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Speaker 1: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and

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Speaker 1: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, July twenty eighth,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am

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Speaker 1: co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm

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Speaker 1: in LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters

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Speaker 1: around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,

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Speaker 1: we'll get the lowdown on another big summer box office

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Speaker 1: weekend from Rebecca Rubin and Michael Schneider breaks down four

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Speaker 1: days of Comic Con for us. Before we get to that,

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Speaker 1: here are a few headlines just in this morning that

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Speaker 1: you need to know. Three power players have teamed to

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Speaker 1: launch First Light story House. This is an effort to

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Speaker 1: amplify Asian voices worldwide through TV and film. The initiative

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Speaker 1: is founded by Mickey Lee, leader of cj E, and

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Speaker 1: m Janet Yang, who is a producer and President of

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Speaker 1: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Dominic Ing,

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Speaker 1: who is CEO of East West Bank. The goal is

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Speaker 1: to support authentic Asian and Asian American stories and introduce

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Speaker 1: them to global audiences. Amazon MGM Studios has set its

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Speaker 1: first German language theatrical film release in Germany. Derrek Tiger

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Speaker 1: from director Dennis Gansel, will go into theatre's September eighteenth,

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Speaker 1: before bowing on prime video. MSNBC is bringing its fan

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Speaker 1: event back to New York City. MSNBC Live This Is

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Speaker 1: Who We Are will be held at New York's Hammerstein

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Speaker 1: Ballroom on October eleventh. That's right around the time MSNBC

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Speaker 1: is expected to formally begin its new chapter as the

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Speaker 1: channel separates from NBC Universal. Now we turn to conversations

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Speaker 1: with Variety journalists about news and trends in show business.

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Speaker 1: If it's Monday, it means we're talking box office with

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Speaker 1: Rebecca rubin Variety's Century of the Turnstiles. It was a

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Speaker 1: big weekend for Marvel, which got The Fantastic four First

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Speaker 1: Steps off to a good start. Rebecca, thanks for joining me,

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Speaker 1: Thank you for having me another big summer weekend, The

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Speaker 1: Fantastic four First Steps. It's from your headline. It sounds

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Speaker 1: like those First Steps were pretty well received all around.

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Speaker 1: How did this movie perform?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Fantastic four First Steps opened to one hundred and

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Speaker 2: eighteen million dollars domestically, and that was enough to be

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Speaker 2: the fourth best opening weekend of the year. But kind

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Speaker 2: of more importantly for Marvel, it was the studio's first

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Speaker 2: movie to open to above one hundred million dollars in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, and they've had a bit of a

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Speaker 2: rocky go and so it's been encouraging for them.

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Speaker 1: Aeople showed up they wanted to see. I am such

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Speaker 1: a Vanessa Kirby fan. I'm going to give her outside credit.

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Speaker 1: What did the early numbers tell you about who turned

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Speaker 1: out to see this movie?

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Speaker 2: It was overwhelmingly male. About sixty eight percent of opening

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Speaker 2: weekend audiences were men, and that was a little surprising

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Speaker 2: to me. Not because it's surprising that men like to

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Speaker 2: see superher movies, because that is really the target demographic,

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Speaker 2: but if you've seen Fantastic Four, especially like you mentioned,

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Speaker 2: Vanessa Kirby's character and storyline is very female centric, and

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Speaker 2: she's pregnant, and I don't think Marvel's had a pregnant

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Speaker 2: superhero before, and so I am curious if in the

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Speaker 2: coming weeks it'll start to over index a little more

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Speaker 2: with females, because I'm sure there will be people who

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Speaker 2: resonate a lot with her character. And then something else

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Speaker 2: that was notable was that nearly fifty percent of ticket

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Speaker 2: sales were coming from premium large formats, which means that

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Speaker 2: when people did go to see it, they really wanted

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Speaker 2: to see it on the biggest and the brightest screens,

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Speaker 2: and that has definitely been a trend that has been

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Speaker 2: increasing since the pandemic. When audiences want to leave the house,

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Speaker 2: they are really over indexing on Imax, DOLB for DX,

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Speaker 2: just these screens that they really can't replicate in the home.

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Speaker 1: Imax has been around for a long time, but they

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Speaker 1: really seem to be part of the conversation now every

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Speaker 1: weekend like they haven't been before.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it almost feels like it's become part of the

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Speaker 2: marketing campaign for a lot of these big films, and

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Speaker 2: Fantastic four is one of them that uses IMAX cameras

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Speaker 2: and so's it's almost become a selling point. And of

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Speaker 2: course for theater owners and studios, those tickets are more

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Speaker 2: expensive and so they are more than happy for people

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Speaker 2: to shell out for that.

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Speaker 1: Recca, as we spoke a couple of weeks ago about Marvel,

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Speaker 1: had a lot writing on this both to have good

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Speaker 1: critical reception. Have the fans embrace this and like it,

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Speaker 1: and of course have people show up and go through

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Speaker 1: the turnstiles. They appear to have both of those, because

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Speaker 1: the reviews have been very strong and these are new

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Speaker 1: faces coming into the MCU. It's one of Marvel's first

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Speaker 1: real successful attempts in post pandemic times to spotlight newer heroes.

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Speaker 1: And of course Fantastic Four have been on the big

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Speaker 1: screen before. Most of those films were not particularly embraced

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Speaker 1: by critics or audiences, but this is the first time

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Speaker 1: they're part of marvel cinematic universe. They haven't been a

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Speaker 1: part of any Avengers stories or anything like that.

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Speaker 2: And the movies that have really worked for Marvel post

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Speaker 2: pandemic have been the real heavy hitters like Spider Man,

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Speaker 2: No Way Home, Deadpool, and Wolverine, Black Panther, Wakonda Forever

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Speaker 2: just sequels to some of their biggest properties. But the

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Speaker 2: ones that haven't been as successful are Thunderbolts Eternals, the

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Speaker 2: Marvels just characters that people were not as familiar with.

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Speaker 1: Another question I know that you were looking at going

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Speaker 1: into this weekend, was was there room enough in this town?

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Speaker 1: Two superhero movies and would Superman hang in there in

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Speaker 1: weekend three with the Fantastic Four arriving. How did that

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Speaker 1: play out?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a big question of whether or not

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Speaker 2: two superhero movies would be able to succeed in the

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Speaker 2: month of July, and a lot of people thought that

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Speaker 2: was risky because many comic book adaptations have not been

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Speaker 2: doing well. There was a time that superhero movies could

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Speaker 2: truly do no wrong at the box office. It didn't

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Speaker 2: really matter what the reviews said. Everyone went out to

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Speaker 2: go see them. And that is not the time we

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Speaker 2: are living in, and so to have them so close together,

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Speaker 2: there was genuine and valid concern will people see both?

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Speaker 2: And I think the answer to this weekend is they

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Speaker 2: will see both because Superman had a debut above one

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Speaker 2: hundred million and has continued to do well into his

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Speaker 2: second and third weekends, and now we have Fantastic four

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Speaker 2: first steps also having a very sizable opening weekend, and

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Speaker 2: I think it's sort of proving that it's not necessarily

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Speaker 2: superhero fatigue. I think it's more bad movie fatigue, and

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Speaker 2: when audiences want to see the movie, they are willing

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Speaker 2: actually to go see both.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you regarding the large screen the premium screens.

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Speaker 1: Are there enough of those theaters so that Superman and

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Speaker 1: Fantastic Four could have a decent distribution in these theaters

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Speaker 1: or is it the kind of case that whatever the

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Speaker 1: new movie is coming in kind of crowds out anything

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Speaker 1: else that might be holding on. Definitely the latter of

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Speaker 1: what you said. The new movie tends to take up

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Speaker 1: all the oxygen, and it's definitely something that these distribution

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Speaker 1: chiefs that studios are douging it out. They want their

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Speaker 1: film on the largest number of premium large formats they

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Speaker 1: can get, and so I think that's why we saw

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Speaker 1: this weekend Superman. Although it's holding on decently well, it

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Speaker 1: had a pretty big drop this weekend. It's been chugging

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Speaker 1: along pretty well during the week, so it's made almost

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Speaker 1: three hundred million dollars domestic, but a fifty eight percent

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Speaker 1: drop is pretty notable, and probably because it lost so

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Speaker 1: many of its premium large formats that went to Fantastic Four.

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Speaker 1: In general, how has midweek business been this summer.

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Speaker 2: It seems definitely film dependent. Something like Superman has had

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Speaker 2: pretty strong week to week holds, and they think that

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Speaker 2: definitely speaks to just the strong word of mouth, people

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Speaker 2: are talking about it, really enjoying it on all audience,

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Speaker 2: all family film. But the box office right now is

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Speaker 2: about twelve to thirteen percent ahead of last year. The

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Speaker 2: top four movies this weekend were Fantastic Four, Superman, Jurassic

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Speaker 2: World Rebirth, and F one, and those are all big

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Speaker 2: properties that have gotten people talking, and interestingly, all of

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Speaker 2: those movies actually crossed pretty notable box office milestones this weekend.

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Speaker 2: Superman and F One both crossed five hundred million dollars globally,

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Speaker 2: and then Jurassic World Rebirth crossed seven hundred million dollars globally.

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Speaker 2: And while there's only been one movie this year to

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Speaker 2: cross the billion dollar mark, that's Leelo and Stitch, it's

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Speaker 2: a good indication that at least some movies are getting

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Speaker 2: close and hitting at least a half billion dollar mark.

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Speaker 1: Certainly this beats the alternative. Next Up TV editor Michael

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Speaker 1: Schneider dishes about the buzz, the biz, and of course,

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Speaker 1: the cosplay that was on display this past weekend at

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Speaker 1: San Diego Comic Con. Mike is one of the Kings

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Speaker 1: of Comic Con, doing no less than three big panels

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Speaker 1: at the four day event.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to the return, the long awaited return of Phidias

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Speaker 3: and Firm. We last celebrated at the end of Phidias

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Speaker 3: and Here at Comic Con is who here was there

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Speaker 3: at that finale?

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Speaker 1: Now, Michael Schnyder, just back from San Diego and the

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Speaker 1: wilds of Comic Con four busy days. What stands out

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Speaker 1: to you now?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I was cosplaying as a frazzled and now exhausted

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Speaker 4: journalist and you can tell my costume is off, the

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Speaker 4: sweat is still dripping from my brow.

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Speaker 1: It just makes it authentic.

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Speaker 4: It was very authentic.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 4: It was a fun comic con. It was a crowded

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Speaker 4: comic con. It was not a newsy comic con. There

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Speaker 4: wasn't a lot coming out of it. I think that's

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Speaker 4: a sign of the times and what the studios are

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Speaker 4: now investing in, and it's not necessarily in big events.

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Speaker 4: That being said, there was some amazing fun activations from

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Speaker 4: especially Disney and NBC Universal and a couple other studios,

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Speaker 4: and some great panels, but nothing that was big hall

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Speaker 4: h worthy as there have been in years past.

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Speaker 1: Probably the closest from my vantage point very far away,

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Speaker 1: was when George Lucas himself Yoda appeared in the at

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Speaker 1: the convention to talk up something that is near and

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Speaker 1: near to him, his upcoming museum.

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Speaker 4: He had actually never made it down to San Diego

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Speaker 4: Comicon before and it took his own museum to bring

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Speaker 4: him down there. So that rounded things up. But Hall

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Speaker 4: H which normally is busy on Sunday with Marvel panels,

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Speaker 4: what have you, that was the only panel on the

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Speaker 4: final day of Comic Con.

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Speaker 1: Well, of course journalists down there are looking for headlines,

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Speaker 1: but for fans, you said, the crowd was biggest as

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Speaker 1: you've seen since the pandemic. Were the fans happy despite

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Speaker 1: the lack of headline news?

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Speaker 4: You could tell more people were in costume this year.

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Speaker 4: I brought along my sons and they definitely noticed that

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Speaker 4: as well. And there were a lot of fun events,

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Speaker 4: including things that didn't require a pass, so if you

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Speaker 4: didn't have a ticket into Comic Con, you could still

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Speaker 4: go to crunchy Roll had a big two day concert event.

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Speaker 4: They had all these activations all throughout downtown San Diego.

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Speaker 4: So thankfully one of the sponsors with a big pop

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Speaker 4: up this year was Old Spice hopefully passing out deodorant.

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Speaker 1: Very helpful and close like that there was one that

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Speaker 1: was quite topical, and you were there for the whole thing.

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Speaker 1: Mike tell us about the south Park panel. That was

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Speaker 1: probably the buzziest thing of the week.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that the south Park panel, which also, to be fair,

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Speaker 4: included Mike Judge talk about Beavis and Bud Heead and

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Speaker 4: also Andy Samberg talking about his show Digimon. But everyone

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Speaker 4: was in hallh on Thursday night to see what Trey

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Speaker 4: and Matt would say, especially after that episode aired on Wednesday,

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Speaker 4: the South Park season prenier that the shot heard round

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Speaker 4: the White House and the boys man Trey. They didn't

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Speaker 4: say much, of course, you know, as a journalist, I

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Speaker 4: wanted them to just burn the place down. They didn't

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Speaker 4: do that. They were very subtle, but they did refer

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Speaker 4: to a few things about some of the depictions of

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Speaker 4: President Trump in that episode, including the fight that they

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Speaker 4: had with Comedy Central over the depiction of his penis

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Speaker 4: in the episode. So we got some good information enough

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Speaker 4: that that was one of our leading stories on the

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Speaker 4: website throughout the weekend at Variety dot com.

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Speaker 1: In addition to royally aggravating the President, they also struck

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Speaker 1: a very big and groundbreaking deal. Were there any indications

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Speaker 1: that they have just set a deal with Paramount, which

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Speaker 1: is in the throes of a transition to a new owner.

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Speaker 1: But they've just set a deal for fifty new episodes

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Speaker 1: and expanded streaming rights. Did they make any reference to that.

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Speaker 4: No, you know, they didn't, And that was the originally

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Speaker 4: why we were excited to go to that panel before

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Speaker 4: that episode aired, because we thought, well, they were sort

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Speaker 4: of battling sky Dance. As you know, they were not

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Speaker 4: happy with Jeff Shell and sky Dance because they had

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Speaker 4: a agreement on They had an agreement in word with

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Speaker 4: Paramount for a new deal. Skydance came in and wanted

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Speaker 4: to renegotiate it. They were not happy. But then by

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Speaker 4: the time Comic Con came, they were about a billion

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Speaker 4: and a half dollars richer, So I think they were

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Speaker 4: happy that evening when they approached the stage at Comicon.

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Speaker 1: Mike, you are a highly in demand moderator and you

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Speaker 1: always get some great slots at Comic Con. This year

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Speaker 1: we did three big, high profile panels. Let's start with

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Speaker 1: King of the Hill, the return of this beloved former

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Speaker 1: Fox animated calm family comedy that kind of broke all

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Speaker 1: the rules of animated even for adult animation.

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Speaker 4: There's a lot of anticipation. I think people really still

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Speaker 4: love this show. There's a huge activation outside the convention

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Speaker 4: center for King of the Hill as well, and that

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Speaker 4: line just snaked down the marina. They aired an episode

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Speaker 4: first time people had seen it, and I really think

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Speaker 4: fans of the original King of the Hill are going

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Speaker 4: to be really impressed with what they've done with this show.

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Speaker 4: And we had a great conversation, a lot of fun,

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Speaker 4: and the crowd was just just overwhelmed.

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Speaker 1: This show brought a Texas sensibility to screwing American culture

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Speaker 1: and that did not always hwe to the more conventional

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Speaker 1: wisdom in Hollywood or New York.

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Speaker 4: They do a good job of threading that needle, very

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Speaker 4: much like South Park in a way in that you know,

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Speaker 4: you can come to the show from any different political

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Speaker 4: viewpoint and maybe you're watching and thinking that, well they're

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Speaker 4: satirizing that, and other people maybe looking at how they're

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Speaker 4: satirizing something else.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of shows coming back, another panel you did was

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Speaker 1: Phineas and Ferb. I still love the theme song. Tell

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Speaker 1: me what was it like to get back with Swampy

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Speaker 1: and Dan in that game?

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Speaker 4: Well, this one was really special because I did the

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Speaker 4: farewell panel for Phineas and Ferb back in twenty fifteen

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Speaker 4: there at Comic Con, So in some ways we've come

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Speaker 4: full circle and to be back ten years later after

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Speaker 4: saying goodbye to Phineas and Ferb and welcoming them back

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Speaker 4: and again, this is a show that hasn't missed a beat.

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Speaker 4: If anything, it's become even more perhaps geared towards the

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Speaker 4: grownups watching. I think they appreciate the fact that most

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Speaker 4: of the fans who enjoyed Phineas and Ferb back in

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Speaker 4: the late two thousands are now adults or teenagers and

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Speaker 4: maybe they have kids of their own, so some of

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Speaker 4: the humors even more slightly subversive, but also you know,

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Speaker 4: really still reaches young people as well.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about the third panel you hosted down there.

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Speaker 4: The third panel had a chance to talk to a

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Speaker 4: bunch of producers from some of the Sony dramas, including

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Speaker 4: Ron Moore, talking a lot about the franchises, because you know,

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Speaker 4: they've they've really turned Outlander into a franchise with the

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Speaker 4: new show The Blood of My Blood for All Mankind,

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Speaker 4: which is one of my personal favorite shows, has a

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Speaker 4: spinoff coming up called Star city that The Boys, of course,

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Speaker 4: has turned into quite a franchise that was represented on

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Speaker 4: the panel.

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Speaker 1: Two last quick questions for your recommic. Number one. Alien

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Speaker 1: Earth a big project for FX. I know they had

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Speaker 1: some activations down there. Did you sense any organic buzzs

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Speaker 1: for it from fans?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I definitely did. You know, partly they did a

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Speaker 4: good job of plastering the side of a hotel with

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Speaker 4: the big imagery from Alien Earth. There was a huge activation,

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Speaker 4: like you mentioned, long lines eighteen plus, so it was

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Speaker 4: definitely a scary activation. But yeah, so I think people

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Speaker 4: are primed and ready for that.

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Speaker 1: That's a big launch coming up for all of Disney

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Speaker 1: here in a couple of weeks. And then, of course

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Speaker 1: pomic Con is a kind of a weather rain for

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Speaker 1: the genre world. Was there anything that stood up to

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Speaker 1: you in the causeplay? What impressed you?

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Speaker 4: I would say my favorite costume was I was walking

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Speaker 4: down this and along comes a man carrying some balloons,

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Speaker 4: wearing a blue turtleneck pants, big bushy mustache. It was

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Speaker 4: Melchick from Severance. Whoever was cosplaying as Milchik did such

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Speaker 4: a fantastic job down to the balloons with Adam Scott's

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Speaker 4: face on it and it was brilliant.

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Speaker 2: I saw.

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Speaker 4: I saw a lot of severance costumes, a lot of

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Speaker 4: great ones, but that one really stood out.

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Speaker 1: Mike, thank you so much for your labors in San

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Speaker 1: Diego and for being in demand for those panels. It's

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Speaker 1: a testament to you.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm glad I got that free old spice.

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Speaker 1: As we close out today's episode, here's a few things

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Speaker 1: we're watching for. It's going to be a busy week

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Speaker 1: for earnings. Spotify and Electronic Arts report on Tuesday, Meta

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Speaker 1: and Microsoft report on Wednesday, and Thursday brings Comcast, Amazon,

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Speaker 1: and Apple, among others. We're also on twenty four to

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Speaker 1: seven Paramount Skuydance Media watch that merger is heading toward

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Speaker 1: the finish line after overcoming some truly unbelievable obstacles. But

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Speaker 1: it ain't over till it's over. We're keeping watch at

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Speaker 1: Variety dot com. Coming up on Friday, Variety and CJ,

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Speaker 1: E and M are hosting an invite only gathering for

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Speaker 1: industry insiders tied to the Kkon Korean Culture fan event

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Speaker 1: that unfolds this weekend in downtown LA. Before we go,

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Speaker 1: congrats to Benjamin Kramer. He's been named president of US

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Speaker 1: distribution for Black Bear, the indie studio backed by Teddy Schwartzman.

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Speaker 1: Kramer was formerly co head of CIA Media Finance. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening. This episode was written and reported by me

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Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Rebecca Rubin and Michael Schneider.

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Speaker 1: It was edited by Aaron Greenwald Stick's Nick's Hick Picks.

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Speaker 1: Please leave us a review at the podcast platform of

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Speaker 1: your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for another episode

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Speaker 1: of Daily Variety