July 14, 2025 • 16 mins
Variety previews "Daily Variety," a new podcast featuring conversations with Variety journalists and guests about news, personalities and trends making headlines in the entertainment industry. It's hosted by Cynthia Littleton, co-editor in chief of Variety and host of Variety's "Strictly Business" podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Strictly Business listeners. This is your host Cynthia Littleton.
I'm so excited today to give you a sneak listen
to a podcast project we've been working on for a
few months, Daily Variety. On this show, we talked to
Variety journalists and guests about news, personalities and trends that
are making headlines and showbiz. Variety has the most incredible
(00:21):
masthead of journalists covering media and entertainment. In addition to
our strength in La New York and London. Almost every
day of the year, Variety is somewhere in the world
covering a festival, or a market, or a premiere. We
want to showcase all this great work in a new
way with this program. The name Daily Variety is a
nod to the daily newspaper that Variety published for eighty
(00:43):
years from nineteen thirty three to twenty thirteen. The podcast
Daily Variety is a new iteration for a new generation.
It will be in your feed Monday through Thursday for
the next few weeks. In keeping with Varietys roots covering
Vaudeville and Broadway, we're taking the Broadway previews approach to
this show. We'll fine tune it for a little while
(01:05):
before we build up to a formal launch later this summer.
Of course, we'd love to hear your feedback at Variety
dot com. Thanks for checking us out, and away we go.
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
(01:27):
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, July fourteenth, 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,
(01:49):
we'll talk to Rebecca Rubin about how Superman performed in
its debut weekend with the hopes of DC Studios writing
on his back. We'll hear from Clayton Davis on Emmy
prediction as we await the big news on Tuesday, and
Mark Malkin gives us a Just for Variety red carpet
rundown on Sunday's toasty premiere of The Smurfs. Before we
(02:11):
get to that, here are a few headlines just in
this morning that you need to know. The cameras are
rolling on the New Harry Potter. HBO this morning released
the first look image of the cast getting down to
work at Warner Brothers Studio Leavesden in the UK. The
series is targeting at twenty twenty seven debut. ABC has
(02:32):
lined up Michael Strahan, Chip and Joanna Gaines and Kendra
Scott as guest sharks on the upcoming season of Shark Tank.
They'll fill the empty chair left by Mark Cuban, who
has bowed out after fourteen seasons on the show. Also
in the Disney Verse, ABC News has tapped James Longman
and Rachel Scott to anchor a ten minute news roundup
(02:52):
program that will air on Disney Plus. Now it's time
for conversations with Variety gas journalist about what's making news
in showbiz. If it's Monday, We're talking box office with
Rebecca Rubin, Variety Senior Film and Media reporter. How high
did Superman fly in his debut weekend? Was it enough
(03:13):
to lay the foundation for a prosperous new DC cinematic universe.
We break it all down and we talk about what
else she's watching out for at the box office this summer.
Rebecca Rubin, our box office cheap, Thanks so much for
joining me. Thanks for having me, Rebecca. This was another
big weekend at the box office, so many eyes on Superman.
(03:35):
How did this movie perform?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
This weekend was especially important because Superman didn't just have
the responsibility of being a big hit for the studio.
It's set up to relaunch DC Studios, and they have
struggled a lot in the past, and there's a lot
riding on Superman. And it had a really great opening weekend.
It opened to one hundred and twenty two million in
(03:58):
the US and Canada, which was enough to rank as
the third biggest opening weekend of the year after Minecraft
and Leelo and Stitch. And it ended up making a
little over two hundred million globally, and that is in
part because the international numbers were actually a little bit
softer than expected. It was supposed to open to one
(04:19):
hundred million and it ended up opening to ninety five million,
so not a huge difference. But some box office analysts
are saying that Superman is such an American character that
could be why it's over indexing in North America.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And as you know, the brand of America has gone
through a lot of changes in recent months. But let
me ask you just in terms of domestically was that
in the range of what was expected.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I think this is pretty on par with what a
lot of people were expecting, and that's partially because Superman
is such a recognizable character. But at the same time,
it's a very earnest, feel good character at a time
when it's easier to be cynical and sarcastic and snarky,
(05:07):
and that's a lot of the comic book movies that
we've seen. So there was a real question of do
people want to see this version of Escapism that is
an optimistic, lighter version of comic book character. The turnout
seems to be an endorsement in people wanting something a
little bit lighter, and I think it's a little more
(05:29):
kid friendly. Almost thirty percent of opening weekend crowds were
under the age of twenty five, so I think that's
sort of a testament to James Gunn's decision to make
a change from the prior darker take on the DC
Extended Universe that was spearheaded by Zack Snyder.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
This, as you said, this has been a complete reset.
Does that thirty percent under twenty five number do you
think is the studio happy with that? Is that a
good sign for the studio.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Well, you definitely always want to get younger viewers invested
because James Gun and Peter Saffern, who are the new
heads of DC, have outlined this ten year plan for DC,
and so if they're getting people invested at a younger age,
that bodes well for the longevity. So they're happy that
young people seem to be excited about this.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, as you said, you know that the portmance was
strong on par, not spectacular off the charts. But none
other than Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslov has taken
the opportunity on Sunday to release a lengthy statement that
is nothing other than a victory lap. David Zaslov says,
the momentum is real end quote. Based on what you've
(06:41):
seen so far, do you believe that? Is he right?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
It felt a bit like he was trying to will
this movie into being a billion dollar blockbuster, and that
certainly can become the case. We don't know yet what
it's staying power will be. But the key phrase here
is we don't know what the staying power will be.
And Disney even has seen recently that just because the
(07:07):
movie has a big opening weekend doesn't mean that it
will stick around on the big screen. And what I
thought was kind of interesting about David Zaslov issuing a
statement on the Sunday of opening weekend is that Disney
CEO Bob Iger was similarly pretty celebratory after Thunderbolts, which
was the latest Marvel adventure, opened in theaters. He put
(07:28):
out a statement saying, this is the best representation of
what Marvel is doing moving forward, and then that movie
ended up collapsing at the box office. It will end
up as one of Marvel's lowest grossing films. And I
don't think that's going to be the case here. I
don't think that ticket sales are going to fall off
a cliff. It has a lot of competition, and this
is summer movie season, so a lot of attention for eyeballs.
(07:50):
And Marvel has a new movie, Fantastic First Steps, opening
in two weeks, so it's not devoid of competition. So
I think this is a good start and it's a
sign that enthusiasm is there. But I don't know if
zas Laughing Company should be pop in the champagne bottles
just yet.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Might have been a touch premature did you see anything
unusual or interesting in how Superman performed regionally? In the US?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
The top ten markets were pretty standard. La New York, Dallas, Chicago,
and San Francisco were some of the top markets. But
when I was looking at the top ten locations, something
that caught my eye was there were two theaters in Florida,
one in Orlando and one in Miami. And then there
was one theater in Atlanta that cracked the top ten locations.
(08:41):
And again usually those are populated by theaters in La
New York and Texas. I thought it was interesting that
those southern venues were some of the highest grossing. I
think it played pretty evenly across the country. Rebecca, what
else should we be looking out for in terms of
movies with a lot riding on them for their studios
(09:03):
for the rest of the summer. The next big release
definitely is The Fantastic Four First Steps, because Marvel has
also had a pretty rocky go at its comic book movies,
and this one people feel optimistic that it's doing something
different in a good way. The other movies that are
(09:23):
coming out this summer, I'd say, don't have a ton
riding on them, but have the potential to be sleeper hits,
which is always exciting. They're all reboots, actually I Know
What You Did last summer, then Naked Gun reboot with
Liam Neeson, and then Freak Youar Friday, which is actually
a sequel to the movie with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie
Lee Curtis. And so none of those movies have big budgets.
(09:44):
It's not like they need to make three hundred million
to be a success. It's great to hear so much
traction at the box office, so much activity. So we've
missed that the last couple of summers. So thanks is
always for being on the case for us.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Thank you. We're less than twenty four hours away from
the Emmy nominations announcement. Nobody has a keener, spidy sense
of what's going to happen tomorrow morning than Clayton Davis,
Variety's chief Awards editor, Clayton Davis. Thank you for making
time for me. This is your busy season, This is
the time we all wait for Clayton. Nobody is a
(10:20):
more keen or diligent observer of trends and nuances. What
do you think we're going to be talking about when
we're talking about Emmy nominations.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
We had a downward submission tally. We had a three
percent drum. We don't have a ton of incumbents, so
a lot of former winners maybe not coming back, or
former nominees even coming back. And I think we'll see
some new kings of the castle in terms of networks
and studios that typically have been dominated before. I mean
(10:50):
last year we saw it with that X and this
year you can see Apple like really really flex like
to the first time in its history, could have its
best studio day ever.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Let's talk about the big Kahunas. Let's start with comedy,
because comedy is hard, as we know.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
This is where you have the most returning shows because
you have Abbott, the Bear Hacks, only murders in the building.
What we do in the shadows seem like they're going
to be there. The big Freshman series, the studio, I
think is poised to dominate, very likely to bring the
Freshman series record. Anything more than twenty is going to
be the record for the studio. I have been at nineteen,
(11:28):
and I'm a very conservative nineteen. Then you have shrinking.
It's also going to help Apple out. Netflix expected to
get a Freshman series, Nobody Wants Us, Christ Bells on
the front and the final seasons like Righteous Gemstones, the
new season of Poker Face, the very buzzy rehearsal for
one reason or another. I think there is a pretty
(11:51):
much agreed upon top eight, but you know, we're always
open for a.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Surprise or two, So bring the drama.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Clayton Severance expected to lead on the ram the side.
Netflix has a Diplomat which it's like the New West
Wing kind of in that realm. And then you're looking
at HBO Max, which has three shows that I feel
very very good about. We're going to get in the Pit,
the White Lotus and The Last of Us. Can to
(12:17):
get a fourth one with like Industry House The Dragon,
which they did two years back, Probably not, but three
series noms is pretty respectable. And then it's and Or
Disney plus and Or Skyrocketed and ratings the best reviewed
show is so well done. But and Ord is like
one that could really really flex for Disney in a
(12:39):
really big way that they haven't done since WandaVision. What
I want to know more than anything on nomination morning, well,
I feel that The Pit it's finally gonna win. No
Wiley and Emmy. It's been twenty six years since no'wiley
has gotten an Emmy nomination, and I think that show
is such a dark horse a win drama series.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Clayton as always, thank you for pulling out that crystal
ball and giving us some informed insights. Really appreciate it.
Now we hear from Mark Malkin, Variety Senior Culture and
Events editor, with his report from The Smurf's premiere. The
event's subtitle might have been waiting for Rihanna, as Mark explains.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Thanks Cynthia Paramount cast a blease spell on its famed
Hollywood lot on Sunday afternoon for the premiere of its
latest Smurfs movie. Rihanna, who arrived with her and Asam
Rocky's sons Ryde and Rizza almost two hours after the
screening ended, insisted that Chris Miller directed movie isn't just
for kids. Is this just for the kids? You just smurfat?
(13:47):
Have they seen your voice come out of smurfeed They have.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Not yet, But this is not just for the kids.
I'm gonna be a little selfish on this one because
I'm super fan of the Smurfs. I've always been a fan,
but I'm really excited for a new generation of Smurfs fans.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Mur Well, the sequel hasn't been green led just yet.
I asked Rihanna which Smurf she thinks Acev Rocky could
play if he.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Was cast Freestyle Smurf, Fashion Smurf, and damn, there's already
a Papa Smurf. Yeah, but he'll be He could play
Papa Smurv too.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Also in the carpet, ted Lasso's star Hannah Wattingham, who
plays an evil wizard in Smurfs.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
My daughter's just about to turn eleven. Hannah.
Speaker 6 (14:36):
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I'm a pretty cool mom right now. Smurf's is in
theaters July eighteenth.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
As we close out today's episode, here are a few
things we're watching for, actually more than a few things.
This week is hopping. We've got Emmy nominations on Tuesday.
We've got ESPN's sp Awards in La On Wednesday, Variety
hosts its annual sports and Entertainment breakfast the next morning.
Later on Thursday, we have Netflix's second quarter earnings report
(15:09):
that always sets the tone for the rest of big
media earnings to follow. Friday will see the wide releases
of Paramounts, The Smurfs and Sony Pictures, I Know What
You Did Last summer and up in Montreal. Variety will
celebrate the unveiling of our ten comics to Watch Choices
this year as part of the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival.
We'll cover it all on Variety dot com before we go.
(15:32):
Congrats to Kate Laffey, who has joined Fifth Season as
Senior VP of Acquisitions. She comes to the company after
stints at Number nine Film and Paramount. She's based at
Fifth Season's international distribution headquarters in London. Thanks for listening.
This episode of Daily Variety was written and reported by
me Cynthia Littleton and Mark Malkin, with contributions from Rebecca
(15:55):
Rubin and Clayton Davis. It was edited by Aaron Greenwall
Sticks next hick Picks. Please leave us a review with
the podcast platform of your choice, and please tune in
tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety.
Hello, Strictly Business listeners. This is your host Cynthia Littleton.
I'm so excited today to give you a sneak listen
to a podcast project we've been working on for a
few months, Daily Variety. On this show, we talked to
Variety journalists and guests about news, personalities and trends that
are making headlines and showbiz. Variety has the most incredible
(00:21):
masthead of journalists covering media and entertainment. In addition to
our strength in La New York and London. Almost every
day of the year, Variety is somewhere in the world
covering a festival, or a market, or a premiere. We
want to showcase all this great work in a new
way with this program. The name Daily Variety is a
nod to the daily newspaper that Variety published for eighty
(00:43):
years from nineteen thirty three to twenty thirteen. The podcast
Daily Variety is a new iteration for a new generation.
It will be in your feed Monday through Thursday for
the next few weeks. In keeping with Varietys roots covering
Vaudeville and Broadway, we're taking the Broadway previews approach to
this show. We'll fine tune it for a little while
(01:05):
before we build up to a formal launch later this summer.
Of course, we'd love to hear your feedback at Variety
dot com. Thanks for checking us out, and away we go.
Welcome to Daily Variety, your daily dose of news and
(01:27):
analysis for entertainment industry insiders. It's Monday, July fourteenth, 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,
(01:49):
we'll talk to Rebecca Rubin about how Superman performed in
its debut weekend with the hopes of DC Studios writing
on his back. We'll hear from Clayton Davis on Emmy
prediction as we await the big news on Tuesday, and
Mark Malkin gives us a Just for Variety red carpet
rundown on Sunday's toasty premiere of The Smurfs. Before we
(02:11):
get to that, here are a few headlines just in
this morning that you need to know. The cameras are
rolling on the New Harry Potter. HBO this morning released
the first look image of the cast getting down to
work at Warner Brothers Studio Leavesden in the UK. The
series is targeting at twenty twenty seven debut. ABC has
(02:32):
lined up Michael Strahan, Chip and Joanna Gaines and Kendra
Scott as guest sharks on the upcoming season of Shark Tank.
They'll fill the empty chair left by Mark Cuban, who
has bowed out after fourteen seasons on the show. Also
in the Disney Verse, ABC News has tapped James Longman
and Rachel Scott to anchor a ten minute news roundup
(02:52):
program that will air on Disney Plus. Now it's time
for conversations with Variety gas journalist about what's making news
in showbiz. If it's Monday, We're talking box office with
Rebecca Rubin, Variety Senior Film and Media reporter. How high
did Superman fly in his debut weekend? Was it enough
(03:13):
to lay the foundation for a prosperous new DC cinematic universe.
We break it all down and we talk about what
else she's watching out for at the box office this summer.
Rebecca Rubin, our box office cheap, Thanks so much for
joining me. Thanks for having me, Rebecca. This was another
big weekend at the box office, so many eyes on Superman.
(03:35):
How did this movie perform?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
This weekend was especially important because Superman didn't just have
the responsibility of being a big hit for the studio.
It's set up to relaunch DC Studios, and they have
struggled a lot in the past, and there's a lot
riding on Superman. And it had a really great opening weekend.
It opened to one hundred and twenty two million in
(03:58):
the US and Canada, which was enough to rank as
the third biggest opening weekend of the year after Minecraft
and Leelo and Stitch. And it ended up making a
little over two hundred million globally, and that is in
part because the international numbers were actually a little bit
softer than expected. It was supposed to open to one
(04:19):
hundred million and it ended up opening to ninety five million,
so not a huge difference. But some box office analysts
are saying that Superman is such an American character that
could be why it's over indexing in North America.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And as you know, the brand of America has gone
through a lot of changes in recent months. But let
me ask you just in terms of domestically was that
in the range of what was expected.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I think this is pretty on par with what a
lot of people were expecting, and that's partially because Superman
is such a recognizable character. But at the same time,
it's a very earnest, feel good character at a time
when it's easier to be cynical and sarcastic and snarky,
(05:07):
and that's a lot of the comic book movies that
we've seen. So there was a real question of do
people want to see this version of Escapism that is
an optimistic, lighter version of comic book character. The turnout
seems to be an endorsement in people wanting something a
little bit lighter, and I think it's a little more
(05:29):
kid friendly. Almost thirty percent of opening weekend crowds were
under the age of twenty five, so I think that's
sort of a testament to James Gunn's decision to make
a change from the prior darker take on the DC
Extended Universe that was spearheaded by Zack Snyder.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
This, as you said, this has been a complete reset.
Does that thirty percent under twenty five number do you
think is the studio happy with that? Is that a
good sign for the studio.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Well, you definitely always want to get younger viewers invested
because James Gun and Peter Saffern, who are the new
heads of DC, have outlined this ten year plan for DC,
and so if they're getting people invested at a younger age,
that bodes well for the longevity. So they're happy that
young people seem to be excited about this.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Well, as you said, you know that the portmance was
strong on par, not spectacular off the charts. But none
other than Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslov has taken
the opportunity on Sunday to release a lengthy statement that
is nothing other than a victory lap. David Zaslov says,
the momentum is real end quote. Based on what you've
(06:41):
seen so far, do you believe that? Is he right?
Speaker 2 (06:44):
It felt a bit like he was trying to will
this movie into being a billion dollar blockbuster, and that
certainly can become the case. We don't know yet what
it's staying power will be. But the key phrase here
is we don't know what the staying power will be.
And Disney even has seen recently that just because the
(07:07):
movie has a big opening weekend doesn't mean that it
will stick around on the big screen. And what I
thought was kind of interesting about David Zaslov issuing a
statement on the Sunday of opening weekend is that Disney
CEO Bob Iger was similarly pretty celebratory after Thunderbolts, which
was the latest Marvel adventure, opened in theaters. He put
(07:28):
out a statement saying, this is the best representation of
what Marvel is doing moving forward, and then that movie
ended up collapsing at the box office. It will end
up as one of Marvel's lowest grossing films. And I
don't think that's going to be the case here. I
don't think that ticket sales are going to fall off
a cliff. It has a lot of competition, and this
is summer movie season, so a lot of attention for eyeballs.
(07:50):
And Marvel has a new movie, Fantastic First Steps, opening
in two weeks, so it's not devoid of competition. So
I think this is a good start and it's a
sign that enthusiasm is there. But I don't know if
zas Laughing Company should be pop in the champagne bottles
just yet.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Might have been a touch premature did you see anything
unusual or interesting in how Superman performed regionally? In the US?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
The top ten markets were pretty standard. La New York, Dallas, Chicago,
and San Francisco were some of the top markets. But
when I was looking at the top ten locations, something
that caught my eye was there were two theaters in Florida,
one in Orlando and one in Miami. And then there
was one theater in Atlanta that cracked the top ten locations.
(08:41):
And again usually those are populated by theaters in La
New York and Texas. I thought it was interesting that
those southern venues were some of the highest grossing. I
think it played pretty evenly across the country. Rebecca, what
else should we be looking out for in terms of
movies with a lot riding on them for their studios
(09:03):
for the rest of the summer. The next big release
definitely is The Fantastic Four First Steps, because Marvel has
also had a pretty rocky go at its comic book movies,
and this one people feel optimistic that it's doing something
different in a good way. The other movies that are
(09:23):
coming out this summer, I'd say, don't have a ton
riding on them, but have the potential to be sleeper hits,
which is always exciting. They're all reboots, actually I Know
What You Did last summer, then Naked Gun reboot with
Liam Neeson, and then Freak Youar Friday, which is actually
a sequel to the movie with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie
Lee Curtis. And so none of those movies have big budgets.
(09:44):
It's not like they need to make three hundred million
to be a success. It's great to hear so much
traction at the box office, so much activity. So we've
missed that the last couple of summers. So thanks is
always for being on the case for us.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Thank you. We're less than twenty four hours away from
the Emmy nominations announcement. Nobody has a keener, spidy sense
of what's going to happen tomorrow morning than Clayton Davis,
Variety's chief Awards editor, Clayton Davis. Thank you for making
time for me. This is your busy season, This is
the time we all wait for Clayton. Nobody is a
(10:20):
more keen or diligent observer of trends and nuances. What
do you think we're going to be talking about when
we're talking about Emmy nominations.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
We had a downward submission tally. We had a three
percent drum. We don't have a ton of incumbents, so
a lot of former winners maybe not coming back, or
former nominees even coming back. And I think we'll see
some new kings of the castle in terms of networks
and studios that typically have been dominated before. I mean
(10:50):
last year we saw it with that X and this
year you can see Apple like really really flex like
to the first time in its history, could have its
best studio day ever.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Let's talk about the big Kahunas. Let's start with comedy,
because comedy is hard, as we know.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
This is where you have the most returning shows because
you have Abbott, the Bear Hacks, only murders in the building.
What we do in the shadows seem like they're going
to be there. The big Freshman series, the studio, I
think is poised to dominate, very likely to bring the
Freshman series record. Anything more than twenty is going to
be the record for the studio. I have been at nineteen,
(11:28):
and I'm a very conservative nineteen. Then you have shrinking.
It's also going to help Apple out. Netflix expected to
get a Freshman series, Nobody Wants Us, Christ Bells on
the front and the final seasons like Righteous Gemstones, the
new season of Poker Face, the very buzzy rehearsal for
one reason or another. I think there is a pretty
(11:51):
much agreed upon top eight, but you know, we're always
open for a.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Surprise or two, So bring the drama.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Clayton Severance expected to lead on the ram the side.
Netflix has a Diplomat which it's like the New West
Wing kind of in that realm. And then you're looking
at HBO Max, which has three shows that I feel
very very good about. We're going to get in the Pit,
the White Lotus and The Last of Us. Can to
(12:17):
get a fourth one with like Industry House The Dragon,
which they did two years back, Probably not, but three
series noms is pretty respectable. And then it's and Or
Disney plus and Or Skyrocketed and ratings the best reviewed
show is so well done. But and Ord is like
one that could really really flex for Disney in a
(12:39):
really big way that they haven't done since WandaVision. What
I want to know more than anything on nomination morning, well,
I feel that The Pit it's finally gonna win. No
Wiley and Emmy. It's been twenty six years since no'wiley
has gotten an Emmy nomination, and I think that show
is such a dark horse a win drama series.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Clayton as always, thank you for pulling out that crystal
ball and giving us some informed insights. Really appreciate it.
Now we hear from Mark Malkin, Variety Senior Culture and
Events editor, with his report from The Smurf's premiere. The
event's subtitle might have been waiting for Rihanna, as Mark explains.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Thanks Cynthia Paramount cast a blease spell on its famed
Hollywood lot on Sunday afternoon for the premiere of its
latest Smurfs movie. Rihanna, who arrived with her and Asam
Rocky's sons Ryde and Rizza almost two hours after the
screening ended, insisted that Chris Miller directed movie isn't just
for kids. Is this just for the kids? You just smurfat?
(13:47):
Have they seen your voice come out of smurfeed They have.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Not yet, But this is not just for the kids.
I'm gonna be a little selfish on this one because
I'm super fan of the Smurfs. I've always been a fan,
but I'm really excited for a new generation of Smurfs fans.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Mur Well, the sequel hasn't been green led just yet.
I asked Rihanna which Smurf she thinks Acev Rocky could
play if he.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Was cast Freestyle Smurf, Fashion Smurf, and damn, there's already
a Papa Smurf. Yeah, but he'll be He could play
Papa Smurv too.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Also in the carpet, ted Lasso's star Hannah Wattingham, who
plays an evil wizard in Smurfs.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
My daughter's just about to turn eleven. Hannah.
Speaker 6 (14:36):
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
I'm a pretty cool mom right now. Smurf's is in
theaters July eighteenth.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
As we close out today's episode, here are a few
things we're watching for, actually more than a few things.
This week is hopping. We've got Emmy nominations on Tuesday.
We've got ESPN's sp Awards in La On Wednesday, Variety
hosts its annual sports and Entertainment breakfast the next morning.
Later on Thursday, we have Netflix's second quarter earnings report
(15:09):
that always sets the tone for the rest of big
media earnings to follow. Friday will see the wide releases
of Paramounts, The Smurfs and Sony Pictures, I Know What
You Did Last summer and up in Montreal. Variety will
celebrate the unveiling of our ten comics to Watch Choices
this year as part of the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival.
We'll cover it all on Variety dot com before we go.
(15:32):
Congrats to Kate Laffey, who has joined Fifth Season as
Senior VP of Acquisitions. She comes to the company after
stints at Number nine Film and Paramount. She's based at
Fifth Season's international distribution headquarters in London. Thanks for listening.
This episode of Daily Variety was written and reported by
me Cynthia Littleton and Mark Malkin, with contributions from Rebecca
(15:55):
Rubin and Clayton Davis. It was edited by Aaron Greenwall
Sticks next hick Picks. Please leave us a review with
the podcast platform of your choice, and please tune in
tomorrow for another episode of Daily Variety.
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