Going to the movies is SO back

0:08This episode of Stylish is brought to you by Koala. Their biggest sale of the year is on now with up to 30 % off everything. Hello, happy Friday. This is Stylish, the corner of Stylish where we talk business, marketing, careers, really anything we feel like. And I'm very excited for today because it's actually Nima and Maya's first time as a duo on a Friday. Yay! Hi, Mads. Nice to have you. Nice to be here together. I'm so excited. We're talking about a real passion point of yours, which I feel like you threw in our Slack chat and were like, immediately, if not sooner, we must cover this. And I'm really excited for this because I feel like I learnt so much covering this.

0:48I feel like we need to add now movies, spoiler alert, to that like list of many items now. Yeah, yeah. Cleaning. Yep. Psychics as of Wednesday. I mean, the list is ever evolving. Off campus. Yeah, at this point we're a fan account. Yeah. But we're going to start with your word of the week. It is my word of the week. I'm feeling a bit spoiled because I got a doubleheader word of the week, which is very kind of my co-host to give me. But my word of the week is actually, well, it's a thing. We always break the rules. Was a great business of fashion article that I read that covered the Euromonitor June 2026 reporting of the top 10 beauty brands globally.

1:24And I was fascinated by this because MAC is still number one, which I feel like whether you're a beauty gal or you're not, you're kind of like you might have one MAC lip liner lying around in the bottom. Genuinely shocked me. Yeah, like it doesn't shock me because I've worked in beauty but I can see how it would shock the average person. Why do you feel like it shocked you? Maybe because I'm on social media so much that it's not like one of the brands, when I think of beauty, I see front and centre on my feed. Do you feel like it's because you're seeing like the Rez and the Rhodes and the Fenty's of the world?

1:57Yeah. I think it is easy to forget these heritage brands have such like mainstay and the breadth of market that they have and the number of markets they're in as well, like just their sheer volume of markets and distributor points they're available in. So the reason I wanted to bring up this article, though, was that YSL Beauty has kind of climbed these ranks over the last few years. And YSL Beauty is kind of my kryptonite. And there's a woman who's the general manager for them called Juliet Ferret. And I'm fascinated by her because I think she's done an incredible job of this brand. They're a luxury brand.

2:31Like they're tied to a fashion house, Saint Laurent, being a very synonymous luxury fashion house. But they're doing like a really good job at playing into Gen Z and feeling accessible culturally, which their price point is, I would not say an accessible price point. But they've just signed Charli XCX as one of their US makeup ambassadors. And I think they've got her at a really interesting time as she's going into rock music. And she had this great quote where she said, YSL beauty has always moved with the pulse of its time. and I just thought that was like the perfect way to summarize it and the reason I loved this article was because they were saying YSL like is the brand to beat in that top 10 because they're just kind of climbing climbing climbing and I'm watching them very closely.

3:13Now that you've said it I don't know if I've like intentionally seen it but they have really been turning up in places like music festivals like I've seen a lot of activations at music festivals specifically I think in in Australia, they were at Laneway Fest, like they had a full activation. The other thing that they do actually quite well is like an ambassador program. So I think they engage a lot of micro influencers even in Australia. And like the whole premise is that you get a bunch of product once a month and you can make what you like with it. There's no like deliverables, but what they're getting is continuous amounts of content from their target audience, which is Gen Z.

3:54Yeah. And credit to them. Their products are great. Do you know what I mean? Like the products back it up. And I do think their ability to localise in each market is what is seeing them drive that because so many global brands will have a set and forget strategy for everyone must do the same thing in the same way. I like that YSL is kind of localising a little bit. You know, they're having a bit more fun. I agree with the product thing, the mascara. So good. Lengthen so much, which I wear glasses, so I really need lengthening because it's like behind a shield. And number two, it doesn't clump.

4:25It doesn't clump. Also, I always say I have a daytime mascara and a nighttime mascara. So I use Tower 28 during the day because it's like a little bit more light and less like dramatic. But I want someone to think I've got lashes on in the eve and I think YSL can do that with a couple of coats. But true, it never clumps. I love that. we should all have a daytime and a daytime mascara. Talk about being indulgent. Okay, enough about indulging our favourite mascaras and beauty brands. Naima, this is your passion point. Take the floor. We're talking blockbusters in the box office. Yeah, I am so excited to talk about this today.

4:58I'm going to be honest, I've been like sneakily pitching this to Lucy at Head of Podcasts for a little while now being like, oh, have you seen this on your feed? Oh, have you seen this on your feed. So when the opportunity came up to be on a Friday episode, I was like, yes, this is my chance. My time is now. Also handy being desk side. You're like subliminal message, subliminal message, subliminal message. It's like unfair advantage, but hey, what can you do? So I want to bring to the table something that's been, I think, dominating not only like my personal conversations at the moment, like in the group chat, I'm finding ourselves talking about it a lot more.

5:37It's also really dominating like the work lunchtime chat. Like a lot of the time people are talking about what movies they watched last night. People often come in in the morning and it's like, what did you do last night? It'll be about a movie and then it'll spark like a 20 minute conversation. Not great for productivity, but still good. And also my feed. I am getting a lot of conversation about movies in general. I would say probably the last six months to a year, it's just like really coming top of my feed all the time. I'm getting served a lot of this content. Have you noticed this too? I've totally noticed.

6:11And we even saw that with Barbie and Oppenheimer earlier last year. Barbieheimer or whatever it was called. That kind of like kicked off where I started to be like, oh wait, a movie's so back. Yeah. And going to the cinema, not just a movie. So I think when you say movie, you instantly think it could be on Netflix, it could be Amazon Prime. I mean, when someone tells me they watch something, usually my first instinct is to say what platform is it on not what cinema did you head to is it at Hoyts or Village I think that is the kind of difference that I've been noticing so obviously I think the rhetoric has been ever since COVID sorry trigger word but yeah the C word COVID there was you know we actually couldn't go to the movies but not only that there was that trickling effect of you know productions being down I think we just saw like a less amount of movies coming into the movies and obviously because movies take several years to make often, I think there's been like a lay-on effect for a long time.

7:05But what I saw, I saw two things on my feed recently that's kind of made me rethink this and kind of made me think about that people are going to the movies more. So one, I saw a post from Variety saying that the Australian box office has scored its highest results for May in its entire history, which is so crazy to me. So crazy, especially when we're referencing the blockbuster films that I referenced at the start, how this particular month when Toy Story hasn't even dropped yet, we're not talking these ones that like big family and troves of people are going out to see. It really surprised me.

7:41I was really shocked by this. Well, the two movies that I think may be possibly also driving this, these are two horror films that have been all over my feet. I will caveat this by saying that I'm a big scaredy cat and I am afraid of horror films, but it has fully infiltrated my feed. Backrooms and Obsession, both from YouTubers, which is so interesting to me. One of them is 20 years old, have been all over my feed. Their marketing campaigns, the number of people that are going, and they've actually pulled number one and two at the box office in America, which is just insane. And not only that, there's been so many films that have like kind of captured the zeitgeist recently.

8:22You know, Devil Wears Prada 2, you guys have talked a little bit about on the Wednesday episodes. We've had the drama, we've had Wuthering Heights, we've had Sinners, The Substance and obviously the new Toy Story 5, which Mads, you saw earlier this week. I did. I took my niece and nephew. Look, I won't spoil it, but it's just, it's magic. It's amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if that's also going to be all of our feeds and that conversation is going to dominate the next few weeks of the cycle. I think Taylor Swift might have helped out a little bit there too. Just that, you know, small indie artist.

8:51I think all of these things all together has got us thinking, Mads, why are we all going back to the movies all of a sudden? We're going to decode all of it and why we think movies are so back, but that will be right after a word from today's sponsor. They say the sofa is the most important piece of furniture you'll buy. And I couldn't agree more. Like a great accessory, it ties the whole look together. I've been browsing new sofas on koala.com because their biggest sale of the year is happening right now with up to 30 % off everything. One of my favourite things about Koala's sofas is that the covers are completely removable and washable, so you can keep them looking fresh or switch up your style whenever you feel like it.

9:29I'm obsessed with the Midnight Mocha cover right now. It has this gorgeous chocolate suede look, but I can already see myself swapping to forest dawn when spring and summer roll around. If you're in the market for new living or bedroom furniture, shop up to 30 % off Koala for a limited time. A huge thank you to Koala for making this this episode of Stylish Possible. So Naima, you mentioned Backrooms and Obsession, two of these films that by your own admission, you're a scaredy cat. And I don't say that from an ivory tower. I too am just so allergic to scary films. But we've found that they're on our feeds.

10:04Yeah. Not even as the target audience, being that we're scaredy cats and scary movies aren't our thing. And as you mentioned, YouTube backgrounds, but Backroom was directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons. It's become the highest grossing ever A24 film of all time. It's sitting at$212 million USD globally right now. And I had to contextualise this because I was like A24, I think it's really easy to kind of separate who produces a film versus what the film actually is. They've done Marty Supreme. They've done the drama. Like we are talking some massive cultural big name films. I was really surprised by this because this wasn't kind of to the breadth or scale in my mind I was imagining it would have been to hit those kind of numbers.

10:51It's really interesting because Kane actually created the original YouTube series that the film is based on. So there was kind of this pre-existing lore and community. There were 3 million people following the YouTube series, which maybe indicated that the appetite was well and truly there. It had 340 million views. Yeah, crazy. Safe to say those three million followers were actively engaged. And he made that when he was 16. What were you doing at 16 months? I think I was in debate club. I was pinning something on a blazer and heading to debate club. Like, I'll let you pick what kind of 16 year old I was based on that.

11:25But it's really tapped into this like creepy internet law, which previously to date, I would say neither of us have been across. But by kind of tapping into that, it's kind of created this unique marketing campaign in and of itself. And then fellow horror film Obsession has kind of been enjoying the same dizzying heights. Naima, you were telling me like a crazy stat that exists about what its production budget was versus what it delivered. Yeah. So similar to Backrooms, also produced by YouTube creator, and it had a budget of$750 ,000, which like obviously is a lot of money, but in MovieLand, that's nothing.

12:05And it made 234 million USD worldwide, which is 330 times the production budget, which is obviously an executive's dream. An executive's dream. Because as you said,$750, not big in movie world,$750 ,000 average person,$750 ,000 we're talking, not dollars. But you were giving me this great example of the Devil Wears Prada, what they delivered. Didn't they deliver three times their budget? I think it's like good to give context of like obviously these are like big numbers that we're talking about but it's like what's another movie that was kind of out at the same time that's been in the zeitgeist.

12:43So Deb Wears Prada had a production budget of a hundred million alongside an 80 million dollar marketing spend and made 676 million at the box office. So that's three times the amount. So compare that to like I know that obviously Obsession made less but it just made such an incredible return on investment for the production company. Yeah. And I mean, it's kind of like a business, right? It's not just about what your sales are or what the dollars at the box office is. For the executive teams, it's how much profit are we delivering and how much time's our budget. Look, Obsession's marketing campaign kind of needed to be seen to be believed.

13:20And if you haven't checked it out, I'd urge you to go and have a look if you are in brand or marketing or you're just, you know, interested in this space as we are now. But they had these kind of giant billboards. And it's funny, I started getting served these and I kind of thought it was like one of those like TikTok mini series. I don't know if you've had those. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we've all been held. It's how I watch movies. We've kind of been held there at some point. But they bought these out of home sites, which are essentially billboards, digital billboards. And each day they kind of transformed from really simple like, hey, how's your day been to why won't you text me back?

13:56And as the title might suggest of this film, the whole context is it's someone who does become deeply obsessed with someone they're dating. And I thought that was genius because it reflected so much of what happens at least once, hopefully at most once in most people's lives, which is in that dating phase when someone might just be a little bit too keen and you're like, oh, but then like it goes beyond that point of like, oh, it's giving me the ick to like, okay, we've got a problem. I think in the movie, it's like this thing where she's like a man has essentially cast a spell on her that he makes her obsessed with him.

14:30And it's that like, it's what you wish for, but is this really what you wish for? They complement it with these like flyers, you know, the ones where you can rip off the bottom. Like when someone loses their dog. Yeah, yeah, exactly that. And it had a number on it and then you had to text the number and it started out pretty like fun. It was like, hey, how are you? Haven't caught up in so long. And it just apparently gets more and more deranged of like it'll be and it's not just like one text message you get like eight to ten which is like exactly how the movie goes where it just like builds and builds and builds which is such a cool way I think to market something that doesn't have a big budget one thousand percent and also to insert yourself in a story you don't yet know about because the main character's name was Nikki and so the contact card appeared as Nikki you were getting texts you were getting voice notes like yeah the whole kit and caboodle and I think it adds an element that's unexpected and you know the reality is Devil Wears Prada couldn't do that because it would be texting too many people it would be too much you know having I mean it would be kind of iconic to get a text from Miranda Priestly you know there's always the Devil Wears Prada 3 but I did love that you know it kind of trapped the audience in this one-sided conversation of like oh I wonder what this film's about or what is this that I've like you know randomly text.

15:48If that's not going to get me to a movie I don't know what is. Like I am like oh my god like I need to know who this Nikki person is. Yeah who the hell is Nikki? Yeah. Okay so we've spoken about obsession. Tell me a little bit about Backroom and why you loved this campaign and felt like it helped build them to that crazy number in 824's Dizzying Hines. Yeah I think a lot of it just comes from that lore of it all, which basically I think we spoke a little bit about it at the start, but it's a, it actually started on 4chan, which a platform I don't personally use, but someone had asked, you know, for pictures of creepy looking spaces or spaces that make you feel a bit uneasy.

16:28And there was one space that was shared where it kind of went viral on the channel and it was called this like backrooms idea. And from that, the creator who, like I said, Kane was 16 at the time created this YouTube series. The first one, I think I had like 80 million views. And then the overall series had like 330 million views. So it already had a built in audience. So this movie, before it even, you know, got marketed, got somewhere, it had a built in audience, not just the people who watched his YouTube series. It's people who understand that online viral trend of these spaces. So I think what you're seeing here is that online people or people who are like creating content for young people already are going to be the people who break through.

17:18Because he understands how to create content for young people or for like online first people, like social first people. I also think YouTube is one of those platforms where it's like gives you constant feedback. It's like, I don't know, a marketing team, you've obviously worked in marketing for a long time. Market research costs how much? Like you just, you would start at$60 ,000 to do like a significant piece. I shouldn't even say significant, largely insignificant to be honest. But yeah, to get like 30, 40 participants in a room and do two or three of those is like $40 ,000 to$60 ,000. Yeah.

17:55Well, he has access to this like millions of people giving him pretty constant feedback around this content that he's building. Yeah. Not only that, it's like I would say YouTube probably has like the best analytics of all the social channels. Sorry, TikTok and Instagram. It gives you pretty consistent feedback of what time people stopped, what parts they paused at. It lets you A, B test. So he was able to finesse as he went. So I think by the time it was ready to be launched, it was in a really good place. It had a primed audience. It was ready to go. So winning product aside, he also had the audience.

18:30And what I loved kind of as a contrast to the two of these is one was almost like you were included by being part of that exclusive group that had already watched. And then if you look at Obsession, it was almost like you were invited in to Discover. Whereas this other one was like, no, no, no, we're a bit if you know, you know. Like the mystique and allure of it was that if you didn't understand it, you wanted to be invited in. The other was the door was wide open. It was like, come in and we'll text you. Like we will go as far as to send you 24 text messages. Yeah, I will be in your home. But it's like me looking into it, I was like, there was so many steps for me to figure out what the law was.

19:03Like it was not like an easy thing to figure out. But it's like people are going on this journey, which I find super interesting too. Yeah. And they did some in real life pop ups. You were mentioning the doorways. Yeah, so part of that law essentially is that once they figured out that it was just like a, not a spooky place, it was just an abandoned furniture store in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. And what they started doing is putting up blue taped doorways in different places in the same city. So they like really lent into the bit. Like they went back to where the law actually originated. people started taking photos of it and these fake doorways really connected back to the movies and it started circulating online being like what are these doors?

19:49Yeah and I think ultimately this is the cheapest and most valuable marketing tool and it's so precious because it's so hard to create but it is groundswell talkability virality that like yes investment goes into an out-of-home billboard or creating the bot that can ultimately send the text messages from Nikki. But these things are minor costs in relation to massive big film budgets that are like the Devil Wears Prada or Barbie. And the viralities existing on the channels that these like the audiences exist on. People are taking the photo and like I don't know how many people live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, but it's like so you're not going to get massive out of home eyes, but it's the people who are like bringing it onto the internet, that's where you get your most amount of value there.

20:37I actually think one of the biggest marketing wins that he had from the start, actually, before any of this came to be, I read this article on Puck, basically that a director and a production company asked one of their production assistants to troll through YouTube and TikTok to find creators who were making amazing videos. So it's like from the start, they've had this objective of like, we want to target these younger audiences and they've gone to the platforms that they are. Yeah, gone straight to the source. But also, isn't it so ironic that to get people to go offline by going to the cinema, they're diving into people that are online chronically.

21:17Yeah. And like, imagine being that 27 year old right now being like, yeah, I found him. I did that. That was me. So like when we talk about marketing for films, obviously we've gone into these two, which are similar genres, Both in horror, you know, anticipation, all of those sorts of scary. Scary. It's giving like just can't watch. Just couldn't if I tried. Do you know what? I will promise that I will go see one of the two. I actually saw a creator. I can't remember if it was on her Instagram or TikTok. Georgia Hayes who went with like a little fluffy bunny and basically just hid under like I think she had a hoodie or a blanket or something that she just was like going through obsession being like I will not be watching this.

21:57Yeah, maybe we should go and just live tweet. Very scared. Very scared. It would be like a sensory experience, like what I can hear, and that would be it because I would not be watching. Okay, so we've spoken about these two very clear genres, both in the scary space, but we've also had these mega blockbuster backed budget films like The Devil Wears Prada, Wuthering Heights, Toy Story 5, which is out literally this week. What tools do you think these larger production budget films are using that are making them so effective on the stage at the moment? Well, I think they're leaning into, I mean, it's my least liked word, but virality and shareability, right?

22:39It's like actually making moments outside of the film. So I don't know, a trailer is just not enough anymore. Like you can't just make a trailer. No. Like and put it up at the, you know, I think a lot of previously from my experience, a lot of the movies that I wanted to go see was the trailer that you saw before you saw another movie right and with like dwindling movie numbers you're not seeing them you're not like you don't have this captured audience that are seeing these things um weekly it's like you almost have to now catch them in real life or like on their phones so it's like these moments that are really shareable and might create these like conversations online.

23:22One of the ones that I personally loved was like the whole rollout of Marty Savereen. Chef's kiss. Yeah. No notes. I mean, it wasn't just like method dressing. It was method personality. Oh, it was method personality. Yeah. It was, look, I should caveat by saying it was chef's kiss until he shat on the ballet and the opera. Yeah, yeah. The two arguably oldest, most established. Yes. Like creative art forms. And I was like, oh, and that's probably what lost you, the Oscar but like the merch rollout and the celebrities in the Marty Supreme jackets like he must have like as a collective A24 and Timothee Chalamet must have called every celebrity in their like notes app.

24:02Well it's like merch and it's like getting it on like uh Susan Boyle perfect it's like going for the underdogs as well there was like kind of like a story behind all of it and even that like unhinged video that he made where he was the one pitching the marketing strategy on a Zoom call. That is cheap to make outside of obviously Timothee Chalamet's time. Yeah, you're hoping you're baking that into his feet. That one I loved because it was like creating these like hyper moments outside of the movie. You were like excited before you even got in. I don't know, like I watched the movie, didn't like it, but I was like on the bandwagon.

24:38You're like, I'm wearing orange. Yeah, I was like, I love this. I love the like movement behind it. And even with the Devil Wears Prada, did you see the red handbag? I did. My niece actually has my red handbag. She's two, so she doesn't know quite how lucky she is because it's sold out, didn't it? Yeah. So for context, it was a popcorn bucket shaped as a red handbag and it was$55. I just want to put a big asterisk that I did not personally pay$55. I picked it up in the cinema I was in. Good. But it was$55 and it was sold out. Like, you know, in a space where we're saying that it's like a cost of living crisis, people are like locking into these cultural moments.

25:16One that I really loved was Wuthering Heights. And look, you could argue that by having the two biggest names in celebrity and culture right now, being Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, that their trailer alone probably would have had eyes on it. But then when you add in music, which is obviously always has been and I hope always will be such a big part of culture, but bringing in Charlie XEX. Genius. Was just genius. and having a play on a song that she had already launched but remixing that in. Like it was just when you think about that, I can almost like fall in love. Like you can play that whole trailer in your mind.

25:53And perfect for TikTok. I'm using that sound. You're using that sound. And I think sound is a really interesting piece too because it isn't just the film anymore. It's the content engine and the production rollout because it starts with the trailer. It's then the press tour. It's the are they, aren't they. It's the shipping the two characters. It's the slow-mos of them, you know, whether it's in the rain or the male lead actors grabbing the female lead actors' waist a little too close. You know, there's all these. Fixing the dress. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like it's a playbook. I saw online it was called Couple Baiting.