Start anywhere
The course is sequenced, Module 1 being the operating system and the rest the operating manual, but the lessons stand on their own. Pick what's relevant to what's on your slate this quarter.
The Foundational Beliefs
Five mantras that organize the whole worldview. Internalize this module and the rest is the operating manual.
Calendar Craft
The release date is half the strategy. Wednesday opens, holiday weekends, distribution math, the summer corridor, spring breaks.
The Genre Playbooks
How animation, horror, faith-based, sports/music biopic, video game IP, and A24/specialty films actually behave.
Marketing & Exhibition Truths
Trailers, the room itself, micro-targeting, the critic-vs-audience gap, and PLF/IMAX premium math.
Distribution & Business Architecture
Windowing vindicated, the streamer-vs-theatrical thesis, and the Apple/Amazon/Netflix scoreboard.
The Awards Industrial Complex
ROI on awards is zero. The case for moving the Oscars to early January. The Casting Oscar redesigned.
Studio Portraits
Disney/Pixar, MGM and Amazon under its distribution chief, Netflix, A24, Lionsgate, WB.
Applied: the specialty release playbook
How to put all of it to work on a real specialty release. The pre-greenlight checklist, release-date checklist, and marketing checklist.
Each lesson ends with a 3-question knowledge check. Some lessons include a Predict the Opening case: read the setup, make your call, then see what was expected at the time and what really happened. Your progress is tracked in this browser only; nothing is sent anywhere.
Archive & deeper dives
The Beginner's Primer
Ten minutes, zero assumed knowledge: what the box office is, why Fridays matter, how a weekend behaves, and how to read the scorecards the way the business reads them.
All 260 notes, week by week
Walk the archive one weekend at a time, June 2019 to August 2026. Each week carries what was expected going in, what the weekend reported, and the films that made it.
488 lessons, by theme
Every extractable principle in the archive: forecasting craft, the calendar, windows, marketing, stars and IP. Searchable, and linked back to the week that taught it.
1,063 films, poster to poster
Every film the notes ever charted, discussed, or merely name-checked, from this weekend's opener back to Casablanca. Filter by studio, year, month, genre or rating; sort by gross, scores, or how often the notes returned to it.
Nine ways to cut the archive
The Killing Zone, the Golden 8, the January dumping ground, rocket legs, critic-proof hits, the biggest swings and the films that went underwater, each generated from the verified data.
1,054 films, every number
Opening weekend, theater count, per-theater average, domestic and worldwide totals, budget, MPA rating, runtime, RT critics and audience, Metacritic. Sortable and filterable across the whole corpus, Casablanca to this weekend.
Predict-the-Opening cases
Six full case studies from the archive: Sound of Freedom, Mortal Kombat II, Project Hail Mary, and more.
All 260 Friday notes
Search every distilled note by theme, year, film, or studio. Sort by relevance, date, or topic.
The glossary
Every insider term these notes use, defined for someone new to the theatrical business. Grouped by area: calendar, distribution, exhibition, measurement, marketing, genre, industry.
Your progress
See which lessons you've completed and your quiz scores.