The Box Office Podcast

After appearing on all 46 of the first episodes of The Box Office Podcast (even the late June episode where it was just her and Ryan holding down the fort), Lisa Laman had to sit this one out. She’ll be back for episode 48, so you can listen to me roll my eyes at all the Nosferatu nonsense *and* shudder at the hardcore deep-dive Sonic the Hedgehog nerdery in one single episode. This time, however, we’ve got a special guest star… (copies and pastes the whole thing cause I’m a lazy b*****d), Comscore Sr. Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian!!!Anyway, it’s mostly chatter about how well Sonic the Hedgehog 3 performed over its initial domestic debut and to what extent Mufasa: The Lion King has a shot in hell at recovering thanks to that magic “Christmas-to-New Year’s” period after a comparatively terrible opening weekend. We then all discuss the extent to which the overall marketplace has been firing on all cylinders since Bad Boys for Life and Inside Out 2 in early June. Oh, and listen to Jeremy and Paul gush over the Superman trailer.Spoiler: You will believe a nearly Medicare-eligible man can cry while watching the first trailer for the third Superman reboot in 19 years. Paul had to dash at the end of “act two,” and the final portion is just Jeremy and Scott discussing the ebb and flow of the 2025 calendar. Oh, and for whatever reason, we had some tech issues in that portion, so Jeremy’s audio is a little “fish underwater.” Beyond that, it’s a fun, ping-pong-ish conversation in a shorter-than-usual episode Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

As the sad Poe image implies, former co-host Ryan Scott is back, at least for one episode. They never found the body; he fixed the autopilot six months ago, an enraged Superboy punched the space-time continuum or whatever a bunch of times, and/or the entire last season was a dream. Either way, we hope for a few more Ryan Scott guest appearances over the next year to the extent his schedule allows. It was like riding a bike as we discussed why Wolf Man earned too little, with Scott discussing the specifics of Invisible Man’s success. Ryan correctly noted the unusually high budget, and both Jeremy and Lisa pointed out a relatively cold streak for Blumhouse as they face no longer being the cool kids in the horror sandbox. And yes, we discussed the borderline miracle that was One of Them Days pulling 2010s-level box office for what is an original, non-franchise, R-rated, not-a-white-guy theatrical comedy. Oh, and alongside a random digression about The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 and wondering what A24 forgot to do with Sing Sing, Ryan will correctly note that the notion of a Disney+ series being pretzeled into a $1 billion-plus theatrical film outweighs overall concerns about Disney relying on pre-packaged nostalgia for top-tier box office success. As always, if you like what you hear, like, share, comment, and smash (using a cartoon mallet) that subscribe button with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you want to bother us and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or offer ideas for bonus episodes, ping us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com.Yes, I’m going to start scheduling weekly subscriber chats this week (I just did one this morning, to relative success) and eventually become more aggressive about encouraging and answering listener emails.Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck NewsJeremy Fuster - TheWrapLisa Laman - Looper, Cultress, Comic Book and AutostraddleRyan C. Scott - SlashFilm and FangoriaFinally, if you have the means and motivation, several worthwhile organizations are attempting to help those impacted by the California fires.As Jeremy mentions at the end of the previous episode, the Los Angeles-based Anti-Recidivism Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to ending mass incarceration, is raising funds to support California’s prison fire crews.Likewise, as Lisa noted at the end of last week’s episode, please take a look at this spreadsheet listing GoFundMe links for displaced Black families (and impacted businesses) in Altadena, California.And here are links for…The Red CrossThe LA food bankThe LAFD Wildfire Emergency FundThe California Fire FoundationDirect Relief Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Since there were no newbies of note this weekend, all due respect to Vertical’s The Damned, Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and Jeremy Fuster just talked about the holdover business and that pesky “fewer movies than theaters were once accustomed to” issue that still seems to be in play five years after the start of the COVID pandemic. The good news is that Mufasa: The Lion King is legging like a champ, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is racing into the video game-based movie history books. Moreover, adult-skewing biggies like Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown and Babygirl are thriving concurrently right alongside the all-quadrant tentpoles. The “bad” news is that, yeah, there was no excuse not to have *something* of note this weekend and Wicked Part One’s 49% seventh-weekend drop might make it the rare theatrical success that gets a little bit undercut by PVOD availability. Ask us again next weekend, natch. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

In what will be the last episode of 2024, the three proverbial box office musketeers/amigos/etc. are joined by Daniel Loria for a deep dive into what went right over the holiday weekend and why it’s exactly the kind of “everybody wins” frame exhibitors and theatrical proselytizers have been waiting for since, well, even before the COVID era of multiplex melodrama. Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 both held like champs, Wicked Part One and Moana 2 got big holiday bumps, and Nosferatu came on like a (pun intended) bat out of hell with a relatively sky-high five-day debut. The year will end almost tied, give or take a Disney movie delayed to 2025 and/or a painfully underperforming Joker sequel, with the #Barbenheimer-infused 2023 domestic totals. We thus all again note that the struggles and perils facing the multiplex remain more about supply than about demand. All of us express cautious optimism for next year, which is the first one since 2019 (or honestly, 2018 if you note the sheer Disney domination of what was supposed to be Bob Iger’s swan song), where theatrical is playing with something approximating a full deck.However, even with concerns about lighter-than-expected slates in January and March, all signs point to, if not a full pre-COVID-level theatrical total, then something approximating best-case scenario business in an ecosystem where A) 20th Century Fox is no longer independent and no longer releasing 15-20 movies a year, while B) original animation and Marvel/DC films are no longer surefire mega-hits. All that, plus discover for yourself why the episode ended with Jeremy challenging theatrical moviegoers to “rawdog Shoah.” Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

* It’s basically the “all Kraven and all The War of the Ro…hru…ru… how the f**k do I pronounce that again?” as the Box Office Podcast podcasts about the box office of this weekend’s epic commercial losers.* Lisa lays out just how awful the opening weekend for Kraven really was.* Jeremy rages at the absurdity of offering an anime film with subpar animation to an audience that expects visual panache.* Scott appreciates Sony finally seeing the “It Ends with Us > Kraven” light, even while still decrying why the powers that be didn’t embrace the obvious years earlier. * Among other tidbits and digressions (including the now standard give-and-take concerning Warner Bros. Discovery)…* Lisa drops the most plausible reason yet offered for why James Gunn’s Superman could be a commercial success.* Jeremy offers a way for Sony to stop making ill-advised comic book movies while still placating the “franchises are all that matters” investor class.* Scott continues to be horrified by the sheer amount of ridiculous lore present in the now 30-year-old Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Weirdly enough, there were well over a dozen new releases this weekend, even if it a few of them made anything resembling “money” in terms of domestic grosses. Nonetheless, this episode offers a slew of tangents including…* The comparative cultural rehabilitation of Chris Nolan’s Interstellar, at least in terms of online nitpicking versus critical and real-world approval* The value of putting old(er) classics back into wide theatrical release* Why Y2K was DOA* Bruce Willis’ complicated 2010s filmography* Our critical complaints with Gladiator II* Michelle Kisner (and Lisa Laman) raving about The BrutalistOh, right, Michelle Kisner, a card-carrying (and founding) member of the Michigan Movie Critics Guild, stopped by as a special guest as Jeremy took the week off. So this week it’s Scott, Lisa and Michelle in a conventionally unconventional episode that somehow found more to talk about in regard to those Johnny English movies than about Moana 2. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

There wasn’t all that much to discuss this weekend beyond the circumstances of Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17 opening with just $19 million in North America. But since we have a whole show to fill, Brandon Peters (veteran podcaster and film pundit and longtime friend of Scott Mendelson) stopped in to sort through the carnage. Among other topics are…- Robert Pattinson’s limited drawing power- The challenges of getting moviegoers to take a chance on a movie at the theatrical level that isn’t pre-sold, pre-digested or based on something they liked- A COVID-era pattern of Warner Bros. being expected to “save” the box office with films like Tenet and In the Heights that were never supposed to be all-consuming mega-tentpoles- Nostalgia for late 2010/early 2011 successful studio programmers like Lincoln Lawyer, Source Code, The Town and The Social Network- Big Oscar bumps for Anora and No Other Land- And More! Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Since there really isn’t much box office news to discuss, we spent the entire show discussing the Oscar season that just ended.Lisa Laman explained the commercial realities that helped make Anora the lowest-earning Best Picture winner since The Hurt Locker in 2010. Jeremy Fuster argued that it was more important for the Academy Awards to honor the “best” movies of the year even at the cost of remaining a top-tier pop culture event. Scott Mendelson noted Anora’s place alongside a slew of pre-COVID pictures like Parasite, Joker, Knives Out and Hustlers which acknowledged that income inequality was more structural than just “Bernie Madoff =bad!”All of us agreed that A) it’s consumers’ responsibility to sample the honored films, but B) it’s partially due to corporate consolidation (especially among studios that have tentpole-level leverage) alongside an overall decline in available screens that makes the difference between a Birdman that earns $41 million and an Anora that earns $15 million in North America. We also discussed which Best Picture winners qualified as genuinely “anti-establishment” while we agreed that A) Conan O’Brien was a pretty damn solid host and B) the James Bond tribute as essentially a eulogy.Oh, and Jeremy gets angry (and we always like him when he’s angry) about perhaps the laziest post-telecast “take” of the season. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Brandon Katz of The Observer and Parrot Analytics serves as our special “fourth participant” with whom we discuss how badly Marvel has messed up (or been undermined by corporate overlords) in the post-Avengers: Endgame transition to Disney+ television, why The Monkey is performing well outside of comparisons to breakouts like Longlegs and M3GAN and whether Amazon MGM Studios will unnecessarily interfere with the established James Bond formula or dilute the brand through streaming offshoots. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Scott Mendelson, Jeremy Fuster and Lisa Laman pontificate on why a $101 million Friday-Monday debut isn’t great news for Captain America: Brave New World and could be terrible news for the theatrical industry, which is banking on the MCU tentpole to deadlift the entire first quarter. Concurrently, longtime LA journalist vet and before-it-was-cool geek culture expert Luke Y. Thompson is our special guest in a conversation discussing the give-and-take of politically-minded tentpoles, how disingenuous politically-minded operators exploited the genuine (explanation is not justification) anger over the diversification of stereotypically niche fandoms and whether Marvel’s current mixed track record is a natural evolution or more execution-driven.In terms of the written word…Scott Mendelson tipped his hat to Disney for doing the smart and right thing in moving Pixar’s Elio away from the June 13 opening day it previously shared with DreamWorks’ live-action How to Train Your Dragon remake.Jeremy Fuster dove into the work being done amid and for the artistic community in beginning to rebuild areas devastated by last month’s wildfires. Lisa Laman offered a quick study guide as to those pesky Serpent Society folks who show up in Captain America 4.Ryan Scott’s latest “Tales from the Box Office” notes the 30th anniversary of Disney’s Heavyweights.Luke Y. Thompson used the momentary online outrage over Terrifier director Damien Leone’s online declaration that Terrifier movies are apolitical (even if they aren’t necessarily secular) to pontificate about the complicated notions of being apolitical, at least in your personal relationships and your professional life, in an inherently political time. As always, if you like what you hear, like, share, comment, and smash (using a cartoon mallet) that subscribe button with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you want to bother us and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or offer ideas for bonus episodes, ping us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com.Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck NewsJeremy Fuster - TheWrapLisa Laman - The Dallas Observer, Looper, Cultress, Comic Book and AutostraddleRyan C. Scott - SlashFilm and FangoriaLuke Y. Thompson - ill LYTeracy and /Film. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

This weekend, we will discuss a disappointing Super Bowl weekend in North America (RIP Heart Eyes and Love Hurts), why Companion struggled to find post-debut momentum, and the consistently strong performance of Ne Zha 2 in China. Additionally, we spent the second half of the show answering a few listener emails, so keep those coming. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

This weekend’s episode goes to the Dog(s), Man. Jeremy Fuster couldn’t make it, but Lisa Laman and Scott Mendelson welcome Kenny Miles to this week’s episode to discuss both the new releases (Companion and Dog Man) in a general sense and share his experiences and opinions related to his work as a CinemaScore pollster. We all agree that actually polling folks walking out of the movie on opening night is a better word-of-mouth measurement tool than opt-in online user polls that, of course, can be gamed and skewed for one reason or another. Also, we discuss the many positives of Dog Man’s strong domestic debut (yay for another DreamWorks franchise based on a comparatively lesser-known kid-lit series) and whether New Line and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Companion underwhelmed due to poor marketing or just being a more challenging concept. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

The actual box office news is comparatively light, so this somewhat became an accidental three-part episode.In the first act, Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and this week’s special guest star (Chrissi Michael, natch) discussed the ups and downs of the top ten and the various ways in which younger viewers ingest pop culture.The second act, during which Jeremy Fuster pops in a bit late but not too late (think when you show up 25 minutes after the listed showtime at an AMC theater and Nicole Kidman is still proselytizing), features more conventional box office punditry.And the third act, if you will, of the week’s conversation centers around Oscar punditry — and the many ways in which distributors and exhibitors could attempt to better cajole folks to actually show up to see the nominated films in theaters.As noted above, this episode’s guest is one Chrissi Michael, a content strategist who has long obsessed with the box office and who has recently started writing again on a newly formed substack. Spoiler: She almost instantly went from “I have no idea who this is” to “Oh s**t, I either need to hire her or destroy her.” Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

In what was the first “new” weekend of 2025, Den of Thieves 2 opened seven years after its predecessor with an almost identical amount of money in North America. For the special occasion, The Box Office Podcast welcomed the one and/or only Brandon Streussnig to discuss Vulture’s third annual “Stunt Awards” along with Gerard Butler’s B-level stardom, the nuanced politics of seemingly simplistic grindhouse fare and the key difference between knowing what’s wrong and knowing who or what is to blame.Yes, there is plenty of box office punditry, including an extended fist-bump for the continued slow-burn success of A24’s The Brutalist. However, there’s also time to discuss the action genre as a whole, the ongoing notion of well-liked art made by less-than-ideal artists, the problem of blaming pop culture over the real-world culture it sometimes endorses or emulates and why Paramount’s support of Better Man qualifies as a moral victory even in the face of entirely expected box office failure. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Moana 2 shattered Thanksgiving weekend records with a sky-high $225 million Wed-Sun debut, right alongside Wicked Part One’s equally impressive $118 million Wed-Sun *non-opening weekend*. Oh, and Gladiator II kept up with the competition, relatively speaking, as it showed that there’s room in the moviegoing marketplace for more than one — or even two — big-deal franchise-friendly mega-budget tentpoles. But, sorry Red One, definitely not four big-deal franchise-friendly mega-budget tentpoles.Listen as Lisa Laman decries the extent to which Disney’s tentpole-focused strategy has overwhelmed Searchlight, Jeremy Fuster passionately explains why the Academy Awards both still matter and are more important than any other awards show, while Scott Mendelson notes that the dual success of both female-skewing, family-friendly musical fantasies shows that there are no more excuses for Hollywood to be shy about placing one major movie right alongside another one.Meanwhile, we say a temporary farewell to one of our co-hosts as we essentially killed off a major character in one of the year’s final episodes. Fear not, it’s of his own volition, and it’s less Halloween Ends and more Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Surely nobody could have survived that fall, explosion, tidal wave or being chopped in half by a laser sword before drifting down a bottomless gorge, right? Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

The conventional wisdom that Wicked Part One’s $112 million opening destroyed (audiences don’t mind musicals, and they don’t mind the whole “part 1 of 2” thing) and whether a $55 million domestic debut is good enough for the pricy Gladiator II (which, inflation aside, is relatively high for an R-rated action movie not based on a comic book). Meanwhile, some digressions related to Moana II’s upcoming Thanksgiving release, how Bonhoeffer represents the status quo for Angel Studios and a deep-dive conversation prompted by a listener question about “What If?” box office scenarios. What if Amazing Spider-Man had bombed in 2012? What if The Interview had been even a modest hit in 2014? Could Disney have survived the theoretical failure of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003? Lisa also explains why Tom Cruise and Adam Driver are current examples of great actors who make comparatively poor career choices. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

It is a tale of two franchise-friendly $250 million tentpoles and to what extent the streamer deserves nuance and mercy for a domestic and global opening weekend that would be an outright disaster for a legacy studio. Sure, Red One was greenlit and budgeted for streaming, but why make excuses for the very streaming companies that helped undercut the legacy studios’ ability to release non-franchise theatricals in the first place, especially when the film in question isn’t a studio programmer like Challengers or a prestige flick like Killers of the Flower Moon? Meanwhile, hopes are high for Gladiator II (which earned a decent $87 million in its overseas debut) and Wicked Part One (which is set to play the role of the pre-Thanksgiving YA fantasy epic of the year indeed), while Moana II is tracking so high that we’re just hoping that it’s… better than Inside Out 2. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

We all try to distract ourselves by discussing the long-game value of Christmas movies and the coming triple-whammy of Gladiator II, Wicked Part One, and Moana II, which will help bring the overall year-end closer to 2023 than any of us dared hope back in January. You can also enjoy our wildly off-topic discussions about what Hollywood tried to make in the 2010s. From here on out, Timothée Chalamet shall be known (in a superlative, complimentary sense) as “The Dune Twink.” Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Ryan had to skip out on this episode, so it’s just Scott, Lisa and Jeremy talking shop. We spend half the episode discussing the good news (Venom 3, Anora, Conclave, etc.) and the bad news (Here, Juror #2, Absolution). The second half is a listener mailbag episode, including some very macabre conversations about potential Pixar sequels and why The Good Dinosaur 2 should be a cross-over/combo sequel to Ice Age and Dinosaur. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Venom: The Last Dance is more evidence that the late-2010s Marvel/DC superhero boom has ended, with the sub-genre now as execution-dependant as any other franchise film. Still, a $120 million threequel that will probably clear $400 million worldwide allows Sony a graceful off-ramp for their decade-long efforts to make Spider-Man’s rogues gallery into their own cinematic universe. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe