The Mail Cart: Friday, May. 29th

👋 Welcome to The Mail Cart. This is Warner, founder of AvA. Connect with me here.

🎥 We brought on 6 of the top voices in Hollywood to give you a career roadmap (and tell you how to break in).

🎙️AvA LIVE is now on Spotify!!!! Stream it there every Friday following Wednesday’s live episode on YouTube, but don’t you dare call me a podcaster

📝 Obsession’ is Hollywood’s story of the year and it may not even be close.

💼 Looking for open Entertainment jobs? Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter. Plus Our Job Board now has 215+ early career Entertainment roles as well.

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⭐ ‘Obsession’ is a clear front runner for 2026’s best story in Hollywood

Things to know at work today to make you sound smart:

It officially posted the largest second week box office increase of modern times outside of Christmas with a 39.4% uptick on Weekend 2.
The film cost $750k to make and has grossed a staggering $73M. For those math nerds out there, that’s a 97.3× return on investment so far. HOLY F.
Director Curry Barker has already received an 8 figure offer for his next film (which he hasn’t even pitched yet)
75% of the movie’s audience is Gen-Z, AKA people aged between 18-29, along with younger millennials
The YouTube to Hollywood Blockbuster pipeline is becoming the norm (Re: Jordan Peele, Curry Barker, Kane Parsons, Markiplier, etc.)

⭐ Colin & Samir took over LA yesterday to prove one thing.. HOLLYWOOD AIN’T DEAD BABYYYY:

⭐ IMAX is one of the fastest growing companies in the film industry (yes in 2026!) but it is now in early talks for a sale. Why?

IMAX posted a record setting $1.2 billion in box office revenue in 2025, and is projected to break $1.6 billion this year with movies like ‘The Odyssey’ selling out an entire year in advance.

In an era of contraction in the theater biz, IMAX continues to grow. Why? They’ve made movies more experiential. They’re also extremely asset light (meaning they own no theaters) instead they license their technology to exhibitors across the world making them a very attractive business for potential buyers.

⭐ Amazon launched a fund dedicated to AI-generated TV shows, backing its first slate of animated series and giving “creators” access to Amazon’s in-house production tools.

Buckle up for “made with AI” becoming the new “shot on location.” Of course the company investing billions of $$ in AI is going to do everything in their power to integrate the tech across their entire business.

⭐ Does it feel like you are waiting longer between seasons of your favorite TV show?

Well the gap has gradually doubled over the last decade:

10 months in 2016
16 months in 2021
21 months in 2024 and 2025

The more you know!

We dove into the very unique careers of 5 very inspiring guests on the latest episode of AvA Live. Teaser below:

🎙️Joanna Jordan, Central Talent Booking Founder: “You have to have the grit and the balls to just go for it and accept that you're going to make mistakes. You just do your best and you learn as you grow.”

🎙️Erika Alexander, Actor, Producer, Creator: “I had to lean on and look for people I admired, but not mimic them... I had to have confidence I was going in the right direction, and that perhaps even the things I saw as detriments were learning opportunities”

🎙️Antoine Jordan, Central Talent Booking Executive: “Communication. Number one is communication. And persistence and perseverance, Every young person should know there is a place for them. You've just got to go for it. You've just got to try and be your own person.”