Hollywood Stacks Same Stories Across Podcasts, Docs, TV — SkimNews
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- "American Hostage" MGM+ anthology series premiered Sept. 12 at TIFF with Jon Hamm as exec producer and star, becoming the fourth project on the 1977 Indianapolis hostage crisis after a 2022 podcast, the 2018 doc "Dead Man's Line," and last year's "Dead Man's Wire."
- Writer Eileen Myers announced a spoken word album and Broadway musical are "coming soon" for "American Hostage," even though three competing projects on the same true story already exist.
- Edison Research VP Megan Lazovick said 61% of true crime podcast listeners also watch true crime TV or movies, and roughly half also consume true crime on YouTube.
- Ampere Analysis data showed weekly "Spider-Man" franchise viewing across major platforms tripled to 98 million hours in the week after "Brand New Day" debuted July 31, up from 26-32 million hours the prior week.
- Netflix staged its four-part March docuseries "Dynasty: The Murdochs" to build audience for Danny Boyle's just-announced Murdoch family biopic "Ink," which the streamer picked up at TIFF.
- TIFF is also screening two competing Mt. Everest projects: Apple Original Films' "Tenzing" (theaters Oct. 9) and National Geographic Documentary Films' "Everest: The Other Side" (Oct. 30).
- Ampere Analysis USA general manager Zak Shaik said sports documentaries have "hit their peak" after a surge of production in recent years.
Why it matters: Toronto buyers are weighing whether stacking the same true story across podcasts, docs and scripted series expands or fragments audiences. Ampere data shows franchise viewing tripled (26-32M to 98M hours) after a Spider-Man film's debut, while Edison finds 61% of true crime podcast listeners also watch the genre on TV — suggesting staggered, expanding-format releases are additive rather than cannibalizing.
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