Entertainment Strategy Guy

Very few folks had Masters of the Universe topping every Netflix film this summer. Or Sheep Detectives beating all but four Netflix films.  entertainment.substack.com/p/netflixs-s...

Prime Video’s TNF games feel like they’re finally a part of people’s football habit. entertainment.substack.com/p/streamings...

One problem with analyzing YouTube as a business? We don’t know if they make a ton of money (meaning they can pay creators more), or just break even or lose money, which means they can’t. entertainment.substack.com/p/the-not-so...

Supergirl opened to over five million hours and lasted for three weeks on the charts...that’s not great, but also not as bad as it could have been. entertainment.substack.com/p/toy-story-...

No one chart can ever explain everything, but...my charts on Netflix’s declining share of the top shows on Nielsen explain Netflix’s leadership changes pretty well! Here’s the look by month: entertainment.substack.com/p/the-one-ch...

Neagley is Prime Video’s third biggest first week all time. entertainment.substack.com/p/ip-saves-t...

This one touches on everything from the “binge versus weekly” debate to the “football trap” to the “hire the opposite” trend to the “why I don’t judge creative exec hires” to “price to earnings hype” to “UX changes" to…well, a bunch more! All in one place! entertainment.substack.com/p/netflixs-l...

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is Netflix’s second biggest show since March. entertainment.substack.com/p/ip-saves-t...

Want some more evidence time zones impact sports viewership? Well, folks at work can’t go to games! Hence... frontofficesports.com/article/mlb-...

Not sure why the Democrats don’t run on stopping spam calls and emails. Take on this issue and they might win every seat available! www.honest-broker.com/p/spammers-t...

Here's every animated show that’s made the Nielsen charts in the last two years.  entertainment.substack.com/p/streamings...

Want one chart that explains most of Netflix’s recent moves? Here you go. And, uh, maybe 13 more… entertainment.substack.com/p/the-one-ch...

Plan to put out an article tomorrow about all the turbulence at that one streamer, explained in one chart. (Who am I kidding? There’s absolutely NO WAY I keep it to one chart. We’ll be lucky if my “visual of the week” includes fewer than ten bespoke charts!)

IP remains very, very popular. Here’s the results from Aug to mid-Sep. entertainment.substack.com/p/who-won-au...

Wow, Neagley is off to an excellent start, on par with Reacher’s first season, which was also binge-released. entertainment.substack.com/p/ip-saves-t...

Three really interesting films vie for the top spot on the charts, and a reality show on Netflix shows the benefits of weekly releases… entertainment.substack.com/p/toy-story-...

I usually hate when clickbait-y websites go with headlines about “hit shows” getting cancelled, because those shows usually aren’t hits! But that wasn’t the case with Prime Video’s Ride or Die.  entertainment.substack.com/p/why-i-dont...

If I were asked to invest in new sports leagues, I’d take LIV Golf’s demise as a huge red flag. This especially applies to TMRW Sports’s recent billion dollar valuation and Unrivaled’s $650 million valuation. entertainment.substack.com/p/who-won-au...

As @mattbelloni.bsky.social first broke: Bela’s out, Peter is in. I asked one top agent who knows the Netflix teams well why this happened. Their answer? “Stock price. Can’t blame yourself. So, someone has to take the hit.” The “yourself” refers to Ted Sarandos.

I just debunked the “reading is dead” narrative--as have others!--but it’s still hard to build a reading habit. But as a worker, arguably it’s the most important thing you can do. Heck, as a human it’s important. Here’s Cal Newport on it in a must read. calnewport.com/why-reading-...

A WILD story from @matt-hamilton87.bsky.social lamaterial.com/p/la-manager... For the last two years, the union that represents senior managers at LA City Hall has been filing paperwork signed by a dead man. And that’s not the half of it!

Listen, I dunk on USC as much as anyone. Because of fandom reasons. But at the start of the football season everyone dunked on them for an empty stadium in August. It was empty because of the heat! Seriously, the world’s heat problems could threaten football. www.ocregister.com/2026/09/04/a...

Feel like the Character.AI bankruptcy should be a bigger story!

Scanning all the executive news of the last few weeks regarding PSWbD (Paramount Skydance Warner Bros. Discovery) one thought hit me: Does this math add up? And it explains why other recent mergers have flopped too. entertainment.substack.com/p/when-1-1-1...

But the worst part is that the folks who you'd think care abou this the most--the free market/neo-liberal types, who value markets and their open information--actually usually defend it!

The point that really stuck with me in this one was about the "not knowing". My industry--entertainment--has a huge issue with that with Amazon, Google and Apple's spending. How much do they make on streaming? Or lose? Why don't we know?t!

It's a TUESDAY episode...🏈🏈🏈 @jeff-erickson.bsky.social joins the show to break down the WEEK 6 WAIVER WIRE... ...plus I'll review the classic Monday nighter and the all the other games I didn't cover on Monday's show! Go beyond the spreadsheets and box scores! (link is 👇)

I’m still not quite sure why Hulu is all in on the Kardashians. Their most recent, The Girls: A Khloe Kardashian Project, didn’t chart. Will it stop Hulu from greenlighting more projects? Not a chance. entertainment.substack.com/p/reacher-kn...

I never understood either LIV golf’s strategy or why so many people in the media thought they were executing a good strategy. entertainment.substack.com/p/who-won-au...

Thanks go out to Brandon Katz for stepping in to (finally) write about Netflix’s awful movie summer. Here are the top five films for the last four summers. Netflix is way down. entertainment.substack.com/p/netflixs-s...

Looking at the strong start for Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro, a reality competition show to find a new dancer, I have to ask, why doesn’t SNL copy this? Why don’t they use the reality show format to find their next cast member? entertainment.substack.com/p/what-box-o...

Netflix didn’t have a single film get over 20-million hours, my threshold for a hit on Netflix, this summer. entertainment.substack.com/p/netflixs-s...

What should we call straight-to-streaming films that are too big to pencil out on streaming but not really big enough to resonate in theaters? Vote in the poll! entertainment.substack.com/p/who-won-au...