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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

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All Episodes

118:24

Ep. 62 - Mine Crafts and Cinema Cons

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/04/10

Cinema United and friends spent the entire week listening to studios pledge their loyalty to theatrical exhibition, while theater owners implicitly reaffirmed the commercial and cultural value of the big screen. A day later, the Generation Z-targeted A Minecraft Movie opened so overwhelmingly above even optimistic projections that it single-handedly made the case for them. So yes, Scott and Jeremy spent the week at CinemaCon. They had plenty to say about what was shown (a big “Trust us!”

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75:42

Ep. 61 - Jason Statham Killed 'A Unicorn'!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/04/06

Pardon the tardiness for this one, I made a losing bet with myself that I’d have time to put this one out amid the week spent in Las Vegas at CinemaCon. Action For Everyone podcast host Mike Scott joins us to discuss Jason Statham’s latest commercial triumph as well as the cultural circumstances that have changed so that the kids no longer go up for “cool movies for cool kids” flicks like Death of a Unicorn. All parties discuss how Snow White’s implosion will impact Disney’s run of live-action

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66:56

Ep. 60 - 'White' Flight and 'Alto' Nopes

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/03/26

Kristen Acuna, formerly of Business Insider, a longtime entertainment/business journalist and a comparative Disney expert, drops by to discuss what went terribly wrong with the fairest of them all. But just because most of the chat concerns Snow White doesn’t mean we’re going to let David Zaslav off the hook for emphasizing ruthless “It’s called show business, not show friends.” mentality and then blowing $50 million on a film like The Alto Knights that wouldn’t have been a hit even back when he was

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65:56

Ep. 59 - Everybody Hurts

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/03/20

Everything is terrible, and everyone is hurting. That’s the general sentiment as longtime film critic, podcaster and friend-of-Scott Mendelson (don’t hold that last one against him)Aaron Neuwirth guest-stars to try and bring some light into the darkness of an unusually bleak weekend at the domestic box office. Hollywood is (finally?) offering more small-scale studio programmers, but audiences are less willing than ever to see them. How much blame falls on the audience for not showing up? How much is

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64:02

Ep. 58 - 'Mickey' Is Not So Fine (x17)

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/03/12

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,

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68:42

Ep. 57 - That's Anora!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/03/06

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

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75:41

Ep. 56: James Bond Faces 'Monkey' Trouble in The Amazon

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/02/26

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

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68:27

Ep. 55 - America, F*** No!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/02/19

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

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54:59

Ep. 54: Yee Haw for 'Ne Zha'!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/02/13

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

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67:39

Ep. 53 - 'Companion' Box Office Goes To The Dog(s), Man!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/02/05

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

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84:05

Ep. 52 - Flight Risks, 'Brutalist' Chatter and Oscar...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/01/30

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

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61:31

Ep. 51 - Somehow, Ryan Scott Returned

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/01/21

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

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50:39

Ep. 50 - The Butler Did It, With Brandon Streussnig

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/01/16

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

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48:07

Ep. 49: Missing That Insidious White Noise

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/01/07

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,

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86:18

Ep. 48: Audiences Say 'Yesferatu'!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2024/12/31

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,

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52:48

Ep. 47: Sonic's Holiday Heist vs. Mufasa's Christmas...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2024/12/26

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

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63:03

Ep. 46 - Everything That's Wrong With Everything...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2024/12/18

* 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

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73:59

Ep. 45 - This is the Saddest Movie, and I Love Crying...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2024/12/10

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

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80:22

Ep. 44 - "Wait, He Fixed The Autopilot System Six...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2024/12/04

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

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83:59

Ep. 43 - #SawPatrol Lives Again!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2024/11/25

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

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102 results

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