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Stuck in the mud. Welcome back, FutureParty people. How was everyone’s Labor Day weekend? Hopefully, it went a little better than those attending Burning Man. After consecutive days of heavy rainfall and deteriorating conditions, this year’s party in the playa looked like a scene straight outta Fyre Fest (minus the cheese sandwiches). Now that the event is officially over, we’re curious which streamer will drop the first docu chronicling the ordeal.
In other news… Hollywood’s box office recovery takes a turn, Barbie turns the music charts pink, and short-term rentals pivot to longer stays.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Summer marquee // Illustration by Kate Walker
The box office braces for a 2024 slowdown despite summer success
The Future. It was a great summer at the movies, both creatively and financially. But that goodwill is hitting the skids as ongoing labor negotiations derail the visibility and momentum of new releases. How can Hollywood recover? When contracts are finally renewed with striking writers and actors, studios may need to work overtime to eventize the films they have ready, while the theater industry doubles down on the premium formats that make those movies feel like appointment viewing.
Goodbye, summer success
It’s the best of times and the worst of times in Hollywood right now.
The Best:
The summer box office surpassed $4 billion for the 13th time ever and was up 16% from last summer.
Between May 5th and September 4th, over 330 million tickets were sold (also up 16% from last year) — with premium formats like IMAX being a big driver.
Barbie and Oppenheimer, which represented 22% of that haul, were the cinematic events of the year, with The Quorum finding people came back to the cinema for the first time since COVID to see one of them.
The Worst:
The dual strikes not only barred creatives from promoting movies, but they also led to studios pushing several titles to next year — moves that could cost the box office $400 million this fall (though TSwift may pick up the slack).
And next year may not be much better. With production shut down, many titles likely won’t be ready to hit their release dates, causing more delays.
That’s a blow to the narrative of a box office recovery, especially as The Quorum found 40% of people who saw Barbie said it reminded them how much they miss going to the movies.
As one studio distribution exec told Deadline, “If this summer proved anything, it’s that staying at home is fundamentally an untrue idea. People want to have a premium experience outside the house, whether that’s Barbie or a Taylor Swift concert.”
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MUSIC
Courtesy of Warner Music Group
The Barbie soundtrack turns the charts pink
The Future. Barbie isn’t just a hit on the big screen; it’s a hit on Spotify. The movie’s soundtrack, which features a range of styles and genres, boosted the profiles of every artist and may be the most popular movie soundtrack since the Kendrick Lamar-produced album for Black Panther. With movies making soundtracks greater than the sum of their parts, the best way for artists to break through the noise may be by being on the big screen.
Box office bops
Barbie is bringing back the hit movie soundtrack, reports Bloomberg.
Barbie: The Album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and scored substantial physical sales with the release of pink vinyl and even cassettes.
Featured artists such as Karol G, FIFTY FIFTY, and Tame Impala all had huge boosts on streaming.
“Barbie World” — both the original single from Aqua and the remix by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice — were crowned as TikTok’s songs of the summer.
The big single from the Barbie album, Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” hit 200 million streams on Spotify and 78 million views on YouTube.
Even Matchbox Twenty, which isn’t featured on the album but is in the movie, charted on Billboard for the first time in 25 years.
And having a song on a hit movie soundtrack isn’t just great marketing and a boost in listenership, it’s lucrative in and of itself. The revenue from licensing songs in movies and shows dubbed “synchronization royalties” grew 22% last year and represented 2.4% of the music industry’s global market — a whopping $640.4 million.
There’s nothing quite as impactful as being the soundtrack to a great cinematic moment.
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RETAIL & E-COMMERCE
Payment processor games
Do you feel like finding a payment processor for your small business is almost as challenging as starting the business itself?
If you’ve started your own company or have an e-comm side hustle, you know (or will quickly learn) finding the right payment processor can be an absolute headache. 🤯
There are so many options in the market that determining the best solution can feel overwhelming. To make things worse, most of the search results, rankings, and “top” lists are paid review sites. That’s right, they pay to be rated first or second place and so forth.
PayBlox felt small business owners deserved better. So, they created a platform that uses advanced algorithms and an extensive network of providers to match you with the best processing system for your biz.
They even share 10% of their revenue with merchants who use their site. What?!
We wish this company was around when we started TFP.
Right now, PayBlox is also doing a small biz giveaway. Ten companies. $1,000 each. Enter to win by signing up for PayBlox using the code FUTURE.
HOUSING
Cracking down // Illustration by Kate Walker
Short-term rentals get put on a short leash
The Future. Hosting short-term rentals on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo is becoming more difficult as major cities institute new restrictions on platforms and their hosts — including regulations, license requirements, and some outright bans for properties with rentals of 30 days or less. That’s forcing hosts to pivot to offering longer-term stays, even though they’re not as profitable… which may end up sparking a boutique hotel renaissance to accommodate vacationers.
The long arm of the law
Unregulated short-term rentals aren’t long for this world.
The reason for the new laws, according to Bloomberg, is unregulated short-term rentals “reduce the availability of affordable housing, boost local rents, and create unnecessary risks for guests and neighbors.”
And the regulations are working. Cities that’ve instituted rules have seen the share of short-term rentals drop below pre-COVID levels (but have jumped up in those where there are no regulations).
But hosts say the regulations violate their constitutional rights and have joined platforms in suing cities (which could take years to work through the courts).
To avoid the headaches (and fines), Airbnb hosts are switching to medium-term rentals (more than a month, less than a year), which have fewer regulations.
That strategy is proving successful — Airbnb says customer demand is surging in that sector, with stays of 28 nights or more representing the fastest-growing category on the platform at 22% of overall nights booked.
But a word to the wise: in New York and Kansas, anyone who stays somewhere for more than 30 days isn’t considered a guest anymore… they’re a tenant.
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HEALTH & WELLNESS
This is Ron.
Yesterday, Ron took a Hinge date to his favorite happy hour spot. After the date went swimmingly (who doesn’t love half-off cocktails and $2 oysters?), Ron networked the crap out of a work event and had his first espresso martini at a friend’s birthday party.
Ron drank a considerable amount of alcohol on his big night out.
Today, Ron feels great. He was on his morning stand-up early enough to make awkward small talk and has the energy of 30 Rock’s Kenneth Parcell.
How’s that possible?
Before Ron went out, he drank ZBiotics. A tiny bottle that packs a huge performance punch.
Be like Ron.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
Taylor Swift’s upcoming concert film scored $34 million in presales within the first 24 hours that tickets were available and is tracking to open to over $70 million when it debuts on October 13th. Read more → deadline
Max has joined other streamers in releasing a Top 10 most popular list, but with stipulations: it only counts new movies or episodes that are viewed by a unique user profile for at least two minutes. Read more → variety
Spotify is muting ads on white-noise podcasts and raising the required number of listeners that podcasts need to qualify for its Ambassador Ads program from 100 to 1,000. Read more → bloomberg
Fashion & E-Commerce
Hollywood stylists might be designing a unionization drive amid the hot strike summer. Read more → bof
Instacart’s IPO filing reveals the company has become profitable due to ads, which drive almost a third of its revenue. Read more → fastcompany
Kylie Jenner isn’t too happy about Coty’s management of her namesake makeup brand and is considering buying back its 51% stake for $600 million. Read more → bof
Tech, Web3, & AI
AI companies have hired “red team hackers” (ethical hackers who pretend to be cyber-attackers) to find vulnerabilities in their systems. Read more → forbes
As climate disasters increase, countries and organizations are ramping up the development of “doomsday” seed vaults. Read more → axios
As lab-grown meats start to show up on restaurant menus and grocery shelves, states are requiring unique labeling to differentiate them from meat meat. Read more → fastcompany
Creator Economy
Miley Cyrus is going through video of her past 30 years on TikTok, and the series has already racked up 20 million views. Read more → tubefilter
TikTok’s AR development platform, “Effect House,” has exited beta and is now available for creators… and has launched a $6 million fund to jumpstart usage. Read more → techcrunch
Kat Callaghan, the voice actor behind TikTok’s text-to-speech function, aka “the voice of TikTok,” is coming to the Calm app. Read more → tubefilter
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.