Hollywood's Mandate: 'Eat the Rich'

Not a coincidence we heard the same thing at production companies and networks when we met with executives to hear what they’re buying right now: wealth and power stories. The more unhinged the better. Think "Industry S4." "Your Friends & Neighbors S2", they're buying.

This genre is no longer riding a wave, it’s a permanently institutionalized in every kind of streaming TV. And for prestige buyers they’re not just buying one or two of these shows; they're commissioning multiple seasons ahead of time, signaling that wealth and power high strung drama is sitting alongside crime and comedy.

When globally acclaimed Bong Joon-ho’s released film Parasite in 2019, it was widely considered the resurgence of the genre from the 80’s dynasty era. Despite its language barrier, the film plowed through the awards season. Fast forward to 2026, advertisers, critics, and psychologists agree that America has a dual fascination of love-to-hate wealth shows that lines up in two lanes:

• Satirical/critical: shows that offer “eat the rich” catharsis or strong critique of elites, often via dark comedy or genre elements (e.g., Succession, The White Lotus, wellness‑retreat and billionaire‑politics thrillers).

• Aspirational/period: opulent settings and aristocratic milieus as escapist fantasy and “mental holiday” from real-world stress (Bridgerton, Guilded Age)

The top 0.001% (fewer than 60,000 people) now owns three times the wealth of the entire bottom half of humanity (~4 billion adults) and these gaps amplified by billionaire political clout directly stoke demand for satirical upper-class stories.

Advertisers are paying close to 20-30% higher CPMs ($40+) just to be near wealth show IP and the 25-54 demo watching them. In other words, "love to hate" content genre alone is projected to command $5-7B in 2026 of streamer ad spend, amplified by the real-time political and billionaire tie-ins.

The "love to hate" dynamic in wealth dramas really thrives on an "us vs. them" framing, where middle-class viewers root for relatable protagonists against scheming elites, amplified by slapstick and comeuppance. Think Succession or The White Lotus.

This kind of entertainment catharsis reliably delivers binge hits because it’s messy. Take the genre's breakout story of the 2000s as an example, HBO's Industry, which we discussed last week, is a deeply at times unnerving character study of young beautiful and very well dressed Machiavellian finance types. The show reinvented itself every season — up 40% in viewers, averaging 1.7 million cross-platform viewers per episode on HBO/Max alone. Its build up to Season 4’s catch-up viewing surged 60% globally. Here’s how the genre is broadly split:

Satirical/Critical Lane ("Eat the Rich")

• Your Friends & Neighbors S2 (Apple TV+, April 2026): Jon Hamm’s thief navigates the elite underbelly, blending crime with classism and murder.

• Beef S2 (Netflix, April 2026): Carey Mulligan/Oscar Isaac star in the satire setting off a high-stakes game of coercion skewering high-society dysfunction.​

  

Aspirational/ Glamour (Guilty Pleasures)

• The Gilded Age S4 (HBO, 2026): Explores conflicts between industrialist new and inherited old money, the African-American upper class, domestic workers, robber barons, organized labor, and the social power of women.

• The Gentlemen S2 (Netflix, 2026): Expands crime-empire among posh gangsters, luxury and ambition.

• Selling Sunset Season 9 (Netflix, 2025):Tension in a high-end real estate brokerage in West Hollywood with Rolls Royce house tours, fashion, and the drama between women selling $20 million homes to people who don’t need them.

Here’s the part that confounds easy narratives: affluent viewers are consuming this content at extraordinarily high rates. According to Ipsos, 88% of what they call “OTT Affluencers” — high-income streaming subscribers — over-index on political dramas, prestige series, and films. They are not absent. In many cases, they’re the core 25-54 demo.

Whether this represents ironic self-awareness, comfortable distance, or something more psychologically complex is a question the shows themselves seem interested in exploring. The genius of Succession is that it made you root for characters who were, by any moral accounting, villains, and then made you feel bad about that.

Tom Wambsgans' stunningly well written line about the "ludicrously capacious bag", a Burberry Medium Vintage Tartan Check tote priced at $2,890, is explained to cousin Greg why his date Bridget doesn’t fit in with the elite crowd, Logan Roy's birthday party:

“Why? Because she’s brought a ludicrously capacious bag. What’s even in there, huh? Flat shoes for the subway? Her lunch? I mean, Greg, it’s monstrous. It’s gargantuan. You could take it camping. You could slide it across the floor after a bank heist.” - Succession (S4, Episode 1)

The level of irony was facilitated by the writers’ room who deliberately chose it. Creator Jesse Armstrong told a London screening audience that the production team actually interviewed wealthy New York women asking what the most offensive bag a woman could bring to an event like this would be — the tackiest thing someone trying to fit in would carry.

The cultural fallout was immediate. Searches for “Burberry tote bag” jumped 310% in the weeks after the episode aired. And when the actual prop bag went to auction, it sold for $18,750.

Right now, the real world is handing storytellers immense material they couldn’t invent and it’s arriving pre-packaged. Back to the weekender edition of Business Insider. Three idea threads worth pulling. The slate builds itself:

1. “A Tiny American town“ Film

   You don’t need much embellishment for a story about a tiny American town in New Jersey with only 17 residents that pays no property taxes, hosts 50 businesses enjoying a tax rate of just 59 cents per $100 of assessed value, the lowest in northern New Jersey. If you added murder-for-hire, blackmail, bribery, and enough sharp talent with a story arc about killing the bill to outlaw it, you might have three seasons of prestige TV.

2. The “One Hour Brocast” The Cover Up of the American Tax Haven.

   What about an emerging media podcast delivering the kind of meaty exposé podcasters could call the "One Hour Brocast"? Go undercover to investigate fresh data from Socio-Economic Review researchers Brian Highsmith and Robert Manduca, who uncovered over 500 municipalities—often tiny towns—of ultra-rich residents where taxable wealth per capita exceeds three times that of surrounding cities. In most cases, fewer than 50 people live there, with under 100 businesses. Exposing the 90,000 "municipal tax havens" named "Hills," "Heights," "Woods," or "Villages" across the United States and Puerto Rico could fuel hundreds of hours of content.

3. Indian Creek Village: The Billionaire Bunker Procedural

   But if you wanted the purest distillation of everything this genre could really become, look at what’s sitting at the top of Highsmith and Manduca’s list.

   Indian Creek Village, the tiny island city of 80 people located off the coast of Miami. Formed and incorporated in 1936, it was envisioned from its earliest days as a haven for the super-rich. Think Grand Cayman’s of Miami. It’s centered around a $500,000-a-year membership golf club that takes up 80% of the island and by mansions owned by real life billionaires Jeff Bezos, Carl Icahn, and Mark Zuckerberg among others. It has earned its nickname: Billionaire Bunker.

   Much of Indian Creek’s $934.8 million in property tax value and residences are shielded from the broader Miami metro area, the other side of the bridge. It spends its $6 million annual budget almost entirely on personal security and charters a police force of 20 officers who run non-stop patrols in speedboats, ticketing any boaters who drift too close to the shoreline. The single bridge to Indian Creek is guarded around the clock — only residents and those with approved business matters may enter. The perimeter is dotted with cameras and a newly installed radar system.

   Now add A body. A disgraced hedge fund manager or two seeking refuge. A young tech bro who knows too much. A decades-old land deed someone wants destroyed. The security chief with divided loyalties and a steamy love triangle. Plus 20 character driven officers with speedboats.That’s a three season procedural. Minimum!

If you enjoyed this, subscribe and share it with someone who should also be reading Move. And if you’re building projects in film, TV, or emerging media, Callo was made for you. Find the people you need, organize your slate, and get your work made with our new platform.

Join Callo →

Share