The Breakdown of the State of the Podcast

It has been a long time since you've heard some movie talk from Christopher Spicer and Scott Martin. And it will be a bit longer. But Christopher addresses the long absence and promises a much shinier future. He also reveals the very historic results of the Summer Box Office Challenge.

Episode Transcript

(00:12):
They're coming to get you, Barbara. They're coming for you, Bobara.
That comes one of them. Now, welcome to not quite the latest episode
of the movie Breakdown. And Isay not quite because there's only one of

(00:37):
us, one of your hosts,me Christopher Spicer. Scott's not here because,
like I said, it's not quitean episode of the movie Breakdown.
But twenty twenty three, am Iright. If you're like most of our
listeners, there's a very strong chancethat you haven't heard the adults it tones
of Christopher Spicer and Scott Martin forquite a while. Some of you may

(01:02):
not have heard an episode of themovie Breakdown since our best of show at
the beginning of the year. Weactually did record quite a few episodes this
year, but for many different reasons, and most of them technical, the
episode didn't seem to arrive in thefeed of most of our listeners. All

(01:25):
of them now appear to be lost. And I'm not going to get into
the semantics. I'm not going toturn this into an extended episode of the
excuses of Breakdown. Oh this isthe movie Breakdown, and I apologize for
that. But this week we actuallyrecorded a new episode and it was supposed

(01:45):
to be posted right now, andyou're not listening to it. No,
you're just listening to me, andwhy is it? Well? We tried
out a new software because, unfortunately, for various reasons, we've hit some
financial hard times, and the greatrecording software we've been using Riverside FM the

(02:07):
last several years, it's just somethingwe can't afford at this moment, so
we've tried something different. You getwhat you pay for, unfortunately, and
the episode didn't quite work. Ithink I figured out the issues, and
so the plant is to record amakeup episode this week, so you will
be getting an episode of the movieBreakdown very soon. As all everything goes

(02:29):
well, you'll finally get to hearus. But again, I do apologize
that it's taken this long for variousreasons. For people who have been reading
my website Beyond the Balcony, youwill know that twenty twenty three has been
one of the hardest years for mycareer. Unfortunately, it was really tough.

(02:51):
That has played into why there hasn'tbeen as much stuff for people who
read Beyond the Balcony and why wedidn't record as many episodes this year.
Haven't heard any of them, butthat is why that there was those kind
of struggles, unfortunately, because ithas been a really tough year for me,
which then also meant that it's beena tough year for me emotionally,
and so I feel I haven't beenthe great father, husband or friend that

(03:15):
I should be because I've been focusedon trying to get my career back on
track. It's not quite there,which is why we have the aforementioned financial
struggles. But I am continuing totry to remain positive and during this hard
time, I've had so many incrediblepeople this summer that have supported me and

(03:37):
aided me. I don't think anyof them want to be pointed out.
I will just say that I've gotsome great gifts this summer to help me
out during what's been a tough year. But I'm trying to refocus and trying
to end twenty twenty three as agreat year. I hope there's going to
be a lot of great articles anda lot of great written stuff for you

(03:58):
to read, not just on thesite, but for various editors and publications.
I'm gonna refocus on that, andwe want to end the movie Breakdown
twenty twenty three end the year withsome amazing movie breakdown episodes, and like
I said, one's gonna be onits way. But I wanted to do
this quick little episode because not onlydid you guys miss some fun stuff we

(04:25):
reviewed, Namona reviewed, Barbie reviewedStrays, but also we had the Summer
Box Office Challenge, something we've beendoing since twenty fifteen, and historic event
has happened. Scott Martin won theSummer Box Office Challenge. That is right,
my streak was broken for the firsttime since we started. Scott actually

(04:49):
picked the movies to win, andthe winner most definitely was Barbie. I
want to quickly run down the picksand the amount of they made, because
that's something we did on the showand something you miss. I have posted
on my site Beyond the Balcony.But I'm also well aware that our listeners
and my readers don't always intersect.We have people that just listen to the

(05:12):
podcast, we have people that justread the site, and so I decided
let's put it in both places.So you may have already read the results,
now you get to listen to them. Scott's picks. His number one
pick was Guards of the Galt So, which gave him around one hundred and
eighteen million. That was the firstpick in the entire draft, and so
that was obviously a big win forhim getting one over one hundred million.

(05:35):
His number two pick a Spider ManAcross the Spider Verse with over one hundred
and twenty millions, so that isanother big one and that is all obviously
proof to those who were talking aboutsuperhero fatigue that would go against that,
because you've got now two combook moviesthat had amazing opening weekends. And what

(05:58):
me it's gotta talked about a loton the podcast is the idea that it's
not superhero fatigue, sort of genericten Pool fatigue. People are getting tired
of pictures that just seemed the same. They want something different. Spider Man
Across the Spider Verse I think offerthat with its visuals, its animation style,
the story it's telling. It feltlike something unique in the comic book

(06:21):
realm, and so it obviously paidoff huge. Scott picked it, and
I should have picked it earlier,but he got me to it. Number
three is an example of a bitof a letdown is Flash for Scott only
gave him about fifty five million forits opening weekend and then number four Fast
Acts at sixty seven million. Andthen this is the big one, This

(06:43):
is the game changer. Number fiveBarbie one hundred and sixty two million,
making it the highest grossing opening ofthe summer. And I believe this is
the biggest steal that we've ever donein the summer box off the challenge.
I don't think the winner, theone with the most opening weekend grosses has
ever been a fifth pick. Thiswas ninth pick overall. That is incredible,

(07:08):
that's historic, and it was agame changer. It's what sealed Scott
is the winner. Number six HuntedMansion at twenty four million. Number seventeen
eight Uten Ninja Turtles came in attwenty eight million. Eighth was Ruby Gilliam
Teenage cracking at five million. Sothis is the kicker. Scott wins this

(07:28):
thing not because he picked the bestindividual Grocy movies. He actually picked three
movies that were really low and thisis one of them. It's because of
the Barbie, it's because of theSpider Verse. He got two big steals
there that I should have Haden ismy number one picks at number nine the
book Club. The next chapter anotherkind of disappointment. Six million, and

(07:54):
his tenth pick probably one of thelowest grossing picks ever in the challenge back
on the Strip for four hundred andsixty one thousand, So that one was
definitely a fart in the wind whenit comes to grosses. But at the
end, Scott came out with fivehundred at eighty seven million dollars, which

(08:15):
I think is one of the highestgross totals when it came out comes to
draft picks ever in this challenge,and it's because he walked away with three
movies that made over one hundred million. I picked no movies throwing over one
hundred million. My number one pickwas a huge mistake, India Jones and
The doll Destiny at sixty million.And I mentioned this before. It kind

(08:35):
of came from my top Done Maverickstrategy last year. Topga Maverick surprise at
the box office. It did amazing, and so I wanted to pick a
movie that I felt like Topga Maverickwas something that people would have heavy nostalgia
for nineteen eighties nostalgia. What Ifailed to figure out though, is there's
been three India Jones sequels since Raysof the Lost Art and one of them

(08:58):
has left a better taste in themouth of many fans, And on top
of that, just the nostalgia probablywasn't strong enough, especially with younger audiences.
The idea of seeing airplanes, realairplanes being flown appeals to people that
don't know anything about Top Gun.An eighty year old adventure hunter probably doesn't
appeal to people who don't have thatnostalgia. So I did. It was

(09:20):
sixty million. My number one pick. My number two pick is my strongest
was The Little Mermaid with ninety fivemillion. My number three pick Mission Apostible
Deck Recording Part one at fifty fourmillion, I thought I was going to
be a lot higher, So thatwas a bit of a disappointment for me.
Again, I thought Top Gun Maverickwas going to turn Tom Cruise it's

(09:41):
even a bigger action star, butI failed to recognize that. Again,
there's been so many mission apossible sequelsit probably doesn't have that same special feeling.
Number four was Element to a twentynine million, which is a disappointing
a take for an opening weekend,but that one actually end up having legs.
So if we ever did this gamewhere it was just overall box office

(10:03):
at the end. Elemental actually wouldhave paid off well for me because it
did really well week to week.It just didn't have the traditional Pixar opening
weekend Transformers Rise of the Beast atsixty one million. Oppen Hammer was a
shocker eighty two million. I thinkI was hoping between forty five fifty million

(10:24):
at this point. It ended upbeing my second highest grossing pick, and
that's at number six, so ahuge shocker. If I got Oppenheimer and
Barbie, I would have been laughing, but that's not what happened. I
just got Oppenheimer. And I believethat when you look at stuff like Oppenheimer
and Barbie, the lesson of thebox office that you supposed that you should
take from this is the idea thatpeople are starving for stuff that seems fresh

(10:48):
and different and director driven. Ithat is the lesson I think that should
be learned with like a Barbie Oppenheimer. I feel that the studios are gonna
learn something different, because I mean, it's hard work to think that,
Oh, the strategy we need totake is giving directors more control and be
more creative and fresh, and soI think that is a big thing there.

(11:13):
Incidius The Red Doors my seventh pickat thirty three million. The mag
came at thirty million for number eight, which isn't bad that low in the
picks, and then number nine BlueBeetle, came out with twenty five million,
and then I ended up a Stray, which was my lowest pick Strays
at eight millions. I did getone under ten millions. So yeah,
if you look on average, mypicks were better, but that doesn't matter.

(11:37):
Scott got three picks over one hundredmillion, and so the end Scott
was four hundred and eighty seven millionto my four hundred eighty millions, so
he beat me by over one hundredmillions. So now Scott gets the honor
of picking three movies that I needto watch and review, and the fact
that i'd wants is twenty fifteen.I think he's gonna be picking stuff that

(11:58):
is going to ruin my life.He is going to destroy me. I'm
sure of it. Though we talkedabout on the podcast. One of the
reasons why I've always beat Scott atthis is he overthinks things. So I'm
hoping he overthinks his picks and endsup somehow picking three movies up. Maybe
I'll enjoy or at least not dieagain. Though I apologize how you guys
missed this week's episode. It wasa lot of fun to get back in

(12:22):
the saddle and recording again. Ireally really apologize for the tech glitis that
happened this year, and I hustlejust apologize for sort of this year,
like I have not created the normalstuff on the site. I haven't created
a lot of things that sort ofmy readers are our listeners who would enjoy.
And you're like, he shouldn't apologizefor this. You've got through hard

(12:43):
times. I'm Canadian. I can'thelp it. It's what Canadians do.
But my hope is that the restof twenty twenty three can be inspiration and
motivation. I'm taking this ads,I'm having our rough year, so that
when I overcome this, when Iland those big writing clients, when I
start publishing stuff again, when Iam back in that spot of being successful,

(13:09):
I can use this journey to helpand motivate and inspire others. I
don't know if that's coming from,if that makes me come off sounding really
kind of conceited or such an Iapologize for that again. Hey, I'm
Canadian, but I just I'm tryingto get positives out of this. I'm
trying to get something that's worthwhile,and so I that's why I try to

(13:31):
be honest and open. And thishas been a rough year, but I
have had some amazing friends and amazingsupport. I'm an appreciative of that,
and we are going to end thisyear in the most amazing way possible.
So there should be another episode outby Friday or the weekend. Hopefully we're

(13:52):
going to try to record another oneand actually make that one work. I
think I've figured out the software,and then I hope when things get going
and I'm back in a better financialspot, we'll use Riverside FM again.
It's been a great program. Ithas made I think our best sounding shows,
and so that's the plan. Ijust want to thank you guys,
thank you for your support, andthank you for listening to this little sort

(14:15):
of not an episode of the movieBreakdown, but I really appreciate you as
listeners. You guys are amazing andif you want to get take to support
me, please also check out mywebsite Beyond the Balcony. There is some
new stuff on there that you guyscould check out. I do have the
results of the summer box office challenge. I've got some pictures of super cute

(14:37):
kids. I've got a little humorpiece about few things that stopped me from
being perfect. You can finally findout why I'm not perfect. I've got
a piece that also looks at sortof future plans for beyond the belconty what
I'm hoping to do for the remainderof the year. On the site,
one of those things has changed.I thought I had a much better fun

(14:58):
to do new releases and to goto the theater every single week, and
that has not worked out the waythat I thought. So I probably will
not be reviewing a lot of moviesin the theater for the next few months.
Again funds, but we will bereviewing movies. It'll just be some
older movies, streaming movies and thatkind of fun stuff. So that was

(15:20):
one of the plans. It's onthe site. Look at the feature that
probably is not going to be ableto pan out. I talked a little
bit about returning to the stage andbeing part of the misadventures of Pinocchio,
and that was a lot of funbeing able to act against something I enjoyed
and hope that I do some more, and as well, I rate a
piece called Beware of the Decimal Placement, a writer's latest battle of being valued.

(15:43):
I had a really bad client,and I write about it. I
don't divulge your name for legal reasons, but you can read about sort of
the challenges of being a freelancer.And again, let's be being honest so
that I can share it and otherpeople can hopefully get something of value on
worthwhile from it. So that's somestuff that's all beyond the balcony. There
is gonna be some more new episodesof the movie Breakdown, and I think
it's time to say goodbye. Buthave a great week at the movies.

(16:08):
H m hmmm.