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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, August fourth, twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five. 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 Variety 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 talk with Variety's Rebecca Rubin about the weekend box

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Speaker 1: office four billion, remember that number, and then I'll have

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Speaker 1: a report on my journey this weekend into the heart

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Speaker 1: of the intense fandom of K pop. And to finish out,

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Speaker 1: Variety TV critic Aramade Tanubu tells us why she's so

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Speaker 1: high on Jason Momoa's Apple TV Plus drama series Chief

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Speaker 1: of War. But before we get to that, here are

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Speaker 1: a few headlines in just this morning that you need

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Speaker 1: to know. The new model Paramount has set key management

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Speaker 1: roles as Skydance prepares to take the keys to the

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Speaker 1: studio on Thursday. Among the eight senior executives set to

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Speaker 1: work under CEO David Ellison and President Jeff Schell, r

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Speaker 1: Andy Gordon as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer,

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Speaker 1: Jim Stirner as head of HR and Melissa Zuckerman as

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Speaker 1: Chief Communications Officer. There's a big shake up in Amazon's

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Speaker 1: audio operations. There will be some consolidation between the Wondery

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Speaker 1: and Audible brands. Wandery CEO Jen Sargent is exiting after

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Speaker 1: four years at the Helm. Rising star rapper Doci is

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Speaker 1: setting off on a twelve city tour produced by Live Nation.

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Speaker 1: Her Live from the Swamp Trek begins October fourteenth at

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Speaker 1: the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. Rip to Lonnie Anderson, the

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Speaker 1: WKRP in Cincinnati star died Sunday at age seventy nine.

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Speaker 1: The first mention of Lonnie Anderson and Variety came almost

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Speaker 1: fifty years ago. In the September fifteenth, nineteen seven edition

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Speaker 1: of Daily Variety. She was listed low in the cast

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Speaker 1: in a review of the season premiere of SWAT. Now

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Speaker 1: we turn to conversations with Variety journalists about news and

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Speaker 1: trends and show business. If it's Monday, we're talking box

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Speaker 1: office with Rebecca Rubin, Variety's senior Film and Media reporter.

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Speaker 1: She had another busy frame to cover. It was the

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Speaker 1: second weekend of Marvel's The Fantastic four First Steps and

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Speaker 1: three wide release newcomers. Rebecca Rubin, thanks as ever for

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Speaker 1: bringing us the box office Report, Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: So weekend two was not as fantastic for The Fantastic

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Speaker 1: four First Steps as the debut weekend. What happened?

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Speaker 2: So there is an adage for anyone who covers box

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Speaker 2: office as it quite well. Executives love to tell you

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Speaker 2: that opening weekend does not tell the whole story. And

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Speaker 2: they're typically saying that when a movie does not have

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Speaker 2: a big opening weekend, and they'll say, you know, it's

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Speaker 2: going to stick around to have really long legs. And

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Speaker 2: that was the case with a movie like The Greatest

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Speaker 2: Showman didn't have a great opening, stuck around forever and

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Speaker 2: ended up making a ton of money. But what's interesting

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Speaker 2: here is this is sort of the opposite case of

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Speaker 2: the opening weekend doesn't tell the whole story. Because Fantastic

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Speaker 2: four First Steps I had a pretty strong one hundred

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Speaker 2: and seventeen million dollar debut, and so everybody was expecting, Okay,

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Speaker 2: this is a return to form for Marvels. So another

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Speaker 2: really big opening weekend, and then instead it fell off

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Speaker 2: a cliff in its second weekend, and there have definitely

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Speaker 2: been Marvel movies that have had bigger second weekend drops.

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Speaker 2: But what's sort of surprising about ticket sales falling about

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Speaker 2: sixty six percent here is that this movie had the

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Speaker 2: benefit of positive reviews, great word of mouth, and so

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Speaker 2: really what I think ended up happening is it just

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Speaker 2: did not broaden out beyond the core audience of superhero fans.

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Speaker 1: So basically weekend two, the demographic was still that core

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Speaker 1: core comic book young men.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I think Disney was hoping that it was going to

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Speaker 2: be a bit broader, it was going to play more

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Speaker 2: toward families, and that just ended up not being the case.

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Speaker 2: I don't think the tally for Fantastic four is going

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Speaker 2: to be anything on the level of Disasters. I think

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Speaker 2: it's going to end with a decent tally, just nothing

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Speaker 2: in the stratosphere like we're used to for Marvel. But

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Speaker 2: the next three movies are all really heavy hitters. Next

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Speaker 2: summer they have Spider Man four, the last movie made

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Speaker 2: a billion dollars, and then they're following that up with

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Speaker 2: Avengers Doomsday and Avengers Secret Wars. These should be more

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Speaker 2: of the return to form that we're used to for Marvel.

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Speaker 2: There were three pretty big wide releases this weekend. Let's

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Speaker 2: do Lightning round and go through them. Bad Guys too

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Speaker 2: from Universal and DreamWorks. That movie opened to twenty two

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Speaker 2: point eight million dollars, which is about even with the

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Speaker 2: first film that opened in twenty twenty two. I think

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Speaker 2: this film will actually be a case of opening weekend

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Speaker 2: and not telling the whole.

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Speaker 1: Story The Naked Gun Paramount trying to revive the franchise

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Speaker 1: with Liam Nesa. This movie opened to seventeen million dollars,

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Speaker 1: which was right in line with projections. It's a pretty

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Speaker 1: promising start. Not a home run out of the gate

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Speaker 1: just because it has a significant forty two million dollar

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Speaker 1: price tag, but since there are just no theatrical comedies anymore,

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Speaker 1: I think getting to seventeen million dollars is pretty impressive.

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Speaker 1: Last one is from Neon Body horror drama to get.

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Speaker 2: So this movie open on Wednesday, got a bit of

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Speaker 2: a head start on the weekend, and so the five

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Speaker 2: day number was ten point eight million dollars, and that's

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Speaker 2: a pretty encouraging start for indie horror. I keep saying

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Speaker 2: reviews and word of mouth, but that's really what is

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Speaker 2: getting people off the couch. People want to feel like

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Speaker 2: something is worth their money to go see, and word

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Speaker 2: of mouth on this movie has been really strong out

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Speaker 2: of Sundance, which is where it premiered, and it had

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Speaker 2: a huge bidding war, which not that many movies out

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Speaker 2: of Sundance this year were able to generate.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca, let me wrap by asking you, are there any

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Speaker 1: other box office milestones that were achieved this weekend or

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Speaker 1: anything that you're watching in terms of summer to date

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Speaker 1: or year to date numbers.

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Speaker 2: So right now, the box office is about ten percent

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Speaker 2: ahead of last year, and it's still twenty three percent

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Speaker 2: behind twenty nineteen in the last pre pandemic year, and

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Speaker 2: the box office has been hovering at those figures for

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Speaker 2: basically all of summer. But analysts heading into summer were

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Speaker 2: pretty optimistic that this was going to be only the

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Speaker 2: second summer in post COVID times to hit four billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: The first time it did that was the summer of Barbenheimer.

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Speaker 2: And now that we're at early August, summer revenues just

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Speaker 2: hit three billion, and so it's a bigger question mark

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Speaker 2: than people were expecting of whether or not we will

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Speaker 2: get to four billion. There are a few movies on

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Speaker 2: the horizon. I think Freakier Friday and Weapons are two

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Speaker 2: movies that could generate a little business in August, which

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Speaker 2: tends to be a slower month. But it'll really depend

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Speaker 2: on how some of these movies hold over the next

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Speaker 2: few weeks, if the box office is able to get

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Speaker 2: to that benchmark.

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Speaker 1: So interesting, Rebecca, as always, thank you for helping us

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Speaker 1: do the countdow. Thank you now listeners. As I promised

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Speaker 1: last week, I bring you the sites and sounds of KKON.

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Speaker 1: This is a three day event held at the Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles Convention Center in downtown. It celebrates kpop and a

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Speaker 1: lot of other aspects of Korean culture. On Friday, Saturday,

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Speaker 1: and most of Sunday, Kkon was a fan fest with

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Speaker 1: all manner of venders, giveaways, promos, and merch, Merch, Merch.

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Speaker 1: McDonald's was there with a French freight truck. Walmart hosted

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Speaker 1: a photo booth installation. Here's a sense of what it's

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Speaker 1: like inside us there.

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Speaker 4: Please support the album.

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Speaker 3: And send them a love right now.

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Speaker 1: In the evening, there are big, flashy K pop concerts

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Speaker 1: with a half dozen or more acts On the bill

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Speaker 1: each night at Crypto dot com arena. The whole thing

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Speaker 1: is run by CJ, E and M, a big South

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Speaker 1: Korean conglomerate that operates studios, a streaming platform, movie theaters,

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Speaker 1: and a lot more. In the US, they own the

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Speaker 1: fifth season production distribution outfit. I didn't understand the first

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Speaker 1: thing about K pop and K culture fandom until I

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Speaker 1: walked around KKON for the first time a few years ago.

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Speaker 1: It's an immersion into a new world of fandom that

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Speaker 1: is more like a lifestyle than an affinity group for

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Speaker 1: individual artists. In my job, I love talking to the

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Speaker 1: hardcorees at fan conventions. You learn so much about what

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Speaker 1: they value in their entertainment experiences. I'll let a handful

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Speaker 1: of KKON twenty twenty five attendees explain what I mean.

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Speaker 1: We'll start with Jennifer and Vanessa, friends from Long Beach.

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Speaker 1: My first question is always what made you come?

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Speaker 5: I came here honestly for the vibe. I loved the

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Speaker 5: Korean culture, I love the music, I love the dance.

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Speaker 5: I'm mostly here for the danist. It's just something about

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Speaker 5: Chekon that is able to bring Korea to the United States.

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Speaker 5: But that's not something you see here, so I've looked

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Speaker 5: for to Chekon.

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Speaker 1: Every year now. Jennifer demonstrates how much of a lifestyle

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Speaker 1: embrace this really is for the biggest fans, well for me.

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Speaker 6: When I started learning Korean because of my love for

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Speaker 6: like music or pay dramas and stuff, I really liked

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Speaker 6: how disciplined Korean people are well in terms of like

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Speaker 6: taking care of themselves. I really want to take after

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Speaker 6: that a little more in terms of like waking up,

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Speaker 6: doing her skincare, eating good and just engaging with other people.

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Speaker 6: I think books what I really like about the career culture.

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Speaker 1: Next up, we hear from sisters Emily and Miranda, who

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Speaker 1: came from Murietta in Riverside County. These two noted that

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Speaker 1: k pop has been through several eras since they started

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Speaker 1: listening about eight years ago when they were in middle school.

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Speaker 1: It was a certain boy band that caught their attention.

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Speaker 3: It was BTS back in twenty seventeen. It was during

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Speaker 3: their Love Yourself her era and Mike Trump. They did

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Speaker 3: a collaboration with Steve Ioki and that was really mainstream

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Speaker 3: here in America. So they really made that transition, and

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Speaker 3: that's when they got a lot of Americans sorry to

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Speaker 3: look at Korea for different music and stuff like that.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, we went to our first concert with BTS

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Speaker 3: in twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 1: Miranda reinforced the kkon is one of the best opportunities

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Speaker 1: of the year to see new kpop backs.

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Speaker 7: Kikon here is so amazing because it's new groups. So

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Speaker 7: if you come in knowing one group, you'll walk out

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Speaker 7: knowing seven, eight nine, and then you get to really

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Speaker 7: like get in a new group. So every year it's

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Speaker 7: a new group that you can get to knows.

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Speaker 1: I caught up with two friends from Sacramento who drove

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Speaker 1: down to La for k coon. Yona and Jamal told

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Speaker 1: me they both work for a retirement home, and Jamal

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Speaker 1: was quick to add that he is also a student.

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Speaker 1: I asked them what platforms they used to listen to

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Speaker 1: K pop. These two and many others told me TikTok

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Speaker 1: and YouTube pretty much in that order. Here's Jamal.

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Speaker 4: I just started getting into K pop like a year

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Speaker 4: or two ago, so that's when I first started listening

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Speaker 4: to it actively and go into concerts and everything. So

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Speaker 4: you know, based on what people recommend me what they

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Speaker 4: tell me. But TikTok as well, especially with the dance

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Speaker 4: challenges that they have on there. People dance into the songs.

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Speaker 4: You know, you watch one of the dancess like, oh,

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Speaker 4: the dance is cool, and then you start listening to

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Speaker 4: the music in the background and you're like, oh, what's

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Speaker 4: that song? Like now I need to look it up,

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Speaker 4: and then you go through this whole entire like rabbit hole.

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Speaker 1: Both Jamal and Yona say they also watch the many

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Speaker 1: Korean language dramas that are available on Netflix, Disney Plus,

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Speaker 1: Amazon Prime Video and more.

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Speaker 4: I do a little bit with my mom.

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Speaker 1: She's a little bit of a hypocrite.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so she doesn't like the kpop, but when it

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Speaker 4: comes to the K dramas, she loves them. So she'll

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Speaker 4: come home from work, sit down on the couch, she'll

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Speaker 4: watch it, and you know, I do the signature. I'll

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Speaker 4: stand up doing dishes. I'll watch from the corner. You know,

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Speaker 4: I'm not trying to get foody immersed in it. But

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Speaker 4: then before I know, I find myself on the couch

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Speaker 4: with my mom watching. So surprisingly, my dad is actually

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Speaker 4: getting into K dramas a lot.

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Speaker 3: More like whenever I walk into his zom, he'll be

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Speaker 3: watching it.

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Speaker 1: And thanks to all the K conners who stopped to

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Speaker 1: talk to me this past weekend. K pop and K

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Speaker 1: drama has truly become a content ecosystem, particularly in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: On the first day of kkon, Variety and CJE and

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Speaker 1: M hosted a casual industry mixer in the early evening

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Speaker 1: before the first concert. We were thrilled by the turnout

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Speaker 1: of folks from Hibe, Amazon Music, Dive Studios, CIA, WME,

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Speaker 1: and many other managers and producers. This is truly a

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Speaker 1: space to watch now, we hear from Variety TV critic

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Speaker 1: Aramade to Nubu. Aramade watches a whole lot of TV,

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Speaker 1: and she really raved about this Apple TV Plus drama

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Speaker 1: series starring Jason Momoa. It tells the story of the

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Speaker 1: unification of the Hawaiian Islands in the seventeen hundreds. Aramede

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Speaker 1: will tell us why she liked it so much after

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Speaker 1: this clip from the trailer.

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Speaker 5: This is your home. This land will hold you.

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Speaker 1: Long after I am gone. Telling me of the outside world.

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Speaker 8: This strange, the pale skin honors no God's land.

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Speaker 1: It will be coming soon, Aramade Tanuboo, thanks for joining me.

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Speaker 8: Thank you so much for having me. Said the end.

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Speaker 1: I love reading all of our reviews because I get

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Speaker 1: a sneak peek at what's coming up. Your review for

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Speaker 1: the new Apple TV Plus series Chief of War really

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Speaker 1: stood out to me. You really liked this series. What

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Speaker 1: was it about Chief of War that spoke to you.

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Speaker 8: We've seen a lot of series similar to Chief of Wars.

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Speaker 8: We've seen a House of the Dragon, We've seen Game

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Speaker 8: of Throns, we've seen Showgun, but we've never seen the

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Speaker 8: history of the colonialization and the unification of the Hawaiian Islands.

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Speaker 8: That alone makes this very distinct. The setting is very specific,

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Speaker 8: the language, the people, the culture. It's just very different,

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Speaker 8: and that's why I really enjoyed it.

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Speaker 1: It's an incredibly complex history, and because of where Hawaii sits,

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Speaker 1: it's crossroads of the world for a lot of people.

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Speaker 1: You watch so much television, I would imagine that it

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Speaker 1: takes quite a bit for a story to really grab

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Speaker 1: you for sure.

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Speaker 8: The creator of this show, I should say, is Jason Mamala.

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Speaker 8: He created it with his partner. His name is Jason

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Speaker 8: Pie Sabbath, and I hope that I'm pronouncing that correctly.

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Speaker 8: But this is his culture, this is his history. With

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Speaker 8: a ten year endeavor for both of them, and you

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Speaker 8: can tell this is set in the eighteenth century in Hawaii.

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Speaker 8: There's four different islands that are separate at this point

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Speaker 8: in time before the Unifase, and you can see all

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Speaker 8: of the history and the research and the details from

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Speaker 8: the water droplets on the waves of the specific ocean

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Speaker 8: to the costuming that they're they're talking in Hawaiian for

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Speaker 8: the majority of this nine episode series, and I really

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Speaker 8: respect the craft of it.

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Speaker 1: As always with period pieces, they make you reflect on

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Speaker 1: the present day and how much has changed and how

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Speaker 1: much has not. It sounds to me like you're saying

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Speaker 1: that you can see the money on the screen.

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Speaker 8: Yes, absolutely, it's rumored to be several hundred millions of

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Speaker 8: dollars for this show to be made. It's one season,

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Speaker 8: nine episodes. I don't believe it's been already renewed. But

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Speaker 8: you could see everything that happens in this series. Again,

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Speaker 8: it's not something where the creators are going to hold

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Speaker 8: your hand as a viewer. You're going to have to

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Speaker 8: do the work. And I really respect TV shows like

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Speaker 8: that because I feel like sometimes Hollywood thinks, say, you know,

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Speaker 8: if we're not that smarter, we don't really care that much.

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Speaker 8: If you're willing to stick this series out, it's going

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Speaker 8: to pay offer you. But you're going to be pushed

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Speaker 8: in somewhere you've never been before and it's going to

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Speaker 8: take you a minute to get your bearings. So I

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Speaker 8: want viewers to remember that. So it's something where you're

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Speaker 8: gonna have to stick with it and it will pay off.

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Speaker 1: For you for sure. We've seen Jason Momo this summer

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Speaker 1: in the Minecraft movie. We've seen him in action movies,

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Speaker 1: We've seen him in Game of Thrones, we've seen him

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Speaker 1: in comedies. What stands out to you about his performance

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Speaker 1: for this project?

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Speaker 8: So not only is he directing episodes of writing, he

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Speaker 8: is the star of this series. He plays a warrior,

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Speaker 8: a Maui warrior named Kayana, and essentially he doesn't want

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Speaker 8: to be fined. He's very good at his craft, but

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Speaker 8: he doesn't want to be doing this. But he's sort

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Speaker 8: of lured into these wars and he's very stoic. He's

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Speaker 8: not someone who is jovial as we see Jason Momo

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Speaker 8: in real life. I think it's a really strong performance

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Speaker 8: and the amount of work that it probably took for

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Speaker 8: him to be at the center of the story and

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Speaker 8: being a creator and directing and writing. He's wearing many

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Speaker 8: hats and he does it Lee.

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Speaker 1: I think he's been a busy guy with a whole

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Speaker 1: lot of other things at the same time. My last

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Speaker 1: question for you, Aramde, is this the kind of show

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Speaker 1: that you, as a viewer like to binge or is

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Speaker 1: this something you want to take you know, one hour

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Speaker 1: or so at a time.

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Speaker 8: This is not a binge. I had to binge it

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Speaker 8: because I had to get my review out, but I

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Speaker 8: would not recommend binging it. Both episodes will be out

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Speaker 8: the first week, but after that they're coming one at

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Speaker 8: a time, and I think that's what the viewers need.

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Speaker 8: It is not something you want to watch in nine hours,

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Speaker 8: because you won't. It's a lot. It's a violent show,

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Speaker 8: so that can be very heavy. But also it's going

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Speaker 8: to take some work to get into the shows. You

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Speaker 8: want to take your time well, Aramade, it's a tough

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Speaker 8: job and we're glad you do it. Thank you for

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Speaker 8: telling us about Chief of War.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. As we close out today's episode, here are

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Speaker 1: a few things we're watching for. Of course, we're on

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Speaker 1: high alert for the sky Dance paramount closing on Thursday,

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Speaker 1: we have Disney earnings. On Wednesday, we'll probably hear more

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Speaker 1: about the ESPN standalone launch. Variety will be extra busy

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Speaker 1: this week. Our Power of Young Hollywood issue publishes Wednesday.

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Speaker 1: We salute Tyler, sam Nevola and Finnwolfard as our stars

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Speaker 1: to Watch. This issue also includes our new Leader's List

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Speaker 1: of rising Star executives and the ever popular ten Assistants

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Speaker 1: to Watch. On Thursday, we'll have our Power of Young

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Speaker 1: Hollywood event in Los Angeles to salute these fine folks. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: overseas on Wednesday, we'll publish the first of our four

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Speaker 1: digital daily newsletters out of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.

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Speaker 1: On Friday, will be all over the Edinburgh International Film

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Speaker 1: Festival in Scotland, and will put out another digital daily

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Speaker 1: before we go. Congrats to Anne Marie mcguintey. She's joined

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Speaker 1: Dan Leavey's Not a Real production company in the very

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Speaker 1: real job as head of Film and Television. She had

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Speaker 1: been VP of Scripted Programming at Ava du Verney's Array

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Speaker 1: film Works. Thanks for listening. This episode was written and

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Speaker 1: reported by me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Rebecca Rubin

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Speaker 1: and aramade To Nuboo. It was edited by Aaron Greenwald

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Speaker 1: Stick's nixt hick Picks. Please leave us a review at

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Speaker 1: the podcast platform of your choice, and don't forget to

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Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety.

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Speaker 2: Something that struck me funny is that the people who

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Speaker 2: came out to see Naked Gun was almost entirely older

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Speaker 2: white men. Opening weekend crowds were sixty two percent mail,

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Speaker 2: fifty percent was over the age of thirty five, and

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Speaker 2: then seventy percent were white. They did not capture a

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Speaker 2: broad audience, but the older white men really turned out

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Speaker 2: in force.