Hollywood Torrent: K-Pop’s Future, YouTube can’t get clean, A Chinese movie mystery

Good morning from Hong Kong, wherever you may be.

Last week, Mattel announced a deal to make toys and games based on BTS, the seven-member Korean boyband, the latest sign companies are waking up to the growing clout of Korean pop culture.

Mattel, the maker of Barbie and Hot Wheels, has built a $5-billion business by anticipating what kids are going to like. Now it has realized kids love K-Pop. (For the uninitiated, BTS stands for Beyond the Scene.)

But a member of the BTS fan group — aka the #army — objected when I made this point on Twitter. The Mattel deal reflects the power of BTS, not K-Pop, ``BTSheartfingers’’ wrote to me. After all, it’s BTS that has deals with Hyundai and Converse — not other K-pop acts.

I’m not usually one to spend too much time worrying about Twitter commenters, but this one addresses of the most intriguing topics in music this year: Is BTS a sign of things to come, or an anomaly?

BTS has accomplished feats hitherto unprecedented for a Korean music group: it broke in the U.S., the world’s largest music market. The band sold out a show in New York, performed on late-night talk shows and topped the Billboard album charts.

Now dozens of groups are hoping to replicate their success. ``In Korea, there are approximately 300 or so boy groups and girl groups all trying to be the next BTS,’’ says Hyuk Shin, a South Korean producer who has worked with many of the biggest acts in the country. ``To get to that level, it’s very difficult to have the sheer amount of high-quality content, and music that translates across several territories.’’

Devotees of K-Pop will point out that Korean pop culture has been building momentum for a long time. The hallyu, or Korean wave, isn’t new. Record labels and media conglomerates in Korea have been laying the groundwork for two decades, and BTS is a proof that work is starting to pay off. Many will follow.

But one could argue, like my Twitter troll, that no one can replicate the success of BTS. While K-pop groups are popular across Asia, only one other group (Exo) has reached the top 10 on the U.S. Billboard charts.

BTS emerged from outside the Korean music system, which is controlled by three management companies-cum-labels, and has utilized social media better than any other group, translating their new songs into several languages before releasing them. ``They’ve developed a massive fan base of a size we really haven’t seen before,’’ Shin says.

North Americans will get a good look at the first act trying to be the next BTS in the coming months. The all-girl group Blackpink will perform at Coachella, the largest music festival in the U.S., part of a world tour that stretches from Jakarta to Europe to North America.

At Coachella, the quartet is billed on the same line as Janelle Monae and The 1975, both of which have released multiple #1 albums in the U.S. Neither one of them has a toy line though. — Lucas Shaw

YouTube is still a big mess

YouTube says it has made a lot of progress in cleaning up all the inappropriate videos on its website — or at least making sure blue-chip advertisers aren’t sponsoring terrorist recruitment videos. But this week we received a slew of examples of just how much more work YouTube has to do.

Let’s start with the Paul brothers, Logan and Jake. Jake Paul recorded a video that promoted Mystery Brand, which asks customers to pay money for the chance to open digital boxes that may or may not have cool prizes inside. Some of the biggest stars on YouTube, including PewDiePie and Ethan Klein (aka h3h3 productions) chided him for promoting gambling to their young users.

(You may remember that PewDiePie was suspended after using anti-Semitic language, and has been seen shouting out anti-Semitic channels as recently as last month.)

Paul then posted a video of him doing the ``Birdbox challenge’’ — aka walking blind-folded — in the middle of traffic. YouTube took the video down, but not before it received millions of views. Paul’s brother Logan, meanwhile, pissed off the LGBT community when he said he would try being gay for a month. As many quickly pointed out, that’s not exactly how sexual preference works.

The Paul brothers are two of the most popular personalities on the Internet, and boast more than 35 million subscribers on YouTube alone.

In case sophomoric and offensive hijinks weren’t enough, conspiracy theories added to YouTube’s week. More than half of the top 20 search results for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are videos positing conspiracy theories about her, according to a report in the Washington Post.

``The falsehoods, most of which originated with the fringe movement QAnon’’ included videos ``claiming doctors are using mysterious illegal drugs to keep her alive.’’

Lest YouTube think the media has it out for them…Twitch suspended a user who was arrested after filming a video in which he appeared to assault his partner. The channel resurfaced briefly, but was suspended again after users objected.

NBC enters the streaming fray

NBC Universal will sell a streaming service starting in 2020, joining the parade of legacy media companies trying to compete with Netflix.

NBCU, the owner of USA, Universal Pictures, Bravo and MSNBC, has been planning a service for years, but had never publicly discussed plans in detail. NBCU plans to offer the service free of charge, and charge more for customers who want to watch without ads.

The market is getting very crowded for consumers. Disney, Apple, AT&T (WarnerMedia) and Comcast (NBCU) all plan to introduce new streaming services in the next couple years. And all those companies but Apple will still be asking customers to pay for their channels from traditional pay-TV providers.

Should Netflix and Hulu be scared?

These companies control libraries with thousands of popular TV shows and movies that have built the foundation for Netflix and Hulu. Disney has already pulled movies from Netflix, and NBC loves to point out that ``The Office’’ is one of the most popular programs on Netflix.

But NBC and WarnerMedia have also said they will continue to sell shows to streaming. Traditional media companies still have a hard time saying no to the big checks. ``The Office’’ is on Netflix until 2021, at which point Netflix will have released a couple thousands more pieces of programming.

Hulu is in a curious position. Disney, AT&T and Comcast are its owners, and it must now compete for their attention (to say nothing of customers).

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Hugh Jackman, Drake Top the Charts

The best-selling album of 2018 was the soundtrack to ``The Greatest Showman,’’ according to BuzzAngle Music. Warner Music sold 1.3 million copies of ``The Greatest Showman’’ in the U.S., more than double the second best-seller (``A Star Is Born.’’)

Album sales mean a whole lot less than they used to. Streaming now contributes more than 70 percent of sales in the U.S. (and more than 50 percent worldwide). The most-consumed album of last year was Drake’s ``Scorpion.’’

One other note from the report… ``Deep Catalog’’ accounts for more than half of all music listening. This is worth remembering when we think about Spotify and other services striking direct deals with artists.

Major music companies control most deep catalog, which makes them invaluable and limits streaming services’ ability to piss them off.

The #1 movie in the U.S. is … ``The Upside,’’ a remake of the French hit ``The Intouchables.’’ The movie, which was once supposed to be released by The Weinstein Company, stars Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston. It grossed about $20 million.

TV’s biggest new hit is… ``The Masked Singer.’’ As one critic wrote, the show is almost identical to other singing competition show save for one gimmick: the contestants are celebrities disguised by costumes.

Idiotic or brilliant, the show scored the biggest debut for an unscripted program in 7 years.

The return of the (alleged) sexual harassers

Hollywood production company Skydance has hired John Lasseter, a once-towering figure in animation who lost his job after being accused of sexual misconduct by several co-workers.

The allegations forced Disney to let go of Lasseter, co-founder of Pixar and director of ``Toy Story’’ and ``Cars.’’ Major studios declined to hire Lasseter, according to Variety’s Brent Lang, but Skydance, run by billionaire heir David Ellison, took the risk after what it says was a thorough vetting process.

Less than two years since allegations against Harvey Weinstein kickstarted the #MeToo movement, disgraced men are starting to filter back into the Hollywood ecosystem. Some, like comedian Louis C.K., have been met with anger. Others, particularly those who were accused of less egregious behavior, have managed to maintain a low profile.

Executives will watch the reception of Lasseter closely. Whether or not he is met with open arms may determine whether other people decide to make comebacks.

Some men have declined to go away at al. Exhibit 1: R. Kelly. The R&B singer, first accused of sexual abuse nearly 20 years ago, has continued to record and release music. Lifetime’s documentary about Kelly is one of the most-watched shows in the history of the network. It both boosted streams of Kelly’s music, and led to a new round of criticism.

Hollywood’s obsession with Mexican drug cartels

Hollywood should pay much closer attention to how it portrays Latinos, according to Los Angeles writer Hector Tobar.

``The cartel operative — be he a kingpin or a hit man or a small-time drug dealer — has become the dominant image of Latino people in American television and cinema. He’s of course also the dominant image of Latino people in the discourse of the president of the United States.’’

We’ve spent a lot of time of late discussing representation in entertainment, but most of that conversation has been about how many women and non-white actors, filmmakers and producers get a chance.

A Chinese magic trick

Chinese director Bi Gan’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” looked like the first big hit of 2019 after it grossed 240.5 million yuan ($35 million) on New Year’s eve in China. Investors in its biggest backer, Zhejiang Huace Film & TV Co., should have been thrilled.

But box-office sales dropped 96 percent on the second day, as moviegoers complained that a promotional campaign depicting the film as a romance had misled viewers. Zhejiang Huace’s stock plummeted by the 10 percent daily limit in Shenzhen the first day of trading after “Long Day’s” debut.

The film, which is called “The Last Night on Earth” in Chinese, is in fact a fragmented, stream-of-consciousness montage in which the main character is manipulated by the lover of a killer who murdered the protagonist’s friend.Moviegoers took their frustrations out by slamming the film on social media and movie fan sites. The movie was rated only 2.6 out of 10 on movie data and review site Maoyan.

The week that was

1. Authorities in Norway have opened a criminal investigation into Tidal, the streaming service owned by Jay-Z. The investigation comes after reports in the local press claimed Tidal had inflated the number of streams received by songs of Beyonce, Jay’s wife, and Kanye West, his old friend.

2. China is cracking down on critics who use Twitter. Police are questioning and detaining people critical of the government even though the site is blocked in the country, according to Paul Mozur. About 0.4 percent of Chinese internet users (or 3.2 million people) user Twitter.

3. Twitter will live stream NBA games — with a catch. Rather than stream full games, it will stream the second half focused exclusively on one player. Fans vote on which player during the first half, which they need to watch on TV.

4. Hulu topped 25 million subscribers. The streaming service said it added 8 million customers last year. To compare: Netflix has projected 5.6 million net additions in the U.S. in 2018, but nearly 28 million globally. Yet another reason Hulu is itching to get overseas.

Speaking of Hulu… the service canceled Sarah Silverman’s ``I Love You America’’ after two seasons. Streaming services still haven’t found the right recipe for topical comedy.

5. Disney CEO Bob Iger made $65.6 million last year. His pay climbed 81 percent from the year before thanks to stock grants he earned upon agreeing to remain CEO. Just another reason executives choose not to retire.

6. CBS’s board plans to discuss merging with Viacom at its meeting later this month. CBS and Viacom have been dancing around one another for a couple years now. Maybe the 10th time will be the charm.

CBS Part II: The network says it has sold out more than 90 percent of its advertising inventory for the Super Bowl.

CBS Part III: The company reached a deal with the audience measurement firm Nielsen, ending a two-week stand-off.

7. Spotify has begun selling ads in Discover Weekly, one of its most popular features. The playlist offers users a new selection of songs each week based on their preferences. Microsoft is the debut sponsor.

For all its success getting humans to buy subscriptions to its service, Spotify has had a hard time convincing advertisers to spend big. Perhaps that’s starting to change.

8. Amazon is developing a video game streaming service. Customers would be able to play games without buying a physical gaming console like the Xbox and PlayStation. The service is at least a year away, according to Jessica Toonkel, and Jason Kilar, the former CEO of Hulu, may or may not be involved.

9. Martin Scorsese will make a Bob Dylan documentary for Netflix. Scorsese’s last three documentaries all aired on HBO, but it was Netflix that gave the director more than $100 million to make ``The Irishman.’’ (Meanwhile, HBO’s documentary queen, Sheila Nevins, has left the network.)

Weekly playlist

• ``Juice,’’ Lizzo
• ``Never Can Say Goodbye,’’ Jackson 5
• ``Me Tiro El Calzon,’’ Los Master Plus
• ``This Land,’’ Gary Clark Jr.
• ``La Plata,’’ Juanes feat. Lalo Ebratt