The Garden Harvest: 9/5/25
Your weekly digest on the intersection of the Creator Economy and Legacy Media.
Welcome back to the Garden Harvest.
Each week, we gather and curate the freshest insights from the worlds of Creators and Legacy Media, so you can stay rooted in what matters and spot new opportunities where others can’t.
Let’s get into it…
FRESH CLIPPINGS
Gen Alpha at the Movies
Quite an interesting counter-narrative study from NRG came out recently discussing the relationship of Gen Alpha (kids younger than 15), and the movie theater. As the study says, “ Movie theaters have not exactly had an easy ride over the past decade.”
We all know this.
But it turns out that the youngest moviegoers in the U.S. aren’t abandoning theaters for TikTok after all. In fact, six in ten say they prefer theaters to home viewing (that’s more than Millennials).
For Gen Alpha, the theater is less about Dolby sound and more about social buzz: 70% go to spend time with friends and family, and over half prefer rolling in with a big group. They want franchises that feel like theirs (Minecraft, Roblox, Five Nights at Freddy’s), movies that spark memes and fan art, and screenings that feel like community events.
What we can all draw from this is that theatrical is mutating. For the youngest audience members, movies are cultural campfires. The studios and theaters that thrive will be the ones that make each release feel like an event you can’t miss—part film, part fandom, part festival.
Chronicling a Creator-made Film
Evan Shapiro will be giving us a master class of how to distribute a creator-led feature film in a way that generates value for everyone involved.
A year ago, he decided to greenlight the film outside the Hollywood system, on his own dime, and with his own rules. The result is SKIT, a $65K ultra–low budget comedy about three young women in 2007 trying to go viral on YouTube (and failing spectacularly).
Evan is turning the process itself into content, sharing each step on FilmTok as a living case study in creator-led filmmaking: how to greenlight, shoot, finish, and (the hardest part) distribute a feature without Hollywood’s safety net. Every success, stumble, and hack will form part of the learning data.
We should all pay attention to this. As he says, there is no failure here as the goal is to show how creators can test, learn, adapt, and grow while keeping ownership in their own hands.
And who knows, this new playbook for indie movies might emerge from the very platforms that once threatened to replace them.
SNL Invites the Creators In
In case you missed it, Saturday Night Live is leaning into creators for its 51st season, adding five fresh faces—two of them TikTok stars—to the cast.
Alongside the usual improv comics and stand-up talent, the new recruits include Veronika Slowikowska, known for her viral sketches, and Jeremy Culhane, an improv-trained TikTok comedian.
It’s a notable shake-up, arriving as veteran cast members exit and the show looks to re-energize itself by pulling directly from the digital-native generation.
Excited to see what comes from this.
GARDEN VIEW
Excited to announce the first Open Gardens Fireside Chat. It was a great discussion between
and at this year’s NALIP conference on all things Legacy x Creators. Check out the full video here!HARVEST QUOTE
“The celebrity brand gold rush is over.”
— VC investor Scott Van Den Berg, after analyzing the 47 celebrity brands that died in 2024, wiping out $450M.
The failures boiled down to three patterns: thinking followers replace distribution, slapping a name on generic formulas, and vanishing after launch.
It’s worth reading his full analysis.
Have a great weekend…
I think you could add Kpop Demon Hunters to your list. Gen Alpha and Gen Z want events and like you mentioned social buzz.