In today’s episode, Variety’s box office chief Rebecca Rubin breaks down the impressive numbers from “The Conjuring: Last Rites” and how it extends Warner Bros.’ box office streak to record territory. And Michael Schneider and Jazz Tangcay weigh in from backstage at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, where Giancarlo Esposito and Shawn Hatosy spoke from the heart about the state of showbiz.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rebecca Rubin, welcome back. Thank you for killing it at
the Venice Film Festival. I think you started filing stories
the minute you got there, and probably as you were
flying out to head back to New York.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I did actually file my last story from day airplane.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, September eight, 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 as reporters around the
world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode, we'll
(00:45):
talk with Rebecca Rubin, Friday's box office chief, on the
surprisingly strong opening for the Conjuring Last Rites, and we'll
hear from Varidy's Jazz tank A and Michael Schneider backstage
from sunday Nights Creative Arts Emmy Award. Before we get
to that, here are a few headlines just in this
morning that you need to know. What's going on with
(01:06):
Howard Stern. It sounds like he's making another deal with
Sirius XM. But in getting there, He's having a lot
of fun trolling fans media, and this time he brought
Andy Cohen along for the ride. The Late Show with
Stephen Colbert won its first ever Emmy Award last night
for directing. It's about time. The trio behind the podcast SmartLess,
(01:29):
Jason Bateman, Will Arnette and Sean Hayes, will bring their
thing to the Hollywood Bowl on November fifteenth. They're going
to have a mass taping of their hugely popular podcast.
My colleague Chris Willman has the scoop. You can find
all these stories and so much more on Variety dot
com right now. Now we turn to conversations with Variety
(01:52):
journalists about news and trends in show business. If it's Monday,
we're talking box office with Rebecca Rubin, our senior film
and eight year reporter. She breaks down the big numbers
for the Conjuring Last Rites. She dug in and found
that this opening sets a new record for distributor Warner
Brothers and the industry itself. Rebecca Rubin, Welcome back from
(02:14):
the Venice Film Festival where you killed it. Thank you
for having me, and you came back to some big
box office news. Even though we had predicted a couple
of sleepy weekends here until the fall prestige season really
kicked in, but Warner Brothers and The Conjuring had other plans.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was definitely a very strong start to the fall season,
and heading into the weekend, independent tracking services were suggesting
that Conjuring the Last Rites was going to have a
debut of fifty million to sixty million, which already would
have been the best in the franchise, and by the
time Sunday rulled around, those numbers were even larger than expected,
(02:54):
and the movie ended up opening to eighty three million
dollars domestically and one hundred and eighty seven million dollars globally,
and it set a ton of records for the franchise
and also for horror as a genre.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Do you think there was desire to see a horror
movie or desire for this franchise that people have now
grown up with.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think it's a little bit of both. There was
definitely some pentop demand to go to the movies because
there hasn't really been a big new blockbuster in some
weeks now, but there was also some great word of mouth,
and I think that points to goodwill towards the franchise.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Was there anything in the demographics or the regional numbers
that surprised you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
The Conjurary Movie I did very well in Imax. It
made fourteen million dollars globally, and about nine point four
million of that was from the domestic market, and that
accounted for eleven point three percent of the North American
opening weekend. And that was the biggest opening weekend for
Imax ever for the horror genre. And what's significant about
(03:59):
that is Imax has been super popular since the pandemic
because it really makes people feel like there's a reason
to leave the house, but we don't see that as
much with horror movie.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Imax has been a theme of the summer. As we've
been discussing. You mentioned in your story that it's got
scary good profit margins given this start and what it
costs to make.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, I'm sure people don't recognize this, but The Conjuring
Universe is actually the highest grossing horror franchise in box
office history. Across nine films, they have made over two
point three billion dollars. I think this might be the
most expensive one. It cost fifty five million, but most
of its Predecessors cost way less than that, which means
(04:43):
they're making a ton of money on these movies. And
in the lead up to the Last Rites, they were
billing it as the final installment in the Conjuring World.
But given these numbers and how profitable this franchise has
become for Warner Brothers in New Line, I think it's
safe to say that probably won't be the case.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
This has been quite a summer for Warner Brothers. This
notches another successful opening in their belt.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
This is the seventh consecutive movie for Warner Brothers to
open above forty million dollars. They are the first studio
in history to ever achieve that consistent a streak. And
it's also notable because they had a pretty rocky start
to the year as well as end to twenty twenty four.
A Joker Fall You Do was a huge bomb, and
(05:29):
then they missed the mark with Mickey seventeen and Alto Nights,
which were both pretty expensive movies for the genres they
hailed from, and so it makes this rebound even more significant.
And that's been coming from a Minecraft movie, Sinners Final Destination, Superman,
(05:49):
and then just a few weeks ago, Weapons.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I Love Rebecca, you are such a good analyst, just
like the sports experts on ESPN. You can pull out
the streaks and the facts. But that is an interesting factoid.
Is there anything you've seen that they're doing differently or
unusual to help drive these outcomes?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, what's pretty interesting about their slate both this year
and next year is that they have really put an
emphasis on filmmaker driven, original fair and that is what's
been considered the riskiest kind of movie to put out,
and so there was definitely a lot of speculation about
what Warner Brothers year was going to look like, and
(06:27):
people did not think that they were going to be
as successful as they were, And I think part of
that is having leaned into new ideas and with a
movie like Sinners or Weapons, those were both original horror
films that turned into huge sleeper hits. But what they've
done successfully is leaning into directors who have really strong
(06:47):
visions and they're hoping that that's going to be the
driving factor in the marketing and getting people to come
to see these movies.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Credit to Pamela Abdey and Michael de Luca, aheads of
Warner Brothers Pictures Studio chiefs get a lot of brutney
when the box office doesn't deliver, so by all rights,
they should also get credit when it does. I noted
in your story that a veteran box office analyst, Paul
Dergarabedian called it a quote a morale boost end quote
for Hollywood to see these pleasantly surprisingly strong numbers, and
(07:17):
I think that says a lot for where the film
business is.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
This is such a momentum based industry, and so when
times are tough, there's always a concern that that will
feed off of itself, and if people aren't going to
the movies, they aren't seeing trailers for the other new movies,
and so on the flip side, when something turns into
an unexpected hit, there's help that momentum will continue, and
that actually looks to be the case. Next weekend, Sony
(07:42):
is opening a new Demon Slayer movie, and keep your
eye on that one because it's already been a huge
hit in Japan and there is speculation that it's going
to be another huge opening weekend at the domestic box office,
so we could have a very strong start to September.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
In addition to the Year of Imax has been the
year of anime. But was there anything else that anything
else this weekend that stood out.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Disney put the filmed version of Hamilton, which was a
taping of the Broadway musical, in theaters, and it opened
to ten million dollars from around one eight hundred theaters.
And that's a pretty impressive figure because the Hamilton movie
has been available to watch on Disney Plus for almost
(08:26):
five years now. They were supposed to put it in
theaters actually in twenty twenty one, and then when the
pandemic hit, they decided to put it on their streaming
service a year earlier, in twenty twenty. And so for
people to go out and see that when they could
is just as easily watch it at home, speaks to
the communal experience that people are craving. Disney was touting
(08:48):
this as a one week limited engagement, but I think
as long as audiences keep showing up, they'll probably keep
it in theaters a bit longer.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Ocean's Rise and Empires Fall, Rebecca, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Thanks thank for having me.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And now listeners, we wanted to bring you a sense
of what it's like to cover the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
These are held the weekend before the main Emmy event
that will be carried live next Sunday night on CBS.
And these are the non televised television awards. These are
the kudos for the arts, crafts, technical and crew work
that is the backbone of every TV show, in every movie.
(09:26):
The Creative Arts Awards don't get as much attention and
they don't attract as much live news coverage. Variety is
there in force. Of course, I covered Night one with
my variety colleague, Jazz tank A, who is our senior
Artisan's editor. Television editor. Michael Schneider joined Jazz for Night
two on Sunday. Here's our conversation, recorded just before Sunday
(09:49):
night show began at the Peacock Theater in downtown LA.
Michael Schneider and Jazz tank E, thanks for joining me.
Hey hey, hello, Will you two are troupe?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Joining me backstage from the third floor of the Peacock Theater,
Night two of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. I had
the pleasure of covering Night one on Saturday with Jazz.
Here as we speak, I am in the Rose Bowl
parking lot awaiting my first ever Oasis concert, but I
wanted to check in with you. We got our first
(10:20):
taste of Emmys. They handed out a boatload of them. Mike,
I'll start with you, what did you gather from last
night's wins?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I mean, it's looking good for the studio. That show,
which won nine awards just in Creative Arts, is poised
now to be the most winning comedy of all time,
beating The Bear, which just broke the record last year
with eleven wins. If they win at least two next Sunday,
then they'll tie the Bear. There's a chance they win three, though,
and they're the new record holder.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
What really surprised me last night was The Penguin, which
took home eight trophies. I'd expected it to take home
the prosthetic win for Mike Hill and his team, because,
let's face it, the prosthetics on the Penguin were amazing,
but it also took VFX, and yeah, it was just
pretty amazing to see that show also dominate.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Of course, Severance is the top of the leaderboard right
now with the most nominations going in to Emmys, and
it came away with six very healthy wins, including Guest
Actress and a Drama for merit Weavers, so it certainly
didn't go home empty handed, but it was interesting to
see the penguin early on jumped out and paced the race.
I always enjoy covering the Creative Arts because it really
(11:31):
is the best warm up. You get a sense of
where things are leaning.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I'll say one other thing that fascinated me is this
year it really is all about the studio versus Hacks,
and then of course Severance versus the Pit. And if
you see the guest actor categories in both drama and comedy,
it was split fifty to fifty Severance one one, then
the Pit one one, Studio one one, and then Hacks
one one. So going into the big ceremony next week,
(11:56):
it is a race between those shows.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
There was a really incredible moment when Jessica Leagaghy, who
is a cinematographer, also directed an episode and she made
Emmy history by becoming the first woman to be nominated
in both those categories. Her when last Night puts her
as the first woman to triumph in cinematography for Drama
(12:22):
one hour, it's crazy to think that no woman has
ever won in that category till last night. So that
was a beautiful moment.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
She spoke with her backstage and she's like this was
a dream that I wanted for a long time.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
It was a great moment. And what I noticed was
she didn't lean into heart. I thought, actually she played
it kind of cool. And she did tell an anecdote
that was so telling, which was she said early in
her career she had worked with a man who had
told her that a woman will never do two things,
become an F one driver and be a good cinematographer.
(12:58):
And she said, that's certainly motivated me. We also heard
from gian Carlo Esposito, who came on even before the
awards had been given out. He was a presenter. He
came on and was asked about the state of the
industry and the state of Los Angeles, both things very challenged,
and we're gonna cueue up some clips of that. The
other thing that I love about the Creative Arts is
(13:19):
Julianne Nicholson winning for Hacks. Sean had to see winning
for the Pit. The Guest Star Emmy often goes to
working character actors, people that have worked through so many
shows and movies that when they get this moment in
the spotlight, it's really meaningful. Sean hat to see was
certainly in that category. And we're going to hear a
couple of clips from him from last night. Well, good luck,
(13:41):
hope you have some great backstage moments, some heart tuggers
before we go, Mike the any Dark Horses, anything you're
watching for the big show Sunday night, September fourteenth.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I mean, the big thing that we're all keeping an
eye on is that Pitt versus Severance SmackDown. So it's
real and it's going to be down to the wire.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Mike Jazz, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Thanks Savera so much. Enjoy away so we both have.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
FOMO right now.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Well, as promised, here's a clip from Saturday night. Backstage
at the Creative Arts Awards, Sean had to see one
guest Actor in a Drama Series for his work on
HBO Max's medical drama The Pit. How to See spoke
from the heart about how the role that won him
his first Emmy came in at a lean time in
his career. He also spoke about what it means to
(14:29):
be able to film the Warner Brothers TV series from
John Well's Productions in Los Angeles.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
I know what a set feels like in Los Angeles.
I know what experienced crews, how they work, how they
operate and in many cases, the people that I'm meeting,
the carpenters, I'm meeting, the trumputation captains, I'm meeting, the
makeup people, the hair people. Everything they're not this is
they cut. It's a legacy business. It's passed on. So
(14:58):
that's the reason that you see some of the best
in the business working here and doing it. So even
more so, this recognition and the fact that this show
is not a very expensive.
Speaker 8 (15:10):
Show issues right here in Los Angeles, and so I
think that there's a chance that maybe some other people
that make these decisions will see the success and find
a model like it so that we can employ a
lot of feep at Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
And gian Carlos Posito, the great star of Breaking Bad
and Better Call Saul, He also had a lot to
say backstage at the Peacock Theater about Los Angeles and
the entertainment industry and what should be done to help
the film business, in particular, what's the solution.
Speaker 9 (15:44):
I think part of the solution is to look at
the model in a new way. Is to look at
how we make film and what we charge for ticket
prices in the movie theaters in a new way. We
are crying about how streaming has sucked away people going
to films and having a social experience together. But we're
not doing anything about it. And I love that we
(16:05):
could stream and sit home and do that. I'm taking
nothing away from that. But what about offering just offering
a weekend in a movie theater for the big companies
who have more than one for free. See the ticket
price is the problem? Or one weekend all movies are
free to re ignite people's passion for film. Get them
(16:28):
in the theater, charge for the popcorn, charge for the soda,
but the ticket CRISI is free, and then continue to
allow parents to pay for their ticket. Children under ten
are free. Then you get people who are seeing a
little give back, like we got to give back to
get right. We have the ability, we have the artisans,
(16:49):
we have the filmmakers, we have the directors, and we
have the money. So why not give and take it
a little bit and break some enthusiasms. As I'm back
into the theaters so we can all see movies together again.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for Season five of Only Murders in the
Building drops on Hulu on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Variety's
John Hopewell and crew are off to the San Sebastian
Film Festival on the northern tip of Spain. Wednesday brings
the publication of Variety's TV Producer's Impact Report. Emily Longeretta
(17:27):
will be on later in the week to discuss. Starting today,
CNBC's Squawkbox is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. They'll have a
CEO packed line up this week, including Mario Gabelli, Ted Leonsis,
Michael Rubin, David Rubinstein, Lloyd Blankfeine, and Moore. Before we go,
congrats to Justin Manfriedi, who has joined Lionsgate as Executive
(17:50):
vice president of Worldwide Television Marketing. He spent the past
four years at Apple TV Plus. And a Gridiron salute
to my great Friday colleague Mark Malkin. Mark got to
serve as coin toss captain for the La Rams game
at Sofi Stadium on Sunday. He was saluted by Cedars
Sinai and the American Heart Association for sharing his journey
(18:12):
through heart surgery earlier this year with readers. You can
find that beautifully told story on Variety dot Com right now.
Thanks for listening. This episode was written and reported by
me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Rebecca Rubin, Michael Schneider,
and Jazz Tank. It was edited by Aaron Greenwald.
Speaker 10 (18:31):
Sticks Nick's 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.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
So they walked me down the last night at the
came
Rebecca Rubin, welcome back. Thank you for killing it at
the Venice Film Festival. I think you started filing stories
the minute you got there, and probably as you were
flying out to head back to New York.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I did actually file my last story from day airplane.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, September eight, 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 as reporters around the
world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode, we'll
(00:45):
talk with Rebecca Rubin, Friday's box office chief, on the
surprisingly strong opening for the Conjuring Last Rites, and we'll
hear from Varidy's Jazz tank A and Michael Schneider backstage
from sunday Nights Creative Arts Emmy Award. Before we get
to that, here are a few headlines just in this
morning that you need to know. What's going on with
(01:06):
Howard Stern. It sounds like he's making another deal with
Sirius XM. But in getting there, He's having a lot
of fun trolling fans media, and this time he brought
Andy Cohen along for the ride. The Late Show with
Stephen Colbert won its first ever Emmy Award last night
for directing. It's about time. The trio behind the podcast SmartLess,
(01:29):
Jason Bateman, Will Arnette and Sean Hayes, will bring their
thing to the Hollywood Bowl on November fifteenth. They're going
to have a mass taping of their hugely popular podcast.
My colleague Chris Willman has the scoop. You can find
all these stories and so much more on Variety dot
com right now. Now we turn to conversations with Variety
(01:52):
journalists about news and trends in show business. If it's Monday,
we're talking box office with Rebecca Rubin, our senior film
and eight year reporter. She breaks down the big numbers
for the Conjuring Last Rites. She dug in and found
that this opening sets a new record for distributor Warner
Brothers and the industry itself. Rebecca Rubin, Welcome back from
(02:14):
the Venice Film Festival where you killed it. Thank you
for having me, and you came back to some big
box office news. Even though we had predicted a couple
of sleepy weekends here until the fall prestige season really
kicked in, but Warner Brothers and The Conjuring had other plans.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It was definitely a very strong start to the fall season,
and heading into the weekend, independent tracking services were suggesting
that Conjuring the Last Rites was going to have a
debut of fifty million to sixty million, which already would
have been the best in the franchise, and by the
time Sunday rulled around, those numbers were even larger than expected,
(02:54):
and the movie ended up opening to eighty three million
dollars domestically and one hundred and eighty seven million dollars globally,
and it set a ton of records for the franchise
and also for horror as a genre.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Do you think there was desire to see a horror
movie or desire for this franchise that people have now
grown up with.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think it's a little bit of both. There was
definitely some pentop demand to go to the movies because
there hasn't really been a big new blockbuster in some
weeks now, but there was also some great word of mouth,
and I think that points to goodwill towards the franchise.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Was there anything in the demographics or the regional numbers
that surprised you.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
The Conjurary Movie I did very well in Imax. It
made fourteen million dollars globally, and about nine point four
million of that was from the domestic market, and that
accounted for eleven point three percent of the North American
opening weekend. And that was the biggest opening weekend for
Imax ever for the horror genre. And what's significant about
(03:59):
that is Imax has been super popular since the pandemic
because it really makes people feel like there's a reason
to leave the house, but we don't see that as
much with horror movie.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Imax has been a theme of the summer. As we've
been discussing. You mentioned in your story that it's got
scary good profit margins given this start and what it
costs to make.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, I'm sure people don't recognize this, but The Conjuring
Universe is actually the highest grossing horror franchise in box
office history. Across nine films, they have made over two
point three billion dollars. I think this might be the
most expensive one. It cost fifty five million, but most
of its Predecessors cost way less than that, which means
(04:43):
they're making a ton of money on these movies. And
in the lead up to the Last Rites, they were
billing it as the final installment in the Conjuring World.
But given these numbers and how profitable this franchise has
become for Warner Brothers in New Line, I think it's
safe to say that probably won't be the case.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
This has been quite a summer for Warner Brothers. This
notches another successful opening in their belt.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
This is the seventh consecutive movie for Warner Brothers to
open above forty million dollars. They are the first studio
in history to ever achieve that consistent a streak. And
it's also notable because they had a pretty rocky start
to the year as well as end to twenty twenty four.
A Joker Fall You Do was a huge bomb, and
(05:29):
then they missed the mark with Mickey seventeen and Alto Nights,
which were both pretty expensive movies for the genres they
hailed from, and so it makes this rebound even more significant.
And that's been coming from a Minecraft movie, Sinners Final Destination, Superman,
(05:49):
and then just a few weeks ago, Weapons.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I Love Rebecca, you are such a good analyst, just
like the sports experts on ESPN. You can pull out
the streaks and the facts. But that is an interesting factoid.
Is there anything you've seen that they're doing differently or
unusual to help drive these outcomes?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, what's pretty interesting about their slate both this year
and next year is that they have really put an
emphasis on filmmaker driven, original fair and that is what's
been considered the riskiest kind of movie to put out,
and so there was definitely a lot of speculation about
what Warner Brothers year was going to look like, and
(06:27):
people did not think that they were going to be
as successful as they were, And I think part of
that is having leaned into new ideas and with a
movie like Sinners or Weapons, those were both original horror
films that turned into huge sleeper hits. But what they've
done successfully is leaning into directors who have really strong
(06:47):
visions and they're hoping that that's going to be the
driving factor in the marketing and getting people to come
to see these movies.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Credit to Pamela Abdey and Michael de Luca, aheads of
Warner Brothers Pictures Studio chiefs get a lot of brutney
when the box office doesn't deliver, so by all rights,
they should also get credit when it does. I noted
in your story that a veteran box office analyst, Paul
Dergarabedian called it a quote a morale boost end quote
for Hollywood to see these pleasantly surprisingly strong numbers, and
(07:17):
I think that says a lot for where the film
business is.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
This is such a momentum based industry, and so when
times are tough, there's always a concern that that will
feed off of itself, and if people aren't going to
the movies, they aren't seeing trailers for the other new movies,
and so on the flip side, when something turns into
an unexpected hit, there's help that momentum will continue, and
that actually looks to be the case. Next weekend, Sony
(07:42):
is opening a new Demon Slayer movie, and keep your
eye on that one because it's already been a huge
hit in Japan and there is speculation that it's going
to be another huge opening weekend at the domestic box office,
so we could have a very strong start to September.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
In addition to the Year of Imax has been the
year of anime. But was there anything else that anything
else this weekend that stood out.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Disney put the filmed version of Hamilton, which was a
taping of the Broadway musical, in theaters, and it opened
to ten million dollars from around one eight hundred theaters.
And that's a pretty impressive figure because the Hamilton movie
has been available to watch on Disney Plus for almost
(08:26):
five years now. They were supposed to put it in
theaters actually in twenty twenty one, and then when the
pandemic hit, they decided to put it on their streaming
service a year earlier, in twenty twenty. And so for
people to go out and see that when they could
is just as easily watch it at home, speaks to
the communal experience that people are craving. Disney was touting
(08:48):
this as a one week limited engagement, but I think
as long as audiences keep showing up, they'll probably keep
it in theaters a bit longer.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Ocean's Rise and Empires Fall, Rebecca, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Thanks thank for having me.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And now listeners, we wanted to bring you a sense
of what it's like to cover the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
These are held the weekend before the main Emmy event
that will be carried live next Sunday night on CBS.
And these are the non televised television awards. These are
the kudos for the arts, crafts, technical and crew work
that is the backbone of every TV show, in every movie.
(09:26):
The Creative Arts Awards don't get as much attention and
they don't attract as much live news coverage. Variety is
there in force. Of course, I covered Night one with
my variety colleague, Jazz tank A, who is our senior
Artisan's editor. Television editor. Michael Schneider joined Jazz for Night
two on Sunday. Here's our conversation, recorded just before Sunday
(09:49):
night show began at the Peacock Theater in downtown LA.
Michael Schneider and Jazz tank E, thanks for joining me.
Hey hey, hello, Will you two are troupe?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Joining me backstage from the third floor of the Peacock Theater,
Night two of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. I had
the pleasure of covering Night one on Saturday with Jazz.
Here as we speak, I am in the Rose Bowl
parking lot awaiting my first ever Oasis concert, but I
wanted to check in with you. We got our first
(10:20):
taste of Emmys. They handed out a boatload of them. Mike,
I'll start with you, what did you gather from last
night's wins?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I mean, it's looking good for the studio. That show,
which won nine awards just in Creative Arts, is poised
now to be the most winning comedy of all time,
beating The Bear, which just broke the record last year
with eleven wins. If they win at least two next Sunday,
then they'll tie the Bear. There's a chance they win three, though,
and they're the new record holder.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
What really surprised me last night was The Penguin, which
took home eight trophies. I'd expected it to take home
the prosthetic win for Mike Hill and his team, because,
let's face it, the prosthetics on the Penguin were amazing,
but it also took VFX, and yeah, it was just
pretty amazing to see that show also dominate.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Of course, Severance is the top of the leaderboard right
now with the most nominations going in to Emmys, and
it came away with six very healthy wins, including Guest
Actress and a Drama for merit Weavers, so it certainly
didn't go home empty handed, but it was interesting to
see the penguin early on jumped out and paced the race.
I always enjoy covering the Creative Arts because it really
(11:31):
is the best warm up. You get a sense of
where things are leaning.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I'll say one other thing that fascinated me is this
year it really is all about the studio versus Hacks,
and then of course Severance versus the Pit. And if
you see the guest actor categories in both drama and comedy,
it was split fifty to fifty Severance one one, then
the Pit one one, Studio one one, and then Hacks
one one. So going into the big ceremony next week,
(11:56):
it is a race between those shows.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
There was a really incredible moment when Jessica Leagaghy, who
is a cinematographer, also directed an episode and she made
Emmy history by becoming the first woman to be nominated
in both those categories. Her when last Night puts her
as the first woman to triumph in cinematography for Drama
(12:22):
one hour, it's crazy to think that no woman has
ever won in that category till last night. So that
was a beautiful moment.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
She spoke with her backstage and she's like this was
a dream that I wanted for a long time.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
It was a great moment. And what I noticed was
she didn't lean into heart. I thought, actually she played
it kind of cool. And she did tell an anecdote
that was so telling, which was she said early in
her career she had worked with a man who had
told her that a woman will never do two things,
become an F one driver and be a good cinematographer.
(12:58):
And she said, that's certainly motivated me. We also heard
from gian Carlo Esposito, who came on even before the
awards had been given out. He was a presenter. He
came on and was asked about the state of the
industry and the state of Los Angeles, both things very challenged,
and we're gonna cueue up some clips of that. The
other thing that I love about the Creative Arts is
(13:19):
Julianne Nicholson winning for Hacks. Sean had to see winning
for the Pit. The Guest Star Emmy often goes to
working character actors, people that have worked through so many
shows and movies that when they get this moment in
the spotlight, it's really meaningful. Sean hat to see was
certainly in that category. And we're going to hear a
couple of clips from him from last night. Well, good luck,
(13:41):
hope you have some great backstage moments, some heart tuggers
before we go, Mike the any Dark Horses, anything you're
watching for the big show Sunday night, September fourteenth.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I mean, the big thing that we're all keeping an
eye on is that Pitt versus Severance SmackDown. So it's
real and it's going to be down to the wire.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Mike Jazz, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Thanks Savera so much. Enjoy away so we both have.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
FOMO right now.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Well, as promised, here's a clip from Saturday night. Backstage
at the Creative Arts Awards, Sean had to see one
guest Actor in a Drama Series for his work on
HBO Max's medical drama The Pit. How to See spoke
from the heart about how the role that won him
his first Emmy came in at a lean time in
his career. He also spoke about what it means to
(14:29):
be able to film the Warner Brothers TV series from
John Well's Productions in Los Angeles.
Speaker 7 (14:35):
I know what a set feels like in Los Angeles.
I know what experienced crews, how they work, how they
operate and in many cases, the people that I'm meeting,
the carpenters, I'm meeting, the trumputation captains, I'm meeting, the
makeup people, the hair people. Everything they're not this is
they cut. It's a legacy business. It's passed on. So
(14:58):
that's the reason that you see some of the best
in the business working here and doing it. So even
more so, this recognition and the fact that this show
is not a very expensive.
Speaker 8 (15:10):
Show issues right here in Los Angeles, and so I
think that there's a chance that maybe some other people
that make these decisions will see the success and find
a model like it so that we can employ a
lot of feep at Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
And gian Carlos Posito, the great star of Breaking Bad
and Better Call Saul, He also had a lot to
say backstage at the Peacock Theater about Los Angeles and
the entertainment industry and what should be done to help
the film business, in particular, what's the solution.
Speaker 9 (15:44):
I think part of the solution is to look at
the model in a new way. Is to look at
how we make film and what we charge for ticket
prices in the movie theaters in a new way. We
are crying about how streaming has sucked away people going
to films and having a social experience together. But we're
not doing anything about it. And I love that we
(16:05):
could stream and sit home and do that. I'm taking
nothing away from that. But what about offering just offering
a weekend in a movie theater for the big companies
who have more than one for free. See the ticket
price is the problem? Or one weekend all movies are
free to re ignite people's passion for film. Get them
(16:28):
in the theater, charge for the popcorn, charge for the soda,
but the ticket CRISI is free, and then continue to
allow parents to pay for their ticket. Children under ten
are free. Then you get people who are seeing a
little give back, like we got to give back to
get right. We have the ability, we have the artisans,
(16:49):
we have the filmmakers, we have the directors, and we
have the money. So why not give and take it
a little bit and break some enthusiasms. As I'm back
into the theaters so we can all see movies together again.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for Season five of Only Murders in the
Building drops on Hulu on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, Variety's
John Hopewell and crew are off to the San Sebastian
Film Festival on the northern tip of Spain. Wednesday brings
the publication of Variety's TV Producer's Impact Report. Emily Longeretta
(17:27):
will be on later in the week to discuss. Starting today,
CNBC's Squawkbox is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. They'll have a
CEO packed line up this week, including Mario Gabelli, Ted Leonsis,
Michael Rubin, David Rubinstein, Lloyd Blankfeine, and Moore. Before we go,
congrats to Justin Manfriedi, who has joined Lionsgate as Executive
(17:50):
vice president of Worldwide Television Marketing. He spent the past
four years at Apple TV Plus. And a Gridiron salute
to my great Friday colleague Mark Malkin. Mark got to
serve as coin toss captain for the La Rams game
at Sofi Stadium on Sunday. He was saluted by Cedars
Sinai and the American Heart Association for sharing his journey
(18:12):
through heart surgery earlier this year with readers. You can
find that beautifully told story on Variety dot Com right now.
Thanks for listening. This episode was written and reported by
me Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Rebecca Rubin, Michael Schneider,
and Jazz Tank. It was edited by Aaron Greenwald.
Speaker 10 (18:31):
Sticks Nick's 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.
Speaker 8 (19:00):
So they walked me down the last night at the
came
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