The mega-success of Heated Rivalry has buyers asking what is coming next from Crave, the Canadian streamer that greenlit the ice hockey romance hit.

The streamer is part of Bell Media, and company President Sean Cohan is backing Canadian producers to produce the next Heated Rivalry as Canadian content becomes hot international property.

The next season of the sports show drops in 2027. Cast members have hinted at a third run for the steamy series, which Cohan says is “the biggest global hit that Canada’s ever produced,” and there is more source material from which to work. He is not ready to definitively confirm or deny a third outing, but there does appear to be a direction of travel. “In success, this show continues,” he says.

Cohan is more definitive on the future of Crave, which he says, historically, was an under-marketed and under-utilized gem. Offering a slate of Canadian originals differentiates Crave from the U.S.-owned streamers, and HBO programming adds premium U.S. firepower. Bell’s pact for HBO fare has been extended, and Cohan says it runs into the 2030s.

Heated Rivalry delivered on Bell’s promise to generate shows that resonate locally and go global, with the associated financial and reputational benefits. That was one of former A+E exec Cohan’s goals when he joined the Canadian content giant in late 2023.

“We talked about making great global and profitable shows and about elevating the Canadian creative brand, which has been misunderstood or underestimated,” he says. “Bell Media spends a ton domestically on Canada-made content and the question was: Why can’t we make that in a way that exports around the world? And then we went and did it.”

Boosted by Heated Rivalry, Crave recorded just over 5 million subs in Bell’s most recent results, and is eyeing 6 million by end of 2028, but Cohan is thinking beyond that. He wants the streamer to be in half of Canadian TV homes by the end of 2029. “The new target that we have in our mind is closer to one in two,” he says. In a market with an estimated 15.8 million TV homes, that means Crave will need to continue its growth trajectory to hit its numbers.

Hudson Williams’ next turn

The next big thing in-the-making is Yaga, which features Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams alongside Carrie-Anne Moss in a witchy folklore drama set in a coastal town called Whittock. The series will be heavily promoted at MIPCOM. Other Crave shows coming to the international market include queer softball drama Slo Pitch and Meatballs, inspired by the eponymous Bill Murray movie and starring Robbie G.K., another Heated alum. There is also Bulges, set in a Hooters-like bar, but where the staff are all male, and with Saved by the Bell star Mark-Paul Gosselaar starring. Sphere Abacus, the distributor that Bell acquired last year, is selling them all.

“Canadian content was already on the rise — you had shows like [Fremantle-distributed] Sullivan’s Crossing, which had gone to The CW in the U.S. and Netflix around the world,” says Sphere Abacus Managing Director Jonathan Ford. “Heated Rivalry really increased that, and that led to channels and platforms around the world always wanting to know what the next big thing is coming out of Canada and, particularly, Crave.”

Ford, an international distribution veteran, adds: “Canadian programming can fit with different audiences. Some storylines feel relevant to the U.S. market, perhaps more so than some British storylines and accents, but it’s also relevant to the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, and the quality of the shows appeals to the European markets too.”

Heated Rivalry made Williams, along with Connor Storrie, a global star and Sphere Abacus has pre-sold Yaga to AMC in the U.S., Sky in the U.K. and HBO Max in continental Europe, among others.

“The sales were done off the script and casting, partly because the storyline and casting of Yaga are so strong, but also there’s an element of having wind in the sails from Heated Rivalry,” says Ford.

While Heated Rivalry set a high benchmark, now the heat is on for Crave and Sphere Abacus to deliver more made-in-Canada hits.

Each year October brings Halloween, the turning of the leaves, the World Series and changing ticket prices at Disney‘s U.S. parks.

For 2026-2027, however, many ticket tiers remain unchanged, while those that are rising are seeing some of the smallest bumps in recent memory. There are good reasons for this.

When Comcast reported earnings in July, it noted softer attendance at its domestic parks, despite the opening of Epic Universe in Orlando.

At Disney, global guests grew 4% and attendance at domestic parks rose 3%. Disney noted continued, but moderating, headwinds from international attendance at domestic parks. The segment’s average per capita ticket revenue still rose 5%. Forward bookings remained robust. WDW specifically saw healthy core attendance increases from domestic tourists and annual passholders.

Still, the recently announced price points indicate Disney is aware that consumers are hurting, with gas prices making it a struggle to even get to the parks.

Disneyland‘s least expensive single-day (Tier 0) ticket is still $104. That rate has remained unchanged since 2019. In line with last year, there are eight dates to get tickets at that price — all in November. See calendars below.

Another indication Disney is aware of a price pinch: Lowest-cost dates for each month are, this year, highlighted in green.

The peak 1-day (Tier 6) ticket for holiday dates in Nov.-Dec. 2026 remains $224. That price currently applies to Thanksgiving week, the days around Christmas and those leading up to New Year’s Eve. See below.

The second-highest price point, Tier 5, also remains unchanged at $199. Ditto multiday tickets, parking and annual passes. Each of the intervening tiers has only been raised $5.

The tiers and attendant cost increases (if any) break down as follows:

Tier 0 – Was $104, still $104

Tier 1 – Was $129, now $134

Tier 2 – Was $149, now $154

Tier 3 – Was $169, now $174

Tier 4 – Was $184, now $189

Tier 5 – Was $199, still $199

Tier 6 – Was $224, still $224

“Our goal is to put guests at the center of our decision making, and that starts by listening to them,” Thomas Mazloum, chairman of Disney Experiences, said of this year’s rates. “That matters more now when families are watching every dollar, and we see it in the choices they make every day — in how they plan, in how far ahead.”

Mazloum added, “We think about pricing market by market, rather than with one broad brush,” as Disneyland guests tend to be more local and those to Walt Disney World regularly travel longer distances.

Apropos of that, the company is still considering targeted offers in market, like last summer’s “Evening Ticket” at Disneyland for local residents. Those were only $59.

Over in Orlando, ticket prices are generally higher, reflecting the bigger trip Walt Disney World Resort often is for guests coming from farther away. The lowest priced offering to the Magic Kingdom remains unchanged at $119 for a single day, single park ticket, though there are none on the calendar before the end of the year. The highest-priced, Tier 6, entry is also unchanged at $209. Multiday ticket prices are not increasing.

Annual Passes at Walt Disney World are increasing by $10-$120, depending on the level. Parking prices and Lightning Lane Multi Pass pricing are not changing.

Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón shared their thoughts on the future of the theatrical experience, teased a few details of upcoming projects and discussed Korean cinema during their first visit to Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) today.

BIFF is hosting both a special IMAX screening of Gravity, the Oscar-winning movie that the father and son filmmakers co-wrote, and the Asian premiere of Jonas Cuarón’s most recent film, Campeon Gabacho, the story of a Mexican immigrant in New York, which premiered at this year’s SXSW.

“I believe that the theatrical experience will keep on existing, and I hope so because I love the theatrical experience, but I think it’s going to coexist with more forms,” said Alfonso Cuarón, a four-time Oscar winner for Gravity and Roma.

“And I’m very pleased about that, and I’m also very afraid,” he continued. “But I want to learn from the new generation about how they take this new world and turn it into into art, and that’s at the end of the day what I’m putting my focus on.”

Cuarón said he’s already learned from his son, despite initially trying to dissuade him from a career in cinema: “When he was growing up, I consciously pushed him away from studying or getting involved in film. We went to the movies together and he shared my love of cinema, but I told him I can’t encourage you to study film.”

After he took that path anyway, Cuarón said: “it was very refreshing to see that he was developing a language so different from mine. Selfishly, it was a language I could learn from.

“From his first film, that was all done with still photography, and then his second film Desierto, when I read that script, I said I wanted to write something like that. So I feel in many ways, he has pushed me in my own language to explore further. He has a deep belief in audiences and a deep belief in the power of of film.”

Continuing the theme of appealing to audiences, Jonás Cuarón shared his love of genre cinema and the fact that he’s currently working on a script for a horror movie: “I like the way genre connects with an audience, like with the audience here yesterday for Gravity, you could see they were really stressed out for Dr. Ryan Stone. And horror is a really great genre in that sense of connecting with the audience. It’s similar to comedy; that when you see a horror you really get a communal reaction.”

Both father and son expressed an appreciation for Korean cinema. Jonás Cuarón said: “Something in Korean cinema that really connects with me, and that I’ve always tried to do in my films, is bringing in social semantics, but under the guise of genre and particularly also with humour.

“A lot of movies that I really respect from The Host and Parasite, to recent Korean films like Hope and No Other Choice, they all share what I love about cinema, which is that they talk about social issues but connect with the audience through genre, and a sense of humor that I really connect with.”

Speaking with Korean director Yeon Sang-ho (Colony, Paradise Lost) later today in a masterclass, Alfonso Cuarón noted how failure can be an important component in success: “I have way more projects fall apart than the projects I made; and perhaps they could be considered as failures, but thanks to those failures, I managed to do some other films that were well received in one way or the the other.”

Busan International Film Festival is taking place October 6-15 at Busan Cinema Center and multiple venues across the city. The festival’s industry platform, Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM), kicks off on Saturday, October 10 and runs until Tuesday, October 13.