The Town with Matthew Belloni

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to conduct the third annual box office draft on ‘The Town.’ Matt and Lucas each draft seven blockbuster movies set to be released in 2025 with the goal of making the most money possible against the production budget. Plus, an added twist that allows each person to saddle the other's team with a movie they believe will bomb. Click HERE to help those affected...

Matt is joined by Warner Bailey to talk about one of the most underdiscussed yet crucial pieces of the Hollywood ecosystem: the assistant. Warner surveyed tens of thousands of currently employed assistants in the entertainment business to answer questions about their current salary, how the job has changed over the years, whether they’d want to be their boss one day, if they’ve ever been asked to...

Matt is joined by Amy Reisenbach, the president of CBS Entertainment, to talk about how broadcast networks continue to succeed despite living in a world of streaming and social media. She discusses why these linear networks are still surviving, how a hybrid broadcast-streaming model can be beneficial for legacy networks, and the challenge of programming shows for audiences of different age ranges...

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the fallout from the devastating fires in L.A. that are still ongoing. So much of Los Angeles is made up of the entertainment industry—from movie stars, directors, and agents to camera operators, teamsters, caterers, and production assistants—thousands of whom have been seriously affected by the fires. Matt and Lucas take a look at how Hollywood...

Matt is joined by Robbie Whelan from the Wall Street Journal to discuss Disney’s most popular non-theme park experience, the cruise line, and its increasing value to Disney. Matt walks us through his own personal experience on a Disney cruise over the holiday break, and they get into the business of how and why this business is so profitable and important for Disney, and if any other company has t...

Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw react to the Golden Globes and Lucas gives his takeaways from inside the room Sunday night. Then they look ahead to the new year and pose their biggest industry questions of 2025 (01:48). Finally, Matt looks back at his year in predictions on The Call Sheet and Craig reveals whether this was Matt’s best or worst year of prognosticating (24:31). For a 20 percent disc...

In Part 2 of the exclusive Townie Awards, Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw decide who won the year, including executives and talent, and give out some additional awards, including: Biggest Flex; Executive Fail of the Year; Movie Marketing Miss of the Year; Suck It Haters, I Was Right; and so much more. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click h...

It’s podcasting’s most exclusive event of the year: the third annual Townie Awards! Join Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw as they go through the biggest moves, deals, and fails from 2024, while also awarding the Most Annoying Media Narrative, Sneaky Successes, Publicist Fails, Larry David Spite Store of the Year, and much more in Part 1 of this year's Townies. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Ho...

Matt is joined by producer Peter Jaysen to discuss his latest film, ‘A Complete Unknown,’ and how he managed to get a movie about Bob Dylan made. He details how he secured the rights to Dylan’s musical archive and life, how they chose Timothée Chalamet, how much Dylan was involved, and secrets to finding and developing top-tier IP (02:45). Matt finishes the show with a Christmas Day box office pre...

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to run through a slew of topics tied to a recent survey conducted by Shaw that polls hundreds of Hollywood insiders on some of the hottest questions around town. They also touch on the latest news in the complicated 'It Ends With Us' feud (02:02). Matt finishes the show with a ratings prediction about Netflix's NFL Christmas debut (25:47). For a 20 percent...

Matt is joined by Michael O’Leary, CEO of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) to discuss their pledge to spend $2.2 billion to modernize and upgrade theaters, what that actually means, and what these new “entertainment centers” will actually look like. They also talk about the biggest successes of the year in moviegoing, how theaters can improve for the modern audience, how theaters...

Matt is joined by Mark Roesler, founder and chairman of CMG Worldwide, to discuss how AI has added a new twist to how the rights of dead famous people are being exploited. They discuss how incredibly valuable these rights are and how new technology is changing the way name, image, and likeness are being enabled to resurrect dead stars. They highlight a few recent examples, including James Earl Jon...

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss why Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to separate its TV networks unit from movies and streaming and what this could signal for the company moving forward. Later they discuss ABC News’ decision to settle Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit for $15 million and whether Disney will operate any differently under the Trump administration (02:55). Matt...

Matt is joined by the Entertainment Strategy Guy to help find out which TV shows were the most important to their streaming service in 2024 before revealing which movies actually performed well on streaming and which largely disappointed. He runs through the biggest movie releases of the year on streaming and reveals just how successful or disappointing they were (01:26). Matt and Craig finish the...

Matt is joined by the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming exec, to sort through the mirky waters of streaming data and find out which streaming tv shows were actually hits, which were major flops, which were underrated successes, and which were bigger bombs than anyone thought (02:57) Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office prediction for ‘Kraven the Hunter’ (29:10). F...

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to recap the year in streaming and nominate their clear winners and losers as well as some under-the-radar services that deserve more love or criticism (01:59). Matt finishes the show by recapping the Best Picture nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes and predicting who he thinks will take home the top award for Best Motion Picture–Drama and Best Motion Pi...

Matt is joined by LightShed Media analyst Rich Greenfield to talk about SpinCo, Comcast’s new spinoff company of cable and digital networks, and look at potential ramifications of the spinoff. They also discuss the implications this has on other media companies like Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Disney, then get into the coming game of musical chairs in the TV network business (02:26). Ma...

Matt is joined by filmmakers Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar to talk about their unique payment model behind their latest film, ‘Sing Sing.' They discuss how they managed to pay everyone on set, from lead actor to production assistant, the exact same amount of money while offering everyone who worked on the film equity in the film and still make everyone happy (02:17). Matt finishes the show with a...

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to recap a busy month at the box office, including a record-setting Thanksgiving weekend for ‘Moana 2’ after strong showings for ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II.’ They dig into Disney's dominant year at the box office and look ahead to its 2025 slate to see if its hot streak can continue. For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’...

Live from Los Angeles, Matt is joined by director Denis Villeneuve to discuss how he learns from past films, what he learned from his latest film ('Dune: Part Two'), and whether he will return to direct the third part. Denis also talks about his love for the original 'Star Wars' and whether he would ever consider directing one of his own, his thoughts on the current state of the industry, and how...

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to conduct The Town’s first ever Young Movie Star Draft. Matt and Lucas must each draft three actors and three actresses under the age of 35 who they think have the best shot at becoming the next big theatrical movie star. For an added twist, they can only select two people in each of the three age brackets of 20-25, 26-30, and 31-35. For a 20 percent disco...

Live from Los Angeles, Matt is joined by actress Mikey Madison to talk about her new movie ‘Anora’, working for director Sean Baker, how she was cast in Quentin Tarantino’s film ‘Once Upon a Time In … Hollywood,’ why she wants a Hollywood mentor, and more (01:56). Matt then finishes the show with an opening box office prediction for ‘Wicked: Part One’ and ‘Gladiator II’ (18:40). For a 20 percent d...

Matt is joined by The Ringer’s Bill Simmons to talk about the painful split between the NBA and Turner after a 30-year partnership. They discuss why the relationship blew up, details and questions surrounding the move of the popular studio talk show ‘Inside the NBA’ to ESPN, and whether there is a chance that this will work out for Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav in the long run. For a 20...

Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to talk about Disney reaching profitability in streaming, how Bob Iger managed to turn the company around in his two years since returning as CEO, and whether this is the beginning of a larger turnaround for Disney. Later, they discuss Netflix’s Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson boxing event, the glitchy live broadcast, what this means for Netflix in general, and it...

Matt is joined by Charlie Collier, the president of Roku Media, to talk about the most under-discussed streaming player in Hollywood, how it differentiates itself from other companies, and how they compete with tech giants Amazon and Google. He also discusses what he learned running AMC and Fox’s broadcast network and how the industry has changed, then makes the case for the return of ad-supported...