x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Box Office Podcast

Scott Mendelson

A weekly conversation about the weekend box office between myself (Scott Mendelson) and a few younger (Jeremy Fuster), hipper (Ryan Scott) and cooler (Lisa Laman) entertainment journalists. Spoiler: I am what they grow beyond. scottmendelson.substack.com

business visual arts

All Episodes

64:51

Ep. 80 - Hooray For Hollywood?

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/08/14

In this distinctly old-school episode of The Box Office Podcast, former co-host turned semi-regular special guest Ryan Scott returned to discuss the blow-out success of Zach Cregger’s Weapons. Scott Mendelson noted that it’s another example of WB’s marketing might in terms of turning less-conventional programmers into genuine smash hits. At the same time, Lisa Laman stressed that it’s another key example of why it’s still worth it for Hollywood to roll the dice on original or less pre-sold

en

121:35

Ep. 78 - Marvel: Ragnarök

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/08/08

A longer and more digression-packed episode than usual, because now semi-regular special guest Aaron Neuwirth kept talking and talking and talking. Sadly, he has been banned from The Box Office Podcast until no earlier than September 21. Although if there’s a movie (re)opening on the weekend of August 15 that justifies a cameo…The core discussion is, obviously, what a massive dip for Fantastic Four says about the chickens coming home to roost in the MCU. We also find ample time to discuss The Bad

en

75:40

Ep. 78 - Galactus Demands a Doggy Bag

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/07/30

As of this writing, Fantastic Four: First Steps has earned $142.25 million after five days in North American theaters, jumping an “impressive as Superman” 36% from its $10.4 million Monday for a $14.2 million Tuesday. Concerns about a shockingly frontloaded weekend (barely double its $57 million Friday and 21% of its $117.64 million weekend stemming from Thursday previews) notwithstanding, it’s not like the film is collapsing into oblivion now that the hardcore MCU fans have checked it off their

en

95:05

Ep. 77 - Superman Knows What You Smurfed Last Summer!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/07/25

Our guest, longtime film journalist and current Fangoria Managing Editor Meredith Borders, joins us all the way from Germany to discuss how Superman is inspired by and appeals to fans of Smallville, as well as to what extent The Smurfs is still popular in Europe. All agree that Superman is absolutely becoming a “normal people give a damn” event movie, trying to legacy-sequel-ize I Know What You Did Last Summer was a doomed and depressing prospect, and Eddington was always fated to be more blogged

en

72:07

Ep. 76 - Reign of the 'Superman'

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/07/18

James Gunn’s acclaimed and buzzy Superman opened in North America with $125 million toward a $95 million overseas launch. The domestic grosses are good enough, especially with thus-far strong weekday earnings ($12.9 million on Monday, $17 million on Tuesday and $11.8 million on Wednesday) to compensate for thus-far lousy international grosses.And the buzz is closer to Batman Begins than Superman Returns, so we invited TheWrap’s resident scooper and geek-specific (but not IP-exclusive) film

en

74:19

Ep. 75 - Dinos in a Fern Field

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/07/10

Longtime Jurassic super-fan (and more recent Clown in a Cornfield mega-fan) Ryan Scott returns to the fourth chair to talk about dinosaurs and movies about dinosaurs. The numbers ($148 million over five days in North America and $322 million worldwide) are unquestionably huge, even without IMAX screens. However, this standalone, presumably one-and-done entry still sparks questions about where the franchise can or should go for the inevitable next chapter. Cowardly Ryan slightly disagrees with

en

69:08

An Hour With... Joshua Moore, Author of...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/07/09

I’ve often said that I was exactly the right age to initially think that Power Rangers was idiotic when it debuted in 1993, only to come to appreciate it when my kids discovered it in the early 2010s. Be it “good” or “bad,” it’s unlike anything else that existed before or (save for attempted knock-offs) since. In retrospect, it was an example of a large-scale commercial triumph, partly due to being the first of its kind and by delivering previously “foreign” genre elements to young American

en

88:49

Ep. 74 - ‘F1’ Blue-Shells Blumhouse as Pixar Slips on...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/07/03

The good news is that F1 just nabbed a big win for Apple’s bumpy theatrical ambitions. The bad news is that M3GAN 2.0 continued Blumhouse’s less-than-stellar track record with sequels, which was less of an issue even a few years ago when their originals and non-sequels were kicking ass on the regular. And the truly ugly news drops at around the hour-mark as Lisa Laman reads as-it-drops reporting confirming all our worst fears about why Pixar’s Elio was delayed and what was changed from the allegedly

en

92:19

Ep. 73 - How Low Can Pixar's 'Elio' Go?

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/06/27

This week’s topic, obviously, is what happened to Elio, whether Pixar is finished as a butts-in-seats brand for original animated films, and (without blaming any single factor as a zero-sum explanation) who and what is responsible.Special guest Josh Spiegel, who wrote the book(s) on Pixar, blames Bob Chapek for sending three key original Pixar films to Disney+ during the early days of the streaming war.Lisa Laman notes that Pixar hasn’t been a “the name is enough” brand since the mid-2010s.Jeremy

en

76:42

Ep. 72 - For ‘Materialists’ Girls, When the ‘Dragon’...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/06/18

Due to a false alarm about potentially malfunctioning Wi-Fi, we ended up with two special guests for the price of one. Kirsten Acuna, having recently begun a new gig as a staff editor at People Magazine, dropped by to discuss the second of three high-profile live-action remakes for 2025. And since we weren’t sure if Jeremy Fuster would be able to make it, Aaron Neuwirth made his third appearance since early March, seemingly trying to stake his claim as the Steve Martin of The Box Office Podcast. The

en

67:26

Ep. 71 - 'Ballerina,' You've Barely Seen Her......

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/06/11

Ballerina is that most frustrating of things for we box office pundits, as it’s a relative disappointment even though it’s not remotely an all-around commercial disaster. Should it have opened closer to $35 million than $25 million? Maybe, but $25 million is not half bad for a film starring a “known but not butts-in-seats draw” actress in what was her first theatrical headliner, which was heavily marketed using another actor and character who appears in little more than an extended cameo. And yeah,

en

48:39

Ep. 70 - 'Karate Kid' Gets 'Suits LA'-ed

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/06/05

Sony’s Karate Kid: Legends continues to make Jumanji the exception to the rule. At the same time, Bring Her Back shows that, in ways mostly positive but slightly negative, moviegoers might be clued in to A24’s fright flight shenanigans. Could the Karate Kid flick have performed better if it were more closely tied to Cobra Kai? Might Bring Her Back’s inexplicably positive viewer scores result in Philippous being forced by A24 to make an even darker, grimmer, and more relentlessly unfun horror film

en

82:35

Ep. 69 - You either Die a ‘Skyfall’ or Live Long...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/05/29

Jeremy rages against bad-faith online discourse concerning the ending of Lilo & Stitch. Lisa cowers in terror at Plinky’s moist eyeballs. Scott whines about Final Reckoning’s past-tense Mission: Impossible callbacks. All share varying degrees of disappointment with both big-deal Memorial Day weekend releases. Commercially, they of both kicked relative amounts of butt, with Lilo & Stitch setting a record for the holiday and Mission: Impossible scoring a franchise-best domestic and global weekend

en

68:47

An Hour With Ryan Reynolds...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/05/23

As the headline indicates, this is an extended conversation—not quite an interview—between me and the star of R.I.P.D. and The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. Long story short, we have periodically chatted over the last decade, mainly through Twitter private messages (yes, the star of Turbo slid into my DMs), but not to the extent that I’m on his holiday card list or anything like that. Anyway, he offered to join me on my proverbial pod for a mostly business-focused conversation a few weeks ago. This is

en

72:51

Ep. 68 - Death Kills At Box Office

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/05/21

Brandon Peters stops by to discuss what went right with a legacy sequel that didn’t sell itself as one. Topics covered included how WBD marketed a follow-up 14 years later without depending on existing fandoms, the idea that Final Destination may be the best Hollywood slasher franchise from the post-Scream era, and why the franchise’s consistent quality (rarely great but seldom terrible) has contributed to its ongoing popularity. Everyone concurred that AMC’s initiative to offer 50% discounts on

en

56:04

Ep. 67 - 'Thunderbolts' Are... So?

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/05/15

It’s just the three of us (Scott Mendelson, Jeremy Fuster and Lisa Laman) discussing the extent to which revealing the “actual” title of Thunderbolts may have either not helped or done more harm than good. We also note the surprisingly strong (for an IFC horror movie) debut weekend for Clown in a Cornfield while noting how and why Vertical’s Fight or Flight and Lionsgate’s Shadow Force failed to make much of an opening weekend impression. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at

en

64:07

Ep. 66 - Marvel-Less!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/05/08

The good news is that Thunderbolts* (or… uh… are we using the new title now?) kicked off the summer movie season with $74 million in North America and $160 million worldwide, grosses that would be excellent for 90% of all big-deal Hollywood franchises. The bad news is that such a bow is still essentially tied with Eternals and lower than the debuts for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Captain America: Brave New World. While the reviews and buzz are generally positive, how much will that matter

en

55:26

Ep. 65 - 'Sinners' Weekend II: 'Revenge' of the...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/05/01

This was supposed to be just a summer movie preview episode. The bonkers-bananas hold for Sinners, along with aspirational openings for Revenge of the Sith and The Accountant 2, means that half the show was spent offering up the most optimistic “We’re back, dammit!” chatter since last Easter weekend. For this occasion, former co-host turned Sweeps Week Guest Ryan Scott pops back in to (also) share his macro-sized thoughts on the upcoming summer movie slate. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at

en

65:10

Ep. 64: Users Are Losers, but ‘Sinners’ Are Winners!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/04/24

Longtime film critic, podcaster, and friend of Scott Mendelson (but don’t hold that against him), Aaron Neuwirth, returns to help us celebrate the spectacular domestic debut of Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s Sinners. We discuss its impressive weekend upswing, near-unprecedented CinemaScore and PostTrak grades, and how its word of mouth will hopefully mitigate an otherwise expected decline as it starts to lose IMAX and other premium large-format (PLF) screens in the coming weeks.A disclaimer

en

59:02

Ep. 63 - ♫ Jesus Christ... Movie Star! ♫

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/04/16

A Minecraft Movie held firm atop both the domestic and global box office with a hold on par with Beauty and the Beast. Meanwhile, two faith-specific films opened with good-to-great grosses relative to their expectations and obligations. The King of Kings was a much-needed hit for Angel Studios and earned a comparatively robust debut for a non-Disney/Comcast animated film. Drop was the latest underperformer for the previously over-indexing Blumhouse. In a more challenging theatrical ecosystem, 20th

en

102 results

Similar Podcasts

TaxTalent.com The Golden Rule Podcast

Adam Golden

TaxTalent.com Podcast

Tony Santiago

Handelsblatt Crime - spannende Streitfälle der deutschen Wirtschaft

Ina Karabasz, Solveig Gode, Sönke Iwersen

Deffner und Zschäpitz – Der Wirtschafts-Talk von WELT

WELT

Black Box - La scatola nera della finanza

Guido Brera e Gian Luca Comandini -...