Russ and Zach mock MAX/HBONOW/HBOMAX or whatever it’s calling itself nowadays for changes that likely cost the fledgling company millions of dollars in costs. Truly David Zaslav is a corporate genius. He also added that “no consumer today is saying they want more content, but better content." Yes, David, we’ve been telling you that ever since you spammed the HBO app with 40,000 home-remodeling and 4th tier reality shows.

From THR:

Added chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content Casey Bloys: “With the course we are on and strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition. And it clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”

Thirty minutes into Wednesday’s Warner Bros. Discovery upfront, Bloys revealed the name change to media buyers. The news was met with laughter, light applause and exactly one whistle. Bloys did follow with a solid joke: “I know you’re all shocked, but the good news is I have a drawer full of stationery from the last time around.”

James Gunn had a great bit in this video he made discussing Superman.

SINNERS is a huge success becoming the largest grossing original film since Pixar’s COCO. While I don’t think that COCO counts as a wholly original piece of film in the way that SINNERS is as it’s a Pixar film first… but that’s just me. If you can see SINNERS at the biggest screen possible, if it’s on an IMAX screen in your area - THAT is the way to see it - Zach saw it that way and it was a life changing experience.

From Slashfilm:

In its fourth weekend in theaters, "Sinners" added another $22 million domestically, marking just a 34% drop. That was good enough for the number two spot, with "Thunderbolts*" winning its second weekend with $33 million. More importantly, Warner Bros. and Coogler's blockbuster collaboration has now made $215.3 million domestically to go with $68.9 million internationally for a running global total of $284.2 million. That domestic number is of grave importance, as this is the first original movie that has managed to cross the $200 million mark since 2017.

One of the top “controversies” I’ve seen wandering around the internet in the last month was the “censorship” of ROBIN HOOD (2010) on Amazon Prime. People on reddit and some Amazon forums were claiming that Amazon was censoring the opening text screens of the Ridley Scott film that talk about tyranny. Amazon last time ECV checked hadn’t addressed it to our confusion. This has been an issue in the past with movies like EMPIRE OF THE STATE. Some people claim it’s due to Chinese censorship but frankly Zach and Russ are guessing it’s some Ai slopification getting rid of the on screentext to add to the captions. Who knows? Someone at Amazon does, but they ain’t talking. Guess it’s just one more reason to just get the movie on Blu-ray.

10 days ago when I filmed the video below, the text had already returned.

Our final story is a heart-warming one that I happened in April but Zach only caught this month. It’s an great story of David Letterman traveling to Maine to be on the last show local Bangor, Maine late night show… just watch this local news report.

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