RT @ScottMendelson: Long-ass summer movie wrap-up in progress, but yes, it's a new record with $4.765 billion from May 1 to September 7. Ye…

‘Coyote Vs. Acme’ and ‘Dog Stars’ Both Bomb At Friday Box Office via @ScottMendelson scottmendelson.substack.com/…

In a skewed irony, 'Coyote Vs. Acme' will now be seen as a box office triumph for Ketchup despite initial grosses ($15.4 million on opening weekend) that would’ve been disastrous for Warner Bros. and the Looney Tunes brand sans the years of melodrama.

The shelved-but-rescued Looney Tunes film debuted to $15.5 million, which can be spun as a win for Ketchup but would’ve been seen as a defeat for Warner Bros...

New pod: Breaking down a wild, mostly wonderful summer in theaters, and how our own predictions turned out. With box office guru @ScottMendelson. Listen! Watch! open.spotify.com/episode/4iC…

Sony’s ‘Brand New Day’ is passing $900 million domestically, but that doesn’t mean that audiences have rediscovered their mid-2010s love for Marvel and DC movies. It just means, as has been the case since 2002, that SPIDER-MAN is one of the biggest "movie stars" in the world...

The Odyssey has now made 4.73x its opening weekend domestically, pushing it past Inception's multiplier (4.68) to become Nolan's leggiest wide release ever. It also stands as the third leggiest $80M+ opener ever, behind only Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water.

The only thing more impressive than ‘Coyote Vs. Acme’ dropping just 25% in its second weekend (faith in humanity... restored!), or 'The Odyssey' nabbing the third-biggest eighth-weekend gross ever, was 'Buddy’ increasing 6% from its opening weekend...

One word immediately comes to mind when thinking of Godzilla 1998... New episode of #2BlackGuysTalkGodzilla out now! iTunes - tinyurl.com/3zyaersw Spotify - tinyurl.com/yc5jvcyp Substack - tinyurl.com/3p4fnk68 YouTube - tinyurl.com/5hatbw5z

The Results of the 14th Annual Summer Box Office Gamble are in! Find out who won and get general thoughts on this summer, along with guests @ScottMendelson and Lisa Laman! iTunes – tinyurl.com/4x8kav9r Spotify – tinyurl.com/497jkxtc AudioBoom – tinyurl.com/5ybm78rj

All respect, but Evil Dead Burn was genuinely hilarious, to the point where I honestly wondered whether more hardcore fans would ding it for being too "funny" or "crowd-pleasing."

What we’re watching is the various constituencies of the old Hollywood economic system realizing that they want different things from New Paramount. THR’s framing is that Bonta and Ellison are effectively splitting organized Hollywood into camps because the guilds’ members occupy very different positions in the production economy. And I think that helps explain why the DGA/IATSE letter seemed almost absurdly onerous from Ellison’s perspective. DGA/IATSE aren’t really supporting Ellison’s merger. They’re proposing something closer to a regulated holding company - like the luxury conglomerate parallel I'm fond of. Their conditions include separate Paramount and Warner Bros. movie studios with distinct production, distribution and marketing operations; at least 15 theatrical releases annually from each studio; minimum theatrical windows; continued third-party film and television licensing; HBO remaining available through outside distributors; minimum levels of U.S. production; and Paramount remaining based in Los Angeles. But what about the synergies? Where are the synergies? If Ellison pays an enormous control premium to combine the companies and is then legally obligated to maintain duplicate distribution departments, duplicate marketing departments, duplicate production organizations and minimum output levels, a substantial portion of the traditional merger arithmetic disappears. But viewed from IATSE’s perspective, that’s precisely the point. A grip doesn’t particularly care whether New Paramount achieves a magnificent unified recommendation engine in 2031. He cares whether there are 30 movies employing crews next year. A director cares whether there continue to be multiple buyers competing to hire directors. So DGA/IATSE are effectively saying: You may consolidate the capital structure. You may not consolidate away the marketplace that employs us. That’s a fascinating distinction. And the WGA’s position is actually more internally consistent. The WGA essentially says: Don't merge. That sounds more radical, but economically it’s cleaner. Writers benefit from having more competing buyers. If Paramount and Warner combine, even with contractual promises about output, there is ultimately one corporate parent allocating capital. THR notes that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA remain opposed while DGA/IATSE are pushing toward resolution; Teamsters Local 399 has separately attacked the relocation threat. So Hollywood labor isn’t really dividing over whether David Ellison is good or bad. They’re dividing according to where each craft sits in the value chain.

there’s a readymade course correct in the can, I feel like we’re all falling for the marketing keyfabe! also for all the headlines about EVIL DEAD BURN bombing, it made more than 3x its budget! RISE was just a breakout hit

There were nearly a dozen new releases and two notable expansions, meaning Tom Holland and Zendaya will account for just 58% of the domestic weekend box office total. However, only four of the newbies earned even $1 million on Friday.

Those who showed up to a movie like ‘One Night Only’ would’ve had little issue with more explicit onscreen content. Cutting (some of) the sex from the R-rated sex comedy lessened its appeal among those interested in the pursuit of moviegoers who were never going to see it anyway.

'The End of Oak Street’ is shockingly good. It’s stupendously well-constructed and staged, with terrific performances (Anne Hathaway is 4/4 this year, with Verity still on deck), a macabre sense of humor, unapologetically raw melodrama and genuinely scary set pieces. It rocks.

With another terrific Anne Hathaway performance (4/4, with Verity on deck) and David Robert Mitchell's tangible cinematic skill (clever staging, thoughtful blocking, slow-burn tension, memorable set pieces, raw performances, etc.), WB's @EndofOakStreet is kinda awesome...

Yes, I'd imagine prolonged litigation over a proposed merger would potentially be damaging to the entertainment industry. But you know what else would be damaging to showbiz? WB and Paramount both being owned by the same company for no reason other than "But... I want them!"

News of Charlie Vs. the Chocolate Factory getting a global theatrical release in November 2027 arrives as The Last House (which ironically plays like a mockbuster variation on The End of Oak Street) becomes Netflix’s latest summer movie to debut with underwhelming SVOD ratings...

@DaBoxOfficePod Episode 132 “I Didn’t Know He Could Get That Big...!” via @ScottMendelson , Lisa Laman, @jeremyfuster and @ODSTSpartan tinyurl.com/y2mwt7x5