The Box Office Podcast

A deep dive into the genuinely unprecedented box office success that was Terrifier 3 , as well as a look at A) just how badly Joker Folie a Deux performed on its second weekend and B) why nobody gave a damn about “origin story” flicks about Donald Trump and Saturday Night Live (which Jeremy righteously tears to shreds). Also on tap are a few listener emails, leading to a spirited discussion on the...

Joker: Folie à Deux lost its wheels and laid an egg, but we four cranky box office pundits aren’t going to let him get away. All four of us agree that, hey, at least this means Terrifier 3 might top the domestic box office this weekend, so… huzzah? Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

What went right for The Wild Robot ? What went wrong for Megalopolis ? What does the success of the former mean for the vitality of original or “new to you” animation and a possible comeback for DreamWorks Animation? Does the commercial failure of the latter mean anything beyond the apparent lack of modern-day appeal of an original sci-fi drama with mixed reviews from a legendary director whose la...

Rank doesn’t matter. It’s the raw dollars earned that counts. It’s still gotta sting that the opening weekend of Paramount and Hasbro’s well-reviewed Transformers One earned less than the third weekend of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice . That’s the crux of our latest weekly box office chat, along with Never Let Go being the latest Lionsgate theatrical whiff, a (friendly) critical debate about The Substan...

After a super quick recap of the mid-September that was ( Beetlejuice 2 tops again, Speak No Evil opens to entirely “fine, whatever” opening grosses, two aggressively niche MAGA-friendly flicks make the spectacularly idiotic choice to open on the same weekend, etc.), we devote the rest of the show to answering questions sent to Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at...

The gang is back to talk Beetlejuice (WB’s success with offseason tentpole scheduling), Beetlejuice (how copious IP and actor-specific fandoms for multiple generations created an all-quadrant event movie), Beetlejuice (How does Tim Burton capitalize on this late-era success?). We also talk Showbiz Direct’s next steps after a halfway decent theatrical showing for Reagan, a box office update for the...

In an episode fit for 1.25x speed, this 95-minute epic offers special guest BoxOffice Pro's Daniel Loria amid the summer wrap-up. Jeremy reaffirms that as Disney goes, so goes the entire theatrical industry. Lisa argues Imax should be utilized to retrain audiences to see theatrical comedies. Daniel declares multiplexes need more mid-range hits alongside the tentpoles. Ryan discusses the breakout s...

As summer winds down with a comparative whimper…Scott rambles about how The Crow was never a viable brand or franchise. Jeremy explains what Laika is taking from  Coraline 's   success. Lisa explains that theaters need films that are “just” films. Ryan discusses the robust overseas performance of Alien: Romulus .Everyone unloads on Lionsgate for that entirely avoidable Megalopolis trailer snafu. G...

Ryan and Lisa (cordially) debate whether Disney has allowed the more adult-skewing Fox brands to stay true to their R-rated roots. Still, both agree that Lionsgate’s Borderlands is a monumental tentpole disaster. Jeremy notes the Alien Romulus demo stats which imply that it’s “Baby’s first Alien flick” for many younger viewers while succinctly speaking a grim truth about the current “anti-spoiler”...

Both Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends With Us nabbed $50 million+ weekends, again showing Hollywood there’s more than one way to build a blockbuster. Lisa Laman details the key lesson from the mega-hit Colleen Hoover adaptation. Ryan Scott begs Lionsgate to stop making Borderlands -sized franchise failures. Jeremy Fuster ends the show with a righteous diatribe contrasting D23’s bread-and-circuses...

The gang is back to discuss what continues to go right for Deadpool & Wolverine, what only went kinda-sorta okay for M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap and what went 104% wrong for Harold and the Purple Crayon. There are fewer digressions than usual, although we do note Warner Bros. Discovery’s very bummer summer and Longlegs being Nicolas Cage’s biggest live-action hit in nearly 17 years while imploring I...

50 minutes of (almost) nothing but Deadpool & Wolverine , both in terms of its box office bonanza and what the four of us thought of the picture. Spoiler: I was not the crankiest critic this weekend. Plenty of thoughts about what went right (adding Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine negated a possible decline in interest), what didn’t go wrong (the kids showed up, R-rating be damned) and why a success speci...

There were only two really big pieces of news, namely the $81 million domestic opening weekend (along with the softer-than-hoped overseas earnings) for Twisters and the ridiculously solid hold for Neon’s Longlegs . Meanwhile, Inside Out 2 is about to become the biggest animated movie ever if you don’t count The Lion King ( which I don’t even if my co-hosts think I’m full of s**t). Get full access...

Despicable Me 4 ’s spectacularly consistent (for his franchise) holds and raw grosses... As Longlegs surprises, keep Osgood Perkins away from Netflix... The complicated financial variables behind a $10 million opening for Fly Me to the Moon... Why A24 started the Oscar race a little early with 'Sing Sing'... What the hell is going to happen to Kevin Costner's 'Horizon'? Get full access to The Outs...

Was Despicable Me 3 ’s domestic downturn a fluke or did the extended wait and pre-COVID nostalgia for the brand prevent a continual box office downward trajectory for Hollywood's top-grossing animated franchise? How bad is a $3 million Fri-Sun/$6 million Thurs-Sun debut for The Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot , which was supposed to be Angel Studios’ big summer season event? Were we wrong...

The gang is back to dissect what went very right with A Quiet Place: Day One and almost inevitably wrong with Horizon: An American Saga. Lisa laments the ongoing emphasis on movies for older audiences. Jeremy explains how Kevin Costner’s passion project was a relative hit in certain parts of the country. Ryan anoints Lupita Nyong’o as a genuine movie star (or at least an A-level added value elemen...

Ryan Scott and Lisa Laman do it "solo" to discuss the $101 million second weekend for Inside Out 2 along with better-than-expected openings for 'The Bikeriders,' 'Thelma' and 'Kinds of Kindness'. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

‘Inside Out 2’ soared to infinity and beyond, nabbing $154 million domestic and $294 million worldwide in its global theatrical launch. That’s good, right? We’re all in agreement that it’s great news for the box office and the multiplexes. However, if Bob Iger and friends are to capitalize on this, they have to -- to quote my favorite Disney animated film -- make the right choices and (say it with...

A well-liked sequel to a successful sequel in a popular franchise opened at the high end of realistic expectations… what a shock...! What a $107 million global debut for Bad Boys: Ride or Die does (and doesn’t) say about Will Smith’s current drawing power... After The Watchers stumbles, is horror in trouble or are the movies underwhelming? Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.sub...

Since Hollywood didn’t bother to release any new wide openers last weekend, I gave the box office folks the weekend off. In the meantime, and this may be a backdoor pilot of sorts for a second semi-regular podcast, I spoke last week with Business Insider entertainment correspondent Jason Guerrasio . His as-it-happened reporting was essential in exposing the less-than-glittery gold that was the yea...

Whether or not Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga should have performed better or was an inevitable “online fandom doesn’t equal audience interest” misfire, such a film shouldn’t have been expected to hold up theatrical — alongside The Garfield Movie — almost by itself. That’s the crux of the chat amid a historically grim Memorial Day weekend box office session. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottm...

We dissect If ’s complicated $33.7 million domestic debut (remember G-Force ?), whether we should be “happy” that The Strangers: Chapter 1 opened with $12 million (if horror becomes as franchise-dependent as every other theatrical genre…), and whether anyone should be surprised at the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black earning less than $3 million for the weekend (I was there… in early 1992… when...

We talk about the solid $131 million debut for 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,' including what went right, why it got a B from CinemaScore and what the math looks like (especially sans China) in terms of justifying follow-up. Oh, and 'Poolman' opened, too, I guess. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

Does the mediocre opening weekend suggest a broader theatrical problem, or was Ryan Gosling in a Hollywood love letter to itself less enticing to regular moviegoers? Plus, how this is all, of course, the fault of our 'Star Wars' Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe

The complicated new math of films distributed by obscenely wealthy streaming companies where it hardly matters if a $55 million flick like Zendaya’s Challengers makes a rate-of-return profit on theatrical alone. What is the “success” point for these “theatrical as PR for streaming” movies in terms of making the distributors happy with the box office results? How good (or bad) is a $15 million open...