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Critical hit

Unlike American audiences, critics seem to have long grown tired of Marvel movies

The new “Captain America” grossed $100 million in the US, despite pretty woeful reviews.

Tom Jones, David Crowther

“Ugly and artless,” “Marvel’s rock bottom,” “the most feckless, spineless blockbuster of the last decade” — it’s fair to say that if you were of two minds about splashing out on a ticket to see “Captain America: Brave New World” over Presidents Day weekend, the critical reception might have been enough to convince you to save your cash… and yet.

The new movie, the 35th installment in the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe, seems to be building on the studio’s impressive 2024, at least if its opening weekend is anything to go by. Disney is forecasting a $100 million domestic box office gross over the extended Presidents Day weekend. If accurate, the top four highest-grossing movies for the four-day period ever would now all be from the MCU. The film is also tipped to take more than $192 million around the world on its first weekend, which is no mean feat considering the critical mauling it received prerelease.

Slop machine

Anyone who’s kept up with the blockbuster discourse on how film buffs and reviewers feel about Marvel films will be well aware of the various criticisms leveled at the productions, though things feel like they’ve escalated around some recent releases, with Vulture arguing that the Disney-owned studio is now just a “giant slop machine.” Of course, millions of us love slop, even if we pretend not to sometimes.

While critic scores on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes might not make particularly great reading for recent releases like “Brave New World” (51%), “The Marvels” (62%), and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (46%), millions of moviegoers are still turning out to watch them, and many of the films are still turning out to be great earners for the House of Mouse. Bankrolling a movie with an unproven director, script, and characters feels risky in the current box office climate. Making Marvel movie number 36, 37, or 38? Probably a safe business bet, even if it won’t win you many Oscars.

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Netflix is staffing up an apparent AI animation studio called INKubator

According to several public job listings, streaming giant Netflix appears to be building a GenAI animation studio called INKubator.

First reported by journalist Janko Roettgers in the Lowpass newsletter, INKubator seems to have launched in March and aims to “develop feature-quality content in a creator-led environment.”

As Lowpass reports, INKubator appears focused on AI-generated short-form animation, but listings imply ambitions toward longer-form content. Netflix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

INKubator wouldn’t be Netflix’s first foray into AI. Back in March, it acquired Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking startup InterPositive — which trains on individual films’ already-shot footage — for as much as $600 million depending on certain targets.

Netflix’s potential future AI-generated animations could be served to an increasingly ad-packed streaming service. At Netflix’s Upfront presentation on Wednesday, the company said its ad-supported tier has now reached 250 million subscribers globally, up 31% from November.

Netflix is building an AI animation studio

Netflix is building an AI animation studio

As Lowpass reports, INKubator appears focused on AI-generated short-form animation, but listings imply ambitions toward longer-form content. Netflix didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

INKubator wouldn’t be Netflix’s first foray into AI. Back in March, it acquired Ben Affleck’s AI filmmaking startup InterPositive — which trains on individual films’ already-shot footage — for as much as $600 million depending on certain targets.

Netflix’s potential future AI-generated animations could be served to an increasingly ad-packed streaming service. At Netflix’s Upfront presentation on Wednesday, the company said its ad-supported tier has now reached 250 million subscribers globally, up 31% from November.

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Netflix confirms a “KPop Demon Hunters” world concert tour is on the way

Netflix has a “Golden” mine and it's digging deeper.

At its fourth annual TV Upfront presentation on Wednesday, Netflix President of Advertising Amy Reinhard announced a partnership with AEG Presents to create a “KPop Demon Hunters” world tour that will bring the phenomenon to life.

In March, Bloomberg previously reported Netflix was planning a global world tour sometime next year ahead of the sequel in arenas that would hold 10,000 to 20,000 fans, though the news had not been confirmed by the company nor had a partner been in place at the time. 

“KPop Demon Hunters” is Netflix’s most watched film of all time, racking up 481.6 million views globally during the second half of 2025. Since its release, the HUNTR/X trio of Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami has appeared and performed at several major events including late-night talk shows, award ceremonies, and most recently at Coachella, where they were a surprise guest for Katseye. It hasn’t been confirmed whether the trio will be on the tour.

The announcement of the tour comes after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos shared in a recent blog post that the company spent $135 billion on licensing and original film and TV over the last 10 years.

This year, Netflix has a projected content spend of $20 billion, up 10% year over year, while its annual revenue forecast is between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion. The streaming giant has brought in more than $46 billion in profit over the past decade.

Netflix said more details around cities and tickets for the concert tour are expected to come out later this year.

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