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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 04/09/2026

I wrote all about why I'm skeptical about AMC's move, and their motives, at this week's Hollyweird. open.substack.com/pub/colbyday...

open.substack.com

AMC getting into distribution is bad for business actually

vertical integration is killing Hollywood

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 04/09/2026

The movie business isn't struggling because people don't like movies. The movie business is struggling because decades of consolidation have flattened the business so completely that we are on the verge of returning to that pre-1948 Studio System.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 04/09/2026

Here's what that actually costs you as a filmmaker. Every layer that used to require a separate deal was a chance to walk away and go elsewhere. Collapse the layers, collapse the "elsewhere."

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 04/09/2026

That law is gone now. Netflix owns theaters. Sony owns Alamo Drafthouse. AMC just started distributing movies. Each of these companies used to be one thing. Now they're all three.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 04/09/2026

Quick history: until 2020, studios were legally barred from owning theaters. A 1948 Supreme Court decision forced that separation on purpose — because a vertically integrated industry has one buyer, and one buyer sets the price.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 04/09/2026

AMC just announced it's getting into distribution. The trade coverage is treating this like good news for filmmakers. It isn't. It's one more link in the supply chain removed.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 31/07/2026

My ending wasn't landing. Spent a week thinking it was the ending's fault. It wasn't. My hero wasn't beat down enough at the start to earn it. Went back to my comps, figured out what they were doing and fixed not the ending but the beginning. New post: hollyweird.colbyday.com/p/your-hero-...

hollyweird.colbyday.com

You can always sharpen

The one rule three "sad fake dad" movies taught me about act one.

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Katie @meliiike.com · 19/07/2026

Love this from screenwriter @colbyday.com. This is what I do, but not becuz of sage advice but from a lack of self-discipline. 😄 Follow or subscribe to his substack: substack.com/@colbyday #writersky #authorsky

Colby Day said: One of the best pieces of writing advice I've gotten: Follow the heat. When you sit down to write, don't force yourself through the scene you're "supposed" to write next. Write the thing that's alive in your head right now. The thing that has energy. Because that energy transfers to the page. Readers feel it.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 22/07/2026

Thank you for the plug!! I have stumbled into this practice also!

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James @james.tarnation.lol · 20/06/2025

PRODUCER: our new show is about a ragtag group of mutant ninja turtles STUDIO EXEC: HOW OLD ARE THEY

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Russell Hainline @russellhfilm.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

“I’m Colby Knoxville, and this is Eating Lettuce.”

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 16/07/2026

I don’t have a lot going on right now. Should I try this explosive diarrhea trend

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 16/07/2026

Plus there’s reading material

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 15/07/2026

I run a monthly zoom hang for writers via my newsletter. I've always charged just $8/mo to do it. We dig into craft questions, career questions, manager and agent questions, you name it. If this sounds like something you could use, price is going up tomorrow. hollyweird.colbyday.com/subscribe

hollyweird.colbyday.com

Subscribe to Hollyweird with Colby Day

Weekly insights on screenwriting, craft, career and navigating the mysterious state of mind that is “Hollywood.”. Click to read Hollyweird with Colby Day, a Substack publication with thousands of subs...

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 08/07/2026

Substack just ranked Hollyweird #6 in Rising Film & TV. Which means now is probably a good time to explain what it actually is. I’m a working studio screenwriter — and I write a free weekly newsletter about what this career really looks like. Once a week. Free. Link in profile.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 03/07/2026

Wrote about the difference between a craft problem and a relationship problem this week —and the test I use to tell which one I'm actually looking at.

hollyweird.colbyday.com

Your job is not to transcribe

How to tell if it's a notes problem or your reps just aren't into you anymore

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 30/06/2026

In a good year I’d pitch on maybe a dozen projects. Get hired once. That’s what a good year looks like. Nobody talks about the ratio of success to failure in Hollywood because the ratio is embarrassing. But the ratio is also just the job. Once you accept that, the nos stop feeling like verdicts.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 29/06/2026

Every question I get asked in these is one I’ve had myself at some point. That’s kind of the point. Live Zoom Q&A this Wednesday July 1 12pm PT. Free. Bring whatever’s been stuck in your head — craft, career, what to write next… Last day to grab a spot here. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

Hollyweird Hang Q&A RSVP

Drop your email, name, and question (if you have it) for Wednesday July 1st's Hollyweird Hang. I'll send the zoom link to everyone who signs up.

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Adam Mallinger @bitterscriptreader.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

As a former reader, this is absolutely true. I never, ever had a script that opened with ten terrible pages change my mind by the end. Some people misunderstand this to mean your first ten pages can’t start slow. That’s not what I’m saying. The first 10 pages tell me if you can WRITE

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 18/06/2026

The first ten pages of your screenplay aren’t the beginning of your story. They’re the audition. A tired reader isn’t asking “what happens next?” on page one. They’re asking: “Is this writer worth my time?” You answer that with voice. Confidence. The sense you know exactly where this is going.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 16/06/2026

You can stare at a structural problem for days and get nowhere. But take a walk, sleep on it, work on something else… and you’ll suddenly know exactly what to do. The best thing you can do with a script you’re stuck on: Put it down.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 09/06/2026

“Go where you’re wanted.” Stop trying to convince people who are already looking for the exit. Making a movie is a multi-year marriage. Don’t start it with someone who was lukewarm at the altar.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 05/06/2026

Most writing paralysis is just your brain in the future instead of the scene in front of you. Who’s here. What do they want. What’s in their way. That’s it. That’s today’s job. New Hollyweird on exactly this ->

hollyweird.colbyday.com

I’m back

On taking it one day, or page, at a time

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 04/06/2026

Hot take: If you're on your third or fourth revision thinking “this is the final draft…” you’re probably wrong. Until the movie’s screening in front of an audience, there is no final draft. You’re going to be tweaking that thing all the way through. Trust me.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 03/06/2026

Most of a screenwriting career isn’t writing. It’s convincing people to let you write. Development meetings. Pitch calls. Emails that go unanswered. “We’re a big fan but…” If you’re worried you’re doing it wrong… you aren’t. This is how it goes.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 02/06/2026

I fear Hollywood is going to take all the wrong lessons from the breakout success of backrooms and double down on trying to find YouTube based IP when in fact what people love and cannot get enough of is the feeling of freaky liminal space

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 02/06/2026

Exactly. Mainly a value judgement of the writers soul

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 02/06/2026

Most “no”s have nothing to do with your work. Slate full. Bad timing. Someone in the room had a weird personal association. We treat every pass like a verdict on our talent. It’s almost never that.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 01/06/2026

Writer’s block is mostly just your brain fast-forwarding to “what if this fails” instead of staying in the scene you’re actually writing. The fix: who’s here, what do they want, what’s in their way. Write that. Repeat.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 01/06/2026

Just came back from parental leave. First thing I noticed: Hollywood didn’t miss me. Choosing to find that reassuring. Everything I was working on is still here.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 06/04/2026

Yes!!! Honored to be pointed at!

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 03/04/2026

Scarred me as an adult!

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 03/04/2026

Listen to this ep for my hot take on Michel Gondry that he’s “Too French.”

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Phillip Iscove @pmiscove.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

This week on @podcastlikeits The 2000s @emilystjams.bsky.social and I start a brand new miniseries on Spike Jonze & Charlie Kaufman’s 2000s by talking Human Nature with In The Blink of an Eye screenwriter @colbyday.com! We discuss Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman’s transgender metaphors and Bjork!

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

ha actually yes this is a VERY common No unfortunately. A cousin of the "silent No."

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

1000% it's like a self-created paradox we all must live within

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

we've all been thinking it...

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

oh the silence comes for us all! I totally feel you. And would much rather hear a concrete "pass" than nothing at all

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

Writers, creatives, anyone who’s ever heard No: What actually helps you when a project dies? Not what people tell you should help — what actually works for you? Drop it below. I’m genuinely collecting data on this.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

The second most important skill to make it in Hollywood? Learning how to handle rejection. Over and over and over again. (The first is putting yourself out there in the first place — but that’s another thread.) Full piece in my newsletter 👇 hollyweird.colbyday.com/p/it-never-r...

hollyweird.colbyday.com

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

I’d never say “toughen up.” Or “get over it.” Instead: be pissed. Be hurt. Be annoyed. Set a timer on it. Then start the next thing. And get back out there. There are plenty more No’s waiting — I have a million in a Google doc somewhere, you can have some of mine.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

Here’s the thing: Most rejections are not in category 3. Most of them are not about you at all. The slate was full. The executive got fired. The budget evaporated. The market shifted. You are not the variable in most of these equations.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

The “Work Isn’t Ready” No — the hardest to receive, the most valuable if you can actually hear it. When someone takes the time to tell you specifically why they passed? That’s a gift. Notes from someone with no stake in flattering you are sometimes the most honest feedback you’ll ever get.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

The “It’s Not For Me” No — taste mismatch. Completely valid on both sides. You sent the right thing to the wrong person. The goal is to find your people. Your people are not everyone. That’s not a flaw. That’s just math.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

There are 3 kinds of No: The Timing No — slate’s full, budget shifted, a similar show just sold. Has nothing to do with your work. Also the most common. You will almost never know this is the reason.

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Colby Day @colbyday.com · 20/03/2026

So what actually helps? Remembering that not all No’s are the same. Most people jump straight to: “they hate it, they hate me, I should become an Alaskan crab fisherman.” That’s probably not true. And it’s probably not a great career pivot.

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