We're almost talking about immense monetization of the existing YouTube model itself, in a way, because the idea is to create lower-budgeted, personality-branded entertainment content delivered digitally straight to the target audience via mobile devices and streaming services, relying heavily on the built-in online fanbase for the personalities. Laid In America would love to tap into that sort of viewer interest, as even 10% of those viewers buying the film would result in enormous success.ĭistributors can save a lot of money with this new approach because the product itself is the marketing and the stars are the promotion. Lee's most-watched video - titled "Girlfriend Pranks My Roommate" - has more than 18.6 million views. KSI's most-watched video -for his song Lamborghini, featuring P Money - has more than 52 million views.
At least, that's the theory. But the combination of genre, popular stars, the disruptive technology involved, and trends in viewing patterns among the target demographics all suggest the theory will be proven correct.
So, a worldwide social media fanbase shows up like it's opening night at the theater. Then of course there are all the viewers who aren't subscribers and who might not be instantly familiar with KSI or Lee, but who like to rent or buy comedies to watch at home. Consider, every 1% of their fans who purchase the movie could result in as much as $5 million in revenue. Leveraging the fans of KSI, Lee, and the rest of the cast of personalities into a loyal audience willing to rent or buy Laid In America when it releases digitally and/or on Blu-ray/DVD would result in enormous and unprecedented success for this sort of home market release. Releasing direct to digital and Blu-ray/DVD, Laid In America assembles a host of other popular online stars - including Josh Leyva, Deji Olatunji, Bart Baker, and Timothy Delaghetto - with a combined following of tens of millions of their own subscribers. That's equivalent to almost half the people on Earth each watching one of their videos. Their combined total views, then, are more than 3.4 billion.
That's not a typo, I said "billion." Lee meanwhile has 6.5 million subscribers and more than 650 million views. He also has 2.8 billion total views on his videos. By popular, I mean Taylor Swift has 20 million subscribers and KSI has 14.4 million, making his the 21st most-subscribed YouTube channel. Laid In America is a comedy about two foreign exchange students trying to have sex on their final night in the USA after graduating high school, starring two popular YouTube personalities - rapper/comedian/actor KSI and vlogger/actor Caspar Lee.