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CSU Theatre brings haunting tale of Dracula to life with a feminist twist
This fall, Colorado State University Theatre’s play was the classic tale of “Dracula,” written by Bram Stoker, but told with a feminist twist. Written by Kate Hamill and directed by Saffron Henke, CSU associate professor of theatre, “Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” brought a whole new message to the original Gothic horror story, emphasizing women’s...
Kelly Ripa reveals airplane horror story of her 3 kids engaged in ‘chain reaction of vomit’
“That was a fun flight.”
‘Rocky Horror’ is a 50-year tradition of mess and chaos. This NOLA theatre does it anyway.
The theater has been hosting live screenings since before Katrina and it’s become a rite of passage for many in New Orleans, especially in the queer community. “Sometimes it just looks like a hurricane of popcorn and rice and toilet paper came through the plac. You blow it all to the front, sweep it up and move on to the next day.”
Long-lost horror gaming cult classic P.T. gets a much-needed PC port
Kojima's discontinued "playable trailer" is no longer stuck on a few aging PS4 hard drives.
Best horror movies on HBO Max that'll give you nightmares
Seeking something scary? We've got you.
The 11 best new Netflix shows and movies in October, including Halloween favorites
Florence Pugh's "East of Eden" and Ben Affleck's "Animals" lead a month packed with new releases and horror classics.
‘Other Mommy’ tops the box office with $27.5M; ‘The Social Reckoning’ opens to $5.5M
The Jessica Chastain horror film “Other Mommy” tops the North American box office in its first weekend in theaters.
Santa Fe International Film Festival brings over 300 hours of entertainment
In the lineup is a new horror film inspired by a laundromat on Siler Road on Santa Fe that in the 1990s — and for decades prior — laundered tainted
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror
The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle; As You Wake, Break the Shell by Becky Chambers; The Eye of Goliath by Diego Muzzio; Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm
Retired educator compiles memories of Ilion in new book
ILION — An afternoon of horror movies at Ilion’s Capitol Theater didn’t frighten local youngsters; it was what happened afterward that sent them screaming out the door.
Country boys in Kentucky hear knocks in woods at night before one catches glimpse of Bigfoot with spotlight
Clayton's group heard tree knocks and stick breaking before spotting a 7-to-8-foot dark hairy figure at a Kentucky lookout on the back roads.
‘Rocky Horror Show’ time warps into Rivertown Theaters
The original stage musical version of “The Rocky Horror Show” comes to Rivertown Theaters with extra late night shows and prop bags of things to throw.
Supermassive Lays Off 70 People Less Than Six Months After Releasing Its New Sci-Fi Horror Game
Directive 8020 was met with mixed reviews on Steam
No, I’m not a Human coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch in 2027
Publisher CRITICAL REFLEX and developer Trioskaz will release No, I’m not a Human, an anxiety horror thriller about paranoia in the End of Times, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch, and P…
Some people really are werewolves—at least, in their minds
People with clinical lycanthropy are trapped in a body-horror nightmare.
The Academy Museum opens 'The Horror Show' exhibit
The exhibit includes film favorites like “Halloween,” “The Exorcist” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street”
Horror is big business
The genre has become a tentpole across gaming, film, and television.
Vietnamese Horror ‘Arithmadtic’ Leads Bee Entertainment’s Busan Slate
Vietnam’s Bee Entertainment brings Dark Academia horror ‘Arithmadtic,’ three more 2027 features and three long-form dramas to Busan market.
'Other Mommy' tops the box office with $27.5M; 'The Social Reckoning' opens to $5.5M
The Jessica Chastain horror film “Other Mommy” tops the North American box office in its first weekend in theaters.
October 22 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts-Entertainment Sources: Activities
The Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors plays through the weekend at the Bay Area Stage Theatre.
How To Catch Up On The Hellraiser Movies Before 'Revival'
The first survival horror video game in the Hellraiser series is quickly approaching, which means it's a great time to catch up on the films.
The Year’s Most Compelling Horror Game Is About Cute Penguins
Penguin Colony tears down colonial overtones of H.P. Lovecraft's works by removing the player from any anthropological sensibilities, exhuming the genre instead of excusing it
This Terrifying New Series Just Might Be Your Next Spooky Season Obsession
A new take on a legendary horror story just arrived in time for spooky season, and viewers are already giving it major praise. Here’s why fans are calling the latest adaptation a must-watch.
Jessica Lange ranks her ‘American Horror Story’ characters: ‘I loved the whole world we created’
‘American Horror Story’ star Jessica Lange ranks her four iconic characters: ‘I loved the whole world we created.’
Behold the horrors of DLSS 5, NVidia's real-time AI graphics improver
DLSS 5 is Nvidia's AI-powered tech for dynamically repainting video game scenes in real-time, with more realistic lighting, textures and geometry. Controversial enough on recent games, where it succeeds (more…
Theatre Cedar Rapids offers Halloween scares with ‘Exorcist’
Directed by UNI's Matthew Weedman, this isn't just a horror show — it's a powerful story about faith, doubt, and saving a child in crisis. See it now in the intimate Grandon Studio Theatre — if you dare.
How ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ found the perfect voice for Audrey II
‘Little Shop of Horrors’ casting director Margery Simkin shares the story of how she found the perfect voice for Audrey II.
Silent Hill Townfall: Iconic horror game gets a clever Scottish makeover
One of gaming's biggest horror franchises has come to the UK. Can it live up to the original?
Can DC blend horror with a superhero movie? 'Clayface' wants to blur genres
Superhero films and horror have usually stayed on separate sides of the multiplex | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
Cook review: You’re better off finding horror entertainment other than ‘Other Mommy’
A skilled cast is wasted on “Other Mommy,” a silly horror movie that stars Jessica Chastain in the story of a little girl haunted by an entity that looks like her mother. I expected bet…
Who Won August and September: Original Films or Franchises?
(Welcome to the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a newsletter on the entertainment industry and business strategy. I write a weekly Streaming Ratings Report and a bi-weekly strategy column, along with occasional deep dives into other topics, like today’s article. Please subscribe.) I just heard someone say that if you’re reading a pundit or data analyst, and they don’t tell you that they got anything wrong, they’re not a pundit but an “influencer”. I agree with that. You have to tell your audience when you get things wrong, or they won’t (or shouldn’t) trust you as much. Today, we’ve got another edition of “What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong”. In general, I’m patting myself on the back (and patting very hard) about a few things like IP at the box office, LIV golf, horror films, crowdfunding movies, superheroes, and old people going to the theaters. That said, I also made a couple of data mistakes on the streaming bubble popping and HBO’s datecdotes, so I’m not perfect. But first, I need your feedback... Subscribe Follow-Ups: What Should We Call Mid-Budget Movies Which Aren’t Cinematic Enough for Theaters But Are Too Expensive to Make Money on Streaming? After I asked for feedback on what we should call straight-to-streaming films that are too big to pencil out on streaming but not really big enough to resonate in theaters, I got some great suggestions from you all, including... “Moldilocks” from John Aboud “Little Big Indie” from Travis Frick1 “Midflicks” from Jonathan Funke. “Extra-Medium” from Jona Nwuke. (Read the explanation in the footnote.) Between these and Brandon Katz—who suggested “Bermuda Budget Triangle”, “The Platform Gap” and “The Distribution Deadzone”—we’ve got some excellent suggestions. And they’re better than my suggestion, the “Streaming Budget Dead Zone”, so let’s take a poll! The winning entry becomes the new term. Loading... RIGHT: LIV Golf is Fully Bankrupt…Is Anyone Else Next? A few years ago, I was always a bit perplexed at all the articles I’d read praising LIV Golf and their strategy to disrupt the PGA. LIV Golf, a brand new professional golf league, offered PGA stars ten times what they made on the PGA Tour to join their new league. And folks praised this strategy for its initial “success” in that a lot of big names did indeed leave the PGA. Yeah, of course the players came over. LIV Golf paid them so, so, so much more! But LIV Golf hadn’t discovered a way to increase potential revenue. So think about this in basic business terms… They paid much more in costs… …but had no real way to increase revenue. That’s not a strategy! That’s deficit financing. It won’t work unless you bankrupt the competition (and then turn around and pay those same golfers much, much less). It’s not a sustainable strategy and only lasts as long as the company/person/nation backing it decides they’re cool with losing money. For LIV Golf, that meant Middle East oil wealth, in particular Saudi Arabian money. Clearly, the current Iran War has hurt Middle East finances, so they need to trim their more exorbitant spending. And LIV Golf was part of that trimming. This should be a major warning for others. TGL’s parent company, TMRW Sports, just got a $1 billion valuation, despite TGL’s (the indoor golf league) horrible TV viewership of less than half a million viewers per match. Unrivaled, the women’s basketball league, just secured a $650 valuation, despite its horrible TV viewership and a new rival (Project B) entering the scene next year. To relate this to streaming, Hollywood should ask which streamers may have wealthy patrons funding their losses. (Let’s be clear: Google, Amazon and Apple.) Could those patrons lose their appetite? For Amazon, probably not. But Apple has a new boss, so maybe! WRONG: My Analysis of the Streaming Bubble Was Missing a Week I’m going to be congratulating myself a lot today, but I make mistakes too, like this data goof. When I last compiled the data on the decline in TV shows, I was missing one week at the end of June. If you look at the first image, you can see that one week was mislabelled as “July”. Mainly, this image got updated to show a 27% decline, not 29%: This change doesn’t really impact the overall analysis, but it is two percent better. By the way, through the third quarter, the decline increased and it’s now a 30% decrease since 2022. (I’ll write/visualize this in an upcoming article.) But I want you to trust me and my data. Especially these days, when many people are using LLMs that I know are inserting faulty data into their charts, I want to keep earning my audience’s faith. So that’s the accurate data. RIGHT: IP Remains Very, Very Popular In July, I wrote a giant (and I mean giant) article on Backrooms, Obsession, and the box office, going over what we know, what we don’t know about what works in theaters, looking at YouTubers, IP, the horror genre, comic book movies, and a whole lot more. The month of August really tested a lot of my theses and, being honest, mostly supported my arguments. Let’s start with IP. Looking at 8-Aug (the weekend after Spider-Man: Brand New Day came out) to 18-Sep (the weekend that Resident Evil came out, which I think provides a nice bookend to this time period), there were seven films based on pre-existing IP: Resident Evil (2026) ($126 million) Practical Magic 2 ($65 million) _Insidious: Out of the Furthe_r ($65 million) Coyote Vs. Acme ($59 million) Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie ($53 million) Tony ($15 million) Super Troopers 3 ($7 million) Compare those to the notable original films from the past month—I actually could have included more movies, but here are just thirteen, bringing us to an even twenty films—including.... The End of Oak Street ($54 million) Buddy ($26 million) Mutiny ($15 million) By Any Means ($15 million) The Dog Stars ($14 million) Runner ($14 million) One Night Only ($11 million) Hope ($8 million) Spa Weekend ($7 million) The Uprising ($6 million) Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma ($6 million) Onslaught ($3 million) Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man ($2.8 million) Here’s that in chart form: Five of the top six films in this time period were all based on IP. I made a big chart of films that grossed over $200 million at the box office before Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey hit theaters. Let’s update that chart! By the way, if you want to see how I categorized each film—so another bar chart—here it is: I know that many of my fellow critics/pundits/analysts dislike films based on IP and how Hollywood is making so many of them. And I’m sympathetic to this point of view. As I’ve written many, many times before, you need a balance between existing franchises, new IP, and original films. And Hollywood clearly needs to make more films like Resident Evil (a well-made film from a visionary director) and fewer Practical Magic 2’s (which didn’t get critical or customer buzz). But at some point, critics and pundits need to contend with what audiences are telling them: Movie-goers aren’t showing up to original films. Audiences are speaking with their dollars, telling you they want more IP and franchises. You can try to convince studio heads to make fewer IP-based films and franchises, but the data and numbers aren’t there. Instead, critics need to work harder to convince audiences to show up for original films. Aim your ire/concern at the average person, not studio heads.2 Because they’re just making the films that audiences are telling them to make. WRONG: Original Horror Films Didn’t Break Out I’ll be honest, even though I wrote an article casting some skepticism on the horror genre in July, if you asked me to make a prediction, I would have predicted that, in August, a new, original horror film would have blown up. No, seriously, I just assumed that Obsession and Backrooms presaged a change in audience behavior. But none of the buzzy new original horror films from August—Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Onslaught (not an action film in spite of the ads), The End of Oak Street, Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man, or _Buddy—_broke out. To be clear, exactly one of those films (Buddy) had good “ROI”, but again—I try to be specific in my language—none were “popular” in any broad sense of the word. None of them will be “saving” movies theaters like Backrooms or _Obsession_helped save the summer. The new Insidious film and Resident Evil, both based on IP, were far and away the biggest horror films since July. (We’ll see if this changes in October/Halloween season.) RIGHT: Stay Skeptical about Crowdfunding... I’ve long been skeptical about crowd-investing platforms as one of Hollywood’s saviors, mainly because there’s so much hype/buzz. People need to stay more skeptical about more things, explaining both the potential upside but also the downsides. In particular, the media often hypes crowdfunding at the start and never checks in on the actual results after they’ve come in later. And August gave us our first update! _Ice Cream Man—_directed by Eli Roth—grossed $6 million off of a $5.5 million budget. This is a production of The Horror Section, which was one of the first “crowd investing” studios with 2,400 investors, which means that 2,400 investors probably lost money. They certainly aren’t getting as great of returns as if they had just invested their dollars in the stock market. Hopefully Stiletto (Tagline: “Someone’s Going to Make it Rain Blood!”) does better next month. WRONG: Another Data Goof Here’s another data error. When the first episode of House of the Dragon came out, HBO put out that it had 21.5 million viewers in the first three days, and I read that to mean in the US…but no, it was global. So my US-only datecdotes charts shouldn’t have included it. We never got US-only numbers for the first episode, but for the final episode, HBO put out that it had 11 million US viewers. (And that global dropped to 21 million viewers.) Here’s the updated chart (which I’ve since used in the Streaming Ratings Report): Still, this show is absolutely huge. RIGHT: Superhero Films Remain Very, Very Popular After Supergirl flopped, I read a few takes that “comic book movies are going the way of the Western”. Post-Spider-Man: Brand New Day, that take didn’t age well. To be fair, I have a very nuanced take on the superhero genre right now; it’s down right now, for a lot of reasons. But it’s not “dead”. Maybe _Spider-_Man is just a really popular character? I saw that take, and it’s a fair counter-argument. (But pundits arguing that superhero movies were dead should have mentioned this $1.5 billion counter-argument…) But is it just Spider-Man? The next Avengers film already has $50 million in pre-sales (and I was skeptical that that film would do well) and the Avengers: End Game re-release topped the box office two weekends ago (over three original films). And I wouldn’t bet against Batman or Superman. So maybe it’s just Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and the Avengers. Oh, and Deadpool, of course. And Black Panther. And Wolverine. And probably the X-Men. Plus a well-made Wonder Woman or the Hulk film could break out. But that’s it! It’s just those ten characters/teams. Oh, what’s that? Lanterns is also doing well on HBO? (See previous section…) To be fair, I’m actually pretty sympathetic to the argument that more popular characters—like Spider-Man and Batman—anchor more popular films. In fact, I made that exact argument three years ago when I first wrote about the “Marvel-cession”. In many ways, you can blame The Guardians of the Galaxy for fooling Marvel Studios (and the rest of us) into believing that any character could pop. It turns out, the list of iconic characters is probably smaller than most people think. But it’s probably too early to say that superhero films and comic book movies are dead unless “death” means a slight decline over a longtime. RIGHT: Who Killed Theaters? Old People I get frustrated whenever I see headlines or analysis about how young people are “returning” to theaters. As I’ve detailed(for years), young people have always powered the US box office, despite narratives about “kids these days” and their “phones”. Really, what’s changed post-2020/pandemic is that old people aren’t going to the movies nearly as much. This summer, I saw a movie (from an older director) in a theater near a retirement community, and multiple older people at the theater were talking about how this was their first time seeing a movie in years. I dislike personal anecdotes, so YouGov can fill in the data, best summarized by this headline: “Who killed movie theaters? Not the youths”. According to them, 64% of people aged 18-29 have seen a movie in the last year, but only 30% of 65-and-older. 20% of 18-29 have seen a movie in theaters in the last week and 42% in the last month. Here’s the polling data: Most concerning? Many Americans (17%) think theaters are a worse or much worse experience than watching films at home. Slight WRONG: Hadestown Opens Big A live theater capture of the Broadway musical, Hadestown, made $20 million at the US box office, which begs the question: was I wrong to be skeptical about musicals a few years ago? Yes and no. On the one hand, $20 million is a far cry from being “popular”, so yeah, the genre isn’t that popular overall and Hadestown is one of the more popular musicals from recent years (i.e. the “Taylor Swift Data Fallacy” in action). On the other, I doubt filming this cost all that much, and I don’t think that they spent much on marketing, so this is a good source of ancillary revenue. Smaller Updates WRONG: As I mentioned in a Streaming Ratings Report, I underestimated the budget for Enola Holmes 3. It probably cost more like $50 million, if not more. But... I’m not sure that it really matters? At sub-10 million hours, prices have to come down to make this work. WRONG: Netflix is giving Ink a 27-day in theaters! To quote the kids/YouTubers these days, let’s go! Now I might actually have a chance to see Danny Boyle’s latest in theaters. I’d complained about this in a “Coming Soon” section, but I was heartened to read that Netflix is giving multiple films longer theatrical windows this year. RIGHT: Netflix is sending 4-5 films per year to theaters. Netflix is slowly but surely sending more and more films to theaters, as I cautiously predicted earlier this year. For now, it’s just three big films and a number of awards contenders, but still, this is great news. And they’ll be releasing box office grosses! Just this week, Ted Sarandos confirmed that KPop Demon Hunters 2 will come to theaters (and my guess is it performs in the box office top ten at a minimum). WRONG: Angel has 3 million subscribers! How do I know this? Well, they told Deadline, who reported it. I marked this as “wrong”, since they’ve doubled their subscribers in one year but, you know, they don’t really have a hit film to speak of and they’re still losing money. WRONG: Furious was only renewed for one more season. I accidentally wrote “two more seasons” in my latest “Renewals, Cancellations, Un-Orders and Removals Update”. RIGHT: House of David is ending with its third season. In July, Prime Video renewed House of David for a third season, as I just wrote in my latest “Renewals and Cancellations” report. Well, now it’s ending after that third season. Why? As I’ve been writing, its viewership wasn’t great. I got feedback that this show didn’t cost very much, but it cost enough that its limited viewership didn’t save it. WRONG: Adults was a Hulu original! So I missed Adults when it first came out last year; I saw that it aired on FX and just assumed that it was a linear-first program. Turns out, it aired three episodes on FX, but binge-released the rest of its episodes the next day on Hulu. Huh. So I should have covered it last year! But I just wrote about it. 1 “When I was a kid in the 90s, if you wore a t-shirt to school that wasn’t too big and also wasn’t too small, but somehow didn’t quite fit, we’d say you were wearing an “extra-medium” shirt.” 2 As always, a huge exception is Disney, which barely makes anything original anymore.
Chase Infiniti to star in new horror film 'Portrait of God'
Chase Infiniti headshot (Courtesy of Backstage)
'Love Story' actress Constance Zimmer reveals cancer diagnosis
Constance Zimmer attends FX's 'American Horror Story: 13' celebration event at Hotel Chelsea on Sept. 23, 2026, in New York City. (Cindy Ord/WireImage via Getty Images)
‘Hellraiser: Revival’ Review: A Sadistic Flesh-Ripping Horror Shooter That Understands Clive Barker
Saber Interactive nails the 'Hellraiser' experience with satisfyingly brutal combat and depraved visuals that will no doubt please fans.
'Other Mommy' tops the box office with $27.5M; 'The Social Reckoning' opens to $5.5M
The Jessica Chastain horror film “Other Mommy” tops the North American box office in its first weekend in theaters | WBBM Newsradio 780 AM & 105.9 FM
‘Crystal Lake’ star Linda Cardellini on tackling horror icon in her post-Emmy era (exclusive)
Linda Cardellini is Mother (Voorhees). The ‘Crystal Lake’ star talks about her biggest horror role to date, paying homage to Betsy Palmer’s ‘Friday the 13th’ character, and what’s next after her Emmy win.
“Street Fighter ”clobbers the weekend box office, but Nathan Fielder’s Elizabeth Holmes doc earns MVP
Meanwhile, Jessica Chastain’s horror schlocker “Other Mommy” suffers a seriously scary week 2 drop.
190K subscribers gone: YouTuber loses channel over new horror game
Ten years of work, around 3,000 videos and 190,000 subscribers – all gone because a YouTuber showed footage from the new horror game Hellraiser: Revival. What makes the case particularly controversial is that he claims to have censored the explicit scenes.
12 Years Later, Canceled Kojima Game 'P.T.' Makes A Comeback
Before Hideo Kojima began developing OD for Xbox, he made an iconic PlayStation horror game meant to kick off a new Silent Hill era
What to stream: Add best horror films of 2026 to your spooky...
Build your spooky-season watchlist with 2026 horror picks including “Obsession,” “Backrooms,” “Send Help” and “The Bride!,” now streaming or available to rent.
Shingles vax: A cash cow? | Investors Lab
Nobody had to twist my arm to convince me to get the shingles vaccine. A few scary anecdotes about the horrors of contracting herpes zoster (pain, unsightliness and potentially permanent nerve damage, for starters) were good enough reasons for me. Turns out the two little jabs I received a few years back may offer big returns: unexpected multiyear protection for the ticker. Science News’s Meghan Rosen delivers the good news.
Toy Story 5, Backrooms and The Breadwinner Vie to Become the Second Biggest Film This Year...
(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.) Often, people blame “data” for ruining Hollywood, when I’d argue that hype (which can often be debunked by data) is often worse, as you can see in these two headlines. To use a common meme, here’s how it started: and how it’s going: Earlier this year, I read countless (and I mean countless) articles (in almost every mainstream media outlet) about how Heated Rivalry was a huge hit and that it “heated” interest in hockey. But Heated Rivalry wasn’t a huge viewership hit compared to the hype: [ ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/you-cant-eat-buzzdid-heated-rivalrys) [ You Can’t Eat Buzz…Did Heated Rivalry’s Buzz Translate into Actual Viewership? ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/you-cant-eat-buzzdid-heated-rivalrys) Entertainment Strategy Guy · Jan 22 [ Read full story ](https://entertainment.substack.com/p/you-cant-eat-buzzdid-heated-rivalrys) In this case, the hype (Heated Rivalry is really popular) belied the data (It didn’t make the top ten charts, meaning it wasn’t a huge hit.1) Even worse, every time I write about this, I get a lot of negative feedback, hence why I only sparingly mention the show these days or add lots of caveats when I write about it, but this just further cements the hype. But companies, and the executives leading them, have to determine strategy based on reality, not media coverage. The NHL committed real marketing dollars to a campaign that didn’t work. Sure enough, the latest NHL season opened to under a million viewers. At some point, you have to focus on what the data says, because real dollars are at stake. And that’s why we have the Streaming Ratings Report! To provide and analyze cold, hard data. Luckily, this week, I can be positive and take a look at a huge opening on streaming, along with a very buzzy horror film that customers kind of like, but don’t really love. And a comedy that tried to rebound on streaming. Today, I’m covering two weeks—21-Sep and 28-Sep—so we have a lot to discuss (nearly 5,000 words worth), including a series of film misses for Netflix, another argument for weekly-released TV shows on streaming, another sitcom tries to avoid the comedy curse, Netflix has two new game shows (one powered by AI), Reacher falling off the charts after a huge run, Prime Video tries its hands at the romcom game**,** a look at the WNBA’s big season, a big night for the VMAs on CBS and MTV, all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. (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 September 14th to October 4th, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Film - Two Hits and a Miss Come to Streaming… Three very interesting films came to streaming in one week, and I like comparing them since they show the range of theatrical films. One was a huge blockbuster, one was popular, and one was neither. One is a horror film, a buzzy genre; one is a comedy, a struggling genre; and one is an animated family film, the king of the box office. One went to a tiny streamer (HBO Max), one went to a second-tier streamer (Disney+), and one went to the biggest (Netflix). So… If you just went by box office, you’d expect Backrooms—the $197 million grosser, and partner of Obsession for “YouTube Horror Summer”—to dominate on streaming. If you read this report, though, you know that horror films don’t do great on streaming, and that’s the case again. Backrooms opened at 3.8 million hours according to Nielsen, and had 3.9 million hours in its second week. Here’s how that stacks up to other HBO Max films: 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… ...why I don’t buy Backrooms budget… …two new games shows arrive on streaming… …another sitcom struggles… ...another argument for putting out shows weekly on Netflix... ...and a whole lot more, nearly 5,000 words more... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you want an idea of just how much content you’d get in a full issue, check out this older issue. Coming Soon! Next week, I’ll be taking a look at the eighth season of Hulu’s The Kardashians, answering the question: will this show ever make the charts? If Mormon wives can make it, surely one of social media’s most popular families can as well. Also, Prime Video has a new horror show based on popular IP, Carrie, Netflix has a horror show starring Josh Hartnett, Below, and Apple TV has a UK import, Small Prophets. Plus a bunch of movies like Disclosure Day heading to Peacock, The Housemaid coming to HBO Max, Ben Affleck’s latest on Apple TV, Animals, and Matchbox the Movie on Apple TV, a John Cena action comedy inspired by Hasbro’s toy cars. The week after is even busier! I’ll look at another IP-based horror show, Crystal Lake, a new MCU show on Disney+, VisionQuest, season two of The Lowdown on FX/Hulu, the fourth seasons of The Diplomat on Netflix and Tulsa King on Paramount+, another season of Love is Blind, and four straight-to-streaming films: Netflix’s Sacrifice (starring Chris Evens, Anya-Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, Salma Hayek. Charlie XCX), Apple TV’s Tenzing (starring Tom Hiddleston and Willem Defoe), Prime Video’s Love of Your Life (Margaret Qualley) and Masterplan (Stanley Tucci) and a whole lot more, somehow. Long term, here’s some huge IP news: a Game of Thrones movie is coming to theaters, Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest in 2029, while Jon Watts (who helmed three of the most recent Spider-Man movies) is directing the next Star Wars trilogy, to be written by Simon Kinberg. I’m cautiously optimistic for both. It feels obvious to say that making good movies matters, but for bets this big (Star Wars is on a swoon, Game of Thrones hasn’t been to theaters yet), the quality has to be there.
Horror Movies, Politics Are Killing Film Festivals: Opinion Column
The film festival circuit is drowning in bloody genre fare and ideological theater. Whatever happened to indie cred?
'Other Mommy' is packed with jump scares. Why our brains can't resist them.
Jessica Chastain's new horror movie is here — and it is bound to have some audience members scared witless.
Mister Organ is one of the most unsettling documentaries I’ve ever seen
The story of Michael Organ is the rare documentary that doubles as a psychological horror film.
IP Saves the Day 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 started, I wanted to highlight a new idea I saw from Real Good AI, proposing a ratings system for AI use. (H/T to Anthony Kaufman’s article highlighting this.) It would look something like this: In general, I think that this is a solid, middle-ground solution that should appease both the pro-AI camp (who love AI) and the anti-AI camp (who wants to know if what they’re watching didn’t come from humans). Regardless of your feelings on AI/LLMs—I’ll never use it for my writing—transparency is often the best solution to many problems. In general, I think way more media outlets need to be using way more AI disclosures. My quick “Yes and...” to this idea: what about ads? In particular, I hate it when I see or hear ads that are obviously AI-generated, but a person or voice says, “I used this product”. AI doesn’t use products! Just today, I watched a YouTube ad where a “person” said they use some sort of rain wind chime...but that’s not a real person! They didn’t use this product. (Especially since the video of the wind chime itself also appeared to be AI-generated...) I believe most traditional advertising already has standards like this anyway.1 Okay, on to this week’s issue. We’re covering the week of 14-Sep, and then next issue, I’ll be fully caught up with Nielsen’s new release schedule. In the future, I plan to put out Streaming Ratings Reports each Monday after Nielsen’s Thursday releases. Overall, we had some big new shows this week, like Prime Video’s Reacher spinoff_, Neagley_, which is off to a big, big start, and Netflix’s latest in its Monster anthology, which is their largest opening since June and the second-largest since One Piece came out in March. All that, plus Slow Horses returns, the trio of returning shows (Lioness, Reacher and Ted Lasso) continue to dominate the top tens, Paramount+’s latest crime drama, a big whiff for a Netflix original film and a precipitous drop for Netflix film charts, 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 September 14th to September 20th 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - IP For the TV Win Can I use the dirty word of entertainment journalism right now? IP. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone I said it. But IP works at the box office, and we’ve seen some evidence it works in TV too. Not as well, and not all the time—no absolutes here!—but often enough. And glancing at the Nielsen top ten…it worked this week! Take Prime Video, who has a monster hit in the crime drama Reacher. Would a spinoff work for that show? Yep! They binge-released Neagley, about a detective from the original Reacher series, and its eight episodes debuted to 29.6 million hours. Here’s how it stacks up to Reacher, one of Prime Video’s biggest shows: That’s great. Nearly as strong as Reacher’s opening! (Both shows started with eight, binge-released episodes, so this comparison is apples-to-apples.) Notably, Prime Video scheduled the debut of Neagley to overlap with Reacher’s most recent season, to help drive tune-in. Obviously, I love smart release strategies like that. And even though I wrote “obviously”, it’s not really that obvious, since streamers don’t often take advantage of natural overlaps like this_._2 Other data backs how well Neagley performed. It opened at second place on Samba TV for two weeks and got 51.7 million hours on Luminate. That’s the eleventh biggest opening on Luminate since May of 2024 and tied with Bridgerton’s third season opening. That’s a huge opening! Its IMDb is solid too, a 7.7 on 24K reviews. Netflix’s latest edition in the “Monster” series—which started with Jeffrey Dahmer and comes from Ryan Murphy—did well too, opening to 24.7 million hours. That’s the biggest opening for Netflix since I Will Find You in June, and second biggest since March. Unlike the Reacher series, this franchise is trending downward, though. The first Monster show—Dahmer - Monster—was giant. More than anything, I think this reflects that Netflix running out of extremely popular—if that’s the right word?—serial killers to feature. Still, the data says this is a very good opening. It made it to third place on Samba TV for two weeks. It also opened to 40.0 million hours on Luminate. That’s not quite as elite as Neagley, but still very, very strong. I’ll be honest: my priors coming into any given week are that IP works to help drive buzz for new shows, but TV shows need to stand on their own even more than movies, so they will succeed or fail based on their quality. But these two spinoffs definitely worked. Quick Notes on TV The top show, film or special this week? Football, again. Specifically, Prime Video’s season opener of Thursday Night Football. The games run long (three hours) but mainly a lot of people watch each game. That adds up to a lot of viewership. Paramount released the second season of MobLand on an unusual day for that service, a Friday! Often, they put their new shows out on a Sunday, as they did last year with a run of shows (Lioness, Tulsa King and Landman). MobLand didn’t make Nielsen in its first week, but on Samba TV it got to eighth and seventh place. Luminate had a smaller opening too, only 5.3 million hours. MobLand missed the Nielsen charts for its first eight weeks, so this season is off to a stronger start. (Bonus note: the first season streams on both Prime Video and The Roku Channel, but I only have it as Paramount+ on those charts.) I’ve mentioned a few times that foreign-language originals do lower numbers than English-language originals on Netflix most of the time. But I don’t usually emphasize what country those originals come from, and observationally, they tend to be from Western or Northern European countries, in general. So credit to Not a Stranger, a Turkish Netflix original, for breaking through on Luminate, getting to 7.9 million hours in its first full week on those charts. As I mentioned last issue, Crew Girl ended up making the Nielsen charts in its second week. That’s still a soft performance compared to many shows, but again this, one looks affordable. And if you’re curious, here’s how it stacks up to some other sports romance shows: 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… …about a new data source and how it drives streaming viewership… ...what reality show is struggling in its latest season…. ...what Netflix film bombed…. ...How Reacher, Ted Lasso, and Lioness are doing on the charts… ...what obscure sport put up great viewership numbers… …how far streaming films are falling… …all the flops, bombs and misses for the last week… …and more… ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. If you want an idea of just how much content you’d get in a full issue, check out this older issue. Coming Soon! Next week, we’ve got a double issue, then we’ll be all caught up with Nielsen’s data. Yes! The goal is to have my report out on the Monday after I get Nielsen’s data. So next issue, I’m looking at East of Eden, The Great British Baking Show, a Willy Wonka game show (that people are upset uses AI, but viewers might not care), and a Cosby show spinoff reboot on Netflix, and Brothers on Apple TV (starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey). That’s about it for TV, but who’s going to win the streaming week, The Breadwinner or Backrooms on streaming? Answer: Toy Story 5. Plus Netflix has a Unabomber film and a new Tyler Perry film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma tries to repeat The Substance’s run on MUBI, and Paramount+ has Jackass: Best and Last. Long term, Netflix is remaking Lonesome Dove. I love this choice, but man, there are a lot of westerns on TV right now. And they’re making Sega TV shows, including a Crazy Taxi TV show and Sonic show with an “edge”.
Mike Flanagan’s Carrie Isn’t Just Another Useless Adaptation
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People Are Going Completely Wild Over Fortnite's FNAF Crossover Announcement
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Jessica Chastain's horror movie 'Other Mommy' is filled with jump scares. But is it actually scary?
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Love horror? These 15 movies belong on your Halloween watchlist
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Melissa Barrera reveals what it would take for her to return to the “Scream” franchise after firing
Barrera was cut from the horror-comedy saga after sharing controversial posts on social media.
Netflix's 11 best new movies and shows in October, including Halloween favorites
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Into the Slaughterverse: How ‘Something Is Killing the Children’ cut into film, TV, and books
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From hidden gems to horror classics: What to watch this Halloween
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One 'Little Shop of Horrors' song still makes Ellen Greene cry
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“Resident Evil” (2026) Review and Film Franchise Retrospective
After years of poorly made adaptations, “Resident Evil” (2026), directed by Zach Cregger, attempts a new approach to a story that fans have witnessed many times. From 2002 to 2017, Sony released six action-horror movies based on the game series. Mostly directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, the films would create new characters and seemed...
“It: Welcome to Derry” season 2 will be ‘a Warner Bros. gangster picture through the lens of Pennywise’ (exclusive)
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Rocky Horror Picture Show, Haunted Hallway return to Rome
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Horror Con brings macabre artists and scary movie celebs to Peoria
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‘The Love Witch’ at 10: How Anna Biller created a film that real witches would want to see
‘The Love Witch’ turns 10 in November 2026, and director Anna Biller sat down with EW to reflect on the feminist, ‘60s-inspired horror film and what audiences may have missed upon its release.
Entertainment 360, Griffin Gaming: HITpoint Bridges Gaming, Hollywood
Bridging gaming and Hollywood, the new player will "source, develop, package, and produce adaptations" across genres, including action, horror, high-concept spectacle, comedy and beyond.
A strange journey indeed: Rocky Horror takes Garfield stage
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Silent Hill: Townfall compared on RTX 5080 and PS5 Pro with DLSS 4.5 and PSSR 2 in 4K
An extended comparative benchmarking of psychological horror films has been published online. Silent Hill: Townfall, in which the quality of graphics and level...
Can DC blend horror with a superhero movie? 'Clayface' wants to blur genres
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Review: 'Resident Evil' cuts decades of narrative into a lean, mean horror machine
Movie reviewer Joshua Hill says 'Resident Evil" director Zach Cregger doesn't just follow the game the film is based on, but he references it in noticeable ways and instead focuses on the main character's journey, which is full of mayhem and scares.
The 10 best final girls in horror movie history, ranked
From Sidney Prescott in ‘Scream’ to Selena in ‘28 Days Later,’ these final girls did more than survive — they fought back and became horror legends. Here are our 10 favorites, ranked.
“Cellar Door” ending explained: What’s really behind the cellar door?
Laurence Fishburne makes a married couple an offer they should’ve refused in the 2024 horror thriller.
New in Home Entertainment: "Wonka's The Golden Ticket" & "Family"
Screen Chatter Film Critic reviews the game show "Wonka's The Golden Ticket" and "Family", a horror/ thriller.
Anime Gambling Horror Game Ditches Free Steam Demo Over Fears Of Getting Ripped Off By AI
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'Other Mommy' tops the box office with $27.5M; 'The Social Reckoning' opens to $5.5M
The Jessica Chastain horror film “Other Mommy” tops the North American box office in its first weekend in theaters.
Scaring up a new business: these UCI friends are all about the fright
UCI college friends look toward becoming professional creators of horror attractions and themed experiences. This month, they're running The Phantom Tower at Playground Mini Golf in Huntington Beach.
‘Like a horror movie’: Broughton spa owner describes fire that left business in ‘total loss’ state
Savannah Fire responded a little after 3 a.m. last Thursday to the flames. The smell of smoke still infiltrates the building, which stretches from Levy Jewelers to Broughton Liquor.
‘The Simpsons’ revives Apu following years of controversy
Across 38 seasons of “The Simpsons,” the Halloween-themed “Treehouse of Horror” episodes have always been a treat of spooky stand-alone storylines. On Sunday, the show surprised viewers with a majo…
The Influencer Project to Melanie C: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
A social media star comes a cropper in timely horror, and the Spice Girls ledge takes her disco- and indie-tinged bops out on a short tour
Jessica Lange says FX was ‘too f---ing cheap’ to do 1 key thing for ‘AHS’ stars on set
Jessica Lange says FX was ‘too f---ing cheap’ to do one key thing for ‘American Horror Story’ actors on set: ‘That’s still a bone of contention for me,’ she said.
Jessica Lange says FX was ‘too f---ing cheap’ to do 1 key thing for “American Horror Story ”stars on set
“That’s still a bone of contention for me,” Lange said while seated next to Sarah Paulson at a PaleyFest event.
Is Neoliberalism to Blame for America’s Health Care Woes?
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‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Original Cast Spooktacular coming to New York City for film’s 50th anniversary
It’s just a jump to the left and a step to the right — right into New York City as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” Original Cast “Spooktacular” Tour makes its
Jessica Lange ranks her “American Horror Story” characters: ‘I loved the whole world we created’
In “AHS: 13,” the actress reprises all four: Constance Langdon, Elsa Mars, Sister Jude Martin, and Fiona Goode.
‘Gears of War: E-Day’ review: Prequel leans into horror, successfully
It’s as if the “Gears” characters were dropped into a “Resident Evil” game — and it works far more often than it doesn’t, writes our reviewer.
Streaming’s Biggest Show Returns…and a Buzzy Genre Struggles
(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.) Obviously, the big news of the week (if not month) is Netflix letting go of executive Bela Bajaria, their chief content officer. I’m going to cover this in my next “Most Important Story of the Week”, but I also have a data angle that I might publish before then. (Too much news this month, am I right?) But first, I have a bonus Streaming Ratings Report issue for you. Today’s article is a bit of a grab bag of topics I’ve wanted to write about, but couldn’t squeeze into the (already very long) Streaming Ratings Report issues. The NFL drives huge viewership numbers, so I’ve got a look at that. A whole bunch of TV shows returned to the traditional broadcast channels, and I have thoughts. And I have a quick look at adult animated shows, since a couple flopped earlier this month. Plus, the Emmys aired earlier this month, and we got some fun data bout how popular those nominated shows are and why I’m not optimistic about the show’s future. That’s a lot, so let’s dive right in. Subscribe Sports - Football Remains the King of Streaming Over the last two Streaming Ratings Reports, I sorta ignored the biggest “show” each week. (I was tempted to say “piece of content” but I know that word bugs folks.) In my database, I call these “specials”, and they sure are special. I speak of the king of American TV: football!!! Streaming football is back and, unlike some other sports, it routinely dominates all viewership. Probably the best way to show this is to update one of my favorite graphics, the “40 Million Hour Club”1 since football games have joined that club each week they’ve premiered: (Yep, that’s the data through 28-Sep, the first four weeks of the season. As a reminder, I take the average minute audience provided by Nielsen, factor out a percentage of linear TV viewers in home markets, and multiply the run time by the three-hour runtime.) Again, the numbers are huge. Let’s start with Netflix. They grabbed the rights to the bonus opening week NFL Kickoff game (which was on YouTube last year) and it put up 18.5 million viewers on average. That nets out to 47.4 million hours of estimated streaming hours. That’s good! Though, notably, it’s well below Christmas Day games from previous years. Compared to other streamers/broadcasters, that’s a bit of a mixed result. On one hand, Netflix’s 18.5 million average is about what YouTube claimed last year, though Nielsen used a bespoke methodology at that time, so I trust this viewership figure more. So that’s good. (The game also shifted from a Friday to a Thursday and that could have helped the viewership as well.) And Netflix continues to best Prime Video in total viewership—as you’ll see next—though Netflix has had much higher-profile (opening week and Christmas Day) games. NBC/Peacock’s opening game the night before averaged 25.1 million average viewers, which is just much bigger than Netflix (or Prime Video). That’s the big caveat to all streaming viewership records: even in success, they can’t compete with traditional linear TV. Previously, I called this my “hierarchy of viewership”, and the data keeps supporting that thesis. The downside for NBC is that this game’s viewership was down compared to previous years, though it may be a counting issue. Here’s a great chart from Sports Media Watch: Indeed, looking at all the opening week games across all windows, Netflix still lags the other primetime windows, but does well compared to the afternoon games: I saw a few folks make the case that streamers still lag traditional broadcasters in reach, and I’d add they really lag compared to “broadcast plus streaming” options like NBC/Peacock, ESPN/Disney+ and CBS/Paramount+. The best data I saw for this came from Samba TV, who charted reach through the 2025 season, and, wow. (Samba TV’s numbers are historically lower than Nielsen’s, so don’t compare their household figures to Nielsen’s hours, but use them as a proxy for the relative reach of the streamers.) The good news is Prime Video is NOT having a down year. Their opening Thursday Night Football game reached 18.6 million viewers (about what Netflix got), but that’s a high for Prime Video on Thursdays and the biggest Thursday night game since 2015. The TNF games the weeks of 21-Sep and 28-Sep continued this streak, getting 43.1 (16.8 million average viewers) and 42.5 total hours (16.6 million average viewers), which were both up from last year. Still, that continues the (typical) season slide: (For those new-to-streaming-football-numbers folks, the viewership declines for Thursday Night Football as the year goes along.) Overall, it appears as if Prime Video is now part of the “football habit”, be it for customers at home or out at places like bars and restaurants. And its viewership is slowly catching up to broadcast. One last chart shows this. Last season, Nielsen started adding out-of-home viewership to the charts, so I try not to do season-to-season comparisons as I did for the first few years. And while Nielsen added Big Data viewing this year, I’m going to compare the last two seasons. Here’s that chart, which shows the season-over-season gains: When it comes to streaming football, we have to keep a few seemingly contradictory thoughts in our head… First, streaming doesn’t come close to matching broadcast’s reach and, thus, viewership. Second, even with that gap, football is still the biggest “thing” on streaming. It’s very, very popular. Third, while some methodology changes have likely helped Prime Video’s numbers, their viewership does appear to be growing. Lastly, yeah, the NFL started the season off poorly, with week one dragging down the numbers in year-over-year comparisons. However—and again, methodology changes may have helped this—the viewership grew compared to previous seasons over the next couple of weeks. So football is still king. On streaming and off. Television - Adult Animation Continues to NOT Make the Streaming Charts In the last two reports, two adult-animated shows whiffed: Netflix’s animated comedy, Dang! Paramount+’s Sega-video-game-inspired fantasy/comedy, Golden Axe. Neither made the charts, but that’s usually the case for animated shows. I mean, here’s literally every animated show that’s made the Nielsen Original charts since the start of 2025: And one of those shows is G_abby’s Dollhouse_! A kids show! The problem with charts like this is that they don’t give you a sense of how many shows miss the charts. Netflix had at least eleven animated flops, including comedies like Big Mouth (a show everyone assumed was popular in the pre-Streaming Ratings Era), Long Story Short, Haunted Hotel, Mating Season, Strip Law, and Alley Cats, and action shows like Blood of Zeus, Castlevania: Nocturne, Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Prime Video had at least six animated misses, two in the same universe (Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss), three more comedies (#1 Happy Family USA, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy and Kevin) and an action show (The Mighty Nein). Disney+ had MCU and Star Wars animated misses (Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies, Star Wars: Visions, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, and Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld) but I can’t tell how many of those shows were geared towards adults. HBO Max had Harley Quinn and Hulu had Solar Opposites. None of these shows made the charts! That’s a lot of misses! If I remade the chart with all those misses, here’s how it would look: Listen, I know the counter arguments. First, it’s cheaper to produce animated shows than live action. Fair enough, but with viewership this low, even that cheaper price point starts to not matter. Second, just look at the acquired charts. Hit animated comedies can generate viewership for years! Shows like The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers do really, really well. Fair enough, but streaming has failed to recreate the dynamic that Fox has mastered so well. That’s a problem for streaming still. Television - Emmys! The annual Emmys broadcast was a few weeks ago, and I’ve got data on how the nominees performed on streaming, plus hot takes on this year’s viewership (and the big news about the broadcast’s, er, streamcast’s future). 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 top Emmy-nominated shows… ...why I’m worried about the future of the Emmys telecast... ...the pros of broadcast television ...and the cons... ...please subscribe! We can only keep doing this great work with your support. Coming Soon! Next week, we’ve got a double issue (since the weeks of 21-Sep and 28-Sep were so light), but then I’ll be all caught up after a deluge of streaming ratings data from Nielsen in September. In the meantime, I’m going to try to take a look at Netflix’s stats to explain why Bela Bajaria is out. But even light weeks give me plenty to talk about. The Great British Baking Show returns to Netflix and Apple TV has a buzzy new star-studded comedy. And Netflix has a controversial-but-appears-to-be-popular new game show. Plus big films like Toy Story 5, Backrooms and The Breadwinner head to streaming. And is East of Eden a hit? After that, The Kardashians return to Hulu, Prime Video has a reboot of Carrie, and Netflix has a horror show, Below. Disclosure Day heads to Peacock, The Housemaid heads to HBO Max_,_ a new Ben Affleck film, Animals, lands on Netflix, and Apple TV has a new John Cena action film based on, checks notes, Hasbro’s Matchbox toys. Okay. Longterm, some interesting TV production news. HBO Max ordered How to Survive Without Me, starring Kaley Cuoco, Joshua Jackson, Ray Romano and Rita Wilson, for fifteen episodes! I love that some streamers (or, at least, HBO Max) are finally ordering TV shows with more than eight episodes. In less wise production news, Landman does not appear to be coming back this year, since it just started production. Frankly, I don’t love this (get your shows out on time) but Landman is so popular, I doubt it matters.
Silent Hill, Gravity Rush director's Bokeh Game Studio is reportedly casting for a new horror game
Bokeh Game Studio, from Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama, is reportedly casting motion capture performers for a new, untitled horror game.
How to watch 'Hokum': Where and when to stream one of the best horror films of 2026
Adam Scott is truly in his horror era.
'Dark Hollow': West Virginia horror film highlights Appalachian culture, history
Daniel Byers's independent horror film Dark Hollow, inspired by Appalachian history and filmed in West Virginia, is being shown in theaters across the state during the month of October 2026.
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'Other Mommy' scares up N. American box office win
Horror flick "Other Mommy" starring Oscar winner Jessica Chastain debuted atop the North American box office with $27.5 million in ticket sales, while awards hopeful "The Social Reckoning" flopped with...
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Watch Jack Osbourne go undercover to scare guests inside late dad’s tribute haunted house
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MIKE FLANAGAN’S “CARRIE” TRIUMPHS ACROSS THE GLOBE
Stephen King’s debut novel Carrie has seen many adaptions over the years. Aside from Brian De Palma’s 1976 feature adaption, other iterations of Carrie haven’t been quite so successful. When it was announced filmmaker Mike Flanagan would be adapting Carrie once more, many fans rolled their eyes. However, Flanagan’s adaption has rocketed to the top ...Read More
VisionQuest and 6 other new fantasy & science fiction shows to watch in October 2026
It's the season of ghosts, ghouls, and pumpkin spice...yet while horror takes center stage in media, that doesn't mean there isn't still plenty of exciting new
The Cask of Amontillado
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'Other Mommy' tops the box office with $27.5M; 'The Social Reckoning' opens to $5.5M
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Killer mosquitoes, rabid bats and bear attacks: Climate change is making eco-horror feel real
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Why being scared can be fun, according to science
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Jessica Lange Says FX Was ‘Too F**king Cheap’ During Her ‘American Horror Story’ Days
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Horror, electronic music and Russian politics: Brittany Roberts connects them all
Brittany Roberts, an assistant professor with the App State English department, gave a talk on how Russian electronic music duo IC3PEAK uses horror imagery to critique its government. The talk was part of the Music Humanities Community Conversation Series, a series of presentations and workshops coordinated by Jacob Kopcienski, an assistant professor of musicology with...
Spanish Science Fiction Horror Film MEMORIA to Get Release from Mondo Macabro
Memoria 1 Blu-ray disc Label: Mondo Macabro Preorder: 11/10/26 Release: 12/8/26 MSRP: $29.99 UPC: 843276036195 Catalogue #: MDO361 Genre: Horror Color 87 minutes in Spanish with English subtitles MPAA Rating: NR High Definition 1080p 1.66:1 Dolby Digital