A Viral YouTube Show About an Unhinged AI Is Hitting Theaters. It’s a Big Test for Hollywood

The fandom of The Amazing Digital Circus has had a rough few weeks on the internet.

Ever since Glitch Productions, the independent animation studio behind the web series, announced in early April that the finale would be released in theaters rather than on YouTube, fans have been simultaneously speculating about how the show might end and avoiding anyone claiming to have details about the final episode, whether they’re real or not.

“We’re looking for new mods to help us with spoilers,” reads the pinned post at the top of r/tadc, a popular Amazing Digital Circus subreddit. “Subreddit update: Leaks and controversies,” reads another. Below, a sea of memes, fan art, and restless anticipation.

The Amazing Digital Circus has been building toward this since Glitch posted the first episode in late 2023. An animated series about six people trapped in a virtual world overseen by an AI ringmaster with a god complex, its characters—all cartoonish avatars who can’t remember their real-world names—struggle to form bonds in their absurd circumstances. Under its wry humor is a story about finding friendships even when you’re isolated by technology and nothing seems real.

Those themes resonate, particularly with younger viewers growing up in a world increasingly influenced by social media and AI. The show has amassed more than 1.3 billion views on YouTube and devoted fans across the internet. On Thursday, when The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act finally hits theaters—and a lot of them at that—an entire online community will come together IRL.

Putting the finale in cinemas was Kevin Lerdwichagul’s idea. The cofounder and CEO of Glitch, Lerdwichagul saw how much fans liked hanging out together at conventions and thought he could bring that energy to theaters. “It really got me thinking and realizing,” Lerdwichagul says, “people, especially people that are online a lot, especially my generation and younger, they’re craving human connection.”

When Lerdwichagul and his brother Luke, Glitch’s cofounder and chief content officer, started discussing the idea a couple years ago, many people were worried the theatrical experience was dying. That young people weren’t going to the movies like they used to. The CEO and his brother wanted to challenge that, so they reached out to Fathom Entertainment, which schedules special screenings across the US.

Within days of releasing tickets for The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act on April 10 theaters were filling up—they sold $5 million of tickets in the first weekend—and fans were clamoring for more screenings. “We had more hits on our website in one day than we’ve had in an entire month,” Fathom CEO Ray Nutt says of the original presale.

It’s safe to say at least some of those additional theaters asked for Digital Circus because fans contacted them to demand it. Originally, Lerdwichagul had asked Fathom about getting The Last Act on 900 screens; that number quickly increased to more than 2,000 in the US and even more when you factor in international screenings; as of this writing, the final chapter of The Amazing Digital Circus will be playing at more than 4,000 theaters in dozens of countries when it’s released June 4. Its run, which was originally only supposed to be four days, has been extended to two weeks—right up to the day it’ll hit YouTube.

For all the worries about the decline of movie theaters, it might be kids on the internet that save them.