75,000 rentals in first 2 months
Dear Kelly, Callaghan's self-distributed documentary, was rented 75,000 times in its first two months via his own website.
Snapshot · The Louis Theroux Podcast
S8 EP3: Andrew Callaghan on the ‘cancelverse’, lizard people, and whether he’s being sued by Melania Trump
Explore episode
Jun 22, 2026
Where this was said
Dear Kelly and the Case for Independent Distribution
At 55:05 · chapter starts 54:30
Following the cancellation, Callaghan made a deliberate choice to never work with studios again — not out of bitterness, but out of strategic self-interest. If he produces and owns his content entirely, no collaborator can fold under pressure, no C-suite can pull his press tour, and no legal threat can cause someone else to take his work down. Dear Kelly was the test case: edited alone in a Las Vegas office, released on a personal website with a $5.55 paywall, zero distribution deal, zero PR budget. The results were stunning [1] — Andrew Callaghan "No studio, no distributor, no Hollywood deal — just a website and a paywall. Dear Kelly earned roughly $1 million from 75,000 rentals in it…" 54:30 : 75,000 rentals in two months, roughly $1 million in combined revenue from rentals, lifetime purchases, and merchandise — more than the HBO film generated for him personally. Callaghan presents this not as a triumph of artistic independence but as a survival mechanism: the only way to ensure that a powerful subject can't silence your work is to own every link in the chain from production to distribution.
Dear Kelly: $1 Million Without a Studio
No studio, no distributor, no Hollywood deal — just a website and a paywall. Dear Kelly earned roughly $1 million from 75,000 rentals in its first two months, more in revenue than This Place Rules generated on HBO. It's the clearest proof yet that independent distribution can beat the legacy system.
~$1 million from Dear Kelly
With merchandise and lifetime purchases, Dear Kelly generated roughly $1 million in revenue, more than This Place Rules on HBO.
Nick Shirley and the Weaponisation of Street Content
Nick Shirley — a 22-year-old former Mormon missionary — films divisive content about immigrants and minority communities that gets signal-boosted by Elon Musk and JD Vance, after which ICE sweeps follow. Callaghan argues Shirley is unknowingly embedded in a GOP media operation that turns anecdotal stories into national policy pretexts.
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