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It’s finally Friday, FutureParty people. Anyone throwing an Oscar party this weekend? Dressing in pink to support Barbie or donning a Victorian dress for Poor Things aka Weird Barbie? However you’re celebrating, we already know the one moment everyone will be talking about: Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken.”

In other news… Hollywood wastes no time with sequels, Gen Z leaves the wallet at home, and TikTokers take Congress.

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.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

YT: Fallout, X: Ariana Grande, G: Ricky Stanicky, R: Coyote vs. Acme, TT: “Whatever She Wants”, S: “Me Before You”

Members of Congress are being bombarded with calls after TikTok urged users to call their representatives to boycott a bill that would ban TikTok in the US unless ByteDance sold it. Read More → forbes

Netflix announced that it would livestream a high-profile boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul this July — marking another move by the streamer into live sports. Read More → nyt

Indie podcast companies are a hot commodity again after Campside Media, Rococo Punch, and Kast Media each landed deals, and a number of investment groups have popped up in search of companies to acquire. Read More → bloomberg

Epic Games said its plans for a third-party app store on iOS are on hold after Apple terminated its developer account, calling it “verifiably untrustworthy”…so you’ll have to wait a bit longer to play Fortnite on your iPhone. Read More → theverge

Hollywood’s crew unions have started high-stakes negotiations with the AMPTP on a new contract, making the entertainment industry hold its breath for a potential repeat of last year’s strike shutdown. Read More → thr

55.9% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Do you think song royalties are a good investment?

“The gift that keeps on giving.”

“Given the highly saturated fragmentation split percentages, and the odds of individual songs being used in enough syncs to return consistent value, I see this as more of a ‘super-fan’ collectible than a meaningful investment tool.”

“This is dicey. I believe that, as a songwriter with a publishing deal, the best choice to increase visibility and profits for your catalog is a publisher rather than a tech company or an investment firm. Publishers know and love our work. They get us collaborations and songwriting deals for film, TV, and video games. They are rooting for us. Investment companies care about one thing.”

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The Future. As Hollywood tries to figure out what exactly makes a film a must-see in theaters, a couple of studios are releasing multiple movies from a franchise within the same year as an experiment — a move that could save both production and marketing costs. If the movies are successful, the line between film and prestige TV could be erased for good.

Are four movies better than one?
To eventize theatrical movies, studios are looking to release whole franchises nearly all at once.

This isn’t Hollywood’s first go (or almost go) at this strategy. In 2006, Warner Bros. released the Clint Eastwood-directed companion films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima two months apart, while 20th Century Fox was going to release each installment of the Fear Street trilogy one month apart before they were sold to Netflix during the pandemic.

And in a reverse of the model, the Game of Thrones creators revealed that they wanted to end the series with a trilogy of films… but HBO rejected the plan.

The Future. Gen Zers are leaving their wallets at home in favor of having everything accessible on their smartphones. As cars increasingly put the functionality of their keys on an app, and smart-home tech allows locks to be controlled digitally, cities may need to roll out public charging stations and have widespread, free Wi-Fi as a public utility.

Swiss Army smartphone
If you’re still carrying a wallet, we hate to say it, but you’re now old.

Apple is clearly aware that the iPhone is becoming the pocket bank for customers — the iOS 17.4 update lets Apple Cash, Apple Card, and Savings with Apple Card balances and transactions to automatically import into top budgeting apps.

Talk about making things easy.

Dear Hollywood, this is an underserved audience alert.