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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

85:57

Make You Wanna Scream?!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/03/04

Semi-regular guests Aaron Neuwirth (of 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla and OutNow With Aaron and Abe) and Brandon Peters (The Brandon Peters Show) reprise yet again to discuss the confluence of Tinseltown terrors and real-world horrors that makes a $64 million domestic and $97 million worldwide debut for Spyglass and Paramount’s Scream 7 feel… less than cheerworthy. Max Deering couldn’t make it because… I guess fighting off zombies in and around Racoon City takes priority over (and makes me doubt his

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106:48

A Failure of Soft Powell

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/02/24

Longtime film writer, movie reviewer, entertainment journalist, and author Marya E. Gates is this week’s extra-special guest. Considering this relatively barren weekend for new releases, it would have been deeply ironic had this (among other things) expert in the realm of silent cinema arrived on a week with little to talk about. The good news is that while Hollywood mostly took the week off (again), the 105-minute episode is nonetheless packed with tangents, digressions and the usual chaos you’ve

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100:47

Wuthering Fights!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/02/20

Longtime journalist and podcaster Jordan Crucchiola guests on this week’s episode as the gang discusses the reception and commercial performance of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. Well, she eventually skips out at around the halfway mark since she hadn’t yet seen the other new releases amid a crowded President’s Day weekend. Still, the remaining four of us (Scott, Lisa, Jeremy and Max) have much to say about the differing fortunes for the other movies. To wit…Max hashes out the complicated

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89:17

The Little Movies That Could

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/02/13

In what was a needlessly barren weekend in terms of new releases from major studios, the newbies and the smaller distribution outlets picked up some of the slack. So, for the occasion of what was technically Super Bowl weekend, Chrissi Michael, content strategist by day and box office nerd by night, returned for the fourth time as she attempts to stake her claim as the Steve Mart… err, uh… Emma Stone of The Box Office Podcast. Among the subjects of discourse…* Jeremy and Max don’t say jack s**t

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77:40

Inherent Vyce

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/02/06

In his long-awaited debut in the revolving (or fifth?) fourth chair of The Box Office Podcast, long-time film pundit and action film expert Vyce Victus pops in presumably/theoretically to discuss the latest Jason Statham joint. And while we find enough time to discuss Shelter’s place in the Statham canon, as well as tipping our hat to Ric Roman Waugh as a regular director of high-quality “dad movie” action flicks, most of the chat is taken up by Scott, Jeremy, Max and Vyce taking stock of

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57:45

An Hour With... Paul Feig

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/02/04

I’m not thrilled that Lionsgate has already dropped The Housemaid onto PVOD, even if I’ll note that A) it got a now (kinda-sorta) standard 47-day window and B) it’s probably going to lose a bunch of screens and get steamrolled by Wuthering Heights the weekend after next anyway. This was recorded right as Lionsgate announced that the Sydney Sweeney/Amanda Seyfried/Brandon Sklenar-led flick had passed $300 million worldwide, partially on the strength of James Cameron-worthy holds in North America and

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43:05

2 Mendelson 2 Hertz: Another Hour with Barry Hertz,...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/02/03

The listeners demanded it, the author agreed to it, and so the podcaster (oh-so-reluctantly) allowed it. For those who came in late, Barry Hertz popped by on “An Hour With…”, the semi-regular offshoot of The Box Office Podcast, to discuss his sprawling and comprehensive literary deep-dive into the Fast and the Furious franchise. The book Welcome to the Family has been available in print and audio since late last year and primarily focuses on the first ten core Fast and Furious movies. As such, Mr

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86:28

Are We Not 'Mercy'-ful?!

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/01/29

Comscore Sr. Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian returned to talk shop with the usual gang. He was only able to stick around for the first third before making like Steven Seagal in Executive Decision. Still, that first third covers the “Hey, the domestic box office cleared $9 billion after all!” results for the 2025 Jan-to-Dec slate.There is also chatter about our favorite films that didn’t receive a single Oscar nomination. This intro segment features, intentionally or not, Jeremy Fuster discussing

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77:38

'28 Years Later' Pull a (Box Office) Boner

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/01/22

Aaron Neuwirth returns for… what is this, the sixth or seventh time (?) since March 2025, to pontificate about what went right (artistically) but wrong (commercially) regarding Nia DaCosta and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Among the areas of discourse are whether a mixed reception for 28 Years Later led to this downturn or whether — barring new classic status — this was always going to be a “folks were only curious the first time” IP revival. Also on tap is the continuing plea for

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83:16

Monkeying Around After the End of the World

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/01/16

While you’d think that the terrific trio, alongside producer Max Deering and special guest Rendy Jones (another superb fourth-chair occupant who’s so young but has been doing this for so long that I shudder to think how old they were when I first started reading their reviews and commentary), would spend most of the time discussing Primate and Greenland: Migration. And, yes, both films get their due discourse. And yes, the monkey business includes a digression into the infamous opening-night

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88:08

New Year, Old(er) Movies

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/01/08

The new-to-the-show guest for the first episode of 2026 is Tre’vell Anderson, prolific author, podcaster and journalist (who was recently named co-director of the Trans Journalist Association alongside TJA co-founder Kae Petrin). Oh, and Jeremy Fuster recorded from Japan, making this another truly international episode. All respect to We Bury the Dead and KidzBop Live: The Concert Movie, the vast majority of the show is spent discussing holdover news alongside hopes and fears for the new year. Among

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96:35

Sure Plays a Mean Ping Pong...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2026/01/01

This may be the very first weekend since I started this podcast, nearly two years ago, when we literally ran out of time to appropriately discuss the relevant new releases (and higher-profile holdovers). However, unless Kids Bop: The Movie pulls an ERAS Tour, I imagine the next (mostly holdover-centric) episode will make up the difference. No matter, having too many movies that are doing “too well” in for one reasonably-sized episode is an excellent problem to have.Courney Howard, longtime freelance

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93:25

Does Payakan Know It’s Christmastime at All?

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/12/25

Sure, you’ll probably be a bit today, celebrating either Christmas or National Jews Get Chinese Food and Go to the Movies Day. The plan is for our “mixed” family (Wendy is half-Jewish/half-Catholic/all-guilt) to do both: open presents in the morning and catch up with Anaconda later that afternoon.However, if you’re stuck at a Christmas gathering and wish to avoid small talk with relatives, here’s 95 glorious minutes to consume that’s subtler than trying to discreetly watch the next three episodes of

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96:12

Garbage Day for 'Ella McCay'

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/12/18

Since neither Ella McCay nor Silent Night Deadly Night caught fire (and ash) this past weekend, we invited Greenlight Analytics Director of Insights & Content Strategy Brandon Katz to discuss (among other things) the whole “Netflix wants to buy Warner Bros.” situation beyond just what it does or doesn’t mean for theatrical cinema. Among the topics of discourse…* The challenges with Hollywood still wanting to make “old-school movies” with little outside-the-bubble awareness of newer filmmakes and

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87:18

A Labyrinth with No Exit, A Maze with No Prize

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/12/12

The good news is that the theatrical ecosystem is exactly as alive as the main distribution studios allow it to be, as Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s notches what is now the third straight $60 million-plus opening weekend in a row. The bad news is that, once again, the fate of the multiplex ecosystem finds itself in existential peril through no real fault of its own.Yes, Warner Bros. gets caught… yet again… in a tug-of-war over the imaginary value of theoretically valuable IP in spite, or

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64:06

A Fast (But Not Furious) Hour With... Barry Hertz

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/12/10

As we wait and see if and how Universal chooses to embark on a presumably final film in the $7.3 billion-grossing Fast & Furious saga, Barry Hertz’s recently released Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious, The Blockbusters That Supercharged The World offers an impressively comprehensive and potentially definitive look at the 25-year underdog success story. The author stopped by to offer his thoughts, some of which are in the book and some of which are “new to you,”

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97:16

Ep. 97 - (Disney's) Got a Million Problems, But...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/12/05

Somehow (an invitation, natch), Aaron Neuwirth returned. In a lengthy but dense Thanksgiving weekend wrap-up episode, the subject is, of course, Walt Disney’s Zootopia 2. The acclaimed and buzzy WDA sequel has thus far earned (counting its $7.5 million “second Thursday” in China) $170 million in North America, $315 million in China and $635 million worldwide. Beyond obvious “What went right?” and “Does the bonkers-bananas Chinese opening mean anything beyond a deep decade-long Zootopia fandom?” Lisa

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63:03

An Hour With... The Numbers' Bruce Nash

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/12/03

This is a kind of half-and-half in terms of The Box Office Podcast. It’s technically an hour-long conversation with Bruce Nash, owner of The Numbers, as he prepares to release the site’s first-ever full-year market forecast. However, Jeremy Fuster and Lisa Laman were able to jump in amid this mid-week pre-Thanksgiving chit-chat, so it’s a bit of both worlds. In the 60-minute discourse, we discuss Nash’s site and why it’s better or different from all other sites of its nature. Among other things,

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94:28

Ep. 95 - Everyone Sees The Wicked

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/11/28

Before we see to what extent Zootopia 2 ($39 million on Wednesday and $81 million worldwide thus far, or $100 million if you’re counting its $34 million Wednesday and $20 million Thursday in China) reaches the Thanksgiving weekend heights of Moana 2, listen to this extensive, comprehensive and almost intentionally random dissection of Wicked For Good’s $147 million domeatic and $223 million worldwide debut. Chrissi Michael, content strategist by day and box office nerd by night, stops by in this

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84:19

Ep. 94 -- Now You See 'NYSM3,' Now You Don't See...

The Box Office Podcast ·

2025/11/20

The original permanent fourth chair returns, as Ryan Scott stops by for the first time since early August. Actually, since Jeremy Fuster couldn’t make this week’s show, it’s still a party of trio instead of a quartet. We, of course, discuss the ins and outs of Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (which should be just over/under $100 million worldwide by the time you read this) and The Running Man (which should be at around $35 million globally by tonight). And for those who have argued that I’m too…

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