Making Bank On Band Tees

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Happy Monday, Future Party. A vending machine that can make California Pizza Kitchen pizzas in 90 seconds flat has been so popular at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that the company is rolling out 1,000 more in airports, universities, hospitals, hotels, and office complexes across the nation. For the money, this is the best technological achievement of the year.

Hollywood is figuring out how to deal with a new era of movie piracy that can quickly spread near-perfect copies of blockbusters on opening weekend… but also fuel the kind of virality that still gets people to show up.

The Big Picture: According to anti-piracy company MUSO and management consulting firm Kearney, piracy now costs the major studios an estimated $75 billion per year… and could reach as high as $125 billion by 2028. That’s a huge deal as Hollywood fights to bring revenues back to pre-pandemic levels.

Behind The Scenes: It’s a long way from people hawking DVDs on street corners.

Final Verdict: Studios, streamers, and the MPA work hand-in-hand to pursue pirates, issuing takedown requests to social platforms and collaborating with online marketplaces to remove illegal streaming devices. But they only have so much bandwidth, so they typically focus on “larger criminal operations enabling these digital pirates,” per Variety.

But there’s another wrinkle — studios tolerate (and sometimes outright encourage) a little piracy, either to make content available in countries where it’s censored or to dial up marketing, per Variety. Case in point: when young audiences filmed themselves losing their minds during a certain scene in Minecraft, Warner Bros. leaned into the online trend to help turn the movie into a Gen Z phenomenon. Surely, the studio’s lawyers lost a little sleep because of that.

Coming Soon: Considering that piracy is a digital issue, some theaters may look to collab on tech that blocks phones from recording once the lights go down.

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Decades-old T-shirts are now selling for record sums.

Why It Hits: The demand for vintage tees combines Gen Z’s preference for secondhand retail with the rising popularity of collectible assets. It looks like dressing casual is becoming the new quiet luxury.

Between The Sleeves: T-shirts are now the hottest items in everyone’s closet, according to WSJ.

T-shirts have also become a fashion statement on the red carpet, with Zendaya wearing an oversized Spider-Man tee to the Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiere, Janet Jackson wearing a Tupac one to the BET Awards, and Miley Cyrus wearing a Hannah Montana shirt to the show’s 20th anniversary event.

Last Looks: WSJ notes that what makes these vintage tees so valuable is their “lived-in quality” that feels authentic. It’s a rejection of the overproduced, glossy digital aesthetic of an increasingly AI-driven world.

In other words, the more holes in the shirt, the better.

The Future: Band tees weren’t always the best quality, so expect some artists to start routinely collabing with streetwear labels and indie clothing brands on limited-edition capsules that could be exclusive to IRL shows.

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39.1% of you voted No, it probably won’t exist in Friday’s poll: Looking back at your first job, do you think the same kind of entry-level opportunity will exist for future generations?

“I was delivering physical newspapers, which may be a thing of the past in the not-too-distant future.”

“I worked at a pretzel shop like an Auntie Anne’s, and I can imagine what I did there — pulling pretzels out of the oven, adding a bucket of cheese, handing that to a customer, and exchanging money — can easily be done through a kiosk. Or a robot. It’s a shame because having a job while you’re in high school is a really good lesson in responsibility.”

“Like many in Hollywood, I started as an assistant on an agency desk — rolling calls, scheduling, filing and answering emails, sending out scripts… all easily doable on your own these days. I question how kids graduating college a few years down the line will enter the business.”

“My fairly large, publicly traded company is not hiring anyone below the manager level for the foreseeable future.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, 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.

🍿 The Odyssey has become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, with $1.35 billion at the box office… and counting.

🎥 A consortium of top filmmakers, actors, and execs organized by former Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy has released its first public framework for the use of AI in Hollywood.

🎧 Apple Music will start labeling songs made using AI later this year.

👩‍💻 CBRE found that NYC has more available tech jobs than any other area in the States, beating out the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time.

🚗 Nevada is becoming the robotaxi capital of the US after giving the green light to thousands of AVs from Tesla, Uber, and Waymo.

🛴 According to Consumer Reports, electric scooters have become a major danger.

📺 Disney has inked a content deal with Dhar Mann Studios to produce digital shows for Disney+.

🌮 Divine, the reboot of Vine, has struck its first brand deal with Taco Bell.

📱 Patreon announced several new features aimed at helping boost smaller profiles on the platform.