The Box Office Podcast

Chainsaw Man: The Movie proved that anime is no longer necessarily specialized theatrical programming. Meanwhile, Deliver Me from Nowhere failed to become the next A Complete Unknown and Regretting You did not remotely become the next It Ends with Us. Travis Hopson, of Punch Drunk Critics (and elsewhere) joins as we discuss what went wrong for The Boss and why the latest Colleen Hoover adaptation didn’t even manage a “from The Firm to The Pelican Brief” decline. More discourse is had concerning Bugonia’s platform debut amid a season of indifferently received award-season contenders, long-term expectations for anime as a Sony-distributed animated sub-genre, and the extent to which the issues plaguing Hollywood go back at least as far as the post-Star Wars/Jaws pursuit of previously aspirational box office results. By the way, a paid subscriber chat is set for today at 2 p.m. EST/11 a.m. PST. I’ll send out the official email shortly, but be aware. Recommended Reading… Scott Mendelson notes the ironic coincidence [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/p/its-nadda-franchise-on-predator-badlands]that November’s first would-be biggies are both examples of “Hollywood treats a singular Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi actioner as a replicable franchise.” Jeremy Fuster digs deep into how Hollywood’s labor organizations are reacting [https://www.thewrap.com/warner-bros-sale-could-kill-more-jobs-hollywood-labor-response/] to what could be an industry-imploding Warner Bros sale. Lisa Laman notes the tenth anniversary of Sony’s Goosebumps, which kicked off the current trend of “Jack Black - Butts in Seats Movie Star for Kids [https://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/ten-years-ago-the-jack-black-renaissance-began-giving-audiences-goosebumps.php].” Ryan Scott’s latest “Tales from the Box Office [https://www.slashfilm.com/2006554/book-of-shadows-blair-witch-2-box-office/]” discusses the 25th anniversary of everyone’s favorite Blair Witch flick, Joe Berlinger’s Book of Shadows. I’ll note that the pre-release punditry expecting the film to open on par with The Blair Witch Project (despite the lightning-in-a-bottle nature of that not-exactly-universally-adored predecessor) was one of my “origin stories” in terms of being an overly cautious box office “predictor.” Also, 25 years later, it’s almost aspirational for a horror film to get a whopping $15 million budget… Travis Hopson reviews [https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/found-footage-patterson-project-movie-review-2025]Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project, which is a mockumentary on the making of a Blair Witch-style chiller in the vein of Christopher Guest’s cult favorites. If you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe (using a cartoon mallet) with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you’d like to reach out and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or suggest ideas for bonus episodes, please email us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com (which I finally fixed so that it’ll forward to my personal business email, natch). * Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/] and Puck News [https://puck.news/author/scott-mendelson/] * Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap [https://www.thewrap.com/author/jeremy-fuster/] * Lisa Laman [https://lisalaman.wixstudio.com/lisaportfolio] - Dallas Observer [https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/dallas-forths-best-trans-inclusive-bars-and-businesses-21590543], Pajiba [https://www.pajiba.com/staff/lisa-laman.php], Looper [https://www.looper.com/author/lisalaman/], Comic Book [https://comicbook.com/author/lisa-laman/] and Autostraddle [https://www.autostraddle.com/author/lisalaman/] * Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm [https://www.slashfilm.com/author/ryanscott/] and Fangoria [https://www.fangoria.com/authors/ryan-scott/] * Travis Hopson - Punch Drunk Critics [https://punchdrunkcritics.com/author/punchdrunktrav/], Roger Ebert [https://www.rogerebert.com/contributors/travis-hopson], JoBlo [https://www.joblo.com/no-holds-barred-1989-hulk-hogan/], ABC 7 News [https://wjla.com/topic/Travis%20Hopson] Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The Black Phone 2 was the hit Blumhouse needed, but the brand still has work to do to get folks excited about its not-sequel, non-IP horror offerings. Good Fortune was another miss for live-action theatrical comedies. While Lionsgate made a few marketing mistakes, it shouldn’t require 100% perfection to garner a halfway decent opening for a star-packed, well-reviewed and present-tense topical high-concept comedy. Meanwhile, After the Hunt, Truth & Treason and Petsa on a Train barely made a ripple amid another unpleasantly small weekend box office cume, with Amazon MGM Studios’ (poorly-reviewed) #MeToo drama inspiring PTSD a decade after Secret in Her Eyes flamed out for STX Entertainment. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Was the failure of Tron: Ares inevitable by virtue of Tron never being an A-level franchise? Or is the box office decimation of Disney’s $180 million threequel a matter of the specific choices made for what became this past weekend’s little-loved and little-seen would-be tentpole? Maybe Disney should have said “No” to Jared Leto’s self-aggrandizing pitch and cast a younger or at least more popular older actor to anchor a big-deal franchise entry. No matter, there’s plenty of Tron discourse as Kirsten Acuna (the coolest entertainment staff editor at People Magazine) and Aaron Neuwirth (the second-coolest host of 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla) pull another two-for-one guest hosting shift. It’s another Power Rangers-worthy (two minorities, two women and one generic white guy arbitrarily in charge) line-up, which I suppose makes sense since it seemingly took Tron 3 a thousand years to become “free” even if it absolutely failed to conquer Earth. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

It’s just the terrific trio this time around, as Scott, Lisa and Jeremy dig into what went (mostly) right with Taylor Swift’s second glorified feature-length theatrical commercial and what went so very wrong with A24 and Dwayne Johnson’s The Smashing Machine. Meanwhile, after a shockingly good overseas hold, behold some cautiously optimistic long-term “projections” for One Battle After Another, as well as a frank explanation of A) why Release Party of a Showgirl opened with barely 1/3 of what The Eras Tour debuted with in October 2023 and B) why Avatar: The Way of Water’s theatrical reissue opened to less than 1/3 of what Avatar grossed in its September 2022 reissue. Oh, and Lisa — who has seen almost no pre-Casino Royale 007 films — watched GoldenEye for the first time. In terms of the written word… Scott Mendelson anchored day 51 of Ted Hope’s #FilmStack Inspiration Challenge [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/p/filmstack-inspiration-challenge-day-51]. Jeremy Fuster dissected the glory [https://www.thewrap.com/terrifier-halloween-horror-nights-universal/] that is Art the Clown’s Terrifier-themed maze (and his impromptu appearances where you might least expect him) at this year’s Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights events. Lisa Laman explained why Emily Blunt wasn’t remotely a good fit [https://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/whats-up-with-emily-blunts-miscalculated-the-smashing-machine-performance.php] for her supporting turn in The Smashing Machine. Ryan Scott’s “Tales from the Box Office [https://www.slashfilm.com/1986353/ben-stiller-meet-the-parents-sylvester-stallone-get-carter-box-office/]” highlighted what proved to be a somewhat defining (even if its lessons have now become comparatively forgotten) October 2000 box office showdown during which the new and youth-skewing (Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro’s Meet the Parents) pancaked the old and nostalgia-skewing (Sylvester Stallone’s Get Carter remake). If you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe (using a cartoon mallet) with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you’d like to reach out and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or suggest ideas for bonus episodes, please email us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com (which I finally fixed so that it’ll forward to my personal business email, natch). Oh… and the paid subscriber chat for October 9 is set for today at 11:00 a.m. PST. * Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/] and Puck News [https://puck.news/author/scott-mendelson/] * Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap [https://www.thewrap.com/author/jeremy-fuster/] * Lisa Laman [https://lisalaman.wixstudio.com/lisaportfolio] - Dallas Observer [https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/dallas-forths-best-trans-inclusive-bars-and-businesses-21590543], Pajiba [https://www.pajiba.com/staff/lisa-laman.php], Looper [https://www.looper.com/author/lisalaman/], Comic Book [https://comicbook.com/author/lisa-laman/] and Autostraddle [https://www.autostraddle.com/author/lisalaman/] * Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm [https://www.slashfilm.com/author/ryanscott/] and Fangoria [https://www.fangoria.com/authors/ryan-scott/] Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The host of The Brandon Peters Show (the only pod with a less creative title than “The Box Office Podcast”) returns to discuss One Battle After Another, which pulled a giant *shrug* of a $22 million domestic debut. Did the reviews, buzz and Oscar attention fail to move the needle, or did all the positive variables merely prevent an even lower opening? And with two in a row, is Leonardo DiCaprio now a mere $20 million-plus opener compared to the $30-$40 million highs seen in the 2010s? Sure, WB can afford to let this one underwhelm in relation to its budget and perhaps aspirational hopes, but theaters sure would have preferred another Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood or even The Departed. Meanwhile, because the real news of the weekend was the perfectly-fine $13.7 million debut for Universal and DreamWorks’ Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie, longtime “kids entertainment in the streaming era” expert and pundit Emily Horgan stopped by all the way from Ireland to discuss the reemerging trend of kids toons and related youth-skewing shows getting the “Now it’s a movie, dammit!” treatment. While Brandon makes a convincing case for why Gabby should have perished in her feature film debut, all agree that the current upswing in such youth-skewing releases is a net-positive in terms of cultivating the next generation of regular (or even semi-regular) theatrical moviegoers. Oh, and Emily also agrees that Paw Patrol 3 should have been a Dark Knight remake, dammit. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe [https://scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]