Why We Need to Know What’s Failing

IN BETWEENER Idris Elba stars in Hijack, which was neither a hit nor miss for Apple TV+, according to Entertainment Strategy Guy. (credit: Apple TV+)

Sonny Bunch is a contributing columnist at the Washington Post, The Bulwark culture editor, and member of the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

This week I’m rejoined by Entertainment Strategy Guy to talk about his two-part series on streaming flops (TV shows here; movies here). If hits pay for the misses, and we know what the hits are, shouldn’t we know what the misses are too as an industry tries to make fewer of them? We discuss his methodology and then examine one buzzy title, Hijack, to see if it’s a hit or a flop and the context in how to consider both. We also discuss his new piece for The Ankler on why sports documentaries tend to underperform, and why most mid-to-large-budget movies should either be released theatrically or not made at all.

Transcript here.