Friday has finally arrived, FutureParty people. Yesterday, the NFL Draft went down, minting new professional careers and setting the stage for the best sports narratives of the season. What you may not know is that Detroit, the city that hosted the Draft, had an estimated $200 million windfall because of the 300,000 people who came in town for the event… proving it wasn’t just the players who had a great week.

In other news… Disney Parks are set for a $60 billion update, concert ticketing gets some protections, and Tupac’s estate is not happy with Drake.

We hope you enjoy this and all upcoming issues, but we have one request: please share your feedback. If you have any thoughts at all about our new look, format, and direction, please reply to this email. It’ll go straight to us. Do not hold back.

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• YouTube – The Exorcism

• X (Twitter) – NFL Draft

• Google – Fallout 4 

• Reddit – Harvey Weinstein

• TikTok – “Can You Hear The Music” - Ludwig Göransson

• Spotify – “To Follow One’s Own Dream” - Neil Young, Crazy Horse

.ENTERTAINMENT.

Disney double-downs on its parks business

The Future. Disney parks like Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and Shanghai Disney Resort are doing great business, so the company wants more of a good thing, injecting a massive $60 billion investment into the parks and experiences division. If the division continues to beat expectations, its chief, Josh D’Amaro, may be the one to succeed CEO Bob Iger.

To 60 billion and beyond
While Disney has wrestled with some headaches the past few years, its parks and experiences business has been a bright spot. 

• The division brought in $32.5 billion in revenue in 2023 (a 16% annual increase) and hit an all-time revenue record last quarter.

• That massive growth has happened in spite of major price increases and a controversial rollout of Genie+ — the paid, line-skipping service that replaced the free Fast Pass.

• So, Disney is striking while the iron is hot, allocating 70% of its $60 billion investment to new expansions at its parks, including lands based on franchises like Encanto and Zootopia across 1,000 available acres to develop on.

• The other 30% will go to tech, infrastructure, and maintenance, which includes several cool moonshot projects at Disney Imagineering.

With rival NBCUniversal also ramping up investment in its destinations, the streaming wars may soon be giving way to the theme-park wars.

67.9% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Have you checked out Dune 2 yet?

“No, but I’m kicking myself in the a**. Everyone says I need to see it on the big screen!”

“Will win many Oscars.”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT NEXT EVO.

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Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Tupac Shakur’s estate is considering a lawsuit against Drake over his use of a deepfake of the late rapper’s voice for a feature in “Taylor Made Freestyle.” [Read More]

• The Onion was sold by G/O Media to Global Tetrahedron, the new Chicago-based media venture from tech exec Jeff Lawson and run by former NBC reporter, Ben Collins. [Read More]

• Due to a lack of new movies to put on the big screen, studios are re-releasing modern classics like Alien, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the original Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man trilogy to boost ticket sales. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Miu Miu posted a stellar 89% increase in sales, boosting the bottom line of its parent company, Prada Group. [Read More]

• Warner Bros. Discovery is rolling out a new ad system, dubbed “Olli,” that will make it easier for brands to target commercials to specific audiences. [Read More]

• Google’s plan to get rid of tracking cookies will have to bake a bit longer after running into issues with regulators. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• The FCC has reinstated net neutrality rules seven years after they were scrapped under the Trump administration. [Read More]

• MSNBC will show the Supreme Court’s arguments over former President Trump’s potential immunity from criminal prosecution for January 6th in a VR recreation of the chamber. [Read More]

• The University of Maine unveiled the largest 3D printer in the world, which can “print” a whole single-family home in under 80 hours. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• ByteDance is exploring a TikTok sale without its proprietary algorithm in case a legal challenge to a ban in the US doesn’t pan out. [Read More]

• TikTok has shut down its pay-to-watch TikTok Lite app in France and Spain after the EU found it clearly addictive. [Read More]

• X is launching a TV app in an effort to become a video-first platform. [Read More]

.MUSIC.

Legislation for fair event ticketing takes center stage

The Future. Fan discontent around not being able to score tickets to The Eras Tour has spurred legislation in states all across the country. Until federal legislation passes, there may be an uptick in fans trying to get concert tickets specifically in states that have passed these ticketing reform laws in order to get the best deals.

The Taylor Swift Act
Next year, getting a ticket to an in-demand concert may be a lot easier… or at least less frustrating.

• Maryland and Arizona passed legislation that outlaws speculative tickets sales — people listing tickets on resale sites (typically at a steep increase) even though they don’t have them yet.

• Colorado’s House of Representatives approved a law that requires more price transparency for tickets and would make resale sites that try to pass as the sites of actual venues illegal.

On the federal front, the Fans First Act (which tackles issues like speculative ticketing price transparency and the use of bots) has already passed in the House and is waiting for a vote in the Senate.

Yesterday, over 250 artists — including Billie Eilish and Green Day — signed a letter of support for the legislation.

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT NIKE.

Have you heard about Nike’s clearance sale?

Refresh your athletic wardrobe with Nike at unbeatable clearance prices, up to 40% off.

• Watch: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon shares the odds of the US really “soft-landing” the economy to avoid a recession.

• Read: The Verge chats with Kenneth Lobo Méndezv and Marco Jiménez Chavez, two experts in Costa Rica’s energy sector, about how the Latin American country derives 99% of its energy from renewable sources.

• Listen: Don’t Kill the Messenger chats with TriStar Pictures President Nicole Brown about running a studio that’s mostly focused on making original films.

This thing is totally legal in 48 states… everything’s fine.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today we get into the potential super-merger between Paramount and Sony, how Gen Z might just be the "tool belt generation", and new legislation in Colorado that's preventing tech companies from selling your brain data.