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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, November twenty fourth,

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

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

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

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

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Speaker 1: we'll talk with Ridy's Rebecca Rubin about the big box

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Speaker 1: office hall for Wicked For Good. She details the risky

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Speaker 1: decision that Universal Pictures took to make a Wicked a

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Speaker 1: two part release one year apart, it has paid off.

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Speaker 1: And then Jennifer Moz gives us a mood report at

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Speaker 1: HBO after she spent some quality time with Casey Bloyse

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Speaker 1: and his team. But before we get to that, here

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

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Speaker 1: need to know. Billie Eilish has set the date for

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Speaker 1: her hit Me Hard and Soft Concert movie release. It's

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Speaker 1: a three D extravaganza co directed by James Cameron. It's

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Speaker 1: coming to theaters via Paramount Pictures on March twentieth. There

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Speaker 1: are two significant passings to note this morning. German character

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Speaker 1: actor Udo Keir died on Sunday at age eighty one.

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Speaker 1: He was a fixture in Palm Springs in his later years.

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Speaker 1: And Jimmy Cliff, the incredible musician who helped to find

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Speaker 1: reggae in the sixties and seventies. He's known for the

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Speaker 1: hit The Harder They Come, and for starring in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two movie of the same name. He was

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Speaker 1: also eighty one. My favorite Jimmy Cliff song is an

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Speaker 1: upbeat number called Better Days Are Coming. Here's a clip

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Speaker 1: in tribute to an incredible artist who was the pride

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Speaker 1: of Jamaica's upcoming by.

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Speaker 2: Don't You Get Now?

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Speaker 1: Don't you Know Now? It's time for conversations with fiddy

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Speaker 1: journalists about news and trends and show business. If it's Monday,

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Speaker 1: we're talking box office with Rebecca Rubin. There's no hunting

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Speaker 1: around for a lead. This weekend, Wicked for Good did

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Speaker 1: its job and brought traffic back to the multiplexes. Rebecca Rubin, thanks.

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Speaker 3: For joining me, Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: By the time that we got to the weekend, I

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Speaker 1: know you from your tracking and your conversations. You knew

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Speaker 1: it was just going to be a matter of how

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Speaker 1: big this movie was going to open. Rebecca was in

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Speaker 1: line with your expectations.

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Speaker 3: There was no doubt that Wicked for Good was going

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Speaker 3: to be huge. The question was just where that final

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Speaker 3: number was going to end up. It's a opening weekend.

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Speaker 3: We made one hundred and fifty million dollars in North

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Speaker 3: America and two hundred and twenty six million dollars globally,

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Speaker 3: so by that account, it is officially the biggest domestic

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Speaker 3: and global opening for a Broadway adaptation, beating the record

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Speaker 3: set by the first half of Wicked, which came out

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Speaker 3: a year ago, a new mark for the main Stem

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Speaker 3: that is a very big international hall. And from what

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Speaker 3: I understand, Universal was really focused on opening big international

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Speaker 3: a ray because the first film was pretty much big everywhere,

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Speaker 3: but it over indexed heavily in North America, where around

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Speaker 3: sixty five percent of ticket sales came from. And that's

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Speaker 3: partially because Wicked is more popular in the States and

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Speaker 3: it's not as recognizable a property overseas, and so far

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Speaker 3: it's had a bigger debut overseas, which is pretty common

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Speaker 3: for now that it's an established property. But it's definitely

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Speaker 3: a good sign that interest there has grown since the

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Speaker 3: first film.

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Speaker 1: One hundred and fifty million dollars domestic just hands down,

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Speaker 1: people who went to the movies went to see Wicked

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Speaker 1: for good. This was just a four quadrant smash.

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Speaker 3: When you get to these numbers, one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 3: million dollars domestically and over two hundred million dollars globally,

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Speaker 3: it is resonating mostly everywhere. But what stood out to

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Speaker 3: me actually was the two parts of it all. A

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Speaker 3: few years ago, when Universal announced that they were going

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Speaker 3: to split Wicked into two parts, a lot of people,

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Speaker 3: myself included, were very skeptical about what that decision would

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Speaker 3: look like because it's already risky to split a movie

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Speaker 3: into two, and musicals are a very polarizing genre, and

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Speaker 3: most of the recent musicals a lot were made by Universal.

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Speaker 3: Katz is one dear Evan Hansen. These movies were not

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Speaker 3: connecting with a wider audience, and so it was a

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Speaker 3: huge gamble in Universal's part to not just need one

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Speaker 3: big budget musical to succeed, but two to succeed a

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Speaker 3: year apart, and so it's very encouraging now to see

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Speaker 3: that at least Financially speaking, it feels like that decision

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Speaker 3: has paid off because they have another huge opening on

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Speaker 3: their hands.

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Speaker 1: The fact that it was this two parter movie tied

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Speaker 1: to this beloved musical did make it feel more like

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Speaker 1: a movie going event, which, as you've talked about, is

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Speaker 1: something that studios really need to think about to give

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Speaker 1: people that motivation. Large format screens were they a big

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Speaker 1: factor in driving box office for Wicked for Good?

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Speaker 3: Yes, we have continued to see these premium large formats.

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Speaker 3: IMAX included counting for a big portion of box office,

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Speaker 3: and that was no exception here with Wicked for Good. Globally,

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Speaker 3: just an IMAX, the movie made twenty five million dollars

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Speaker 3: and that's not including the Dolby screens or four DX.

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Speaker 3: There were some very funny videos on social media on

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Speaker 3: TikTok of people who unknowingly went to four DX screenings

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Speaker 3: and saw Alphabus swooping in with her broom and they

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Speaker 3: were quite startled. But audiences are looking for experiences like

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Speaker 3: that that you're not getting in your TV screens at home,

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Speaker 3: and so this is just another example of a movie

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Speaker 3: that people are wanting to see in these different formats.

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Speaker 1: Did anybody else to try to open anything as counter

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Speaker 1: programming to Wicked for Good.

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Speaker 3: There were two new releases that did not quite make

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Speaker 3: a dent on box office charts. One of them was

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Speaker 3: Searchlight's Rental Family, which is a comedic drama that stars

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Speaker 3: Brendan Fraser and it's his first big role post his

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Speaker 3: Oscar win in the Whale, and it opened in fifth place.

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Speaker 3: It made three million dollars from roughly two thousand North

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Speaker 3: American theaters and so not the biggest start. But something

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Speaker 3: to know is that reviews and audience scores were really positive.

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Speaker 3: It has in eighty six percent on Around Tomatoes and

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Speaker 3: it goten a cinemas score or from moviegoers. This is

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Speaker 3: the time of year where movies tend to leg out

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Speaker 3: if audiences are actually responding to them.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca, what would you consider to be good for a

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Speaker 1: hold next weekend domestically for Wicked for Good?

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Speaker 3: Well, the Thanksgiving holidays coming up, and so that always

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Speaker 3: kind of skews the metrics because it's a very popular

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Speaker 3: time to go. So what we might typically see is

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Speaker 3: like a fifty percent hold is going to be much

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Speaker 3: stronger this weekend as families are together for the holidays,

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Speaker 3: kids are out of school, and so I think it'll

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Speaker 3: be much bigger of a weekend than it would be

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Speaker 3: if it was not around this Thanksgiving holiday. But that

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Speaker 3: is actually part of the reason why Universal chose to

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Speaker 3: release the movie around Thanksgiving, because they're getting two bites

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Speaker 3: of an apple here. And they did the same thing

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Speaker 3: with the first Wicked, which was having it open the

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Speaker 3: week before Thanksgiving, so they have a huge weekend before Thanksgiving,

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Speaker 3: and then they have another huge weekend during Thanksgiving. I

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Speaker 3: think the first movie dropped maybe fifty percent, which is

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Speaker 3: pretty good because it had such a big opening.

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Speaker 1: And given where they start, that's pretty good hol approach.

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Speaker 3: And so we're gonna see a similar matchup. Actually, last

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Speaker 3: Thanksgiving to this Thanksgiving, there was Wicked, and then there

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Speaker 3: was a big animated sequel from Disney. Last year it

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Speaker 3: was Moana two, which was a massive hit and ended

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Speaker 3: up making over a billion dollars. This year is Utopia two,

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Speaker 3: and again it's primed to be another huge hit for

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Speaker 3: Disney Animation, and so it really shows that if there

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Speaker 3: are two movies that people want to see, they can

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Speaker 3: both succeed. We already have a lot to look out

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Speaker 3: for next week. As always, Rebecca Thank you for telling

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Speaker 3: us what's going on at the turnstiles. Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: And now let's get a temperature check on HBO from

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Speaker 1: Jennifer Mobs, who attended last week's HBO programming presentation in

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Speaker 1: New York. HBO has a packed slate for twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: They'll be busy with high profile originals rolling out across

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Speaker 1: the year. The best part of these press events are

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Speaker 1: not the fire hose of facts and figures and tidbits.

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Speaker 1: It's the chance to read the body language and assess

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Speaker 1: the mood of leaders. HBO's programming presentation was held in

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Speaker 1: New York at the company's headquarters in Hudson Yards, and

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Speaker 1: it happened to fall on the same day that CEO

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Speaker 1: David Zaslov and his team gathered elsewhere in the building

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Speaker 1: to consider bids for selling the company. You can't make

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Speaker 1: this stuff up, Jennifer Moz, Thank you very much for

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Speaker 1: joining me. Happy to be back. You were down there

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Speaker 1: on Thursday at Hudson Yards as Casey Bloy's HBO's fearless

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Speaker 1: Leader met the press and gave a presentation about what's

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Speaker 1: coming for HBO. We love those kind of presentations. Oh

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Speaker 1: you always get a lot of news, but you also

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Speaker 1: get a chance to take the temperature at HBO. What

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Speaker 1: was the mood? How did you read the bodyline wuage

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Speaker 1: of the folks at HBO right now?

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Speaker 2: And it was definitely a light atmosphere that people were

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Speaker 2: in good spirits. And Casey opened with a joke about

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Speaker 2: I brought you here today to tell you who's going

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Speaker 2: to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, and so you know, he

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Speaker 2: definitely acknowledged this was the exact day that the bids

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Speaker 2: were due for parent company Warner Brothers Discovery. And he's like,

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Speaker 2: I'm here to focus on HBO, and so he did.

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Speaker 2: There was a Q and a portion at the end.

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Speaker 2: So he did field our questions about what that looks like.

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Speaker 2: He answered very specifically, is he worried about his job?

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Speaker 2: Is he worried about the HBO brand? He said no,

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Speaker 2: and he said no, and he said he's been through

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Speaker 2: this enough times. And he told his staff this the

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Speaker 2: other day in a town hall, which is just we

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Speaker 2: have to keep focusing on making good programming and that's

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Speaker 2: all we can do.

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Speaker 1: We have no control over this.

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Speaker 2: And he made the point, like I said, because Casey's

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Speaker 2: been through this several times that this could take a

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Speaker 2: year to a year and a half and then closing

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Speaker 2: time as well. So like he understands that this cannot

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Speaker 2: impact them every day moving forward, they have to keep

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Speaker 2: doing what they're doing, and what they're doing is they

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Speaker 2: showed us a lot of really good content that's coming

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Speaker 2: out next year. This presentation was held at their headquarters

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Speaker 2: in Hudson Yards. But where was it An auditorium, a

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Speaker 2: conference room, So we were on the third floor and

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Speaker 2: we were in a screening room. It was probably several

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Speaker 2: dozen journalists and then HBO executives gotcha.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 1: While that was happening, also at Hudson Yards, David Zaslov

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Speaker 1: and his top lieutenants, most of them named Bruce or David,

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Speaker 1: were there and they were in fact receiving the bids

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Speaker 1: that I understand mostly came in electronically. So in terms

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Speaker 1: of the programming, what stood out to you.

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Speaker 2: Say us just like a full roadmap, which is very

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Speaker 2: impressive because I think the past few years when they've

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Speaker 2: done something like this, they have a few things they're

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Speaker 2: really proud of, have a general idea of what's coming.

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Speaker 2: This is a really stacked year coming up, and it's

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Speaker 2: just one thing after another. So there will be the

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Speaker 2: new season House of the Dragon coming out in the summer.

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Speaker 2: I did Some Kingdoms that's the prequel for Game of

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Speaker 2: Thrones that's coming out in January, and both those shows

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Speaker 2: were renewed that day. They wanted to make a big,

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Speaker 2: splashy announcement. They renewed those, They renewed Tim Robinson's The

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Speaker 2: Chair Company, they renewed I Love La, And then in

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Speaker 2: the footage they showed us we got first looks at

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Speaker 2: a whole bunch of shows coming up, not the new

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Speaker 2: Harry Potter show yet, because they're still filming that. Casey

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Speaker 2: did talk about it a little bit and that the

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Speaker 2: plan there is also to shoot those seasons as close

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Speaker 2: together as possible to get ahead of those kids getting

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Speaker 2: too big for the parts. We got to see Look

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Speaker 2: at Lanterns, the Greg Burlanty and Greenlantern show that has

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Speaker 2: been at works for a while. So one of the

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Speaker 2: interesting things was seeing so many shows that we've been

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Speaker 2: writing about for years now, some of these pre covid

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Speaker 2: that have taken this long to come to fruition.

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Speaker 1: I have to ask you, you are the biggest Tim

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Speaker 1: Robinson fan I know. How does the Chair Company. How

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Speaker 1: does this show stack up in his cannon. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: you're happy that it's renewed. It's really good. Now I'm

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Speaker 1: partial too, I think you should leave.

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Speaker 2: Similar kind of humor, different format, obviously, so I want

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Speaker 2: to make sure hearing that it's renewed, very exciting, Worried

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Speaker 2: we won't get more. I think you should leave if

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Speaker 2: he's busy on Chair Company. But it's it's really good.

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Speaker 2: It's top tier, Tim Robinson.

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Speaker 1: As you noted in your story, this time around they

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Speaker 1: are very drama heavy, but this time around they are

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Speaker 1: putting an emphasis on comedy, trying to restock the larder

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Speaker 1: there and the interesting too. Rachel Senna is the star

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Speaker 1: and creator of I Love La. Seems the epitome of

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six talent, somebody who birthed her career on

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Speaker 1: social media and seems to be like just She's hit

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Speaker 1: the pop culture radar all of a sudden in the

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Speaker 1: last six months in a way, and she seemed very

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Speaker 1: adept at keeping herself in the conversation.

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Speaker 2: She did to the point where they brought her. Actually,

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Speaker 2: I forgot about this part. She was in a brief

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Speaker 2: Q and A in the middle of it. They brought

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Speaker 2: her out and interviewed her for us up front, and

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Speaker 2: it was a little time for them to.

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Speaker 1: Talk about it.

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Speaker 2: She was very excited, obviously, and it was a cool

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Speaker 2: thing to see them feature her and feel like this

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Speaker 2: is an important thing to devote time to.

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Speaker 1: Every generation of Bicoastal twenty somethings gets its representative series

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Speaker 1: on HBO. Let me ask you, was there much discussion

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Speaker 1: of the HBO Max half of the house. Actually, a good.

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Speaker 2: Portion was devoted to that because one thing that Casey

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Speaker 2: brought up, and I know it's something that he was

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Speaker 2: also transparent about, like, we haven't actually answered this question

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Speaker 2: in a definitive way, which is what is a Max

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Speaker 2: Original Now. He's answered it many times over the years,

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Speaker 2: but this time he was like, you know, it's been

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Speaker 2: nebulous and I haven't had a great answer in The

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Speaker 2: answer now is very much the pit. The pit is

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Speaker 2: what a Max original is and should be moving forward.

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Speaker 1: A pit bagged an upset Emmy Drama series win for

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Speaker 1: the company.

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Speaker 2: Yes, there was a slide that had the number of

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Speaker 2: Emmys that they had up there, so he pointed to

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Speaker 2: that as an example. He wants Max originals to be

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Speaker 2: larger episode counts to come out every year. They're very

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Speaker 2: proud of the pack that Pitt is coming back in January,

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Speaker 2: and that is such an interesting We're back to TV, right,

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Speaker 2: We're back to having it sounds like network television. Yes,

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Speaker 2: so that's you know, probably the best answer. Max's network television.

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Speaker 2: That's what it's going to be moving forward. They want

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Speaker 2: to have more episodes, They wanted to be procedural, they

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Speaker 2: wanted to be coming out at consistent pace so that

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Speaker 2: fans know, and obviously that also helps reduce churn.

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Speaker 1: And they love the pits so much. They're about to

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Speaker 1: trot it out on TNT.

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Speaker 2: Casey talked about that a little bit in terms of

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Speaker 2: bringing in a new audience.

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Speaker 1: And then also you.

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Speaker 2: Can't overstate the power of having those linear networks for

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Speaker 2: stuff like that. They're like, yeah, let's try it. We'll

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Speaker 2: see what happens. We've seen this with Hulu and ABC

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Speaker 2: are experimenting more along those lines. It seems like such

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Speaker 2: a natural decision. And Hello, windows historically have been very

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Speaker 2: important to the whole making money part with contents, so

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Speaker 2: they're rediscovering windows. So there's new hope in Mudville. You say,

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Speaker 2: that they didn't show any Harry Potter, But what did

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Speaker 2: they say? I'm sure everybody was hanging on every word. Yes,

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Speaker 2: they are filming right now. They've released a few first

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Speaker 2: look images. We know what Harry looks like, we know

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Speaker 2: what Hagrid looks like. But Casey did give an update,

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Speaker 2: which is that they're in production on season one, but

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Speaker 2: they're also writing season two and they are working through

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Speaker 2: for looking at a max format. Totally different shows, but

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Speaker 2: they clearly want it to release in every year. They're

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Speaker 2: gonna have a new season out and they're doing it

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Speaker 2: this way. So he was like, I don't see it

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Speaker 2: being a world in which we finish filming season one

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Speaker 2: on Friday and start season two on Monday. There'll be

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Speaker 2: a break, but they're definitely prioritizing getting back in there

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Speaker 2: as soon as possible. I see this show probably filming

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Speaker 2: year round for several years. It's a huge undertaking, and

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Speaker 2: not like the fans are obsessive or anything. Jenny, I

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Speaker 2: am so glad that we can summon team coverage for

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Speaker 2: these kinds of things on both coasts and many other locales.

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Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate your time and your reporting. Thank you.

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

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Speaker 1: we're watching for. Variety's one hundred Best Comedies of All

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Speaker 1: Time list is out today. We'll hear more about that

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Speaker 1: from the people who assembled it. Later this week. ESPN

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Speaker 1: will pay tribute to its late anchor Stuart Scott with

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Speaker 1: a thirty for thirty documentary Boo Yah, A Portrait of

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Speaker 1: Stuart Scott Premier's December tenth. Scott died in twenty fifteen

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Speaker 1: at the age of forty nine. And finally, we have

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Speaker 1: established a new email address to receive feedback from listeners

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Speaker 1: listeners on what you enjoy, what you don't enjoy, and

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Speaker 1: us a line at podcasts at Variety dot com. That's

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Speaker 1: podcasts at Variety dot com before we go. Congrats to

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Speaker 1: marro Brokakiel, the veteran series creator and showrunner, received the

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Speaker 1: Norman Lear Achievement honor at the Producer's Guild Awards on

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Speaker 1: February twenty eighth, I've had the pleasure of knowing and

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Speaker 1: covering Mara Brokakiel for many years. Truly, nobody deserves this

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Speaker 1: accolade more. 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 Jennifer Mobs. Stick Snacks, hig Picks. Please leave us

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

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