Speaker 1: Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
Speaker 1: analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, March thirtieth, twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am co
Speaker 1: editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm in
Speaker 1: LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters around
Speaker 1: the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
Speaker 1: in our Box Office segment, Bridy's Brent Lang breaks down
Speaker 1: the numbers and the second weekend sigh of relief at
Speaker 1: Amazon MGM Studios as Project Hail, Mary hangs in at
Speaker 1: Number one, and Michael Schneider speaks to daytime TV soap
Speaker 1: mogul Bradley Bell, the writer producer who has launched a
Speaker 1: subscription app for die hard fans of CBS's The Bold
Speaker 1: and the Beautiful. But before we get to that, here
Speaker 1: are a few headlines just in this morning that you
Speaker 1: need to know. A judge has temporarily blocked the merger
Speaker 1: of next Integna. A federal judge in Sacramento has ruled
Speaker 1: that the deal is likely to violate anti trust laws
Speaker 1: based on the sheer market share that the combination of
Speaker 1: the two companies would provide. This fight is coming as
Speaker 1: the FCC and other TV station owners are gearing up
Speaker 1: to revise the current TV station ownership rules. They are
Speaker 1: also ready to attack some of the rules of engagement
Speaker 1: between broadcast networks and their affiliates. There is much to
Speaker 1: follow here. Don't miss my colleague Elsa Kaslasi's great story
Speaker 1: on her predictions for what titles will be in competition
Speaker 1: at the Cannes Film Festival later this year. It doesn't
Speaker 1: look like a big year for Hollywood On the quasset.
Speaker 1: The official lineup will be revealed April ninth. Rip Marybeth Hurt,
Speaker 1: a great actress who died Sunday at the age of
Speaker 1: seventy nine. All of these stories and so much more
Speaker 1: can be found on briety dot com right now. One
Speaker 1: more thing, we want to let listeners know that after today,
Speaker 1: Daily Variety is going to take a spring break. We'll
Speaker 1: be back with new episodes on Tuesday, April seventh. If
Speaker 1: it's Monday, we're talking box office. Brent Lang, Variety's executive editor,
Speaker 1: details a big second weekend for Project Hail Mary, which
Speaker 1: is good news for Amazon MGM Studios. Brent Lang Thank
Speaker 1: you again for joining me to talk about the box office.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the most dramatic weekend to end the month
Speaker 1: of March in the first quarter at the box office,
Speaker 1: but I have to believe once again there were cheers
Speaker 1: at Amazon MGM studios to see their big bet, Ryan
Speaker 1: Gosling's Project Hail Mary top the box office two weekends
Speaker 1: in a row. How did it perform in weekend two?
Speaker 2: It held on remarkably well. I think it only dropped
Speaker 2: about thirty two percent, and that's very impressive because major
Speaker 2: movies usually drop between their opening and second weekend of
Speaker 2: at least fifty percent, sometimes sixty or even seventy percent.
Speaker 2: So this shows that there's some stained power here and
Speaker 2: that the word of mouth is very positive for this film.
Speaker 2: And I think the only people that might be more
Speaker 2: happy about this than Amazon MGM are movie theater owners,
Speaker 2: which really need more product. And I think it's thanks
Speaker 2: to films like Project tail Mary overperforming that you actually
Speaker 2: see the box office up about twenty three percent year
Speaker 2: over year. So this is a group of people that
Speaker 2: are feeling much better about their business.
Speaker 1: Of course, there's the Ryan Gosling factor. I mean he
Speaker 1: is just cementing himself as a leading man for the ages.
Speaker 1: Is there something about the movie itself though, because it
Speaker 1: feels like, you know, this is a very dark time.
Speaker 1: You have war in the Middle East, you have protests
Speaker 1: on the streets of this country, in mass numbers being
Speaker 1: it's a polarized time, as we all know. Is there
Speaker 1: something about the nature of this movie a fantasy set
Speaker 1: in space. Is there something about that that you think
Speaker 1: is energizing box office?
Speaker 2: I think definitely it works as kind of a spectacle,
Speaker 2: and it's doing particularly well in imax, for example, which
Speaker 2: is where people seem to prefer to see big movies.
Speaker 2: I think that you're also tapping into something, which is
Speaker 2: that this is a movie that speaks to our present
Speaker 2: day and some of the concerns that we all have
Speaker 2: about the health of our planet. But it does it
Speaker 2: in a light way. It's very humorous and hopeful, and
Speaker 2: I think that the fact that it is reflecting some
Speaker 2: of the concerns that people have but not doing it
Speaker 2: in a manner that is just overwhelmingly pessimistic, is part
Speaker 2: of the reason it's been so successful. I think the
Speaker 2: other thing that's helping this movie is that yes, it
Speaker 2: is appealing to adults, it is appealing to women, and
Speaker 2: it is appealing to men. But it's a Peach thirteen movie,
Speaker 2: so you actually can bring younger people to it. And
Speaker 2: it's not a really violent movie. So this is a
Speaker 2: four quadrant hit. And I would say that this is
Speaker 2: the first blockbuster of the year.
Speaker 1: And we should also shout out credit to directors Phil
Speaker 1: Lord and Christopher Miller. Their style seems to be a
Speaker 1: good fit with what you just said. Something that has
Speaker 1: a message, but it's not clubbing you over the head
Speaker 1: with it, and it's got Ryan Gosling in a lot
Speaker 1: of humor.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's almost a redemption for Lloyd and Miller
Speaker 2: because they had a very very public firing from Solo
Speaker 2: a Star Wars story. I think it was in like
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen, and I think that was really embarrassing. It
Speaker 2: was a bit of a setback for them. They had
Speaker 2: tried to do a very like improvisitory approach to Star Wars.
Speaker 2: It did not go over well with Kathy Kennedy and
Speaker 2: Lawrence Kasten and sort of the brain trust over there. Well,
Speaker 2: they did the same approach here, and you know, the
Speaker 2: result has been a very very successful movie, whereas Solo,
Speaker 2: which ended up getting directed by Ron Howard in a
Speaker 2: really tortured production process, was a huge flop and really
Speaker 2: helped to slow down Disney's cinematic ambitions for Star Wars.
Speaker 2: So this is really showing just how able they are
Speaker 2: as filmmakers and how successful they our unconventional approach can
Speaker 2: be if matched with the right studio and the right
Speaker 2: material too.
Speaker 1: That's the fun of covering this stuff day by day,
Speaker 1: is you knowing that just off the top of your
Speaker 1: head from almost ten years ago.
Speaker 2: Just to stay on the Star Wars if things for
Speaker 2: a second. Sort of interesting because Ryan Gosling is going
Speaker 2: to be starring in Star Wars Starfighter, which I think
Speaker 2: internally at Disney there's a sense that this is the
Speaker 2: film that actually kind of recaptures the Star Wars magic.
Speaker 2: They're a little more nervous about Mandalorian and Grogu, so
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe everything just leads back to Star Wars,
Speaker 2: but I'm sure that Disney is looking at the results
Speaker 2: of this film and looking ahead to Starfighter and feeling
Speaker 2: much better about that investment as well.
Speaker 1: Well. Ryan Gosling is a busy guy. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: a couple of other strong titles that are hanging in
Speaker 1: Pixars hoppers. This is now Weekend three.
Speaker 3: This is real.
Speaker 1: They got themselves a new hit.
Speaker 2: Absolutely again. I'm sure a sense of relief at Picks
Speaker 2: are because original animated films have been kind of their
Speaker 2: achilles heel. But this film seems to be doing very well,
Speaker 2: and it's doing very well internationally as well. It's to
Speaker 2: make almost three hundred million dollars, and since it cost
Speaker 2: about one hundred and fifty million dollars, this is setting
Speaker 2: up to be a profitable film for Disney and potentially
Speaker 2: the start of another franchise, which I think is very
Speaker 2: important to them because a lot of their other animated
Speaker 2: series are getting a little low on the tooth.
Speaker 1: Another film that we've talked about the last couple of
Speaker 1: weeks is Reminders of Him, another flex of a very
Speaker 1: savvy IP creator, Colleen Hoover, the novelist who has really
Speaker 1: forged her own path. This film opened at number one
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago and is still in the
Speaker 1: top five for this kind of movie in particular, that
Speaker 1: seems a real feat.
Speaker 2: Colleen Hoover has been one of the most consistent kind
Speaker 2: of hit makers in the past few years. You know,
Speaker 2: not only did this film do quite well, but she
Speaker 2: also wrote It Ends with Us that was made into
Speaker 2: a movie that was very successful, Gretting You, which was
Speaker 2: another successful movie, and then she has a movie of
Speaker 2: her novel Pretty coming up, which I think people at
Speaker 2: Amazon MGM are feeling very good about. But this is
Speaker 2: just a great piece of counterprogramming. It didn't cost that much,
Speaker 2: cost twenty five million dollars. I think it's made over
Speaker 2: sixty globally. Again, this is going to be a very
Speaker 2: profitable film and a reminder that female audiences will turn out.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is what we saw with The Housemaid
Speaker 2: and some other films last year. But you really need
Speaker 2: to keep offering content up for this audience in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Doesn't do that enough.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: Again, good news for Disney, good news for Universal. Not
Speaker 1: so good news for Warner Brothers in Newline with their
Speaker 1: latest horror effort, They Will Kill You, starring the great
Speaker 1: Zazzi Beats.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one really bombed. It only made five million dollars.
Speaker 2: I think it made. It was good enough for a
Speaker 2: third place finish, but it's a complete disaster. And unfortunately,
Speaker 2: after having a really really great twenty twenty five. Warner
Speaker 2: Brothers is off to a rough start because this comes
Speaker 2: on the heels of The Bride, which was a massive
Speaker 2: flop for the studios. It is interesting because this film
Speaker 2: it was co financed by sky Dance's Genre label, so
Speaker 2: David Ellison, who will soon be the boss of Warner Brothers,
Speaker 2: is responsible for this flop. So I guess the executives
Speaker 2: can breathe a little easier that they don't totally own
Speaker 2: this one. Obviously, this happened well before the deal was
Speaker 2: ever agreed to, but obviously a sign of just how
Speaker 2: interconnected all of these players are.
Speaker 1: Brent, what are you looking forward to next week at
Speaker 1: the box office? It will be it should be a
Speaker 1: busier frame.
Speaker 2: The big news here is going to be the Super
Speaker 2: Mario Galaxy movie coming out, which will be a massive hit.
Speaker 2: The previous film earned a billion dollars or more. So
Speaker 2: I think that you're looking at a movie that's probably
Speaker 2: going to do something similar, similar level of business and
Speaker 2: really begin the second quarter on a very very strong note.
Speaker 1: Well, I will look forward to checking in with Rebecca
Speaker 1: rubin our box office stalwart will be back for that
Speaker 1: big weekend Brent, deeply appreciate you taking the time and
Speaker 1: always love your insights.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1: And now we turned to Michael Schneider, Wrighty's television editor.
Speaker 1: He broke the news last week that Belle Phillip Television
Speaker 1: Productions is launching a subscription streaming app for The Bold
Speaker 1: and the Beautiful. The CBS soap is one of the
Speaker 1: last daytime serials standing and it's about to hit its
Speaker 1: fortieth anniversary next year. Bradley Bell, who heads Bell Philip TV,
Speaker 1: explains to Schneider why they decided to launch an app
Speaker 1: to house more than nine thousand episodes.
Speaker 3: Thanks, Cynthia, and that's right. The Bold and the Beautiful
Speaker 3: fans are about to get the ultimate binge, thirty seven
Speaker 3: complete seasons consisting of more than nine thousand episodes all
Speaker 3: in one place. The daytime soap opera's producer, Belle Phillip
Speaker 3: Television Productions, has just launched a new streaming app called BBTV,
Speaker 3: featuring the series entire library. So The Bold and the
Speaker 3: Beautiful premiered on March twenty three, nineteen eighty seven, as
Speaker 3: a companion show to the Young and the Restless, which
Speaker 3: also came from creators William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell.
Speaker 3: Now their son, Brad Bell, oversees The Bold and the
Speaker 3: Beautiful as executive producer and head writer. And I spoke
Speaker 3: to him as he was about to head on over
Speaker 3: to the show's thirty ninth anniversary celebration. What do you
Speaker 3: get a cast, What do you get folks on their
Speaker 3: thirty ninth anniversary.
Speaker 4: Well, we do a big cake on stage as always.
Speaker 4: In this year we did the in and out Hamburger truck.
Speaker 5: And you got the fans. A streaming service.
Speaker 4: Well, it really began as a conversation between friends. A
Speaker 4: dear friend of mine, Rhino Orlemans, who works as this
Speaker 4: company Octopian, and they've been doing these platforms and streaming services,
Speaker 4: and he said, you should really do one. And I said,
Speaker 4: I've been thinking about it, but you know, you'll have
Speaker 4: to show me the way a bit on this. I'm
Speaker 4: buried in words and scripts and daily episodes. And we
Speaker 4: combined forces, and a year and a half later, here
Speaker 4: we are.
Speaker 5: Obviously there's hoops you have to go through, helped by
Speaker 5: the fact that you do still own all these episodes,
Speaker 5: that this is still you know, kind of in an
Speaker 5: era where it's so important to have IP. You have
Speaker 5: this great IP that's existed for nearly forty years in
Speaker 5: Bolden and Beautiful.
Speaker 4: Well, yes, this has been my life. Many people's people
Speaker 4: here have given their lives to this show, their creativity.
Speaker 4: We started, you know, I started with my father and mom.
Speaker 4: Nineteen eighty seven, I had just I was at UCLA
Speaker 4: and we moved to Los Angeles as a family. He
Speaker 4: was doing The Young and the Restless, and we decided
Speaker 4: to do this new show, The Bolden the Beautiful. It
Speaker 4: was really a family project and it was writing from
Speaker 4: pre production till still this day, thirty nine years. I
Speaker 4: had never thought it would go so long, but it's
Speaker 4: been an amazing ride.
Speaker 5: The business has changed, obviously so much in this time.
Speaker 5: You know, some things haven't changed. Your stories haven't changed,
Speaker 5: and the idea of what you're doing with Bowl and the Beautiful,
Speaker 5: but this larger environment. You're one of the few daytime
Speaker 5: soap operas that are even left. Now, what do you
Speaker 5: make of that?
Speaker 4: Yeah? There were many years there where people were saying,
Speaker 4: what are you going to do next? What will you
Speaker 4: do after this? Maybe fifteen twenty years ago, and soap
Speaker 4: operas were dropping and dying off. They went from twenty
Speaker 4: or so now to just a handful of us and
Speaker 4: gh and days of our lives. But you know, we
Speaker 4: really it was really attention to detail, making sure that
Speaker 4: every show was special and never taking your eye off
Speaker 4: the ball, keeping the drama there, keeping people addicted to
Speaker 4: the characters, in love with the families being really an
Speaker 4: extension of their families.
Speaker 5: We recently saw a new soap opera launch for the
Speaker 5: first time in quite a while on CBS, and you know,
Speaker 5: there's new ways of telling stories now. People are have
Speaker 5: an opportunity to watch Ball and Beautiful, for example, on
Speaker 5: the new BBTV platform. Are there opportunities now maybe to
Speaker 5: reach younger audiences and find new ways to kind of
Speaker 5: keep the candle burden?
Speaker 4: I think so. I think this daily drama two hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty episodes a year format is something that's popular
Speaker 4: around the world and it's gaining popularity in the United States.
Speaker 4: Beyond the Gates, which which started last year, is an
Speaker 4: incredible show. It's so exciting because we're actually part of
Speaker 4: a CBS soap block, Young and the Restless, Bold and
Speaker 4: the Beautiful and Beyond the Gates. So there, it feels
Speaker 4: like there's there's real momentum.
Speaker 5: What is the hope with BBTV talk about sort of
Speaker 5: you know, the plans. I know, there's there's other programming
Speaker 5: that are going to be on the platform beyond just
Speaker 5: the nine thousand plus episodes. There's maybe opportunities to do
Speaker 5: other brand extensions, you know, what's your hope and sort
Speaker 5: of you know, growing this and maybe finding new audiences
Speaker 5: through this.
Speaker 4: We really want to build out our community in the
Speaker 4: United States, have our viewer base even stronger and more
Speaker 4: committed as they have more access to the product, and
Speaker 4: you know, fortify our shows that are airing on Paramount
Speaker 4: Plus and CBS and globally, we've we've had such a
Speaker 4: reach over the years. The early nineties and all throughout
Speaker 4: the nineties was a great time for selling American product
Speaker 4: overseas and we were hitting all over Europe and Africa, Australia,
Speaker 4: India and over the over the years, some of those
Speaker 4: people have dropped out some of those countries, So this
Speaker 4: is really an opportunity to reach back to them and
Speaker 4: say that we're here, we're back, and wherever you left off,
Speaker 4: you can now pick us up and just continue the
Speaker 4: series as though it was never changed.
Speaker 5: Have you talked to any super fans who have said
Speaker 5: they are starting at the very beginning. They may take
Speaker 5: some time, but the plan is they're they're going to
Speaker 5: sit in there, They're going to watch all nine thousand
Speaker 5: plus episodes.
Speaker 4: Well, there have been a few people who have said that,
Speaker 4: and you know, I wish them Bucket and and joy.
Speaker 4: It would take really years to watch them all.
Speaker 5: Forty years young next year, So how are you gonna
Speaker 5: how are you gonna celebrate next year when you have.
Speaker 4: A big blow up already. It's it'll be quite an
Speaker 4: accomplishment one I would say. In nineteen eighty seven, we
Speaker 4: had no dream of existing to twenty twenty seven. But
Speaker 4: here we are, and we're enthusiastic. The group is so energized.
Speaker 4: We see these new opportunities to show what we're doing now,
Speaker 4: but also show what we've done all these years in
Speaker 4: a wonderful way. Through technology, you can navigate yourself through
Speaker 4: the site and you know, search for weddings, cat fights.
Speaker 4: Our guest stars Betty White did like amazing work on
Speaker 4: our show Usher Daddy Yankee that we had Fred Willers,
Speaker 4: so many great talent, sed actors, iconic actors who have
Speaker 4: been with us, and now people get to see it
Speaker 4: again at their leisure, at their pace.
Speaker 5: Congratulations Brad, good luck with the new the new streaming service,
Speaker 5: the app, and more to come from your universe too.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. Thank you, Mike.
Speaker 1: As we close out today's episode, we want to remind
Speaker 1: everyone that Daily Bretty will be taking a spring break.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with new episodes on Tuesday, April seventh.
Speaker 1: We love to hear from our listeners, so please send thoughtspes,
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Speaker 1: dot com. Before we go, Congrats to my longtime Bridy
Speaker 1: colleague Peter de Bruges. He's been named director of Film
Speaker 1: and TV for the south By Southwest Film Festival after
Speaker 1: seventeen years with Variety, most of them as a film critic.
Speaker 1: Debruges could not be a better choice for that role,
Speaker 1: and he's staying in the larger corporate family, as south
Speaker 1: By Southwest is owned by Variety's parent company PMC. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. This episode was written and reported by me
Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Brent Lang and Michael Schneider.
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