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Happy Wednesday, Future Party people. It’s a good time to be a TV enthusiast. Here at TFP, we’ve been binging all the greatest hits — everything from You to Physical 100 to The Last of Us. What about you? Let us know what’s been on your radar.
In other news… Saudi Arabia has its sights set on Hollywood, Ant-Man’s box office run could be on the chopping block, and all about synthetic influencers.
Top Trends
YouTube → Iam Tongi
Twitter → Liverpool
Google → Mardi Gras
Reddit → PlayStation VR2
TikTok → “No Kizzy” - Rob49
Spotify → “Players” - Coi Leray
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ENTERTAINMENT
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Is Saudi Arabia the next film frontier?
The Future. Eager to rehabilitate its image and shine brightly on the world stage, Saudi Arabia is investing in Hollywood. If US media companies are willing to forgive the Saudi government for its legacy of human rights violations, then those in need of capital might be able to tap into the country’s abundant resources to make movies.
Gray areaMany companies, including Endeavor, forswore Saudi money after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which was reportedly approved by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
But China’s lack of cooperation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with European and US interest rate hikes, have recently made it more expensive to secure funds from the usual financiers.
Some companies wonder why they can take money from Europe, with its history of genocide, but not Saudi Arabia.
Safe zone?Flush with cash from soaring oil prices, Saudi Arabia has the capital to finance Hollywood’s biggest movies.
It’s already spent billions on video game publishers and a new golf league. Now, it’s offering generous incentives to filmmakers and studios if they shoot on its soil.
Kandahar, an action film starring Gerard Butler, was shot primarily in Saudi Arabia after CAA connected the producers with MBC (a media company backed by the Saudi government, who provided considerable financial assistance to shoot there).
Many movies, including Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, have been filmed in Dubai next door, warming up American audiences to the Middle East.
Even though much of Hollywood is still reluctant to do business with Saudi Arabia, some people are wiping the slate clean in the name of filmmaking.
ENTERTAINMENT
The strongest ant is nothing to an Avatar // Illustration by Kate Walker
Disney might cut Ant-Man down to size
The Future. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had a strong release at the box office. But as Disney tries to streamline its spending — particularly for its Marvel offerings — the franchise could find itself on the chopping block, especially as competing projects break box office records. So much for the little guy.
We’re (not) #1Thanks to Disney’s unique circumstances, Ant-Man’s best might not be good enough.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania brought in $105 million on opening weekend, outperforming every previous film in its franchise. Not bad for a small fry…
But it’s nothing next to monsters like Avatar: The Way of Water, which recently surpassed Titanic to become the third-highest-grossing film of all time after Avatar and Avengers: Endgame — both of which are Disney-owned.
It gets worse... Marvel hits tend to have huge opening weekends, followed by precipitous drops in theater attendance, whereas offerings like Avatar films yield steady returns for months.
Disney’s animation department is in a similar situation, with lackluster 2022 releases pressuring the company to curb its output, potentially axing new projects in favor of safer sequels from established franchises.
Marching one by oneThe jury’s out until box office numbers from Ant-Man’s second weekend roll in. But with the imminent release of Marvel films from Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel — two franchises that have historically outperformed Ant-Man — it seems likely that Quantumania could get crushed underfoot.
Disney will need to cut back on these movies if they’re edging out their own releases. They might become a victim of their own success.
TOGETHER WITH BRILLIANT
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MEDIA
Can synthetic influencers have real influence? // Illustration by Kate Walker
Synthetic influencers: boom or bust?
The Future. Brands are experimenting more and more with “synthetic influencers” — digital anthropomorphic entities created for the sole purpose of marketing products. Corporations have been pouring money into the idea, but synthetic influencers haven’t gained much traction with audiences. Can money save them, or were they doomed to go belly-up from the get-go?
Business-peopleSynthetic influencers are both more and less appealing than human influencers for a few reasons.
Lacking agency, synthetic influencers are trivially easy to control or reprogram and never experience burnout as humans do.
Because they’re so reliable and scalable, companies are immediately willing to sink money into them. Major corporations — including Amazon, Google, and Sony — have already poured $58 million into a single synthetic influencer firm: Superplastic.
But these characters aren’t introduced to the public through a compelling narrative or artistic context like characters from an animated movie or game franchise. They’re purely commercial vessels, and so far, that’s made them struggle to gain audiences.
Money can buy me love?
Generally, influencer marketing is only getting stronger. Just because synthetic influencers haven’t caught on yet doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. If it’s a matter of presentation or the public getting used to them, backing from corporations like Amazon and Google will certainly give these synthetic beings the reach they’d need to blow up.
For now, at least, we’ll have to settle for human beings.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Spotify goes vertical
The audio streaming company is the latest platform to adopt a vertically swiped homepage in an effort to duplicate TikTok’s success with Gen Z. Like TikTok’s functionality, Spotify’s interface lets users swipe vertically through content recommendations that play automatically, including video content and the looping GIFs that already exist on certain music selections. One in three Spotify users is between the ages of 18 and 24, and according to CEO Daniel Ek, the company “could be doing better” at appealing to the younger generation. Everybody wants to be TikTok.
Read More → bloomberg
Should robo ads be priced differently?
Some advertisers believe that AI-generated content should have price parity with human-generated content. “If a brand is using AI to generate content, the advertiser isn’t necessarily going to know about it. If advertisers really care — and I don’t think they do, provided they get a topic-relevant impression — then there might be independent research which starts scoring publications and domains for whether they’re using AI,” explains Tom Davenport, managing director at Digital Marketing Specialist. But what happens when AI and people create content together, like they do with BuzzFeed’s Infinity Quizzes? There may be less risk for advertisers because human eyes catch AI mistakes.
Read More → thedrum
TikTok tries transparency
As part of its “continued commitment to transparency and accountability,” TikTok has opened up its API to researchers affiliated with non-profit academic institutions in the US. Authorized researchers will get access to public information found on user profiles, comments, likes, and favorites. TikTok’s API could give researchers a look into the social media usage of younger generations at a time when it’s trying to prove that it’s not a danger to anyone’s security.
Read More → engadget
The digital divide compounds
The Internet’s biggest platforms are toying with the idea of charging users for everything from improved account security and support to greater public exposure. As tech companies look to diversify their revenue streams with paid extras (like authentication and identity protection features), the whole Internet experience has become pricier and less democratic. Unfortunately, more pay-to-play options could separate the Internet into haves and have-nots, worsening income and mental health inequality around the globe. Some things in life should be free — like the Internet.
Read More → axios
Jewel wants virtual healing
The musician is the co-founder of Innerworld, a new platform that lets anyone create an avatar and enter a world where they can find immediate support for managing depression, loss, anxiety, and ADHD, as well as chronic illness and addiction recovery. Innerworld is monitored 24/7 by live guides and bolstered AI, who welcome users and ensure they follow Innerworld’s rules, which include no conversation about politics or religion, no bullying, no trolling, and no negativity. While Innerworld wasn’t designed to be therapy or crisis intervention, it’s a peer-based model that can complement regular therapy.
Read More → forbes
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Today's email was brought to you by Luke Perrotta and Kait Cunniff.Editing by Nick Comney. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.