The Biggest Success Story in Cinema Is an 86-Year-Old Film

And other absurdities from late stage entertainment culture

When the future finally arrived, it wasn’t the endgame we had been sold. There was no cheery Tomorrowland filled with fun theme park rides. Instead we got a cross between The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a dystopian Philip K. Dick novel.

In case you haven’t noticed, the prevailing tone is now absurdity. And you see it everywhere. So let me take you on a tour of the newest contradictions in late stage arts and media.

But before proceeding, I want to remind you to take out a premium subscription if you want to read these culture updates in the future.

Now on with the show…

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A film from 1939 has somehow created the biggest success story in the movie theater world.

The cinema business is in total clutch-your-heart crisis. But The Wizard of Oz is bringing in $2 million per day at the Las Vegas Sphere. Yes, a remix of an 86-year-old movie for kids is the biggest hit in Sin City.

It’s hard to believe, but Wayne Newton (born in 1942) is no longer the oldest performer in Vegas. In fact, nobody is drawing these kinds of crowds—4,000 to 5,000 fans show up two or three times daily for The Wizard of Oz. They pay $200, on average, for the experience.

According to Lucas Shaw at Bloomberg:

That means the movie is generating ticket sales of as much as $2 million a day from just the one location. Executives at the Sphere estimate the film will gross hundreds of millions of dollars over the next year and could top $1 billion before concluding its run, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The movie has been upgraded and adapted for the venue. But this is still ancient intellectual property—a pre-WWII film based on a 1900 novel.

And this is all happening during a period when Las Vegas is struggling, Hollywood is in decline, and movie theaters are an endangered species.

Yes, our culture is now built on paradox and contradiction. So let’s move on to the next example.

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Authors win a big lawsuit against AI—but the judge says they may not be able to trust their own lawyers.

Authors had an ironclad case again AI company Anthropic for violating their copyrights. Some thought that this might result in “more than a trillion dollars in damages.” That would put Anthropic in bankruptcy and send a message to the entire AI industry: Don’t mess with creators!

Instead the lawyers negotiated a quick deal for $1.5 billion—and Anthropic didn’t even need to admit wrongdoing. But the penalty was so light that the judge has refused to accept it. Instead he expresses concern that the settlement will be forced “down the throat of authors.”

How is this possible? Their own lawyers negotiated the deal.

But listen to the judge. He admits that class members often “get the shaft” in situations like this. And he adds: “I have an uneasy feeling about hangers on with all this money on the table.”

This is the sad reality of copyright litigation to protect human creators. My copyrights as an author have been violated and I don’t want a cash settlement—I want the stealing stopped. I want a Napster-style shutdown, and there’s legal precedent to support this. But what lawyer can I trust? They make money on a cash settlement, not on stopping AI use of my book.

Expect to see similar settlements in music copyrights. A few people will get a nice payday, but nothing else will change.

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The last safe haven in physical media just fell apart.

Where did all the art collectors go? Have they already moved into their billionaire bunkers and closed the hatch?

According to Artnet:

“Not a week goes by, it seems, without a major gallery closing: Blum, Venus Over Manhattan, and Kasmin are other prominent summer casualties. Smaller galleries are exiting and downsizing discreetly. Each case is different, but many voice the same laments: Overheads are killing businesses. Sales are down. It’s no longer fun. Primary pricing is untenable. Major collectors have stopped buying art or significantly reduced their spending. The next generation isn’t there to take over from the old guard. The art world has become bloated, and there isn’t an easy way to cure the malaise.”

Collectible art was supposed to be the last safe haven for physical media. How could you lose? It is unique, loaded with prestige and status, and protected from the inroads of AI slop.

But something has changed. Some people tell me this is a generational shift, and screen zombies don’t care about paintings. Others gripe that today’s artists just aren’t very good—and point to stunts like that ridiculous banana taped to a wall. In any event, galleries need to solve this problem, or else one more creative field will find itself in seemingly irreversible decline.

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Google tells a court that the open web is in “rapid decline”—but it’s also claiming the Internet is thriving.

Here’s more paradox, courtesy of the world’s largest search engine. Back in May, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai boasted that the web is flourishing. Google, he claimed, was sending more web traffic to more places, and building an audience for online publishers.

But now in a court filing, the company warns:

The fact is that today, the open web is already in rapid decline and Plaintiffs’ divestiture proposal would only accelerate that decline, harming publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue.

The company claims that it plans to use its power to “restore competition and publisher choice in the ways publishers want.”

I’d like to get the opinion of some actual publishers about that.

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Miles Davis is the jazz artist who never sold out. So guess what just happened…

Miles Davis isn’t just a music legend, he’s also a symbol of prickly artistic independence. That’s why his image has such powerful resonance—he pushed back against the system, and never took orders from corporate overseers.

But the breaking news is that Davis’s image is now owned by Reservoir Media, publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the stock symbol RSVR. The company is also taking control of Davis’s publishing catalog. You might say “So What” to that, but I’m singing “All Blues.”

I note that the shares are down slightly today on the news. So maybe Miles gets the last laugh.

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Why is an Open AI-funded film coming to the Cannes Festival?

People in the movie business worry about AI taking their jobs. But before they disappear, they have the chance to give a standing ovation to an Open AI-funded film at the Cannes Festival.

I savor the irony. But I will savor it even more if the film gets booed by the Cannes audience.

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Audiences turn to podcasts for a more human and personal form of media—but look what’s coming…

The biggest allure of podcasting is its personal, informal quality. But even that now gets turned into AI slop.

The scope of this is scary. Finding a human podcaster may soon turn into a game of Where’s Waldo?

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I can’t handle any more paradox for today. So I’m signing off for now. But I’ll be back soon with more absurdist updates on late stage arts and entertainment.