the great hollywood comeback that never was
hello and welcome back to as seen on :)
today I wrote about: the 24-year-old activist and influencer running for Congress; Kanye West and Bianca Censori take on Maude; a deep dive into my entertainment industry crystal ball; why studio execs are (or should be) shitting their pants over tariffs, the one industry recession-proofed by Gen Z, the one industry I do not expect to and a bunch of other stuff…
ENJOY!
- wrote a field guide to the 10 new fashion-leaning print magazines, including Notes on Beauty, Konfekt, and Polyester.
The Minecraft movie opened to a record-breaking $163 million domestically and $150.7 million overseas, tens of millions ahead of expectations and marking the biggest debut ever for a video game adaptation. On The Town podcast, Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw and Puck’s Matthew Belloni discussed the movie’s success and what studios are best positioned to create Gen Z hits. Could the failure of the latest Snow White adaptation be, in part, blamed on Gen Z’s weak relationship with older Disney IP? And would they be better off investing in Fortnite—a game millions of Gen Z and Alpha interact with almost daily?
The Disney of the 21st century will be powered by venture capital and A.I., according to Ali Albazaz, anyway. Bloomberg profiled Inkiit, a tech company with plans to disrupt the traditional publishing industry by using data and A.I. to predict what people want to read—and then mass-producing it. Founder Ali Albazaz says he’s building Inkiit to be the Disney of the 21st century. He envisions a platform where data-driven storytelling is fully optimized—a model that is audience-first, not author-first. I did some digging to find out who Inkiit’s investors are—VCs, of course, but also Michael Lynton, former CEO of Sony Entertainment and Penguin Group, and Stefan von Holtzbrinck, CEO and co-owner of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (which owns Macmillan Publishers). Jane Friedman, former CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, is an advisor. So now I’m worried. Curious and worried.
