Posted on 08/20/2025 7:57:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
On July 2, Amazon launched “Heads of State,” an action-comedy film starring Idris Elba and John Cena as the respective leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States. But the viewership data indicated that this was no traditional two-hander. Representatives for Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who plays a senior MI6 agent and the film’s third lead, used AI tools including Grok and ChatGPT to measure and analyze viewer sentiment; they found that their client was the main driver of the success of the movie — the fourth-most-watched Amazon MGM Studios film of all time on the platform — on the talent side.
'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Boss Jenny Han on Directing Conrad's POV, Rescheduling Iconic Peaches Scene Three Times and Dissecting Fan Theories With “Heads of State,” Chopra Jonas generated more than double the buzz of her male co-stars, according to an AI breakdown based on volume, headlines and quoting intensity. The conversation around the film centered on the actress at a rate of 50% to 60%, while Cena and Elba each accounted for 20% to 25%.
“I don’t think she would normally be credited for [the film’s success] because she’s not the lead. She’s not a ‘head of state.’ But in this case, the data doesn’t lie,” says Anjula Acharia, who is Chopra Jonas’ manager.
Where many in Hollywood view AI as something of a bogeyman, fearing widespread job loss, others see opportunity. Acharia, who hails from a tech background as an entrepreneur before pivoting to management, is one of a small but growing legion of talent reps who are harnessing AI data to better advocate for and negotiate on behalf of their clients on future deals.
For decades, a client’s value was easy to calculate, determined primarily via box office hauls and Nielsen ratings. But over the past dozen years, opacity reigned amid the rise of the streamers, which held on to internal metrics with an iron fist. Luminate, Variety’s sibling data unit, now tracks viewership of streaming content. But reps tell Variety that it has become increasingly difficult to negotiate a sequel or Season 2 contract given the dearth of available data to tout from a first incarnation. AI tools, including those offered by Facebook and Anthropic, have brought greater transparency for reps looking to know and leverage their client’s impact.
In the early days of Twitter, reps could point to some rudimentary hashtag numbers when trying to make the case for a client’s breakout status. Now, AI tools, which instantly dissect text across all social media platforms and traditional news outlets, can deliver sophisticated data as the credits roll.
The streamers have been using these same AI tools for at least two years, albeit without sharing the data with talent, in their bid to assess who and what has value. Manipulation can occur, just as with the early days of Twitter, when celebrities could juice their follow numbers by buying bots. But the streamers also can use AI to detect fakes better than ever, neutralizing the incentive to cheat.
The representatives for Joseph Quinn, whose Eddie Munson became the breakout of “Stranger Things” Season 4 thanks to his viral guitar solos, could only guess that their client was having an impact. Now, they can use AI to produce hard numbers that sources say line up nearly identically with the data gleaned by the streamers. The same information can be extrapolated by anyone above and below the title.
“This gives creators superpowers, not just to create content but to see how it’s consumed,” says Sunny Dhillon, founder and managing partner of Kyber Knight, which launched a $120 million venture capital fund in 2023 backed by former studio chiefs Michael Eisner (Disney) and Kevin Tsujihara (Warner Bros.).
The cacophony surrounding Chopra Jonas’ turn in “Heads of State” was boosted by the massive population in India, where her Bollywood-to-Hollywood crossover appeal prompted fans to share clips of her fight sequences. Reviews and social media indicated that her performance was a key motivator for viewership.
Says Acharia: “You can really see where the cultural heat is building, and it gives you that data really fast.”
And that can only be seen as a major tool when it comes time to hammer out the next talent deal.
data /dā′tə, dăt′ə, dä′tə/
noun plural
Facts that can be analyzed or used in an effort to gain knowledge or make decisions; information.
This is a Bad Thing, as it will accelerate the bland, homogeneous formulas that already crush originality in the entertainment fields.
Just look at how home-grown businesses and restaurants are slowly being replaced by chains everywhere so it’s getting hard to tell one place from another anymore if not for landmarks.
In the effort to improve everyone’s lot through emerging technology human beings risk losing what makes them unique in the first place.
In most writing data will be treated as a singular noun:
“This data shows how people use language” (rather than “these data show”).
“The data is clear and convincing” (rather than “these data are clear and convincing”).
In these examples data is a noncount noun, like information, meaning it refers to something that cannot be counted. It is treated like a singular noun even when if refers to multiple pieces of data (”Participants’ data is not kept after the survey ends”).
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/some-data-about-datum
They are already headed that direction without AI.
“The data doesn’t lie.”
But the people who collect, process, analyze and interpret the data might lie. Worse yet, they might make mistakes and firmly believe they have the golden truth.
"The cacophony surrounding Chopra Jonas’ turn in “Heads of State” was boosted by the massive population in India, where her Bollywood-to-Hollywood crossover appeal prompted fans to share clips of her fight sequences. Reviews and social media indicated that her performance was a key motivator for viewership."
So wait a minute. You don't need AI to tell you whether or not the film was more popular in India than elsewhere. If it's a streaming movie, the streaming data would tell you that. And if it was in theaters, obviously the theater receipts would tell you that. All this AI analysis on social media buzz is worthless in this context.
It might be even worse than useless if it led you to the wrong conclusions. Profitability of a movie is based on paying customers, not on social media buzz. Unless the streaming or theater receipts from India were disproportionately huge, the conclusion that she is the one driving popularity of the movie among paying customers would be false. What AI is telling you is how many people are talking about it on the internet, which may or what may not equate to those same people actually paying to see the movie.
Correct.
-"The cacophony surrounding Chopra Jonas’ turn in “Heads of State” was boosted by the massive population in India, where her Bollywood-to-Hollywood crossover appeal prompted fans to share clips of her fight sequences.-
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Very much like Bruce Lee was so popular in Asia "The Green Hornet" was re-named "The Kato Show" when that serial ran there. Everything gets skewed when international appeal and sales are involved. Some duds here turn out very profitable after the overseas numbers roll in. I can only see AI furthering mistakes in this area where people of other cultures' tastes are so predictably unpredictable.
That was my guess after reading the third paragraph. What a headline-grabbing scam.
Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.
That’s true.
Blame HAL he started it.
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