Vol. 1, No. 61
Topic
Culture & Media at American Courant is reporting on how Americans spend their attention: television, film, music, books, sports journalism, the internet, and the media businesses that produce, distribute, and monetize all of it. We treat culture as a real economy and a real public sphere, not as a side note. That means following studios and streamers through their financial decisions, tracking the platforms — YouTube, TikTok, X, Substack, Spotify — through their policy and product changes, and covering the labor disputes, ratings systems, and regulatory fights that shape what gets made and who gets paid for making it.
We pay attention to publishing, journalism, and the media institutions Americans rely on for information itself. We do not chase every internet pile-on, and we try to distinguish a real cultural shift from a single trending post. Where a culture story is really a corporate story, we cross-link to business and economy; where it touches sports specifically, see sports; where it touches religious life or institutions, see faith and religion.
Articles in this section cite primary sources where they exist — SEC filings from public studios and platforms, FCC and FTC actions, court filings in copyright and labor cases, ratings and box-office data from Nielsen, MRC, and Comscore, and labor-agreement texts from the writers, actors, and crew unions. We follow the work and the institutions, not the discourse for its own sake.
HBO's flagship fantasy returned as the most-watched title on HBO Max and its best-reviewed season yet — even as the studio that owns it heads into a $111 billion sale to Paramount Skydance.
Netflix and concert giant AEG Presents are turning the year's biggest animated hit into a live global tour — a bet that 325 million streams can fill real arenas.
James Burrows, who co-created 'Cheers' and directed more than 1,000 sitcom episodes from 'Taxi' to 'Will & Grace,' has died at 85, taking with him the craft of the network comedy era.
Sweden, once a champion of classroom screens, will ban phones in schools this fall. It's an admission the digital-classroom experiment failed, and a challenge to a U.S. still fighting this out district by district.
Game 1 of the Knicks-Spurs Finals drew nearly 17 million viewers, the NBA's biggest Finals audience since 2019. New York's first title run in a generation has become a national television event.
The Lost Boys, a stage version of the 1987 vampire film, won Best Musical at the 2026 Tonys. Almost everything else went to revivals — in Broadway's richest year on record.
The reborn 'Scary Movie' opened to an estimated $56 million, the franchise's best debut ever and a rare jolt of life for the R-rated theatrical comedy.
As Summer Game Fest opens its showcase week, the industry faces a generation that plays more games than ever while sharply cutting what it spends.
HBO's 'Euphoria' ended its three-season run with a finale that split viewers and closed one of the defining dramas of the streaming era. Spoilers below.
The 79th Tony Awards arrive June 7 after a thin Broadway season — and a Best Musical field where three of four nominees are screen adaptations.
A24's adaptation of Kane Parsons' viral YouTube horror series opened to a projected $85 million-plus, more than tripling the studio's previous record.
Grande's new lead single debuted at No. 1 in 25 countries. The bigger story is the label she built to release it on, and what it means for pop.
'Hacks' aired its series finale Thursday on HBO Max, closing a planned five-season run after 12 Emmys. Few prestige comedies get to end on their own terms.
Byron Allen's apolitical panel show took over Colbert's CBS slot and drew 995,000 viewers. The same week, he closed a majority stake in BuzzFeed.
Disney's first theatrical Star Wars film in seven years opened to roughly $102 million over Memorial Day — a franchise low, and a profit, at once.
Mungiu's Norway-set drama about political polarization won the Palme d'Or Saturday, extending Neon's streak to seven consecutive top prizes at Cannes.
Stephen Colbert's finale drew 6.74 million viewers, the most-watched weeknight episode of his 11-year run, and beat his 2015 debut. CBS killed it anyway.
Lucasfilm's first theatrical Star Wars film since 2019 opens this weekend, built from a streaming series and testing whether TV fans will buy movie tickets.
BTS will make its first awards-show appearance in four years at Monday's AMAs, anchoring a night that doubles as a test of CBS's bet on live music.
James Gray's Russian-mob drama drew a 10-minute ovation in the Palais. NEON has U.S. rights. Scarlett Johansson was on a New York set for 'The Exorcist.'
Dara's 'Bangaranga' won Bulgaria its first Eurovision with 516 points, but the night's lasting argument was the boycott and Israel's runner-up finish.
Stephen Colbert's final Late Show airs Thursday, ending 33 years of the franchise. CBS is handing the 11:35 slot to a Byron Allen syndicated block.
Drake dropped Iceman, Maid of Honour, and Habibti at midnight, set 2026 Spotify records in three categories, and reignited his feud with Kendrick Lamar.
20th Century Studios' sequel passed the original's entire 2006 domestic run in 10 days, propelled by a 76 percent female and millennial-heavy audience.
For the first time since 2017, no major Hollywood studio is competing at Cannes, as social media anxiety and cost-cutting reshape how studios approach film.
