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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, September twenty second,

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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 Vardy 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 Friday's box office chief Rebecca Rubin about

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Speaker 1: week starts at the multiplexes for him and a big, bold,

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Speaker 1: beautiful journey as Demon slayer Infinity Castle keeps its grip

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Speaker 1: on Number one, and Senior TV editor Brian Steinberg brings

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Speaker 1: us up to speed on the big story in Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: Disney's benching of Jimmy Kimmel. But before we get to that,

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

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Speaker 1: you need to know. Spider Man star Tom Hollands suffered

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Speaker 1: a mild concussion on the set of Spider Man Brand

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Speaker 1: New Day. He's expected back at work in a few days.

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Speaker 1: Cassavetes has signed on to direct the US remake of

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Speaker 1: The Boy with Pink Pants, the young adult movie with

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Speaker 1: a strong anti bullying message was a big hit in

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Speaker 1: Italy for Eagle Pictures. Eddie Redmain's Day of the Jackal

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Speaker 1: series has hired a new writer for season two. David

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Speaker 1: Harrower has stepped in as creator Ronan Bennett steps back.

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Speaker 1: The thriller airs on Peacock and Sky. My colleague Alex

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Speaker 1: Ripman in London has the scoop. You can read that

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Speaker 1: story and so much more on Variety dot Com Right now.

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

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

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Speaker 1: box office with Rebecca Rubin, our senior film and media reporter.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca breaks down the weekend results and she points to

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Speaker 1: beacons on the horizon for the box office in the

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Speaker 1: shape of Leonardo DiCaprio and Taylor Swift. Rebecca Rubins, thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. Rebecca,

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Speaker 1: tell us what's going on out there? How did the

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Speaker 1: big openers this weekend do? After two really.

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Speaker 2: Strong back to back weekends in September with the Latest

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Speaker 2: Conjuring movie and The Demon's Layer, this was a pretty

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Speaker 2: soft weekend at the box office. There were two new

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Speaker 2: movies that opened Him, which is a sports thriller that

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Speaker 2: was produced by Jordan Peel, and then A Big, Bold,

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Speaker 2: Beautiful Journey, which is a romantic drama with Marco Robbie

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Speaker 2: and Colin Ferrell, and neither of those movies really ignited

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Speaker 2: the box office in a meaningful way.

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Speaker 1: Do you think it's just movie going, Is it's a

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Speaker 1: typical lull, or do you think that it was a

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Speaker 1: lackluster product this weekend kept the lid on receipts.

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Speaker 2: I would say it's probably the latter. I think that

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Speaker 2: it was a lackluster weekend in terms of new releases,

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Speaker 2: because we've seen in September, if people want to come

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Speaker 2: out to see a movie, even if it's not something

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Speaker 2: that's on most of Hollywood's radar, audiences can come out

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Speaker 2: in huge numbers whatever the weekend is. In this case,

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Speaker 2: I think the two new releases just did not have

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Speaker 2: the reviews or the word of mouth to get people talking.

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Speaker 2: Him had a twenty eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which

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Speaker 2: is quite a negative aggregate score, and A Big, Bold,

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Speaker 2: Beautiful Journey, beyond it being a bit of a tongue twister,

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Speaker 2: also had similarly negative reviews and word of mouth from

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Speaker 2: audiences for.

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Speaker 1: A big, bold, beautiful journey. You had Margot Robbie, you

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Speaker 1: had Colin Farrell finally after we finally got to look

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Speaker 1: at Colin Farrell again without all that penguin makeup.

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Speaker 3: But it also.

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Speaker 1: Seems like the kind of movie, you know, an adult

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Speaker 1: drama that you just don't see at the multiplexes as much.

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Speaker 1: What audience do you think the distributor was going for

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Speaker 1: with this movie?

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Speaker 2: Sony actually pos positioned this movie. I remember vividly when

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Speaker 2: they announced it as a female event picture in the

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Speaker 2: vein of It Ends with Us, which was the Blake

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Speaker 2: Lively Justin Baldoni movie that, despite all the controversy, was

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Speaker 2: a huge box office success, and so they were very

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Speaker 2: clearly saying, here we are going after this underserved female

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Speaker 2: audience to call it a female event picture. I had

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Speaker 2: not seen that verbiage before, and so they were being

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Speaker 2: very declarative on who they were trying to get with

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Speaker 2: this movie. And like you said, it's not really the

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Speaker 2: type of movie that we see succeeding in movie theaters anymore.

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Speaker 2: We've seen movies from other genres succeed despite the odds,

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Speaker 2: but typically when they are succeeding despite the odds they

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Speaker 2: have behind them, the great reviews, the word of mouth,

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Speaker 2: and I think this movie just misfired on the execution.

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Speaker 2: And so if you already have a movie that critics

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Speaker 2: and audiences don't like, it's that much harder to get

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Speaker 2: them to pay money to go see it.

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Speaker 1: How has the whole been for Demon's Layer and for

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Speaker 1: conjuring the movies that did light up a September box office.

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Speaker 2: Demon's Layer was the number one movie again at the

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Speaker 2: North American and the International box office, and in North

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Speaker 2: America it made seventeen point three million dollars, so it

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Speaker 2: had a pretty significant seventy five percent decline from its

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Speaker 2: opening weekend, which of course set a record for anime

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Speaker 2: film grossing seventy million. And so that is a pretty

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Speaker 2: brutal decline. But if you are just looking at it

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Speaker 2: from a numbers perspective, seventeen million dollars for an anime

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Speaker 2: film would have been impressive in the film's first weekend.

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Speaker 2: So the fact that it made that much in its

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Speaker 2: second weekend, and this movie has already grossed over one

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Speaker 2: hundred million dollars in North America speaks to the enthusiasm

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Speaker 2: for it, and so it was on par kind of

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Speaker 2: with expectations that it would have a big drop, but

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Speaker 2: it still is raking in significant money.

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Speaker 1: So there was good news for Sony this weekend as well.

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Speaker 1: How about Conjuring.

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Speaker 2: Conjuring as well had a pretty good third weekend. This

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Speaker 2: is its third weekend of release and it made thirteen

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Speaker 2: million dollars. And with this weekend's total, Conjuring last Rites,

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Speaker 2: which is I think it's the fourth Conjuring movie and

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Speaker 2: the eight, the ninth and the overall franchise, it is

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Speaker 2: now the highest grossing of the franchise with over one

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty million domestically and four hundred million globally.

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Speaker 2: And this movie actually is continuing a stellar run, not

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Speaker 2: just for Warner Brothers, but New Line, which is a

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Speaker 2: subsidiary of Warner Brothers, and New Line with this movie

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Speaker 2: now has crossed the billion dollar mark just in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty five, and that is mostly thanks to horror hits

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Speaker 2: like Final Destination, Bloodlines, Weapons, and so Newline is really

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Speaker 2: cleaning up this year with horror movies that are getting

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Speaker 2: audiences to turn out in droves.

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Speaker 1: I could make a lot of cheap joke about horror

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Speaker 1: and the time that we are living in. But I'm

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Speaker 1: just gonna leave it at that. What should we look

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Speaker 1: forward to in the coming weeks of the box office?

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Speaker 1: What are exhibitors excited about?

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Speaker 2: So if you asked anybody a few months ago, they

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Speaker 2: would probably say that Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie, One

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Speaker 2: Battle after Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a huge risk,

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Speaker 2: and it still is because it cost one hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty million dollars to produce, or more, depending on who

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Speaker 2: you ask. But Warner Brothers has as well been on

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Speaker 2: this epic box office streak and all of these movies

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Speaker 2: that people were not expecting to be massive successes have

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Speaker 2: become just that, And so nobody wants to bet against

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Speaker 2: Warner Brothers at this point. And there's a chance that

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Speaker 2: One Battle after Another, which has been pretty rapturously reviewed,

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Speaker 2: could become another commercial win for Warner Brothers. That would

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Speaker 2: be very exciting to see because it's targeting more of

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Speaker 2: an adult audience and that is also a demographic that

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Speaker 2: is not as catered to as the box office. Another

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Speaker 2: movie that exhibitors are quite excited about is Taylor Swift's

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Speaker 2: newly announced The release party of a Showgirl, and of

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Speaker 2: course that is tied to her new album that is

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Speaker 2: coming out in October. And she has been a big

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Speaker 2: supporter of theatrical with her concert film that was released

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three. And so no matter what this

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Speaker 2: movie does, it's not gonna make the business that the

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Speaker 2: concert film did because it's a very different project. But

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Speaker 2: any money that this movie makes is just crazy that

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Speaker 2: they were not expecting even a few weeks ago.

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Speaker 1: Taylor Swift is the gift that keeps on giving to

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Speaker 1: all media. And I'm so glad you mentioned one battle

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Speaker 1: after another because, dear listeners, you're gonna hear from Owen Gleiberman,

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Speaker 1: Variety's chief film critic, on this film in Tuesday's episode.

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Speaker 1: So thank you for teasing that, Rebecca, and as always,

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Speaker 1: thank you for your insights.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, and I will be eager to

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Speaker 2: see how one about after another doesn't.

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Speaker 1: And now we'll hear from Brian Steinberg on the latest

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Speaker 1: industry conflagration that has protesters lining up outside of Disney offices.

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Speaker 1: As I record this Monday morning, Jimmy Kimmel is still

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Speaker 1: on indefinite suspension from his late night show at ABC.

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Speaker 1: It's not canceled, but we don't know when he'll be

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Speaker 1: back either. Brian Steinberg, thanks for joining me.

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Speaker 3: Glad to be here.

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Speaker 1: You and others at Bridy have been busy on the

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Speaker 1: Jimmy kimmelbat ever since this story really blew up Wednesday

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Speaker 1: afternoon when Disney made the decision to pull him off

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Speaker 1: the air abruptly. So a lot has transpired between then

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Speaker 1: and now that we are talking. Where do you think

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Speaker 1: things stand right now in terms of the decision making

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Speaker 1: process for ABC and for Team Kimmel.

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Speaker 3: I think it's a genuine effort theado to one and

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Speaker 3: a half and come back on the air. This is

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Speaker 3: a longtime employee of Disney. He's been doing this for

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Speaker 3: more than two decades. He's been ambassador for ABC and

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Speaker 3: the company hosting the Oscars other projects. Who wants to

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Speaker 3: be a millionaire?

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Speaker 1: So, in terms of how things went down, Brendan Carr,

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Speaker 1: the head of the FCC, goes on Benny Johnson's podcast

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Speaker 1: and makes what sure sounds like a threat against ABC

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Speaker 1: about very upset about Kimmel's comments, which had gotten a

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Speaker 1: lot of backlash that day from people in certainly and

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Speaker 1: conservative and Maga media circles. Hours later, you have Next Star,

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Speaker 1: the single biggest owner of TV stations, saying our thirty

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Speaker 1: two ABC affiliate stations will not air Jimmy Kimmel. That's

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Speaker 1: a significant blow to his distribution in addition to a

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Speaker 1: bad blow to the pr And then minutes after that

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Speaker 1: came Sinclair, another huge station owner, saying the same thing

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Speaker 1: and asking for even more wildly unrealistic things for a

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Speaker 1: TV station group to ask of talent. Let me ask you, Brian,

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Speaker 1: does ABC pull him just on Brendan Carr's comments or

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Speaker 1: what was he pulled? Because Next Star in Sinclair said

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Speaker 1: we are yanking our stations.

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Speaker 3: I have to imagine because of the Sinclair and Next Star.

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Speaker 3: Next Star is a large maybe even soon to be

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Speaker 3: larger station owner. Those are stations in New Orleans, Salt

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Speaker 3: Lake City, Nashville, places that kim on needs to reach

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Speaker 3: and kim O will do well in LA and New

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Speaker 3: York because that's the but you need to reach people

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Speaker 3: in the New South, the Midwest. Those stations are important

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Speaker 3: to the overall distribution of the show. Without that, then

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Speaker 3: often the rains go down. Then you have talked to

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Speaker 3: advertiser about why the rains are gone down what they're

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Speaker 3: paying for, and they pay for the guarantees even promised

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Speaker 3: by ABC. I think you know that's a problematic situation

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Speaker 3: you're in now. Can they get around it? Can they

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Speaker 3: go to put them on Hulu or Disney Plus and

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Speaker 3: get around that situation and do some ad deals.

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Speaker 1: Disney has plenty of platforms to get kim all out,

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Speaker 1: but the strength of podcast TV, and you wonder if

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Speaker 1: something prolonged like this could really continue to chip away

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Speaker 1: of the classic network affiliate relationship with Jimmy Kimmelflapp is

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Speaker 1: coming at a time when there's been simmering tensions with

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Speaker 1: the networks over how much the station groups pay the

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Speaker 1: networks to help the networks pay for pricey things like

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Speaker 1: football and big events. And this is obviously happening at

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Speaker 1: a time when traditional late night TV does not have

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Speaker 1: the pull it did even recently.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think what's happening late night is the fragmentation

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Speaker 3: has heard it when David Letterman announced He's going to

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Speaker 3: retire a lot of folks to try to throw Spagetio

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Speaker 3: walls they can get their own share of the late

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Speaker 3: night audience. For a while, we had like MTV tried

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Speaker 3: their hand add a national geographic the science late night show.

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Speaker 3: Now you have a late night hosts now have to

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Speaker 3: go for a base rather than for everybody. Johnny Carson

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Speaker 3: had the whole nation watching him and our current but

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Speaker 3: of late night hosts are doing political humor to get

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Speaker 3: a lot of the success of their show these days

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Speaker 3: depends on how many YouTube hits they get an X

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Speaker 3: pass along and viral hits. And to do that, you

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Speaker 3: need to talk about do hot talk politics barbs, you know,

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Speaker 3: really kind of sometimes something I think a previous generation

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Speaker 3: like Arseneo Hall or Pat Sajad or Johnny Carson or

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Speaker 3: Tom Snyder would not do because they had a much

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Speaker 3: broader crowd watching every night and they had me mindful

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Speaker 3: of that. So the economics are weaker because the hosts

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Speaker 3: now have niches rather than the whole world.

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Speaker 1: Washington, do you think this gets resolved? Middle of this week? Like?

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Speaker 1: How much longer can this impass go on?

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Speaker 3: We're the start of a brand new TV season. You

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Speaker 3: want Kimmel on the air for ABC? You would that

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Speaker 3: audience gathering at night? You've fallen back to Good Morning

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Speaker 3: America in the morning, Disney is a pillar of the

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Speaker 3: creative community in Hollywood, and a lot of people who

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Speaker 3: are actors, directors, producers are gas and a decision to

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Speaker 3: pull them off the air like this could they have

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Speaker 3: had to come on and explain himself in a way

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Speaker 3: that everyone can agree upon. The longer he's off, the

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Speaker 3: more this investers would Justy's base. It's employees, it's creative community.

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Speaker 3: People who work for them in movies and TV shows

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Speaker 3: and other things also come ticked off. I mean Bob

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Speaker 3: igeran Dana Walden have taken a thorny path. It is

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Speaker 3: difficult see how they they will please everybody. They may

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Speaker 3: have to, you know, they are business concerns, there are

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Speaker 3: creative concerns. Hollywood's watching, Washington is watching. It's difficult.

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Speaker 1: It's a diplomatic mission, it's a business mission, and with

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Speaker 1: all things Disney, it's often inefficiable. And of course the

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Speaker 1: people that you mentioned, Bob Iger, Dana Walden, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of scrutiny on them because there is a transition

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Speaker 1: coming for Disney in the leadership ranks. They have promised

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Speaker 1: that there will be a transition sometime in the early

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Speaker 1: part of twenty twenty six, so there's never a good

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Speaker 1: time for a crisis, but this would probably be a

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Speaker 1: particularly bad time for everything going on. Well, it'll be

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Speaker 1: very interesting to watch what comes Monday and beyond. Brian,

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Speaker 1: thank you for working hard to cover this. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Let's give the last word on this segment to John Oliver,

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Speaker 1: the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight, makes a great

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Speaker 1: point about whether Next Star and Sinclair really qualify as

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Speaker 1: local broadcasters given their size and scope and the level

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Speaker 1: of their activity before the FCC. Here's a clip from

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Speaker 1: Sunday Nights episode.

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Speaker 4: Well, but more than that, Claiming this is simply local

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Speaker 4: broadcasters responding to their community values is pretty hard to take.

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Speaker 4: And that this wasn't a bunch of independent stations taking

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Speaker 4: a standard. Was two of the biggest local TV ownership

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Speaker 4: groups in the country making sweeping decisions for all the

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Speaker 4: affiliates they owned. Calling these companies local broadcasters is like

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Speaker 4: describing Coca Cola as a neighborhood soda shop or Boeing

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Speaker 4: as a mom and pop plane crash business. It makes

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Speaker 4: no sense. Look, the sequence of events here could not

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Speaker 4: be clearer because it was all done in playing view.

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Speaker 4: Car leaned on broadcasters to take down Kimmel. They did that,

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Speaker 4: sometimes even directly so in car while doing so, and

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Speaker 4: that car celebrated with a fun gift. That sure seems

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Speaker 4: like a pretty clear case of the government pressuring companies.

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Speaker 1: Two cents of speaking, as we close out today's episode,

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Speaker 1: the only certainty we have about this week is that

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Speaker 1: there will be a lot of news. We are waiting

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Speaker 1: for news on the Jimmy Kimmel front. We are waiting

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Speaker 1: for news around Warner Brothers, Discovery and what's going on

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Speaker 1: with that bidding process. But I wanted to share a

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Speaker 1: few thoughts from my weekend in San Diego. I attended

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Speaker 1: the Proximo conference, focused on Latino entrepreneurs and business growth.

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Speaker 1: It's always interesting to talk to people who work in

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Speaker 1: other sectors about business issues, headwinds, opportunities. It was a

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Speaker 1: great mix of people in San Diego. I'm so grateful

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Speaker 1: to conference organizer Nelli Galan for inviting me. I'm grateful

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Speaker 1: also to my panelist who delivered great conversations, producer Alexis Garcia,

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Speaker 1: Hurst Media's Angelica Rossas McDaniels, and Nueva Network's Renee Allegria.

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Speaker 1: I was also honored to meet the great author Sandra Cisneros.

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Speaker 1: Without question, every business conference should close out with a

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Speaker 1: dance party. At the end of the tribute to Cisneros

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Speaker 1: on Saturday night, the tables were empty, the dance floor

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Speaker 1: was packed, and it was joyous before we go. Congrats

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Speaker 1: to Ian Holder and Tariq Stewart. They've just been named

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Speaker 1: senior vice presidents of A and R for Capitol Records,

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Speaker 1: overseeing the company's urban A and R team. Holder comes

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Speaker 1: to Capital from Sony Music Publishing. Stewart was with RCAA Records.

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

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Speaker 1: me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Rebecca Rubin and Brian Steinberg.

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Speaker 1: Special thanks to restaurant Cocinas del Monte in San Diego

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Speaker 1: for not throwing me out while I recorded the box

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Speaker 1: office segment before I hopped on a bus back to

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Speaker 1: l A stick snickt hick picks. Please leave us a

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

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