Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.
On his Game Theory YouTube channel, Matthew Patrick drops video game knowledge bombs on his millions of subscribers. As it turned out, Patrick has plenty of movie-related theories in his arsenal, and his desire to share them has led him to a new channel: The Film Theorists. On his new channel, Patrick and his team of movie buffs deliver interesting theses about everything from Doctor Who to Shrek. This formula has seen immediate success, with the new channel rolling up one million subscribers in just one month. We spoke to Patrick about his process for analyzing famous movies:
Tubefilter: How does it feel to have 1 million subscribers (for a second time)? What do you want to say to your fans?
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Matthew Patrick: It’s incredible! When I first started taking YouTube seriously, getting that gold Play button was my “stretch” goal. As a gamer, it was the achievement I wanted to unlock, but was skeptical I could. Now, we’re almost at SIX MILLION subscribers across both channels – it’s something I never anticipated.
As for the Loyal Theorists, I want them to know that this is a milestone for them too! Without their support for every episode of both Game Theory and Film Theory, we wouldn’t be here to celebrate this. More than that, though, I think it’s important for everyone to know how much of an impact they have on real peoples’ lives when they do things like watch the videos, subscribe, and even argue with me about the theories in the comments. Because of the way the community has grown and how enthusiastic everyone is, we’ve been able to bring more people onto the Theorist team, giving people actual jobs! We’re also able to educate and entertain more people! The audience’s support has a domino effect that goes way past the numbers on the channel and it’s important to recognize that and say how grateful we are to the fans.
TF: Why do you think your new Film Theorists channel attracted 1 million subscribers so quickly after launch (within a month)?
MP: Well, it certainly helps when you have a 4.5 million subscriber channel to promote it on, haha! But joking aside, when channels have done similar promotions in the past, they’ll typically only see about a 10% carryover of fans. So certainly a well-optimized annotation strategy from Game Theorist was part of it, but programming was another huge component.
In creating Film Theorists, I wanted to bring on another large, thoughtful gaming brand that was looking to cross into new territory, which is how Did You Know Movies entered our lineup. On top of that, in crafting the launch lineup, I tried to include a good mix of mainstream movies, topical content, as well as a few more niche subjects to give viewers coming over a good sense of the breadth of the channel. What we started to see after the first week was that while people were still coming over from Game Theory, more people were discovering the channel who had never seen any “Theorist” shows before, which was incredibly exciting.
TF: So why launch a new channel?
MP: First, it was something that my fans had been requesting in comments, on Twitter, and in email, so when I started the channel the hope was that it would be something they would enjoy watching. At the end of the day, with anything I do, it’s to entertain and educate, so if I didn’t think the interest was there, it wouldn’t have happened.
But to be completely honest, I started seriously considering it nearly a year before any requests came in. If you watch Game Theory, you can see that I make A LOT of TV and movie references — my favorite shows like Community, Archer, and Breaking Bad get referenced all over the place. So, working in the new genre would allow me to flex that muscle while still creating fun, exciting content for other diehard fans of those sorts of shows.
From a YouTube-perspective, the reason was purely for viewer experience. Even though I knew a good number of Game Theory fans would also enjoy Film Theory, I knew not ALL of them would. So, to avoid spamming gamers sub boxes with theories about Seinfeld or 50 Shades of Grey, a new channel made the most organizational sense.
TF: How has your process changed from the Game Theorists channel to your new one (if at all)? Have you had to adjust your “formula” for analyzing games to fit movies and TV?
MP: Yes and no. On the one hand, one of the most important things for me about The Film Theorists was for it to stand on its own. I didn’t want it to be “the spinoff from Game Theory.” But I also didn’t want to send fans of Game Theory off to some random new channel where the format was drastically different.
In the end, it was a balance. I carried over some of the imagery from The Game Theorists and a few of the memes, but I’m actively working on establishing new jokes and routines with the Film Theory audience to make the channels distinct. We’re covering some more mature topics, addressing franchises that aren’t as male-centric, and experimenting with shorter episodes. And we have two awesome partner shows who are providing great content. How much the channel evolves as we go forward will really depend on how the audience is reacting to the content. I’m always VERY attentive to the analytics and the community of Loyal Theorists has always been willing to share their opinions, so I’ll keep experimenting and between those two sources providing feedback, we’ll end up in a successful place.
TF: How much would you say you focus on “creating” your own personal theories vs. analyzing ones that already exist on the Internet?
MP: It’s always a balance—I get theory ideas from everywhere and do my best to come up with a good mix of programming so you’re never getting too much of one type of episode. One of the really great things about having a big audience early on for The Film Theorists is that episode suggestions started coming in right away. Literally in the first two days of the channel going live, I started to get emails and tweets requesting that I look into theories about Marvel movies, Pixar connected universes, and tons of other stuff I hadn’t even heard of. For instance, one of the biggest TV shows people have been requesting for Film Theory is Gravity Falls. I had only heard of the show before in passing, but so many people requested it that I had to start researching it right away.
TF: You’re also known for your deep knowledge of YouTube. What do you think is the most significant way in which this expertise has helped you grow your channel?
MP: During my time working in YouTube audience development, I’ve seen a lot of channels launch and struggle to make it out of the gate. The channel doesn’t have enough content, the creator doesn’t perform a clear call to action, the programming strategy isn’t quite right, etc. I tried to avoid as many pitfalls as I could because you only get one really good shot at launching strong, and behind the scenes, I kept pushing our launch date back until I was confident we were in a good position.
A core part of our launch strategy was optimizing for long retention times and creating a lean-back viewing experience where the audience could click play and watch as much as they wanted. When you launch a new channel, you want it to be easy for new viewers who don’t know what they’re getting into to start watching and keep watching if they like what they see, so we did everything possible to make sure watching all the episodes would be easy and fun.
TF: Similarly, what is one tip you would give to an aspiring creator who wants to create longer videos, as you do, while still gathering a sizable audience?
MP: Starting with long videos out of the gate is really tough. Unless you have a format that lends itself to longer videos, like Let’s Plays, vlogging, or livestreaming, it can be hard to come up with enough content to fill 8+ minutes. I mean, Game Theory episodes started out at 5-7 minutes, so even my content was a lot shorter once upon a time!
My episodes have been able to slowly creep up over the years because we’ve gotten better at more elaborate storytelling, and I’ve been able to work with incredible editors who can handle the huge amount of work each episode takes, but for people looking to do longer content, I would first say, ask yourself WHY you’re pursuing longer content. Is it because there’s so much to cover even when every moment is densely packed with something interesting? Then yes, go long. But if you find yourself with a video that has a lot of down time or filler, chances are you’re going to lose a lot of people along the way.
TF: In addition to “Did You Know” and “Frame by Frame,” are there other series you plan to start on the Film Theorists channel?
MP: Right now, the focus is on establishing the channel and helping the shows we have on it grow. I love Did You Know and Frame by Frame and I want to make sure that every upload on the channel has plenty of space to build momentum over the next few months. I also want to make sure that people don’t have to pick and choose between uploads they want to watch on the channel.
Subscribing to a channel can feel like a big commitment and it’s hard to ask an audience to subscribe when they’re not sure where their next upload will be coming from. I really like how clean and simple the channel feels with the shows we have on it now and I think viewers can get a really good sense of the whole channel in just a few episodes. That’s not to say that down the line we won’t continue to experiment and try new things, but we’re happy with the series that are there now and want to see where the next few months take them.
TF: What’s next for your channel? Any fun plans?
MP: Well, there are two more empty spaces on our logo…
On Deck (channels that will soon reach one million subscribers): keferavlog, kuplinovplay, AmbuPlay
