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Fancy Like. With just a few more weeks until Valentine’s Day (seriously, time moves way too quickly), the marketing brass at Applebee’s is looking to put a new spin on date night with its latest subscription pass. We just hope it doesn’t inspire Walker Hayes to write another song about it. We’re still recovering from his last viral hit.

In other news… Sundance ain’t what it used to be, Prime Video goes full Beast mode, and AI toys take over wishlists.

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ENTERTAINMENT

Hollywood searches for an indie reboot at Sundance

The Future. The Sundance Film Festival is in the hot seat as Hollywood grapples with a struggling independent film business. While the fest knows there’s pressure to platform the most commercial titles in the indie space, the organizers stress that its job is simply to support the most-promising voices… meaning the studios themselves may have to start investing again in bringing those voices to the mainstream to create a new generation of hits and hitmakers.

Festival fissures
Is Sundance, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, still the best launching pad to sell an indie film? Lucas Shaw at Bloomberg has some thoughts.

Mix these ingredients, and you have a marketplace where distributors are wary of buying films that don’t feel like surefire moneymakers and of streamers no longer providing golden parachutes, leaving a record number of movies homeless or unable to recoup their budgets.

This narrative isn’t entirely new, and with bonafide hits like Talk to Me (theaters) and Fair Play (streaming) coming out of Sundance last year, there’ll always be breakout exceptions.

So, now we want to hear from you…

YOUR DAILY POLL

We ask the hard-hitting questions.

43.8% of you said you’re watching as much TV as you normally do in yesterday’s poll: What does your TV consumption currently look like?

“My family didn’t get a TV until I was about ten, so I’ve always loved it. Even if I’m not watching it, I leave it on for the noise.”

“Leveraging the subscriptions I have left as much as possible in order to spend less going out.”

“Watching more because it’s currently snowy and icy with a stiff wind. I imagine warmer temps will cut my TV consumption drastically.”

“With so much existing TV, I personally don’t see an issue with less new content coming out each year. But I do see a necessity for streamers to better market existing content.”

“I work out in front of the TV for an hour and a half a day in the morning. That is when I catch up on shows and news. Otherwise, I am doing school work or I am at work. I consider it my ‘me’ time.”

“Watching more streaming than ever. If I want to watch terrestrial TV, I usually will watch the repeats without commercials on Hulu, Paramount+, or Peacock.”

ENTERTAINMENT

MrBeast lands a massive Prime Video deal

The Future. Amazon’s Prime Video unit is reportedly firming up a $100 million deal with MrBeast that would see the most famous face of YouTube create a reality competition show for the streamer. If successful, it may open up an opportunity for other top creators — Rhett & Link, Zach King, etc. — to scale their ambitions while still making the content they’re known for.

Stunt TV
Amazon is going MrBeast on MrBeast.

It’s no surprise that there was a massive bidding war for the show (with Prime Video head Jennifer Salke getting personally involved). There’s no digital creator with anywhere near the same popularity as MrBeast, who has leveraged that fame to capitalize on a constellation of business ventures and social influence.

To studios and streamers, a MrBeast show isn’t just as close to a guaranteed hit as they can get, but it’s also an experiment to check whether the creator economy can fuel the premium entertainment economy.

Yeah… Hollywood has been down this road before.

TOGETHER WITH TIMELINE

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

AI programs a new generation of toys

The Future. AI-powered toys are hitting retail shelves as several companies roll out dolls, plushies, and robots that hope to be kids’ best friends. If parents and kids embrace the devices (and they don’t turn out like M3GAN), expect them to be the hottest toys come this year’s holiday season.

Generating friendship
AI startups are trying to make Toy Story a reality.

The research on using an AI-powered robot as a friend or therapist for kids is mixed at best, especially considering issues with trustworthiness, privacy, and just general capabilities.

But that hasn’t stopped some people from giving it a shot. Miko, for example, has sold nearly half a million robots across 100 countries. And parents told Forbes that Moxie has been helpful with their disabled children.

Highlights

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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.