On today’s episode, Paramount Skydance goes hostile for Warner Bros. Discovery. Will David Ellison bust up WBD’s engagement to Netflix? And Variety's Brent Lang breaks down the weekend box office as “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” adds another win for video game adaptations on the big screen.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Daily Vriety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, December eighth, 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 Bridy House reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
we'll hear from Variety's Brent Lang on the box office.
(00:31):
Five Nights at Freddy's two overperformed in its debut. That
made for three good days at the box office for Blumhouse, Atomic, Monster,
and Universal. But before we get to that, here are
a few headlines just in this morning that you need
to know. Much has happened since our last episode. On Thursday,
December fourth, Netflix cinched an agreement to buy Warner Brothers
(00:53):
and HBO Max. All that industry chatter that Netflix was
only in this to be a spoiler to kick the
tires and look at wbd's books. That was all nonsense.
They were in it to win it the whole time.
They are also looking ahead to the future of slowing
subscriber growth. This diversification makes sense, especially with Sui generis
(01:14):
assets like Warner Brothers and HBO on the market. But
David Ellison, of Paramount's Guidance is also in it to
win it. He's indignant that Paramount's offer was rebuffed, and
he's gone public with it. In a conference call this
morning with Wall Street analysts, you could hear the frustration
in his voice. Ellison's unsolicited overtures for Warner Brothers Discovery
(01:36):
in September and October kicked off the public bidding skirmish
for WBD. In Ellison's view, this should be simple math.
They are offering more dollars for the company than Netflix's bid,
but the decision is not entirely about money. It's about
what's best for the assets that are utterly unique in
the history of entertainment. Warner Brothers Studio is foundational to Hollywood.
(02:00):
HBO reinvented television starting with live polka dances and hockey
games in the early seventies. That's true, you can look
it up on varietay dot com. So Paramount Skuydance went
hostile this morning. The next steps for everybody aren't entirely clear,
but the WBD board has cozied up with Netflix, the
prestige player in the entertainment marketplace of today. It's going
(02:23):
to take a lot for Paramount, Skuiddance and their coalition
of financiers to drag WB and HBO out of the
arms of Netflix. We'll stay on the case and bring
you updates at all hours of the day and night
until it's settled. We're not even done with twenty twenty five,
and we already know what one of the biggest stories
of twenty twenty six is going to be. As if
(02:45):
all the WB, Paramount and Netflix drama wasn't enough, This
morning also brought news of the Golden Globe Award nominations.
Congrats to all who made the cut. Make sure you
check out all of the Golden Globe analysis on Daily
Ridy's sibling podcast, Awards Circuit. That show's terrific team of
Clayton Davis, Emily Longeretta, Janelle Riley and Jazz Tunke will
(03:07):
break down all you need to know about this year's nominations.
Field and speaking of awards. On Sunday Night, Variety was
showered with kudos at the ninth annual Arts and Entertainment
Journalism Awards presented by the Los Angeles Press Club. We
are so so grateful for the recognition that included the
awesome Print Journalist of the Year honor to our beloved
(03:29):
music writer and critic Chris Willman. Willman is such a
pro that not only did he win that award and
four more, he also wrote up and posted our story
about Variety winning all those awards on Sunday night. That's
modern journalism, folks. A whole bunch of stories about the
WBD drama, the Golden Globe nominations, and Variety's triumph at
(03:50):
the Press Club Awards can be found on Variety dot
com right now. And now it's time for conversations with
Friday journalists about news and trends in show business. Brent Lang,
Variety's executive editor, joins us to break down the weekend
box office numbers. The sequel Five Nights at Freddy's two
(04:12):
was welcomed by horror fans as the Blumhouse Atomic Monster
title way over performed expectations, and that's another notch in
the wind column for video game adaptations on the big screen.
Brent Lang, thank you for joining me. Thank you for
being our steward of the box office this weekend.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Always fun to substitute for Rebecca.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You have big shoes to Phil. She's an able successor
to your role as box office chief. So very happy
day for Lumhouse and Universal. Five Nights at Freddy two
opened bigger than expected, And with movies these days, sequels
are no guarantee that the audience will show up. Brent,
what stood out to you about the performance of this sequel.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It did do so much better than projections, which we're
about thirty five million to forty million, and it did
sixty three And that's particularly impressive because Five Nights at
Freddy's only cost I think thirty six million dos. So
it was a very economical hit Blumhouse and Blumhouse now
they go buy Blumhouse Atomic Monster because they merged with
(05:12):
James Wand's company. But they had needed something, They needed
a win because they'd had a really rough year at
the box office. Things like Wolfman and Megan two point
zero had not done so well, and they'd been one
of the most consistent hit makers in the industry for
over a decade now, so this shows that they may
(05:32):
be rebounding, and I think that's really good news for
movie theater owners who really need that type of consistency with.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Five nights at Freddy's. I know from my very unofficial
poll of the tweens and teenagers in my life that
this this franchise is very resonant with them.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It's kind of a bizarre thing with these animatronic killing machines,
and it's also based on a popular video game, and
right now, video games are are proving to be very
successful when they're adapted into movies. That had not historically
been the case. They had been a very difficult genre
for movie studios to crack, but in recent years you've
(06:12):
had like Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Brothers movie
and this year a Minecraft movie, and they've all done
very very well, and they seem to really resonate with
younger moviegoers, which is also good news for cinema operators
because that's the exact generation that people are really worried
are turning away from longer form entertainment like film towards
(06:35):
things like TikTok and YouTube. So I think the fact
that this is something that appeals to this demographic it's
kind of exciting, actually.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And this opening probably ensures that we'll see a five
nights at Freddy's three.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I would imagine, and maybe a four and maybe a five.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
And also in your story, Brent big sigh of relief,
Zootopia two is not slowing down. It's crested the nine
hundred million mark at the global box office, which is
a lot of coin.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
That's fantastic news for Disney. In just two weeks of release,
a film has reached about nine hundred and fifteen million
dollars globally, and a lot of that has come from
the international marketplace. Particularly exciting for Disney is that this
film is already the number two Hollywood movie of all
time in China. It's made about four hundred and thirty
(07:24):
point four million dollars. And that's good because since COVID
tensions between the US and China have really resulted in
major studio releases not doing very well in that marketplace.
But there's a Zootopia attraction at one of the Disney
parks in China, and there seems to be like a
(07:44):
real resonance with that brand there. So if you look
at really what is behind this, a lot of it
has to do with China and how the film is
resonating there.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Brent, what is the raining champ among Hollywood movies for
China box office?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
That would be Avengers Endgame, another Disney movie. So clearly
they have the type of big franchises that can still
kind of resonate in that very very difficult market to crack.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
In terms of the marketplace, I would imagine that that
five nights of Freddy's two very nice surprise for exhibitors.
But people, I gotta believe are really bracing for the
next Avatar movie, Fire and Ash in two more weekends.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
That's what a lot of hopes are riding on because
right now the box office just crossed eight billion ducks,
and I think going into this year there was a
real hope that it would actually reach or surpass the
nine billion dollar mark, which it is only done one
time in the post pandemic years, and that was the
Barbenheimer year of twenty twenty three. And actually right now
(08:43):
we're kind of running neck and neck with last year,
which was considered to be something of a disappointment. We're
only about one percent ahead. So the hope is that
Avatar will be another one billion dollar to two billion
dollar success story that will really close out the year
on a high note, because it's been a very roller
coaster one for the box office. We've had some real
highs like Sinners that kind of came out of nowhere
(09:05):
and did really well Minecraft movie. I've had some really great,
sort of scorching periods at the box office, and then
we've had some real doldrums, October being I think the
worst in about thirty years. That inconsistency has really caused
a lot of alarm among cinema operators who thought this
was finally going to be the year that they had
put that post pandemic blues behind them, and it has
(09:28):
not proven to be the case.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Brent, I'm sure your conversation's talking to people about the
box office today. I'm sure that it addressed the big
N shaped elephant in the room, the big news that
came down on Friday that Netflix has a deal to
buy Warner Brothers in HBO, and we're still trying to
make sense of it all. But I would imagine talking
to people in film distribution and exhibition that there's a
(09:51):
lot of strong reactions to this news.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
A lot of cinema operators are very very fearful about
this deal. They do not frankly like Netflix very much.
They believe that streaming has really upended their business model,
and they have a lot of trouble working with Netflix,
who does release films theatrically, but does it in a
fairly limited way in order to mostly to qualify for awards.
(10:15):
And so I think Ted Sarandos's comments about the windows
that they would honor existing agreements for Warner Brothers, but
at the same time he also said that he expected
windows to evolve in a more consumer friendly way. I
think a lot of people read that as windows will shrink,
and for theater owners, they see that as an existential threat.
(10:36):
They absolutely believe that shorter windows have infringed upon their
ability to make money, that it has encouraged people to
wait for films to come out on home entertainment, and
that that's denied them profits. And so I think they
are extremely wary about this deal. One exhibitor on Friday
told me that he absolutely wants to see it, killed
he's very very hopeful that it will not go through.
(10:57):
We can't predict it. We don't know what will happen.
And then it's possible that once Netflix owns Warner Brothers,
they will start to see the value and a theatrical
release in all of the downstream revenue that that can
lead to. But for the moment, I would say that
most exhibitors are feeling very pessimistic about this news.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Of course, you reported today that in fact, Ted Sarandos
has got a jumpstart on the lobbying effort in having
a very specific meeting with President Donald Trump talking about
this transaction. I have no doubt that that has probably
kept the social media posts from flying in terms of
sharing the President's opinions on this. But again, a lot
(11:35):
of unknowns here and so much to cover.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
As you suggested, this is not a normal regulatory environment,
and I think Ted Sarandos recognizes that there needs to
be a real charm offensive in order to make anything
happen in Donald Trump's Washington well.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
From crunching the numbers to following the high level negotiations
on this merger. Thank you, as always for working virtually
round the clock.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Appreciate it my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for The game awards will be handed out
on Thursday evening at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Variety's Jennifer mos is heading west to cover the marathon
ceremony that recognizes top video games. Variety is wrapping up
its coverage of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jetta,
Saudi Arabia this week. We'll hear from Variety's Alex Rittman
(12:26):
in tomorrow's episode on how the festival is evolved and
what it means for this fast changing country. We love
to hear from our listeners, so please send thoughts, scripes,
and other feedback about Daily Variety to podcasts at Variety
dot com, and you can also go to Variety dot
com and subscribe to our precious print magazine Before we go.
(12:46):
Congrats to James L. Brooks, the multi hyphenate who helped
bring us The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Terms of Endearment,
Broadcast News, and The Simpsons, is getting a star on
the Walk of Fame on Thursday, December eleventh. It coincides
with the release of his latest movie, Ella Mackay. Thanks
for listening. This episode was written and recorded by me
(13:07):
Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Brent lang Stick Snicks 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 Vriety, your daily dose of news and
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, December eighth, 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 Bridy House reporters around
the world covering the business of entertainment. In today's episode,
we'll hear from Variety's Brent Lang on the box office.
(00:31):
Five Nights at Freddy's two overperformed in its debut. That
made for three good days at the box office for Blumhouse, Atomic, Monster,
and Universal. But before we get to that, here are
a few headlines just in this morning that you need
to know. Much has happened since our last episode. On Thursday,
December fourth, Netflix cinched an agreement to buy Warner Brothers
(00:53):
and HBO Max. All that industry chatter that Netflix was
only in this to be a spoiler to kick the
tires and look at wbd's books. That was all nonsense.
They were in it to win it the whole time.
They are also looking ahead to the future of slowing
subscriber growth. This diversification makes sense, especially with Sui generis
(01:14):
assets like Warner Brothers and HBO on the market. But
David Ellison, of Paramount's Guidance is also in it to
win it. He's indignant that Paramount's offer was rebuffed, and
he's gone public with it. In a conference call this
morning with Wall Street analysts, you could hear the frustration
in his voice. Ellison's unsolicited overtures for Warner Brothers Discovery
(01:36):
in September and October kicked off the public bidding skirmish
for WBD. In Ellison's view, this should be simple math.
They are offering more dollars for the company than Netflix's bid,
but the decision is not entirely about money. It's about
what's best for the assets that are utterly unique in
the history of entertainment. Warner Brothers Studio is foundational to Hollywood.
(02:00):
HBO reinvented television starting with live polka dances and hockey
games in the early seventies. That's true, you can look
it up on varietay dot com. So Paramount Skuydance went
hostile this morning. The next steps for everybody aren't entirely clear,
but the WBD board has cozied up with Netflix, the
prestige player in the entertainment marketplace of today. It's going
(02:23):
to take a lot for Paramount, Skuiddance and their coalition
of financiers to drag WB and HBO out of the
arms of Netflix. We'll stay on the case and bring
you updates at all hours of the day and night
until it's settled. We're not even done with twenty twenty five,
and we already know what one of the biggest stories
of twenty twenty six is going to be. As if
(02:45):
all the WB, Paramount and Netflix drama wasn't enough, This
morning also brought news of the Golden Globe Award nominations.
Congrats to all who made the cut. Make sure you
check out all of the Golden Globe analysis on Daily
Ridy's sibling podcast, Awards Circuit. That show's terrific team of
Clayton Davis, Emily Longeretta, Janelle Riley and Jazz Tunke will
(03:07):
break down all you need to know about this year's nominations.
Field and speaking of awards. On Sunday Night, Variety was
showered with kudos at the ninth annual Arts and Entertainment
Journalism Awards presented by the Los Angeles Press Club. We
are so so grateful for the recognition that included the
awesome Print Journalist of the Year honor to our beloved
(03:29):
music writer and critic Chris Willman. Willman is such a
pro that not only did he win that award and
four more, he also wrote up and posted our story
about Variety winning all those awards on Sunday night. That's
modern journalism, folks. A whole bunch of stories about the
WBD drama, the Golden Globe nominations, and Variety's triumph at
(03:50):
the Press Club Awards can be found on Variety dot
com right now. And now it's time for conversations with
Friday journalists about news and trends in show business. Brent Lang,
Variety's executive editor, joins us to break down the weekend
box office numbers. The sequel Five Nights at Freddy's two
(04:12):
was welcomed by horror fans as the Blumhouse Atomic Monster
title way over performed expectations, and that's another notch in
the wind column for video game adaptations on the big screen.
Brent Lang, thank you for joining me. Thank you for
being our steward of the box office this weekend.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Always fun to substitute for Rebecca.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You have big shoes to Phil. She's an able successor
to your role as box office chief. So very happy
day for Lumhouse and Universal. Five Nights at Freddy two
opened bigger than expected, And with movies these days, sequels
are no guarantee that the audience will show up. Brent,
what stood out to you about the performance of this sequel.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It did do so much better than projections, which we're
about thirty five million to forty million, and it did
sixty three And that's particularly impressive because Five Nights at
Freddy's only cost I think thirty six million dos. So
it was a very economical hit Blumhouse and Blumhouse now
they go buy Blumhouse Atomic Monster because they merged with
(05:12):
James Wand's company. But they had needed something, They needed
a win because they'd had a really rough year at
the box office. Things like Wolfman and Megan two point
zero had not done so well, and they'd been one
of the most consistent hit makers in the industry for
over a decade now, so this shows that they may
(05:32):
be rebounding, and I think that's really good news for
movie theater owners who really need that type of consistency with.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Five nights at Freddy's. I know from my very unofficial
poll of the tweens and teenagers in my life that
this this franchise is very resonant with them.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
It's kind of a bizarre thing with these animatronic killing machines,
and it's also based on a popular video game, and
right now, video games are are proving to be very
successful when they're adapted into movies. That had not historically
been the case. They had been a very difficult genre
for movie studios to crack, but in recent years you've
(06:12):
had like Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Brothers movie
and this year a Minecraft movie, and they've all done
very very well, and they seem to really resonate with
younger moviegoers, which is also good news for cinema operators
because that's the exact generation that people are really worried
are turning away from longer form entertainment like film towards
(06:35):
things like TikTok and YouTube. So I think the fact
that this is something that appeals to this demographic it's
kind of exciting, actually.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
And this opening probably ensures that we'll see a five
nights at Freddy's three.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
I would imagine, and maybe a four and maybe a five.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
And also in your story, Brent big sigh of relief,
Zootopia two is not slowing down. It's crested the nine
hundred million mark at the global box office, which is
a lot of coin.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
That's fantastic news for Disney. In just two weeks of release,
a film has reached about nine hundred and fifteen million
dollars globally, and a lot of that has come from
the international marketplace. Particularly exciting for Disney is that this
film is already the number two Hollywood movie of all
time in China. It's made about four hundred and thirty
(07:24):
point four million dollars. And that's good because since COVID
tensions between the US and China have really resulted in
major studio releases not doing very well in that marketplace.
But there's a Zootopia attraction at one of the Disney
parks in China, and there seems to be like a
(07:44):
real resonance with that brand there. So if you look
at really what is behind this, a lot of it
has to do with China and how the film is
resonating there.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Brent, what is the raining champ among Hollywood movies for
China box office?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
That would be Avengers Endgame, another Disney movie. So clearly
they have the type of big franchises that can still
kind of resonate in that very very difficult market to crack.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
In terms of the marketplace, I would imagine that that
five nights of Freddy's two very nice surprise for exhibitors.
But people, I gotta believe are really bracing for the
next Avatar movie, Fire and Ash in two more weekends.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
That's what a lot of hopes are riding on because
right now the box office just crossed eight billion ducks,
and I think going into this year there was a
real hope that it would actually reach or surpass the
nine billion dollar mark, which it is only done one
time in the post pandemic years, and that was the
Barbenheimer year of twenty twenty three. And actually right now
(08:43):
we're kind of running neck and neck with last year,
which was considered to be something of a disappointment. We're
only about one percent ahead. So the hope is that
Avatar will be another one billion dollar to two billion
dollar success story that will really close out the year
on a high note, because it's been a very roller
coaster one for the box office. We've had some real
highs like Sinners that kind of came out of nowhere
(09:05):
and did really well Minecraft movie. I've had some really great,
sort of scorching periods at the box office, and then
we've had some real doldrums, October being I think the
worst in about thirty years. That inconsistency has really caused
a lot of alarm among cinema operators who thought this
was finally going to be the year that they had
put that post pandemic blues behind them, and it has
(09:28):
not proven to be the case.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Brent, I'm sure your conversation's talking to people about the
box office today. I'm sure that it addressed the big
N shaped elephant in the room, the big news that
came down on Friday that Netflix has a deal to
buy Warner Brothers in HBO, and we're still trying to
make sense of it all. But I would imagine talking
to people in film distribution and exhibition that there's a
(09:51):
lot of strong reactions to this news.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
A lot of cinema operators are very very fearful about
this deal. They do not frankly like Netflix very much.
They believe that streaming has really upended their business model,
and they have a lot of trouble working with Netflix,
who does release films theatrically, but does it in a
fairly limited way in order to mostly to qualify for awards.
(10:15):
And so I think Ted Sarandos's comments about the windows
that they would honor existing agreements for Warner Brothers, but
at the same time he also said that he expected
windows to evolve in a more consumer friendly way. I
think a lot of people read that as windows will shrink,
and for theater owners, they see that as an existential threat.
(10:36):
They absolutely believe that shorter windows have infringed upon their
ability to make money, that it has encouraged people to
wait for films to come out on home entertainment, and
that that's denied them profits. And so I think they
are extremely wary about this deal. One exhibitor on Friday
told me that he absolutely wants to see it, killed
he's very very hopeful that it will not go through.
(10:57):
We can't predict it. We don't know what will happen.
And then it's possible that once Netflix owns Warner Brothers,
they will start to see the value and a theatrical
release in all of the downstream revenue that that can
lead to. But for the moment, I would say that
most exhibitors are feeling very pessimistic about this news.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Of course, you reported today that in fact, Ted Sarandos
has got a jumpstart on the lobbying effort in having
a very specific meeting with President Donald Trump talking about
this transaction. I have no doubt that that has probably
kept the social media posts from flying in terms of
sharing the President's opinions on this. But again, a lot
(11:35):
of unknowns here and so much to cover.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
As you suggested, this is not a normal regulatory environment,
and I think Ted Sarandos recognizes that there needs to
be a real charm offensive in order to make anything
happen in Donald Trump's Washington well.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
From crunching the numbers to following the high level negotiations
on this merger. Thank you, as always for working virtually
round the clock.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Appreciate it my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
As we close out today's episode, here's a few things
we're watching for The game awards will be handed out
on Thursday evening at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Variety's Jennifer mos is heading west to cover the marathon
ceremony that recognizes top video games. Variety is wrapping up
its coverage of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jetta,
Saudi Arabia this week. We'll hear from Variety's Alex Rittman
(12:26):
in tomorrow's episode on how the festival is evolved and
what it means for this fast changing country. We love
to hear from our listeners, so please send thoughts, scripes,
and other feedback about Daily Variety to podcasts at Variety
dot com, and you can also go to Variety dot
com and subscribe to our precious print magazine Before we go.
(12:46):
Congrats to James L. Brooks, the multi hyphenate who helped
bring us The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Terms of Endearment,
Broadcast News, and The Simpsons, is getting a star on
the Walk of Fame on Thursday, December eleventh. It coincides
with the release of his latest movie, Ella Mackay. Thanks
for listening. This episode was written and recorded by me
(13:07):
Cynthia Littleton, with contributions from Brent lang Stick Snicks 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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