Speakers at the American Film Market’s inaugural New Global Screen Economy Summit in Los Angeles on November 10 told film buyers, sellers and financiers that this year’s creator-led hits reversed Hollywood’s usual order, finding an audience online before anyone financed the movie.
Jon Leland, CEO and co-founder of the fan-driven studio Popular Demand and the former chief strategy officer of Kickstarter, described the traditional sequence on the Summit’s “The New Studio System” panel. “The idea of just investing a ton of money into an idea that there is no indication that anyone’s going to care about, and then taking it out into culture cold, and then throwing even more money into marketing for it, and then just hoping it’ll work, is insane to me,” Leland said.
The Summit, produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), opened AFM’s 47th edition with that reversal as its recurring subject. Curry Barker built a YouTube and TikTok following before Obsession, which cost under $1 million and has grossed $519 million worldwide, according to the Motion Picture Association. Kane Parsons built the Backrooms audience online before A24 released the film, and the two films finished first and second at the domestic box office on the same weekend. Jordan Lonner, co-head of United Talent Agency’s motion picture literary department and Barker’s agent, said Barker “was shot listing all of his TikToks” years before the feature.
A slide from Brenneman’s keynote, “The Year of the Indies,” puts Obsession first among 2026’s independent releases. Photo: Net Influencer
The companies on Leland’s panel have built that order into their business models. Wesley Wang, whose high school short nothing, except everything went viral on YouTube and sold to Sony and Darren Aronofsky, said Wesley Wang Media releases low-cost proofs of concept online and lets the audience decide which ones become a series or a film. Jared Geesey, EVP of international at Angel Studios, said nothing is distributed until members of the Angel Guild, which Geesey put at about three million, have voted on it, and filmmakers recut using the retention curves and comments that come back. Popular Demand raises production money from fans through crowdfunding, merchandise and brand deals. “I’d rather find five fans that pay us $30,000 for the right thing than try to get 50 million people to watch something on YouTube,” Leland said.
Brenneman Says Theaters Still Book on Marketing Budgets
IFTA president and CEO Jackie Brenneman said in the Summit’s opening keynote that theaters have not caught up. On Two Sleepy People, a small release Brenneman worked on before joining IFTA, a single showtime in 28 theaters chosen with audience data sold out with no marketing spend. When the team tried to expand, Brenneman said, theaters “looked at our marketing budget and not our results.” Leland said exhibitors tell independent films they need to spend $5 million on prints and advertising before they will book a film.
Brenneman’s keynote put independent films’ share of the domestic box office at its highest in 11 years, citing The Numbers. Photo: Net Influencer
Brenneman also cautioned against reading too much into Markiplier’s Iron Lung, which opened in a quiet January with a creator who has nearly 40 million YouTube subscribers. “That’s not a model,” Brenneman said.
Agents Say Studios Are Still Working Out What They Are Buying
Jordan Lonner of United Talent Agency and Brett Rosen of TFC Management spoke on the Summit’s morning panel on creator IP. Photo: Net Influencer
In October, Sony Pictures named former YouTube executive Fede Goldenberg to run Screen Gems and develop theatrical films from digital-native creators. Brett Rosen of TFC Management, who sold Alex Kister’s YouTube horror series The Mandela Catalogue to Amazon, said buyers treat a creator’s built-in audience as “risk mitigation.” “I still don’t know that they know exactly what they’re falling over themselves for,” Lonner said of the studios.
Creator Attorney Tyler Chou Says YouTubers Flipped the Studio Model
Evan Shapiro (left) moderates “Where the New Hits Begin” with Jo Cronk, Tyler Chou, David Freeman and Joel Savitt. Photo: Net Influencer
The Summit’s afternoon panel, “Where the New Hits Begin,” moderated by media analyst Evan Shapiro, completed the Two Sleepy People story. Tyler Chou, founder and CEO of Tyler Chou Law for Creators, said client Creator Camp, through its film arm Camp Studios, made the film for $100,000 in 100 days, pre-sold four Regal theaters at $10,000 each before AMC joined a 30-theater release, and owns the film outright. “When I worked at Disney, we would spend $200 million on a film and hope and pray that marketing would find an audience,” Chou said. “YouTubers have completely flipped that model.” Jo Cronk, co-CEO of Whalar, the creator agency Accenture Song acquired in July, said studios build a franchise and then ask fans to follow it on Instagram. “Creators do it the other way,” Cronk said. David Freeman, whose Kynetic Media Ventures launched the creator-first studio Graviteur with Dolphin Entertainment in June, urged studios to “bring the audience in from day one” while the script is being written.
Barker’s next film, Anything But Ghosts, opens May 7, 2027, from Focus Features, a date Lonner said is usually reserved “for a big blockbuster.”
Nii A. Ahene is the founder and managing director of Net Influencer, a website dedicated to offering insights into the influencer marketing industry. Together with its newsletter, Influencer Weekly, Net Influencer provides news, commentary, and analysis of the events shaping the creator and influencer marketing space. Through interviews with startups, influencers, brands, and platforms, Nii and his team explore how influencer marketing is being effectively used to benefit businesses and personal brands alike.
Speakers at the American Film Market’s inaugural New Global Screen Economy Summit in Los Angeles on November 10 told film buyers, sellers and financiers that this year’s creator-led hits reversed Hollywood’s usual order, finding an audience online before anyone financed the movie.
Jon Leland, CEO and co-founder of the fan-driven studio Popular Demand and the former chief strategy officer of Kickstarter, described the traditional sequence on the Summit’s “The New Studio System” panel. “The idea of just investing a ton of money into an idea that there is no indication that anyone’s going to care about, and then taking it out into culture cold, and then throwing even more money into marketing for it, and then just hoping it’ll work, is insane to me,” Leland said.
The Summit, produced by the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), opened AFM’s 47th edition with that reversal as its recurring subject. Curry Barker built a YouTube and TikTok following before Obsession, which cost under $1 million and has grossed $519 million worldwide, according to the Motion Picture Association. Kane Parsons built the Backrooms audience online before A24 released the film, and the two films finished first and second at the domestic box office on the same weekend. Jordan Lonner, co-head of United Talent Agency’s motion picture literary department and Barker’s agent, said Barker “was shot listing all of his TikToks” years before the feature.
The companies on Leland’s panel have built that order into their business models. Wesley Wang, whose high school short nothing, except everything went viral on YouTube and sold to Sony and Darren Aronofsky, said Wesley Wang Media releases low-cost proofs of concept online and lets the audience decide which ones become a series or a film. Jared Geesey, EVP of international at Angel Studios, said nothing is distributed until members of the Angel Guild, which Geesey put at about three million, have voted on it, and filmmakers recut using the retention curves and comments that come back. Popular Demand raises production money from fans through crowdfunding, merchandise and brand deals. “I’d rather find five fans that pay us $30,000 for the right thing than try to get 50 million people to watch something on YouTube,” Leland said.
Brenneman Says Theaters Still Book on Marketing Budgets
IFTA president and CEO Jackie Brenneman said in the Summit’s opening keynote that theaters have not caught up. On Two Sleepy People, a small release Brenneman worked on before joining IFTA, a single showtime in 28 theaters chosen with audience data sold out with no marketing spend. When the team tried to expand, Brenneman said, theaters “looked at our marketing budget and not our results.” Leland said exhibitors tell independent films they need to spend $5 million on prints and advertising before they will book a film.
Brenneman also cautioned against reading too much into Markiplier’s Iron Lung, which opened in a quiet January with a creator who has nearly 40 million YouTube subscribers. “That’s not a model,” Brenneman said.
Agents Say Studios Are Still Working Out What They Are Buying
In October, Sony Pictures named former YouTube executive Fede Goldenberg to run Screen Gems and develop theatrical films from digital-native creators. Brett Rosen of TFC Management, who sold Alex Kister’s YouTube horror series The Mandela Catalogue to Amazon, said buyers treat a creator’s built-in audience as “risk mitigation.” “I still don’t know that they know exactly what they’re falling over themselves for,” Lonner said of the studios.
Creator Attorney Tyler Chou Says YouTubers Flipped the Studio Model
The Summit’s afternoon panel, “Where the New Hits Begin,” moderated by media analyst Evan Shapiro, completed the Two Sleepy People story. Tyler Chou, founder and CEO of Tyler Chou Law for Creators, said client Creator Camp, through its film arm Camp Studios, made the film for $100,000 in 100 days, pre-sold four Regal theaters at $10,000 each before AMC joined a 30-theater release, and owns the film outright. “When I worked at Disney, we would spend $200 million on a film and hope and pray that marketing would find an audience,” Chou said. “YouTubers have completely flipped that model.” Jo Cronk, co-CEO of Whalar, the creator agency Accenture Song acquired in July, said studios build a franchise and then ask fans to follow it on Instagram. “Creators do it the other way,” Cronk said. David Freeman, whose Kynetic Media Ventures launched the creator-first studio Graviteur with Dolphin Entertainment in June, urged studios to “bring the audience in from day one” while the script is being written.
Barker’s next film, Anything But Ghosts, opens May 7, 2027, from Focus Features, a date Lonner said is usually reserved “for a big blockbuster.”
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