Welcome to the Monday Roundup!
A weekly bonus edition featuring data-driven culture stories, curated datasets, and recommended reads. Note: Your regular Wednesday essay remains free for all readers.
This week: six original data stories, including A24’s commercial ascendancy, South Park’s staying power, Robert Pattinson’s huge 2026, Avengers Never-Endgame, the return of girl groups, and Netflix’s global expansion—plus notable reads and 10 public datasets. Free readers get the first two stories; paid subscribers get everything.
Trend 1: A24 Gets Greedy
When is an indie studio no longer “indie”? Probably around the time said upstart begins making demands. Such is the case for A24, which now exists in a liminal space between indie sweetheart and profiteering entertainment corporation. Coming off the blockbuster success of Backrooms, the micro-major studio is renegotiating its revenue-sharing deals with movie theaters worldwide, trying to move from the low-40% range to the mid-50s.
Historically, indie films have paid a substantial tax for theatrical distribution, forfeiting a greater portion of earnings to exhibitors. A24, however, is making the (rather credible) argument that its films no longer qualify as independent as their budgets and box office continue to increase.
A24’s commercial ascendance is yet another major loss for theater chains, which are forced to live a Faustian existence as glorified middlemen, their entire business built around a product over which they have no control. Worse still, the average share of ticket sales going to studios hit an all-time high in 2025, driven by a contraction in the indie market and the outsized importance of blockbusters (which offer more favorable rates to producers).
A24 has raised $375M in capital over the last five years, meaning the studio’s ambitions now go beyond selling T-shirts to hipster baristas. Negotiating better distribution terms was probably central to their investor pitch, and I’m sure those Wall Street hobgoblins ate it up.
Trend 2: South Park’s Eternal Relevance
South Park’s Season 29 premiere saw a 33% increase in viewership, following the show’s temporary name change to South America—a backhanded nod to Donald Trump’s recent shenanigans. At a time when new season renewal rates have plummeted, long-running TV shows like The Simpsons and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have become something of a novelty.
Many of these geriatric programs are shadows of their former selves, with The Simpsons being the clearest example of a once-great show stuck in a prolonged decline. South Park, however, has largely avoided that fate.
The show has maintained an above-average online rating across its 30-year run and will likely rebound from last season’s dip, which came amid criticism of the show’s insistence on skewering Trump pretty much every episode.
The show’s enduring appeal has made South Park one of streaming’s most valuable entertainment properties. In 2025, Paramount paid creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone more than $1.5 billion for exclusive streaming rights to the series—an extraordinary sum for a 30-year-old program.
While the characters of South Park never age, the show has evolved with the times, producing episodes days before release to stay culturally relevant. The show’s name may have changed, but it remains as good as ever.
Trend 3: Is Robert Pattinson’s 2026 Acting Run the “Greatest of All Time”?
The 1998 Major League Baseball season was defined by a fierce competition between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, as the two sluggers raced to break baseball’s single-season home run record. The Sosa-McGwire duel energized the sport, creating a season-long meta-narrative that captivated even the most passive baseball fan.
Minus the steroid-cheating scandal that later tainted the Sosa-McGwire duel, something similar is occurring in movies right now. Robert Pattinson and Anne Hathaway are locked in a (conceptual) slugfest for the title of “greatest movie year ever”—a made-up distinction that exists in the minds of film nerds.
So how unprecedented are these actors’ 2026 filmographies, and who is winning this nonexistent contest?