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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

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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