Longtime film writer, movie reviewer, entertainment journalist, and author Marya E. Gates is this week’s extra-special guest. Considering this relatively barren weekend for new releases, it would have been deeply ironic had this (among other things) expert in the realm of silent cinema arrived on a week with little to talk about. The good news is that while Hollywood mostly took the week off (again), the 105-minute episode is nonetheless packed with tangents, digressions and the usual chaos you’ve come to expect.

We’ve got anecdotes from the world of film marketing, discourse about whether Sony’s “send these movies to Netflix” gambit might still have boosted the Sony Animation brand, and debates as to why How to Make a Killing likely never had a chance, even if it had received a wider, higher-profile release. Included is also a conversation concerning Jacob Elordi’s budding stardom, during which our guest (quite accidentally and indirectly) drops the most vulgar line of the show.

The question of the day is everyone’s favorite Elvis Presley song, as Max Deering finally sees Return to Silent Hill and tries his best to explain why his current home country (The Netherlands) is apparently gripped by Roarball fever.

Recommended Reading…

* Scott Mendelson discusses whether GOAT is the start of a new era, or at least a return to the early 2010s era, for original animated films.

* Jeremy Fuster investigates the chilling possibility that films for/from/about women might actually have a future in the COVID-era box office recovery.

* Lisa Laman discusses, well, “Please, Keep Letting Directors Talk About Movie Theaters And Projection Formats.”

* Ryan Scott argues that the marketing for Lucasfilm and Disney’s The Mandalorian and Grogu implies that, well, “Begun, Star Wars sequel trilogy nostalgia has.”

* Max Deering kinda-sorta takes center stage in the latest Silent Hill-centric episode of Action for Everyone.

* Marya E. Gates has written almost everywhere about almost everything entertainment/movie-related, but for now, just buy her book Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words.

As always, if you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe. 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 [email protected].

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Land of the Nerds, Dallas Observer, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

* Ryan Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

* Marya E. Gates - Roger Ebert, Cool People Have Feelings Too and much more.

Longtime journalist and podcaster Jordan Crucchiola guests on this week’s episode as the gang discusses the reception and commercial performance of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. Well, she eventually skips out at around the halfway mark since she hadn’t yet seen the other new releases amid a crowded President’s Day weekend. Still, the remaining four of us (Scott, Lisa, Jeremy and Max) have much to say about the differing fortunes for the other movies. To wit…

Max hashes out the complicated issues related to casting Jacob Elordi as “not quite a white guy” Heathcliff, which Jordan notes that white filmmakers (even women) can find themselves in a lose/lose scenario when telling stories about or in conversation with race-based inequities. Scott explains why, in a rare exception, he finds himself indifferent to the outcry over this specific would-be whitewashing, as Jeremy notes that the film is another instance of disproportionately hyperbolic online response skewing the more middle-of-the-road real-world buzz.

There’s a lot where that came from, but once Jordan sneaks away, the gang gets down to “real business,” including whether $35 million is exceptional or merely pretty good for Sony’s original GOAT. Jeremy argues that the lowered ceiling remains an issue, while Lisa argues that the sky-high results for non-sequel animated films from the early 2000s to the late 2010s might have been a momentary fluke. Everyone agrees that Crime 101 cost too much and grossed too little, and they all have opinions about what Amazon is or isn’t up to regarding its theatrical plans.

Finally, everyone gives a modest hat tip to the “could have been so much worse” debut for Good Luck, Have Fun Don’t Die while noting that at least some subjective disappointment over Wuthering Heights’s mere $38 million Fri-Mon domestic debut was about hyperbolic expectations and an unexpected plethora of healthy competitors and holdovers. In the long run, it’s arguably better for the big tentpole to open a little smaller alongside healthy competition rather than having the entire theatrical ecosystem depending on the official big would-be blockbuster pulling the best-case-scenario box office.

Apologies, but I’m running behind, so no “recommended reading” for this week. That said, if you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe. 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 [email protected].

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Land of the Nerds, Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

* Jordan Crucchiola - Feeling Seen, Vulture and NPR

In what was a needlessly barren weekend in terms of new releases from major studios, the newbies and the smaller distribution outlets picked up some of the slack. So, for the occasion of what was technically Super Bowl weekend, Chrissi Michael, content strategist by day and box office nerd by night, returned for the fourth time as she attempts to stake her claim as the Steve Mart… err, uh… Emma Stone of The Box Office Podcast. Among the subjects of discourse…

* Jeremy and Max don’t say jack s**t since neither of them could make it.

* Scott, Lisa and Chrissi dissect Send Help’s staying power.

* Lisa notes the sheer volume of semi-regular small-scale/indie releases.

* Chrissi offers a critical deep dive into Charli XCX’s The Moment

* Scott notes the surprising muscle shown byVertical and Bleecker Street

* Lisa argues that Solo Mio again shows that rom-coms can still work.

* Chrissi demonstrates that she’s far too committed to the Box Office Podcast.

* Scott accidentally makes Dracula sound much better than it actually is.

* Everyone engages in way too much Wuthering Heights pre-release chatter.

* And more!

Apologies, but I’m running behind, so no “recommended reading” for this week. That said, if you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe. 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 [email protected].

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Land of the Nerds, Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

* Chrissi Michael - c(ine)m(a) studies

In his long-awaited debut in the revolving (or fifth?) fourth chair of The Box Office Podcast, long-time film pundit and action film expert Vyce Victus pops in presumably/theoretically to discuss the latest Jason Statham joint.

And while we find enough time to discuss Shelter’s place in the Statham canon, as well as tipping our hat to Ric Roman Waugh as a regular director of high-quality “dad movie” action flicks, most of the chat is taken up by Scott, Jeremy, Max and Vyce taking stock of Markiplier’s genuinely impressive DIY accomplishment, the unto-itself aspirational launch for Sam Raimi’s Send Help and what a $7 million debut for Amazon’s $40 million Melania does and doesn’t mean for life, the universe and everyrhing.

Lisa couldn’t make it, but… well… something-something post-credit cookie…

Apologies, I’m behind schedule, so no “recommended reading” this week. 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 [email protected] (which I finally fixed so that it’ll forward to my personal business email, natch).

Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

Lisa Laman - Land of the Nerds, Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

Vyce Victus - Action For Everyone

I’m not thrilled that Lionsgate has already dropped The Housemaid onto PVOD, even if I’ll note that A) it got a now (kinda-sorta) standard 47-day window and B) it’s probably going to lose a bunch of screens and get steamrolled by Wuthering Heights the weekend after next anyway. This was recorded right as Lionsgate announced that the Sydney Sweeney/Amanda Seyfried/Brandon Sklenar-led flick had passed $300 million worldwide, partially on the strength of James Cameron-worthy holds in North America and especially overseas. Considering the decades of conventional wisdom arguing that Hollywood movies for women and/or minorities don’t travel overseas, well, it’ll top $200 million internationally over the next week.

It’s no secret that I came out of CinemaCon 2025 declaring that the sizzle reel for The Housemaid was the best promotional item I had seen in Las Vegas that week and that the erotic thriller/psychological melodrama was #2 on my 2025 must-see list after Avatar: Fire and Ash. However, even being cautiously hopeful as to its commercial potential, even I wasn’t so optimistic as to expect the $35 million, R-rated old-school genre flick to pull the kind of domestic ($121 million) and worldwide (around $316 million) grosses that would have been aspirational even a generation ago.

Anyway, to mark the special occasion, Paul Feig was nice enough to stop by to discuss how he made a crowdpleasing, buzzy adult-skewing genre flick. While we are as vague as possible, I would still argue that, yes, this conversation contains spoilers for The Housemaid. Meanwhile, the other areas of discourse include…

* How Feig uses the test screening process for good rather than evil

* How his lifelong interest in comedy and thrillers intermingle

* Whether Hollywood will ever stop treating female-skewing successes as (my words, not his) exceptions to the rule or “flukes”?

* What repeatedly stabbing Sandra Bullock in the leg taught him about playing laughs and gasps against each other

* Why, he’d now prefer only to direct theatrical films

* How the reception for his old(er) movies like Ghostbusters and Last Christmas can change when they are (re)discovered years after the initial SEO-friendly discourse.

* Is he actually directing Mamma Mia 3?

* And more!

I hope it is as enjoyable to listen to as it was to record. In the meantime, the following Box Office Podcast episode will drop on Thursday morning, and I’m planning on another “paid subscriber chat” on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. PST.

As always, 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 [email protected].

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Land of the Nerds, Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

The listeners demanded it, the author agreed to it, and so the podcaster (oh-so-reluctantly) allowed it. For those who came in late, Barry Hertz popped by on “An Hour With…”, the semi-regular offshoot of The Box Office Podcast, to discuss his sprawling and comprehensive literary deep-dive into the Fast and the Furious franchise. The book Welcome to the Family has been available in print and audio since late last year and primarily focuses on the first ten core Fast and Furious movies. As such, Mr. Hertz generously agreed to return on a future episode to discuss Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.

As such, this shorter episode, at least initially, was going to discuss only the winding road that led to a Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham-led spin-off opening theatrically in August 2019. The David Leitch-directed action spectacular, also starring Idris Elba and Vanessa Kirby, earned decent notices, grossed more than a good-enough $760 million worldwide, but inspired little enthusiasm for either itself or the notion of a sequel. However, the film remains a late-2010s time capsule that captures the constant push-pull as Hollywood struggled to expand successful franchises into secondary directions without harming the proverbial mother ship.

Anyway, near the end of our conversation, we discussed the still-unknown fate of Fast & Furious 11. So, of course, three days later, Universal announced a March 17, 2028, release date for Fast Forever. As such, Mr. Hertz was nice enough to jump back on for a quick Friday afternoon mini-discourse, after exiting a (work-mandated) matinee showing of Melania, which I’ve cut-and-pasted into the end of the first episode as gracefully as possible.

Alas, he lacked the courage or journalistic fortitude to ask the handful of Melania viewers their thoughts about the 11th and presumably final chapter in the Fast & Furious saga. Jokes aside, you’ve got the 30-minute conversation about Hobbs & Shaw, an 11-minute chat about Fast Forever, and then the conventional “Who are you and what the hell do you want?” show ending plug grabbed from the end of the Tuesday chat and affixed onto the end of the Friday one.

Anyway, as far as “recommended reading,” I mean, obviously buy his book. But besides that, do read his Melania review so that his sacrifice need not be in vain. Plus, also read his terrific piece about how the straight-to-streaming structure has doomed a generation’s worth of movies, including many that in a prior time would have been considered big-deal theatrical releases, to essentially vanish into a black hole of cultural irrelevancy.

Comscore Sr. Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian returned to talk shop with the usual gang. He was only able to stick around for the first third before making like Steven Seagal in Executive Decision. Still, that first third covers the “Hey, the domestic box office cleared $9 billion after all!” results for the 2025 Jan-to-Dec slate.

There is also chatter about our favorite films that didn’t receive a single Oscar nomination. This intro segment features, intentionally or not, Jeremy Fuster discussing Wake Up Dead Man in a way that makes me wonder whether Ted Sarandos really did have a multiplex-friendly awakening over the holidays.

Anyway, “act two” is the three of us discussing the objectively terrible domestic and global debut for Mercy and emphasizing that Amazon MGM Studios, if they want to be treated as a major theatrical contender, cannot be graded on a curve when it comes to big-budget movies opening to far-lower-than-required grosses.

Act three is the three of us gabbing about the Oscar nominations. Everyone is thrilled that Delroy Lindo finally got a damn Oscar nomination. Jeremy passionately “defends” F1: The Movie’s Best Picture inclusion. Scott Mendelson wonders aloud just how close Weapons came to scoring a Best Picture nomination. Lisa Laman mourns the Testament of Ann Lee shutout while wondering if the Searchlight release will even get a physical media release.

Recommended Reading:

* Scott Mendelson goes (too) deep on the monkey’s paw nostalgia at play in the first teaser trailer for Amazon MGM Studios’ Masters of the Universe.

* Jeremy Fuster details how Amazon’s Brett Ratner-directed Melania is slated to be the latest example of online and social media chatter not translating to real-world interest. We’ll see if Iron Lung, courtesy of longtime YouTube personality Markiplier, will be an exception to the rule.

* Lisa Laman compares and contrasts the not-disimmilar endings to No Other Choice and The Irishman.

* Ryan Scott dissects the grim domestic box office for Return to Silent Hill.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

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 [email protected].

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Land of the Nerds, Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

Aaron Neuwirth returns for… what is this, the sixth or seventh time (?) since March 2025, to pontificate about what went right (artistically) but wrong (commercially) regarding Nia DaCosta and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Among the areas of discourse are whether a mixed reception for 28 Years Later led to this downturn or whether — barring new classic status — this was always going to be a “folks were only curious the first time” IP revival. Also on tap is the continuing plea for studios to actually release more movies in theaters more regularly so that multiplexes and moviegoers aren’t essentially told “take it or leave it” for a single commercially questionable release even amid a previously lucrative holiday weekend.

Recommended Reading…

* Scott Mendelson discusses the shocking news that Fathom Events will A) be distributing Laika’s Wildwood in North America and B) attempt to become a semi-regular old-school domestic distribution studio.

* Jeremy Fuster declares that, yes, Timothee Chalamet is indeed the closest thing we’ve got (give or take Sandra Bullock) to a butts-in-seats movie star.

* Lisa Laman offers her picks for the ten Netflix movies that are most in need of and/or deserving of a physical media (DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K HD, etc.) release.

* Ryan Scott argues why one of 28 Years Later and The Bone Temple’s most interesting characters damn-well better show up in the third film.

* Aaron Neuwirth picks his most anticipated films in 2026.

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 [email protected] (which I finally fixed so that it’ll forward to my personal business email, natch).

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book, Autostraddle

* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

* Aaron Neuwirth - The Code is Zeek and We Live Entertainment

While you’d think that the terrific trio, alongside producer Max Deering and special guest Rendy Jones (another superb fourth-chair occupant who’s so young but has been doing this for so long that I shudder to think how old they were when I first started reading their reviews and commentary), would spend most of the time discussing Primate and Greenland: Migration. And, yes, both films get their due discourse. And yes, the monkey business includes a digression into the infamous opening-night reaction to The Devil Inside.

However, the first half is taken up by a conversation about everyone’s favorite studio logos and a tough-love chat about the many current struggles at Searchlight since its absorption into the Disney empire. The debate “rages” (not really) over why the former Fox Searchlight has struggled to at least remain as potent a year-end as Comcast’s Focus Features. Is it an inevitable consequence of consolidation? Is it an unwillingness to try and turn the likes of Rental Family into non-award-season hits? It’s probably a little of both.

Here’s hoping that The Testament of Ann Lee A) scores its share of Oscar nominations and B) opens wide-ish next weekend with closer to $6 million than, I dunno, $600,000, just to make us look like idiots. We also discuss Neon’s slow-roll success as the hot spot for fans of international cinema, surefire ways to sell The Testament of Ann Lee to regular audiences (think Jermaine Stewart), fancasting for The Housemaid’s Secret and — because this is a box office podcast — the latest Jim Jarmusch flick.

Recommended Reading…

* Scott Mendelson argues that, with The Housemaid representing her third straight overperforming non-franchise mainstream studio programmer, Sydney Sweeney might just be a movie star.

* Jeremy Fuster discussed how concerns and fears about almost inevitable corporate consolidation have dampened the mood even in an otherwise optimistic theatrical ecosystem.

* Lisa Laman noted in an older article worth resharing amid the initial publicity run for Avengers: Doomsday that Fox’s 2015 SDCC panel highlighted a Marvel-specific future that never truly materialized.

* Ryan Scott discusses how Ben Affleck and Matt Damon arranged for a performance-based bonus pool — to be shared among the cast and crew of Netflix’s The Rip — as a way to deal with (not unlike the Artist Equity arrangements for Air among other films) streaming-specific inequities in terms of profit sharing.

* Rendy Jones shares the best (among those they’ve seen) of the indie/festival/arthouse gems we should keep our eyes on for 2026

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 [email protected] (which I finally fixed so that it’ll forward to my personal business email, natch).

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

* Rendy Jones - Rendy’s Reviews

The new-to-the-show guest for the first episode of 2026 is Tre’vell Anderson, prolific author, podcaster and journalist (who was recently named co-director of the Trans Journalist Association alongside TJA co-founder Kae Petrin). Oh, and Jeremy Fuster recorded from Japan, making this another truly international episode.

All respect to We Bury the Dead and KidzBop Live: The Concert Movie, the vast majority of the show is spent discussing holdover news alongside hopes and fears for the new year. Among the areas of focus are the sky-high — especially in Asia — success for Zootopia 2 (Jeremy Fuster recorded from Japan, making this another truly international episode), the robust legs for The Housemaid and the continued “absurd by any other standard” earnings for Avatar: Fire and Ash.

This includes an important discussion about both the extent to which (and why it matters that) Zootopia 2 is “copaganda” and whether Gazelle is hotter than Judy Hopps. #TeamHopps, but after that, the final third pivots to a bit of “rebellions are built on hope” discourse. No, not about the real-world hellscape necessarily, but merely about what may or may not happen to Warner Bros. and the entire exhibition ecosystem if the streamer buys and (comparatively) kneecaps its theatrical ambitions.

Recommended Reading…

* Scott Mendelson offered the best movies of 2025 and predictions for the top global grossers for each month of 2026.

* Jeremy Fuster’s 2026 box office preview is essentially (my words, not his) “things are looking up, but Netflix can still make it all irrelevant.”

* Lisa Laman picked the ten best motion-capture characters, and (among others) I’m thrilled that I’m not the only one who remembers A Monster Calls.

* Ryan Scott offered five (pretty reasonable) suggestions for whoever (presumably Dave Filoni) will replace Kathleen Kennedy as head of Lucasfilm.

* Tre’vell Anderson’s Time Magazine cover story in May of 2021, interviewing Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir author Akwaeke Emezi.

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 [email protected] (which I finally fixed so that it’ll forward to my personal business email, natch).

* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News

* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap

* Lisa Laman - Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle

* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone

* Tre’vell Anderson - podcasts, books and articles