Thursday’s back, party people… and so are the headlines of CrowdStrike’s debilitating software bug that took companies offline last week. Just how bad was the fallout? Delta reported that it lost $500 million because of the outage. Unsurprisingly, the airline plans to spend a few million more to sue the cybersecurity firm to recover some losses.

In other news… Hollywood goes off-message, Mindtrip taps AI as your personal travel planner, and Netflix sweats a Baby Reindeer revelation.

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• YouTube – Slingshot

• X (Twitter) – Squid Game

• Google – Sophia Bush

• Reddit – Dwayne Johnson

• TikTok – “Forever Young” - Alphaville

• Spotify – “Lucky” - Halsey

.ENTERTAINMENT.

Hollywood gives pure entertainment another shot

The Future. C-suite execs at Universal, Paramount, and Disney are all signaling that they’re actively focused on making movies that can attract the widest audience and prioritize entertainment. To see if the strategy leads to a meaningful increase in theatrical ticket sales, the studios may make more mid-budget films over the next few years to increase their output while minimizing risk and test-launching new franchises.

Big screen, big tent
Hollywood studios are messaging that their movies are truly for everybody.

• Why? Because the box office is struggling after COVID, industry contraction, and last year’s strikes — ticket sales are down roughly 35% from 2019.

• Additionally, over the past several years, message-driven movies have struggled (leading, in part, to the surprise shuttering of Participant Media) or invited controversy (some of Disney’s recent animated output).

• But, audiences in “red states” have returned to theaters faster than those on the more progressive coasts, according to studio distribution execs.

The strategy is proving successful — the team behind Universal’s Twisters consciously didn’t mention climate change and marketed the movie hard to heartland audiences, catapulting it to an above-expectations $81.3 million domestic opening. It even over-indexed in states like Texas and Oklahoma.

Universal’s chief marketing officer Michael Moses said, “We couldn’t afford to overlook any audience. With every decision, it was about how can we include and not exclude.”

78.7% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Would you ever seek out an AI friend?

“It would be hard to convince me that privacy was forever guaranteed.”

“I’ve seen M3GAN.”

“With no family might come a day when friends are gone, too, and an AI friend would be helpful.”

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Media, Music, & Entertainment

• HBO is frantically removing clips from the Season 2 finale of House of the Dragon that was leaked on social media from an international third-party distributor. [Read More]

• Immersive entertainment firm Cosm raised an additional $250 million in funding from existing and new investors, which the company plans to use to expand its footprint. [Read More]

• Netflix admitted that the real-life version of Martha, the antagonist in the hit show Baby Reindeer, actually wasn’t convicted of stalking series creator Richard Gadd as the show claims… which could be the smoking gun in a $170 million lawsuit against the streamer. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Old-school mall-favorite Gap is collabing with new-school favorite Madhappy on an apparel line. [Read More]

• Actress Blake Lively is launching a hair care line called Blake Brown. [Read More]

• Etsy is starting to roll out Etsy Insider — an Amazon Prime-like loyalty program that will give members free shipping and discounts. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• Hollywood studios are throwing their support behind the SAG-AFTRA-backed NO FAKES Act, as the deepfake legislation is set for introduction in the Senate. [Read More]

• Taco Bell is rolling out its “Voice AI” drive-thru ordering system to hundreds of locations by the end of the year. [Read More]

• Spotify is reversing its decision to force users to sign up for a Premium membership to see a song’s lyrics. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• Livestream viewership on platforms like Twitch and Kick is up 10% from last year, according to data from Stream Hatchet. [Read More]

• The PGA is debuting a new competition called Creator Classic that will pit digital creators like Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect and the Bryan Bros against each other on the green. [Read More]

• YouTube is now allowing creators to appeal partner program suspensions before they officially take effect. [Read More]

.TRAVEL.

Mindtrip creates a travel itinerary out of your endless scroll

The Future. Mindtrip, which raised $7 million from Costanoa Ventures last year, wants to bring organization to your endless web bookmarks for a dream vacation with its new feature, Start Anywhere. Mixed with a newly launched creator program, people may start basing their vacations around custom-made itineraries by influencers.

Engagement vacation
Mindtrip’s Start Anywhere, which is powered by Open-AI, lets users add content from YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, or blogs, which the system can then turn into an itinerary of the places mentioned.

• Users can see each place on a map or listed in a trip breakdown.

• The tool can also recommend other sites or places to eat along your route.

• The company plans to release a group-chat feature on its iOS app in the near future so that families can build itineraries together.

Mindtrip is also opening a creator program so that travel and food influencers can generate and post Mindtrip links in their bios or content, making it even easier for users to save them. If creators upload their content directly to Mindtrip’s platform, they get paid for each newly registered user — up to $10,000 per month, according to the company.

Eventually, creators will even get a cut of booking fees when a follower makes a booking based on one of their recommendations. Prepare for the travel-based affiliate link market to blow up.

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT MAGNIFI.

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_{*Advisory services are offered through Magnifi LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Being registered as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are sold by prospectus. Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. The prospectus, which contains this and other information about the investment company, can be obtained from the Fund Company or your financial professional. Be sure to read the prospectus carefully before deciding whether to invest.}

• Learn: NYT has a great visualizer on how the US gymnastics team’s routines in vault, uneven bars, the balance beam, and floor exercises took home the gold.

• Watch: WSJ delves into how Tesla’s autopilot system failed to identify obstacles, leading to several fatal crashes.

• Read: Forbes profiles Shayne Coplan, the founder and CEO of Polymarket — a blockchain platform where literally anything can be bet on.

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LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Andrew Kenward, the President and COO of Almost Friday Media. Andrew was an agent at WME in the digital media department at WME before being brought into the Almost Friday universe in 2021. We chat with him about his career, his goals for the brand moving forward, and what it's like working in media today.