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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 Tuesday, February seventeenth, twenty

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: we'll hear from Variety's Rebecca Rubin on a busy weekend

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Speaker 1: at the box office in terms of diversity of product,

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Speaker 1: plus two big stars, Margot Roby and Jacob Elordi. That's

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Speaker 1: always a good thing for exhibitors. But before we get

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

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Speaker 1: morning that you need to know. Of course, the big

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Speaker 1: news of the morning comes out of Warner Brothers Discovery.

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Speaker 1: The BD is about to begin a seven day period

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Speaker 1: of negotiations with Paramount's guidance again. But at the same time,

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Speaker 1: WBD has set the date for a shareholder vote that

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Speaker 1: is key to moving its sale to Netflix forward. That

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Speaker 1: date is March twentieth. Warner Brothers is saying explicitly that

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Speaker 1: it needs Paramount to declare that it has reached its

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Speaker 1: best and final offer so that shareholders can fairly evaluate

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Speaker 1: the two offers from Netflix at just under eighty three

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Speaker 1: billion dollars and a little over one hundred billion dollars

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Speaker 1: from Paramount's guidance, which includes assets that Netflix is not buying.

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Speaker 1: Warner Brothers and Netflix are treating this as a nuisance

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Speaker 1: that they have to get passed in order to complete

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Speaker 1: their deal. Netflix in the statement criticized its rival for

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Speaker 1: creating quote an ongoing distraction for Warner Brothers, Discovery stockholders,

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Speaker 1: and the broader entertainment industry caused by Paramounts, Guide, dances,

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Speaker 1: antics end quote. Meanwhile, the long holiday weekend began on

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Speaker 1: Friday night with ca Cy Wasserman surprising the industry with

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Speaker 1: the disclosure that his talent and marketing agencies will be

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Speaker 1: put up for sale. It's an extraordinary development stemming from

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Speaker 1: the fallout of Wasserman's appearance in the Epstein files. Even

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Speaker 1: though it came in two thousand and three years before

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Speaker 1: Epstein was convicted of any crimes, Wasserman's association with Gallaine

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Speaker 1: Maxwell has taken a huge toll. Artists have spoken out

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Speaker 1: and Wasserman now has a majority owner to answer to

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Speaker 1: in Providence Equity. It's not just up to him to

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Speaker 1: gut it out as a business owner. On Monday, things

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Speaker 1: got worse for Casey Wasserman as Los Angeles Mayor Karen

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Speaker 1: Bass said that she believes he should step down from

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Speaker 1: his role as the chairman of the LA twenty eight

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Speaker 1: committee organizing the summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. What

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Speaker 1: a mess. This morning we got the sad news that

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Speaker 1: the Reverend Jesse Jackson has died after long illness at

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Speaker 1: age eighty four. He was an incredible civil rights leader

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Speaker 1: his entire life. His presidential campaign were a milestone moment

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Speaker 1: for this country. You had to be there to understand

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Speaker 1: the impact. Keep Hope Alive and rip to Robert Devall.

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Speaker 1: We'll hear more about Duval's incredible career from Variety's own

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Speaker 1: Owen Gleiberman in tomorrow's episode for Now. The tributes are

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Speaker 1: rolling in, and you can find them on Variety dot com,

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Speaker 1: including my conversation held on a rainy Monday morning with

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Speaker 1: Walter Hill, who directed Duval in the two thousand and

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Speaker 1: six mini series Broken Trail and the nineteen ninety three

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Speaker 1: movie Geronimo. All of these stories and so much more

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Speaker 1: can be found on Variety dot com right now, and

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Speaker 1: now it's time for conversations with Variety journalists about news

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Speaker 1: and trends in show business. Rebecca Rubin, Variety's box office chief,

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Speaker 1: joins us to assess the opening weekend of Wuthering Heights,

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Speaker 1: which tested the box office poll of Margot Roby, Jacob

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Speaker 1: Elordi and director Emerald Funnel. Rebecca Rubin, thanks for joining

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Speaker 1: us to talk about box office. This was an interesting

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Speaker 1: weekend because you had the Valentine's Day houli colliding with

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Speaker 1: the President's Day holiday, So how do you think all

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Speaker 1: of that affected the box office turnout?

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Speaker 2: There was a nice range of new movies, which is

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Speaker 2: always welcome news for theater owners because they don't want

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Speaker 2: a movie that's just appealing to one demographic. It's helpful

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Speaker 2: when there's a weekend like this and you have Weathering

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Speaker 2: Heights appealing to women, Go appealing to family audiences, and

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Speaker 2: then Crime one oh one catering to mostly men. It

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Speaker 2: was behind last year's President's Day weekend because the Marvel

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Speaker 2: movie Captain America Brave New World opened to one hundred

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Speaker 2: million dollars, But all things considered, it was a pretty

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Speaker 2: decent weekend overall, Weathering Heights was the number one film.

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Speaker 2: It's projected to earn forty million over the four day

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Speaker 2: weekend that's through President's Day on Monday, and in a

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Speaker 2: surprising twist, it actually did better internationally. It made forty

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Speaker 2: time two million dollars for a global launch of eighty

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Speaker 2: two million, and that's about even with where projections were

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Speaker 2: at for this film. It's very buzzy. That's due to

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Speaker 2: Emerald Fennel being a director that really gets people talking,

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Speaker 2: the stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Belordi, and it just

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Speaker 2: being a steamy romance drama tied to Valentine's Day. So

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Speaker 2: the fact that Warner Brothers spent about eighty million dollars

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Speaker 2: on it, I'd say it's off to a pretty good start.

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Speaker 2: But like any film, they just needed to keep playing.

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Speaker 2: And it seems like international audiences might be key to

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Speaker 2: the film's longevity.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any sense of, like, were most of

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Speaker 1: these audiences couples on dates? Was it in fact a

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Speaker 1: Valentine's Day weekend thing for people? Any sense of like

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Speaker 1: who actually turned out for Weathering Heights.

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Speaker 2: Well, it was very overwhelmingly female, over seventy five percent

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Speaker 2: of opening weekend audiences where women, so safe to say

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Speaker 2: it was probably a Valentine's Day heavy affair. But what's

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Speaker 2: so interesting to me about this film Netflix was actually

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Speaker 2: bidding quite heavily on Weathering Heights. They were offering to

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Speaker 2: pay one hundred and fifty million dollars for Emerald Fenneld's

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Speaker 2: take on this classic novel, and the filmmaker and the

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Speaker 2: producers is Murder. Robbie is one of the producers as well.

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Speaker 2: They actually opted to take less money from Warner Brothers

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Speaker 2: in exchange for a theatrical release and a full scale

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Speaker 2: marketing campaign, and it seems like that paid off they.

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Speaker 2: I think if this movie cost one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: million dollars and it was released theatrically, it'd be a

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Speaker 2: much different conversation about where it was starting in terms

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Speaker 2: of opening weekend ticket sales. But this is now the

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Speaker 2: ninth film from Warner Brothers to open at number one.

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Speaker 2: They've had a fabulous, fabulous streak at the box office,

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Speaker 2: and so it's really just illumine the fact that when

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Speaker 2: you have stars that people care about a property that's

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Speaker 2: interesting to people, and a director who's putting their own

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Speaker 2: spin on things and making something feel theatrical that is,

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Speaker 2: those are all elements that help create conversation. And we'll

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Speaker 2: never know what it would have looked like if this

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Speaker 2: film released on Netflix, and what kind of cultural impacts

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Speaker 2: it would have had, but eighty two million dollars in

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Speaker 2: its opening weekend is certainly a great start. It.

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Speaker 1: Emerald Fennel and Margot Rolby have definitely proven themselves to

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Speaker 1: be They are fans of exhibition and the marketing that

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Speaker 1: I've seen on Weathering Heights. Though it's got the look

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Speaker 1: of like an old Betty Davis movie where she's Jezabel

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Speaker 1: or something like, it's they're really selling the steaminess and

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Speaker 1: the star power and you want to see this couple together.

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Speaker 1: And I'm certainly in that category, even though I did

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Speaker 1: not contribute to the opening weekend, but I definitely want

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Speaker 1: to see it on the big screen. And of course

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Speaker 1: I know it's not lost on you that you know,

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Speaker 1: but actually that touches right on a very interesting consideration

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Speaker 1: that regulators are thinking about, people are in the industry

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Speaker 1: are thinking about. But that that scenario you described where

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Speaker 1: Netflix was bidding on it. Warner Brothers made its pitch

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Speaker 1: like that's a dynamic, healthy competitive market at work. Artists

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Speaker 1: had options, and obviously these artists have a lot come

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Speaker 1: in with a ton of clout, of course, But as

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Speaker 1: it would appear that Netflix and Warner Brothers are going

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Speaker 1: to become one, how does that conversation change when both

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Speaker 1: of those companies are now under the same roof. We're

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Speaker 1: not going to solve that here, but I did not

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Speaker 1: want to let it go without pointing that out. Was

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Speaker 1: this a big city movie or was there was turnout

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Speaker 1: kind of like around the country, like a lot of

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Speaker 1: people wanted to go see Margot Roby and Jacob Elordi

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Speaker 1: and the Moors.

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Speaker 2: This is a movie that did pretty well on the coast.

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Speaker 2: The top locations were sort of what we see week

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Speaker 2: to week, being in New York City and Los Angeles,

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Speaker 2: So I think it's safe to say it over index

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Speaker 2: in the cities that you'd expect. The top markets after

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Speaker 2: New York and Los Angeles were Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, DC,

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Speaker 2: Boston and so definitely seems to be playing across the country.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you about the rest of the box office.

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Speaker 1: As you said it was a diverse mix of titles.

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Speaker 1: What else stood out to you for sure.

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Speaker 2: Sony's new animated movie called Goat debuted in second place.

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Speaker 2: It earned around twenty six million over the traditional weekend

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Speaker 2: and it's projected to earn thirty two million through the

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Speaker 2: holiday on Monday, and it's one of the bigger starts

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Speaker 2: for an original animated film. And that is a type

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Speaker 2: of film that's been quite challenged actually in recent years,

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Speaker 2: which is interesting because family films have been doing really

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Speaker 2: well when they're treading familiar territory, whether that is an

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Speaker 2: adaptation of a popular game like Minecraft or a sequel

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Speaker 2: to a really big film like Zootopia two or inside

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Speaker 2: Out two, but original animated properties have had a harder

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Speaker 2: time getting people to come out to theaters. And so

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Speaker 2: this film cost eighty million dollars, meaning like most movies

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Speaker 2: we'll be talking about, need to stick around in theaters

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Speaker 2: to justify this spend. But eighty million is a lot

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Speaker 2: less than Disney would have spent on some of the

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Speaker 2: Pixar movies that have struggled recently, and so definitely has

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Speaker 2: a chance to become a slow and steady box office hit.

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Speaker 2: That's something that we've seen actually universal, particularly with their

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Speaker 2: DreamWorks films really really excel with recently they had in

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty three Migration and in twenty twenty four The

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Speaker 2: Wild Robot, and both of those films did not have

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Speaker 2: spectacular opening weekends. They had decent starts, but they ended

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Speaker 2: up just playing and playing and playing for weeks on end,

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Speaker 2: and they each eventually earned three hundred million dollars globally.

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Speaker 1: And so if.

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Speaker 2: Goat can do anything close to that, Sony will be

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Speaker 2: very thrilled with that result. And there's not a ton

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Speaker 2: of there's there's not really competition on the kid friendly

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Speaker 2: front until Pixar has a new movie called Hoppers that

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Speaker 2: is coming in March. But I think where Goat really

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Speaker 2: benefited a It has strong reviews, which are always always helpful.

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Speaker 2: It's solways helpful to get people to go to theaters,

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Speaker 2: but there has been almost nothing that family audiences have

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Speaker 2: gone to see since Zootopia K two came out around

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Speaker 2: Thanksgiving for twelve weeks. That film has continued to draw

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Speaker 2: audiences at the box office, and so this is the

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Speaker 2: first family oriented film that's really managed to bring people

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Speaker 2: out in significant numbers.

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Speaker 1: With Goat Steph Curry. This comes from his unanimous media

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Speaker 1: banner and oh my god, my inbox is stuffed with

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Speaker 1: promotion Steph Curry, who appeared you know, his NBA career

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Speaker 1: appears to be winding down in the next couple of years.

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Speaker 1: He really does seem to be one who is going

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Speaker 1: to go for it in media and between Goat and

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Speaker 1: his company. Last fall launched the comedy on Peacock Mister Throwback,

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Speaker 1: that was a bit autobiographical, like he really seems to

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Speaker 1: be going for it. And as you say, the wholy

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Speaker 1: original concept is the hardest thing to sell right now

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Speaker 1: in the sea of IP and adaptations. What else was

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Speaker 1: out there that the story was not as good for

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Speaker 1: Crime one oh one? In this case, Crime didn't pay

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Speaker 1: too much.

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Speaker 2: Prime one o one is from Amazon MGM and it

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Speaker 2: opened in third place with fifteen million over the traditional weekend,

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Speaker 2: and it's projected to make seventeen point seven million through

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Speaker 2: Monday rivals. Some of them believe that the four day

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Speaker 2: number will end up being closer to fifteen to sixteen million,

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Speaker 2: so it'll be interesting to see where it ends up.

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Speaker 2: It's one of those films that's a little hard to

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Speaker 2: classify because On one hand, it's a decent start for

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Speaker 2: an our race movie that's aimed at adults. It's no other

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Speaker 2: subset of films that have just been challenged a bit

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Speaker 2: in recent years. But Amazon spent a lot of money

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Speaker 2: on this film. It costs ninety million dollars to produce,

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Speaker 2: and since like all movies, theater owners are keeping roughly

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Speaker 2: half of ticket sales, this movie does need to stick

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Speaker 2: around for a while to justify its price tag. And

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Speaker 2: Amazon always says they're not trying to produce box office juggernauts,

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Speaker 2: and they are just looking to earn back their marketing

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Speaker 2: and distribution spends. But a lot of their rivals think

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Speaker 2: it's hard to believe that they are willing to spend

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Speaker 2: as much as ninety million dollars and not want to

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Speaker 2: earn back some of that money.

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Speaker 1: As we always discuss, there are so many different metrics.

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Speaker 1: Amazon's long term metrics are very different from Netflix, are

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Speaker 1: very different from Warner Brothers and HBO. So much to watch. Well,

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Speaker 1: Rebecca has always appreciate you running running down the important

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Speaker 1: things for us, anything in particular you're looking forward to

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Speaker 1: for next weekend or the first week of March.

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Speaker 2: Some of the upcoming releases that I think will be

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Speaker 2: on people's radars are Scream seven, the new Pixar movie Hoppers,

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Speaker 2: and then there's Maggie Jillen Hall's The Bride, which is

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Speaker 2: a remake of Frankenstein, and those are all upcoming before

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Speaker 2: what is really going to be the first heavy header

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Speaker 2: of the year, which is the Super Mario Galaxy movie.

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Speaker 2: And if the first Super Mario movie is any indication,

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Speaker 2: this will just knock it out of the park among

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Speaker 2: family audiences and it will definitely be a major bright

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Speaker 2: spot for movie theater owners in the spring.

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Speaker 1: Interesting. Well, I'm already thinking about the potential variety pairing

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Speaker 1: of Maggie Jillen Hall and Giamo del Toro to geek

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Speaker 1: out on Frankenstein anyway, much to look forward to, Rebecca,

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Speaker 1: as always, appreciate you being out there helping us interpret

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Speaker 1: all this.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.

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

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Speaker 1: things we're watching for. The BAFTA Awards will be held

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Speaker 1: Sunday at the Royal Albert Hall. Variety will have a

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Speaker 1: big contingent there to cover it all. The Pailey Center

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Speaker 1: for Media is hosting a conversation with Imagine Entertainment's Brian

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Speaker 1: Grazer on Thursday night in Beverly Hills. The questioner will

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Speaker 1: be Mary Parent, Chairman of Production for Legendary Entertainment. I'm

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Speaker 1: looking forward to it. Send congratulations to Sean Ryan. Season

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Speaker 1: three of Netflix's The Night Agent premieres on Thursday. It's

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Speaker 1: not the noisiest of shows, but Netflix data has shown

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Speaker 1: that it is a very popular procedural. We love to

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Speaker 1: hear from listeners, so please send thoughts, scripes, and other

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Speaker 1: feedback about Daily Variety to podcasts at Variety dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before we go, Congrats to Sophie Leonard. She's been named

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Speaker 1: executive vice president of Unscripted for the Fox Television Network.

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Speaker 1: She comes to the company after running her own production banner,

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Speaker 1: sam Fire Films, and she also worked for the UK's Minofilms.

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

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Speaker 1: me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Rebecca Rubin stick Snick's

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Speaker 1: hick Picks. Please leave us a review at the podcast

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Speaker 1: platform of your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for

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Speaker 1: another episode of Daily Variety.