he appreciates the discipline of Hollywood, he prefers the cohesive mindset of Indonesia. “Okay, once we are settled with this idea, let’s all move together,” he said.

According to Tjahjanto, Hollywood is more splintered, sometimes literally, in its approach, as he found out with his second unit team. Instead of chaffing against it, he found the process of second unit — with a smaller film team shooting things like inserts or parts of whole action sequences – “the most interesting thing.” “I’ll be shooting Bob Odenkirk doing the water slide, while our talented second unit guy will be shooting John Ortiz [as the owner of the water park who gets wrapped up in Stone’s criminal empire] killing a bunch of guys in the ball pit,” Tjahjanto said.

In Indonesia, he’d shoot everything. Tjahjanto joked that he would shoot a tire rolling down asphalt, so he would ask the second unit team how they were accomplishing similar shots. “I’d just do that myself. It’s a totally different system here,” Tjahjanto said.

Sometimes it’s good to have somebody else shoot the tire rolling down the street.

What’s Next

Tjahjanto said that, since he is directing “Beekeeper 2” next, he’s worried about being known as “the sequel guy.” But what really drew him to the project was Statham.

“This one stems from me being a huge fan of the ‘Crank’ movies,” Tjahjanto said. “Statham is one of those actors who are secretly underrated in a weird way, because he has so much presence with his physicality but he’s also a very funny.”

Statham’s character in the films, to Tjahjanto’s reasoning, “is a version of the Punisher,” the Marvel Studios character known for doling out violent justice (In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s played by Jon Berenthal).

“What draws me with this one is, especially, is you’re going to see some really cool villains this time around. I’m trying to kind of push the boundaries a bit more where the villains can feel manga-inspired in certain points. And some of the choreography that we have in mind is going to be very, very cool,” Tjahjanto explained. When we joked that Statham killed 80 people in the first “Beekeeper,” Tjahjanto, without missing a beat, said, “This time he’s going to kill 82 people.”

Tjahjanto is adamant that he won’t be sticking around Hollywood, making sequels to popular western movies forever. Recently on social media, he stated his desire to return to Indonesia and focus on original movies that he developed from the ground up, including making some more horror movies.

“I’m trying to balance things out, just because I do miss shooting in with my friends over there in Indonesia,” Tjahjanto said. “Plus I could use some time to be around my kids. That’ll help.”

But there is one franchise that could get Tjahjanto to stay put.

“If suddenly somebody says to me, ‘Timo, they’re offering you to make a ‘Terminator’ movie, then I’ll say goodbye, Indonesia,” Tjahjanto said. “I’ll do ‘Terminator’ any day, any second.”

One of the reasons that he wanted to be in the film business was because he grew up watching Arnold Schwarzenegger films (He dropped a reference to Schwarzenegger’s Mars-set “Total Recall” earlier in the conversation.). Tjahjanto will even defend more controversial entries in the franchise, like “Terminator: Dark Fate” and “Terminator: Genisys.” “With ‘Dark Fate,’ I think it’s a great film. I love them and I do think in some way or another, Arnold could still have a part in ‘The Terminator’ universe,” Tjahjanto said. “Fingers crossed.”

In other words: he’ll be back.

The post ‘Nobody 2’s’ Inside Man: Why Indonesian Action Auteur Timo Tjahjanto Made the Leap to Hollywood appeared first on TheWrap.

That figure puts it in on par with “American Dad!,” a still-airing animated sitcom with a steady pipeline of new episodes.  Another point of comparison is creator Mike Judge’s earlier animated comedy, “Beavis and Butt-Head,” which along with its reboot has delivered just over $50M in streaming revenue for Paramount+ since 2020.

For Hulu, the numbers help explain why the streamer invested in a “King of the Hill” revival, which brings Arlen, Texas, into the modern world. With streaming platforms increasingly focused on proven IP to drive engagement and retention, reviving a series with a decade-plus track record of generating consistent value is a low-risk, high-reward strategy.

This isn’t Hulu’s first rodeo when it comes to reviving a beloved animated series. In 2023, the streamer brought “Futurama” back after a 10-year hiatus. Since returning, the series has transformed from a moderate performer to one of Hulu’s top animated revenue drivers.

The show’s total revenue contribution to Hulu is now approaching $120 million, with much of that growth coming post-revival. The upcoming third season since its return is set to premiere next month, giving Hulu another opportunity to market around a familiar brand and deepen engagement with both nostalgic viewers and new audiences.

However, there are also cautionary lessons to be learned from “Futurama”s revival.  The show witnessed a huge spike in global demand for its first revived season, peaking at over 60 times the demand for the average show. This initial spike in demand for the show tapered off consistently throughout the course of the first rebooted season. Demand for the second season on Hulu in 2024 has been significantly more subdued.

This pattern reflects a “pent-up demand” effect. Fans who have been waiting years for new episodes rush to watch the initial return, generating a large spike in interest. Sustaining that level of demand into subsequent seasons can be challenging, as the novelty factor fades and the show must compete with a crowded release calendar.

For Hulu’s “King of the Hill” revival, this dynamic has strategic implications. The streamer’s marketing push should be heavily front-loaded, aiming to convert that initial wave of nostalgic viewers into sustained engagement. Hulu appears to be embracing this strategy with its all-at-once episode drop on Aug. 4 instead of rationing episodes weekly.

Animated comedies like “King of the Hill” and “Futurama” have unique staying power in streaming because they’re endlessly rewatchable and easy to dip into mid-series. Hulu, in particular, has built a reputation as a home for fans of adult animated comedies. The lesson for rebooting this IP is clear –  nostalgia sells, but keeping fans engaged after the initial comeback is the real art of the reboot.

The post Why Did Hulu Make a ‘King of the Hill’ Revival? It Generated $100 Million in Streaming Revenue | Charts appeared first on TheWrap.

The social media buzz has continued to rise for the drama series from Julian Fellowes, with Season 3 social conversation volume up 185% from last season and racking up double the number of engagements on the show’s social media posts, according to network data. Instagram and Facebook accounts surged by 188% season-over-season — twice the growth seen from Season 1 to Season 2. 

The social media growth for “The Gilded Age” goes hand-in-hand with its higher ratings, with new episodes reaching series viewership highs for five consecutive weeks. The season capped off with a series high of 5 million multiplatform viewers with the Season 3 finale — up 88% from the season premiere.

HBO went all out to “put the fandom in the drivers’ seat” and catapult the show into the cultural conversation, according to Mark Doumet, VP of originals marketing at HBO Max, taking a distinct approach from the previous two seasons and deploying all resources to lean into the escapist and glamorous nature of the 19th century drama.

“We tore up the playbook,” Doumet told TheWrap. “Instead of treating social media as a way to broadcast to fans, we built it as a space to co-create with them. We identified who the most passionate voices were — from super fans to creators to cultural institutions in New York to the cast. It was our job to give them access and give them a real stake in the storytelling online, so they can advocate on our behalf.”

As HBO shifted its goal from marketing “at” to marketing “with” the fandom, Doumet and his team identified what he calls the show’s “natural evangelists” — which include both content creators who were genuine fans of the show as well as super fans they had been aware of during the previous seasons — and gave them the “tools to spread their passion online.”

HBO partnered with gif companies Tenor and Giphy to make sure each episode’s biggest moments were immediately turned into gifs and memes for fans to engage with, and launched a series called “the weekly tea” that took the “funniest, sharpest fan takes” from X and superimposed them on clips of the episode. The launches created a “feedback loop,” Doumet said, since “fans knew we were watching them, so that kept them posting more.”

Fans were rewarded for their participation with the official social media accounts amplifying their content, as well as swag giveaways, including “Hot Gilded Summer” hats, which have already inspired some Etsy copycats. “Giving them a hat is acknowledgement … it’s like you’re part of the family,” Doumet said. “We want to help you out, just like you’re helping us out.”

Content creators also scored invitations to events throughout the season’s rollout, including an event at the Frick Collection in New York City tied to Episode 4, a Newport-based event for Episode 6 and a finale celebration at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival.

The standout event of the season was date night at the Frick, which brought together roughly 100 content creators — from reality stars Dorinda Medley and Stassi Schroeder to the creators behind beloved New York account Meet Cutes NYC — for an advanced screening of Season 3’s splashy fourth episode, which featured the reluctant nuptials of fan-favorite character Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) to Hector Vere, 5th Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb).

The party, which embraced the Frick’s romantic and glamorous atmosphere, created what Doumet called a “content generation factory,” resulting in an estimated 460 organic pieces of content celebrating “The Gilded Age.” Doumet compared the event to the equivalent of a press junket for content creators, noting that the marketing and media relations teams think broadly about the reach of platforms, whether it’s a press outlet or creator channel.

“It gave creators the perfect backdrop to make their own content with other creators,” Doumet said. “We didn’t script them. We just gave them access to our talent. We gave them a pre-air screening of Episode 4 … We gave them Christine Baranski, Morgan Spector.”

Most importantly to the HBO team, the content felt authentic and rooted in love for the show. “We don’t love the pay to play — we want to find where there’s that organic fit,” Doumet said, noting that Medley reached out to attend the event because she’s a fan of the show and pointing to Schroeder’s “fangirling” during her private tour of the Frick with Baranski and Cynthia Nixon.

It wasn’t just fans who were active on social media, with much of the cast posting behind-the-scenes photos from production in reaction to the episodes. Doumet and his team worked closely with production to bank content that talent could roll out every Sunday, which helped audiences feel like they were watching with the talent.

“It was unguarded moments, showing their relationship with each other … that’s how we want people to think about the show,” Doumet said. “It really enforces that idea that everyone is having a great time, on set but also while watching.”

The team had early conversations with talent running through the show’s marketing strategy, which included the cast as co-marketers as well. “It’s 2025 —everyone is a marketer. Everyone has a phone in their pocket,” he said.

“Our job … is really just empowering the voices who are our best advocates, whether or not that’s creators, it’s super fans online, or it’s the talent,” Doumet said. “We just want to give them the tools, give them our platforms so that they can spread the word of mouth, because that’s what truly creates FOMO.”

“The Gilded Age” Seasons 1-3 are now streaming on HBO Max.

The post How HBO’s Social Media Blitz Catapulted ‘The Gilded Age’ Finale to a Series High | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap.

A charming, family-friendly comedy about a little girl who has just lost her mother and whose somewhat disturbing doodles spring to life and menace her small town, “Sketch” was well-reviewed out of the festival (RogerEbert.com’s review praised the way it “examines all the ways grief can manifest intensely”) but found itself in a frustrating place too many independent features find themselves in — without a distributor.

“It seemed that everyone loved the movie, but nobody knew how to sell it,” Worley told TheWrap.

Months went by and then an unlikely savior emerged. At their CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas this spring, Angel Studios, the company behind grassroots phenomenon “Sound of Freedom,” announced that it had acquired “Sketch” and would be giving it a prime summer release date. The studio, looking to shed its exclusively “faith-based” label, had a movie that would help it expand. And “Sketch” would finally see the light of day.

TheWrap spoke with Worley and Angel Studios about the road to release, and the filmmaker was candid about his initial apprehension when Angel said it wanted the film.

“Angel Studios is not where I expected the movie to end up. It’s not where I necessarily wanted the movie to end up for a long time, but throughout the process of trying to get the movie sold, they were the ones hammering on the door, enthusiastically begging for a conversation,” Worley said.

Angel wanted “Sketch” precisely because it wasn’t like its other films.

“What we’re so excited about with this film is there’s a broadening,” Jared Geesey, chief distribution officer at Angel Studios, told TheWrap.

There are no overriding religious themes in “Sketch” and nothing, like the case with “Sound of Freedom,” that could be co-opted by certain groups and made political.

Geesey described “Sketch” as being a movie that “amplifies light,” which he said is Angel Studios’ “mission.”

To be an Angel release, “Sketch” had to pass through a couple of hoops, including the unusual crowdsourced “Angel Guild” that offers feedback on movies and whose approval is required for an Angel Studios film to be released. But for Worley, those hurdles were minor compared to the journey he’d already been on to just get the film off the ground.

Early setbacks

Worley, making his directorial debut, wasn’t exactly surprised that the road to “Sketch’s” theatrical release became so bumpy. He and Tony Hale, who plays the recently widowed father of the two young kids in “Sketch,” spent eight years trying to get the movie made. Repeatedly, they were told that this type of movie – a live-action family film – just isn’t the draw that it once was. The movies that he was inspired by, like the early Steven Spielberg-adjacent Amblin movies, are a thing of the past.

“They don’t make live-action movies like that anymore,” Worley said. (Coincidentally, Dana Goldberg, co-chair of Paramount Pictures, told reporters on Wednesday that she was specifically looking to bring back the “four-quandrant family film,” name-checking “Goonies” and “Night at the Museum.”)

He and Hale realized that “something happened where if we saw a live-action movie being marketed to both us and our kids, our assumption was immediately, Oh that’s probably just for kids, or, It’s for stupider adults. And that sucked.”

When Worley was writing the movie, his kids were younger, and he’d show them the movies that he grew up watching. “But all the modern movies that we were watching together and both finding value in were animated,” Worley said, citing Pixar movies, “The Lego Movie” and “The Mitchells vs. the Machines.” “It was a bummer that there weren’t any live-action family movies that were coming out that didn’t feel like I was tolerating it as a parent while my kids enjoyed it. And I want to derive value from it as much as from ‘Spider-Verse.’”

Worley said that this conversation continued when they were trying to sell the movie.

At one point early on, they screen-tested the film in Anaheim. The audience was mostly teenagers aged 13 to 18. “They all rated the movie 9 or 10 – in terms of what they thought of the movie. It was off the charts. Almost all of them loved it,” Worley remembered. But when the research group asked the teens if they would recommend it to a friend, the numbers were “bottom of the barrel,” according to Worley.

“They all wrote some form of, ‘I don’t think my friends would like it.’ And I was like, This is a snapshot of the teenage brain,” Worley said. “The fact that you all loved the same thing but you’re terrified that your friends won’t like it.”

Teens, to Worley’s understanding, are drawn to things that they probably shouldn’t see – “Deadpool” and “Squid Game” and the like. ”They want to experience things that they feel like they’re not supposed to,” he said.

Internally, the movie was described as “Inside Out” (since it hinges on the power of imagination) meets “Jurassic Park” (because there are some awesome monsters and some scary moments). “Sketch,” Worley said, “has scary moments, but it’s led with a comedy engine and is made to be accessible to both parents and kids.” But that might have also been the problem. “In trying to appeal to literally every human alive, you end up creating a movie that’s hard to decide how to market. And it is an original IP, not based on anything. All of those things made it really hard for people to commit and to wrap their brain around.”

The filmmaker admitted that he had given up on “Sketch” many times over the years. The defeat that seized him after TIFF was not new.

“When I put it in a drawer, Tony would open it back up and be like, ‘What if we tried this?’” Worley remembered. There were countless iterations of the project, including a TV show version. Production companies and financiers came and went. After Worley had relocated to Nashville in 2022, a friend there asked if he could look to secure financing. “A week later, he’s like, ‘I found money for it.’ They were shooting a month later,” Worley said. “I gave up as many times as possible but I surrounded myself with people who believed in it.”

And some of those people who believed in it ended up being the ones at Angel Studios.

Heaven sent

Worley admitted that he came to the Angel Studios conversation with “a lot of doubts and fears, because they were primarily known for faith-based projects and projects that may lean politically in a direction that I don’t.” The filmmaker had been working on the project for almost a decade. He was hesitant to hand “Sketch” over to anybody, much less Angel Studios.

Quickly, they proved themselves to Worley. According to him, they said, “We like this because it’s not like our other movies. We want to start releasing stuff that is not like our other stuff.” To their credit, “the movie got to stay as weird as it was when it premiered at TIFF, thankfully, and it got to stay as totally complex as it is.”

While Worley stressed that it is pretty much the same movie that premiered in Toronto, there are some differences – there is a call-to-action in the credits (part of Angel Studios’ “clever and smart marketing campaign” according to Worley), he had to cut out any “Oh my Gods” (“I was able to do them seamlessly”). After those edits were made, the movie was approved. There is now a card at the beginning of the movie that states that it was approved by the Angel Guild.

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The Angel Guild, one of the more unique aspects of the studio, is comprised of more than 1 million members (you can sign up online). The film is sent to thousands of these members and they rate whether they want it to be an Angel release or not. “That’s as nerve-wracking as you’d expect for a filmmaker,” Worley said. Most of the members who commented liked the movie. Some had issues with cursing or some other aspects, but then members who enjoyed the movie would fight with those who were unhappy with things. “I am going to print a coffee table book of all the comments because there’s some very funny stuff,” Worley joked.

But without the approval of the Angel Guild, Angel Studios would never have released “Sketch.”

Angel’s Jared Geesey said, “We had 1,300 films submitted last year that were voted on by the members of the Angel Guild. I can’t distribute anything unless it’s first approved through that voting process.”

Angelically yours

According to Geesey, filmmakers don’t really get notes directly from Angel Studios. It’s the Angel Guild that guides the conversation. He describes it to directors as “our green-light mechanism, but it’s really a post-production and audience feedback mechanism.” If a film doesn’t pass muster with the Angel Guild, the filmmakers (who are given a dashboard with all the feedback and comments) are given the opportunity to make changes and resubmit. A new group of Angel Guild members will then review the new version of the movie.

“We have films that we produce that didn’t pass at all, and had to get edited and resubmitted six, seven times before we found a cut that would pass,” Geesey said. “That’s a very normal part of our process.”

When it came to “Sketch,” Geesey said, it was an “imaginative, beautiful film” that also gave Angel Studios an opportunity to expand their audience.

“People might assume, because of the success of the very overt faith titles that we’ve done, that stories that amplify light is limited to faith messages, and it isn’t. Stories that amplify light are excellent entertainment that is true, honest, noble, just authentic, lovely — these are the kinds of words that our guild members are looking for,” Geesey said. “We’re not afraid of faith. The majority of humanity is having some sort of faith experience, and so we just think it’s normal for that to be reflected in the stories that we’re telling. But it’s not something that’s pigeonholing us. The guild is saying this kind of story that we see in ‘Sketch’ is broad and does amplify light.”

Geesey confirmed that “instances of taking the Lord’s name in vain” is one of the hard lines for Angel Studios, hence their deletion from “Sketch.” The other is nudity. While Angel Studios bristles as the designation that they are a faith-based company, with only a small sliver of their output openly religious, these guidelines wouldn’t be found in more secular studios.

Angel Studios was drawn to “Sketch” because it appreciated the story and the fact that so few movies like it were produced nowadays. “I think there’s a gap in the market for these kinds of family-fun movies,” Geesey said.

As for the next mountain that Angel Studios wants to climb, after “Zero A.D.,” a drama released for Christmas, they have a romantic comedy starring Kevin James that will be out for Valentine’s Day 2026 — as long as the Angel Guild approves.

“Sketch” just hit some 2000 screens and has grossed a little over $5 million domestically in its first week in release, but it nabbed an A- CinemaScore from opening weekend audiences — a seal of wide moviegoer approval outside the Angel Guild system.

The ambition to get this film out on thousands of screens is what charmed Worley and made him excited about partnering with the studio. “We did the premiere in L.A. last week and it was nuts. We had giant inflatables of the monster and a life-size school bus and they rented out three or four theaters and filled it with fans,” Worley said. “It was amazing to see so much effort and energy put towards this movie that was an independently made, original idea. Especially in this climate in the industry.”

Some might call it miraculous.

The post ‘Sketch’ Saved: How Angel Studios Rescued a Festival Darling and Blessed It With a Big Summertime Release appeared first on TheWrap.

Movie and TV watchers are used to seeing product placement, like Eleven’s Eggo fixation in “Stranger Things” or a bevy of items seen in “Love Island.” But a number of companies are taking a more active hand in how their brands are portrayed in shows and movies and getting into these productions earlier than ever.

They include Starbucks Studios, founded in 2024, REI-Co-Op Studios, which launched 2021, and Red Bull Studios Media House, which released its first feature film in 2011. Last week, Dick’s Sporting Goods launched its in-house production studio for unscripted sports-themed TV series.

These new movie and TV backers do more than pay a fee to place a product in the movie or buy a stand-alone commercial for TV — they’re getting involved in production from the get-go, offering input on script, casting, location and other factors to make sure the project aligns with company values. At times, the brand or brand studio is even offered a producer credit.

This trend marks the further blurring of lines between Hollywood and brands, expanding the role of companies and giving them more control over the content itself. It’s a concept that might have once mortified artists and audiences alike. But with traditional studios filling their slates with more blockbusters and superhero films than documentaries or auteur-driven dramas, these big brands are finding a warmer reception in the entertainment world.

“Thirteen years ago, when I started doing this, Hollywood and the traditional independent film industry, even internationally, was more resistant to the idea of brand-funded films,” Brian Newman, founder of Sub Genre, a consulting firm that guides brand partnerships, told TheWrap.”Whereas today, because the funding sources have been drying up, both in terms of equity investment and funding from streamers and distributors … they have less funding. People are turning to brands more openly.”

For example, multimedia companies like Sugar23 (in partnership with Fifth Season), are getting involved with new brand-focused entertainment divisions to produce movies and TV in partnership with said brands. Sugar23’s new ventures include its partnership with Starbucks Studios, Keanu Reeves and UltraBoom Media for the documentary “Madwoman’s Game.”

REI, a retailer of outdoor adventure clothing and gear, said that its studio would produce films, podcasts and editorial programs that celebrate the outdoors while “complementing the co-op’s broader climate and racial equity, diversity and inclusion commitments.”

Before launching the studio, REI associate-produced (with Public House Films and TBVE) “The Dark Divide,” a feature film about “the healing power of nature” directed by Tom Putnam and starring David Cross and Debra Messing. Productions under the company’s own banner so far fall more into the category of documentary shorts, including 2025’s “The Life We Have,” a life affirming 24-minute film on a man’s battle with Stage Four cancer exhibited at the Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride, Colorado.

Such an approach is radically different from well-known historical product placement deals such as Reese’s Pieces as a snack for E.T. (for which Hershey paid a widely reported $1 million in 1982) or the whopping $45 million reportedly paid by Heineken to appear as a martini alternative in the 2012 Bond film “Skyfall,” which featured a litany of others brands including Omega, Tom Ford and Sony.

A more recent example is this summer’s “F1.” The movie received roughly $40 million in funding from real-life brands by using their logos on the cars, racetracks and uniforms for the movie’s fictional APX-GP racing team, according to USA Today — even while the primary backer was Apple Original Films with distribution handled by Warner Bros.

Speaking of Apple, the tech company has its own list of do’s and don’ts for its entertainment division — you’ll never see a villain in an Apple film or TV show using an iPhone, for example.

Change of tone

Though the concept of inviting brand marketers into the creative process may seem cringe-y from an artist’s point of view, Hollywood is not apologizing for inviting even more brand influence into feature film and TV content than is already there.

As one producer told TheWrap: “Traditional Hollywood studios have notes all the time that writers don’t always love, but in this case they know what they’re in for … Brands are the benevolent enabler of that.”

L.A.-based actor and filmmaker Denzel Whitaker (best known for his role as James/Young Zuri in 2018’s “Black Panther”), would agree with that statement.

“As creatives, usually our biggest challenge is figuring out how to finance our journey,” the 35-year-old told TheWrap. “So if there is a corporate entity coming in saying, ‘Hey, we would love to finance that idea and we have this IP we would love to bring to the table and give you a shot at it,’ I don’t see anything wrong with that. I see immense value in that.

“When you want to sign to the major league, you got to play ball, do the interviews, wear the T-shirt, be part of the marketing,” he added. “If you are an artsy person who is passionate about their film and doesn’t want any sort of corporate input … you just might have to find alternate sources to fund your project.”

Not everyone sees anything new in this phase in the branding game.

Just ask UCLA lecturer and veteran producer Tom Nunan (“Crash,” “The Illusionist”). “It’s cyclical … It comes around every 10 or 20 years, and geniuses think I can do this better than Madison Avenue,” Nunan said. “And the deals that result from it are often few and far between.”

Nunan, founder and partner of Bull’s Eye Studios, said he started the studio with the idea of doing brand-oriented programming that would hit with advertisers, but found it too complicated to try to coordinate a show or movie’s story with a company’s own advertising and marketing campaigns. He pivoted back to more traditional script development and never looked back.

Sugar23 co-founder and CEO Michael Sugar would disagree with Nunan. He told TheWrap that the company’s new studio partnerships would serve to “build new bridges between advertisers and audiences.”

Sugar added that, at least in the streaming sphere, having brands ally themselves with the actual content in a “nuanced” way can allow them to connect brands with audiences that are increasingly resistant to traditional ads breaking into their entertainment experience.

He also pointed out that while buying an ad on a TV show gives a company 30 seconds of a viewer’s attention, a branded film or series allows for at least a half-hour of exposure to content that elevates the brand.

“Where I believe the evolution is going is that brands are going to enter entertainment the same way that a studio does — early,” Sugar told TheWrap. “What we’re trying to do is bring brands into a position of early authorship and early ownership, so they actually have a chance at a meaningful return on their investment — but more importantly that they have a seat at the table creatively to ensure that the content is really aligned with with their brand ethos.”

Which, according to Sugar and others, looks much different from seeing a Rolex on a vampire or a Microsoft computer in outer space. “We think a show is like a stadium,” he said. “It’ll look like Crypto.com Arena — the game is in the stadium, but LeBron James isn’t saying ‘buy Crypto’ every time he shoots a free throw.”

The funding gap

A key word here is “investment,” according to Sugar. Brand dollars might help fill the funding gap in a shrinking Hollywood. “The industry is in crisis, anyone who says otherwise is not paying attention,” he said. “Why we’re seeing this momentum is that mostly it’s a solution.”

Sugar declined to say who’s talking to Sugar23 about new projects due to NDA contracts, but insists that some big names are committing to brands. Naturally the bigger the name, the more likely that name will retain more creative control if the brand in question is wise enough to realize that that team’s creativity is more likely to bring eyes to the company than overt product placement would.

“Big stars recognize that the industry is broken,” he continued. A brand, he said, “is a partner to spend real dollars on marketing where the studio doesn’t.”

Big stars recognize the industry is broken.

-Michael Sugar

Sugar said that while he cannot reveal details of upcoming projects, “There has been no pushback from anybody” in terms of the artistic process. “The kind of stuff coming from us in the next few months is going to be very eye-opening in terms of the level of talent that’s involved,” he added.

Karbassioun of the new Magna Studios expressed a similar view. In what the company calls a “talent-first media model,” it has recently been joined by “Brutalist” director Brady Corbet and its roster of filmmakers includes Oscar Hudson, James Marsh and Sam Pilling.

“I think that’s the reality, with multi-screens and ad blockers, people are turning away from ads, and advertisers are desperate to find new ways to engage with their audiences,” Karbassioun told TheWrap. “It’s not a new conversation, but it’s one that I think is gaining momentum and maturity from the brands. That’s why we’re seeing this shifting right now.”

Corbet in June made a stir at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity by revealing that the financial realities of working on his Oscar-nominated film “The Brutalist” meant working “for less than minimum wage.” So far the director has not announced any feature film projects backed by Magna but is working on ad campaigns with the company.

Still, there’s an older school of thought that building scripts around popular IP is more effective than relying on a branded studio name.

“The most successful collaboration between a brand and Hollywood has of course been Barbie,” Nunan said. “She was a singular figure in our pop culture, that doll.”

He cited Mattel’s smart move in allowing director Greta Gerwig freedom to play with Barbie’s image, including making fun of Mattel. Gerwig’s insolent take on the brand did not stop sales of the doll from jumping 14% after the movie came out.

Nunan expressed skepticism of the benefits of the more nebulous connection between a company and a positive message and noted that sometimes brand marketing is just lightning in a bottle. Producers of HBO’s hit series “The White Lotus” has used Four Seasons’ lavish resort properties to stand in for the fictional White Lotus hotels.

“Four Seasons isn’t writing HBO checks, or vice versa, and Four Seasons has nothing to do with the production of the show,” Nunan said. “However, both parties are benefiting from it. People are going on ‘White Lotus’ vacations now.”

Unlike Nunan, however, filmmaker Whitaker said he would indeed be influenced by a, say, REI Studios or Starbucks Studios credit on a positive film, even if it had nothing to do with the company’s products. He finds that idea less offensive than old-school product placement that might ask a filmmaker to shoot a coffee cup like a commercial.

“Maybe a car company gets behind a movie that has nothing to do with cars but they’re showcasing these beautiful travel destinations,” Whitaker said. “I’m going to be like, man, that was really cool of them to get behind that. And they didn’t throw it in my face … I’d think it was really dope of them to be selfless and make something that they just enjoy.”

The post Brands Are Buying Their Way Into Writers’ Rooms appeared first on TheWrap.

Starz saw revenue fall 8% year over year to $319.7 million amid a loss of $42.5 million as the company bled both linear and streaming subscribers as it reports results for the first time as a public company.

In the second quarter, the company lost 410,000 U.S. subscribers for a total of 17.6 million, driven primarily by a loss of 290,000 linear subscribers for a total of 5.4 million and a loss of 120,000 over-the-top subscribers for a total of 12.2 million. When including the loss of 110,000 subscribers in Canada, total North American subscribers fell 520,000 to 19.1 million.

OTT revenue for the quarter came in at $221.1 million, down from $234.4 million in the year ago period, while linear and other revenue fell to $98.6 million from $113.2 million a year ago.

Starz CEO Jeff Hirsch attributed the OTT subscriber losses during the quarter to the underperformance of “BMF” Season 4 compared to internal expectations. However, he told analysts that the company remains “laser focused” on making great stories to drive growth and said “Outlander: Blood of My Blood” is already exceeding expectations — generating the third highest number of subscriber additions for a Starz series premiere and a 40% increase in viewership compared to the last episode of “Outlander” Season 7.

“Importantly, we are adding these subscribers with higher price promotions than the prior season of Outlander,” Hirsch added. “Based on this momentum, we remain confident in our expectations of sequential revenue growth and OTT subscriber growth in the September and December quarters.”

Here are the quarter’s results:

Net loss: A loss of $42.5 million, compared to a profit of $4.2 million a year ago.

Earnings Per Share: A loss of 2.54 per share, compared to a profit of $1.80 per share expected by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue: $319.7 million, down 8% year over year, compared to $329.2 million expected by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Operating loss: A loss of $26.9 million, compared to a profit $10.1 million a year ago.

Adjusted OIBDA: $33.4 million, compared to $56.3 million a year ago.

In addition to “Outlander: Blood of My Blood,” other upcoming titles include the return of “Power Book IV: Force” and “Raising Kanaan,” the premiere of “Spartacus,” the final season of “Outlander,” “P-Valley” Season 3 and the launch of the 18-episode prequel series “Power: Origins.” It will also have its first owned-and-produced series “Fightland,” whose per episode costs are 30% lower than other Starz series’ first seasons in the past couple of years, per Hirsch.

Starz previously said it would spend $700 million on content in 2026, with the ultimate goal of lowering that figure to $600 million to $650 million over the next couple of years. It is aiming to have four shows, or half of its slate, be owned titles by 2027.

“This is a key tenant to our investment case and bolsters our confidence that we can reach our 20% margin target run rate coming out of calendar year 2028,” Hirsch added.

Starz’s latest quarterly results come three months after it officially split from Lionsgate into a separate, publicly-traded company. Hirsch said he believes the company is the “most misunderstood and undervalued” stock in the media sector. 

“We see our current valuation of approximately four times adjusted [operating income before depreciation and amortization] as very attractive,” he added. “We believe this valuation disconnect will become more apparent in the coming quarters when several large media companies spin off their linear networks into standalone public companies.”

Starz reiterated previous guidance of approximately $200 million in adjusted OIBDA in calendar year 2025 and plans to convert 70% of its adjusted OIBDA to free cash flow during calendar year 2026.

When asked about M&A, Hirsch said that Starz is a “very valuable asset” but is also a “very strong platform to scale around.” He said there would be “a lot of opportunity” to scale its business in the next 12 to 24 months as its peers in the media space, such as Comcast and Warner Bros. Discovery, separate parts of their businesses into standalone, publicly-traded companies.

Starz, which has a market capitalization of $256.85 million as of Thursday’s close, has seen its shares climb 24% since the split. However, its stock is down 10% in the past month.

The post Starz Posts Q2 Loss of $43 Million, Sheds 410,000 U.S. Subscribers appeared first on TheWrap.

Sunday’s episode of the HBO drama series posted another series high for the fifth consecutive week, gathering 5 million viewers across platforms in its first 3 days of availability, according to internal data from Warner Bros. Discovery. The finale caps off a season of growth for “The Gilded Age,” with viewership for the finale up 88% from the Season 3 premiere, which brought in 2.7 million viewers.

Overall, viewership for Season 3 is pacing 30% ahead of Season 2, and catch-up viewing for the week before the Season 3 finale was 70% higher than Season 2’s pre-finale week.

“The Gilded Age” Season 3 has also been buzzy on social media, with conversations on social seeing a 185% uptick from last season and Season 3 doubling the number of engagements on owned posts compared to last season. The show’s Instagram and Facebook accounts grew by 188% season-over-season — twice the growth compared to Season 1 to Season 2. 

The Season 3 finale gave viewers plenty of twists and relationship dynamic changes ahead of its long hiatus before its already-ordered Season 4. George Russell (Morgan Spector) survived a gunshot wound thanks to treatment from Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), who was in the neighborhood to speak to Peggy (Denée Benton) about her past.

The couple seemed to be on the outs, but William eventually came around and proposed to Peggy in front of all the guests at a ball in Newport. At a different ball, Bertha got to triumphantly cement her place atop the societal food chain once she convinced Mrs. Astor to end the ban on divorced women. The episode also reunited Larry (Harry Richardson) and Marian (Louisa Jacobson), while leaving the future of Bertha and George’s marriage up in the air.

But there’s at least one happy couple in Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and Hector (Ben Lamb), who ended the season learning the news she has a baby on the way.

“The Gilded Age” Seasons 1-3 are now streaming on HBO Max.

The post ‘The Gilded Age’ Ends Season 3 on Another Series High With 5 Million Viewers appeared first on TheWrap.

It’s no secret that YouTube, a major platform for creators, has a kids problem. Even though viewers aged two to 11 years old make up about 17% of YouTube’s audience, the platform has been called “impossible to monitor” by some parents, and for good reason. YouTube estimates that a staggering 20 million videos are uploaded to the platform every day.

But starting Wednesday, YouTube has taken its children’s safety precautions a step further, implementing an AI age verification tool in the U.S.

The new tool uses YouTube activity and how long the account has been active to determine the potential age of the user. If they’re deemed under 18 years old, YouTube will notify the user and put in safeguards to make the account more age appropriate. That means implementing non-personalized ads, limiting posting and implementing the platform’s digital well-being tools. Users who are incorrectly identified as under 18 will have to prove their age using a government ID, selfie or credit card.

YouTube is far from the first company to use AI to ramp up its age restrictions in the wake of the Online Safety Act being passed in the U.K., a law that requires websites and apps to verify users are over 18. Roblox has them for its unfiltered chat option. Both Bluesky and Discord are using facial recognition technology to confirm their users’ ages (That’s led to some tricksters using video game characters, like Norman Reedus in “Death Stranding 2,” to bypass the system).

For all their good intentions, these more invasive measures have left a sour taste for some. Albert Fox Cahn, an anti-surveillance advocate and lawyer, called facial surveillance and ID checks a “flawed” idea in The Atlantic. 

“A website with sensitive content arguably becomes less safe to use, because the stakes of a breach become much higher,” Cahn wrote.

Yet, specifically when it comes to YouTube, it’s difficult to think of better ways to protect kids from this virtual wild west. The company does offer the safeguarded YouTube Kids, one of the company’s youth products that roughly 100 million users interact with each month. But before this new age verification policy, there was very little preventing a kid from potentially seeing something they shouldn’t.

“Our first responsibility, always, is to create a safe experience for our youngest, most vulnerable users,” Katie Kurtz, global head of youth and learning for YouTube, told me last year. Here’s hoping this new measure works.

Now onto what you may have missed the rest of the week.

Kayla Cobb
Senior Reporter
kayla.cobb@thewrap.com

P.S. You don’t want to miss a livestream roundtable I’ll be moderating, “Creator Power: The Business of Influence presented by Adobe,” at noon PT on Aug. 26. Sign up today here. 

What’s New

Alan Chikin Chow launches a new scripted show with Laneige

“Beauty and the Beat” is more than just a new shortform series. This partnership between Chow and the Korean beauty company Laneige marks a step towards the future as brands are trying to figure out how to monetize scripted content. Once the industry figures that out, Hollywood really needs to start watching its back.

Travel videos just got easier thanks to TikTok Go

Creators can now get hotel vouchers through the platform. It’s all part of TikTok Go, a new creator monetization program that lets local merchants, such as hotel and restaurant owners, either pay creators a commission or offer them vouchers for promoting their business. Creators have to be over 18 years old and have at least 1,000 followers to qualify. But it’s a big step in letting creators monetize services rather than just relying on products. For now, only hotel bookings are available in the U.S., but the program in Indonesia and Japan includes vouchers for restaurants and local experiences.

Tubi taps former TikTok head Kudzi Chikumbu as its VP of Creator Partnerships 

Do you know who in Hollywood really gets the creator space? Tubi. And the Fox-owned ad-supported streamer is betting even more on this industry by hiring TikTok’s former global head of creator marketing, Kudzi Chikumbu. The company also announced its adding several titles from MrBeast, CelinaSpookyBoo and more to its Tubi for Creators program. It’s a win-win. Tubi gets new desirable content for its 100 million monthly users, over half of which are millennials or Gen Z, and in turn these creators get to stand out from the YouTube pack.

By the Numbers

StubHub says creators, podcasters and authors sold nearly 500% more tickets this year

This is compared to sales in 2024 and continues the trend of creators turning their digital followings into real-life events. The most in-demand creator tours were a slew of podcasting favorites — Alex Cooper’s “Unwell” tour, the Crime Junkie’s podcast tour and Mel Robbins’ “Let Them” tour. Additionally, creator tour prices were about 40% less than traditional live events. That lower cost and the fact that creator tours are more likely to travel to areas often ignored by bigger artists are major reasons for the uptick.

YouTube has removed over 179 million videos from its platform in the past six years

That’s not all that a new report from Video Advertising Bureau found. YouTube also removed 139 million channels and 25 billion comments from its platform, all of which violate the company’s community guidelines. YouTube noted that some of the top reasons for removal are child safety issues, harassment and hateful or dangerous speech. Really puts into perspective just how massive YouTube is.

2025 may set a new record for mergers and acquisitions in the creator economy

In the first half of the year, 52 M&A deals were completed, a 73% increase compared to the first half of 2024 according to the advisory firm Quartermast Advisors. Publicis’ $150 million acquisition of Captiv8 was one of those big deals. As brutal as this landscape may seem, it’s another sign that the creator economy is maturing to become a media powerhouse rather than just a big number. But speaking of big numbers, an eMarketer report found that if all U.S. creators moved their brand deals to a single imaginary app, that app would be worth $10.5 billion and would be the fourth-largest social platform in the country based on brand investments.

Who to Watch

Areq

Little is known about the TikTok creator Areq other than they are a hell of a great editor. So far the creator’s “Creed” edit has amassed over 114 million views and nearly 15 million likes, and it’s easy to see why. It slaps.

Areq’s other edits are equally as impressive as the “Creed” one, and the creator has even sparked a TikTok trend of other creators editing shows and movies to LoVibe’s remix of Kendrick Lamar’s “untitled 05” (The “Snowfall” edit from farquaad.films is also remarkable). I’m not in the business of hiring editors, but if I was I would be sliding into some DMs, pronto. 

Bonus Content

• A Right-Wing Influencer Tried to Be a Tradwife. It Almost Broke Her (via The New York Times)
• Why Creators Are Building Hollywood-Style Studios to Make TV-Ready Content (via TheWrap)
• Nobody Wins on “Surrounded” (via The New Yorker)

Want more? Explore WrapPRO now.

This report provides a weekly deep dive into the creator economy. It highlights key trends, political and technological developments, data points and industry leaders all with the goal of making you smarter about this constantly evolving space.

The post Creatorverse: YouTube Hopes AI Will Solve Its NSF-Kids Problem appeared first on TheWrap.

“Wednesday,” one of Netflix’s all-time biggest hits, returned on Aug. 6. Following nearly three years between seasons, audiences were excited to see Jenna Ortega come back as the titular creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky Addams family character. With 2.7 million U.S. households watching the first episode in the first five days it was available, it was more than enough to put the show at the top of the streaming chart this week.

It was the 10th consecutive week a Netflix title has held the top spot. It’s also one of seven Netflix entries this week, making it the second-straight week where the streamer has held seven of our Top 10 spots. With the second half of “Wednesday’s” second season coming on Sept. 3, all signs are pointing to Netflix summer extending past Labor Day.

Amid the Netflix grip on the chart, there’s a noticeable difference. Churn was the story for most of the summer, with new Netflix titles rising and falling week after week. Lately, though, Netflix hits have had staying power, and the remaining six titles on the chart are all holdovers from last week.

That list starts with “The Hunting Wives,” which stays at number two in its third week on the chart. “Happy Gilmore 2,” which was our chart topper the past two weeks, falls this week, down to fifth.

Breaking up the Netflix hegemony this week is “The Gilded Age” on HBO Max. The period drama wrapped its third season on Aug. 10, which helped it return to the chart in a big way, shooting all the way to third. 

It’s followed by “The Pickup.” The Prime Video original starring Eddie Murphy drew 1.4 million U.S. households this week.

Next up is “KPop Demon Hunters,” which is redefining the term “staying power” for both Netflix and film-length streaming releases. More than six weeks after it first appeared on streaming, the movie is still on the chart (for its fifth consecutive week), and in sixth place this week.

In seventh is the Netflix sitcom “Leanne,” down a spot from last week. That’s followed by “The Summer I Turned Pretty” on Prime Video.

“My Oxford Year” is the next Netflix entry, down two spots. In tenth is “Untamed,” a Netflix miniseries that spent three weeks in the top three on our most-watched chart. While it falls this week, four straight weeks on the chart is nothing to slouch at.

Changing the dial to linear, “America’s Got Talent” is tops once again. Amid the normal glut of game shows and competitions, we do get a movie breaking through. ABC aired the 1998 remake of “The Parent Trap” on Sunday, Aug. 10. Perhaps aided by Lindsay Lohan fans stoked for the recent release of “Freakier Friday,” we find the film in ninth this week.

Meanwhile, the chart is stocked with old reliables like “Wheel of Fortune” (four spots with second, third, fifth, and sixth), “Celebrity Family Feud” in fourth, “American Ninja Warrior” in seventh, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” in eighth, and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” rounding out the list with tenth.

The Wrap Report provides an exclusive first look at the most-watched movies and TV series from the past week across both streaming and linear television, sourced from viewership trends collected from Samba TV’s panel of more than 3 million households, balanced to the U.S. Census.

The post ‘Wednesday’ Skyrockets to No. 1 on Streaming Top 10 — Netflix’s 10th Straight Week in the Top Spot | Chart appeared first on TheWrap.

Since its June 20 release, the original English-language animated film about Huntr/x, a K-Pop trio who uses their music and sharp blades to protect Korea from soul-devouring demons, has only snowballed in popularity, passing “Carry-On” and the Oscar-nominated “Don’t Look Up” this week to become the second most-watched film in Netflix history. And in two weeks, theaters will finally be able to partake in the cultural phenomenon when a sing-along version hits the big screen for a limited weekend engagement.

The rise of “KPop Demon Hunters” comes as Hollywood faces a conundrum on how to get the public engaged with new stories and characters — a problem that has deepened with the box office failure of Disney/Pixar’s “Elio.” While “Hunters” faced the same struggle to build pre-release buzz that has plagued its theatrical counterparts, its rise to viral sensation came by following a path that was only made possible by going straight to streaming.

“We’ve seen a lot of films over the last couple of years like ‘Lilo & Stitch’ start as a streaming film and end up in theaters, and that switch has been the right call,” said one studio executive who spoke to TheWrap anonymously. “This is a case where the opposite was true: A film got the most out of going right to streaming.”

It’s just another indication of how far animated films have fallen in theaters this summer. With the exception of the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, every summer box office since 1998, the year of Disney’s “Mulan,” has yielded at least one animated film with a domestic box office total of $100 million or more, peaking last year with the animation record $653 million domestic total of “Inside Out 2.”

Unless DreamWorks’ “The Bad Guys 2,” which has a $43.4 million domestic total after two weekends, is able to leg out in the coming weeks, that streak will end in 2025. “Elio,” despite positive critical and audience reception, bombed against its tentpole budget with a $72.6 million domestic total, while Paramount’s latest “Smurfs” film made even less with $30.2 million.

It’s been live-action/CGI remakes of animated classics “Lilo & Stitch” ($421.6M domestic/$1.02B worldwide) and “How to Train Your Dragon” ($261.5M domestic/$623.5M worldwide) that have done much of the heavy lifting for family turnout.

The common trend for original theatrical animation over the past three years is that, at a time when families are looking to get their money’s worth from a day at the movies, it has become harder to build pre-release interest without familiar IP as a selling point. Pixar’s “Elemental,” the most prominent of a precious few successes, had to ride overwhelming post-release buzz to overcome a poor opening weekend.

“KPop Demon Hunters” had to face a bit of that pre-release struggle as well. The film notched 9.3 million views on Netflix in its first two days of release, and the muted reaction to the film’s (admittedly smaller-scale) online marketing and trailers — the first one came out right as “Lilo & Stitch” was hitting theaters — gave no indication it was about to be a global phenomenon. It’s possible that the film’s rather literal and almost parodic title might have put off some potential viewers who aren’t already fans of K-pop acts like Blackpink or Le Sserafim.

“I get why Sony decided not to release [‘Hunters’] in theaters. It would have been too hard a sell theatrically, especially with the marketing spend they would have needed to give it a chance,” a rival studio executive told TheWrap. “I don’t think a low opening weekend could have been avoided, and then the word-of-mouth gets saddled with the headlines that come from that. Not insurmountable, but definitely tough.”

But the film’s seven songs, most notably its marquee showstopper “Golden,” rocketed up the Billboard Hot 100 (the song hit No. 1 last week), and its rise up Netflix’s all-time viewership charts soon followed. This past week, “KPop Demon Hunters” added 25.4 million views to bring its total on Netflix to 184.6 million views over 52 days, passing the 172 million logged by “Carry-On” in its first 90 days on streaming last year.

The music’s key factor to raising awareness and interest has drawn frequent comparisons to Disney’s “Frozen” and its lead song “Let It Go.” Since the pandemic, there’s been only one animated comparison: Disney’s “Encanto,” which made $96 million domestic in an abbreviated 2021 theatrical run sandbagged by a COVID outbreak that kept many families at home, only for the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” to become a viral sensation after the film’s Disney+ release at Christmas.

Likewise, “KPop Demon Hunter’s” songs turbocharged the film’s virality, with several actual K-pop groups getting in on the fun. In one TikTok clip with over 3.4 million likes, the group Zerobaseone re-enacted the choreography from “Soda Pop,” a song performed by the Saja Boys, a group of demons disguised as a rival band to Huntr/x.

@zb1_official Fєєℓ тнє ѕσ∂α POP 𓈒 𓏸 .ᐟ #ZEROBASEONE #ZB1 #제로베이스원 #SUNGHANBIN #SEOKMATTHEW #KIMGYUVIN #PARKGUNWOOK #HANYUJIN #성한빈 #석매튜 #김규빈 #박건욱 #한유진 ♬ Soda Pop – Saja Boys & Andrew Choi & Neckwav & Danny Chung & Kevin Woo & samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast

You can see this over and over on social media, with fans (including plenty of kids) re-enacting the choreography to each of the musical numbers in the film, sometimes right next to the TV screen. Its incorporation of so many of the K-pop genre’s elements is what the film’s fandom loves about it — and its immediate availability on streaming enabled Netflix to capitalize quickly.

That also played into the film’s popularity with kids and families — the ability to rewatch it over and over upon release has no doubt contributed to its steady viewership as parents put “KPop Demon Hunters” into their regular rotation alongside “Frozen” and “Bluey.”

“The thing about virality, whenever it happens, is that it can never be exactly replicated,” said Shawn Robbins, director of movie analytics at Fandango. “They’re always taking advantage of unique circumstances.”

By allowing the public to share clips from the film, Netflix helped the word-of-mouth spread faster than any original animated film in theaters has enjoyed. A quick search on YouTube will bring up supercuts of every scene of various characters in the film, from Huntr/x’s exuberant manager Bobby to the six-eyed magpie and clumsy tiger who accompany the Saja Boys’ demonic leader, Jinu.

Forget hastily taken phone videos of Marvel post-credit scenes with poor quality. These are full-resolution rips that started spreading online within days of the film’s release. In lieu of having a name-recognized director (like “Sinners” with Ryan Coogler) or recognizable IP (pick any number of animated sequels that spawned viral crazes like “Gentleminions“) this became a key way to draw non-K-pop fans to “Demon Hunters,” showing them the action, humor, colors and unique animation style without spoiling everything in a single video.

It’s hard to imagine any of this being replicated with a theatrical release. The closest parallel comes from more than a decade ago with “Pitch Perfect” in 2012, a film that opened to a $5 million limited release in 335 theaters and then capitalized on word-of-mouth to leg out a $65 million domestic run.

Maybe the exciting Huntr/x performances would’ve prompted cheering re-enactments from teens in the auditorium, similar to the “Naatu Naatu” craze that surrounded “RRR” or the “chicken jockey” meme that boosted “A Minecraft Movie” beyond what it could have made solely off of interest in its video game source material. Even with the negative publicity that has come with some theaters having to deal with these rowdy parties getting way out of hand, it could have increased the film’s FOMO factor.

But so far, there just hasn’t been a single original, family friendly theatrical release — even “Elemental,” this decade’s top original animated grosser — that has captured the global zeitgeist the way “KPop Demon Hunters” has through immediate shareability and at-home availability, neither of which required an expensive theatrical marketing campaign.

Sony, for its part, will finally contribute an original theatrical animated release next year with the animal basketball film “Goat,” which like “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” uses the frame rate manipulation which has become Sony Pictures Animation’s signature style. Sony has already telegraphed its marketing campaign for the film, releasing it around NBA All-Star weekend and running ads during the upcoming NBA season to connect the film with its producer and hoops legend Steph Curry.

But marketing an animated film about sports fits neatly into Hollywood’s established marketing strategies. “KPop Demon Hunters,” not so much. Hollywood will be trying to capitalize off the genre’s craze soon. Hot off the rise of Huntr/x, Paramount is partnering with the Korean entertainment company Hybe to produce an original film based around K-pop starring “Demon Hunters” voice actor Ji-young Yoo that will hit theaters in February 2027.

Through Hybe, Paramount could find a way to effectively market that film to its core audience and get them to theaters, even as it is set to hit the big screen on Super Bowl weekend. It’s a smart partnership, because as Robbins noted, K-pop isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and Hollywood would be wise to figure out how to make it theatrically viable whether in live-action or animated form.

“‘KPop Demon Hunters’ touched on a young audience that outside of concert films hasn’t really been served by Hollywood until now,” Robbins said. “But that audience is global, and it’s getting bigger. Netflix found a way to meet that audience where they were, and it paid off big.”

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