The MovieBabble Podcast

The domestic box office receipts for 'Maleficent 2' prove that the age-old question of "did anyone ask for this movie?" is never a good sign leading up to a release as the latest Disney failed to meet expectations, although its overseas gross did help to soften the blow. In other news, Sony released another sequel and Martin Scorsese took another jab at Marvel movies. Call it just another week for...

'Joker' is quickly turning into a worldwide phenomenon as it crosses the $500 million mark worldwide, furthering entrenching the film as a talking point for the months to come. But what is its earning ceiling? We break down what the future may hold for the origin story -- which includes Nick going on a deep-dive into Chinese censorship boards. In other news, 'The Addams Family' starts off its thea...

A little indie film that literally no one has discussed in long, angry Twitter threads entitled 'Joker' earned the highest October opening weekend in history with its +$93.5 million haul, furthering entrenching the film as a BIG talking point...and a possible awards contender down the line. Brace yourself for the outrage! Elsewhere, Martin Scorsese pissed off Marvel fans. All this and more in this...

All of our film journeys our different. We arrive at some films at different points in our lives, and sometimes not at all. But there's always a select group of films for each person that gets the wheels turning. This week on Babble With Brennan, the crew discuss some of the films that made them interested in the art form, including some films that are still among their favorites, and even some th...

It's a late-September tradition that an average to an above-average animated movie opens in theaters, and that trend continued this week with 'Abominable', the latest effort from DreamWorks. However, 'Abominable' may have some tough sledding ahead with its lackluster box office take. Elsewhere, 'Downton Abbey', 'Hustlers', and 'It Chapter Two' all excel, while 'Judy' seems primed for an Oscar run....

It turns out that 'Downton Abbey' fandom is alive and well, as the film adaptation of the popular TV show became Focus Features' highest opening weekend ever with its $31 million, hinting at a new trend in TV-to-film adaptations for studios. And thanks to both 'Ad Astra' and 'Rambo: Last Blood', we longer have to talk about 'The Lion King' as part of the top five (thank the heavens!!!), as the two...

By the power of JLo, Cardi B, Lizzo, and others, 'Hustlers' was the big winner of the weekend, earning over $33 million and becoming a MUCH-needed hit for STX Entertainment, famed distributor of 'UglyDolls'.  And while 'It Chapter Two' walked away with another solid week, the other big story of the week was the awards coming out of TIFF. We cover all this and more in this week's episode of The Mov...

As expected, 'It Chapter Two' started the fall movie season off with a bang, despite tracking behind 'It' (2017) in overall numbers. However, we discuss why this sequel did not work as well as its predecessor in a spoiler discussion of the film. However, the most curious news of the week was 'Joker' earning the top prize at the Venice Film Festival with Roman Polanski's 'An Officer and a Spy' gett...

The fall is the beginning of the best time of the year in movies, where the big-time Oscar hopefuls come to prestige festivals as well as theaters. In this episode of Babble with Brennan, Brennan and Nick break down the big releases up through the Thanksgiving weekend such as 'IT 2', 'Joker', 'The Irishman', and many more!   Hosts: Brennan Dubé and Nick Kush Join the MovieBabble staff: https://mov...

Wait, so you're telling me that movies like 'Don't Let Go', 'Bennett's War', and 'Killerman' don't excite you? Luckily for everyone, we have no interest in discussing these films either, so we're doing a little something different this time around by looking back at the summer movie season as a whole. What were our favorite movies? How about our most disappointing? What dog voiced by an actor did...

We're winding down to the end of the summer, which means that Hollywood is giving up on releasing movies until September. Nevertheless, movies such as 'Angel Has Fallen', 'Overcomer', and 'Ready Or Not' opened up right around studio expectations. But the main story of the week is undoubtedly the possible split between Disney/Marvel and Sony over Spider-Man, leaving the character out of the MCU for...

For what seems like the first time in quite a while, a movie that isn't the next phase in an existing franchise or the relaunch of an existing IP secured the top spot at the box office. 'Good Boys' opened strong, securing over $21 million and upending 'Hobbs and Shaw' from first place. However, not every smaller release succeeded this week. '47 Meters Down: Uncaged', 'Blinded by the Light', and 'W...

Somehow, five movies opened in over 1,000 theaters this weekend, meaning that some of them were bound to fall through the cracks. The main losers were 'Brian Banks' and 'The Kitchen', two films that will quickly disappear from your purview. However, both 'Scary Stories' and 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold' opened strong behind 'Hobbs and Shaw' which stayed in the first spot. We cover this and more...

The month of July is always filled with loads of movie news. From news bombs dropping at Comic-Con to a plethora of high-profile festivals releasing their program to a TON of trailers, the MovieBabble crew tackles it all on this episode of The MovieBabble Podcast!   Hosts: Brennan Dubé, Collin Willis, and Nick Kush Join the MovieBabble staff:  https://moviebabblereviews.com/join-moviebabble/ Like...

'Hobb and Shaw' is plenty stupid, but it also made plenty of money in its first weekend, earning $180 million around the world ahead of its Chinese opening in a few weeks. Though its budget is a hefty $200 million, it should benefit from limited blockbuster competition until September. We're into the middle of August now, which means that we're hitting a weird middle ground between the summer and...

Did you hear? Quentin Tarantino has a new movie out! 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' is a bit of a departure for the director, as the film is far more relaxed and thoughtful than his previous few outings. And while that presentation might not lead to solid legs at the box office, Sony made sure that the film opened strong. In fact, 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' is Quentin's highest opening EVER....

Have you heard of this company called Disney? You should have, because they might be around for awhile. The media titan had another banner week at the box office and in the news as the remake of 'The Lion King' scored the highest opening weekend EVER for an animated film (it's CGI-animated, not live-action). But also, Comic-Con was this week, and Marvel made a BIG splash by announcing their lineup...

With 'Far From Home' doing excellent business, we're doing a bit of a Spider-Man redux and ranking all of the Spider-Man films to date (not including the weird made-for-TV movie from 1977 or any of the weird Turkish knock-offs, because we like fun around here.) In this second episode of 'Babble With Brennan' on this feed, Brennan is joined by notable Spidey fan and MovieBabble contributor Collin W...

I would love to try the drugs you were on if you made the claim that 'Crawl' and 'Stuber' would ignite the sleepy summer box office. The two wide releases of the week opened to moderately small numbers, while 'Far From Home' and 'Toy Story 4' continue their strong theatrical runs. But the sleepy summer has been extra sleepy, so the gang looks at future weeks and the fruit that they may bear, inclu...

Breaking news: The MCU is financially viable. 'Far From Home' opened to slightly under $600 million worldwide over the long Fourth of July weekend, acting as both a palate cleanser to 'Endgame' and the finale of Phase 3 in the MCU. It was easily the highest grossing movie of the weekend, and it is well on its way to becoming the first Spider-Man movie to break the $1 billion mark. In other news, A...

This is the inaugural episode of Babble With Brennan, a new running series on The MovieBabble Podcast feed hosted by MovieBabble contributor Brennan Dubé. The series will run bi-weekly, and Brennan will lead discussion in a wide variety of topics. We start today with a look at the best movies of 2019 so far, broken down into three categories: surprisingly great movies of 2019, under the radar hits...

Surprising news: 'Toy Story 4' is a big deal. The animated tale continued its reign at the number one spot, inching its worldwide total to almost $500 million. Another hefty sum for Pixar. (What else is new?) But we had other movies to discuss, including 'Annabelle Comes Home' and 'Yesterday', which had differing results in their first weeks. We unpack it all in this week's episode of The MovieBab...

'Toy Story 4' owned the box office, and our hearts, pummeling us all into an emotional puddle in typical Pixar fashion. Still, both Collin and Nick expected the movie to do better business in its opening weekend and discuss why it didn't meet our expectations. In other news, the remake/reboot/soft reboot/reimagining of 'Child's Play' released this week, and we break down all its pieces...including...

Does anyone care about IP-driven movies outside of the MCU? The knee-jerk reaction to the summer box office would say "no" to that question, as sequels, reboots, and reimaginings continue to implode during this summer box office season. 'Men in Black: International' unceremoniously opened this week to a lackluster return, whereas 'Shaft' failed to get into the top five. Collin and Nick break down...

The weekend proved to be pretty brutal for sequels, as 'The Secret Life of Pets 2' and 'Dark Phoenix' suffered mightily, albeit for different reasons. Among other things, Collin, Nick, and Brennan discuss the failures of these two films -- with SPOILER discussion of 'Dark Phoenix' included -- the life habits of Harrison Ford, and our favorite X-Men movies. All this and more in this week's episode!...