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Sony's PlayStation disc plant is losing 10 percent of its volume in 2028, not 90
Sony’s PlayStation disc plant is losing 10 percent of its volume in 2028, not 90 Sony won’t license disc pressing to anyone else, Microsoft does, and a former PlayStation boss thinks that’s the whole problem. When Sony DADC chief Dietmar Tanzer spoke with an Austrian broadcaster in July about PlayStation disc production at the Thalgau plant, a number of press outlets misunderstood the report, writing that production would fall to a tenth of current levels. It won’t. Sony DADC confirmed to Game this week that the figure is a 10 percent decline, not a decline to 10 percent. “To clarify and avoid any misleading information: in that statement Dietmar anticipated an overall product volume decline by 10 percent, not a decline down to 10 percent,” a spokesperson with Sony DADC told Game. That figure covers 2028. Tanzer didn’t put a number on the years after, and the spokesperson declined to comment further. What we do know is that on July 1, PlayStation announced that physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028 and that the transition has no impact on games that have already released in disc format or will be releasing in disc format prior to that month. “So, there will be reorders going to the market after January 2028,” the Sony DADC spokesperson said. “For details around that I would ask you to liaise with the PR team from PlayStation, as we can’t speak or comment on their behalf.” PlayStation officials did not respond to questions about reorders or other disc-related matters. But I did recently speak with Shawn Layden, Game Industry Strategic Advisor and former chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, who called a future without physical PlayStation discs “depressing, but solvable.” then added, “I think.” The chief hurdle to third-party manufacturing of collector’s editions or any other version of a PlayStation game disc is that Sony owns the proprietary process to press those discs, Layden said. “And unless they decide or determine a way to license that to some of these bespoke disc manufacturers, there’s no way to make it happen,” he said. Layden was careful to add that he understands the concept but doesn’t have “line of sight on the particulars.” “Depressing but solvable, I think.” — Shawn Layden Microsoft already licenses replication to outside plants. Xbox discs are pressed by manufacturers Microsoft certifies as Authorized Replicators, a term defined in its publisher agreements, with the approved list set at the company’s sole discretion and Microsoft retaining the right to halt manufacture. The structure is still in place today: publishers select an Authorized Replicator in Partner Center and submit a bill of materials created with a Microsoft representative. Sony, by contrast, presses PlayStation discs through Sony DADC, its own manufacturing subsidiary. No one I spoke with said they were in discussions with Sony about doing that, and PlayStation hasn’t responded to questions about whether it would be open to a licensing deal. There is an obvious reason Sony might not want to. Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed it out on the day of the announcement: it’s a platform-led decision, he wrote, designed to cut costs, eliminate the resale market, and drive all revenue through the PlayStation Store. The math is not subtle. On a $70 third-party game sold through the PlayStation Store, Sony keeps $21. Sold at retail, Ahmad says, it earns about half that. Licensing disc replication to an outside manufacturer might not be worth it. And even if it were, it seems unlikely that such a deal would come from boutique companies like iam8bit, which sells collector’s editions of video games. “We would absolutely love to find a way forward to continue making physical PlayStation games,” said Jon Gibson, co-owner and co-creative director of the company. “We are big believers in giving humans the option to truly own media. If we can play a role in helping make that a reality for the future of PlayStation games, count iam8bit in!” If it were to happen, it would most likely be with a company like Conectiv Supply Chain Solutions, a Memphis-based manufacturer of optical discs and vinyl records that also runs third-party logistics, fulfillment and distribution for packaged media. The company, which was formed in 2025 when Los Angeles private equity firm Variant Equity Advisors purchased Vantiva’s Supply Chain Solutions division, traces its lineage back to Technicolor. When it sold the division, Vantiva described the business as having served video game creators for more than 25 years. Conectiv is also buying, not shrinking. Last month it acquired SDS, the distributor for Universal and Warner Bros. home entertainment, consolidating those studios’ packaged-media pipeline from pressing plant to retail shelf. I reached out to Conectiv and its CEO, but haven’t heard back. Layden pointed to music and books in our discussion about the ongoing value of physical media. “No one ever saw the comeback of cassette tape,” he said. “And vinyl didn’t so much come back. The flame went down, the fire’s dying, but the ember was always there, and it just kind of came back. Much like the book business. We thought we’d all be on Kindles right now. “I believe that physical media is crucial and important. One of the things that makes us gamers, one of the core game mechanics, going back to the beginning of time, is collecting stuff. “Did you get all the diamonds in Crash Bandicoot? Did you get all the stars in Mario? And we like to collect our games. And we have a game shelf. And we put all our boxes up there. And if you’re super hardcore, when you buy a game, you buy two copies, right? One stays in the shrink wrap, and you play the other one. What happens to that important cultural part of the gaming world? You know, we buy the steelbook and the three-disc Final Fantasy set and the figurine and, you know, you can’t download any of that. “What happens to that?” And Layden believes it shouldn’t have been a revenue question for PlayStation. “This was a core thing to the experience of our most devoted fans,” he said. “Yeah, it’s fan service. Why would we take that away? Well, we can’t afford to. It’s already 120 bucks, you know, limited edition special purchase onyx box version of whatever, and those sell at a higher rate than the box selling at $69.99 does. So yeah, the market has said they will continue to buy them. You’re just saying you just don’t want to make them anymore.” Layden said he was recently talking with someone about these sorts of business decisions and how they’re made. Too often, he said, it’s all about the financials and nothing else. “OK, we can do this and save this much money, or we can invest this to look at that outcome, or we can do this and have this happen over there, or move this team to Sri Lanka,” he said. “But each one of those, someone also has to have a ledger there saying, ‘OK, what is the brand impact from that move?’ “Iif you can’t resell it, do you really own it?” — Shawn Layden “If we do that, dollars and cents work out. I get it. That’s just math. But what’s the brand impact? Are people going to say, ‘Good move, you guys?’ Or are they going to say, ‘We hate you guys. Quit doing that.’ And sometimes they say, ‘We hate you.’ Then you take a note and say, OK, how much of that can we live with? How much ‘we hate you’ is OK. And when does it go over the line? “I see a lot of companies making decisions which, objectively speaking, I don’t know what the dollar end of that was for you, Mr. Company, but your brand value just dropped 30 percent. So I hope it was worth it.” Of course, shifting to a digital-only model for games raises other issues beyond simply wanting to collect. The biggest is ownership. Layden pointed out that once you go to a streaming-only or download-only model, it’s just a digital footprint on a hard drive. “What does ownership mean anymore?” he said. “It’s a genuine question. Well, in fact, it’s not even a question anymore. It’s like you are shifting the model from ownership to accessibility. “And what’s always been true, which people forget, is you’ve never been able to sell your iTunes library. And you can’t sell your PlayStation download library. So if you can’t resell it, do you really own it?” The touching tribute found in the credits for Star Wars Zero Company. Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy Interview and Hands-On with a Minoan Masterpiece Star Wars Zero Company hands-on: Attack Astromechs, permadeath, and delightfully fatal Rube Goldberg tactics Control Resonant opens up as you get stronger — and as characters start trusting you
Puck Drop Preview: 2026-27 Detroit Red Wings
Last Word On Hockey‘s Puck Drop Previews are back for the 2026-27 season! As the regular season approaches, Last Word will preview each team’s current outlook and stories to watch for the upcoming year. We’ll also do our best to project how things will go for each team throughout the campaign. Today, we’re previewing the 2026-27 …
Match Preview: Hammersmith v Brentford Women
Brentford Women will make the short trip to Gunnersbury Park Sports Hub to take on Hammersmith in the London and South East Premier Division on Sunday 6 September (3pm kick-off BST).The Bees take to t...
2026-27 Season Preview: Kingston Frontenacs
After a pretty average season, the Fronts will look to take a step forward into 2026-27.
Dellinger to share expertise at Farm Science Review
One of Union County’s agricultural educators will be among the experts helping small-scale farmers learn practical skills at this month’s Farm Science Review. Wayne Dellinger, with the county’s Ohio State Extension Office, will present information on soil testing as part of the Small Farms Zone at the 2026 Farm Science Review, scheduled for Sept. 22-24 at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center near London. The Small Farms Zone is designed to...
Ohio State vs. Ball State: 2026 game preview and prediction
Ohio State will look for its 27th season-opening win in a row when they host Ball State on Saturday afternoon
Fall movie season is here. Here’s are five early Oscar predictions
Fall movie season also means Oscar season.
Victoria County to weigh mental health facility, road work and airport upgrades
Victoria County commissioners are set to take up construction, transportation, public-health and student-veteran funding items during a special meeting Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Red Wings Two Truths and A Lie: September Preview Edition
Training camp for the Red Wings is less than a month away, and with the Red Wings season fast approaching, […]
TENNESSEE VOLS FOOTBALL: UT opens 2026 season with visiting Furman
Tennessee football is opening the 2026 season by facing off with Furman inside Neyland Stadium. Here's a preview as the Vols open a new year.
Preview: Leeds United Women vs Huddersfield Town Women
Leeds United Women are back on home turf on Sunday, welcoming Huddersfield Town Women to the BD Community Stadium for a FA WNL Cup Group Stage Clash.The Whites opened their Group T campaign last Thurs...
'By Any Means' review: Mark Wahlberg takes the Johnny Depp path
Imagine "Mississippi Burning" meets "Green Book."
Preview
The Men's First Team continue their 2026/27 Serie A season with a Matchday 3 clash against AC Milan at the Allianz Stadium.The big match takes place on Sunday, September 6 at 20:45 CEST. Both teams ha...
Joyce Spencer: Community news for Friday, Sept. 4
Click for community news.
Jensen's Reborn Sports Car Debuts With Nearly 1,000 Horsepower And A Manual
For now, it's just a prototype, but the 960-horsepower Interceptor GTX previews Jensen's future road cars.
Book Review: The Messy Business of Making Science Happen
Roberta Kwok’s “Lost in Curiosity” makes the case for luck and hard work over eureka moments in advancing science.
Werder Bremen vs RB Leipzig preview: Another tough early test
Werder BremenIt was a woeful start to the Bundesliga season for Werder Bremen.They were not given an easy matchup, forced to travel to European outfit SC Freiburg, who had already begun their campaign...
Scott's stumper
The News-Gazette presents “Scott’s Stumper,” a feature by Scott Shaffer that shows zoomed-in photos of various things around Randolph County.
Forgotten Record Review: Ten Years After
No one talks about Ten Years After today, but they should.
Forgotten Record Review: Ten Years After
No one talks about Ten Years After today, but they should.
Forgotten Record Review: Ten Years After
No one talks about Ten Years After today, but they should.
New Orleans Pelicans Training Camp Preview: G Jordan Poole
A training camp preview for New Orleans Pelicans guard Jordan Poole.
PSG vs Monaco – Match preview and team news
PSG is set to play their first Ligue 1 match at home this season when they host Monaco at the Parc des Princes on Friday night.PSG vs Monaco – Match preview and team newsDate: Friday, 4th September...
Before you sign: What imaging joint venture contracts leave out
In this Radiology Business opinion piece, radiologist Mayur Virarkar, MD, MBA, discusses some of the key lessons learned from reviewing 30 years of literature on JV deals.
Fall Events Preview: A look at what's happening in northeast Indiana
With Labor Day weekend comes the transition from summer to the fall events season. But just because the days are shorter doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of fun to
Ellis returns to Carter Family Fold this Saturday night
HILTONS, Va. — The Carter Family Fold will host Wyatt Ellis this Saturday, Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Monitoring One Health action against antimicrobial resistance in Indonesia
Ministry of Health, with support from WHO and partners, convened a national multisectoral validation meeting for Indonesia’s 2026 TrACSS submission. Representatives from human health, animal health, fisheries, food and agriculture, environment, research institutions and development partners reviewed the country’s progress on AMR, and validated evidence supporting survey responses prior to submission. In the meeting, WHO presented Indonesia’s 2025 TrACSS results and facilitated technical sessions on the 2026 survey structure, rating principles and submission process.
Judge temporarily grants request for 5th year eligibility in NCAA case involving OU athletes
Former OU baseball player Dayton Tockey and seven other athletes from various schools were granted a temporary restraining order Thursday afternoon at the Cleveland County Courthouse in a case seeking
PA CareerLink Lycoming County opens new downtown location
Williamsport, Pa. — PA CareerLink Lycoming County officially opened the doors of its new home Thursday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside its Williamsport offices at 330 Pine Street.
PA CareerLink Lycoming County opens new downtown location
Williamsport, Pa. — PA CareerLink Lycoming County officially opened the doors of its new home Thursday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside its Williamsport offices at 330 Pine Street.
PA CareerLink Lycoming County opens new downtown location
Williamsport, Pa. — PA CareerLink Lycoming County officially opened the doors of its new home Thursday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside its Williamsport offices at 330 Pine Street.
Wisconsin health officials urge vaccinations as measles cases rise
MADISON, Wis. — Measles cases are rising in southwestern Wisconsin, prompting state health officials to urge parents to review their children’s vaccination records and schedule any needed shots before the
Beyond the 'Great Divide': What we really know about political polarization
Americans are deeply divided. At least that's what we've been told for years. But how divided are we really? A new review suggests the answer may depend on how researchers ask the question.
Looking for your next big idea? Start at Farm Science Review 2026
By Greg LaBarge, Ohio State University Farm Science Review brings together expertise from every corner of the agriculture and natural resources sectors for three days of demonstrations, education, and conversations. Whether you’re a farmer looking to improve yields or add a new enterprise, a landowner interested in conservation, or simply curious about how food and
Looking for your next big idea? Start at Farm Science Review 2026
By Greg LaBarge, Ohio State University Farm Science Review brings together expertise from every corner of the agriculture and natural resources sectors for three days of demonstrations, education, and conversations. Whether you're a farmer looking to improve yields or add a new enterprise, a land
Fake firewood listings use real Maine business’s name, reviews to target buyers
Paula Fleming of the Better Business Bureau said the reported scam may be unusual in Maine’s firewood market, but the underlying tactic is familiar.
Democrats promise a big agenda if they win control of Congress, but their unity is being tested
Beginning on Day One, House Democrats plan to "hold the crooks accountable." That's the promise House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has made, previewing an ambitious agenda if Democrats seize majority control from Republicans in the midterm elections.
Think you need 10,000 steps a day? Science says otherwise
Granted, we typically recite the 10,000-step goal as if it is gospel, but whether you're clocking up the miles on your commute to work or walking around in circles in the kitchen last thing at night, the truth of the matter is, you might already be walking enough.
No. 18 Penn State vs. Marshall Preview & Prediction
It's been over eight months since Penn State football last played a game. In that time, the Nittany Lions have established almost an entirely new coaching staff, added 15 signees, seven walk-ons and a program-record 40 transfers, watched 74 players leave either via the transfer portal, the NFL or graduation, and even switched apparel partners …
EKU Sports Weekly: Season 1, Episode 3
EKU Sports Weekly previews the Jacksonville State game, Volleyball's Audrey Hudson is mic'd up, and a feature on linebacker Cam Jessee.
The Athletic finally publishes its internal review of Dianna Russini
It took much longer than expected.
Video: Digital Foundry Delivers Its Tech Review For Onimusha: Way Of The Sword
"it holds up pretty darn well"
‘Halloween: The Game’ Review – Stealth, Stalking, and Michael Myers Shine In An Uneven Horror Exp…
The latest from IllFonic, the studio that has carved out a niche for itself as the ultimate authority on multiplayer horror with Friday the 13th,
Entertainment around the area
Justin Hayward, the last surviving member of the classic Moody Blues lineup, leads the entertainment highlights coming to local and regional venues over the next couple of weeks. The singer/guitarist,...
Free arts, cultural experiences this fall in Linn County
Fifteen arts and cultural organizations will participate in a weeklong “Free for All” event this fall offering free admission, tours and performances at venues ranging from the Cedar Rapids Museum
‘Mayday’ review: Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh reboot the buddy movie
Apple TV's 'Mayday' mashes the Cold War with 'Top Gun' and every buddy adventure-comedy you've ever loved and serves it up with stars who appear to be having as much fun as audiences will.
Chad Powers season two review – Glen Powell’s sweet sports comedy scores a touchdown
The Hollywood hottie is back as the quarterback in disguise, in an oddball comedy that is naughty, lovable and disarmingly unique
John Gillispie: Sheep characters unravel a mystery
Movies & More reviewer John Gillispie shares his thoughts on “The Sheep Detectives,” which is rated PG and available on DVD.
Texas Tech vs Abilene Christian Prediction: Red Raider Restart
After a rough end to last year and a trying offseason, Texas Tech fires it back up against a good Abilene Christian team. Here's the CFN preview and prediction.
AI company scores world’s 1st approval for breast triage tool that skips radiologist review
Vara announced the achievement on Sept. 3, with the Berlin, Germany-based technology firm earning CE Certification under the EU's Medical Device Regulation.
Husker football scouting report: Ohio
Sports reporter Matthew Malloy previews Nebraska football's season opener against Ohio, including an interview with an Ohio reporter and an appearance from Frank Solich.
New Orleans Pelicans Training Camp Preview: G/F Micah Peavy
A training camp preview for New Orleans Pelicans sophomore wing Micah Peavy.
Venice Film Festival heats up with McDonagh’s ‘Wild Horse Nine’ and Herzog’s ‘Bucking Fastard’
The Venice Film Festival is showcasing the world premieres of “Wild Horse Nine” and Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard” Thursday.
Canal Science Symposium Addresses Water Quality Worries
The Coastal Habitat and Water Quality Initiative (C-HAWQ) held its long awaited symposium on canal science at the Collier County Public Library Marco Island Branch on Thursday afternoon, August 28.
Letter to the Editor
The University of Alabama continues to invite political interference into the work of UA. After the passage of House Bill 580 in April, University administration has rolled out voluntary compliance to this bill. It is voluntary because UA was explicitly exempt from this bill. The new policies require redundant and more time-intensive post-tenure reviews. New...
UConn Football 2026 season preview: The RB Room
Like most position groups, every major contributor at running back from last year is gone. Cam Edwards, Mel brown, Victor Rosa, Oliver Lundberg Coleman and MJ Flowers transferred out. Those five backs accumulated 1,870 rushing yards and 21 of the team’s 26 rushing touchdowns, with Edwards leading the way, racking up 1,240 yards and hitting […]
Sony and Microsoft say they’re not obligated to pass U.S. tariff refunds to consumers, echoing Nintendo
Back in July, Sony executives told investors that the company expected to receive $508 million in refunds from the U.S. government, after tariffs that the PlayStation-maker paid were ruled mostly in 2025 were found to be illegal. “Most” of the refund would by recouped by Sony’s gaming division, its chief financial officer said. This week, Sony’s lawyers are arguing that the company is not legally obligated to pass those proceeds on to consumers who paid for recently price-hiked PlayStation consoles. That’s in the face of a lawsuit from gamers calling on them to do exactly that. “Paying fair market price for voluntarily purchased consumer goods is not a legally cognizable injury in fact,” the lawyers wrote in a legal motion filed on Monday, as they asked a judge in California’s Northern District to dismiss a potential class action lawsuit over the tariff refunds. Microsoft made a similar argument two weeks ahead of Sony’s lawyers, in a similar lawsuit brought by a gamer in federal court in Washington State. As Microsoft’s legal team put it on August 21, in their request for a dismissal of that lawsuit: “There is nothing unjust about Plaintiff purchasing an Xbox at an advertised price and getting exactly what he paid for—regardless of whatever theory he devised months later about Microsoft’s cost structure.” Both legal fights are set to go on for some time. How things got to this point U.S. tariffs impacting a wide range of imported goods, including game consoles, had kicked off in early 2025. In May 2025, Microsoft raised the price of its Xbox consoles, citing “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” They raised them again that September. In August of that year, Sony raised the price of PlayStation 5 consoles, citing “a challenging economic environment.” Sony later told investors that its tariff fees for the fall quarter were nearly $200 million. in February of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the 2025 tariffs illegal, prompting impacted companies to begin to request refunds. In turn, consumers began suing the likes of Sony and Microsoft to get what they said was their share. The gamers in the Microsoft and Sony lawsuits argue that the 2025 price hikes of PlayStation and Xbox consoles, which added $50 or more to their sticker price, were due to illegal tariffs and should now be returned to consumers. The Sony suit started in May, when a group of gamers sued in federal court in California, saying Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) would be unjustly enriching itself if it did not pass tariff refunds to its PS5 buyers. “Sony is poised to be paid twice for the same unlawful tariff burden: once by its customers (through elevated prices) and once by the U.S. government (through tariff refunds),” the gamers’ lawyers wrote at the time. They called for Sony to partially reimburse anyone who bought a PlayStation in the U.S. since August 1, 2025. The Microsoft suit, filed by gamer Trevor Hastings against the Xbox giant in July, made similar claims. The console makers push back In late July, Nintendo’s lawyers, facing a similar suit accusing them of double-dipping on tariffs and refunds, replied with arguments that previewed Microsoft’s and Sony’s: “Nintendo or one of its retailers set a price for each product, and consumers decided whether that price was worth paying,” they wrote. Sony has buttressed that Nintendo-style argument this week by saying that the gamers have failed to prove that tariffs were the reason for its August 2025 PS5 price hike. They call thatclaim “speculative and illogical.” Other factors, including “inflation, currency fluctuations, component costs, logistics, competitive dynamics, or demand,” could have played a role. (No, the Sony lawyers do not break down the costs and factors that officially triggered the price increases). Microsoft has also argued that there’s no proof in these lawsuits that tariffs drove all or some of the price increase, as it seeks to dismiss the tariff refund suit it’s facing: “Plaintiff provides no specific allegations that would establish any pricing differential attributable to tariffs or suggest any possibility that Microsoft applied then or could recreate now any dollar-for-dollar calculation of tariff-related pricing—any more than it could any other market factor that affects pricing.” To further skewer the gamer side’s argument in its case, Sony’s lawyers have pointed to what might be a surprising defense: yet another PlayStation 5 price hike from this past spring, after the tariffs were ruled illegal. “If the original price increase were attributable to tariffs, SIE [Sony Interactive Entertainment, aka PlayStation] would have had no reason to raise prices again after the Supreme Court invalidated the IEEPA tariffs.” … “If tariffs were the cause of the price increases, one would expect SIE to lower prices once the tariffs were eliminated—not raise them again. Instead, the timeline confirms that the pricing of PlayStation consoles includes a diverse and dynamic set of input costs.” Judges have not yet ruled on the arguments made by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. Last week, Panic, the company behind the small, yellow Playdate handheld said it would be passing its tariff refunds on to consumers. It is the only gaming hardware maker to have made such a pledge. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my reporting, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: A reporter’s second Second Life Wagner James Au, who from 2003-2006 was paid by San Francisco-based tech company Linden Lab to be a full-time journalist embedded in their virtual world Second Life, is returning to the company. This time, he’ll be an editorial advisor and business development specialist, he tells Game File. The new role will involve trying to share the stories of people inhabiting Second Life’s ongoing online world with reporters and by extension the public. Au plans to continue to also chronicle some of that through his long-running blog New World Notes. I’ve known Au since the mid-2000s and featured him in a 2007 article for the Columbia Journalism Review about reporters like him opening up virtual news outlets within Second Life. As I wrote at the time: On April 22, 2003, writing as Hamlet Linden for the New World Notes blog on Second Life’s Web site, Au introduced himself. “For the next few months, Linden Lab has invited me to set aside my journalist cap, and instead, don the digital beanie of their in-house virtual correspondent.” He wasn’t paid to keep it positive. He wrote about builders and eccentrics, but then in August of that year, he reported on a tax revolt against Linden Lab (a complaint about the fees it charges users who build stuff) led by a resident whose avatar was a big cat. Second Life has always been less of a video game and more of a virtual world where people can live, hang out, make art, sell virtual items and flirt. Back in 2007, Au described touring it as “sort of like underwater lucid dreaming.” For the past two decades, Au has maintained New World Notes as an independent publication. But he said he’s been drawn back to Second Life and Linden Lab as a place to directly work. The virtual world has around 650,000 monthly active users, he said, “which is actually about what it was during the hype wave.” Au says he’s still finding rich stories in Second Life, the kind that keep him interested 20 years into the beat: “Over the last few months for instance, I wrote about an SL creator in Venezuela whose apartment was destroyed by the earthquakes, so the global SL community rallied to get him back on his feet,” he told me. “Then there’s the woman from a Middle Eastern country who explored her lesbian sexuality in SL, then earned enough from her virtual jewelry to escape her abusive family situation and country.” Au wants to beckon more reporters to give Second Life another look. He argues that it is often ahead of internet trends, noting, for example, an early backlash in the community against AI-made art. Now the platform is drawing curiosity from more of the user-generated content community who’ve grown up with the likes of Roblox, according to Au. “Second Life was too early during its hype wave in 2005-2010, but it now feels right for a new wave of interest,” he told me.
UI Health Sciences building inspires collaboration
Realizing a vision planted with a ceremonial shovel three years ago, hundreds of University of Iowa officials, faculty, staff, and students on Wednesday dedicated a new $250 million Health Sciences Academic Building completed over the summer.
UI Health Sciences building inspires collaboration
Realizing a vision planted with a ceremonial shovel three years ago, hundreds of University of Iowa officials, faculty, staff, and students on Wednesday dedicated a new $250 million Health Sciences Academic Building completed over the summer.
Coverall of Gainesville Celebrates 40th 5-star Review and Perfect 5-Star Google Rating, Reinforcing Role as Best Commercial Cleaning Service in Gainesville, FL
Gainesville, FL, Sept. 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coverall® of Gainesville, a leading commercial cleaning franchisor serving businesses throug...
NJ wants US Supreme Court to review Kalshi’s sports markets
New Jersey wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review whether states can regulate prediction markets' sports bets.
George Lucas on opening Lucas Museum: ‘This one almost broke my will’
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art co-founders George Lucas and Mellody Hobson spoke Wednesday at the press preview for the new museum. "This one almost broke my will," Lucas said.
What two critical access hospitals learned about EHR optimization after go-live
Healthcare organizations commit significant resources to EHR implementation, then find they cannot sustain improvement once the project team disbands. The
Five Things We Just Learned From Tomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis Previews
Somehow Crystal Dynamics managed to include additions even more unnecessary than crafting and skill trees
See Central Wisconsin's top HS performances as fall sports begins
USA TODAY NETWORK It’s time to take a look at the best high school performances over the first week of fall sports around the area. See which
‘Onslaught’ Review: They’re Next
Aaron Neuwirth reviews the action-horror mash-up Onslaught, a gritty 80s throwback from director Adam Wingard, starring Adria Arjona.
How being the nice guy made Ivan Sher a Las Vegas luxury real estate powerhouse
Colleagues describe Ivan Sher, founder of IS Luxury, as approachable, authentic and relentlessly focused on relationships — qualities they say helped his company generate nearly $779 million in sal...
Auburn vs. Baylor Preview And Prediction
There might not be another player I’m more interested to watch this weekend than DJ Lagway . We already know about the talent. Now we find out whether a fresh start can finally unlock it. Lagway transferred to Baylor after throwing for 4,179 yards and 28 touchdowns during two seasons at Florida , and he’s…
Rockstar’s GTA VI Preview Dwarfed Netflix’s Own Films by 8 Million Views, After Briefly Taking the Platform Offline
Rockstar's GTA VI: An Extended Look topped weekly views on Netflix with 31.1 million views registered in just four days.
Altria sues FDA over tobacco product review system
Altria sued the FDA to overhaul the tobacco product review system, citing delays that hinder growth in the U.S. tobacco market.
Trump’s ‘Lightning Speed’ Threatens to Outpace the Courts
In his breakneck construction of a grand ballroom and in many other initiatives, critics say, the president has tried to outrun judicial review.
Samsung Frame Pro review: the art TV that lets you hang a Monet in 4K
The design-forward TV delivers a performance that few in the category can – while attracting compliments as wall decor
2026 Week 1 Preview: Tulane Green Wave @ Duke Blue Devils
It’s the only Week 1 matchup between two reigning conference champions.
What’s happening in Corridor? An adults-only circus and more
A Halloween-inspired take on the circus will arrive in Cedar Rapids this month, with Paranormal Cirque: Inferno promising a show in which “awe-inspiring aerial artistry and amazing acrobatics will set you ablaze.”
Fall Movie Preview: Russo brothers, maestros of ensembles, test their limits in 'Avengers: Doomsday'
Ups and downs have followed the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” but “Avengers: Doomsday” might just heal all its wounds.
'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' review: Acting of the highest caliber
Gregg T. Daniel directs "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" at A Noise Within, part of the theater's continuing exploration of the August Wilson Century Cycle.
August Monthly Review: ChatGPT In Epic
Death, taxes, another frontier lab healthcare launch inspiring truly insane LinkedIn takes. As much as I want to stay away, I repeatedly am the crewman unplugging his ears whenever we pass these sirens. So it’s not the first and probably not the last time we dial up the typewriter rather than tie ourselves to the mast. The full blow-by-blow timeline: Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe The End of the Standalone PHR (Jan 8): ChatGPT Health arrives for consumers, at the time powered by b.well. I was bullish on the approach in that the best way for the PHR to finally solve distribution was to meet consumers were they already are (i.e. When Horizontal Meets Healthcare (Jan 9): OpenAI for Healthcare puts out the shingle for enterprises, with SharePoint ingestion standing in for the EHR integration the product actually needed. Another One: Anthropic’s Healthcare Debut (Jan 16): Claude's version, on HealthEx rails instead of b.well, with Agent Skills for FHIR development as the one true vertical-specific investment. ChatGPT for Clinicians: The Trap Sprung (Apr 24): OpenAI filled in the missing GTM middle with a free product for verified clinicians, effectively peeling the enterprise wrapper off ChatGPT for Healthcare and taking the PLG fight directly to OpenEvidence. OpenAI’s Second Attempt at Health (Jul 31): a relaunch of their patient specific app, now branded Health in ChatGPT, where the privacy partition came out, the connectors thinned, and b.well disappeared in favor of first-party FHIR work against a smaller network Beyond a Shingle So what was announced now? Today, we’re introducing a new electronic health record integration that brings authorized patient context from Epic into ChatGPT for Healthcare, along with the Healthcare Public Data plugin for direct, structured access to official healthcare datasets like PubMed, DailyMed, and CMS Coverage. Together, these capabilities bring ChatGPT closer to the systems and sources healthcare teams trust, while supporting the controls and compliance healthcare work requires. The core portfolio is unchanged from prior announcements we delineated and discussed (aside from the relaunch of patient-facing). Since trade publications still seem to be confusing them by using the wrong names: Enterprise sales motion: ChatGPT for Healthcare Protecting their core product / PLG: ChatGPT for Clinicians Consumer/patient-facing product: Health in ChatGPT So really, this is a feature release (specifically for ChatGPT for Healthcare when it comes to EHR integration). What’s cool about it, though, is that we are moving beyond just putting out a shingle. Everything in the January enterprise launch was horizontalizable: Horizontal tech companies thus generally start verticalization with their “putting out a shingle phase”. Telling the world you’re open for business as a horizontal tech company reliably attracts early inbound interest from buyers who are already trying to force-fit horizontal tools into domain-specific workflows and are eager for any signal that the vendor intends to support their use case more directly. Nothing was really vertical specific, which is exactly what you'd expect from the ultimate hypergrowth horizontal company dipping their toes into specific industries. But eventually you have to stop changing the sign on the door and start changing the product. Can you guess where the horizontal product was going to run out of road? This is the core dilemma writ large: verticalization requires differentiation, while scale economics of consumer and horizontal push toward unification. I’ve buried the lede so deep here it will be painful to some readers, but what should be shocking to no one is that my perspective is that EHR integration is the only path that meaningfully resolves this tension for ChatGPT for Healthcare. Integration with Microsoft Sharepoint is fine, but it is categorically insufficient for any product that hopes to influence clinical decision-making. SMART Money Well here we are, eight months later! Real vertical investment has begun, which surprised a few people. One friend in the industry messaged me: “Absolutely no way Epic gave ChatGPT API access.” Looking forensically at the announcements, the integration is notably read-only across appointment notes, laboratory results, medications, and specialist documentation. So while I’m not a betting man, I'd wager the house this is a SMART on FHIR launch: That sounds a lot like USCDI! The recommended path for the workflow they outline would be SMART on FHIR Their Health AI lead’s post is evocative of both standalone and EHR launch SMART, which another termed “ChartGPT” and “EHR Plugin” The implementation burden for SMART on FHIR is the lowest of the available integrative paths This is the team who literally did patient-facing SMART on FHIR with Epic last month Most importantly, if you’re a horizontal company, you generally still haven’t taken the full plunge and thus (overly) value reusability. SMART on FHIR is the logical compromise: healthcare-specific enough to matter, but standardized enough to reuse. Nobody Asked Judy Another friend asked “I thought they had to go to each health system, or did they go direct to Epic and now health systems opt in?” Given the trust paradigms in healthcare, this functionally cannot be Epic hoovering up all the data for OpenAI and shoving ChatGPT in their customers’ faces (or they would revolt). However, I do believe the aforementioned terrible coverage by TechCrunch and other outlets is probably responsible for that question, given the 325 million reference. When using FHIR as a business associate to an Epic customer, there is no EHR gatekeeping to speak of, as that isn’t how fhir.epic.com works: You register an app You pick your APIs You test against the sandbox APIs You list as “Ready for Production” Hospitals pick your app You test and go live with them Bluntly, nobody had to say yes or no in Verona (nor were they given the chance). Vendor Services (their next developer tier up that I doubt OpenAI is using quite yet in this initial release) certainly has contractual paperwork that some resent, but even there, the twin pressures of mounting antitrust and information blocking make outright gatekeeping increasingly fraught. My friend’s sentiment is, to me, representative of a broader industry neurosis, perhaps a sort of scar tissue of prior eras: people assume the gate is still there and never actually try the door. There are certainly other ways Epic (and any EHR) can put its thumb on the scale, but they are not so dumb as to stand in front of a federally mandated API and play bouncer at this exact moment in time. So I think they can and probably should go deeper, as this release is at best parity and at worst behind vertical-specific competition. OpenEvidence did a basic SMART launch with Sutter Health in February, allowing for more convenient evidence search by providers. They then add patient-context (the equivalent SMART on FHIR flow to what we see here) when Cedars-Sinai went enterprise-wide in May. UpToDate has four distinct applications across deeper workflows like patient engagement listed in Epic Showroom and announced a partnership with Epic to power Art at UGM Abridge and other ambient scribes have invested deeply into the deepest bidirectional clinical copilot workflow with integrations well beyond SMART on FHIR. In that light, the “Who is OpenAI primarily targeting here?” is clear. This release brings them into striking distance of OpenEvidence, but not the others quite yet. They are the only one of the three you can reach without building something truly Epic-specific. When will they go further? Competition is a great motivator to overcome the horizontal demons and start building things that can’t be reused: not across industries, not across EHRs, maybe not past the customer you built them for. That’s the price of actually verticalizing. The question is if and when OpenAI will be willing to pay it. Month in Review Here is the monthly review. As a reminder, this is a regular round-up of the month’s posts and other content to surface things you may have missed across regulation, litigation, interoperability, and beyond. AI assistance is used in these bullet summaries so I can focus on articles. Articles Published: None this month Video Content: The Information Exchange: Standards-based Thruple Edition (Aug 14): Back to school for us too, with Brad reporting in from the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem’s one year anniversary in DC. We get into the January CMS-0057 deadline, the fall rulemaking reading list, and why enrollment still keeps most apps off FHIR. The Information Exchange: Epic Dúnadan Edition (Aug 25): A UGM roundup with Ryan Brickner joining for the first time to check our takes against what the building actually thinks. Rangers, Ergo sitting on top of EHI, and a down-market lineup that needs some cuts. Regulatory: Stacked Deck, Bad Hand (Aug 05): ONC’s website refresh took the entire HIT Policy Committee record with it, so I rebuilt the archive and went looking for the regulatory capture story everyone assumes is buried in there. Stacking the deck and winning the hand turn out to be very different things. The Sixth Generation of Patient Access (Aug 19): A quick catalog of the five generations of patient access we’ve layered on since HIPAA, and the two candidates now competing to be the sixth. One is planned. The other is the market routing around the plan entirely. Court cases: Three Cases Walk Into a Docket (Aug 06): Two surprise settlements cleared the board in a single week, and then Judge Maddox dropped ninety-four pages on Vyne v. Henry Schein. The sleeper is a DMCA holding that makes direct-to-database a considerably riskier business model. Epic v. Health Gorilla: Into the MDL (Aug 10): Nine class actions are headed to Miami, and the Panel signaled it wants to bring the case that spawned them along too. That would leave Epic arguing the requests were obviously fraudulent in one courtroom and unknowable in the other. Amazon v. Perplexity: Agents Are Legalized! (Aug 11): The Ninth Circuit vacated the injunction against Comet, holding that the user is the one accessing the servers rather than the company that built the agent. A real win for agentic access, and a much narrower one than the headline suggests. Veeva v. Epic: Come At Me, Bro (Aug 26): Epic’s response brief wants the dismissal affirmed and, unusually, wants the opinion published as precedent. Buried in it is Epic’s own description of what its non-competes actually prohibit, which current and former employees should read closely. EHRs: The Contract Epic Would Never Sign Today (Aug 04): A 1999 SEC exhibit catches Epic licensing nearly its entire product line, Tapestry included, to the company that became TriZetto. The marketing services menu attached to it is the part that will make you blink. Forecast from Verona (Aug 07): The Epic Almanac makes one argument six different ways: the AI is only as good as the networks behind it. Emmie headlines, Art’s context stack is the most ambitious part, and Penny finally gets an autonomous coding date on the calendar. Works With Epic MyChart (Aug 17): Epic’s first new Showroom category since the death of Workshop certifies hardware instead of software, badge on the box and all. Made for iPhone, but for blood pressure cuffs, and rough news for anyone selling the RPM stack sitting in between. UGM Hot Takes 2026 (Aug 20): Everyone else covered the AI announcements, so I went after Savvy deleting the payment gateway, Rangers as Boost with the timer removed, and a down-market lineup with too many entries. Plus the Health Grid tidbits I cannot help myself on. MyChart Central Grows Up (Aug 24): Device data and Emmie turn Epic’s identity hub into a full consumer platform, which is both a logical answer to ChatGPT and a bit of a mistake. It also happens to be the best scraping target Epic has ever shipped. Industry Analysis: The Wrong Yardstick (Aug 12): Vertical software keeps getting judged against Superhuman and Notion, which is the wrong bar entirely. Your user is comparing your product to a whiteboard and forty phone calls before lunch. Primitives vs. Abstractions (Aug 27): Developers want building blocks, systems of record prefer to hand out business logic, and both sides have a real case. There’s no test from the outside that separates the engineering reason from the competitive one, which is why this keeps ending up in court. Cross-industry Comparisons: The Two Kinds of Platform Power (Aug 18): Attention power and record power are different problems that keep getting handed the same regulatory toolkit. Congress’s latest swing at Big Tech shows both what’s possible and where it falls apart. The Dogs of (Platform) War (Aug 21): A CourtListener alert turned up a property management fight with healthcare’s exact shape and none of the Cures Act. Shell prospects, ghost accounts, a notetaker bot that came back to haunt someone, and a lawyer arguing both sides of the same theory in two states. Fractals All the Way Down (Aug 31): Yardi dominates property management right up until you zoom into one segment, where AppFolio owns it outright and Yardi doesn’t appear at all. Where you draw the line around a B2B software market is about to decide an awful lot of cases. Other News: If Judy Had the Courage (Aug 13): A short eulogy for the era when software was allowed to look insane: WinAMP, bold colors, and everything the grey chatbot era has taken from us. External Media: Portland Monthly Health Tech Meetup: Erin O’Brien channeled my own feelings - maybe it’s just because it’s August and beautiful, but the monthly edition of the PDX Health community meetup was a ripper. Make sure to reach out if interested to join for the next one. STAT’s Coverage of Epic This Month: Brittany Trang of STAT did a fantastic job of breaking the FTC investigation that’s been lurking, as well as UGM related coverage, so I had to give her her wish of a meme. Fall Conferences: I’m pumped to be kicking off my fall conference season in NYC at Nabla Accelerate next month, which Chrissy provided the link to apply for. Here’s the rest of my schedule in case you want to meet up: Commonwell (Redwood Shores, CA): Oct 13-14 Open@Epic (Madison, WI): Oct 21-22 eHealthExchange (Austin, TX): Oct 27 Sequoia Project (Austin, TX): Oct 28-29 HLTH (Vegas): Nov 15-18 RSNA (Chicago): Nov 29-Dec 3 Posts I Liked: HTI-6 Should Unbundle API Certification: Josh Mandel makes the case that HTI-6 should split (g)(10) into separate authorization and data certifications, so a PACS or a genomics platform can certify only the role it actually performs. Imaging is the urgent example, but the structure solves a much bigger problem. On implementing ePrior Auth with Epic: Scott Rossignol’s field notes from a live ePrior Auth build on Epic, including the two app registrations nobody warns you about and the CPT mapping problem waiting at the end. CMS-0057 implementations are going to be such a beast. Healthcare point solutions are starting to look a lot like streaming services: Spencer Dorn runs the cable-to-streaming arc against health IT and lands squarely on the bundling half of the cycle. Bundling can be good! It can also be bad! Life is nuanced. Health API Guy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe
College Kickoff 2026
ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — Here’s a preview of the 2026 Roanoke Maroons. Head Coach: Bryan Stinespring (3rd Season) Last Season: 5-4 overall/4-4 ODAC 2026 Schedule September 3rd(Thurs. 6 p.m.) – at Virginia University of Lynchburg September 12th(2 p.m.) – vs. Greensboro September 19th – BYE September 26th(1 p.m.) – at Galladuet October 3rd(1 p.m.) – […]
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What Box Office Bomb Crushed Obsession on Streaming?
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) Before we get into this week’s issue, let me ask you for some suggestions. At the risk of coining too many names for too many things (hence my dictionary of terms...), I need a name for straight-to-streaming films that are too expensive to justify a straight-to-streaming release, but not big enough to justify a theatrical release. Like some of the films I highlighted in last week’s tally of the biggest film flops of 2026 so far: Hulu’s Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, Pizza Movie or Never Change! They don’t feel like “made for TV movies” (think Hallmark and Lifetime movies, cheap Netflix romcoms, or Disney Channel Original movies, for example) but they don’t feel big enough for the big screen. They’re not “cinematic” enough, so to speak. As I wrote... “I still need a name for this middle zone of film that’s too expensive to go straight-to-streaming but too small to justify a theatrical release (with all the PR, distribution, marketing and whatnot costs that go along with it), the Goldilocks zone of streaming film death.” Friend of the newsletter Brandon Katz has suggested the “Bermuda Budget Triangle”, “The Platform Gap” and “The Distribution Deadzone”. I love that first one. I’d offer up the much wordier “The Streaming Budget Dead Zone” or “the Goldilocks Zone of streaming film death” but that last one isn’t accurate since, unlike Goldilocks’ porridge, these films are the opposite of “just right”. That’s the problem! Anyway, if you have any suggestions, let me know! On to today’s Streaming Ratings Report. As you can tell by today’s headline, things are going to be spicy! I’m looking at a box office bomb that did really, really well on streaming, somewhat challenging a few different narratives. And another Netflix series declined in its second season. All that, plus Wicked: For Good switching streamers, The Hawk continuing its strong run, _The Bear’_s finale season finally dropping off the charts, the WNBA posting a big viewership number, “shallow libraries”, a sitcom spinoff failing to launch, more big budget IP flopping on Paramount+, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, JustWatch and Reelgood interest data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of July 20th to July 26th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Film - The Latest Theatrical Success Story on Streaming In the latest edition of “Flops, Bombs and Misses of the First Half of 2026”, I made a crucial change: I started including theatrical films with the streaming misses. The streamers have collectively—including Netflix, but not to as big of an extent—stopped making a lot of straight-to-streaming films, and the ones they do make aren’t as expensive as in the heyday of the streaming bubble. After the following two films bombed in theaters, you’d guess that they’ll be included in my next collection of flops, bombs and misses six months from now: Masters of the Universe on Prime Video (only $64 million domestic box office) Mortal Kombat II on HBO Max ($79 million domestic) But you’d be wrong! Masters of the Universe, a reboot of the He-Man franchise, a toy from the 1980s, came to streaming on 22-July and did great! This long-gestating project—it’s been at every studio for years, and came close to getting a greenlight at Netflix—then finally came to theaters in June, and showed up on streaming less than two months later. (I don’t love this short theatrical window.) It surprisingly grabbed nearly 20 million hours on its debut: That means, wait for it, Masters of the Universe is currently the eighth biggest film on streaming through two weeks. My rough bar for “hit” is shows or films in the top 15%. Ergo…Masters of the Universe is a legit, streaming hit! (One quick caveat: if it falls out of the top ten next week, it will move to 13th overall, just on the edge of the top 15.) Of course, that’s the data for just 2026. Here’s how it stacks up to Prime Video’s theatrical films: That drop into its second week is typical for Amazon films, but also a worrying sign. I have a feeling interest in this film is front-loaded and we’ll see it drop off after this. As for Mortal Kombat II, in this case, the viewership numbers roughly match the theatrical outing, with only 4.1 million hours in its first week. Here’s how it stacks up to other HBO Max films: The best defense of this number is that, as a relatively violent rated-R film, Mortal Kombat II never had a good chance at breaking out. So now it’s time for a little big of “Entertainment Nuance Guy”: First, yeah, my headline is obviously facetious, since Masters of the Universe besting Obsession says more about horror as a genre than it does that film. Second, I read and listened to quite a few “nobody wanted this IP” takes about Masters of the Universe, and that’s not really true. At least enough people wanted it to power a 20 million+ hour debut! Third, both this film and Mortal Kombat II were considered “average” by viewers, but not great films, with a 6.4 and 6.3 respectively on IMDb. That’s just shy of the level needed to be a word-of-mouth hit. Fourth, in the olden days, strong word of mouth could transform a box office miss into a cable/DVD hit, like Austin Powers or The Shawshank Redemption. We haven’t seen a lot of examples of that on streaming, though. And there are far fewer ways to monetize the post-theatrical life of a film these days. Fifth, Prime Video has shown an ability to push their own titles well, likely because they control the Amazon Fire TV ecosystem. Add it all up, and here’s my nuanced take on Masters of the Universe: it was a box office bomb, but, shockingly, a streaming hit. Unfortunately, while being a theatrical hit saves your film financially, being a streaming hit does not. Both Masters of the Universe and Mortal Kombat II had big budgets and needed to make more money in theaters to justify them. So…Straight-to-Streaming or Theaters? We’ve hit a really fun point in the streaming calendar, since the films that came out in theaters in April, May, and June are now arriving on streaming. So the “Do theatrical releases help streaming performances?” question is gonna get a fresh round of updates nearly every week. No single week will answer the question, but we may get some insights. For example, so far in 2026, it looks like theatrical films are lasting longer on the weekly Nielsen film charts. Here’s a list of films that have made the charts in their fourth or fifth week of release, separated by “for kids” and “general entertainment”: It certainly seems like theatrical films are lasting just a pinch longer on the charts, with Project Hail Mary being the current five-week champion. One Battle After Another did well for HBO Max too, and even The Sheep Detectives made it four weeks. The only exception to this trend? Obsession, which only lasted two weeks on the charts. You might tempted to overreact to this news. Don’t. Obsession is a huge horror hit, but horror just doesn’t do as well on streaming. By the way, here’s the Google Trends for various theatrical and stremaing films: Plus, when it comes to Netflix in four months, Obsession may have another big boost. Quick Notes on Film Note that when I write, “the streamers have pulled back on straight-to-streaming films” that doesn’t mean “abandoned” because Netflix is gonna Netflix. On 24-July, they released 72 Hours, a Kevin Hart comedy. Along with Eddie Murphy, Mark Wahlberg, John Cena and Adam Sandler, Kevin Hart is a streaming film star now. Did this latest one work? Not really. It only garnered two weeks of 13.2 and 12.2 million hours on its debut, well below the 20-million-hour hit threshold. It also was poorly received critically—a 44 on Metacritic—and by customers—a 5.4 on IMDb on 21K IMDb reviews. We’re just getting started with this issue, but the rest is for paid subscribers of the Entertainment Strategy Guy, so if you’d like to find out… The latest Netflix true crime doc to pop on the charts… How The Bear finished its run… Netflix’s latest Western to return to streaming… What Paramount+ animated film flopped… And what sitcom also missed… All the flops, bombs and misses… And a whole lot more… ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Coming Soon! I’m behind by a week, so we’ve got two issues coming your way this week, including one in a couple of days or so, then we’ll be all caught up**.** Next issue, inspired by The Super Mario Galaxy Movie coming to Peacock, I’m going to take a look at the workhouse of streaming TV: kids films. Plus The Devil Wears Prada 2 continues theatrical films’ big run on streaming. All that, plus another surprise hit on Hulu, Lioness on CBS, and a whole lot more. 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