The Breakdown of the 2025 Box Office

Remember this podcast? Christopher sure hopes so! After a summer break, he’s back with a look at the biggest box office hits of the year and a preview of the movies he’s most excited to review this fall. He also shares where he’s been, why the show went quiet for a while, and what’s next for the podcast.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
They're coming to get you, Barbara. They're coming for you, Barbra.
Look that comes one of them. Now, Welcome to the
latest episode of guy who calls himself a movie critic

(00:35):
despite not reviewing a movie for over a year, who
occasionally posts podcasts full of excuses of why his show's
not weekly anymore. That's right, I'm your host, Christopher Spicer,
and this is actually the Movie Breakdown, And I'm absolutely
amazed that despite the fact that I don't even post

(00:58):
a show once a month, that when I do post
a show, the listener numbers, that download numbers are still
really high. And the only thing that I can figure
out of why people still come back to this podcast
despite me constantly breaking my promises and not reviewing movies

(01:19):
and not really posting on a consistent basis for many,
many years now, is that you were listeners of us
from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty when we did post
every single week and there was me and Scott reviewing movies.

(01:39):
Because I can't figure out how a new listener in
the last five years would have stuck around unless you really,
really really are looking for your three times a year
dose of a guy saying I'm gonna get back to
weekly and I am gonna review movies, I promise, like
if that's your thing, amazing, But yes, I'm finally back

(02:01):
after I'm not posting anything since June, and we are
now coming at the end of August. And actually a
whole lot has happened here in the Christopher Spicer House.
In the Spicer House, I'm not sure why I decided
to put my first name on top of my entire family.
There's one Christopher here and then there's you know, my

(02:23):
two children, and my wonderful wife and our dog and
our cat. But anyways, Everett has graduated from elementary school.
That's happened since the last time that we have recorded
a podcast, which is crazy. In a week, my little
boy is going to struck himself as a teenager and

(02:45):
go to high school, which is absolutely insane for me.
I got a little bit of a proud moment as
a father. Obviously, my son keeps on making me so proud,
as as does Danica. As I think on the last
podcast we did music Man and he he had that
great opportunity to play Winthrop, which is a major role

(03:05):
in that musical. And thank you for all those who
did come see that show. That was definitely my favorite
show I've put on, and I think it was one
of Everett's as well. But Everett had a great graduation
and he ended up walking away with four awards, one
for math, one for sort of the highest mark in

(03:27):
the in his class of French, and he also got
one for a theater so well arts actually the whole
kind of the whole thing, like performing arts. But so
that was that was great him being acknowledged in those
areas and then he taking that sort of love for French.
He actually did a French immersion in Quebec for three weeks,

(03:49):
so that was the longest that I, as a father
did not have my son around. So I don't know
why it was a bigger deal for him or me,
but definitely an opportunity for him to be like really nip.
He said, he really learned to sort of that independence,
you know, having to actually wake up in the morning,
don't someone waking you up and making sure you make
it to the classes, and having to do laundry. And

(04:11):
we even had him allow him to sort of have
a budget where he had to learn what to spend
things on and be good with his money, which I
don't know how well he passed that, but yeah, so
three weeks of that, and then after that they went
off to a camp and me and Emily went to
a cottage and right after that there we went to
Stratford and saw dirty rotten scoundrels and Annie, which were

(04:34):
absolutely incredible. It was kind of like a family vacation.
I talked about that a little bit in my Sight
beyond the Balcony, So if you guys don't normally check
out that site, you can see some photos there and
a little bit of talking about those experiences. And this
summer was definitely sort of a good test of me
as I'm not the idea. As I mentioned before in

(04:56):
this podcast, the diagnosis of that I am autistic in
ADHD explains a lot of sort of the challenges throughout
my life. And one of those is the fact that
you know, I like to travel, and I like to
meet people, and I like to do exciting things, but
I also really get burnt out and my brain really

(05:16):
analyzes every single experience and goes through every single conversation.
And so this summer, it was wonderful time. My family
want to focus on the good things, but it was
definitely exhausting and definitely had its emotional tolls on me.
And I'm still trying to figure out how to balance
all that, and that, of course is why we're back here,

(05:37):
where the site is still not posting movie reviews. It's
still not the pop culture hope I hope for, and
this podcast is still not even close to weekly. And
I just want to thank all my listeners that are
still patient with me and have continued to support me
despite this year where I haven't necessarily been consistent in

(05:59):
delivering the stuff you want. I do apologize for that,
but I am really grateful for how many people have
reached out and how many people, even though you know
you're not in my brain and you don't know what
I'm going through. I have appreciated that people who have
checked up on my mental health but have also sort
of empathized with the idea of sort of the I

(06:20):
think I mentioned on the last podcast. I've definitely written
about it, that idea of mourning the diagnosis of being
a neo divergent. Not that I'm mourning the fact that
I am neo divergent, but that for forty seven years
I did not know that way. Forty seven years. I
was battling to try to be normal. For forty seven years,

(06:43):
I thought I was broken and there's something wrong with me.
And there's just sort of that idea of if you
lived in a world where in the nineteen eighties you
could be both autistic and ADHD, which you could have been,
but they didn't diagnose you for that. I was one
or the other. Who knows what would have happened when
my parents got me tested way back then, when they were, yeah,
your son has both. That's why he's not necessarily showing

(07:07):
signs of just ADHD or autism. It's why he's kind
of this missmash of him. It's because he has both
and his brain is wired for sort of wanting change
but also want a routine. And who knows what have
happened if you know, it wasn't until twenty thirteen where

(07:28):
they started diagnosing people for both. Who knows what have
happened in my life? And it's just been a challenge
in that way of really trying to figure out who
I am now and where I want to go forward
and just sort of figuring out what are truly my interests,
what are things that are truly me and what were

(07:49):
things that I did that were for the sake of
seeking normal or trying to just be sort of that
regular person. And so I do apologize that this has
definitely been in dreadful shape. But there's a lot of
other things that I've sort of been promising to create
that I haven't quite got there yet. There's also just
a fact of I've talked about mental health so much

(08:11):
in the last few years, and that was a part
of a reason why my career derailed for a bit.
That I am trying to get back on track with
my freelance career and building clients again and trying to
really be in a spot where my career can be
something that supports my family. And so that's been a
big challenge too, of just sort of getting that confidence back,
get that routine back, making those connections again. And so

(08:34):
I'm not going to say one hundred percent that we're
back to weekly, but I am going to say that
I am. While I've been gone from podcasting for the
last few months, I have been putting strategies of place
and routines of place and a schedule in place with
the goal that sort of there's certain things I am

(08:58):
going to post on the site every single day, and
one of them is mondays this podcast, the Movie Breakdown. Now,
I've already spoiled that I'm not going to be reviewing
a movie today, mainly because I have not even seen
any twenty twenty five movies, But that is going to come.
My goal is still to have a best of the

(09:20):
Year show at the end of the year. It's still
to list the best movies of the year, which just
means I've got a few months to really catch up
and really track down the movies that I think could
be sort of the hidden gems I can champion, but
also the movies that I think have been sort of
those important sort of blockbusters that I want to say,
are they worth seeing? And sort of what's it speaking

(09:43):
to our culture at this time, the society, you know,
all the things that I sort of enjoy doing. But
I do want to just quickly look at sort of
the interesting kind of state of the movie industry right
now and sort of a lot of times of people
sort of getting shocked with what ends up being the

(10:05):
big box office hits and then what ends up flopping
a bit. And one thing I do want to talk
about is there is a few pundits, a few sort
of podcasters or people who analyze film that they keep
on pushing back for the last few years without this
whole idea of the comic book fatigue or superhero fatigue,

(10:28):
and then they always point to the fact that out
there's still all these superhero movies that are making money.
And I think what they are sort of forgetting is
when there's been other sort of big trends, like when
there was musicals, and there was Westerns, and there was
a star driven picture and sort of the raunchy comedies,

(10:54):
like these things at one time were big box office hits,
and then eventually you basically say that people have got
fatigue on them. They no longer are draws. I think
what guests forgotten is it's not like when Westerns stopped
being the top grossing movies that no one ever saw
any Westerns anymore. I mean, Clint Eastwood made The High

(11:19):
Plane Drifters and he made picture The Pale Rider, like
he made movies after Westerns were still major draws or unforgiven,
which is the nineties, when we're way past when Westerns
are considered draw and they still made money or they
won a cameo Award and they still got people's attention.
And after the Star Wars craze was done, you still

(11:42):
had sci fi movies that came out in the nineties
it still did well in the box office, like Men
in Black and things like that, And so I think
there is a bit of sort of being disingenuous with
some of these people pushed back saying that so the
comic book thing, comic book fatigue is a myth when

(12:05):
they point to say, because look at these hits, because
I think what it really means is there was a
there was a period for several years where the Marvel
movies are basically the highest grocery movie of the year,
and well, it's in on anything. Marvel could bring something out.
During that period where Guardings of the Galaxy, the comic
book that no one ever heard of, ended up being

(12:25):
a massive box office hit, was the period where Marvel
could kind of do no wrong. And during that period,
any studio could sort of put out a comic book
movie and it's probably gonna be decent, because not decent
necessary quality, but it's going to do pretty well in
the box office because people were sort of that's that
was sort of the hot thing and everyone sort of
wanted to gubble up those those different type of movies.

(12:47):
And when we talk about comic fatigue, now it's not
like Batman or Superman or Iron Man or sort of
Spider Man, the ones that are sort of these iconic
super heroes, the most well known conk Book It's not
like they're going to have no one come see them whatsoever.
What it is saying, though, is maybe fifteen years ago,

(13:10):
ten years ago, that would have been the highest gre
seing movie of the year if you have a big
name conk Book star, and that most of the Conicbook
movies are going to be in the top twenty a
bit win their weekend. And now it's sort of saying
that people are going to come if they are interested
in that character or the story's appealing. But they have

(13:34):
sort of moved past just being ready to gobble up
anything that has to do with sort of a conk
Book like movie. And I feel that really started around
the time of you know, Top Gun Maverick. I think
a lot of the reasons why Top Gun Maverick was
such a big, massive hit was people were starving for
something a little bit different. They kind of you know

(13:56):
that Marvel Humor, that Marvel palette, that Marvel kind of
style of picture. They were wanting something different, and Top
Gun Maverick had that earnestness, had the different type of characters,
just a different form of kind of pacing and storytelling
that appeal to people. I think it's the same reason
why the Avatar sequel did so well. It was still

(14:17):
giving you that blockbuster appeal, but it was not like
the comic book style. And then barbin Hammer last year,
or we know we're talking about two years now. Same
thing I would say in that regards is that the

(14:39):
Barbenheimer thing was a total sign of certain people being
tired of the comic book movie and this was something different.
This was a big talking point. This is sort of
where the culture moved to. This is what is now
in the zeitgeist. And so I feel this was the
sign that appetites were sort of changing and what considered

(15:00):
sort of big discussions were changing. And that leads me
to the point of, like, right now, if you're looking
at the highest grossing movies domestically, Superman sits at number three,
and obviously say, well, this just contradicts everything you said,
and I'm going to counter in that Superman is the
most well known superhero probably in the world. He's the

(15:24):
most iconic. This was going to be the kickoff to
the new DC cinematic universe, and so I'm saying if
anyone was going to buy in that the cinematic universe
was a big thing and this reinvention of DC is
the most important thing, this movie's success was going to
really show how much people buy that. And this was

(15:46):
a heavily hyped movie had James Gunn, who's a director
that's got massive followers, massive fans. He gave you the
guards of the Galaxy series, and I would definitely say, yeah,
I did well in the box office. There's no reason
that Warner Brothers should be disappointed. But I'm pretty sure

(16:06):
when this movie was initially conceived and this idea of
a new sort of reworked cinematic universe was put together
by David Zaslov and his team that their eyes were
a Superman being like the highest grossing movie of the year,
it being just a big, massive hit, and it was

(16:29):
a hit. But I think this is a sign of
the future that Superman did what it did in this spot,
and that just being a comic book movie is not
a guaranteed hit anymore, and that Warner Brothers may want
to reanalyze how much they're going to go all in
on this cinematic universe. Like if they're expecting to put

(16:50):
out two or three DC movies of year setting up
to some big kind of Justice League movie or whatever,
they may want to rework that. They may want to
think it over, They may want to put in some
discussions in place, because this, to me, I think this
being the first and this being behind the hype, and

(17:11):
this being such a big star that a lot of
the other ones are likely going to come to diminishing returns.
I don't think you're looking at all the a lot
of these follow up movies go do even better than Superman.
You're looking at Superman probably being one of the best,
And so this is sort of showing the sign. But
I mean, I also could be completely wrong, but I

(17:32):
do think that's a sign, and even bigger sign in
my idea that the fact that like comic book movies,
aren't guaranteed hits number seven. Fantastic Four another movie that
people were waiting for quite a while and we're excited
about and had a lot of hype behind it, it
gets the seventh spot, so MCU does not even get

(17:52):
to say they had the highest grossing movie of the
year this year, Captain America comes in at eight. Now,
in some way he's gonna say the Captain America should
be happy of that because it came out with some
pretty poor reviews. And then Thunderbolts, which I mean, it's
sort of the psyekick movie, all the sidekicks put in

(18:13):
a team and number ten. But again I would say,
like you look at Guards of Galaxley you go a
few years ago, a Thunderbolts movie would probably make it
in the top five just because it is MCU, and
that's just not enough anymore. But what I'm definitely saying though,
is that obviously the next few years, we're still gonna
see cogic book movies that draw people. There's gonna be

(18:35):
comic book movies they go do well in the box office.
I'm pretty confident, like when the Spider Verse movie comes out,
in the next Spider Man movie and surely those will
be massive hits and maybe very close to one of
the highest grossing movies of the year. And the next
Batman movie I'm sure will be really successful. But I
do think that we can be pretty confident the idea

(18:55):
that there is a form of comic book fatigue and
that the COG genre is not at its height anymore
and there is a little less interested. But have we
moved to like video game movies now being the next
big hit. That's the interesting thing, because yeah, Super Mario

(19:17):
Brothers was one of the biggest hits of its yeer
a few years ago, and then he had the Sonic
movies that were also really big hits, all three of them.
And now The High and then uh, Five Night at
Freddy's I think it was about two years ago, was
another surprise hit, like for its budget and what it
was so that people were really into the Five Night

(19:37):
and Freddy's. And now we have the Minecraft Movie, which
I would have never had the beginning of January predicted
being the highest grossing domestic movie of the year by
the time that we've reached the end of the summer.
There just it would have never been something that I
would have predicted or guessed. H here we are. The
Minecraft movie was just it's been a massive hit. It's

(20:02):
been a phenomenon, and I mean one of the reasons
why I just never thought it would be hit is.
I get it's one of the most popular video games
of all time, and both my kids love it, and
there's so many people that have played it. But there's
a lot of people that have played a Rubik's Cube.
There's a lot of people that have played a Frisbee,
There's a lot of people that enjoy a Yo Yo.

(20:23):
There's a lot of things like sim City is a
game that everyone during my generation played, but not everything say,
translates into an interesting movie. And to me, I didn't
think Minecraft necessarily set itself up for a movie or
one of those cases where again, like I like Pie,

(20:45):
but that doesn't mean I want to see a movie
of it. And I thought Minecraft didn't necessarily you love
the game, that doesn't necessarily many people want to see
a movie of it, but they somehow were able to
get the right marketing, the right connection. I think Jack
Black has kind of been synomous. He's in video game movies,
so I think casting him was very smart. And I
was also a movie that is just filled with memes

(21:09):
and filled with a lot of sort of pop culture things,
and it had a lot of things that people liked.
Kind of became a very discussion where the movie and
it somehow was able to sort of that Barbenheimer effect.
It is the closest thing to Barbarenheimer this year where
it's going to be one of those movies where you
need to see it because everyone is talking about it,

(21:31):
and it's definitely one of those shocks. I also think,
though this is one of those cases of it can't
necessarily be repeated. I don't think Warner Brothers or any
other studios should necessary look up Minecraft and say all right,
we need to now start turning other building block games
into movies or looking at whatever it worked for Minecraft,
this is necessarily going to work again. Like I don't

(21:52):
even know Minecraft two is necessarily going to be a
big hit. And I would see this as kind of
one of those in the lifetime things or something that's
going to come to diminishing return. But I could be
completely wrong on that because I also would have never
predicted when it ended up being the second highest grossing
movie domestically this year, and that's Lelo and Stitch, and

(22:14):
I know Leland Stitch is big. I mean, the original
came out over a decade and a half before my
daughter was born, and she loves Leland Stitch, and all
her kids love leol and Stitch, and one of her
birthdays she got a bunch of Stitch stuff. So I
understand that Leland Stitch or Stitch especially is very popular

(22:36):
among a generation that didn't even see the movie originally.
So I get it something that people were excited about
when we made that movie. It definitely became sort of
a big event for probably younger kids. And then another
thing is millennials, they would have been growing up with
Leal Stitch. That would have been the childhood movie, and
millennials are the ones now to have the younger kids

(22:59):
and as definitely showing that as much as like a
few years ago movie set in the eighties and the
nineties movie set in that period, but also movies set
on pop culture during that period translated to big box
office hits, and they still kind of do now. It
seems like things from the two thousands sort of have
that nostalgia button, that nostalgia strength because of millennials sort

(23:25):
of growing up during that period. And so Leland Stitch
is I think had that big nostalgia feel and it's
one of the live action movies that end up being
a big hit compared to some like snow White that
I think it would being a bit of a disappointment
for Disney Leo Stitch. I think it had been a
big surprise and so that was a huge thing. And

(23:47):
so I think you're going to see a lot of
studios looking at sort of pop culture things that were
popping the two thousands now and trying to find ways
to turn that into a mo If that means that
they're going to revisit something like the Disney Atlantis movie.
Do you know a live action version of that or
a live action version of Treasure Planet, I'm kind of interested.

(24:10):
I'd be interested to see what they would do with
those movies as a live action So I'm not totally
opposed to this if they have an interesting kind of
story idea and they don't just necessarily go beat for beat,
which I don't think they went for those kind of
two movies. Those movies weren't necessarily big hits, But I
think if you make an interesting movie, they could be
surprised in its success. Another big standout that's I think

(24:34):
important to me is the fifth highest grossing movie of
the year right now, Sinners, partly because I love Ryan Kugler.
So I love the fact that Ryan Kugler has essentially
since after he did his independent movie, since he's sort
of been making sort of big budget mainstream movies like
creating Black Panther, he keeps on delivering hits. And Sinners

(24:58):
at number five is a big, massive hit. That's a
great thing for Ryan Cougler's career, a great thing for
Michael B. Jordan's career. But it's also a great thing
for people who are fans of horror, but also people
who are fans of original movie ideas, because another thing
we keep on hearing is the original movie is dead.

(25:19):
The original movie idea is dead. We are past the
period where the only things that studios are going to
green light or have any faith in is something that
is based off something popular from like twenty years ago,
or is a sequel, or is based off a video game.
And here is Sinner is a completely original idea that

(25:42):
ended up being a cultural phenomenon and ended up being
just a big, massive hit. And I think it does
show that people are hungry for original ideas. And what's
important here is, obviously one is making some thing that
creates a conversation, gets where the mouth going is something

(26:05):
that is getting shared and discussed in social media so
that people then want to see it. And so you've
got a movie that has legs where it's not just
the opening weekend, because an original movie is never going
to be the highest grossing thing in the opening weekend
because people don't know really what it is yet. So
it's something that needs to build momentum and have that time.
And the other thing I think the lot of the weight

(26:27):
of the marketing is making it really obvious what this
movie is about so it can attract people. And so
there is that importance of as much like there is
the idea that you know, there is no truly original idea,
and so when you do that marketing, you have to

(26:48):
make it clear of like what's this type of movie,
what's the thing that is going to draw the person?
What are they getting attached to here? Because people aren't
just going to go seet something because it's original. They're
going because they think it's going to be good. And
so there has to be a story beat or a
star or a theme or something that people can connect
to and understand and be interested in seeing it, or

(27:11):
or the idea of like going back to the eighties,
something like a Romance in the Stone. Romances Stone is
not an Indiana Jones knockoff. If you look at the
poster and if you look at the marketing, they were
reminded people of Vida Jones, and that's what made Romances
Stone a big hit. But then when they came to
see it, they realized, oh, this is not just another
version of Rayers of the Lost Arc. Romancis Stone is

(27:34):
something different. But now they're there and it delivered, and
it was an entertaining movie and it was funny, and
I think that is sort of some of the things
that marketing has kind of lost. They just sort of
resort now to just the IP and the brand name. Well,
I think if you can show people like this is
something you understand that you'll be connected to. In Sinners,

(27:56):
it was obviously you got Michael B. Jordan, you got
Ryan Coogler. On top of that, it's a vampire movie.
People understand vampires. It looks scary, It had a very
distinct style and visual sense, and I think those things
all sort of drew people in. And I think also
the thing about Sinners is that even though it's a

(28:16):
horror movie, there were themes there were drama, there was action,
and so I think some of those horror movies that
have a little bit of other stuff in it, like
even Get Out You had some humor and comedy that
worked in there. A Quiet Place again has a bit
of sort of that action feel and the thriller feel,

(28:39):
and so I think of those horror movies that feel
a little bit more like a sumptuous meal to have
a little bit of the blending of the genres are
going to draw people in. We also sort of are
in a spot right now where it seems like horror
movies and at one point I would have said animated

(28:59):
movie are the only ones that are allowed to have
original ideas. Unfortunately Ilio from Pixar didn't do as well
as Pixar hoped, So we might even be spot where
anime movies are gonna start just being sequels or based
off things that people recognize now. But we'll see where
that goes in the future. But Sinners is going to

(29:21):
kind of reaffirm I think in the mind of some
studios the horror movies the only ones that you have
the original idea. And I do think that is the
wrong takeaway because I do think it helped The Sinners
was a horror movie, and like I said, horror movies
can be the one that people will kind of take
a chance on if they don't know the if, even

(29:46):
if it's an original idea. But they're gonna take a
chance on a horror movie because at least they sort
of know what they're expecting, like, oh, well, this is
one that I'm gonna be scared at, I'm gonna jump,
I'm gonna I'm coming here for sort of the thrill,
like you still sort of understand and what's being delivered here.
And so they're willing to take a chance on a
horror movie opposed to maybe some action movies or dramas

(30:07):
or some of these other genres where if I don't
recognize it, I'm not gonna bother going out to see it.
But I think more of the takeaway is sort of
what I said earlier, is when it's an original idea,
people at least have to have some idea of what
to expect. And when they have that and it's appealing,

(30:29):
especially when it starts causing sort of a conversation and
talking points, you are going to bring people out. And
I think that really is capable in any genre, and
I really do, really do desperately hope that there's some
studios that once in a while will take a chance on

(30:50):
a picture that isn't necessarily horror when it comes to
sort of that original idea, because I think Sinners is
more than just horror movies are hits. It's that original
ideas when it's crafted away that appeals to people can
still do really well. Mitchill Impossible is top ten the

(31:13):
final recording, and I absolutely love the Mission Impossible series.
I'm a huge fan of it. It's probably one of
my all time favorite action series. I definitely get a
lot more fun out of the Mission Impossible series than
something like Fast and Furious, which I've just never connected to.
But I think there's a good chance that maybe with

(31:35):
this sort of not even going to probably be in
the top ten by the end of the year, that
we're probably going to be saying sort of goodbye to
that series, or there's going to be it's going to
be kind of reworked a bit in some ways. Just
speaking of sort of horror, I mean, Weapons just came
out a few weeks ago and it's already number thirteen.

(31:57):
I'm a big I'm very happy to see that Weapons
does well. That came from the same director who gave
us Barbarian and I really liked that, and I really
liked just sort of the fact that he seems to
be someone who is not afraid to sort of very

(32:19):
much tell a different kind of story, go in a
different direction with things now have to do sort of
straightforward horror. Barbarian is you saw the marketing material and
then when you saw it, it was very different than
what it was hinting at. And you sort of have
those with the Barbaria, two people who sort of that

(32:39):
double book Airbnb, and so you really think the horror
and so the tension is going to be based off
the fact of, oh, one of them's not supposed to
be there, maybe we shouldn't trust them. And then it
went in a completely different direction. And so that's what
I like about that movie. It took chances, and Weapons
seems to be a picture that is kind of fallow

(33:00):
that same idea. And so he's continued to develop some
really interesting movies, and so I'm really happy that the
kind of follow up picture ended up being a big hit.
Final Destination Bloodlines is another one which I definitely need
to see and discuss, but it is definitely the conversation

(33:22):
around it is it's more than just a typical blood
and guts horror picture. It did want to talk about
sort of ancestral lines and the sins of our ancestors
type thing and that legacy that can haunt people, and
so that's interesting stuff. Twenty days Later apparently was another
movie that wasn't afraid to be a little bit more complex.

(33:44):
It's interesting that Freaky Friday that kind of follows up
with the millennial idea the original Freaky well, the Freaky
Friday remake. There was a Freaky Friday in the seventies,
and then Freaky Frighting the two thousands, I think around
the same time as Lethalone Stitch. This is a sequel
to that one, and so again sort of reaffirms that

(34:04):
those type of movies are connecting with that demographic. And
then I think I also need to mention something like
The King of Kings, obviously a Christian movie. There's always
sort of this discussion of this idea that Christian culture

(34:26):
is sort of being ignored or just like we're at
the end times and there's none of this kind of
clean pictures, and I think that continues to sort of
be a myth, and that very clearly there is studios
that will very happily target pictures towards Christian groups and

(34:47):
they continue to be hits. And I think it's often
there will be people that probably don't see any movies
except for those Christian movies because they never think there's
necessarily something for them. And it's a very smart marketing technique.
And The King of Kings is obviously another example of
that one of them. Days twenty fourth highest grossing movie

(35:10):
domestically is one of the few kind of pure comedy
pictures that went to theaters this year. Comedies is definitely
something that seems to be just it just shows up
on streamers now. Very few pure comedy movies come just
to the theaters anymore when Days became the beginning of
the year. And so I think in some ways Sony

(35:33):
should take twenty fourth highest grossing movie fifty million domestically.
I think that needs to be seen sort of as
a win. And if you can keep those budgets low,
then maybe you know, you put a few comedy movies
in theaters throughout the year, it helps change things up.
I mean, we're in such a spot where there's so

(35:54):
few comic book movies. I was even sort of interested
in The Naked Gun despite the fact that like one
of my least favorite genres is sort of like that
far so that parody movie, even though I love the
original Naked Gun, but all those movies that Naked Gun
success kind of spawned in the nineties make my eyes

(36:16):
roll so much that sometimes I'm scared that they're going
to fall out of my sockets. But this Naked Gun,
seeing that Liam Neeson was kind of having to be
in the role of the comedy person, so taking the
Leslie Nielsen role was kind of interesting to be. Pamela
Anderson being in a big screen picture again was interesting.

(36:37):
And apparently this is really good, one of the few
kind of parody movies in modern times as worth watching,
and that made in the top thirty, which again it's
not big, massive hit, but it's not sort of like
declaring the return of the comic of the comedy movie.

(36:57):
But I think there's a we need to and so
it's nice that at least it made some type of
money and maybe again studios will at least sprinkle a
few of those type of pictures here and there, and
so that's kind of a quick little discussion on the
box office. And I will most definitely try to track
some of these movies down, talk about them on the podcast,

(37:19):
write about them on Beyond the Balcony, and see them
before the end of the year so I can rank them.
I definitely see at least got to sort of see
the most of the top grossing movies for sure, but
I definitely really want to see Sinners. That is definite
on my list. Well, I should also mention F one
movie because this was a big shock. I don't think

(37:44):
anyone was really expecting it to do as well as
it did. It just has missed the top ten, especially
since racist movies don't necessarily always do well. But I
think again the success of the F one movies shows
that there is a demographic that's especially a demographic sort
of kind age and older. The fields are not being
served a theater anymore, but they grew up in movie theater,

(38:05):
so they're still willing to go there's something interesting, and
I think F one is a sign where they sort
of delivered that and so people responded to it, and
so yeah, there's looking through some of these movies I
haven't seen yet Mickey seventeen's and although I really want
to see with Robert Pattinson from the director a person
who gave us stuff like Parasite and Snow Piercer and

(38:28):
a bunch of movies that I've always been a big
fan of. And I still haven't seen this one, but
really interesting what he does with Robert Pattinson. And it's
many many clones. This is the seventeenth clone. I've loved
every Pating movie, and so Pattington in Peru is one
I'll have to track down. Grew up with the Karate Kids, obviously,
I have a soft spot for that. Ballerinas and John

(38:48):
Work John Wickworld The Monkey, which is based off of
Stephen King a short story. That's another one that I'll
want to track down. Hard Eyes, sort of a Roman
man's versus slasher picture I'm kind of interested in seeing.
There was also another one, I think it's called The

(39:09):
Drop that it's kind of a thriller or sort of
drop just drop and sort of a thriller type picture
that I'm interested to see, where a woman sort of
is going on a blind date and then she gets
a very disturbing message on her phone and she has
to solve that. I'm always really big in sort of
those type of movies, and so that's when I'm looking

(39:31):
at Black Bag Steven Soderbergh, a thriller. So lots of
stuff that I'll hopefully track down, and now some movies
that are still to come that I'm interested in seeing
in the coming months. I have no idea if The
Long Walk will be any good. This is Stephen King,

(39:55):
one of the shorter Steph King novels, is originally done
when he under his pseudonym of Richard Bachman. But I
think it's a really interesting idea of the long walks.
I feel like it's something that maybe inspired something like
Battle Royale or definitely Hunger Games. Young teenagers basically forced

(40:18):
to kind of take that long walk, and if they
can't do it anymore, they get shot. It's in a
dystopian period of life, and I think it has potential
being something really interesting, and so I sort of want
to see how this unfolds on the big screen. I'm
not necessarily interested in a sequel to Spinal Tap. I mean,

(40:43):
I love the original Spinal Tap, but we're talking a
movie that came out like forty years ago, and I
don't think we were necessarily demanding a follow up, but
I feel like the spinal Tap sequel is gonna either
be one of the biggest disasters and disappointments of the year,

(41:06):
or it's going to just be this majestic follow up,
kind of like sort of our Top Gun Maverick, where
I thought that was going to be such a disaster's
idea and then it ended up being a big hit
and I ended up liking it more than the original,
And I feel Spell Tap two sort of has that potential.
It could be the either or or either looking at

(41:26):
something that is going to be just a big magical
surprise or just the big massive mistake that I think
that it could possibly be. We've got a horror picture
that is being produced by Jordan Peel that I'm very
interested in and know very little about. It's called Him,

(41:48):
and it's essentially about a guy who makes some risky
decisions in order to sort of get farther in his
football career, and I don't know a lot about it.
I really don't want to know more than that. I
like the idea that I'm sort of unaware Marlon Wayne

(42:09):
is in this one, and I'm just fascinated to see
sort of where this goes him and is it like
a monkey Pas situation? Does this person kind of sell
his soul for success? And I yeah, I think it
could be one of the more interesting horror movies at
the kind of end of the year. Another one that

(42:31):
obviously is on my radar has to be Paul Thomas
Anderson's latest picture, One Battle after Another. Paul Thomas anders
is one of those guys where maybe not every single
movie he makes is one of my favorites, but he
is a filmmaker where you have to pay attention every
time he makes something. But this has got a pretty

(42:53):
loaded cast. Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, Regina Hollows
in this, and Sean Penn and so Benico del Toro.
Very interested to see what this kind of war picture,
drama picture is going to be about. But anytime we've
got a new Paul Thomas innocent movie, it's worth checking out.

(43:16):
And so we'll see what. And Leo DiCaprio is one
of those actors where I feel like just his name
alone is enough to check out that movie. He's pretty
picky and what he sort of attaches his name to
another picture that I was not interested in at all
at the beginning of the year, but now I am

(43:38):
a little bit more interested in checking out is The
Smashing Machine. This is clearly Danne Johnson's grab at getting
an Oscar, a Best Actor Oscar or at least a nomination.
He's largely sort of just considered sort of a box
office star. He's I think it's pretty underrated as an actor,

(44:00):
though I do admit that he largely kind of plays himself.
But he has a great charisma, and I think this
is his attempt to finally get maybe some acknowledgment as
an actor for his craft. He is playing Mark Kerr here,
a real life mixed martial artists. It's about his career,

(44:20):
at least looking at sort of the peak of his career.
We've definitely got some makeup here and trying to transform
Dwayne Johnson to m Kim look more like Mark Kerr.
That from what I've seen the trailers, that's also well done.
Benny's Sadfee is an absolutely great director. He's teaming up

(44:43):
with his brother. He's given us hits like Good Time
and Uncut Gems, So I really like his filmography and
what he's presented, and so I have a lot of
faith because of who the director is. And the trailer
surprised me. It was more appeeling that I actually thought,
I'm going to mention Kiss of a Spider Woman. Even

(45:06):
though this is potentially a picture that could not be
a total disaster. It looks like it's a musical and
it's basically about sort of some guys that I believe.
It's during a period where there's political unrest in Argentina

(45:27):
and they are I think at this, Yeah, so they're
sort of political prisoners, are in jail. They see this
movie called Kiss of a Spider Woman. They become obsessed
with it, and then we might get a little bit
of sort of the Purple Rosa Cairo situation where I
think the Kiss of Spider Woman star then kind of

(45:49):
comes in their life. This is played by Jennifer Lopez.
This is a musical. It's definitely trying to sort fit
that old school musical feeling. I'm in musical theater. I
always have a soft spot for musicals. Anytime there's a musical,
I'm sort of at least ready to give it a chance.
I like Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna plays one of the

(46:10):
main stars here, and it's apparently got a great reception
at the festivals that went to and so this could
be a really great movie. I am interested to see
how it turns out. Roofman is a movie that I'm

(46:31):
interested in seen as well. It is based off a
true story about a guy who essentially breaks into a
McDonald's to basically rob the McDonald's and he does it
through kind of a hole in a roof and trying to
steal the money. And then after he sort of escapes

(46:54):
from prison, he lives out in like a Toys r
us apparently for six months. So this is a true
story that clearly has sort of that quirkiness that people
like for so those odd character movies, those character driven,
weird real life tales. As a movie I always with
those are done well. I'm really interested Derek sine France,

(47:18):
who has made He made Place Beyond the Pines and
Blue Valentine, two movies that I really loved. So he's
a director where I've really enjoyed his stuff, So I'm
interested to see what he will do with this. Knowing
his previous pictures, that probably means just gonna be more
dramatic than the plot makes you think. It's probably gonna

(47:39):
be less a Coen Brothers thing and maybe a bit
grittier than you would think just based off things he's
done before, Jan Tatum's and this one. Kirsten Dunce, Ben Meddelson,
Lakeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Peter Dinklage. So you've got some
really heavyweight talented actor in this one, and so I

(48:01):
definitely think this is going to be one that's worth
checking out based off the director. This maybe one that's
kind of gutting for some Oscar attention. We've also got
After the Hunt from Luku Jiddino, who recently did Challengers

(48:22):
last year, and he was also in the picture that
I can't think off the top of my head, that
was the Timothy Shoveling kind of breakout picture. And so
this is After the Hunt. Julian Roberts is in the
starring role here, and you don't see her as much
Andy Garfield, Sholey Savigni. So again some talented people, talented director.

(48:49):
It's about a professor who has to grapple sort of
hiding a secret after one of her colleagues is used
of something. And so I mean This sounds like a
plot that has been on the big screen a lot.
But I think with this talent involved in this director

(49:11):
and sort of just his way of how he tells
stories and usually very much sort of having that sensuality
and that sexualization that is usually absent in mainstream pictures.
Now he brings out to a lot of his movies,
and so I'm interested to see how that's going to

(49:31):
work in sort of on a big scale. It's an
MGM studio release picture, which means it may go directly
to Amazon. Hopefully it goes to theaters. And I'm a
big family original Predator and Pray with such delightful surprise,

(49:53):
I will stand by the fact that Pray should have
got theatrical lease. We are now finally getting a Predator
movie with a the act go release again. Predator bad
Lands very different than Prey. I think this one is
set more in the future, and we've got sort of
a Predator that is I think going to be more
in the protagonist role. Ellie Fanning is going to be

(50:14):
in this one. I'm interested to see how this turns out.
It looks good from what I've seen from the trailers.
Another picture Keeper, It's an Evil Cabin movie. We've had
a lot of those. But the main reason why I
mentioned it here we'll skipping a whole bunch of other
movies that are coming on in the last few months,

(50:36):
is because it's Osgode Perkins who gave us Long Legs
and also did a Monkey earlier in the year. I
like his style, I like what he has shown so far,
and so I'm interested to see what his take on
sort of that style of picture will be. And the
Running Man I mentioned in the last podcast, it is

(50:56):
another one that is based off Stevie King when he
was under the Richard Bachman pseudonym. And this one, obviously
some people would see as a remake of the Schwarzenegger movie.
Based off what I've seen through the trailer, I think
this is going to try to be a more faithful
adaptation of the book. A big reason even if you're

(51:20):
not interested in Running Man or another dystopian picture, something
set in the dystopian future, and another kind of long
walk thing where they this very violent kind of TV
show or entertainment that people see, even if none of
that is interesting to you. Edgar Wright, you know gave

(51:40):
you Baby Driver. I gave you Sean the Dead gave
us lots of hot fuzz, some really interesting pictures. He
is directing this one, and so I think that is
that alone is worth giving this one a shot and
checking it out. Glenn Powell takes the lead role here,
but also got Joss Browlin in this one, Michael Sira,

(52:05):
William H. Macy. So a very interesting picture here. I
did see a bit of the trailer. I did see
a trailer and it just got me more excited for
this one. And I love the first Utopia, so you know,
sign me up for the second. The sequel. I think

(52:25):
it will be a fantastic I think there's a case
out there trying to solve. It should be a really
fun movie. And to wrap things up, I know I
keep on saying I want original movies, but I have
to admit I am interested in Avatar, Fire and Ash
partly because I really liked the last Avatar movie. I
thought it was just such a perfect cinematic experience. Maybe

(52:49):
it was almost three hours long, but it was just
such an amazing visual story. You have. The story itself
was amazing, the special effects and the pacing and the
immersion of a world. I just think James Cameron really
nails that, and I have no reason to doubt that
he won't be able to do that with the Avatar
Fire and Ash as well. And so that is there.

(53:14):
Like I said, there's a lot of other movies that
are I'm interested too, but I just decided that you know,
this is one person talking, So maybe you don't want
me to talk forever. And if you do, well, I
disappoint to let you down because I'm not gonna talk forever.
I'm gonna wrap this show up now and thank you
so much for listening to me and to say I
am going to try my best to turn this back

(53:36):
into a weekly show. It's going to be solo for
a little bit, with maybe some special guest appearances for
my kids from movies where I am allowed to watch
with watch those with them and thinking out for some
of their thoughts as well. And once we get back
in this weekly routine and and get the audience back

(53:57):
and really get the movie breakdown movie, and I will
start looking for maybe sort of a rotation of guest
hosts and with the hope of one day Scott returning
and if not, maybe one day we'll find that guest
host that I have that great chemistry with like I
did with Scott, and they will be the new host

(54:17):
of the Movie Breakdown. But the plan is definitely for
the show to continue going. And like I said, thank
you so much for listening to us this week. This
obviously has always been brought to you by Speaker Prime
and it's been on the Beyond the Balcony website since
the very beginning. And if you have any thoughts or questions,

(54:39):
you can contact us at the Movie Breakdown at gmail
dot com. There's also since it's just me now, you
can also just contact me the writer, me and the
podcaster at Christopher dot Dee dot Spicer at gmail dot com.
And there is the Twitter at Movie Breakdown one. And
we also have a Facebook page at the Movie Breakdown.

(55:01):
And another way you can really help us out is
subscribe and rate on Speaker, Spotify, cast Box, Apple Podcasts,
Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. We're mostly everywhere.
And another way you can really help us out is
choosing to listen on the Speaker app. That would be great,
So please share us on social media if there's an

(55:22):
episode you really love, spread the love let others know
about it. And another big way you can help me
out is head over to my site Beyond the Balcony.
As I confess, there isn't really movie or reviews this year,
but I have talked a lot about my neal divergence
and my mental health journey, so you can check that

(55:43):
stuff out. I've discussed about big experience on music, man
and theater, so that stuff interests you. And just a
lot of kind of personal antidotes thrown in there, so
that stuff is interesting. You can see it at Beyond
Balcony dot com and you get your little lamp, you
rub that and make a wish, and your wish being

(56:04):
that I will return next week finally with a movie review.
And if that's the case, what eight months eight months waiting?
May we'll finally discuss Walts a Grament Ben just most foul.
I mean, I gotta see the latest arm In movie,
even if it's eight months old, because I love me
some watas of Gramment and so may we'll review that

(56:25):
next week, and may I review something new in the theater.
What could that be? Well, come back next week to
find out. Thank you so much for listening this week.
I am Christopher Spicer, and have a great week at
the movie