Brandon Katz of The Observer and Parrot Analytics serves as our special “fourth participant” with whom we discuss how badly Marvel has messed up (or been undermined by corporate overlords) in the post-Avengers: Endgame transition to Disney+ television, why The Monkey is performing well outside of comparisons to breakouts like Longlegs and M3GAN and whether Amazon MGM Studios will unnecessarily interfere with the established James Bond formula or dilute the brand through streaming offshoots.

Scott Mendelson, Jeremy Fuster and Lisa Laman pontificate on why a $101 million Friday-Monday debut isn’t great news for Captain America: Brave New World and could be terrible news for the theatrical industry, which is banking on the MCU tentpole to deadlift the entire first quarter. Concurrently, longtime LA journalist vet and before-it-was-cool geek culture expert Luke Y. Thompson is our special guest in a conversation discussing the give-and-take of politically-minded tentpoles, how disingenuous politically-minded operators exploited the genuine (explanation is not justification) anger over the diversification of stereotypically niche fandoms and whether Marvel’s current mixed track record is a natural evolution or more execution-driven.

In terms of the written word…

Scott Mendelson tipped his hat to Disney for doing the smart and right thing in moving Pixar’s Elio away from the June 13 opening day it previously shared with DreamWorks’ live-action How to Train Your Dragon remake.

Jeremy Fuster dove into the work being done amid and for the artistic community in beginning to rebuild areas devastated by last month’s wildfires.

Lisa Laman offered a quick study guide as to those pesky Serpent Society folks who show up in Captain America 4.

Ryan Scott’s latest “Tales from the Box Office” notes the 30th anniversary of Disney’s Heavyweights.

Luke Y. Thompson used the momentary online outrage over Terrifier director Damien Leone’s online declaration that Terrifier movies are apolitical (even if they aren’t necessarily secular) to pontificate about the complicated notions of being apolitical, at least in your personal relationships and your professional life, in an inherently political time.

As always, if you like what you hear, like, share, comment, and smash (using a cartoon mallet) that subscribe button with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you want to bother us and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or offer ideas for bonus episodes, ping us at [email protected].

Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck NewsJeremy Fuster - TheWrapLisa Laman - The Dallas Observer, Looper, Cultress, Comic Book and AutostraddleRyan C. Scott - SlashFilm and FangoriaLuke Y. Thompson - ill LYTeracy and /Film.

This weekend, we will discuss a disappointing Super Bowl weekend in North America (RIP Heart Eyes and Love Hurts), why Companion struggled to find post-debut momentum, and the consistently strong performance of Ne Zha 2 in China. Additionally, we spent the second half of the show answering a few listener emails, so keep those coming.

This weekend’s episode goes to the Dog(s), Man. Jeremy Fuster couldn’t make it, but Lisa Laman and Scott Mendelson welcome Kenny Miles to this week’s episode to discuss both the new releases (Companion and Dog Man) in a general sense and share his experiences and opinions related to his work as a CinemaScore pollster. We all agree that actually polling folks walking out of the movie on opening night is a better word-of-mouth measurement tool than opt-in online user polls that, of course, can be gamed and skewed for one reason or another. Also, we discuss the many positives of Dog Man’s strong domestic debut (yay for another DreamWorks franchise based on a comparatively lesser-known kid-lit series) and whether New Line and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Companion underwhelmed due to poor marketing or just being a more challenging concept.

The actual box office news is comparatively light, so this somewhat became an accidental three-part episode.

In the first act, Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and this week’s special guest star (Chrissi Michael, natch) discussed the ups and downs of the top ten and the various ways in which younger viewers ingest pop culture.

The second act, during which Jeremy Fuster pops in a bit late but not too late (think when you show up 25 minutes after the listed showtime at an AMC theater and Nicole Kidman is still proselytizing), features more conventional box office punditry.

And the third act, if you will, of the week’s conversation centers around Oscar punditry — and the many ways in which distributors and exhibitors could attempt to better cajole folks to actually show up to see the nominated films in theaters.

As noted above, this episode’s guest is one Chrissi Michael, a content strategist who has long obsessed with the box office and who has recently started writing again on a newly formed substack. Spoiler: She almost instantly went from “I have no idea who this is” to “Oh s**t, I either need to hire her or destroy her.”

As the sad Poe image implies, former co-host Ryan Scott is back, at least for one episode. They never found the body; he fixed the autopilot six months ago, an enraged Superboy punched the space-time continuum or whatever a bunch of times, and/or the entire last season was a dream. Either way, we hope for a few more Ryan Scott guest appearances over the next year to the extent his schedule allows. It was like riding a bike as we discussed why Wolf Man earned too little, with Scott discussing the specifics of Invisible Man’s success. Ryan correctly noted the unusually high budget, and both Jeremy and Lisa pointed out a relatively cold streak for Blumhouse as they face no longer being the cool kids in the horror sandbox. 

And yes, we discussed the borderline miracle that was One of Them Days pulling 2010s-level box office for what is an original, non-franchise, R-rated, not-a-white-guy theatrical comedy. Oh, and alongside a random digression about The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 and wondering what A24 forgot to do with Sing Sing, Ryan will correctly note that the notion of a Disney+ series being pretzeled into a $1 billion-plus theatrical film outweighs overall concerns about Disney relying on pre-packaged nostalgia for top-tier box office success. 

As always, if you like what you hear, like, share, comment, and smash (using a cartoon mallet) that subscribe button with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you want to bother us and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or offer ideas for bonus episodes, ping us at [email protected].

Yes, I’m going to start scheduling weekly subscriber chats this week (I just did one this morning, to relative success) and eventually become more aggressive about encouraging and answering listener emails.

Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck NewsJeremy Fuster - TheWrapLisa Laman - Looper, Cultress, Comic Book and AutostraddleRyan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria

Finally, if you have the means and motivation, several worthwhile organizations are attempting to help those impacted by the California fires.

As Jeremy mentions at the end of the previous episode, the Los Angeles-based Anti-Recidivism Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to ending mass incarceration, is raising funds to support California’s prison fire crews.

Likewise, as Lisa noted at the end of last week’s episode, please take a look at this spreadsheet listing GoFundMe links for displaced Black families (and impacted businesses) in Altadena, California.

And here are links for…The Red CrossThe LA food bankThe LAFD Wildfire Emergency FundThe California Fire FoundationDirect Relief

In what was the first “new” weekend of 2025, Den of Thieves 2 opened seven years after its predecessor with an almost identical amount of money in North America. For the special occasion, The Box Office Podcast welcomed the one and/or only Brandon Streussnig to discuss Vulture’s third annual “Stunt Awards” along with Gerard Butler’s B-level stardom, the nuanced politics of seemingly simplistic grindhouse fare and the key difference between knowing what’s wrong and knowing who or what is to blame.

Yes, there is plenty of box office punditry, including an extended fist-bump for the continued slow-burn success of A24’s The Brutalist. However, there’s also time to discuss the action genre as a whole, the ongoing notion of well-liked art made by less-than-ideal artists, the problem of blaming pop culture over the real-world culture it sometimes endorses or emulates and why Paramount’s support of Better Man qualifies as a moral victory even in the face of entirely expected box office failure.

Since there were no newbies of note this weekend, all due respect to Vertical’s The Damned, Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and Jeremy Fuster just talked about the holdover business and that pesky “fewer movies than theaters were once accustomed to” issue that still seems to be in play five years after the start of the COVID pandemic. The good news is that Mufasa: The Lion King is legging like a champ, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is racing into the video game-based movie history books. Moreover, adult-skewing biggies like Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown and Babygirl are thriving concurrently right alongside the all-quadrant tentpoles. The “bad” news is that, yeah, there was no excuse not to have *something* of note this weekend and Wicked Part One’s 49% seventh-weekend drop might make it the rare theatrical success that gets a little bit undercut by PVOD availability. Ask us again next weekend, natch.

In what will be the last episode of 2024, the three proverbial box office musketeers/amigos/etc. are joined by Daniel Loria for a deep dive into what went right over the holiday weekend and why it’s exactly the kind of “everybody wins” frame exhibitors and theatrical proselytizers have been waiting for since, well, even before the COVID era of multiplex melodrama. Mufasa: The Lion King and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 both held like champs, Wicked Part One and Moana 2 got big holiday bumps, and Nosferatu came on like a (pun intended) bat out of hell with a relatively sky-high five-day debut. 

The year will end almost tied, give or take a Disney movie delayed to 2025 and/or a painfully underperforming Joker sequel, with the #Barbenheimer-infused 2023 domestic totals. We thus all again note that the struggles and perils facing the multiplex remain more about supply than about demand. All of us express cautious optimism for next year, which is the first one since 2019 (or honestly, 2018 if you note the sheer Disney domination of what was supposed to be Bob Iger’s swan song), where theatrical is playing with something approximating a full deck.

However, even with concerns about lighter-than-expected slates in January and March, all signs point to, if not a full pre-COVID-level theatrical total, then something approximating best-case scenario business in an ecosystem where A) 20th Century Fox is no longer independent and no longer releasing 15-20 movies a year, while B) original animation and Marvel/DC films are no longer surefire mega-hits. All that, plus discover for yourself why the episode ended with Jeremy challenging theatrical moviegoers to “rawdog Shoah.”

After appearing on all 46 of the first episodes of The Box Office Podcast (even the late June episode where it was just her and Ryan holding down the fort), Lisa Laman had to sit this one out. She’ll be back for episode 48, so you can listen to me roll my eyes at all the Nosferatu nonsense *and* shudder at the hardcore deep-dive Sonic the Hedgehog nerdery in one single episode. This time, however, we’ve got a special guest star… (copies and pastes the whole thing cause I’m a lazy b*****d), Comscore Sr. Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian!!!

Anyway, it’s mostly chatter about how well Sonic the Hedgehog 3 performed over its initial domestic debut and to what extent Mufasa: The Lion King has a shot in hell at recovering thanks to that magic “Christmas-to-New Year’s” period after a comparatively terrible opening weekend. We then all discuss the extent to which the overall marketplace has been firing on all cylinders since Bad Boys for Life and Inside Out 2 in early June. Oh, and listen to Jeremy and Paul gush over the Superman trailer.

Spoiler: You will believe a nearly Medicare-eligible man can cry while watching the first trailer for the third Superman reboot in 19 years. Paul had to dash at the end of “act two,” and the final portion is just Jeremy and Scott discussing the ebb and flow of the 2025 calendar. Oh, and for whatever reason, we had some tech issues in that portion, so Jeremy’s audio is a little “fish underwater.” Beyond that, it’s a fun, ping-pong-ish conversation in a shorter-than-usual episode