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Tricks are for kids. Good morning, FutureParty people. All right, show of hands — how many of you went trick-or-treating last night? If you’re one of the lucky adults who got to tag along with your kids, nieces, or nephews (like our writer, David)… the rest of us envy you. Can someone remind us why adults can’t go trick-or-treating?
In other news… IMAX’s 70mm craze, music labels react to counter “Taylor’s Version” copycats, and gaming meets live entertainment in Silent Hill.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Us, looking up at an IMAX 70mm print // Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Oppenheimer made 70mm a star
The Future. While Christopher Nolan isn’t the first modern filmmaker to make 70mm exhibition a major selling point of their movie, he may be responsible for sparking a newfound cultural fascination for the premium format, thanks to his outsized critical and commercial influence. While studios may try to eventize auteur-driven projects by supporting their use of the large and expensive film stock (if that’s what the filmmaker wants), the lack of screens and projectionists who know how to properly handle 70mm may require a fresh wave of investment.
The big, big screen
Having shot the whole film in IMAX 70, Nolan touted the format was the best way to see the starry drama — highlighted by viral clips of the 600-pound, 11-miles-long film reel. People were psyched.
Not only did his passionate fanbase heed the call, but so did a lot of people who hadn’t been back to the theaters since before the pandemic — many of them even drove or flew hours to catch a showing.
Why? There are only 30 theaters in the world that can show IMAX 70mm (19 of them in the US), which drove up demand at those theaters so much that they had to add screenings 24/7 during the first month of release.
70mm ticket sales were so high ($183 million worldwide) that IMAX reported a 51% increase in revenue compared to the same period last year.
It’s no wonder Universal is bringing Oppenheimer back for a limited IMAX engagement. People crave a premium, special experience, and Universal knows there’s still money left on the table (the studio really wants this movie to hit $1 billion in ticket sales).
And if it does hit a billion dollars at the box office and goes on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, it’ll be the first film to accomplish those milestones since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003.
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MUSIC
Stop the music // Illustration by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E
Music labels try to ensure there are no more “Taylor’s Versions”
The Future. Thanks to the success of Taylor Swift’s “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings of her first six albums, the major music labels are majorly expanding the amount of time until an artist is allowed to pull a similar stunt. But with few artists able to make anywhere near the same financial dent as Swift has, they may focus more on simply striking licensing deals with labels and owning their masters from the get-go.
Master of contracts
“Taylor’s Version” is the boogeyman haunting the major record labels these days.
Lawyers report Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group are stipulating in their new contracts that artists can’t re-record their music for anywhere from 10 to 30 years after its release.
Previously, contracts only enforced that rule for an average of five to seven years after the release of the original or just two years after an artist’s contract with a label expired.
With Swift having become a billionaire and broken records due to the runaway success of her re-recorded albums (with more still to come), it’s no wonder labels are trying to get ahead of potential headaches.
Still, it’s difficult to imagine the practice ever becoming commonplace. Frank Sinatra did it decades ago, Def Leppard tried it out recently with little success, and Switchfoot is giving it a go with their breakout album, The Beautiful Letdown. But, arguably, no one holds the same cultural hold and fan devotion as TSwift to make their re-recordings bonafide hits.
As business affairs execs prepare the next batch of contracts, we can almost hear them whispering, “Just in case…”
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ENTERTAINMENT
Courtesy of Genvid Entertainment
Silent Hill: Ascension merges AAA gaming and live entertainment
The Future. The team at Genvid Entertainment wants to turn the popular Silent Hill game franchise into the next streaming hit. Silent Hill: Ascension makes multiplayer gaming an appointment-viewing-and-playing experience. If the somewhat complicated title is successful, it may pioneer a new form of gameplay that everyone from cloud-based gaming titans (Microsoft, Sony) to streaming giants (Netflix) will try to replicate for their subscribers.
Choose your own horror
Silent Hill: Ascension is an online multiplayer “choose your own adventure” game that’ll take place every night at 9pm EST over the course of “months.”
Participants can work together to keep characters safe (dubbed “endurance streams”), influence story decisions, and customize characters to be included in the streams.
But, each player doesn’t hold the same amount of power. Players earn more “influence points” the more they interact with the game.
And since not everybody is available to play during the 9pm game time, players can catch a recap of the night’s previous events and vote on the big story decisions within 24 hours.
If appointment gameplay isn’t your jam, you can also watch the show as you would any normal streaming series — each week, the daily streams will be recut into a traditional narrative episode. While watching, you can have a chat running with other players or get a breakdown of what story decisions were made.
If Silent Hill: Ascension sounds like your kind of thing, you can jump in and join the action. The first stream went down last night. It’s available on the series’ site or via iOS or Android app.
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Tech startup with traction
All eyes are on Mode’s pre-IPO offering as the cutting-edge smartphone innovators continue with a series of impressive raises, likely spurred by Apple’s recent $3 trillion valuation.
Mode saw 150x revenue growth from 2019 to 2022, making them one of America’s fastest-growing companies, thanks to their “EarnPhone,” a budget smartphone that’s helped consumers earn and save $150 million+.
📈 Get 60% bonus shares today: $0.16/share*. Invest before they’re fully sold out.
*Disclosure: please read the offering circular at invest.modemobile.com. This is a paid advertisement for Mode Mobile’s Regulation CF Offering.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Today kicks off the official haggling for how much Disney will buy the remaining 33% stake of Hulu that Comcast owns… and if the streamer is valued at an expected $40 billion (far above the minimum $27.5 billion contractually stipulated), the Mouse House could be forking over $10 billion for it. Read more → thr
Event technology startup Cosm is breaking ground on two immersive “shared-reality” dome venues that’ll take the sports-bar vibe into the future — and TNT has already signed up to broadcast NBA and NHL games. Read more → cnbc
According to Broadband Choice’s annual “The Science of Scare Project,” Scott Derrickson’s Sinister has once again taken the trophy for the scariest movie ever (according to how elevated viewers’ heart rates are). Read more → screencraft
Fashion & E-Commerce
pgLang, the “at-service” company formed by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free, is collaborating with “dumb phone” brand Light on a limited edition drop of the minimalist, internet-free phones. Read more → complex
Billie Eilish is suiting up with Gucci on a new sustainable capsule collection, starting with the iconic Horsebit 1955 bag. Read more → hypebeast
TikTok is working on an AI tool that identifies products in videos on its platform and serves users similar items they can purchase on TikTok Shop. Read more → insider
Tech, Web3, & AI
A federal judge kneecapped a copyright infringement lawsuit brought against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt because the artists weren’t able to confirm the AI data sets contained their images and because the artists couldn’t “substantiate infringement” if the systems couldn’t reproduce copies of their work. Prepare for a quick appeal. Read more → thr
Deepfakes are making the fog of war in the Israel-Hamas conflict that much thicker. Read more → bloomberg
LTA Research, the quick-deployment emergency response startup created by Google founder Sergey Brin, received FAA clearance for its first aid-carrying airship — a dirigible powered by helium. Read more → ieee
Creator Economy
TikTok and DistroKid have struck a partnership to allow independent artists to promote their music on TikTok’s new music streaming service. Read more → techcrunch
After a pandemic-fueled funding boom, a host of creator economy-focused startups have been selling fast to salvage what little worth they still have left. Read more → theinformation
Quora’s AI chatbot platform, Poe, launched a creator fund for chatbot influencers. Read more → techcrunch
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Melody Song. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.