How Hollywood profits off fake AI trailers on YouTube
Have you been fooled into watching fake trailers for upcoming movies? Thanks to the rise of AI video, they are becoming more common. There’s big bucks behind it and… plot twist… traditional Hollywood studios are making money off them.
SAG-AFTRA isn’t keen on the practice, arguing that it violates members voice and likeness rights. Deadline filed a lengthy feature on this over the weekend:
He believes that Screen Culture helps promote the movies, which is why studios do not enforce copyright on the vast majority of his videos. Indeed, studios are actively taking a cut of his earnings on AI-fuelled trailers, even if the money is paltry in the grand scheme of their earnings. Emails reviewed by Deadline show how Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has claimed monetization on Screen Culture trailers for Superman and House of the Dragon. This means that instead of copyright striking the videos (if a channel accrues three strikes within 90 days, it can be banned from YouTube), WBD is asking YouTube to ensure it receives the ad revenue from views. Similarly, Sony Pictures has claimed revenue on fake trailers for Spider-Man and Kraven The Hunter, while Paramount did the same on a counterfeit Gladiator II video. WBD, Sony, and Paramount declined to comment.
It continues…
Chaudhari’s impression is that copyright is being enforced inconsistently, with monetization claims only being made on an estimated 10% of Screen Culture’s 2,700 videos. WBD did copyright strike the channel once in 2023 for a fake Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga trailer, but let subsequent Mad Max videos slide. Chaudhari received a polite email from an Amazon attorney to remove a The Boys trailer because it used “Amazon trademarks and other intellectual property assets without Amazon’s permission,” but this warning was not repeated for other bogus Boys trailers on Screen Culture. Disney very rarely copyright challenges Screen Culture’s videos, despite its IP being a major resource for the channel. Disney declined to comment.
Ultimately, the system rewards the practice, from YouTube amplifying the videos through to the studios monetising them.
Being early to a topic can help push a video up YouTube’s search ranking, while new videos are often boosted, which is why Screen Culture hits certain franchises fast and hard. Deadline searches found Screen Culture had high-ranking results for many major upcoming movies, including Thunderbolts* and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, with all the videos embellished using AI. YouTube’s algorithm also rewarded some videos by pushing them into its recommendation sidebar and ‘People Also Search For’ menu. YouTube was approached for comment.
Chaudhari uses at least six AI tools to create his videos, including Leonardo, Midjourney, and ElevenLabs, the latter of which specializes in generative voiceover work. Since adopting the technology, Screen Culture’s views and subscribers have more than doubled in the past two years to 1.4B and 1.4M respectively. The channel is verified by YouTube, giving it a veneer of authenticity, while Chaudhari proudly displays his YouTube gold award for hitting 1M subscribers. The success has translated into millions of dollars of ad revenue, though Chaudhari is coy about exactly how much he is earning. On his Instagram account, he looks every inch the affluent online influencer, flaunting his supercars and luxury travel escapades.
It’s an interesting evolution for “fan” media. I remember when I first started getting online in the late 90s and trawling X-Files fan sites the big discussion at the time surrounded companies like Fox pulling promotional assets that they couldn’t control from fan websites. The studios came to realise that at the end of the day, fan sites publishing the authorised trailers and promotional photos benefited the long-term promotion of their properties.
So, seeing studios now actively seeking revenue from fake trailers that they not only don’t control, but are often in conflict with their own investment in hugely expensive tentpoles is a pretty radical shift.
How long will it be until studios are using fake, AI trailers as R&D to not only determine which IP they want to invest in, but also using trailers to determine casting decisions and what tone a film should have? Who needs studio talent when the YouTube algorithm can do the heavy lifting?
Max - The launch lineup
I’ve done it a few times in the past for streaming services launching in Australia, so I decided to create a list of all the content available on Max at launch.
It proved to be a nightmare. The Max service does not have a library as deep as the US version by any means, but it is still pretty bulky. What makes creating lists so difficult is the abundance of Discovery reality factual shows/features in there.
I’m still working on it, but you can find the bulk of it all listed here:
Related: BINGE - April highlights
With Max launching in Australia, it leaves streaming service BINGE with a big content hole to fill. Last week I did a whole lot of media with various outlets talking about the Max launch and every outlet asked the same direct question: Where does this leave BINGE?
My assumption is that the streamer will fill its WBD-sized hole with a lot of programming from independent distributors and a lot of second window programming. But, certainly it doesn’t look like BINGE are going that hard at it for April.
Here’s the April BINGE highlights:
The only new series title being the Rebecca Hall British drama The Listeners, which debuted on the BBC back in November. Lucy Mangan gave it a strong review in The Guardian. I haven’t had an opportunity to press play yet, but will try and get a look at it by the end of the week.
News Desk
Tommy Flanagan from Sons of Anarchy has joined the cast of House of the Dragon for Season 3. Read: Deadline
As House of The Dragon commences season 3 production, showrunner Ryan Condal has started bitching out GoT creator George RR Martin. Read: Deadline
The cast for season 4 of Industry gets better with every round of announcements. Added today are Kal Penn, Charlie Heaton, and Claire Forlani. Great to see Forlani back on my screen - I’ve been in love with her for too many years to admit out loud. Read: Variety
Shailene Woodley has joined the season 2 cast of Paradise. I’m not sure if Sinatra had any policies regarding deodorant use down in the cave… Read: Variety
Nathan Fillion has joined the cast of HBO’s Lanterns series as Guy Gardner, a Green Lantern that will be seen in the upcoming Superman film. Read: THR
Cristin Milioti is joining Elizabeth Olsen in the cast of Seven Sisters. That’s two down. Read: Deadline
A big question I had surrounding the launch of Max in Australia was whether the impending Max rebrand, shifting its colour scheme from blue to black, would take place first in Australia or in the US. Well, it turned out to be Australia… but only by a few hours. Read: Variety
WTFN is partnering with Nine Network to drive new revenue streams from FAST and VoD platforms. New FAST channel Real Emergency (to be available on 9now and shopped to FAST services internationally) will stream the reality factual shows Paramedics and Emergency. Read: C21
The (not wildly impressive) tech specs aren’t what Nintendo are selling when it comes to their new consoles. Read: The Verge
Ketchup Entertainment has confirmed their completed deal for worldwide rights to shelved Warner Bros flick Coyote vs ACME. Read: Deadline
Ratings were up for The White Lotus again this week - 4.8 million US viewers, up 14%. Read: Deadline
Plex has unveiled its updated mobile app for iOS and Android. Read: The Verge
Details on all of this are a bit light, but it seems that The Daily Wire fired a whole lot of people over the weekend and has scaled back plans to launch general entertainment services aimed at right wing viewers. The entire kids content department has been shown the door, which means we have probably seen the last of the Bluey rip-off about the conservative chinchilla family. FYI, Chip Chilla is AWFUL. Read: Breitbart
Trailer Park
The Eternaut debuts April 30 on Netflix.
After a toxic snowfall kills millions, Juan Salvo and a group of survivors in Buenos Aires must resist an invisible threat from another world.
Connie Britton created and hosts The Motherhood for Hallmark Channel. It debuts May 5.
Each of the six one-hour episodes of The Motherhood follows Britton, a single mother herself, as she connects with another single mother who is juggling the demands of work, parenting, and self-care.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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