Hey Creatorverse readers,
“500 people in real life feels so much better than a million virtual ones.”
That’s what Baron Ryan (2.9 million TikTok followers) said last Friday night during a New York screening of his debut feature film, “Two Sleepy People.” In addition to directing the movie, Ryan co-wrote and stars alongside co-writer and star Caroline Grossman (994,000 YouTube subscribers). Creators coming to the big screen isn’t necessarily anything new. Chris Stuckmann’s (2 million YouTube subscribers) “Shelby Oaks” was released by Neon in October, and A24 is developing a movie from Kane Parsons (2.8 million YouTube subscribers), a creator known for his eerie backrooms content.
But what sets “Two Sleepy People” apart is that it was funded and produced entirely by digital creators. The Austin-based creator collective Creator Camp was established in 2021 as a way to disrupt Hollywood by giving creators the funding, tools and distribution they need to expand beyond social media. And Ryan’s drifting, cerebral romantic comedy is Camp Studio’s first bet out of its three-feature theatrical deal with Attend Theatrical Marketplace.
“What is the internet’s Sundance? If we want to prove that creators can also be on the big screen and build the future of entertainment, where’s that place we can come together to celebrate the work?” Max Reisinger, CEO of Creator Camp, told me.
Creator Camp originally started as a way for creators to work together both in person and online. As it evolved, it became an events company “by accident,” Reisinger said, as the studio started producing more branded content. One of the biggest of those collaborations was with the Swiss Tourism Board, which brought 80 creators to the alpine resort village Saas-Fee as part of a film festival. Creator Camp then used the profits from those branded partnerships to fund its film vertical.
“Two Sleepy People” was made for $100,000 over the course of 100 days from script to final product. With no marketing budget, the founders of Creator Camp and team behind the movie bought an RV and drove it from theater to theater. They also launched a website that allowed Ryan, Grossman and Creator Camp’s fans to petition for a screening in their city. Once that data was compiled, Creator Camp was able to bring it to local theaters and convince 30 theaters it was worthwhile to host a screening.
The initial four screenings of the movie secured over $10,000 a showing, and theaters were more open to the collaboration than Reisinger expected.
“The industry is at a point now where everything’s being rewritten, and I think [theaters] are open to taking bets,” he said, pointing to Regal’s premiere of the Dude Perfect movie earlier this year. “Everyone across the board is very happy. Some of them are even having more screens in theaters and actually coming to us, which is a great sign.”
It’s not just the theaters that have reacted positively. Since the premiere of “Two Sleepy People,” Creator Camp has received several pitches, including movies from filmmakers that haven’t found a buyer in traditional Hollywood and fully finished movies.
“We want to keep proving that creators can make stuff with a big screen and that audiences will show up,” Reisinger said.
Now onto the rest.
Kayla Cobb
Senior Reporter
kayla.cobb@thewrap.com
What’s New
“The Joe Rogan Experience” dethroned The New York Times
The first wave of end-of-the-year charts are in, and “The Joe Rogan Experience” is an early winner. The podcast with an estimated 14.5 million Spotify followers as of 2024 and 20.5 million YouTube subscribers topped Apple’s list of the most listened to podcasts of 2025. Previously, The New York Times’ “The Daily” held that top spot, but now it’s dropped to No. 2. Surprising considering the fact that Rogan’s podcasting reign was slipping at the beginning of the year.
Speaking of podcasting, most people still listen to them despite the growing trend of video podcasts. A new report from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights found that only 8% of U.S. adult podcast consumers watch podcasts versus the 17% who listen to them.
Ad spend in the creator economy is expected to hit $37 billion
Advertiser interest in creators isn’t slowing down anytime soon. A new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau predicted that ad spend in the creator economy will hit $37 billion by the end of the year. That’s a 26% jump from the $29.5 billion that was spent on creators last year. By the way, that 26% increase is especially notable considering the fact that ad spends on traditional media only increased by 5.7% during the same time period.
Creator advertising platform Agentio raises $40 million
Agentio, the AI-driven advertising platform designed to better support creators, raised $40 million in Series B funding. This new investment, which was led by Forerunner, now values the company at $340 million. Agentio is essentially a two-sided marketplace for both creators and brands that facilitates campaign matching and management. As for that cool $40 mil, that’s going to be used to advance Agentio’s AI infrastructure, expand to platforms beyond YouTube and grow its team from 36 employees to 100 in 2026.
Platform Updates
Meta is not a social media monopoly
Big win for Zuckerberg and the gang. On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that Meta is not a social media monopoly, shutting down a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that was filed in 2020. The lawsuit claimed that Meta violated antitrust laws by acquiring both Instagram and WhatsApp and asked for Meta to spin off those platforms. YouTube and TikTok were Meta’s saving grace as the judge ruled Meta had an adequate amount of competition in the market.
To celebrate the victory (or more likely as an entirely unrelated update), Meta introduced a new tool to protect creators from having their work stolen. Facebook content protection will alert creators when their original reels are posted to Facebook without their permission. A major blow for scammy accounts everywhere.
Children will no longer be able to talk to adult strangers on Roblox
Looks like that long string of lawsuits has paid off. Following accusations that the sandbox gaming platform Roblox is unsafe for children, the company announced Wednesday that mandatory age checks will be introduced for all accounts that use chat features. This new check will roll out in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands in December and the rest of the world in January. The news comes just ahead of Australia’s social media ban for users under the age of 16. If you’re not super familiar with Roblox, it’s probably because you pay taxes. In 2024, the platform averaged more than 80 million daily players and roughly 40% were under the age of 13.
TikTok will let you limit how much AI content you see
First, Pinterest cracked down on its AI slop. Now it’s TikTok’s turn. On Wednesday, the platform announced it will be rolling out a new tool that will let users manage how much AI-generated content they want to see on their feeds. The upcoming Manage Topics doesn’t just apply to AI. It will also apply to topics like dancing, sports and food and drinks.
TikTok also wants to help you with your TikTok addiction. A new suite of digital well-being features is coming to the platform, will including an affirmation journal and badges that reward users for sticking to their screen time limits.
Movers and Shakers
Mark Rober is collabing with Elmo
“Elmo and Mark Rober’s Merry Giftmas” will premiere on Netflix Dec. 8. Between “Sesame Street” landing on Netflix and Mark Rober (72 million YouTube subscribers) launching a Netflix competition show next year, this is content synergy at its finest.
Heath creator Tayla Cannon secures $1.1 million investment
Tayla Cannon, a health creator with more than 140,000 Instagram followers, secured a $1.1 million investment from Slow Ventures. Cannon is the founder of Rebuildr, an app designed to help launch and run virtual rehab businesses, as well as the online physiotherapy platform Athletic Rebuild. Earlier this year, Slow Ventures raised $60 million in a seed fund to invest in creators. Cannon is part of that gamble alongside woodworking creator Jonathan Katz-Moses.
iShowSpeed is being sued for assaulting an influencer robot
Today in “now that I know it, I have to tell someone” news, mega creator iShowSpeed (46 million YouTube subscribers) is being sued by RizzBot (1.8 million TikTok followers). Well, more accurately Social Robotics, LLC, is suing iShowSpeed because RizzBot is a comedy robot. The two collaborated in Austin, Texas, during Speed’s cross country trek earlier this year, and the encounter ended with Speed attacking the robot. Social Robotics is now suing for $1 million and claims that the damages sustained to the bot and lost appearance fees cost the company $5 million.
@katemackz Have grown up watching Al Roker on the @TODAY Show so to be able to walk and talk with him and then sit down to chat after on @postrunhigh and learn bits and pieces of his life story was such a treat ☀️⛅️ Thank you Al! We love you. #therunninginterviewshow #runwithkate #alroker ♬ original sound – KATE MACKZ
Kate Mackz
The era of creator-led talk shows is here, and Kate Mackz (796,000 TikTok followers) is part of this new reign of hosts. A lifelong athlete, Mackz thought the conversations she had with her running club could make a good TV show. So she grabbed a microphone and started filming. Now the success of “The Running Interview Show” has allowed her to quit her full time job, start a podcast with iHeartRadio, rent out a studio space and hire a small staff of her own.
Mackz has interviewed big names like Patrick Schwarzenegger and Al Roker. But more than that, she stands as a great example of how transformative and influential the creator economy can be. I joined Mackz for a walk (running isn’t my speed) and picked her brain about what it takes to build a creator-led show.
Bonus Content
- The Nick Fuentes Spiral (via The Atlantic)
- I Attended a Class for TV and Movie Pros Looking to Work in the Creator Economy. Here Were My 5 Key Takeaways (via Business Insider)
- What the Look of Your Favorite Podcast Is Trying to Tell You (via The New York Times)
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This report provides a weekly deep dive into the creator economy. It highlights key trends, political and technological developments, data points and industry leaders all with the goal of making you smarter about this constantly evolving space.