Episodes
-
Mid-Year Movie Check: Inside Asia's Box Office with Artisan Gateway's Rance Pow
China's box office is down nearly 40% year-over-year. So why does Rance Pow – founder of Artisan Gateway, which providesofficial China box office numbers to Hollywood studios – still believe China will one day be the world's biggest cinema market? In this mid-year check-in, hosts Patrick Frater…
more -
The APOS Debrief: What Asia's Media Industry Heard in Bali
Our highlights from Media Partners Asia's annual APOS event in Bali last week, where there was hot and cold running AI and Microdrama, lots of talk about sports and India, with insights into Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. The unofficial agenda was all about changes at Disney in Asia and...
-
Who Owns Attention Now? Vivek Couto on Asia's New Power Map
Hi-anxiety over advertising. Search for a saviour in microdrama. YouTube valued at $600 billion. Netflix worth more than Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros and Sony combined. And a winter freeze settled into Korea. MPA executive director Vivek Couto joins Patrick Frater and Janine Stein three weeks...
-
How One Festival Changed Asian Cinema
What does it take to run an Asian film festival in Europe dedicated to mainstream popular movies, not arthouse cinema? In this episode of Two The Point, hosts Patrick Frater and Janine Stein sit down with Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, the powers behind the Far East Film Festival in…
more -
Microdrama: How to Tame a Multi-Billion Dollar Business | Anne Chan, AR Productions
Changing Models, Day-One Revenue and Why the Michelin Approach Will Fail. Microdrama first-mover Anne Chan talks about who's really making money, what actually works, what doesn't, and what life looks like in a business that looks a lot more glamorous on an investment chart than it sometimes does...
-
Nezha 2: The Truths Behind a US$2.25B Success
What really happened behind the scenes of "Nezha 2" – Asia's highest-grossing film of all time? In this episode, Patrick Frater and Janine Stein sit down with Christopher Chen, Executive Producer / Senior VFX Supervisor at Taipei-based Reno Studios, for a remarkably candid conversation about the...
-
FILMART 2026 Post-Mortem: Microdrama, AI, BL & more
Join Janine Stein and Patrick Frater for a candid "nine out of ten" post-mortem on Filmart, recorded live from the Hong Kong Convention Center. This episode dives into the biggest trends, headline series, notable quips and quotes, and industry insights that shaped this year’s event. Video...
-
Vietnam’s Film Boom: Donovan Chan (Beach House Pictures) on Investing in Asian Cinema
🎬 Vietnam film industry, Asian cinema investment and Beach House Pictures are the focus of this episode of Two The Point with Janine Stein and Patrick Frater. Beach House Pictures creative director Donovan Chan joins the podcast to discuss the company’s push into Vietnamese feature films,...
-
PARAMOUNT X WBD: The Asia Angle
This week on Two The Point, Janine Stein and Patrick Frater break down the Asia impact of Paramount’s likely acquisition of Warner Bros – from theatrical distribution shake-ups to duplication risks in TV sales and syndication, and the future of HBO Max and Paramount+ across the region. Is this...
-
What moved Asia in the last week?
Indonesia’s streaming market flexes new muscle as Vidio climbs to No.2 in engagement behind Netflix. Prime Video talks up its APAC originals strategy with a licensing-heavy model anchored in Japan, India and Korea. Singapore International Film Festival changes dates, ditches film fund for 2026....
-
Has He Cracked Streaming in Indonesia? Mark Francis on Vidio’s Local Content Strategy
Patrick Frater and I spoke to Vidio's head of content strategy Mark Francis just ahead of Friday's showcase. Among other things, we talked about how his hyper-thoughtful local content strategy, taking the line-up broad, wide and deep, and the disciplined risk-taking that is driving growth in...
-
Political Films Get Top Billing at Asia-Friendly Rotterdam Festival
This week’s “Two The Point with Patrick Frater & Janine Stein” comes to you from the front lines of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), where Patrick has been racing between screenings of Asian films, taking in everything from big-budget Japanese features and silly Korean comedy to...
-
Rewriting the Spy Playbook: The Ink Factory's Asia Strategy
In this episode of Two The Point, Janine Stein and Patrick Frater speak with Simon Cornwell, co-CEO and co-founder of The Ink Factory and custodian of the John le Carré literary estate, about adapting premium IP for new markets — and why Asia is central to that strategy. The discussion covers the...
-
A Billion Views Later: Dennis Yang on Scaling Asian Drama on YouTube & Why Feature Films Still Matter in Taiwan
Studio76’s Dennis Yang breaks down the economics of YouTube at scale — from his 14 curated channels that have attracted a billion views so far to surprises in global language customisation, connected-TV CPMs, AVOD dominance and what this means to his fledging subsidiary, Studio 886. A candid...
-
Asia’s Screen Economy Reset: Who Wins the Next 5 Years? In conversation with MPA’s Vivek Couto
Media Partners Asia’s annual five-year forecast for the Asian screen entertainment sector is essential reading for industry watchers. The firm’s CEO and managing partner Vivek Couto this week joins “To the Point With Patrick Frater and Janine Stein” to do a deep dive into the reshaping of a $200...
-
Microdrama Moments: COL Group’s Enoch Chen & Timothy Oh on the terminology the shifts, the hits, fails, shocks & what the world can learn from China.
Unpacking what microdrama actually is — and why the terminology matters. Rather than simply “vertical video”, microdrama is defined by fast-paced, bite-sized storytelling designed for mobile-first consumption, where narrative hooks, emotional shocks and speed matter more than stars, directors or...
-
To the Point: Avatar's Mortality, Korea's China hopes and the Kosmetics of Price of Confession
To The Point returns with a wide-ranging tour of Asia’s entertainment business. Janine Stein and Patrick Frater take the temperature of the regional box office, unpacking Avatar’s uneven performance across China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia, and what it says about mature versus growth…
more -
Countdown to "Avatar: Fire and Ash" in Asia, FAST: IP graveyard or opportunity? & more [19 Dec 2025]
This week on Two The Point, Janine Stein and Patrick Frater break down the biggest stories shaping Asia’s entertainment business — from cinema to streaming to corporate strategy.We start with "Avatar 3: Fire and Ash", as the franchise rolls out across Asia and emerges as a key bellwether for the...
-
The Asia tangle post Warner sale; what was [& wasn't] said at CineAsia; crisis [or not] at S'pore movies
In this episode of 2 / The Point, veteran Asia film and TV journalists Janine Stein and Patrick Frater reflect on a week that captured the contradictions shaping Asia’s screen businesses as 2025 draws to a close. Coming out of the annual ATF in Singapore earlier this month, energy and attendance...