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.

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