As everyone knows by now, the two dominant blockbuster successes of 2026 were made using money found in couches by no-name directors.
Just like Iron Lung, Obsession and Backrooms have brought in tens of millions of dollars and almost all of it is pure profit. I know I’ve had some hilariously bad misses over the years, but I’m going to take a victory lap because for years I’ve been saying the key to success is small movies. These have been a staple of Hollywood since a soundtrack was added to the reel. No huge names, no massive budget, just tight, relatable, interesting stories.
That last part is key: the story sells the film. People of a certain age will recall that huge name actors usually started out on commercials or bit parts on TV shows. They were not planted in $300 million productions where they could shoot their mouths off and piss off the audience.
This is in fact how stars are made: one film at a time.
The Streaming Series Apocalypse
This success also highlights the pointlessness of so many multi-season streaming shows. In addition to being hideously expensive and time-consuming to make, there’s tremendous risk that the whole exercise will ultimately have zero value down the stretch. (Of course, I foresaw the failure of Game of Thrones well in advance.)
Just in the recent past we have Lost, Heroes, the Battlestar Galactica reboot (which George R.R. Martin hammered for being awful!) The Man in the High Castle, Stranger Things and of course The Boys. Feel free to list others in the comments.
Speaking of Martin, I recently put a bunch of our DVDs up for auction on eBay. These were priced to sell, with a starting bid of only $1.99. Here’s how some of them performed.
The complete boxed set of The Gilmore Girls brought in $42.
The complete series of Veronica Mars plus the movie went for $22.50.
The first six seasons of Game of Thrones went for all of $4.50.
Now some may protest that first two auctions were for the entire series, while the (crappy) ending of Game of Thrones was omitted. Okay, let’s compare like with like. I also sold a lot consisting of the first season of True Blood, season 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead, and three seasons of Penny Dreadful. That went for $3.99.
Advantage: stand alone movies.
There is a path forward for episodic entertainment, and it’s making mid-season cancellation great again. Either go with the old American system of making shows earn their renewal or do the British thing with making each season a “series” that has a unified, self-contained plot arc that fits within a broader show concept.
Make Greed Great Again
By this point Disney investors have to be incandescent with rage, screaming into their phones like Les Grossman or perhaps doing a real life “Hitler Finds Out” sendup. “The director isn’t even old enough to buy beer and he kicked your ass! Why are all of our movies retarded and gay!?”
How much cash did Disney burn with Agatha All Along and Star Wars: The Acolyte? What were the writers and directors paid? Who’s bright idea was it to turn The Stuntman and Sockpuppet into a feature film? Are they still employed?
Iron Lung was a warning shot. These movies are a full-on broadside, completely demolishing the Hollywood establishment. It has never been easier to make a quality film and I think theater owners are now much more willing to take a chance on giving indie films some decent screens.
Hollywood’s current playbook of mystery box-streaming shows that ultimately go nowhere and bloated, unwatchable sequels to dead franchises are simply unaffordable. This is great news. We know Hollywood has always been immoral, but maybe it can at least be greedy again. As a great man once said: “Greed is good.”
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