A24’s Disneyland

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Happy Friday, Future Party. Turns out Universal Pictures was right — there’s a whole lot of demand for Christopher Nolan’s next film, The Odyssey, a full year ahead of its release. Tickets to see the movie in IMAX 70mm on opening weekend mostly sold out within an hour of going online Wednesday night. And just like a superstar concert, tickets have already hit resale sites, going for up to $1,000 a pop. There’s no doubt about it: Nolan is the biggest name in movies right now.

A24 is opening the doors of the newly renovated Cherry Lane Theatre — an Off-Broadway theater that the indie studio has transformed into a cultural epicenter for movies, theater, music, food, stand-up, and much more.

The Big Picture: Entertainment companies building their own physical spaces is nothing new (ever been to Disneyland or Universal Studios?), but it has significantly ramped up in recent years. Netflix announced interactive spaces and opened a restaurant in Las Vegas, Sony opened Wonderverse in Chicago, and Lionsgate cut the ribbon on a theme park in China. A24 seems to be charting a course for how to translate those branded experiences into the smaller-budget indie realm.

Behind the Curtain: A24 purchased the 167-seat theater for $10 million and has spent about $2.3 million on renovating it since then.

Encore: A24 is going to great lengths to make sure that Cherry Lane is not stuffed with corporate synergy or over-organization. It won’t have a season pass or subscribers, and it plans to keep ticket prices relatively accessible for the average audience. But this is a company with a popular membership program, a budding lifestyle line, and a reputation for selling its films and shows through innovative marketing. Essentially, A24 is a master of culturally tapped-in branding.

So, when it comes to catering to the kinds of artists and cinephiles that the studio attracts, maintaining its well-earned coolness factor at Cherry Lane is a key part of the draw.

Final Bow: We wouldn’t be surprised if catching a surprise performance or event at Cherry Lane becomes a must for cinephiles visiting NYC, expanding Off Broadway’s audience.

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Tourists are increasingly being duped into visiting places that don’t actually exist — fake travel destinations generated by AI.

Why It Hurts: Generating a person using AI has, sadly, become commonplace… but generating a place is a new thing entirely. As online personalities spread misinformation about hot tourism spots, travelers will need to be more vigilant about not planning trips or booking tickets to non-existent places — especially if they’re using a chatbot to build their next itinerary.

Behind the Itinerary: An elderly Malaysian couple recently learned the hard way that a cable car attraction in the town of Kuak Hulu was not real.

Last Stop: Fast Company notes that AI-generated tourism spots are a scary evolution of the “manufactured reality” already present on social media — like influencers posting selfies at iconic landmarks that make it seem like they’re the only ones there. In reality, they’ve simply cropped or edited out the crowds around them. That practice has fueled a surge in tourism to those same spots, with travelers thinking they’ll be relatively empty… only to learn that thousands of other people had the same idea.

That selfie-tourism has a profound impact (mostly negative) on real global landmarks. But faking all of that could introduce a whole new level of chaos — tricking people into flooding cities in search of a landmark that doesn’t exist in the first place. Our heads are already spinning at the thought.

Prediction: With AI travel influencers now a thing and countries rolling out their own AI-generated travel-marketing campaigns, don’t be surprised if some crafty criminals start inventing tourist hot spots as a way to scam — or even harm — international travelers.

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76.2% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Would you consider opening any type of account (personal or business) at a newly chartered bank?

“We’ve watched this story play out decade after decade.”

“We could put our money into government accounts and use that interest to fund universal basic income. Instead, it’s just making bored, power-hungry tech bros richer.”

“FDIC-backed, yes. Tech-backed, HELL NO!”

“I have a new local community bank that only has three locations and pays 6.18% interest and is FDIC-backed, so I opened an account to stay ahead of inflation. The employees know you personally, and it feels like home, unlike some large national banks.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🎤 CBS announced that it’s cancelling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, leaving the broadcaster without any late-night programming.

🍿 Disney’s Lilo & Stitch is the first movie to cross $1 billion at the box office this year.

😂 Andrew Singer, who ran Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video, is teaming up with Wasserman to launch the comedy-focused Revue Studios.

🤖 OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT Agent — a general-use AI that can fully take over your computer to carry out a variety of tasks.

🚗 Uber is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in EV-maker Lucid and autonomous-driving tech company Nuro to build a self-driving fleet.

👀 A new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that 40% of the digital ads we’ll see next year will be at least partially created using AI.

🖊️ Substack has raised $100 million from investors such as the Chernin Group and a16z to develop its social networking functionality.

🤳 Eyal Baumel, the former CEO of YouTube network Yoola, has launched Flywheel, which aims to help creators build multi-format franchises.

📱 Twitch is embracing vertical video as it looks to attract more mobile users.