Director Patrick Wally
Courtesy of WyFilm
Entertainment
Creatorverse: How Creator Companies Are Going Viral Without a Star
Hey Creatorverse readers,
It’s no secret that some of the biggest creators have borrowed their development and engagement strategies from Hollywood. But did you know that there’s an entire genre of digital-first production companies that have taken that approach to a whole new level?
Dropout, Jubilee and NowThis are three of those companies that have adapted TV’s playbook for the social media age, production companies that are more IP-focused than talent-focused. And there are some serious benefits to this approach.
“One creator can only stretch themselves so far to create so much content,” Sam Reich, the CEO of Dropout, told me.
Dropout operates on a subscription model and has over 1 million subscribers with plans to release 10 to 12 shows this year. While they partner closely with their talent, the company is not completely dependent on their creators. That means the talent just has to focus on being funny, and Dropout just has to focus on making their content go viral.
NowThis, a shortform video hub that appeals to Gen Z and Millennial women, is more hands-on when it comes to developing the followings of its up-and-coming stars. A lot of Editor-in-Chief Michael Vito Valentino’s strategy follows the strategy late night shows have used for decades.
“For a lot of our shows, what we do is just Gen Z’s take on a talk show format,” Valentino told me. “At the end of the day, everyone still has to promote a product. So they come here and they do it.”
And then there’s Jubilee, the YouTube channel with over 10 million subscribers behind such viral hits as “Middle Ground” and “Surrounded.”
“We are trying to develop shows or vehicle formats that will not just have one video that gets a million views or 10 million views, but 100 videos that can each get a million views,” Jason Y. Lee, founder and CEO of Jubilee, told me. Read more about their approaches here.
Now onto the rest.
Kayla Cobb
Senior Reporter
kayla.cobb@thewrap.com
What’s New
Vine is back as diVine
Vine, the six-second shortform video app that was popular in the 2010s, relaunched this week as diVine. And ironically, this new reboot is being funded by the very man who killed the original Vine, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. diVine boasts an archive of 500,000 videos from the original Vine and has the mission of being “freedom from AI slop.” Over 150,000 people signed up for diVina’s day one beta, and now the app is fully available on Apple and Google’s app stores.
A lot of the creators who dominate headlines today including King Bach, Quenlin Blackwell and the Paul brothers first established their followings on Vine. Let’s see if 2.0 will have the same impact.
Ad investment in social video has outpaced connected TV for the first time ever
For the first time ever, advertising spend related to social video has outpaced CTV spend, according to the latest report from IAB. Social video hit 13% growth year-over-year thanks to AI-powered personalization and increased investment in the creator economy, while connected TVs only saw an 11% increase. Overall, advertising spending in the digital market is expected to surpass $80 billion in 2026, an 11% increase compared to last year. That’s also almost 20% faster growth than the overall ad market.
Comedy group American High partners with Netflix, and the “ShootAround” webcomic is getting a movie
American High, the production company behind Hulu’s “Pizza Movie” and “Summer of 69,” is partnering with Netflix to bring its viral shortform series “Minimum Wage” to the streamer. Netflix has given the series a 28-episode order with each episode running roughly 12 and a half minutes. “Minimum Wage” stars Grace Reiter (3.9 TikTok followers) and Julia Dicesare (417,000 TikTok followers).
In other adaptation news, “ShootAround,” the zombie horror-comedy web comic that started on Webtoon, is getting a live-action young adult film version. The movie will be produced by Lion Forge Entertainment and Webtoon Productions.
Platform Updates
Instagram is disincentivizing clipping
Instagram is about to make things a bit harder for accounts that rely on clipping. Starting next month, the platform will no longer recommend accounts that aggregate content and repost other people’s content through their photos and carousels. Instagram started cracking down on clipping on Reels about two years ago, and this is an extension of that.
“Original creators deserve to be rewarded for their work, not compete with accounts that simply re-upload it,” Instagram and Threads CEO Adam Mosseri posted. Looking for a cheat sheet on the business of clipping? I’ve got you covered.
Patreon redesigns its home feed and adds shortform videos
Patreon had a major overhaul last week. The creator-focused monetization platform redesigned its home feed, incorporated its shortform video offering called Quips into the feed, introduced collaboration posts and launched a memberships-only feed. With over 300,000 creators using the platform and close to 80 million subscribers, Patreon has long been a leader when it comes to monetizing creator communities.
Roblox is increasing its developer payouts by 42% for games designed for players 18 years and older
Roblox creators who develop games designed for players 18 years or older will see a 42% increase in the Roblox Developer Exchange, the platform’s system for converting earned in-platform currency for real money. According to the gaming platform, the number of players aged 18 to 34 years old grew by over 50% last year in the U.S., and games made for this age group monetize far better than games for users under 18. Considering that Roblox’s increased child safety protections have led to a drop in engagement, building up an older user base is a smart move.
“Elmo and Mark Rober’s Merry Giftmas” (Photo Credit: Zach Fernandez Larraz/NETFLIX)
Movers and Shakers
Disneyland hosted a Make-A-Wish celebration with MrBeast, Mark Rober, Dude Perfect and more
Last Wednesday, Disneyland hosted “Wishes Assemble,” a celebration with the Make-a-Wish foundation that fulfilled children’s dreams of meeting their favorite creators. Several major creators attended the event including MrBeast (482 million YouTube subscribers), Mark Rober (76.8 million YouTube subscribers), Dude Perfect (61.9 million YouTube subscribers), PrestonPlayz (17.4 million YouTube subscribers) and Clix (8.5 million Twitch followers). Wishes to meet creators now make up about 32% of all entertainment wishes from the foundation.
The Bucket Family is making an animated show, and the ACLU launches a YouTube children’s series
The Bucket Family (1.5 million YouTube followers) is the latest creator team to partner with former Paramount co-CEO Brian Robbins. Robbins’ Big Shot Pictures will be making an animated series about the travel channel, continuing the trend of creators diving into animation.
The ACLU is also on the animation train. The nonprofit civil rights organization launched “Know Your Rights University” on YouTube last week, an educational series designed to teach kids important lessons about civics and free expression. The decision to launch an animated show comes as children’s media is facing increased censorship under the Trump administration. Orders for children’s TV shows have also declined, and that was before the current administration’s attack on PBS.
Lital Spitzer joins Underscore Talent as the talent management firm launches a theatrical division
Lital Spitzer, who previously worked as a talent manager at 3 Arts, has moved to Underscore Talent. The creator-focused talent management firm also launched a theatrical division. She will bring her roster of talent, which include Esther McGregor, Alex Consani, Charlotte Nicdao and Esther Ming Li.
Who to Watch
Michelle Khare
Khare (5.4 million YouTube subscribers) is a bigger creator than I like to highlight in this section, but her “7 Marathons in 7 Days” series is not to be missed. The premise is right in the title — over the course of a week, the “Challenge Accepted” host ran seven marathons on seven different continents. Like with all of the creator’s videos, diving into the science and training required to tackle such a feat is fascinating. But throughout the series, Khare also interviews other athletes who are on the same journey as her. The result is one of the most inspiring and emotional shows of the year. And yes, I didn’t write “creator shows” for a reason. This latest challenge is great enough that it outpaces many of its streaming, cable and broadcast peers.
Bonus Content
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This report provides a weekly deep dive into the creator economy. It highlights key trends, political and technological developments, data points and industry leaders all with the goal of making you smarter about this constantly evolving space.
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EXCLUSIVE: David Barron, the British film producer with credits on six Harry Potter films, is entering the generative artificial intelligence space.
Barron has agreed to produce an AI adaptation of Jack London’s 1903 novel The Call of the Wild, which is written and directed by Simon Rumley (Crushed, Red White & Blue).
The film will be generated at nmatic, with CGI and traditional VFX helping deliver more complex scenes. Filmmakers are billing it as the first faithful adaptation of London’s novel because it will be made from Buck’s subjective experience.
“London’s canvass is so epic, the Alaskan geography so gruelling, the dog and wolf fights so visceral that a faithful cinematic adaptation has hitherto been logistically and financially impossible,” said Barron. ”But technology has finally caught up with London’s vision, and we believe now is the time to do justice.”
The Call of the Wild tells the story of a pampered St. Bernard dog, who is torn from his life of privilege in California’s Santa Clara Valley and is sold into the brutal world of the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, where he discovers the wild instinct that has always lurked within.
The film has been adapted for the screen several times, including a 2020 Michael Green film starring Harrison Ford.
David Barron, Mark Sandell (A Liar’s Autobiography) and Nick Price produce. Chris Catchpole, Carl Lyttle, and Toby White head up prompting and technical at nmatic.
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EXCLUSIVE: Lightdox has acquired world sales rights to the documentary My Home of Wind and Sand ahead of its world premiere Tuesday at the Zurich Film Festival.
Filmmaker Patrick Wally spent over a decade on his film, a portrait of women’s rights, human rights and climate activist Najla Mohamed Lamin, who was born in a Sahrawi refugee camp in Algeria. Lamin has led a peaceful campaign supporting the right of Western Sahara to self-determination, a dream of Sahrawi refugees that has been frustrated for more than half a century.
Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg is expected to attend Tuesday’s world premiere and will participate in a conversation afterwards with Lamin. Thunberg visited the Sahrawi refugee camps last year, where she and Lamin conducted a workshop on climate change.
“Told through conversations with the filmmaker – who gradually becomes visible inside the story – the documentary refuses to reduce Najla to a symbol of a geopolitical conflict,” notes a synopsis. “Western Sahara is experienced through one person living its consequences in real time. Najla addresses international institutions, builds practical spaces for women and children, raises her family and continues to argue for peaceful resistance even as a generation born in exile grows older without a political resolution.”
The synopsis continues, “When armed conflict resumes after decades of ceasefire, the convictions that have shaped Najla’s public life are tested. The film follows her as she asks what pacifism, patience and agency can mean when history seems immovable – and whether one person can still create change inside circumstances that appear impossible.”
Najla Mohamed Lamin at the dunes near the Sahrawi refugee camp of Smara.
Courtesy of WyFIlm
Anna Berthollet, CEO of Lightdox, commented, “Najla has lived her entire life with an unresolved conflict. Yet Patrick’s film is not a geopolitical story; it is an intimate portrait of how she chooses to live, raise her children and build a future for her community. He spent eleven years following her journey and bringing her story and mission to the screen. At a time when Western Sahara is once again receiving international attention, we believe it is important that Najla’s perspective is part of that conversation. We feel very humbled to have been entrusted with bringing Patrick and Najla’s deeply personal story to audiences around the world.”
The border wall berm and Moroccan military base separating the Moroccan occupied territory from the
Polisario controlled territory of Western Sahara.
Courtesy of WyFilm
The unresolved status of Western Sahara has been largely ignored in the U.S. and much of the West, but it has kept the Sahrawi people in terrible limbo. Spain ruled the territory as its colonial possession for the better part of a hundred years, but after it ceded claims in the mid-1970s, hopes for the territory to determine its own future were dashed when Morocco took control of much of Western Sahara. The Polisario Front, representing the Indigenous Sahrawi people, seeks self-determination and is supported by Algeria (where the refugee camps are located). The United Nations officially designates Western Sahara as a “Non-Self-Governing Territory.”
In a director’s statement, Wally said, “When I met Najla ten years ago, I knew this film needed to be made. At the time I had never heard of the issue of Western Sahara. I thought of myself as reasonably informed about the struggles shaping the world, yet I knew nothing about more than 200,000 Sahrawis living for generations in refugee camps in the Algerian desert, established after the war and displacement of 1975. That absence in my own awareness shocked me.
“What struck me first, however, was not the conflict in the abstract but Najla herself. I was surprised by my own assumptions. Here was a woman raised in a refugee camp who was exceptionally articulate, politically precise and full of a vision for the future. She spoke about peaceful resistance, about a generation born in the camps, and about the endurance required to believe in a bright future when nobody outside seems able to see it.”
An aerial view of the Sahrawi refugee camp Smara, in the Algerian desert, near Tindouf.
Courtesy of WyFilm
Along with directing, Wally serves as the film’s cinematographer. The film is produced by Shirin Hooshmandi, Najla Mohamed Lamin, and Patrick Wally. Anna Kirst edited the film, with additional editing by Daniel Rutz. The music is by Ahmed Zain.
In addition to Tuesday’s world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival, My Home of Wind and Sand will hold public screenings on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.
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Hur Jin-ho’s historical thriller The Assassin(s) topped the Korean box office over the Chuseok holiday weekend pulling in more than 1.5 million admissions since its release on September 23.
Fresh from its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, the film has grossed $11.3M (KRW15.3BN) from 1,546,614 admissions over the first five days of release, according to data from the Korean Film Council (KOFIC). The Chuseok holiday officially ran for three days from Thursday, September 24 to Saturday, September 27.
Starring Lee Min-ho (Gangnam 1970), Park Hae-il (Decision To Leave), and Yoo Hai-jin (A Taxi Driver), The Assassin(s) revolves around the attempted assassination of South Korean President Park Chung-hee in 1974 that resulted in the death of the First Lady. A senior inspector (Yoo), veteran journalist (Park) and rookie reporter (Lee) set out to uncover exactly what happened and who was responsible, despite threats against their careers and their lives.
Coming in second over the holiday week (September 21-27) was Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub, a long-awaited sequel to a popular gambling franchise, which also opened on September 23 and took just over $6M from 813,842 admissions.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey took third place in the weekly chart, adding another $5M to it record-breaking tally from 565,696 admissions. Released on August 5, the film has grossed just over $98M from 11.7 million admissions in the Korean market, making it the biggest import of the year so far.
Warner Bros Korea’s The Intern, a remake of the 2015 hit Hollywood comedy, came in fourth with an additional $2.6M for a cumulative total of $5.5M since its September 16 release. The film stars Choi Min-sik and Han So-hee in the roles originally played by Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway in the original film.
Looking at figures for the entire week, The Intern was followed by US horror hit Obsession with $1.6M for a cume of $6.7M since its September 2 release. But looking solely at the weekend, Lee Chang-dong’s Venice winner Possible Love debuted in fifth position. Also opening on September 23, the Netflix-backed film, which is Korea’s official submission for Best International Feature at the Oscars, grossed around $1M in its first five days.
Historical drama The King’s Warden continues to hold Korea’s box office crown for the year to date, with box office of $120M from 16.9 million admissions; followed by The Odyssey, Spider-Man: Brand New Day ($69M from 9 million admissions), and two titles that debuted at this year’s Cannes film festival: Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony and Na Hong-jin’s Hope.
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