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Speaker 1: India is not just Bollywood. Bollywood is only the Hindi

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Speaker 1: language film industry, and as such, it is the third

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Speaker 1: largest film industry in India.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and

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Speaker 2: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, July twenty first,

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am

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Speaker 2: co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm

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Speaker 2: in La He's in New York and Variety has reporters

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Speaker 2: around the world covering the business of entertainment. If it's Monday,

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Speaker 2: we're talking box office with Rebecca Rubin. And today we'll

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Speaker 2: hear from Noamen Rama Chandron in London on Bollywood's first

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Speaker 2: big romantic comedy hit in years and how it's boosting

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Speaker 2: the box office in India. And we'll hear from senior

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Speaker 2: TV editor Brian Steinberg in New York on the fallout

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Speaker 2: from the bombshell news that CBS will end The Late

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Speaker 2: Show with Stephen Colbert next year. But before we get

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Speaker 2: to that, here are a few headlines just in this

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Speaker 2: morning that you need to know. Kevin Feige tells all

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Speaker 2: the Marvel chief is extremely candid about the company's recent struggles.

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Speaker 2: In a wide ranging interview with Varieties Adam B. Veri

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Speaker 2: and Angelie Jackson, Marvel has simply produced quote too much

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Speaker 2: end quote content in recent years. Figi admits he talks

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Speaker 2: about ironmn X, Men, Blade and other projects. We have

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Speaker 2: a long Q and A and two sidebar stories on

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Speaker 2: Variety dot Com. Right now, Tyler the Creator has just

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Speaker 2: dropped a new album, Don't Tap the Glass. It's the

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Speaker 2: Rapper's ninth album release. And rip to actress Eileen Fulton.

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Speaker 2: She starred in the CBS soap opera As the World

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Speaker 2: Turns for fifty years. She's died at the age of

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Speaker 2: ninety one. Now we turn to conversations with Variety journalists

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Speaker 2: about news and trends in show business. If it's Monday,

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Speaker 2: we're talking box office with Rebecca Rubin, our senior film

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Speaker 2: and media reporter. She breaks down how Superman fared in

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Speaker 2: week two and how the arrival of Smurfs and I

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Speaker 2: Know What You Did last summer impacted the summer box office.

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Speaker 2: Rebecca Rubin, thanks for joining me, Thanks for having me

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Speaker 2: so big second weekend for Superman. I gotta believe there

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Speaker 2: is joy in Burbank because seemed like the Man of

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Speaker 2: Steel showed his metal in weekend two. How did you

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Speaker 2: rate this film's second weekend?

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Speaker 3: The second weekend of Superman was definitely something to his

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Speaker 3: people or quire much ticket sales would drop, and it's

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Speaker 3: been performing very middle of the road. Ticket sales in

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Speaker 3: its second weekend dropped fifty four percent from its opening,

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Speaker 3: which is fairly standard, and it's a good sign that

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Speaker 3: I didn't have this massive second weekend drop like The Flash,

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Speaker 3: which was a twenty twenty three DC movie that had

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Speaker 3: this catastrophic seventy two percent second weekend drop, but it

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Speaker 3: also didn't have an incredible hold Life Sinners, which is

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Speaker 3: another Warner Brothers movie that dropped less than five percent

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Speaker 3: in its second weekend, which is basically unheard of, and

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Speaker 3: twenty seven percent in its third weekend, which shows really

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Speaker 3: outsize interest. And so in the case of Superman, I

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Speaker 3: think this second weekend shows that there is genuine interest

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Speaker 3: in this movie. It's been well received, which is very

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Speaker 3: important in terms of earning back the goodwill of DC fans,

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Speaker 3: but it's really not this runaway, undeniable smash. So there's

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Speaker 3: still this wait and see element about how much excitement

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Speaker 3: there will be for the franchise without Superman as the

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Speaker 3: Markee character. And I'm referring to two of these upcoming

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Speaker 3: movies that they have for twenty twenty six, meaning Supergirl

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Speaker 3: and Clayface, and so that really is kind of more

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Speaker 3: important to them than just the box office. It's how

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Speaker 3: much excitement it's generating in the culture.

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Speaker 2: Re Becca. There few other big wide releases with very

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Speaker 2: well known properties Smurfs and I Know What You did

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Speaker 2: last summer. How did those two movies perform.

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Speaker 3: Neither were embarrassing flops anything on that scale, but they

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Speaker 3: didn't exactly set the box office on fire. And it's

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Speaker 3: kind of notable because they are both from recognizable properties,

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Speaker 3: and I think maybe there's a lesson in there about

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Speaker 3: brand awareness. Just because something is a sequel or a

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Speaker 3: reboot doesn't necessarily mean people are going to feel compelled

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Speaker 3: to go to the.

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Speaker 2: Theaters to see it. There was one other film that

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Speaker 2: was an interesting test, a western from a twenty four.

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Speaker 3: Yes, the new ari Astor film called Eddington opened to

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Speaker 3: about four million dollars. And what's interesting about Eddington is

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Speaker 3: it earned a C plus grade on CinemaScore and for

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Speaker 3: basically any other film that would really be a death

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Speaker 3: sentence in terms of the rest of its theatrical run.

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Speaker 3: But with ari Astor's film, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

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Speaker 2: Do you think A twenty four takes this opening weekend

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Speaker 2: number as a good sign. It's sort of middle of

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Speaker 2: the road.

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Speaker 3: It's not a fantastic opening, but it is also not

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Speaker 3: a complete wash gotcha.

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Speaker 2: Of course, another big movie coming for next weekend the

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Speaker 2: new iteration of Fantastic four on the theme of superhero

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Speaker 2: movies and how the audience for them is changing. What

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Speaker 2: are you tracking for Fantastic four at this time?

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Speaker 3: What'll be interesting is how much appetite there is for

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Speaker 3: superhero movies because already Disney has put out two Marvel

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Speaker 3: movies Captain America, Brave New World and Thunderbolts, and now

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Speaker 3: Warner Brothers has put out a DC movie in Superman.

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Speaker 3: And so this is the fourth comic book related movie

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Speaker 3: within the first half of the year, and right now,

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Speaker 3: the expectation is that it's going to do very well,

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Speaker 3: and it's opening weekend and is really going to represent

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Speaker 3: a reset for Marvel, which I think I think they

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Speaker 3: wanted to happen with Thunderbolts, and they got there in

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Speaker 3: terms of reviews, but not quite with turnout, and so

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Speaker 3: I think this will bridge the gap and bring moviegoers

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Speaker 3: back in a significant way, just.

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Speaker 2: Like on Superman. There will be a lot of eyes

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Speaker 2: on the Marvel Court tet next weekend. Thank you so much.

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Speaker 2: Appreciate you always being our box office steward. Thank you.

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Speaker 2: The news that CBS would give up on The Late

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Speaker 2: Show with Stephen Colbert after next season set off an

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Speaker 2: earthquake across the TV business. It's such a stark example

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Speaker 2: of the industry's problems in more ways than one. Brian

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Speaker 2: Steinberg is righty, senior TV editor and a chronicler of

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Speaker 2: Late Night for many years. He brings us up to

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Speaker 2: speed on the fallout from this decision. Brian Steinberg, thank

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Speaker 2: you for joining me. You have had a busy couple

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Speaker 2: of days of reporting this Stephen Colbert news was truly

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Speaker 2: a bombshell on Thursday evening your time, and you did

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Speaker 2: not stop working until after midnight that night. Now that

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Speaker 2: the Colbert News has landed and people have had a

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Speaker 2: little time to process, what are you hearing? What is

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Speaker 2: this telling us about the marketplace, about late night, about

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Speaker 2: network TV.

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Speaker 4: People are still shocked by this. And yes, there's still

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Speaker 4: some debate over whether CBS canceled this because of his

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Speaker 4: upcoming merger of sky Dance and Stephen's tendency towards you know,

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Speaker 4: anti Trump humor August because you know, late night's not

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Speaker 4: doing so great. But the fact of the matter is

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Speaker 4: this show is going away. CBS is going to add

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Speaker 4: this business they've been getting out of it for the

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Speaker 4: last couple of months, canceling the twelve thirty show at

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Speaker 4: Taylor Thomlinson and now this program as well. It is

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Speaker 4: a sizeable shrinking of the late night TV we know

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Speaker 4: it and a signed that a very signature piece of Americana.

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Speaker 4: Late night TV is having a tough time staying relevant

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Speaker 4: in today's digital world.

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Speaker 2: Now CBS is not NBC with the legacy of the

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Speaker 2: Tonight Show in late night. CBS has not been in

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Speaker 2: this area for sixty years, but they've been in it

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Speaker 2: for thirty plus years, and it's shocking to see a

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Speaker 2: network just give up on a franchise. Do you know,

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Speaker 2: was there any discussion of downsizing the show and was

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Speaker 2: there any discussion of cutting the budget significantly and reimagining

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Speaker 2: the show? That would cost less but still have that

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Speaker 2: presence in late night.

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Speaker 4: I understanding from talking to you people close to Colbert,

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Speaker 4: people called CBS is CBS felt they didn't want to

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Speaker 4: take costs out of this program and put it on

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Speaker 4: the air. Wouldn't look like a late night show. They

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Speaker 4: just can't make the numbers work in today's where we're young,

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Speaker 4: people don't flock to an eleven thirty program all one time.

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Speaker 4: So Peter felt that they have Colbert, they'll pay cut

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Speaker 4: to get rid of his band to make if you

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Speaker 4: reduce a number of writers on this show would make

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Speaker 4: it look less like a broadcast ready late night program,

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Speaker 4: especially when you have Kimel and Follon still going pretty strong.

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Speaker 2: So we still have one more season of Stephen Colbert.

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Speaker 2: It sure seems like that's gonna be hard for CBS

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Speaker 2: to keep that time as a network day part, which

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Speaker 2: sounds so quaint in this area, but you know, all

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Speaker 2: of that time really matters. Who controls that ad time

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Speaker 2: really matters. I got to believe that the affiliates are saying,

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Speaker 2: we'll take that back, thank you very much, and just

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Speaker 2: program news or other things. What prompted the timing, what

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Speaker 2: prompted this to happen on Thursday.

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Speaker 4: This is a great question. And what I've been putting around,

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Speaker 4: you know, the operating theory by John Q Public's that Stevens,

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Speaker 4: you know, anti Trump humor finally got the people at

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Speaker 4: CBS to shake a hand and rip him off the air.

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Speaker 2: Coming right after they agreed to write him a sixteen

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Speaker 2: million dollar check. The timing of all this you cannot.

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Speaker 4: Separate right, And the opics are horrible. They're not not

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Speaker 4: great opice for CBS. They just got to the sixteen

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Speaker 4: minutes thing bloodied and bruised in the public domain. This happens.

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Speaker 4: But what I am told is actually a business affairs

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Speaker 4: situation in which every year around July August, the producers

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Speaker 4: and writers on these shows get new one year deals

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Speaker 4: to keep them in place the twelve months August to August.

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Speaker 4: These are going to have to go out very soon.

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Speaker 4: As since CBS had already just heard this is going

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Speaker 4: to happen, these deals were going to be like a

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Speaker 4: ten month or a nine month deal rather that twelve

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Speaker 4: month deal. Every agent in town is going to start

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Speaker 4: seeing these contracts. Had been saying, what so I mean

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Speaker 4: it was going to be getting out very quickly and

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Speaker 4: not through CBS's control.

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Speaker 2: Brady has been writing weekly, if not daily, that the

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Speaker 2: underpinnings of television are changing dramatically. This is the kind

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Speaker 2: of clear jolt that I think the general public will realize, WHOA.

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Speaker 2: It is a changing landscape, and I'm just grateful that

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Speaker 2: we have seasoned writers like you, Brian. You are extremely

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Speaker 2: dedicated to this beat.

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Speaker 4: I think it's a part of American life that is

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Speaker 4: in flux, and that's kinmon surprise for a lot of people.

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Speaker 2: Our job is to cover that flux. Thanks Brian, thank you.

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Speaker 2: Next up, we hear from Nomen Rama Chandron, an international

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Speaker 2: reporter for Variety who covers the UK in South Asia.

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Speaker 2: He tells us about the Bollywood movie Sayara that has

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Speaker 2: become a massive hit. It brought in eleven million dollars

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Speaker 2: in its opening weekend in India alone. Nomen Rama Chandron,

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Speaker 2: coming to us from London, thank you so much for

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Speaker 2: joining me.

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Speaker 1: Glad to be here.

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Speaker 2: It's a big, big hit at the Indian box office

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Speaker 2: right now, called Sayara, a love story that has apparently

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Speaker 2: turned its young stars into superstars overnight. Tell us about

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Speaker 2: the backstory about this movie that has taken the Bollywood

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Speaker 2: box office by storm.

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Speaker 1: Sayara is from a studio called Yeshaj Films. It's a

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Speaker 1: fifty year old studio and they are known primarily for

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Speaker 1: two genres. One is the yearning eternal love story and

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Speaker 1: the other is the more recent one, which is the

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Speaker 1: Hollywood has the MCU. You have the Spy Universe from

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Speaker 1: Yes Sharge Films. So they are two completely distinct different genres.

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Speaker 1: Sayara is that rarity a Bollywood love story which is

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Speaker 1: done right because since twenty nine, since post COVID, I

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Speaker 1: would say there hasn't been a proper love story in

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Speaker 1: Bollywood and definitely not one that has worked at the

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Speaker 1: box office.

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Speaker 2: That is surprising because when people in the US think

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Speaker 2: of Bollywood, we think of love stories and big dance numbers.

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Speaker 1: Since COVID, the focus has been to bring audiences back

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Speaker 1: into cinemas. That's been the number one focus. We need

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Speaker 1: to take a step back and look at the larger

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Speaker 1: picture of India, which is India is not just Bollywood.

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Speaker 1: Bollywood is only the Hindi language film industry and as

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Speaker 1: such it is the third largest film industry in India,

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Speaker 1: the largest being the Telugu language film industry. And the

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Speaker 1: second one being the Tamil language film industry. This is

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Speaker 1: a fairly recent phenomenon, maybe the last decade or so,

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Speaker 1: and the other industries India makes films in about twenty

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Speaker 1: plus languages. The other industries have been making films across genres.

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Speaker 1: Bollywood post COVID has been trying to focus on the

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Speaker 1: spectacle film or the event film. Because of that, unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: the love story has had taken a bit of a

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Speaker 1: back seat until Sayara.

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Speaker 2: I want to make sure I understand you right. You're

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Speaker 2: saying that these large markets in two languages that are

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Speaker 2: not Hindi have emerged in the last decade and have

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Speaker 2: overtaken Bollywood films.

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Speaker 1: Yes, especially since post COVID. What's happening is because of streaming.

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Speaker 1: India used to be fairly insular markets, with Bollywood being

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Speaker 1: the only unifying factor. As in, you could watch a

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Speaker 1: Hollywood film across the length and bread to the country,

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Speaker 1: but a Tamil language film or a Telugu film or

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Speaker 1: a bengalifilm would mostly be seen only their respective markets.

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Speaker 1: But what happened with COVID is that the streamers began

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Speaker 1: dubbing everything into everything, so you could watch a Tamil

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Speaker 1: Netflix show dubbed into Hindi. You could see a Hindi

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Speaker 1: Prime video show dubbed into Telugu. And because of those

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Speaker 1: three or three years of COVID, the Indian audience got

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Speaker 1: used to watching from across the country in a language

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Speaker 1: of their choice. And what happened because of that is

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Speaker 1: the South Indian markets, the Tamil and Telugu films they

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Speaker 1: got dubbed into Hindi and those films became what is

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Speaker 1: known in India as Pan India hits. So if you

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Speaker 1: look at the box office of the last two years,

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Speaker 1: the biggest hits in India have been in films in

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Speaker 1: Tamil or Telugu dubbed into Hindi and released across the

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Speaker 1: country until twenty twenty five, when Bollywood is now slowly

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Speaker 1: back in the ascendent.

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Speaker 2: That is fascinating. Back to Sayara, what was it about

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Speaker 2: this film that caught fire?

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Speaker 1: One is the audience thirst for a young love story

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Speaker 1: with a gen z love story, if you will. In Bollywood,

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Speaker 1: they haven't been too many. They have been in the

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Speaker 1: other languages, but not in Hindi and people were I

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Speaker 1: think they're a bit tired of the star system and

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Speaker 1: they wanted to see young fresh faces and so in

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Speaker 1: ahan Pandaei and anit Padda, you have this young fresh

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Speaker 1: on screen couple. You can see the on screen chemistry.

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Speaker 1: It's it's palpable. And secondly, it's the music. The Indian

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Speaker 1: audience anywhere in India, the want a good musical as in,

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Speaker 1: people love their music. It doesn't matter which generation you're from.

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Speaker 1: And Sayara has a super hit soundtrack and especially the

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Speaker 1: I think the title track before the film release has

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Speaker 1: had fifty five million views on YouTube.

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Speaker 2: You've been writing that they that the distributor took an

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Speaker 2: unusual approach to promoting the movie in India.

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Speaker 1: Yes, they adopted the less is more strategy. They they

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Speaker 1: let the content do the talking, you know, for want

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Speaker 1: of a better phrase, So they put out the songs,

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Speaker 1: they put out the the trailer which was, you know,

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Speaker 1: a very well cut trailer, and they kept the lead

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Speaker 1: where fairly quiet, as in it's only the director who

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Speaker 1: spoke to the media, including two Variety and Anitada and

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Speaker 1: ahn Pandi did not do any promotional appear insans. They

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Speaker 1: did not visit malls, they did not visit cinemas, there

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Speaker 1: were no influenza appearances, and they were not all over

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Speaker 1: social media, so there was a thirst for people to

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Speaker 1: know more.

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Speaker 2: You've also have been reporting that its box office has

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Speaker 2: broken records, and it's particularly impressive because it's not as

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Speaker 2: wide a release as it could be in India.

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Speaker 1: In India alone, it's made about three million dollars on

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Speaker 1: its opening day, and typically to get that kind of

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Speaker 1: money you need to release across at least eighteen thousand screens. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they released in just across eight thousand screens, which means

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Speaker 1: the per screen average is pretty high.

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Speaker 2: How long does a hit movie stay in theaters in India?

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Speaker 1: If it's four weeks, it's a good run.

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Speaker 2: I'm guessing that Soraya, which you told me means wandering

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Speaker 2: star in English. I'm sure that's a nice boost to

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Speaker 2: the overall Indian box office. How is overall the Indian

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Speaker 2: box office this year?

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Speaker 1: So it's been a fairly encouraging box office sign this year.

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Speaker 1: Because the numbers just came in a few hours ago.

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Speaker 1: The Indian box office is up fourteen percent year on year.

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about just the Indian box office in India increase.

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Speaker 1: If you include the Indian box office, the collection of

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Speaker 1: Indian films outside of India, then the numbers go up.

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Speaker 1: So right now, for the first six months of the year,

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Speaker 1: we are roughly at six hundred and sixty five million

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Speaker 1: US dollars, which is running fourteen percent above twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: four year on year, and from India alone, this number

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Speaker 1: is likely to go up to one point six billion

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Speaker 1: US dollars by the end of December, and if you

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Speaker 1: include overseas obviously that'll go up to roughly about two

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Speaker 1: to three billion US dollars.

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Speaker 2: Those are impressive numbers by any measure. Nomen then, we

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Speaker 2: so appreciate your reporting telling us all what's going on

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Speaker 2: in this most important market.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Cynthia.

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Speaker 2: As we close out today's episode, here's a few things

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Speaker 2: we're watching for The Venice Film Festival announces its full

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Speaker 2: line up on Tuesday. We'll have a report in tomorrow's

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Speaker 2: episode from reporter Nick Viverelli and Rome and International editor

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Speaker 2: Elsa Kislassi in Paris. Of course, Comic Con San Diego

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Speaker 2: begins this Thursday. We'll have a big contingent down there

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Speaker 2: to cover all the action, and we're hosting a photo

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Speaker 2: and video studio for invited guests before we go, Congrats

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Speaker 2: to Aaron Westerman. She's been promoted to president of Lionsgate

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Speaker 2: Motion Picture Group. She's been with the studio since twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. This episode was written and reported by

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Speaker 2: me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Rebecca Rubin, Brian Steinberg,

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Speaker 2: and Ramachandron. It was edited by Aaron Greenwald Stick snick

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Speaker 2: hick picks. Please leave us a review at the podcast

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Speaker 2: platform of your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for

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Speaker 2: another episode of Daily Variety.