WEBVTT - Marvel’s Latest Movie Tests If Superheroes Ever Get Tired 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.400 Hey, it's Carol and Tim and we have something new 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:03.280 and exciting for you. 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:06.360 Everything you love about Bloomberg Radio is now in your car. 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.639 The new Bloomberg Business App now featuring Apple CarPlay and 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:10.320 Android Auto. 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:14.040 Listen to your favorite Bloomberg Radio stations anytime. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.960 Plus every Bloomberg podcast, the latest news, and more, all 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:18.120 at the click of a button. 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.240 It's free and simple to use. Just download the Bloomberg 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:23.680 Business App on your smartphone and connect your phone to 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:24.200 your car. 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.360 The Bloomberg Business App now with Apple CarPlay and Android 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.200 Auto features. Download it free in the Apple App Store 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:31.400 or on Google Play. 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.600 Presented by our sponsor, Interactive Brokers. 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:40.040 This is Bloomberg Business Week inside from the reporters and 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.800 editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine, plus 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.760 gloom O Business Finance and tech news the Bloomberg Business 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:53.200 Week Podcast with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck from Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:57.480 You can absorb light. 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.680 I can see it, and Kamala who's Kamala? 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.000 She can turn light into physical matter, which I have 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:06.800 never heard of. 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.720 I can totally show you. The question that I have 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:11.759 for you, Jennifer, is if you're going to go spend 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:13.200 how much does it cost to go to a movie now? 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:13.919 Eighteen bucks? 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:14.600 Something like that? 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.040 Are you gonna go smend eighteen bucks to see that movie? 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:18.040 Not sure? 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:18.920 Not sure? Okay? 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.640 I think well that's the big question, right. That's an 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.319 excerpt from the preview of the thirty third film in 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.160 the Marvel Cinematic Universe aka MCU for those in the know, 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.240 which is not me. It hits theaters today. It's aptly 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.399 named The Marvels. I'm not in the Knowel. Joel Webber 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:38.319 just Joel Webber just looked at me like I was, 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:39.720 you know, a superhero. 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.720 I thought, you know, you seem like you should know. 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.320 I told Jennifer this story earlier, Joel, at the beginning 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:49.400 of the pandemic, back in like March of twenty twenty, 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.280 my wife and I were like, oh, let's watch all 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:53.320 the Marvel movies. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:54.240 How far do you make it? 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.960 We made it through two of them, just started waking. 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:58.000 Thirty more to go. 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.960 Yeah, so you still got time? Okay, So Thomas Buckley's 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:02.600 got a great. 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:03.800 Disney would appreciate your business. 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.200 Well, it doesn't matter. I pay for Disney Plus regardless. Right, 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.320 as long as there's Bluey there we're. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:09.800 Paying for it. 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.200 So well, you got that, you got a whole bunch 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:17.360 of other Marvel movies. And ever since Disney acquired Marvel 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.160 more than a decade ago, they have just turned Marvel 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:23.800 into a blockbuster powerhouse. 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.280 That voice you're hearing, by the way, is none other 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.959 than Joel Weber. He's editor of Bloomberg Business Week by day, 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:37.440 but by night he's a superhero. Sure, DC or Marvel superhero, 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:38.000 that's the question. 0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:38.880 It would be a Marvel one. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.720 Okay. We also have joining us Jim Ellis. He's assistant 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.160 managing editor for Bloomberg Business He edited Thomas Buckley's story 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.200 in the current issue of Bloomberg Business Week, available on 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.240 newstands now online at the Bloomberg Terminal, and of course 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.840 at Bloomberg dot com slash business Week. Joel, I'm sorry, 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:52.400 now you can talk. 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:56.280 Okay, So great acquisition. In two thousand and nine, Disney 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:02.680 spent four billion dollars. The catalog. The MCU universe that 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:07.640 has transpired from this Marvel acquisition generated close to thirty 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:11.560 billion dollars at the box office. All those movies that 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:17.400 you haven't watched are adored by Lee sustains on theaters Okay, well, 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.760 it's starting to get to a point where these movies 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.519 aren't having quite as big of a success, or any 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:31.680 success that they've previously had, so more muted fans maybe 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.520 getting a little tired of that superhero genre. And now 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:40.240 we have yet another movie coming out this weekend. Jim 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:46.240 elis the Marvels by Marvel by Disney. How's the Marvels 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:46.600 going to do? 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:55.880 We're working on getting now, Oh there's Jim Elis. Sorry, Jim, sorry, 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:57.840 just go go start over one more time. We have 0:03:57.880 --> 0:03:59.720 trouble getting your How's the Marvel's gonna do? 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:00.840 Jim? 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.920 Most likely, the Marvels will probably do about half the 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:10.920 week opening weekend business that the previous installment of this franchise. 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:12.400 Did you know? 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.880 That is a disappointment, obviously because this is an expensive 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.760 movie to make. You know, this was probably but then 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.200 one hundred and fifty to two hundred million dollar movie. 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.279 And the big question for Marvel right now is, given 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:28.520 the cost of all these films that they've made in 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.560 the MCU, can they actually start keeping the profits running 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.120 on these new installments even though fewer people are going 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.680 to theaters. I mean, they've already had a disappointment earlier 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:44.680 this year with the latest installment of the ant Man franchise. 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:50.280 That movie did not make its production costs back. And 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.960 so that's sort of a warning here. I mean, there's 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.480 been a lot of content, a lot of MCU content 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.560 out there. There's a lot of Disney content out but 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.720 the MCU content is and. 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:02.800 There's a lot of it. A lot of people say, well, 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:04.000 you know, there are a lot of movies. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.000 I'll sit down and watch them like you Tom, Let's 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:07.760 say like, oh, I'm going to get to that. The 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.880 issue though, is that there's so much of it as 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:12.400 you could sort of lost in it. We took a 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.520 look at just how much MCU content was out there. 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:17.640 We figured it out. We clocked it out by. 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.440 The minutes that are available right now, and you can 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:25.200 do thirty one days and fifty two minutes of non 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:29.719 stop watching of MCU content. That includes the movies, the 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:33.160 television shows that they've made, They've gone a bunch of specials, 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:36.440 and they've got a lot of animated content that's been 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:39.400 coming up since two thousand and nine. So it's an 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.960 amazing amount of just stuff of Marvel stuff that's out there. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:45.880 And so we're hitting the point where a lot of 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.080 people are saying, well, maybe I've had enough. 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.000 Look at your life, look at your choice, Tim You 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.560 could spend thirty one days and fifteen minutes NonStop. 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:55.880 Let us know how that works out. 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:57.640 Well, it might be there. I'll let you know in 0:05:57.680 --> 0:05:58.640 thirty three days. 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:02.000 But you get looking back to where Disney stands in 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.560 all of this. I mean, if one, we're writing the 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.160 screenplay of let's buy a blockbuster franchise and produce a 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:10.400 lot of movies out of it, we would be getting 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.159 to the point where the profits are starting to fall off. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.760 And surely the audience saw this coming. I mean, what's 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.159 Disney's plan here? Have they prepared for it? Is this 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.719 something they're communicating to investors? Do you have any idea? 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:23.640 Yeah? 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.480 I mean what they're saying now is that they're going 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:33.320 to reduce both the number of movies that Marvel produces 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:37.080 and also they're going to actually cut down on the 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.360 amount of money that's spent on a per film basis. 0:06:40.720 --> 0:06:44.720 Now Wall Street likes that, but the worrisome part of 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:49.400 that is that is what's left in that intellectual property 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:53.120 trow that is Marvel, the comic book company that they 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.680 bought and basically have mined successfully for all this time. 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.760 But what characters are left if you're not doing sequels 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:02.479 because they're saying also they're not going to do as 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.120 many sequels, then you know, are you going to have 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.040 to move to the sort of third tier or fourth 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.440 tier hero or are you really going to have to 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.520 go and look for different types of people who know 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.000 how to you know, sort of produce this type of 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.080 film and our TV shows. I mean they're already saying 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:26.080 now that they're going to go out and hire you know, 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:30.000 showrunners who are used to producing you know, regular sort 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.360 of network and streaming shows, not just in house at Disney. 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.960 They're sort of recognizing that they need more juice to 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.360 get consumers interested. I mean, they've gotten a lot of 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.600 black this past year over things like you know, she 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.280 Hulk Law, you know, Attorney at Law and shows like 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.840 that that it sort of stretched the franchise in a 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.800 way that you know a lot of people didn't connect to. 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.080 So it's for every Loki that a lot of people 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.960 have gotten excited about, there are an awful lot of 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.640 she Hulks and other things that people say like, ah, 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:03.840 you know, I don't really feel it even something like 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.800 Secret Invasion that was a series that they had earlier 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.960 this year that I personally liked a lot, But I 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:12.920 seem to have been in the minority on that. I 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:14.920 mean a lot of people are just saying, you know, 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.120 these it's so much there's so much content, and there's 0:08:18.120 --> 0:08:21.200 so many characters, and there's so many interconnections, which was 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.840 good at the beginning, but now it can be a 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.440 little daunting, particularly if you want to start watching the MCU, 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.680 because who's going to go back and say, I'll go 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.080 back and look at the previous thirty two movies before 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:33.800 I watched. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:36.360 This, Tim maybe that was maybe that was my problem, Jim. 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:37.640 Maybe I shouldn't have done that. Jim. 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:39.520 We'll get back to your It's like a weird order too, 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:41.280 there you have to well we had to get the 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:43.760 order weird or is actually just the order? 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:44.080 Jim? 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:44.640 Like that? 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:45.600 There are rules to this. 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.319 There were prequels and sequels. Yeah, that's what made it 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.480 excit stories. Yeah, there were ones that came out more clearly. 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.280 You haven't watched Star Wars also on Disney Plus. Okay, 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.480 so Jim, we'll get back to your your personal taste 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.280 in movies momentarily, but I do want to also just 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.440 put out there, Jim, this is not just a test 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:09.040 of Marvel, it's actually a test of the superhero genre. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:13.000 Because Marvel, which is you know, we've we've seen the 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:17.679 treasure trove, that is, it's archive, it's minted, you know, 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:24.080 billions for for Disney. D C has also an immense library, 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.319 but we haven't seen as many of those movies on 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:26.920 the big screen. 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:28.439 And they're actively. 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:28.599 Working on it. 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.280 They're actively working on it, and they've hired some you know, 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.520 sort of big talent to in the superhero world. But 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.440 that way, they've hired the director who did a bunch 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.720 of the X Men films. They've uh, you know, they 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.160 they're looking to come up with their own universe of 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:52.840 interconnected characters. However, you know, they have also been victims 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:57.199 to this sort of cooling of enthusiasm for superheroes. 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:58.520 I mean, this is past year. 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.160 They had Shazam, Fury of the Gods, they had The Flash, 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:04.480 they had the Blue Beetle. 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:07.200 All of those are DC comic characters. 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.400 All of those movies disappointed at the box office, and 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:14.959 you know, it sort of goes into this theme that 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.719 maybe we've had too much. Have we had too much? 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.439 Are the stories just not that great? The test of that, 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:22.679 at least for d C is going to come in 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:27.360 December when Aquaman, which is also a sequel you know 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:29.960 to their Aquaman movie that came out in twenty. 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:31.040 Eight which was a huge success. 0:10:31.559 --> 0:10:34.160 That was a huge success, and that brought in a 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.240 billion one, you know at the box office, and so 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.719 now we're going to see if this sequel to that 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.719 can do as well or sort of and factoring in 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.560 that this is a very different environment now where people 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.079 are still not back to normal going to theaters and 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:54.000 the you know, the profits that you can make from 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:56.880 streaming world on this aren't what you can do on 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:58.719 a real big theatrical hit. 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:01.839 Where does CGI come into this and what did what 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:03.360 did what did we learn in the story about c 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:03.760 g I. 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.599 Well, we learned that a lot of a lot of 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:12.160 critics and a lot of the want of a better word, 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.599 you know, mc u uh fanboys sort of think that 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:21.600 the CGI has gotten a little either sloppy or it's 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.520 just not of the quality that we saw. 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:26.040 On some of the early documentary. 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:31.280 A lot of a lot of complaints about you know, 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:33.360 some of the c G I in some of the 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:37.640 television shows like a she Hulk, and also that the 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.719 last movie, Quantum Mania, which was earlier this year, a 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.360 lot of people thought that that came across as sort 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.480 of video gamish and not movie ish. And the thing 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:48.480 is that, let's face it, a lot of these movies 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:50.360 are filmed in front of Green Springs the same way 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.520 that a video game would be, but they're not supposed 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.480 to look that way. So that's, uh, I don't know 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.280 if that's something that a lot of average moviegoers think about, 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.400 but it seems to be quite a lot of people 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:06.640 who are the sort of the influencers and also the 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.360 people who write reviews, they care quite a lot about that. 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:12.719 And so that's something that Disney is going to have 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:16.040 to think more about, particularly when they've got a visual 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.319 effects team that stretched across so many platforms. So it's 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.640 not just theatrical movies, it's you know, having to do 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.600 things for the Disney Plus streaming service as well as 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.120 you know, they're putting things with you know, movies and 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.319 specials inside their theme parks, so there's a lot of 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:34.360 work going on there. 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:37.000 But you know, with a limited number of people, all right. 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.280 Let's bring it back to the Marvels, since that is 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:43.360 the movie coming out now, Jennifer Ryan, The Marvels is coming. 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.600 This is a sequel to Captain Marvel, which we're thrown 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.280 around billion billions. It made a billion at the box 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:51.280 office in twenty nineteen. 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.520 Pre Larsen female lead. I think you going, No, not, 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:58.199 she's not. I think I saw though, Tim, Yeah, he's going. 0:12:58.920 --> 0:12:59.960 I am going tomorrow. 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:01.360 That was what I was waiting for. 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:06.360 Jim already have my ticket. He's going, and I will 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:09.000 be able to say whether it was better. 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.599 One of the things that I'm surprised that as this 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.920 this universe expands, I mean a lot of the things 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:20.400 that you're seeing now in those movies, you know, like 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.079 this one is much more of a it will be 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.079 a female empowerment movie or obviously a female hero, but 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.680 also in this case three female heroes in the movie, also. 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.480 Mixed generation, very young teens plus some you know, sort 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:35.599 of older actresses. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:37.920 And I mean these are things that were not even 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:42.000 issues at the beginning with an Iron Man, which the 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.520 stories were much more traditional comic book hero stories. And 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:49.080 now we've gotten more and more into seeing the lives 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.719 of people on screen, and I'm not certain that that 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:54.880 works as well unless you're Spider Man. 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.160 You know what works though, man eating kittens with tentacles 0:13:58.200 --> 0:13:58.800 for tongues. 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:00.720 That's Marvels todight exactly. 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.360 Okay, So Jim, we wait, wait a full report. 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:05.880 Yeah, please do come back next week, Jim, and let 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.560 us know how the how the movie was that Marvel 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.160 fan you were listening to is? Jim ellis assistant managing 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.640 editor for Bloomberg's Business Week, also with us Joel Webber. 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:17.719 How many of the thirty three movies have you seen? 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:18.000 Joel? 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.520 Not all thirty three, but I would say a lot 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:21.800 of them. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:24.200 Okay, all right, well, you still got time. You spend 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.960 the week on doing it. Check out the days later. 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:28.520 Check out the story. It's in the current issue. You 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:30.080 have Bloomberg Business Week on newstands. 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:35.720 Now you're listening to the Bloomberg Business Week podcast. Catch 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.160 us live weekday afternoons from three to six Eastern Listen 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.680 on Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app, and the Bloomberg 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.400 Business App, or watch us live on YouTube. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.000 Jennifer, hard to believe it, but Thanksgiving is less than 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:50.640 two weeks Await? Are you gonna be here for Thanksgiving? 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.000 I am, yeah, and I'm not doing any cooking. 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.000 I was just gonna ask you knew you knew where 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.760 I was going. We're gonna go visit our in laws 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:00.480 in uh where am I? God, I'm going to Cincinnati. 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:01.920 I'm going to Connecticut. 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:03.440 Oh okay, well you get to drive. 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:04.000 I have to fly. 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.040 So yeah, I kind of envy that it's the worst 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.280 time of year to fly. Okay, So these figures that 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.760 I'm going to cite right now are dated because did 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.280 you know that on Friday? Every Friday, the USDA comes 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.440 out with a turkey National Retail Report. And when I 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.560 did the research for this segment, the retail report I 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.160 was looking at was from Friday, November three, and it 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:31.320 showed no change in the price of a turkey between 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.000 last year and this year. And then I pull it 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:35.720 up again right now, and now I have the November 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.800 tenth one up, and it shows that we actually are 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.480 seeing turkeys a little bit more expensive this year than 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:43.000 last year. 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:45.400 Interestingly, I thought there was a glut. 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:47.280 That's something I had heard. 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.160 But I know someone now, I know someone who has 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:54.040 been talking turkey for more than twenty years. We love 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:55.680 having him join the show because it's kind of a 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.320 Thanksgiving tradition to check in with him. The CEO of 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:02.080 the turkey company Butterbult, Jay Jandrin, is with us right now. 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.600 He joins us on Zoom from Butterball headquarters in Garner, 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.240 North Carolina. So Jay, good to have you back with us. 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.920 What are we getting wrong when it comes to the 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.360 way we're looking at these turkey prices that come from 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:14.280 the USDA here. 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.000 Well, we really have to get through the entire holiday 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:21.320 selling season to get a true picture of that. And 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.000 the reason for that is you've got a lot of 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.480 heavy discounting and feature activity from the retailers during the holiday. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:29.760 So it's really a matter of timing exactly when we 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.440 pull the data and once you get through the entire 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:34.560 holidays so you see exactly what's sold in at what 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.840 prices to get a real accurate picture. But overall you 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:39.600 seek pricing, it's going to be about the same as 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:40.400 it was last year. 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.600 How closely do you follow these reports from the USDA? 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:46.960 We do pay attention to those, of course, those are 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.680 things that we look at. We evaluate the holiday with 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.040 the sale through is like with the consumers purchase. What 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.880 our retailers are telling us as far as their overall sales. 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:57.800 So it goes into kind of a bigger picture for 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:00.520 us to really look at next year and how we're 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.440 going to how we're going to approach next year's holiday season. 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:05.800 I wondered if you could give us a little bit 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.359 of insight in what retailers are telling you. I mean, 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:10.879 we had our colleagues talking a little while ago, and 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:12.720 one of them was mentioning that at one point he 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.080 saw some free turkeys floating around some retailers, and I 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.000 just didn't I couldn't get my head around that. But 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.399 I mean, is that something that you're seeing at all? 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:24.080 You know, each retailer has their own strategy on how 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.359 they go about that. If some do giveaway turkeys with 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:30.200 a certain amount of sale in the basket, uh, some 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:31.439 heavily discounted. 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:32.040 Uh. 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:34.680 It's really all over the board. And they're all, you know, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.360 looking for ways to help get that shopper into the door. 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.520 So they'll try things new each year to see what 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.200 works for them and and uh or sometimes if this 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.720 feel the strategy is working for them, whatever that strategy 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.080 is for their for their stories, they'll stick with it. 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.119 So it's really it's all over the board. You know, 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:51.920 we don't even know really up until the time of 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:53.800 the prices are released as well on what they're going 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.720 to be. Uh so we're we're certainly paying attention to 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:58.400 those prices and those retails as well. 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.080 So how long cord is Thanksgiving to your your business? 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.240 I mean, give us numbers here, just like how many 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.600 you know, what percentage of sales do you do during 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.080 the month of November versus year round? 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:12.960 Well, it's certainly a big part of our business, but 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.399 it's not it's not all of our business. We have 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.879 over a billion dollars in sales, and this represents a 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:19.720 good portion of that. 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.879 But what you know, I'm sorry, over fifty percent. 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.800 No, no, much less than fifty percent. But what we 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.480 look at is particularly is how we sell versus other 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:34.040 brands and other products in the case auring that period 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.760 of time. And one of the important facts that we 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:38.560 look at is or the measures we look at, is 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:43.240 the butterballs. Every one of every three turkey sold in 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.200 the retail outlets is a butter ball, so that that's 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.119 the number. Week a real close attention to what that 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.640 market share is every year, how it goes up or down, 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:56.480 and how tost throughout each each Holday season, So looking 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:57.040 away from. 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:58.440 The holidays, I mean, just to help us get a 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:00.920 better sense of how your business is out. Where's the 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:03.160 big sources of demand for the rest of the year. 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.280 Well, it really comes in our CpG products, our consumer 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.200 packaged goods, maybe in our ground turkey products that we 0:19:10.320 --> 0:19:12.960 sell throughout the year. We also do a lot of 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.119 business and food service as well, so that's a big 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.040