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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

80:52

Ep. 86 - Big Bold *and* Beautiful? Couldn't Be 'Him'

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/09/25

Terence Johnson, he of 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla and Le Noir Auteur, joins to chime in on Justin Trippin’s Him, including how director Justin Trippin’s theatrical cut differs from Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie’s original Black List-ed screenplay, as well as what didn’t appeal to a self-professed movie romance fan about A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Those two, obviously, dominate the discussion. Among other topics, there’s a minor “debate” concerning whether anyone should have really felt duped

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69:05

Ep. 85 - Slay, Demons, Slay!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/09/19

TheWrap’s Managing Editor for Pro and business, Roger Cheng, joins TheWrap’s Jeremy Fuster (and Scott Mendelson, formerly of TheWrap and Lisa Laman, never from TheWrap) to discuss the blow-out domestic debut for Crunchyroll and Sony’s Demon Slayer Infinity Castle. But it’s not just all Demon Slayer chatter, as there’s ample time to discuss Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Conjuring holdover business, and Jeremy’s frankly batshit insane pick for “favorite Stephen King movie.” Get full access to The

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67:04

Ep. 84 - We Ain't 'Fraid of No Demons!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/09/12

Lisa Laman was busy participating in a conference in Atlanta, so Jeremy Fuster and Scott Mendelson welcome back Kenny Miles to this week’s episode to discuss the blow-out opening weekend for WB and New Line’s The Conjuring: Last Rites. Miles, per usual, discusses his experiences and opinions related to his work as a CinemaScore pollster, while also bringing some insight into the films’ ongoing appeal to the more spiritually inclined.Meanwhile, all parties agree that the biggest movie stars of The

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87:53

Ep. 83 - Generational Troma

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/09/06

Yes, it’s a little odd to spend the majority of our conversation discussing a movie that barely topped $2 million over the Fri-Mon Labor Day box office, but them’s the breaks. After all, when Hollywood’s biggest new release is a 50th anniversary reissue of Jaws, well… we can only salute Weapons so many times.Anyway, Luke Y. Thompson and Michelle Kisner, both affirmed B-movie experts, offer their thoughts on the extent to which this specific (comparatively kinder and/or gentler) Toxie makes sense in

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45:09

An Hour With... Seth Worley, The Writer and Director...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/09/05

The picture, for reasons that are 99% related to the theatrical marketplace, came and went in theaters last month. But the early days of August brought not one but two excellent original thrillers that play like newfangled horror fantasies filtered through the world as it is today. WB helped turn Weapons into a sleeper smash hit, which should, by the time you read this, zoom past the unadjusted $137.4 million domestic total of The Conjuring. Meanwhile, strong buzz and good reviews notwithstanding,

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74:40

Ep. 82 - 'KPop' Shows Netflix How It's Done

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/08/29

It was mostly all about KPop Demon Hunters — which earned around $19.2 million via Saturday and Sunday showings — as summer otherwise ended with a whimper. The original animated musical fantasy became Netflix’s most-watched original movie at around the same time it was topping the weekend domestic box office. Chrissi Michael, content strategist by day and box office nerd by night, is here to dissect the circumstances. Jeremy Fuster was returning to LA from a vacation and lacked the courage to

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100:25

Ep. 81 - 'Nobody 2' Could. 'Nobody 2' Would!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/08/21

Action For Everyone podcast host Mike Scott returns to A) plug this weekend’s Big Bad Film Fest and B) discuss Timo Tjahjanto’s first foray into Hollywood action filmmaking. He’s joined by Max Deering, also from Action For Everyone, as well as Fangoria. Is Nobody 2 a breakout sequel, or just a “spend more but make less” follow-up?* Is it Tjahjanto’s Hard Target or merely his Maximum Risk?* Who pops in unannounced to discuss last weekend’s big theatrical release?* Is KPop Demon Hunters a rare film

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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

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