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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, February ninth, 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 Variety has reporters around

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

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Speaker 1: we'll hear from Variety's Rebecca Rubin on the weekend box office,

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Speaker 1: which was muted all weekend by that big football game

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Speaker 1: on Sunday. And Variety's Mark malkoln ran into Ted Sarandos

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Speaker 1: on Saturday at the Director's Guild Awards and they chatted

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Speaker 1: about what else Warner Brothers Discovery. 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. What a weekend. The

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl, the Olympics, and the Director's Guild Awards. One

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Speaker 1: battle after another. We're sending healing thoughts to Yvonne watching

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Speaker 1: the Team USA ski champion crash on her attempted comeback

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Speaker 1: was really tough at the Super Bowl. Seattle Seahawks quarterback

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Speaker 1: Sam Darnold added the final exclamation point to his Cinderella

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Speaker 1: story of being tossed around a couple of teams before

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Speaker 1: he found the right fit. At the DGA Awards, Paul

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Speaker 1: Thomas Anderson, director of One Battle after Another, won the

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Speaker 1: Big Prize on an emotional night that also saw Amanda

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Speaker 1: Marsalis triumph in TV for The Pit, Shannon Murphy win

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Speaker 1: for Dying for Sex for Limited Series, and Rebecca Miller

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Speaker 1: win for documentary for Mister Scorsese. All this filming isn't healthy.

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Speaker 1: And then there was a surprise headline coming out this

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Speaker 1: morning that also involves director Paul Thomas Anderson, and it's

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Speaker 1: related to the Milania documentary. Viewers with sharp ears noticed

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Speaker 1: that the documentary included a bit of music from the

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Speaker 1: twenty seventeen Focus feature movie A Phantom Thread starring Daniel

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Speaker 1: day Lewis and directed by Anderson. The movie's composer, Johnny Greenwood,

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Speaker 1: asserts that nobody asked him about licensing the rights and

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Speaker 1: that violates his contractual rights. My colleagues jem Oswad and

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Speaker 1: Rebecca Rubin have the scoop. That story and so much

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Speaker 1: more can be found on Variety dot com. Right Now

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Speaker 1: if it's Monday, it's time for our box Office segment

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Speaker 1: with Rebecca Rubin, Variety Senior Film and Media reporter. She

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Speaker 1: takes a harder look at the international box office this week,

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Speaker 1: because on the domestic front it was pretty weak, as

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Speaker 1: it typically is on a Super Bowl weekend. Rebecca Rubin,

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Speaker 1: thank you for joining me. Happy super Bowl Sunday.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Now, I think in years past this also might have

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Speaker 1: qualified as almost a day off for Variety's box office reporter,

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Speaker 1: in the sense that Super Bowl weekend is pretty reliably

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Speaker 1: a slow frame at the multiplexes. Rebecca, was that the

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Speaker 1: case this year?

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Speaker 2: Unfortunately, it's your what no exception. It wasn't the worst

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Speaker 2: Super Bowl showing in history, that was in twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 2: but it was definitely a very slow weekend for movie

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Speaker 2: theater owners. It probably didn't help that it's been freezing,

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Speaker 2: really frigid temperatures across a lot of the country, which

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Speaker 2: probably kept a lot of people at home, as did

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Speaker 2: the Winter Olympics. There weren't a lot of new releases,

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Speaker 2: and therefore weren't a lot of compelling reasons to leave

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Speaker 2: the couch. For some reason, Super Bowl has just never

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Speaker 2: been a popular time for studios to release new films.

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Speaker 2: There have been some examples of counter programming. One of

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Speaker 2: the biggest Super Bowl releases was The Hand of Montana

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Speaker 2: Miiley Cyrus Concert film, which came out in two thousand

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Speaker 2: and eight, so basically an eternity ago. At this point,

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Speaker 2: I think studios are just assuming that people are spending

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Speaker 2: the whole weekend readying for the Super Bowl and then

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Speaker 2: watching the big Game.

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Speaker 1: It just tells you that people's mindset is not on

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Speaker 1: the box office and there's nothing super compelling to bring

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Speaker 1: them there. Correct.

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Speaker 2: It was just depressed all around because there were not

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Speaker 2: any new releases from the major studios, and so Sam

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Speaker 2: Raimi's film Send Help, which is from Disney's twentieth Century,

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Speaker 2: was in first place. Again. It made roughly ten million

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Speaker 2: dollars and it had a pretty decent hold. It dropped

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Speaker 2: only forty seven percent, and for a horror movie, that

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Speaker 2: is fantastic because horror movies can drop as much as

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Speaker 2: sixty five percent. They're known for being very front loaded,

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Speaker 2: and so it's managed to stick around and I think

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Speaker 2: benefit from there not being any major new releases this weekend.

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Speaker 2: A new film from Angel Studios. It's a rom com

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Speaker 2: with Kevin James called Solo Mea was number two at

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Speaker 2: the box office. It made about seven million dollars. And

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Speaker 2: Angel Studios has really carved out this niche of getting

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Speaker 2: a certain audience to go to theaters, and they audiences

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Speaker 2: tend to love the films that they released. This film

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Speaker 2: got an A minus grade on CinemaScore, which is quite positive,

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Speaker 2: and it has an eighty one percent on Rotten Tomatoes,

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Speaker 2: so that's pretty good for a rom com. So that

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Speaker 2: is one that actually did work as counter programming and

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Speaker 2: it might not be blockbuster numbers, but it's a pretty

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Speaker 2: decent showing for this kind of film.

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Speaker 1: It's so interesting to see these companies like Angel Studios,

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Speaker 1: and there's also Wonder Project out of Austin that they

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Speaker 1: truly have like these integrated programs around movies and TV

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Speaker 1: shows and they thread them together at least promotionally. And

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Speaker 1: you're seeing that obviously around faith and family themes, around

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Speaker 1: seeking a certain kind of entertainment, and of course we

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Speaker 1: saw another lever of getting people to the box office

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Speaker 1: that was brought to a new height last weekend with

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Speaker 1: Iron Lung, which came from a YouTuber at very low cost. Rebecca,

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Speaker 1: how did Iron Lung do in weekend two?

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Speaker 2: That film had a drop that's a bit more in

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Speaker 2: line with what we expect to see from a horror film,

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Speaker 2: So it dropped sixty six percent. That being said, it

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Speaker 2: had a very good opening weekend. So it's still made

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Speaker 2: about six million dollars. For an independent film like this

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Speaker 2: that self financed, self distributed, I th it costs around

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Speaker 2: three million dollars. It's an exceptional result. It's made thirty

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Speaker 2: one million dollars to date and so truly anything that

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Speaker 2: it earns at this point is just gravy. Theater owners

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Speaker 2: are making a lot of money from this. Mark Fishback,

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Speaker 2: who directed the film, is making a lot of money

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Speaker 2: from this. So it's definitely a nice success story.

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Speaker 1: What did you learn about how he got this into

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Speaker 1: it was upwards of two thousand theaters? Like, did he

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Speaker 1: literally get on the phone and call people? Did he

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Speaker 1: did he have a rent a distributor? How did he

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Speaker 1: do it?

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Speaker 2: He released a YouTube video after opening weekend and said

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Speaker 2: actually a lot of distributors had reached out to him

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Speaker 2: and were interested in working with him once word of

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Speaker 2: mouth started to build, but he decided to go at

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Speaker 2: this alone, and I think that it really is a

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Speaker 2: word of mouth success. So there were some theater owners

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Speaker 2: early in the year, even at the end of last

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Speaker 2: year who told me to put this film on my

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Speaker 2: radar and said that they felt like the audience was

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Speaker 2: really going to come out for it. So I think

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Speaker 2: the exhibition community actually not only was aware that it

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Speaker 2: was coming out, but felt strongly about the fact that

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Speaker 2: this audience would show up. And so even though it

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Speaker 2: might not have been on everyone's radars, the community of

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Speaker 2: theater owners definitely have been watching this one for a

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Speaker 2: bit now.

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Speaker 1: It's awesome to see these absolute green shoots of wholly independent,

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Speaker 1: very alternative activity. That's where the innovation is going to

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Speaker 1: come from. It always does all right, without belaboring it

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Speaker 1: too much because much has been said and written. But

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Speaker 1: how did Milania the documentary do in weekend two?

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Speaker 2: It had a pretty steep drop. It plunged to the

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Speaker 2: number nine spot after being in third place in its

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Speaker 2: opening weekend. It made around two million dollars, which is

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Speaker 2: a decline of sixty seven percent from its opening weekend.

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Speaker 2: So Malania did drop like a horror film. Just to

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Speaker 2: put it in context of how other genres tend to

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Speaker 2: fare at the box office. Again, like we talked about

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Speaker 2: last weekend, it's made thirteen million domestically, which is a

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Speaker 2: strong number for a documentary that's not about nature and

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Speaker 2: it's not a concert film. But at the same time,

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Speaker 2: it costs more than almost any documentary in history, and

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Speaker 2: so it's hard to tell whether this is going to

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Speaker 2: Amazon's going to feel justified and how much they spent.

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Speaker 2: That being said, in what was a quite unusual move

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Speaker 2: to me, Amazon MGM's domestic distribution chief, Kevin Wilson, he

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Speaker 2: released the statement to address the second weekend results. And

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Speaker 2: I have been covering the box office for Variety for

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Speaker 2: over eight years now, and I've never seen a major

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Speaker 2: distributor release the statement around the second weekend of a

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Speaker 2: film in theaters. And his point was kind of saying

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Speaker 2: that the theatrical performance is validating their distribution strategy because

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Speaker 2: it's bringing awareness and engagement and momentum before the film

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Speaker 2: lands on prime video, and they're saying that this is

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Speaker 2: a win because it's the theatrical window is the first

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Speaker 2: step in what they hope is a long life on streaming.

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Speaker 1: Rebecca, let's talk about what's going on in the rest

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Speaker 1: of the world. I know the international box office had

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Speaker 1: some interesting results. What are you seeing out there?

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Speaker 2: There was a concert film called Stray Kids The Dominate Experience,

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Speaker 2: which is about the popular K pop boy band. It

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Speaker 2: actually managed to be number one this weekend at the

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Speaker 2: global box office. It earned nineteen point one million. A

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Speaker 2: lot of that came from international markets, which accounted for

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Speaker 2: around thirteen million of that. Universal is releasing the film

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Speaker 2: internationally and Bleeker Street is handling the rollout in the

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Speaker 2: US and Canada. It's a really strong showing for a

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Speaker 2: concert film, and I think it did benefit from the

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Speaker 2: fact that major studios sat out this weekend in terms

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Speaker 2: of new releases, and so it was a nice.

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Speaker 1: Little bright spot.

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Speaker 2: They get to say they were the number one film.

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Speaker 2: And it was also quite popular in imax. Imax represented

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Speaker 2: around twenty percent of the global ticket sales, and so

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Speaker 2: speaks to a lot of the things that we have

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Speaker 2: been talking about. But definitely a nice little showing for

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Speaker 2: this film.

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Speaker 1: And certainly must be a nice little score for Bleaker Street,

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Speaker 1: as they typically handle more art house fair this seems

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Speaker 1: like they caught a wave here.

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Speaker 2: A Bleaker Street actually is a new label that's dedicated

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Speaker 2: to event films, and so they're hoping to fill this

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Speaker 2: void at the box office. We've seen a number of

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Speaker 2: event films break out of the box office, whether it's

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Speaker 2: a concert film or other genres, and so they're hoping

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Speaker 2: to capitalize on that.

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Speaker 1: What's the movie at the international box office whose performance

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Speaker 1: is impressing you, whether it's an American title or a

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Speaker 1: local language title.

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Speaker 2: Z Utopia Too has can continue to be at the

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Speaker 2: top of box office charts. It was released eleven weeks

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Speaker 2: ago around Thanksgiving, and it managed to place number two,

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Speaker 2: right behind Stray Kids, and it made sixteen point eight

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Speaker 2: million dollars globally this weekend, bringing its tally to one

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Speaker 2: point eight billion dollars. It's the ninth highest grossing movie

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Speaker 2: in history, and it's just continues to rake in the money.

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Speaker 2: For Disney, they have not released they've not announced yet

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Speaker 2: that there's going to be as Utopia three, but I

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Speaker 2: think that statement is coming any minute, because it has

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Speaker 2: just been a complete powerhouse at the box office, and

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Speaker 2: it actually ranked ahead of a much newer Disney release,

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Speaker 2: Send Help. At the global box office. It made sixteen

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Speaker 2: point three million dollars. Just the fact that Utopia two

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Speaker 2: is managing to outpace newer releases speaks to the appetite

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Speaker 2: that family crowds have been having for this film.

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Speaker 1: Doing the math in my head, a eleven weeks is

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Speaker 1: just about double the forty five day theatrical window that

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Speaker 1: everybody's talking about these days. That's an interesting data point

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Speaker 1: for folks. Well, before I let you go, what are

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Speaker 1: you looking forward to to? Next weekend? Which is a

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Speaker 1: big box office going weekend? As Valentine's Day arrives.

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Speaker 2: The box office should finally heat up next weekend. There

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Speaker 2: are five new films coming to theaters. One of the

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Speaker 2: major ones that's expected to top the box office is

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Speaker 2: Emerald Fennel's Weathering Heights adaptation, which stars Muger, Robbie and

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Speaker 2: Jacoba Lordie. That has been a film that certainly got

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Speaker 2: people talking and so definitely expect that one to outperform expectations.

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Speaker 2: And then there are a few different genres. One is

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Speaker 2: an animated film produced by Steph Curry called Goat. It's

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Speaker 2: a sports comedy. And then there's also a starry heist

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Speaker 2: thriller called Crime one oh one and that is led

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Speaker 2: by Chris Hemsworth, Ark Ruffalo and Barry Keyogan, and so

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Speaker 2: it'll definitely be interesting to see how all of those

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Speaker 2: films play against each other, because it seems to be

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Speaker 2: offering something for all kinds of audiences.

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Speaker 1: Well, Rebecca, as always, thank you so much for doing

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Speaker 1: the watching. We'll looking forward to checking in next week.

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Speaker 2: Thank you.

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Speaker 1: And now we turn to Mark Melkin, who puts some

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Speaker 1: timely questions to Netflix co CEO Ted Sarandos.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Cynthia. I was on the red carpet Saturday night

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Speaker 3: at the DJA Awards here in Los Angeles when I

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Speaker 3: caught up with Netflix boss Ted Sarandos. We talked about

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Speaker 3: his recent testimony before the Senate about the Netflix Warner

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Speaker 3: Brothers deal. I ask Sarandos if he's worried at all

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Speaker 3: if President Trump gets involved or tries to have a

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Speaker 3: say in the deal.

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Speaker 1: Oh.

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Speaker 4: Look, I think he has a keen interest in the

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Speaker 4: entertainment business. He knows about deals, he knows about the

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Speaker 4: entertainment business, and he really does care about the health

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Speaker 4: of the industry American industry generally, but I think particularly

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Speaker 4: the entertainment industry. So he taking a keen interest in

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Speaker 4: the deal itself. He's made no indication that he's going

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Speaker 4: to do anything or be involved in any way. They said, proper,

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Speaker 4: this is the DJ's deal.

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Speaker 3: Serrando's is confident that the merger will happen.

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Speaker 4: Look, I think our deal to acquire Warner Brothers is

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Speaker 4: solid on the merits and then getting across what maybe

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Speaker 4: folks don't quite understand, just how competitive the marketplace is right,

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Speaker 4: you know, for you know, for where to put your

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Speaker 4: project or where consumers are going to watch it. And

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Speaker 4: it's never been more competitive. And it's a really wild

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Speaker 4: West landscape right now, right, And this idea that there's

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Speaker 4: this you know, concentration risk in our deal is ludicrous.

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Speaker 4: But you've got one player, YouTube, which is already fifteen

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Speaker 4: percent of TV time and growing, right, So.

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Speaker 3: Why didn't you try to buy YouTube?

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Speaker 1: Obviously?

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Speaker 4: The beauty of the Warner Brothers deal is all the

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Speaker 4: things that we're buying we don't have. You know, typically

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Speaker 4: media mergers are pretty lousy outcomes because it's doubling up

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Speaker 4: with all the resources and then you just cut them

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Speaker 4: in half and suck the money out.

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Speaker 3: That's not what we're doing.

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Speaker 4: We're we're gonna nurture Warner Brothers and HBO and Warner

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Speaker 4: Brothers Television and make those great you know brands even

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Speaker 4: better for the next cent.

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Speaker 3: I also asked Surrandus about the controversy surrounding the cancelation

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Speaker 3: of Boots, the one season series about a young man

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Speaker 3: who enlists in the Marines in the nineteen nineties, at

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Speaker 3: the same time he's coming to terms with, or at

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Speaker 3: least trying to come to terms with, his sexuality. It

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Speaker 3: was one of my favorite new shows of twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 3: and like many fans, I was surprised when it didn't

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Speaker 3: get picked up for a second season. There was some

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Speaker 3: talk about Boots being canceled. People were surprised it didn't

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Speaker 3: get a second season. Had people assumed it was recauess

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Speaker 3: the Department of War went after it. Did not have

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Speaker 3: anything to do with that decisi Absolutely not.

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Speaker 4: These are all business decisions based on audience relative to

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Speaker 4: the cost of the show. Do the people who push

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Speaker 4: play watch it to the end? Do they give it

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Speaker 4: a couple of dumbs up? Does it keep growing? All

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Speaker 4: those things? That decision is made every day. And the

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Speaker 4: beauty of white people get upset by when you cancel

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Speaker 4: the show is because they love that they are That's

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Speaker 4: the best part about the Internet, about our business is

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Speaker 4: that people really love the product and it's a bit

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Speaker 4: heartbreaking to cancel any show ever, you know, particularly a

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Speaker 4: show that Norman Leter brought to me.

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Speaker 3: For more of my interview with Serrando's, check out my

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Speaker 3: column Jes for Variety at Variety dot com.

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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 The Berlin Film Festival starts on Thursday,

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Speaker 1: February twelfth. Will produce five print dailies out of the

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Speaker 1: festival starting on Thursday. Much more to come on that,

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Speaker 1: and look for those dailies being widely available on Variety

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Speaker 1: dot com and on our social platforms. We want to

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Speaker 1: show them off. February twelfth is also a big launch

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Speaker 1: day for new TV series Love Story, John F. Kennedy

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Speaker 1: Junior and Carolyn Bassett bows on FX. The great British

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Speaker 1: comedian Don French is back in a comedy that Paramount

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Speaker 1: Plus has imported from BBC one. Can You Keep a Secret?

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Speaker 1: Features French as the matriarch of a very quirky family,

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Speaker 1: and also coming on February twelfth from Amazon Prime Video,

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Speaker 1: Soul Power The Legend of the American Basketball Association. That

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Speaker 1: league was ex stant from nineteen sixty seven nineteen seventy six.

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Speaker 1: This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the ABA's merger

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Speaker 1: with the NBA. Before we go, congrats to Eve Frederick.

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Speaker 1: She's been promoted to Executive Vice President of Production for

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Speaker 1: Unscripted at BBC Studios. She's been with BBC Studios since

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. Thanks for listening. This episode was written and

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

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Speaker 1: and Mark Malcolm Stick Snicks hick Picks. Please leave us

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

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