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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, March second, twenty

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

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

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Speaker 1: LA He's in New York, and Briety 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: in our box office segment, we'll hear from Variety's Rebecca

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Speaker 1: Rubin on how the weekend Roared Screams seven delivered the

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Speaker 1: franchise's best ever opening. Rebecca explains why, and then we're

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Speaker 1: joined for analysis of the Warner Brothers Discovery drama by

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Speaker 1: Riley Steele, Associate professor at Columbia Law School. He studies

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Speaker 1: the intersection of business law and politics, and he's got

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Speaker 1: a lot to look at here. But before we get

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

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Speaker 1: morning that you need to know. Paramount's guidance CEO David

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Speaker 1: Ellison held a conference call with Wall Street analysts early

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Speaker 1: this morning. He talked through the terms of the merger

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Speaker 1: agreement with Warner Brothers Discovery that Paramount announced on Thursday.

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Speaker 1: Ellison didn't have much insight into how the combined company

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Speaker 1: will be structured. The fate of HBO and how it

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Speaker 1: will be positioned is particularly murky. One thing that is

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Speaker 1: clear and can be quantified is the debt load that

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Speaker 1: Paramount will shoulder should the transaction be completed. It's seventy

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Speaker 1: nine billion, and that is backed by the personal wealth

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Speaker 1: of David Ellison's father, Larry Ellison. Paramount this morning issued

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Speaker 1: a two hundred and sixty six page Securities in Exchange

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Speaker 1: Commission filing with all the fine print on the deal.

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Speaker 1: The phrase Ellison Guarantee appears in the document one hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty times. Cinnaspace Studios is betting on production in

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles rebounding Today, the Canadian operator of sound stages

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Speaker 1: opens Cinnispace Studio Los Angeles in Woodland Hills. It's a

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Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty thousand square foot sound stage complex

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Speaker 1: with six stages. It's in the old Warner Center Facility,

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Markaren Bass is expected to attend the opening

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Speaker 1: event for Cennis based Studios Los Angeles this morning. What

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Speaker 1: a weekend it was for events. The Producer's Guild Award,

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Speaker 1: the Actors' Awards, the NAACP Image Awards, the Ace Eddy Awards,

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Speaker 1: the Art Director's Guild Awards. The Music Supervisor's Guild handed

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Speaker 1: out awards this past weekend. But there's one less event

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Speaker 1: in the run up to the Oscars on March fifteenth.

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Speaker 1: The Writers Guild America West has canceled its awards ceremony

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Speaker 1: that had been scheduled for March eighth because so many

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Speaker 1: of the union's employees are on strike. But the show

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Speaker 1: does go on for the WJA East in New York

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Speaker 1: on the same night. All of these stories and so

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Speaker 1: much more can be found on Variety dot com right

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Speaker 1: now and now it's time for conversations with Friday journalists

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

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Speaker 1: we're talking box office with Rebecca Rubin, Variety Senior Film

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Speaker 1: and Media reporter. She unpacks how Paramount Scream seven delivered

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Speaker 1: a jolt to the box office in the best way.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca Rubin, thank you for joining me to talk about

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Speaker 1: the box office. You have some big numbers and some

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Speaker 1: really interesting hooks to investigate this weekend.

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Speaker 2: Yes, this weekend was the opening of Scream seven, and

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Speaker 2: it actually ended up cementing a franchise record with sixty

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Speaker 2: four million dollars domestically and thirty three million dollars overseas,

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Speaker 2: for a global tally of ninety seven million, and for

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Speaker 2: a franchise that is thirty years old, which it's hard

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Speaker 2: to believe, but yes, the first movie came out in

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety six. To be making records at this point

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Speaker 2: is really significant.

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Speaker 1: Scream also did pretty well internationally, that you noted in

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Speaker 1: your story was unusual for horror. Sometimes it just doesn't travel.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the whole opening weekend number really speaks

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Speaker 2: to Paramount and Spyglass's success in reviving this franchise, which

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Speaker 2: they did a few years ago with the Scream reboot.

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Speaker 2: There was then Scream six in twenty twenty three, and

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Speaker 2: that movie Nev Campbell sat out. She didn't return because

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Speaker 2: of a salary dispute, and so they were able to

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Speaker 2: have actually with the seventh movie, a really great marketing.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure at the time they were not thrilled that

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Speaker 2: Nev Campbell wasn't going to be in the sixth film,

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Speaker 2: but it ended up working in their favor because they

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Speaker 2: got to say in all of the marketing materials that

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Speaker 2: Nev Campbell is back, this movie is about now, her

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Speaker 2: daughter is the same age as she was in the

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Speaker 2: first film, and it got to be this really full

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Speaker 2: circle promotional campaign. And I think that nostalgia and then

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Speaker 2: just in general the fact that horror has been super

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Speaker 2: popular and there hasn't really been a slasher film in

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Speaker 2: theaters in quite some time. Another factor it is film

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Speaker 2: faced several setbacks before it did finally get to theaters.

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Speaker 2: And I'm sure people will remember that Melissa Barrera, who

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Speaker 2: starred in the twenty and twenty two Scream and then

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Speaker 2: the sixth movie as well, she was fired from the

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Speaker 2: franchise over social media posts that Spyglass viewed as anti semitic.

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Speaker 2: Around the same time, Jenna Ortega, who also starred in

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Speaker 2: the prior to films, announced that she wasn't going to

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Speaker 2: be coming back. Then, on top of that, the director

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Speaker 2: Christopher Landen departed the project. All of this basically prompted

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Speaker 2: a very vocal backlash from fans. At the premiere last

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Speaker 2: week in Los Angeles, there were protests from people saying

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Speaker 2: that that horror fans should boycott the film, and that

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Speaker 2: did not end up translating, because of course Scream seven

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Speaker 2: had this record opening weekend, but it's interesting to see

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Speaker 2: sometimes how these online conversations do or do not translate

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Speaker 2: to the box office.

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Speaker 1: Is just more and more true that in our world,

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Speaker 1: all roads politics, society, culture, legal, all roads lead through

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Speaker 1: media and entertainment, and this domestic turnout in particular was strong.

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Speaker 1: Was there anything that else that Paramount did right in

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Speaker 1: the marketing or distribution of Scream seven that you think

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Speaker 1: accounted for this turnout?

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Speaker 2: One thing that was interesting is they actually turned to

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Speaker 2: premium formats, which is something we talk about a lot,

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Speaker 2: and it's not really that popular for horror as a genre.

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Speaker 2: It tends to fare better with big action epics and

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Speaker 2: things in that genre. And this is the first screen

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Speaker 2: movie that has ever played in imax and premium large formats.

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Speaker 2: From Imax to SCREENX to Dolby three D, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: Those formats contributed forty percent of the global grosses, and

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Speaker 2: so it's just really attestament to the fact that people

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Speaker 2: are willing to pay more for these premium screens. They

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Speaker 2: cost more than the average auditorium, but when it's something

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Speaker 2: that audiences want to see, they are willing to spend

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Speaker 2: the extra money. And I think it's really interesting to

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Speaker 2: note because so much of the conversation around box office

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Speaker 2: is people saying that tickets are too expensive, but it

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Speaker 2: really just depends on the property, and when there's something

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Speaker 2: that audiences want to see, they're willing to spend the money.

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Speaker 1: So I'm guessing also the industry overall is really happy

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Speaker 1: to see foot traffic.

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Speaker 2: Another thing that really worked for this film was the

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Speaker 2: late February early March release date because there wasn't a

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Speaker 2: lot in theaters. And something that we've actually seen the

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Speaker 2: last few years is this trend where box office attendance

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Speaker 2: in January and February has been really slow, and then

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Speaker 2: there's just one movie that everybody goes to see at once,

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Speaker 2: and that proved to be this weekend Scream seven, because

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Speaker 2: it is the biggest opening of the year. The year

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Speaker 2: is early, there will be other things that surpass it,

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Speaker 2: but to have this big of an opening weekend, it's

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Speaker 2: by far the largest turnout for the year, and so

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Speaker 2: I think it just benefited from a lot of pent

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Speaker 2: up demand. And the other movies that are still holding

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Speaker 2: on and are in the top five are from very

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Speaker 2: different genres. The number two film was Goat, which is

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Speaker 2: the Sony animated film, and it is chugging along. It

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Speaker 2: has legs as Sony was hopeful, we're legged and otherwise exactly,

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Speaker 2: and ticket sales were only down twenty nine percent from

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Speaker 2: the prior weekend, which is really great. And that film

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Speaker 2: has made around seventy four million domestically and about one

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Speaker 2: hundred and thirty million globally so far. And then right

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Speaker 2: behind that on charts was Wuthering Heights, which had a

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Speaker 2: bigger drop. It dropped about fifty percent and it made

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Speaker 2: around six point five million for the weekend, and that

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Speaker 2: brings its total to just above seventy million domestically, and

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Speaker 2: it's actually doing much better overseas. It's made one hundred

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Speaker 2: and nineteen million there, which is pushing its tally right

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Speaker 2: around the two hundred million dollar mark. And so at

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Speaker 2: this point that that counts now as a win for

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Speaker 2: Warner Brothers. Yet another win for them, because the budget

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Speaker 2: was around eighty million dollars and the break even number

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Speaker 2: was roughly one hundred and seventy million worldwide, And so

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Speaker 2: Warner Brothers continues its exceptional streak.

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Speaker 1: You just can't script these things. You know, Paramount and

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Speaker 1: Warner Brothers. Even in the midst of the craziest of turmoil,

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Speaker 1: the business goes on well, Rebecca, as ever, we so

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Speaker 1: appreciate you watching the turnstiles and joining us. We'll be

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Speaker 1: looking forward to the rev up of box office attendants

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Speaker 1: that would appear to be starting now. Thank you for

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Speaker 1: having me, And now we turn to Riley Steele, an

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Speaker 1: associate professor at Columbia Law School. Steele's area of study

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Speaker 1: is how business and politics interact. The drama that has

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Speaker 1: engulfed Warner Brothers Discovery has become quite a research project

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Speaker 1: for him. Riley Steele, Associate professor at Columbia Law School,

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining me.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. Cynthia, delighted to be here.

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Speaker 1: You really focus on the intersection of business law and politics,

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Speaker 1: and I know that you have followed with great interest

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Speaker 1: the saga of Warner Brothers Discovery and the tug of

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Speaker 1: war that it's been in between Netflix and Paramount's guidance.

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Speaker 1: What have you observed about what Warner Brothers Discovery tells

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Speaker 1: us about where business law and politics stand in the

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Speaker 1: United States in twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 4: So I think What this saga crystallizes for me most

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Speaker 4: is the stark political nature of enforcement today in the

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Speaker 4: antitrust arena, but also in other arenas. And we've seen this,

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Speaker 4: I think in other actions the Trump administration has taken

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Speaker 4: that the DOJ is taken not just an antitrust but

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Speaker 4: let's say criminal enforcement as well. I spend a lot

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Speaker 4: of my time in grad school on my dissertation trying

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Speaker 4: to crunch all the numbers to figure out how this

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Speaker 4: kind of stuff happens behind the scenes, trying to read

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Speaker 4: the tea leaves to see how do businesses try to

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Speaker 4: use politics to kind of influence enforcement of the law.

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Speaker 5: But right now it's all out in the open. You

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Speaker 5: don't have to crunch the numbers to see. You can

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Speaker 5: just look at what the next truth on truth social is,

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Speaker 5: or the next tweet or post on X and you

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Speaker 5: see this quite starkly now, how these political considerations that

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Speaker 5: are not contained in the letter of the law are

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Speaker 5: creating a big.

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Speaker 3: Push and pull on the shape of enforcement.

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Speaker 1: Paramount skuide Dance David Ellison was so quick to play

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Speaker 1: the political card of we have the connections that we'll

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Speaker 1: get this deal done. Can you think of an analogous

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Speaker 1: situation where you had somebody just so nakedly playing that

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Speaker 1: in the negotiations.

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Speaker 4: I cannot think of any recent examples that are quite

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Speaker 4: as overt as this, where where they sort of put

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Speaker 4: this on public display in the same way in a

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Speaker 4: bidding war. There are other examples in which these sorts

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Speaker 4: of political considerations I think have had a real influence

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Speaker 4: on the sort of a trajectory of a deal. But

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Speaker 4: I think this is taking it to the next level. There.

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Speaker 4: Even before this merger, Roger Alford, who was a top

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Speaker 4: anti trust official political pointee in this Trump administration, was

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Speaker 4: kind of pushed out because he was objecting to certain

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Speaker 4: sort of way that anti trust enforcement is being conducted,

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Speaker 4: and he later said this was totally corrupt, that is

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Speaker 4: his word, corrupt, due to the influence of lobbyists on

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Speaker 4: anti trust enforcement.

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Speaker 3: He called it, quote the rule of lobbyists.

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Speaker 4: So that is not the sort of general political influence

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Speaker 4: tactics lobbying instead of just seeking to use your lawyers

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Speaker 4: and go through the traditional legal channels is not new

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Speaker 4: at this merger, but I think the sort of public

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Speaker 4: display of it is taking it to the next level.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Trump's been very articulate about what he sees

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Speaker 1: is the shortcomings of media, what he sees as the

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Speaker 1: leftward tilt of general entertainment, talk shows, variety shows. What

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Speaker 1: is the end game here? With all of the focus

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Speaker 1: on putting pressure on big media companies from Trump and

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Speaker 1: related officials, they really want to change the fabric of

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Speaker 1: American television.

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Speaker 3: I think President Trump wants to silence dessent CNN.

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Speaker 4: He has long had major problems with because it has

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Speaker 4: been critical of him and his administration, and this provides

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Speaker 4: an opportunity to try to get imposed basically conditions on

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Speaker 4: the acquirer, even if it's not explicit in the actual

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Speaker 4: conditions of whatever agreement.

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Speaker 3: They might and THEDOJ memo.

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Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, but the administration has so many levers they

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Speaker 4: can push on businesses that you could potentially find another lever,

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Speaker 4: but they try to impose conditions that you better make

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Speaker 4: real changes with CNN if you want to have my blessing.

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Speaker 4: And I think that a paramounts Guidance's behavior with CBS

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Speaker 4: News reflects that they were trying to engage in some

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Speaker 4: sort of anticipatory compliance in that way, appointing Barry Wise

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Speaker 4: to CBS News sixty Minutes episode. More recently the stuff

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Speaker 4: with the Laite Show and tallerco with CBS without actually

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Speaker 4: having a direct instruction from the administration to pull the

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Speaker 4: interview engage in an active anticipatory compliance there.

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Speaker 1: When you mentioned anticipatory compliance, the name that comes to mind,

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Speaker 1: of course, is our very crusading FCC chairman, Brendan Carr.

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Speaker 1: I can't think of an FCC chair that has had

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Speaker 1: more impact in a short time in terms of just

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Speaker 1: his own media statements that then turn into the brushfires

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Speaker 1: for media companies, like dangling the threat of maybe we'll

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Speaker 1: look at this, maybe we'll look at that.

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Speaker 4: Putting myself in the shoes of an executive at a

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Speaker 4: media company that might be.

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Speaker 3: Subject to pressure from some alike Brendan Carr.

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Speaker 6: If I am thinking about the bottom line, I'm going

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Speaker 6: to think twice about doing something about crossing him. And

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Speaker 6: I think we saw that pretty clearly with the Jimmy

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Speaker 6: Kimmel episode, where after he suggested, oh, maybe we ought

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Speaker 6: to look at your broadcast license here for ABC and.

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Speaker 3: They suspended him.

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Speaker 4: And it was only after pushback from stakeholders, from employees,

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Speaker 4: from talent, and from customers that Disney finally went back,

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Speaker 4: which I think highlights the importance of strong sort of

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Speaker 4: civil society checks, whether that's from consumers or from employees

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Speaker 4: or others, and how you know, it's not a foregone

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Speaker 4: conclusion that the political pressure is going to succeed if

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Speaker 4: people actually can.

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Speaker 1: Push back, Professor Steel, thank you so much for your time.

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Speaker 3: All Right, thank you so much for having me, Cynthia.

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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. There will be much more detail coming

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Speaker 1: out on the paramount Warner Brothers Discovery transaction this week,

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Speaker 1: so please keep watch on Variety dot com and our

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Speaker 1: socials for all the headlines. Don't miss my colleague Aramade

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Speaker 1: Tenoubu's review of Amazon Prime Videos Young Sherlock. She calls

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Speaker 1: the Guy Ritchie series a quote perfect origin story end

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Speaker 1: quote for the sleuth that set the standard for all

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Speaker 1: fictional detectives. We love to hear from our listeners, so

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Speaker 1: please send thoughts, scripes, and other feedback about Daily Variety

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Speaker 1: to podcasts at Variety dot com. Before we go, congrats

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Speaker 1: to Keith Hopkins. He's been named vice president of Content

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Speaker 1: Distribution and Marketing for TV one. Hopkins comes to the

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Speaker 1: company after working in distribution and marketing for Roku and

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Speaker 1: Nextstar Media Group. Thanks for listening. This episode was written

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

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Speaker 1: Rubin sticks Nick's hick Picks. Please leave us a review

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Speaker 1: at the podcast platform of your choice, and please tune

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Speaker 1: in tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety