It's Tuesday, and Papa John’s is getting in on drone delivery. The catch: the iconic pizza chain won’t actually be dropping off pizza.

MONEY MOVES

The ad-free tier: TikTok is following in YouTube’s footsteps with the launch of “TikTok Ad-Free,” a subscription that costs £3.99/month (or roughly $5.50).

Like YouTube Premium, TikTok Ad-Free releases viewers from the burden of seeing ads. The main difference here is that YouTube Premium offers other perks—including downloads and background play—while TikTok’s paid offering is primarily dedicated to an ad-free experience. 

As the £3.99/month price tag implies, it’s also currently restricted to U.K. users (who additionally must be 18+ to subscribe).

The industry context: Kris Boger, the U.K. Managing Director at TikTok, said the goal with Ad-Free is to “[give] people greater control over their experience” on the platform. The exec also preemptively addressed potential concerns from advertisers regarding reduced reach.

Matt Navarra offered a less positive take on the subscription. The social media analyst told the BBC that TikTok Ad-Free is yet another example of a platform “putting a monthly price on stepping outside of the ad-targeting machine” and maintaining personal data privacy.

It’s true that YouTube and TikTok aren’t the only social platforms to introduce zero-ad subscriptions. Instagram, Snapchat, and X have all introduced paid plans, adding to today’s seemingly endless array of subscriptions and consumers’ mounting ad fatigue.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

GOSPEL STATS 📈

Gospel Stats’ latest ranking of most-viewed branded YouTube videos begins and ends with some serious food challenges—plus a generous sprinkling of murder. One of those videos, of course, was orchestrated by frequent chart-topper MrBeast. (We’ll let you guess whether that particular clip documents a murder or a cash-fueled competition).

🥇 #1. MrBeast x Square: Last To Leave The Grocery Store, Wins $250,000 (130.5M views)
MrBeast’s latest challenge promised $250,000 to the random shopper who could live in a grocery store longer than all the others roped into the competition. That 45-minute chronicle was sponsored by Square, which the video description praises for “supporting neighborhood businesses like The Bread Lady, Simply Natural Creamery, Blackbeard Coffee, and Blue Ox Games.”

🥈 #2. Dr Insanity x BetterHelp: Cop Runs Into Secret Killer Dumping Body Parts In River (14.4M views)
We’re not sure we could think up a more unexpected pairing than Dr Insanity and BetterHelp, but here we are. The online therapy provider was the sponsor behind Dr Insanity’s latest police footage-fueled true crime story, which explained how 70-year-old Idaho resident Alan Bruce was caught attempting to conceal evidence of a murder.

🎰 #1,978. Strictly Dumpling x Surfshark VPN: Eating 7-11 BREAKFAST for an ENTIRE WEEK in Japan! (386.6K views)
This week’s wildcard video took a different approach to food challenges than MrBeast’s grocery store sleepover. With the backing of Surfshark VPN, Simply Dumpling dared himself to eat breakfast items from 7-11 every day for a week.

Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

THE LAST ACT

The hype: The Amazing Digital Circus has already sold $7.5 million worth of tickets for its grand finale, which will hit over 5,000 theaters in 90 countries.

TADC was created by writer/animator/songwriter Gooseworx and released on YouTube by Sydney-based studio Glitch Productions. The first episode dropped in October 2023 and was followed by seven other segments, which have collectively racked up over 1.2 billion views.

Based on that fan attention, Glitch decided to give the series finale (called “The Last Act”) a special theater release through Fathom Entertainment, which told IndieWire that “The Last Act” broke its presale records by hitting $7.5 million (and counting).

With Fathom, Glitch expects “The Last Act” to go out to more than 2,100 theaters in the U.S. alone. It’ll also get its own custom popcorn bucket.

The context: In December 2025, Stranger Things paved the way for streaming finales in cinemas, hitting more than 620 theaters. Over 1.1 million fans RSVPed to secure seats across 3,500 sold-out showtimes. While the admissions themselves were technically free to avoid residual complications, the mandatory purchase of concession vouchers resulted in $25 million to $30 million in revenue for theater owners over the two-day New Year's run.

5,000+ screens across 90 countries is a sizable rollout, but Lerdwichagul told IndieWire that his team was only able to get “The Last Act” to 40-50% of countries that wanted to host it. Glitch explained that limitation in a recent X post, saying, “If there’s been any theatre cancellations or an inability to enter a region, we want you to know that we’ve been trying our best. There’s ratings compliance, security policy and legal rules specific to EACH country and theatre chains that we are trying to navigate around the clock.”

The fact that “The Last Act” won’t be available in every theater globally—and that its theatrical release comes 15 days before it drops on YouTube—has sparked intense backlash from fans who feel they’re being gatekept by ticket costs and/or geographic limitations. Even so, it’s clear from the finale’s presale success that fans who can support the theatrical release are happy to do so.

The game show: During the pandemic, an online word game created by Josh Wardle became a viral sensation. Wardle eventually sold Wordle to The New York Times, which has continued to offer players a fresh word puzzle every day of the year. Now, fans will get to experience the highs and lows of Wordle in a whole new way.

Four years after Jimmy Fallon successfully played the game on an episode of The Tonight Show, the late-night star has announced a Wordle game show that will be hosted by TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie and distributed by NBC. Fallon will serve as a producer on the show.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, James Hale, and Josh Cohen.