September 29, 2025 • 19 mins
On today’s episode, Variety’s Rebecca Rubin breaks down the opening weekend for “One Battle After Another” at the box office. And veteran international correspondent John Hopewell reports from San Sebastián in Spain where the annual film festival drew Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence and more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, September twenty ninth,
twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am
co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm
in LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters
around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:21):
we'll talk with Variety's Rebecca Rubin about the box office
for one battle after another in its opening weekend, and
we'll hear from Barty's John Hopewell on the scene at
the San Sebastian Film Festival that just wrapped up in Spain.
But before we get to that, here are a few
headlines from the weekend that you need to know. I'm
recording this on Sunday afternoon because I'm traveling overseas this week.
(00:45):
Daily Variety episodes may be a little delayed this week,
depending on how that all goes. Beyond the weekend box office,
there was a lot of show bus news over the weekend.
In business circles, the big talk is video game Giant
Ala Electronic Arts. It's the target of a fifty billion
dollar buyout by private equity heavyweight silver Lake and others.
(01:07):
We've been expecting movement around EA for a while, but
this approaches a surprise. Variety's Jennifer Moz is all over
this story. Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco tied the knot
over the weekend in Santa Barbara. What a beautiful place
to get hitched. Congrats to them both. Paul McCartney was
also up that way this weekend, kicking off his new
(01:28):
tour with a set that definitely impressed. Variety's Chris Willman
was moved with Paul sang help for the first time
on stage as a solo act in tribute to his
old friend John. All of these stories and so much
more can be found on Variety dot com Right now.
(01:51):
Now we turn to conversations with Variety journalists about news
and trends in show business. If it's Monday, we're talking
box office with Rebecca Ruby, our senior film and media reporter.
Rebecca breaks down the performance of one Battle after Another
and the rest of the weekend. Rebecca Rubin, thank you
so much for joining me, Thank you for having me well.
(02:12):
We are firmly in the fall now and you can
really see it in the box office. And of course,
the big movie that people are talking about is one
battle after another, Paul Thomas Anderson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Warner Brothers
putting all of its might behind it. Rebecca, how do
you assess this movie in its first weekend?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I think this is actually a pretty tough movie to
assess in its first weekend. It kicked off domestically with
twenty two point four million and globally with forty eight
point five million. There are two ways to look at
those numbers. On one hand, it cost a lot of money,
were Brothers spent, depending on who you ask, one hundred
(02:52):
and thirty million dollars or more to produce it, which
means it has to make a lot of money to
justify those price tags. And so a start of twenty
two million dollars domestically is not necessarily igniting fireworks over
the box office. But on the other hand, this is
an original R rated movie that is nearly three hours long,
(03:15):
and it doesn't have that built in audience that a
lot of franchise fair has, and so I think this
is going to be a case where opening weekend doesn't
tell the whole story and whether or not it catches
on through word of mouth is going to be really interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Leonardo DiCaprio is still one of the biggest stars on
the planet, very recognizable in the run of his recent movies.
Where does this opening stand?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So this opening weekend is beneath his last theatrical effort,
which was twenty twenty three's Killers of the Flower Moon.
That movie also had a bit of heft in terms
of the director being Martin Scorsese and his co star
Robert de Niro, and that opened to twenty three million,
so not that far off, and it ended up with
(04:01):
sixty eight million domestically and one hundred and fifty eight
million dollars globally, which again, similarly that's not bad for
that movie was three hours and thirty minutes. The Wolf
of Wall Street. That movie opened to eighteen million dollars
in twenty thirteen, and it had huge legs. It ended
up making one hundred and sixteen million dollars domestically and
(04:25):
over four hundred million dollars worldwide.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Wolf of Wall Street had a lot of what one
Battle after another has going for It's a movie that
people are talking about and thinking about what it says
about our times. It's clearly on its way to an
awards run. Does that make up for maybe less than
robust box office if this.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Film ends up being a big player in the awards race,
doesn't necessarily offset if it doesn't end up making money
at the box office. But it's also very important to
them to have movies in the new Wards conversation. And
since they've had just such a strong box office this year,
they have a little bit more freedom to have a
(05:03):
movie underperform if that is the case, because they've had
hit after hit, these movies of all different genres and
styles wildly over performing expectations.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We've been talking over the summer. Of course, the Imax
boost was a big actor. Did this have any kind
of real Imax business.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yes, Premium large formats that includes the Imax and the
Dolby screens contributed fifty one percent of the overall domestic number,
which is very significant and similar to your Oppenheimer's and
your Dune Part two's where the director is saying, I
made this movie for audiences to see it in these
(05:43):
premium formats. We've seen audiences in this case really respond
and VistaVision there's only I think four screens in the
country that are offering it in VistaVision, but that was
a big part of the conversation as well, to get
people to see it in these format that go beyond
just the average streaming.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
As you quote somebody in your box office story saying,
the real determination is does it have legs? And does
all that word of mouth translates into we got to
go see this movie.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
What set out to me about the opening weekend turnout
was that it was predominantly male, and sixty five percent
of moviegoers were men and boys nearly fifty percent. We're
over the age of twenty five, so we're talking a
very older male audience. And what I think they have
to do moving forward is to appeal more to women
(06:33):
and get younger people in there.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Rebecca, what else was going on at the box office
this week? Any other surprises?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
The other box office benchmark of note is the Demon
Slayer movie, which was a huge surprise hit a few
weekends ago, is now the highest grossing anime film ever,
not just in North America but in the world. It's
made right now one hundred and eighteen million dollars domestically
and over six hundred million dollars globally, making one of
(07:01):
the top ten highest grossing films of the year. And
so that's always just a nice boon for movie theaters
because they were probably not expecting such a windfall from
this movie heading into the year, and that, along with
some other unexpected surprises the Conjuring movie being bigger than
expected next weekend, the Taylor Swift film will be a
(07:23):
little extra cherry on top.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Demon Slayer is a happy story for Sony because of
course it comes through its Crunchy Role Anime division and
distributed by Sony Pictures. Taylor Swift, as you have written
about very smartly on Briday dot Com. I think she
really respects radio. She never sleeps on doing radio promotion.
She often does. iHeart events. I think Taylor Swift also
(07:48):
has an appreciation for exhibition and this really does seem
like nothing short of a gift for exhibition. So much
to watch next weekend, Rebecca, as always, thank you, thanks
for us, and now we turn to John Hopewell, Variety's
veteran international correspondent. He's coming to us from San Sebastian, Spain,
(08:13):
where the annual Film Festival has just wrapped up It
was a busy frame with stars such as Jennifer Lawrence,
Angelina Jolie and Colin Farrell making appearances that made big
headlines around the world. It's another sign of how European
festivals are becoming such an important stop for launching movies.
John Hopewell coming to us from a hotel in San Sebastian, Spain.
(08:36):
Thank you John for joining me.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Thank you for being there to listen to me.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I was just reading this morning you your rap story
of the festival is a composite of what we've been
talking about for a long time about how these European
festivals that have been around for a long time people
love going to them. Of course the beautiful setting doesn't hurt,
but truly, once again San Sebastian is all that made
headlines around the world over. It's over the couple of
(09:05):
days span of the festival because of the way news travels,
but it's transforming in the era of social media, when
a talk on stage on Spain time can make headlines
within hours, big headlines within hours in the US and
other markets. Tell us about the mood of the fest.
Coming off of Venice and Toronto, it's been a very
(09:28):
active festival season. This year in Europe it seems.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
It was intense, and that's because it's one of the
festivals which does best what festivals these days does it. Otherwords,
it shows films, but it also has big, big stars
like Jolly and Jennifer Lawrence. It also has conferences, and
(09:53):
it has industry sections where people have shown projects from Spain,
Latin America or works in progress. If you put all
of that together, you get a lot of people from
outside Spain. And when you have a lot of people
from outside Spain, you have an informal market as well
as the market of the films which are shown at
(10:15):
the festival.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I have to ask you, what were people saying the politics,
the drama coming out of the US, the Jimmy Kimmel situation,
a TikTok? Were they asking you, John, what's going on
with your colleagues in the US? Is that something that
people were talking about? The geopolitical situation, particularly in the US.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
It was something of a conversation driver, but I think
Gaza was probably what focused the major attention coming back
to Jimmy Kimmel. For decades, Europe has always looked for
a century to the US as a bastion of democracy,
(11:04):
and what is seen to be happening in the US
is seen with a mixture of incomprehension and addancement. I
think by many of the people I talked to in
the industry, it's like the center of democracy we save
the world in two World wars is imploding, and that
(11:26):
gives us a sense in Europe I think that we
have to maintain worker democracy against extremism or any kind.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I mean, agastment is a pretty good word for I
think how a lot of us over here are feeling
and okay, so taking my US centric blinders off. What
else what in terms of industry issues were people talking about.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
There was a really excellent creative Investors' conference co organized
by CAA Media financed by Rogue Sutherland, and I think
it caught the industries ie geist that it launched two
years ago with I think the underlying assumption that European
(12:13):
producers will be able to learn from the market expertise
of US leading US figures plus key into the marketing
distribution muscle of US indie distributors or studios. Two years later,
(12:36):
there was a sense voiced by a lot of participants
both from the US and from Europe, that some things
are wrong with the US industry, and that means that
what was the dominant source of big films and the
(12:59):
energy for big films from Europe is declining to a
certain extent. Roque Sutherland other people talked about the problem
of accessing tax breaks in various states in the United States,
New York, Louisiana. A lot of people insinuated about the
cost of shooting in the US. And thirdly, the real problem,
(13:23):
which we have a Cans Berlin, is the state of
US distribution, where very few big US distributors will pre buy,
which is partly because of ansidary in the US, and
that means that the US distribution is no longer factored
into film financing. Far fewer big films are made in
(13:46):
the US or from Europe partnering with the US.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You know, as soon as you say, oh my god,
the indie film business is dead, you look at A
twenty four and you look at Neon. They are making
it work in a big way way, all right, John.
At a film festival, you're their first and foremost for
the movies. What impressed you out of what you saw
at San Sebastian.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I was impressed by several of the Spanish films. One
was Sunday's directed by a Lauda, which charts plums describes
laments the frailty of families and the vulnerability of tea
of teenagers. That was great. Another was a return by
(14:33):
one of Spain's greatest filmmakers, the Catalan Jose Luis Gudin,
who went to a quiet, humdrum, downbeat suburb of Barcelona
and teased out the marvels of that suburb and its
universal residents, be it gentrification, diaspora, et ceteras. Green's film
(15:01):
is called Good Valley Stories.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
John, what were your impressions of Jennifer Lawrence. Obviously she
made a big impact at the festival. She spoke from
the heart on Gaza and that again, that story went everywhere.
She was there for a movie from Lynn Ramsey, Die
My Love. What was the vibe around Jennifer Lawrence?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I think with Die My Love that she has found
her way again. With Die My Love, I think she
has found immense satisfaction for being involved with a film
which talks about something at a time that many people
think that it's not just enough for a film to
(15:38):
be good. It has to be relevant, and with that
much of her comments, in fact in the press conference
weren't about cars. They were about motherhood, the difficulties of motherhood,
how mothers are not perfect, nobody is. And I think
(16:00):
with that she has a sense of she can make
films like this bring her star power for their promotion,
which certainly happened in San Sebastian.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Well, I'm officially excited about this movie. From my earliest
days at writing, when I would read the stories of
San Sebastian, the name sounds so lyrical with this beautiful
place I've never been. Let me wrap up John by
asking you what's special about San Sebastian. The place and
the festival.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
San Sebastian is extraordinary. It has to be seen to
be disbelieved. It has three lovely bays and more three
star Michelin restaurants than I'm told any other place per
square meter in the world. It has superb cuisine. It
(16:49):
has a sense of roots which the people here love.
Many speak Basque, not just Spanish, and I think that
a's the time when getting to festivals is difficult. It
helps to be in a place which many people would
say is paradise or off.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
John, thank you for doing our digital dailies around the world.
I'm going to sign off as you often sign off
your emails.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Abrazos lomsbodigo, as I could say in Spanish.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Last week I promised you highlights from Varieties Entertainment and
Technology Summit that was held September twenty fifth in Los Angeles.
Last week's Strictly Business podcast featured the full opening session
from the summit. Because it was so good with top TV,
studio and platform leaders, we had so many great speakers,
it's hard to choose other highlights. But nobody in the
(17:47):
entire day was more heartfelt than Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer
with an incredible resume who is on a high right
now from the success of F One the movie. Bruckheimer
delivered the most capra esque explanation of what succeeding in
business means to him at this stage of his long career.
Here's a clip.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
That's the greatest thing to do to entertain people, and
you know, it's not about the money anymore. It's about
It's about the smile you put on people's faces, the
fact that you move them, you take them away from
their lives for a couple of hours and make them
feel better or feel something when they walk out. And
that's the pleasure I get when I stand in the
(18:28):
back of an audience and watch and watch one of
our films where people are actually moved, And that's what
you try to accomplish. We don't always get there, but
when we do, it's really exhilarating.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for two words. Taylor Swift. Her new album,
The Life of a Showgirl, debuts Friday. Media madness will
ensue before we go. Congrats to Moe rim, Ben Carlson,
and Steve Garrett. The three showbiz veterans have joined startup
(19:12):
theatrical distributor roe qu Entertainment, headed by Megan Colligan. Rim
is chief revenue Officer, Carlson is chief Marketing Officer, and
Garrett is head of distribution and Acquisitions. Thanks for listening.
This episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,
with contributions from Rebecca Rubin and John Hopewell. Stick's next
(19:34):
hick Picks. Please leave us a review at the podcast
platform of your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for
another episode of Daily Variety.
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, September twenty ninth,
twenty twenty five. I'm your host, Cynthia Littleton. I am
co editor in chief of Variety alongside Ramin Setuda. I'm
in LA He's in New York, and Variety has reporters
around the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
(00:21):
we'll talk with Variety's Rebecca Rubin about the box office
for one battle after another in its opening weekend, and
we'll hear from Barty's John Hopewell on the scene at
the San Sebastian Film Festival that just wrapped up in Spain.
But before we get to that, here are a few
headlines from the weekend that you need to know. I'm
recording this on Sunday afternoon because I'm traveling overseas this week.
(00:45):
Daily Variety episodes may be a little delayed this week,
depending on how that all goes. Beyond the weekend box office,
there was a lot of show bus news over the weekend.
In business circles, the big talk is video game Giant
Ala Electronic Arts. It's the target of a fifty billion
dollar buyout by private equity heavyweight silver Lake and others.
(01:07):
We've been expecting movement around EA for a while, but
this approaches a surprise. Variety's Jennifer Moz is all over
this story. Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco tied the knot
over the weekend in Santa Barbara. What a beautiful place
to get hitched. Congrats to them both. Paul McCartney was
also up that way this weekend, kicking off his new
(01:28):
tour with a set that definitely impressed. Variety's Chris Willman
was moved with Paul sang help for the first time
on stage as a solo act in tribute to his
old friend John. All of these stories and so much
more can be found on Variety dot com Right now.
(01:51):
Now we turn to conversations with Variety journalists about news
and trends in show business. If it's Monday, we're talking
box office with Rebecca Ruby, our senior film and media reporter.
Rebecca breaks down the performance of one Battle after Another
and the rest of the weekend. Rebecca Rubin, thank you
so much for joining me, Thank you for having me well.
(02:12):
We are firmly in the fall now and you can
really see it in the box office. And of course,
the big movie that people are talking about is one
battle after another, Paul Thomas Anderson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Warner Brothers
putting all of its might behind it. Rebecca, how do
you assess this movie in its first weekend?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I think this is actually a pretty tough movie to
assess in its first weekend. It kicked off domestically with
twenty two point four million and globally with forty eight
point five million. There are two ways to look at
those numbers. On one hand, it cost a lot of money,
were Brothers spent, depending on who you ask, one hundred
(02:52):
and thirty million dollars or more to produce it, which
means it has to make a lot of money to
justify those price tags. And so a start of twenty
two million dollars domestically is not necessarily igniting fireworks over
the box office. But on the other hand, this is
an original R rated movie that is nearly three hours long,
(03:15):
and it doesn't have that built in audience that a
lot of franchise fair has, and so I think this
is going to be a case where opening weekend doesn't
tell the whole story and whether or not it catches
on through word of mouth is going to be really interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Leonardo DiCaprio is still one of the biggest stars on
the planet, very recognizable in the run of his recent movies.
Where does this opening stand?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
So this opening weekend is beneath his last theatrical effort,
which was twenty twenty three's Killers of the Flower Moon.
That movie also had a bit of heft in terms
of the director being Martin Scorsese and his co star
Robert de Niro, and that opened to twenty three million,
so not that far off, and it ended up with
(04:01):
sixty eight million domestically and one hundred and fifty eight
million dollars globally, which again, similarly that's not bad for
that movie was three hours and thirty minutes. The Wolf
of Wall Street. That movie opened to eighteen million dollars
in twenty thirteen, and it had huge legs. It ended
up making one hundred and sixteen million dollars domestically and
(04:25):
over four hundred million dollars worldwide.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Wolf of Wall Street had a lot of what one
Battle after another has going for It's a movie that
people are talking about and thinking about what it says
about our times. It's clearly on its way to an
awards run. Does that make up for maybe less than
robust box office if this.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Film ends up being a big player in the awards race,
doesn't necessarily offset if it doesn't end up making money
at the box office. But it's also very important to
them to have movies in the new Wards conversation. And
since they've had just such a strong box office this year,
they have a little bit more freedom to have a
(05:03):
movie underperform if that is the case, because they've had
hit after hit, these movies of all different genres and
styles wildly over performing expectations.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
We've been talking over the summer. Of course, the Imax
boost was a big actor. Did this have any kind
of real Imax business.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yes, Premium large formats that includes the Imax and the
Dolby screens contributed fifty one percent of the overall domestic number,
which is very significant and similar to your Oppenheimer's and
your Dune Part two's where the director is saying, I
made this movie for audiences to see it in these
(05:43):
premium formats. We've seen audiences in this case really respond
and VistaVision there's only I think four screens in the
country that are offering it in VistaVision, but that was
a big part of the conversation as well, to get
people to see it in these format that go beyond
just the average streaming.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
As you quote somebody in your box office story saying,
the real determination is does it have legs? And does
all that word of mouth translates into we got to
go see this movie.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
What set out to me about the opening weekend turnout
was that it was predominantly male, and sixty five percent
of moviegoers were men and boys nearly fifty percent. We're
over the age of twenty five, so we're talking a
very older male audience. And what I think they have
to do moving forward is to appeal more to women
(06:33):
and get younger people in there.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Rebecca, what else was going on at the box office
this week? Any other surprises?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
The other box office benchmark of note is the Demon
Slayer movie, which was a huge surprise hit a few
weekends ago, is now the highest grossing anime film ever,
not just in North America but in the world. It's
made right now one hundred and eighteen million dollars domestically
and over six hundred million dollars globally, making one of
(07:01):
the top ten highest grossing films of the year. And
so that's always just a nice boon for movie theaters
because they were probably not expecting such a windfall from
this movie heading into the year, and that, along with
some other unexpected surprises the Conjuring movie being bigger than
expected next weekend, the Taylor Swift film will be a
(07:23):
little extra cherry on top.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Demon Slayer is a happy story for Sony because of
course it comes through its Crunchy Role Anime division and
distributed by Sony Pictures. Taylor Swift, as you have written
about very smartly on Briday dot Com. I think she
really respects radio. She never sleeps on doing radio promotion.
She often does. iHeart events. I think Taylor Swift also
(07:48):
has an appreciation for exhibition and this really does seem
like nothing short of a gift for exhibition. So much
to watch next weekend, Rebecca, as always, thank you, thanks
for us, and now we turn to John Hopewell, Variety's
veteran international correspondent. He's coming to us from San Sebastian, Spain,
(08:13):
where the annual Film Festival has just wrapped up It
was a busy frame with stars such as Jennifer Lawrence,
Angelina Jolie and Colin Farrell making appearances that made big
headlines around the world. It's another sign of how European
festivals are becoming such an important stop for launching movies.
John Hopewell coming to us from a hotel in San Sebastian, Spain.
(08:36):
Thank you John for joining me.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Thank you for being there to listen to me.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I was just reading this morning you your rap story
of the festival is a composite of what we've been
talking about for a long time about how these European
festivals that have been around for a long time people
love going to them. Of course the beautiful setting doesn't hurt,
but truly, once again San Sebastian is all that made
headlines around the world over. It's over the couple of
(09:05):
days span of the festival because of the way news travels,
but it's transforming in the era of social media, when
a talk on stage on Spain time can make headlines
within hours, big headlines within hours in the US and
other markets. Tell us about the mood of the fest.
Coming off of Venice and Toronto, it's been a very
(09:28):
active festival season. This year in Europe it seems.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
It was intense, and that's because it's one of the
festivals which does best what festivals these days does it. Otherwords,
it shows films, but it also has big, big stars
like Jolly and Jennifer Lawrence. It also has conferences, and
(09:53):
it has industry sections where people have shown projects from Spain,
Latin America or works in progress. If you put all
of that together, you get a lot of people from
outside Spain. And when you have a lot of people
from outside Spain, you have an informal market as well
as the market of the films which are shown at
(10:15):
the festival.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I have to ask you, what were people saying the politics,
the drama coming out of the US, the Jimmy Kimmel situation,
a TikTok? Were they asking you, John, what's going on
with your colleagues in the US? Is that something that
people were talking about? The geopolitical situation, particularly in the US.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
It was something of a conversation driver, but I think
Gaza was probably what focused the major attention coming back
to Jimmy Kimmel. For decades, Europe has always looked for
a century to the US as a bastion of democracy,
(11:04):
and what is seen to be happening in the US
is seen with a mixture of incomprehension and addancement. I
think by many of the people I talked to in
the industry, it's like the center of democracy we save
the world in two World wars is imploding, and that
(11:26):
gives us a sense in Europe I think that we
have to maintain worker democracy against extremism or any kind.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I mean, agastment is a pretty good word for I
think how a lot of us over here are feeling
and okay, so taking my US centric blinders off. What
else what in terms of industry issues were people talking about.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
There was a really excellent creative Investors' conference co organized
by CAA Media financed by Rogue Sutherland, and I think
it caught the industries ie geist that it launched two
years ago with I think the underlying assumption that European
(12:13):
producers will be able to learn from the market expertise
of US leading US figures plus key into the marketing
distribution muscle of US indie distributors or studios. Two years later,
(12:36):
there was a sense voiced by a lot of participants
both from the US and from Europe, that some things
are wrong with the US industry, and that means that
what was the dominant source of big films and the
(12:59):
energy for big films from Europe is declining to a
certain extent. Roque Sutherland other people talked about the problem
of accessing tax breaks in various states in the United States,
New York, Louisiana. A lot of people insinuated about the
cost of shooting in the US. And thirdly, the real problem,
(13:23):
which we have a Cans Berlin, is the state of
US distribution, where very few big US distributors will pre buy,
which is partly because of ansidary in the US, and
that means that the US distribution is no longer factored
into film financing. Far fewer big films are made in
(13:46):
the US or from Europe partnering with the US.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
You know, as soon as you say, oh my god,
the indie film business is dead, you look at A
twenty four and you look at Neon. They are making
it work in a big way way, all right, John.
At a film festival, you're their first and foremost for
the movies. What impressed you out of what you saw
at San Sebastian.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I was impressed by several of the Spanish films. One
was Sunday's directed by a Lauda, which charts plums describes
laments the frailty of families and the vulnerability of tea
of teenagers. That was great. Another was a return by
(14:33):
one of Spain's greatest filmmakers, the Catalan Jose Luis Gudin,
who went to a quiet, humdrum, downbeat suburb of Barcelona
and teased out the marvels of that suburb and its
universal residents, be it gentrification, diaspora, et ceteras. Green's film
(15:01):
is called Good Valley Stories.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
John, what were your impressions of Jennifer Lawrence. Obviously she
made a big impact at the festival. She spoke from
the heart on Gaza and that again, that story went everywhere.
She was there for a movie from Lynn Ramsey, Die
My Love. What was the vibe around Jennifer Lawrence?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
I think with Die My Love that she has found
her way again. With Die My Love, I think she
has found immense satisfaction for being involved with a film
which talks about something at a time that many people
think that it's not just enough for a film to
(15:38):
be good. It has to be relevant, and with that
much of her comments, in fact in the press conference
weren't about cars. They were about motherhood, the difficulties of motherhood,
how mothers are not perfect, nobody is. And I think
(16:00):
with that she has a sense of she can make
films like this bring her star power for their promotion,
which certainly happened in San Sebastian.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Well, I'm officially excited about this movie. From my earliest
days at writing, when I would read the stories of
San Sebastian, the name sounds so lyrical with this beautiful
place I've never been. Let me wrap up John by
asking you what's special about San Sebastian. The place and
the festival.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
San Sebastian is extraordinary. It has to be seen to
be disbelieved. It has three lovely bays and more three
star Michelin restaurants than I'm told any other place per
square meter in the world. It has superb cuisine. It
(16:49):
has a sense of roots which the people here love.
Many speak Basque, not just Spanish, and I think that
a's the time when getting to festivals is difficult. It
helps to be in a place which many people would
say is paradise or off.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
John, thank you for doing our digital dailies around the world.
I'm going to sign off as you often sign off
your emails.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Abrazos lomsbodigo, as I could say in Spanish.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Last week I promised you highlights from Varieties Entertainment and
Technology Summit that was held September twenty fifth in Los Angeles.
Last week's Strictly Business podcast featured the full opening session
from the summit. Because it was so good with top TV,
studio and platform leaders, we had so many great speakers,
it's hard to choose other highlights. But nobody in the
(17:47):
entire day was more heartfelt than Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer
with an incredible resume who is on a high right
now from the success of F One the movie. Bruckheimer
delivered the most capra esque explanation of what succeeding in
business means to him at this stage of his long career.
Here's a clip.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
That's the greatest thing to do to entertain people, and
you know, it's not about the money anymore. It's about
It's about the smile you put on people's faces, the
fact that you move them, you take them away from
their lives for a couple of hours and make them
feel better or feel something when they walk out. And
that's the pleasure I get when I stand in the
(18:28):
back of an audience and watch and watch one of
our films where people are actually moved, And that's what
you try to accomplish. We don't always get there, but
when we do, it's really exhilarating.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for two words. Taylor Swift. Her new album,
The Life of a Showgirl, debuts Friday. Media madness will
ensue before we go. Congrats to Moe rim, Ben Carlson,
and Steve Garrett. The three showbiz veterans have joined startup
(19:12):
theatrical distributor roe qu Entertainment, headed by Megan Colligan. Rim
is chief revenue Officer, Carlson is chief Marketing Officer, and
Garrett is head of distribution and Acquisitions. Thanks for listening.
This episode was written and reported by me Cynthia Littleton,
with contributions from Rebecca Rubin and John Hopewell. Stick's next
(19:34):
hick Picks. Please leave us a review at the podcast
platform of your choice, and please tune in tomorrow for
another episode of Daily Variety.
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