Hey everyone,
This newsletter includes updates on the Mad Max films, HBO Max, Martin Scorsese’s Killer’s of the Flower Moon, how to grow an Instagram account via IG stories, and some quick bits on how protesting is leading to change in the US ✊
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2 More Mad Max Films in Development
Mad Max: Furiosa
Prequel film confirmed
Production planned to begin in 2021 in Australia after George Miller finishes filming Three Thousand Years of Longing starring Idris Elba & Tilda Swinton 🦘
Script was written prior to the release of Fury Road to explore the character’s background
Charlize Theron, who is 44 years old, will not return because George Miller doesn’t want to de-age her after seeing how bad it looked in The Irishman 🤭
Front-runners for the recast are Anya Taylor-Joy and Jodie Comer
Yayha Abdul Mateen and Richard Madden rumored to be on wishlist for roles
Fury Road cinematographer John Seal will return 🎥
Will have more vehicles than Fury Road (135 were made but only 88 were on screen)
20 years prior to Fury Road, Furiosa was attacked and kidnapped along with her mother, who died 3 days after the abduction
Traded to Immortan Joe to become one of his wives, but she was barren
Turned into a soldier and took over command when her mentor died
Became the top warrior in Immortan Joe’s army despite losing her arm in battle
Only ranked female ever in their military. Earned the nickname ‘Bag of Nails’
Mad Max: The Wasteland & Beyond
Tom Hardy said in 2014 he was signed on for 3 sequels, following Fury Road
Hardy wants Mad Max to get a dog in The Wasteland 🐕
George Miller isn’t opposed to Mad Max spin-offs being helmed by other directors including Guillermo del Toro
After Furiosa and The Wasteland, George Miller has another story planned
The Wasteland is a working title and probably won’t be called that
Immortan Joe’s son Corpus Colossus may show up in the sequel
Everything is back on track for George Miller’s follow-ups after a lawsuit against Warner Bros. threatened to end the Mad Max franchise for good. Furiosa will be the first to release, but are fans ready for a Charlize Theron-less Furiosa movie?
Every actress in talks so far makes me think they definitely could just de-age Charlize. She still looks great, and I don’t think The Irishman, which starred a group of dudes in their late 70s, should be George Miller’s benchmark for de-age tech when there are films like Will Smith’s Gemini Man which managed to pull it off.
The real reason may be the budget if it includes de-aging 💰
Gemini Man had a $138M budget and bombed hard
The Irishman with a $159M budget was deemed a theatrical risk, resulting in Netflix buying it
Fury Road cost Warner Bros. somewhere between $150M-$180M and the result was $372.5M which wasn’t terribly profitable off just its theatrical release
It’s likely the Furiosa prequel will have a lower budget without the star power of Tom Hardy, and de-age tech would pull the budget in the wrong direction.
HBO Max vs. HBO Now vs. HBO Go… tf?
HBO Max has entered the streaming wars. Here is a quick breakdown of the difference
HBO Max
Max OG Movies & Series
DC Entertainment
HBO Original Series Library
Studio Ghibli
Adult Swim
Cartoon Network
Crunchyroll
Looney Tunes
Criterion Collection
Classics Curated by TCM
10,000 hours total of library content
Current HBO Now subscribers can transfer over for free. Find the entire catalog of films and shows here
HBO Now
Standalone streaming service offered by HBO that does not require cable or satellite TV
Original HBO content
Docs
Specials
Large movie selection
If you have this and haven’t switched over to HBO Max for free, wyd?
HBO Go
Streaming service offered by HBO that is included free with your HBO subscription through a TV provider
Original HBO content
Docs
Specials
Large movie selection
Launch Day Mobile Downloads
Disney+ — 4M
Quibi — 300K
HBO Max — 90K 😬
HBO Max only had 90,000 downloads on its first day. Around 8M people have HBO Now accounts, but it’s unclear how many of them switched over. There are a few reasons for its slow start ⬇️
Brand confusion (Is it HBO? Time Warner?)
Pandemic
AT&T did not secure deals with Roku and Amazon
No major show on launch (No GoT prequel)
Late launch (Disney+ launched Nov. )
Pricing (Highest on market)
📺 Streaming Service Pricing
no ads + basic plan
HBO Max — $14.99
Youtube Premium — $11.99
Hulu — $11.99
Peacock — $9.99
CBS All Access — $9.99
Prime Video — $8.99
Netflix — $8.99
Quibi — $7.99
Disney+ — $6.99
Apple TV+ — $4.99
Early prediction: Goodbye Quibi, Peacock, and CBS All Access in 3 years 🤐
Everything We Know About Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon
Follows a 1920s major investigation where a Native American tribe is murdered off one by one after finding oil on their land
It was the FBI’s first big case
Script adapted off book of the same name
$150M+ budget and will be financed by Apple with Paramount distributing a full theatrical run. Film will then stream on Apple TV+ exclusively
Besides Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, the cast will be largely Native American
Dicaprio plays Ernest Burkhart and De Niro plays his uncle, Bill Hale. They are the villains of the film and conspire to murder tribe members
First time Leo and De Niro will star in a Scorsese feature film together
Quick thoughts: Apple has been struggling in the streaming wars so far. Not much of their content has brought big buzz and allowing a full theatrical run could be the game-changer they need to pull more top tier filmmakers when places like Netflix refuse to offer that.
How to Gain 10,000 Followers Through Instagram Stories
When starting out, Instagram Stories is one of the best methods you can do through paid advertising to build a base following
It can be very cheap compared to alternatives
They are real users since they found your profile through a story
There are many other ways people buy followers. Here are a few of the most common ways:
• Shoutouts (S4S)
• Megas
• Bots
These above may bulk up your follower count quickly, but the engagement rate will be extremely low, if any at all.
In a future newsletter, I will break down these methods individually with case studies, but for some insight, even a decent network that does shoutouts will get you a 4% engagement rate at best and they’re still charging $30-$50 per 1,000 followers.
To briefly summarize a mega, there are two types. Low quality through themed accounts (commonly gaming pages) or through celebrities and influencers with millions of followers.
Anytime you see a celebrity like Lil Pump, Diddy, or even Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp randomly giving away thousands of dollars, a car, video game system, etc. on Instagram, know it’s an influencer lead mega campaign.
Buying bots will get you no engagement. It’s simply a method influencers and celebrities use to boost their numbers. One reason is follower clout, another is to finesse ad deals from brands, which is a whole nother shady side of IG marketing that I’ll get into eventually.
With Instagram Stories, following these steps will lead to high-quality engaged users. Shout out to u/RedditBizHelper for putting this format together. I have tweaked it from my own experience. Anyone can use this strategy to grow thousands of IG followers a month as long as your account can benefit from followers who come from around the globe 🌎
A local business can't use this. Ecommerce, fitness, themed, and many others can ⤵️
Create a catchy creative ad
A poorly designed ad will lead to a low click-through ratio. Your video or photo ad needs to have the following:
`1. Hook 👀
Think about how quickly people tap through IG stories. We’re all guilty of it. Now imagine someone who knows it’s an ad placed between stories. If they don’t immediately click past your story, You’ll have 1-3 seconds to grab their attention. A great hook is the biggest key to pulling this off.
2. Music 🎧
Music can enhance the ad experience. Try to have it resonate with the niche.
3. Arrows ⬆
Must-have element in anything you do with IG stories, whether it’s driving traffic to an article, product, or profile. Arrows pointing in the swipe up direction will increase the number of clicks (profile visits) your ad gets.
4. Video or Animation 🎥
Video ads and animated images, in my experience, always get you a higher click-through rate. It is possible to do it with a still image but know it has to be a kick-ass, catchy creative to pull it off.
5. Brand Oriented 🎨
The ad needs to convey what your account’s theme is. My plan with Culture Crave’s Instagram is to make 4 different ad sets: One for Star Wars, one for MCU, one for film, and one where all the themes are mixed together to compare how they all do before moving forward.
If this is your first time experimenting, make sure to have a budget. It can cost anywhere from $100-$300 to solve the formula that works for your niche. There will be some trial and error. It may take several creatives to see solid returns. This is a normal process.
I’d suggest that if you find one creative that works well, keep experimenting with more creatives so you can keep switching it up without your top creative going stale.
How To Run $0.01 Story Ads
Login to your Facebook business manager
Click on ads manager
Click on create +
Click on guided creation if this is your first time
Click on the Traffic objective
Under Campaign Budget Optimization — Input your daily budget with a few extra cents (example: $4.15). Adding extra cents tricks Facebook’s algorithm and serves your ads before competitors since you’ve outbid them
Click continue and choose worldwide as your location or click worldwide and remove bottom-tier countries, but the more countries you add the cheaper the ad will be
Select age, input broad interests, and check the ‘expand interests’ box, make sure the potential reach bar has a figure over 100M (the more the better)
Click on Manual Placements and choose only IG stories
Add your ad video, input your IG profile link, and publish the ad
If you know anyone who would be interested in learning this method, please consider sharing this newsletter with them 👇
That is all for now. Make sure to subscribe below! Also, follow Culture Crave on Twitter, and Instagram. my DMs are always open on my personal account Zach Williamson if you have questions 🤙
I also have a podcast with some friends where we do film discussions. my last newsletter is available as well that covers Tenet and how to use Twitter replies to gain thousands of followers.
- Zach