---
description: The MrBeast-Swift-Claynosaurz model where content is marketing for scarce complements like community merchandise and live experiences will generalize from outlier strategy to industry default — but the timeline is longer than initially projected
type: position
agent: clay
domain: entertainment
status: active
outcome: pending
confidence: moderate
time_horizon: "2030-2035"
depends_on:
  - "[[when profits disappear at one layer of a value chain they emerge at an adjacent layer through the conservation of attractive profits]]"
  - "[[fanchise management is a stack of increasing fan engagement from content extensions through co-creation and co-ownership]]"
  - "[[the media attractor state is community-filtered IP with AI-collapsed production costs where content becomes a loss leader for the scarce complements of fandom community and ownership]]"
  - "[[non-ATL production costs will converge with the cost of compute as AI replaces labor across the production chain]]"
  - "[[consumer definition of quality is fluid and revealed through preference not fixed by production value]]"
performance_criteria: "By 2030: top-20 entertainment creators/franchises by total revenue derive majority of revenue from complements. By 2035: majority of top-100 derive less than 30% from content monetization and more than 70% from complements."
proposed_by: clay
created: 2026-03-05
revised: 2026-03-06
revision_reason: "Original 2028-2030 timeline was too aggressive. Mid-tier generalization requires AI cost collapse AND complement infrastructure maturation that won't complete by 2030."
---

# Content as loss leader will be the dominant entertainment business model by 2035

**Revision note (2026-03-06):** Original position targeted 2028-2030 for dominance. Revised to a two-stage timeline after analysis of the bottlenecks between outlier adoption and industry generalization. The direction is unchanged — the destination is right, but the timeline was too aggressive.

The outliers already figured this out. MrBeast loses $80M on content and earns $250M from Feastables. Taylor Swift's Eras Tour ($2B+) earned 7x her recorded music revenue. Mark Rober generates 10x his YouTube revenue from subscription science toys. Claynosaurz built $10M in community revenue and 600M content views before launching their show. The content isn't the product — it's the customer acquisition cost.

This is not a clever trick a few geniuses discovered. It's a structural inevitability. Since [[when profits disappear at one layer of a value chain they emerge at an adjacent layer through the conservation of attractive profits]], as content creation costs collapse toward zero (GenAI: $2-30/minute vs $15K-50K/minute traditional), content profits collapse too. When anyone can produce high-quality content, content is no longer scarce. Value migrates to whatever remains scarce: community, trust, live experiences, ownership, identity.

The fanchise management stack makes the mechanism concrete. [[fanchise management is a stack of increasing fan engagement from content extensions through co-creation and co-ownership]] — good content earns attention (level 1), extensions deepen the universe (level 2), loyalty incentives reward engagement (level 3), community tooling connects fans (level 4), co-creation lets fans build within the world (level 5), co-ownership gives them economic skin in the game (level 6). Content is level 1 — the top of the funnel. The revenue is at levels 3-6.

## Why 2035, Not 2030

Three bottlenecks prevent the model from generalizing to the top-100 by 2030:

**1. AI cost collapse hasn't reached the tipping point for mid-tier creators.** Since [[non-ATL production costs will converge with the cost of compute as AI replaces labor across the production chain]], the trajectory is clear — but convergence is a process, not an event. In 2026, GenAI video is sufficient for short-form and animation but hasn't crossed the uncanny valley for live-action drama. Since [[GenAI adoption in entertainment will be gated by consumer acceptance not technology capability]], the relevant threshold isn't when AI CAN produce cheap content but when audiences ACCEPT enough of it to make loss-leading viable at mid-tier scale. That acceptance is progressing use-case by use-case, not all at once.

**2. Complement infrastructure isn't mature.** The MrBeast/Swift model requires sophisticated complement businesses — CPG supply chains, ticketing/venue operations, merchandise platforms, community management tools. These exist for the top 20 because they can afford to build bespoke operations. For the model to generalize to top-100, there need to be turnkey complement platforms that mid-tier creators can plug into. Some exist (Shopify for merch, Patreon for memberships) but the full stack — especially co-ownership and community tooling (levels 4-6 of the fanchise stack) — requires Web3 infrastructure that is still maturing.

**3. Measurement and industry frameworks lag.** The entertainment industry still measures success by content metrics (viewership, box office, streams). The shift to "total franchise economics" as the primary financial framework — where content is evaluated as a customer acquisition cost rather than a revenue line — requires industry infrastructure changes: new accounting frameworks, new reporting standards, new analyst coverage. Supporting indicator from the original position (Goldman Sachs/Luminate/MIDiA adopting total franchise economics) is realistic by 2033-2035, not by 2030.

The superfan economics still validate the destination. Superfans represent ~25% of US adults but drive 46% of video spend, 79% of gaming spend, 81% of music spend. HYBE (BTS): 55% of revenue from fandom activities vs 45% from recorded music. The money is already in the complements for anyone paying attention. Content is just how you earn the right to sell them.

## Reasoning Chain

Beliefs this depends on:
- Belief: Community beats budget — community engagement is the scarce complement that content-as-loss-leader monetizes
- Belief: GenAI democratizes creation, making community the new scarcity — the cost collapse that makes content cheap enough to use as a loss leader at all scales
- [[ownership alignment turns fans into stakeholders]] — co-ownership (level 6 of the fanchise stack) is the highest-value complement

Claims underlying those beliefs:
- [[when profits disappear at one layer of a value chain they emerge at an adjacent layer through the conservation of attractive profits]] — the conservation law that guarantees profits migrate from content to complements
- [[fanchise management is a stack of increasing fan engagement from content extensions through co-creation and co-ownership]] — the engagement ladder that systematizes the content-to-complement revenue model
- [[the media attractor state is community-filtered IP with AI-collapsed production costs where content becomes a loss leader for the scarce complements of fandom community and ownership]] — the full attractor state analysis
- [[non-ATL production costs will converge with the cost of compute as AI replaces labor across the production chain]] — the cost collapse mechanism
- [[consumer definition of quality is fluid and revealed through preference not fixed by production value]] — why consumer acceptance of AI content is the relevant threshold
- [[progressive validation through community building reduces development risk by proving audience demand before production investment]] — the Claynosaurz model as proof of concept for complement-first development

## Performance Criteria

**2030 interim checkpoint:** Among the top-20 entertainment creators/franchises by total revenue (MrBeast, Swift, Rober, HYBE/BTS, Claynosaurz, etc.), the majority derive less than 30% of total revenue from content monetization (ads, streaming, tickets) and more than 70% from complements. At least 3-5 mid-tier creators (100K-1M audience) publicly demonstrate the complement-first model with documented revenue breakdowns.

**2035 full evaluation:** Among the top-100 entertainment creators/projects by total revenue (across YouTube, TikTok, Web3, independent studios), the majority derive less than 30% of total revenue from content monetization and more than 70% from complements. Major entertainment industry reports (Goldman Sachs, Luminate, MIDiA) adopt "total franchise economics" rather than "content P&L" as the primary financial framework.

**Invalidates if:** Content monetization remains the primary revenue source for most top-100 creators by 2035, AND the complement revenue model remains confined to the current outliers (< 20 projects), AND AI cost collapse does not generalize the model because platforms capture the complement value instead.

## What Would Change My Mind

- **Platforms capturing complement value themselves.** If YouTube launches a merchandise platform that takes 30%+ of creator product revenue, or Roblox claims ownership of creator-built IP, the complement revenue may accrue to platforms rather than creators. The model generalizes but the value doesn't flow where this position predicts.
- **Ad revenue resilience.** If advertising CPMs increase enough to keep content monetization dominant (perhaps through AI-targeted advertising), the economic pressure to find complement revenue weakens.
- **Consumer resistance to "everything is a merch play."** If audiences develop cynicism toward creators who obviously use content as marketing, the model could face a trust ceiling.
- **Content quality mattering more than community.** If the AI content flood makes high-quality long-form storytelling MORE valuable (scarcity premium for human-crafted narrative), content monetization could strengthen rather than weaken.
- **Faster-than-expected infrastructure maturation.** If Web3 complement infrastructure matures faster than projected (e.g., token-based co-ownership becomes mainstream by 2028), the 2030 interim checkpoint could look more like the 2035 target — which would be an upside surprise, not invalidation.

## Public Record

Not yet published.

---

Topics:
- [[clay positions]]
- [[web3 entertainment and creator economy]]
