Hi, Everyone!

I'm Laura, the Marketing Coordinator here at Stage 32 supporting Development Services, which means my job is all about connecting this incredible global community of 1.5+ million creatives with the executives, services, contests, and opportunities that can move your careers forward.

Before joining the Stage 32 team, I was Content Manager at FX Networks with The Walt Disney Company, where I supported the launches of new and returning shows including SHŌGUN and THE BEAR through website, email, and SMS campaigns. Before that, I worked in Dubbing Operations at Pixelogic Media on some of the world's most esteemed feature and episodic titles. My background spans digital marketing, graphic design, production, and content delivery, and I love using all of it to help creatives find their next opportunity.

What I love most about being here is that everything we do is in service of your success stories. Seeing a writer land a script request, sign with a manager, or get their project produced never gets old.

Every month, a handful of headlines land that change how you should be thinking about your work. Not the noise, the signal. This is where we break down what actually moved, what it means for you, and where the openings are.

Here is what August has given us so far...

The Theater Recovery Is Real, But Not for the Reason You Think

If you have been to a theater this summer, you probably felt it. Full auditoriums. An audience that reacted out loud. Something close to the way going to the movies used to feel.

The revenue backs that up. Domestic summer box office has topped $4.2 billion, running roughly 6% ahead of the 2019 pace. By the metric the industry reports on, we are past pre-pandemic levels.

Now here is the part nobody puts in the headline.

Actual attendance is still down about 27% from 2019. Foot traffic data tells a different story than gross revenue does. Exhibitors are making 2019 money from significantly fewer people, because ticket prices climbed and premium formats like IMAX and 3D carry a steep upcharge. The recovery you are feeling is real in dollars and partly an illusion in bodies. Still, the increase is a noticable and positive improvement in the right direction and should be celebrated as such.

Why this matters to you:

It changes what a "successful" film looks like on paper. Studios are not betting on volume anymore; they are betting on the film that earns a premium ticket. That is why event-scale filmmaking keeps getting greenlit, and it is also why the mid-budget films that do break through have to give an audience a reason to leave the house.

If you are writing features, ask yourself an honest question about your project: is there anything in it that plays better in a room full of strangers than it does alone on a couch? Scale, spectacle, and genuine communal reaction, whether that is laughter or fear, are the things people are still paying a premium for. If your answer is yes, lean into it in how you pitch. If the answer is no, that is worth knowing too, because the streaming conversation is a different conversation.

Comedy Is in a Moment of Reinvention

Comedy is the trend everyone is talking about, and it is more complicated and more interesting than "comedy is back."

At Just For Laughs Montreal's ComedyPRO in July, Deadline convened a panel with manager-producer Reg Tigerman, who launched The Laugh List, a survey of the year's best unproduced comedy screenplays, former JFL VP Maureen Taran, now leading a new original content division for Helium, and comedian and creator Danny Jolles. They covered studio mandates, comedy clubs as incubators for new formats, the blurring lines between YouTube and Netflix, and development pet peeves.

The honest picture from that conversation and the data around it: stand-up has boomed as artists bootstrap their own careers, TV comedy has had a strong run though series orders have contracted relative to drama, and theatrical feature comedy is still fighting to regain its footing.

But the appetite is there. Audience research points to strong consumer demand for more comedy, and the theatrical performance of titles like Happy Gilmore 2 and the Naked Gun reboot has the town talking about a comedy comeback again.

Where the openings are:

The fact that The Laugh List exists at all tells you something. Somebody built a survey specifically to get unproduced comedy screenplays in front of executives, because the pipeline needs refilling and the industry knows it. That is a signal. The buyers want the material and are not confident it exists.

If comedy is your lane, this is a moment to have something finished rather than something in progress. And pay attention to where the formats are blurring. The line between what plays on YouTube and what plays on a streamer is thinner than it has ever been, which means the proof of concept you make yourself carries more weight in a comedy conversation than it would have five years ago.

Paramount+ Is Buying Female-Forward Stories, and Saying So Out Loud

This one is as close to a public mandate as our business gets.

On her one-year anniversary in the role, Paramount+ Head of Originals Jane Wiseman laid out the streamer's programming strategy to Deadline: female-forward, genre, and YA dramas, but not comedies, plus kids and family programming and unscripted. She noted seven scripted drama greenlights in the last ten months with more on the runway, and said that for the first time in Paramount+'s history they are buying from outside studios rather than only from Paramount TV Studios and CBS Studios.

Wiseman has described the female forward initiative as encompassing both what is in front of the camera and behind it. Recent pickups reflect it: Discretion, a legal thriller from A24 starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning, Fear Not, a true-crime limited series from MGM Television starring Anne Hathaway, and the Clueless sequel with Alicia Silverstone. The streamer has also been in the market for romance, family stories, soap-style fare, and serialized thrillers, alongside grounded genre concepts, meaning big ideas anchored in relatable human drama.

Two things to take from this.

First, when a buyer publishes their shopping list, believe them and write toward it. Female-forward drama, romance, soapy thriller, and grounded genre are not vague categories, they are the specific things this buyer has said out loud that they need.

Second, and this is the part I would underline: they are buying from outside studios for the first time in a long time. A door that was closed is open. That does not mean they are taking unsolicited scripts, but it does mean the pool of producers and studios who can get material in front of them just got significantly wider.

Netflix Entered the Co-Production Business

This is the structural story of the month, and it is bigger than the show that came out of it.

Netflix has made a deal with AMC Studios to jointly develop and produce original series, believed to be the first arrangement of its kind for the streamer. The agreement was made a few months ago, with the two companies building a development slate together, and the first greenlight to come out of it is Bannerman, a spy drama from Shane Black and Craig Silverstein based on John R. Maxim's novels. In his first television series, Black co-wrote the premiere and will direct the first two episodes, with Silverstein showrunning. AMC Studios is the lead studio.

For years, the streamers built walls. Own the show, own the library, own the audience. Netflix just partnered with a traditional cable network to develop and produce originals together, and both companies have signaled this is the start of an ongoing relationship rather than a one-off.

Why you should care:

Consolidation gets all the headlines, and it is usually bad news for creatives because fewer buyers means fewer chances. Collaboration is a different shape entirely. When two companies pool development, they build a slate together, and a slate means projects. It also means a show that might have been too expensive or too risky for either one alone becomes possible when the cost and the risk are shared.

Watch whether other pairings follow. If they do, it changes the map of who you are actually pitching.

What to Do With All of This

Four stories, one throughline.

The industry is not contracting the way the doom cycle keeps insisting it is. It is reorganizing. Buyers are publishing what they want. Companies that used to compete are building things together. Audiences are showing up for the films that earn the trip. Every one of those is an opening if you are paying attention, and a missed opportunity if you are not.

The creatives who move fastest are the ones who read the market and then write toward it, not the ones who write in a vacuum and hope the market comes around.

Take This Into Your Work

Reading the market is the first half. Acting on it is the second, and here is where to start.

Ask a studio story analyst what he is actually seeing, today, for FREE.

Stage 32 Thought Leader Michael Schulman, Senior Story Analyst at Amazon MGM Studios, is hosting a 24-hour Ask Me Anything in the Screenwriting Lounge right now, on exactly this subject: what studios and streamers are buying, and how to position your script for it. His credits include THE SIXTH SENSE, RUSHMORE, MUNICH, and THE AVIATOR, and he is answering questions in the comments through tomorrow morning. It is free, and it is the single best follow-up to everything you just read. Click here to join in now before it wraps up.

Get your project in front of the buyers.

When a streamer publishes their shopping list, the next question is how you actually reach them. Stage 32 Pitch Sessions put you in front of over 3,000 industry executives who take pitches directly, across every genre and format. If you have something that fits what these buyers are asking for, this is the shortest path from your desk to theirs. Click here to secure your spot.

In the last two weeks, the Stage 32 Community has had 151 Script Requests and 30 Meeting Requests from various executives, producers, and managers, including Corvisiero Literary Agency, Kevin Hart's Hartbeat, Affirmative Entertainment, MACRO Television Studios, Gold Circle Films, and more!

Make sure the material is ready before the door opens.

The advice in the comedy section applies everywhere: this is a moment to have something finished, not something in progress. The Script Coverage Workshop inside the Stage 32 Writers' Room gives you professional eyes on your pages every week, alongside Open Writing Assignments, live pitch practice, and weekly webcasts with working executives. Your first month is on us. Click here for your first month FREE.

And keep watching the map.

Deals like the Netflix and AMC arrangement change who you are pitching and how. The Filmmaking, Producing, Financing, and Distribution Lounges are where our community works through this in real time, every day. If a story in this blog raised a question for you, click into the one that fits and ask it there now.

Need help navigating the industry? Contact success@stage32.com

Stage 32 has hundreds of opportunities. Reach out to our success team at any time for personal guidance and career advice.

Cheers,

Your Stage 32 Success Team

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