On this week’s episode, Tony Davis of Tessive returns to the show just in time for Christmas to walk you through the upgrades and lateral movements you need to be thinking about if you have home theater gear on your Christmas wishlist. We discuss HDR formats (what’s the difference between Dolby Vision and HDR10, and does it really matter?), why movies and TV shows on Amazon look so bad (hint: they’re compressed to death), and why you desperately need to upgrade those HDMI cables (because we can’t have nice things, that’s why).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to David Herrin the CEO and founder of The Quorum, a film research firm that has done something rather remarkable in making tracking data available to the public in the same way that box office data is available to the public. “Tracking” numbers are the data points used by studios to help determine how a film will perform in theaters, and The Quorum is building a hearty database for movie nerds to dive into. In addition to discussing The Quorum’s new study examining why audiences are hesitant to return to theaters—spoiler: cost and COVID remain the two biggest factors—we also chat about the state of the business and what’s likely to come. I encourage you to poke around at The Quorum’s website if you’re a fan of sites like Box Office Mojo; there’s all sorts of interesting stuff there. And share this post with a friend if you enjoyed our chat!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Wil Haygood, author of the new book Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World. Haygood’s book is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn about largely forgotten trailblazers such as Oscar Micheaux, better-known figures like Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, the controversies over movies as diverse as The Birth of a Nation and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, the odd fate of Porgy and Bess, and so much more. Colorization is both breezy and in-depth—the best sort of popular history—and our conversation only scratched the surface of his book. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week's episode, Sonny is joined by Christian Blauvelt, author of Hollywood Victory: The Movies, Stars, and Stories of World War II. From the pre-war skittishness of the big studios about alienating German markets—and potentially alienating an isolationist homefront, pre-Pearl Harbor—to the wartime efforts to raise funds and produce works of art that inspired Americans to resist the fascist menace, Christian's book tells a wide-ranging and fascinating story.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Sonny is joined by Jim Cummings, whose new feature The Beta Test drops on VOD and in select theaters Friday, Nov. 5. In addition to discussing his few film and its acidic take on the dispute between talent agencies and the WGA, Jim also talks about landing a featured role in Halloween Kills, how he financed and distributed his first feature, Thunder Road, and his horror-comedy The Wolf of Snow Hollow (which topped Sonny’s best-of list in 2020). If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you click “buy” on a digital product at Amazon or Apple, as opposed to “rent,” what do you think that means? Most folks think of it like buying a physical copy of a thing: they can sell it or pass it down to heirs. But as Aaron Perzanowski, a professor at Case Western, notes in his sit-down with Sonny Bunch, that’s not really the case: you’re just buying a license to a thing. And if that license to Amazon or Apple ends? Well, so does your access to the thing you think you “bought.” On this week’s Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, Sonny discusses the tricky nature of ownership in an increasingly digital world—and what you need to know before you click “Buy.” If you enjoy this episode, please share it with a friend!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, CNN’s Frank Pallotta rejoins Sonny to talk about Netflix’s big week! New subscriber numbers, new data numbers, and a newly controversial gloss to the biggest thing in entertainment. Plus, we talk a bit about Halloween Kills, Dune, and the impact of streaming on box office numbers. If you enjoyed the show, share it with a friend!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ryan Faughnder of the Los Angeles Times’s Wide Shot newsletter rejoins the show this week to discuss the boon—and burden—of sports betting ads. What are some of the rewards, and the risks, of this enormous advertising market? We also discussed Squid Game and Netflix’s efforts to internationalize entertainment as well as the age-old debate: subtitling versus dubbing. Make sure to sign up for Ryan’s newsletter (it’s free!) and if you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Scott Eyman about his new book, 20th Century Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio. Zanuck’s reign as a Hollywood mogul ran through nearly every major technological and business innovation Hollywood saw in the first half of the 20th century and beyond, and Mr. Eyman’s book paints a compelling portrait of a producer as both businessman and artist. You can pick up a copy wherever books are sold (here’s an Amazon link for ease’s sake), and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Sonny talks to Scott Tobias, formerly of The AV Club and The Dissolve, about his new Substack endeavor with Keith Phipps, The Reveal, as well as the evolving world of film criticism. With so many local newspapers cutting back on movie reviewers for budgetary reasons and so many websites merely hitting the most popular of topics to generate clicks, it’s interesting—and, frankly, heartening—to see Substack using their Pro program to help critics like Tobias and Phipps (along with Ty Burr and Jerry Saltz) stand up their own newsletters to chase their own idiosyncratic interests. Can the “Thousand True Fans” theorem save the world of interesting film writing?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices