The Breakdown of the Summer Box Office & A Major Announcement

Christopher Spicer is flying solo this week, but he still found a way to talk for over an hour. Verbose much? He has a big announcement to make about the future of the podcast and pays tribute to his wonderful co-host of over a decade and a great friend for even longer, Scott Martin. 

He then looks at the summer box office and analyzes why he thinks certain movies were hits and others missed the mark. Always a fun time for those who love some good ol' movie talk. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
They're coming to get you, Barbara. They're coming for you, Barbara.
Look that comes one of them.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Now, welcome to the latest episode of the Movie Breakdown.
And not only are we a week late from the
long promised review of Beverly Hills cop axel F, but
we're not even going to review Beverly Cops axel F today.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
And actually there isn't even a wee.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
There's just a me, Christopher Spicer, because once again we're
throwing complications into the Movie Breakdown because I'm not sure
how many of my wonderful listeners follow me on social
media or how many of you read Beyond the Balcony site.

(01:18):
If you do either of those things, then you've already
been spoiled. You've got the spoiler of what I'm about
to announce. But for those who don't read those things,
I have really unfortunate news to announce. My amazing co
host and very good friend, the incredible Scott Martin, has

(01:42):
come to the very hard decision to decide that he
is going to take a hiatus from podcasting for now,
and it is for an undetermined amount of time. He's
not sure how long he's going to be taking a
break from the movie breakdown, but it's gonna be happening.

(02:05):
It could be for quite a while that he will
not be able to podcast for a bit, which obviously
is very sad. And we have been doing this podcast for.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Over ten years and I have appreciated talking movies with
him for over ten years.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I think we have created a really fun podcast. We've
had our ups and downs, and the last two years,
for many reasons, has been rough as we haven't posted
as many episodes as we used to. We used to
be very consistently a weekly show for almost a decade
and that hasn't quite been the case recently, and we

(02:46):
have apologized for that. But we have I think formed
a great chemistry. I think we are a great team,
and I think we've made some really fun and entertaining
shows and offered up our perspectives.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
On movies and it's just right.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Scott and I used to be roommates and actually started
way back where we met each other. I think it
was a grade twelve in high school, and we kind
of immediately hit it off and became friends, and then
from there we eventually became roommates for several years and
so we lived together for quite a bit, and then

(03:23):
we sort of went our separate ways as life goes,
and we both got married and we lived in the
same city for a while, and that's actually how the
Movie Breakdown started, as we recorded it in my office
every single week in the same room. But then he
eventually had to move, and so this podcast became a

(03:43):
way of us connecting. When we lived in different cities
each week, we still got to kind of hang out
and talk and do what we do anyways, talk movies
every week, and so I've really appreciated this podcast.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
It's a way that.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
We were able to keep our friendship going. And I
have so much love and so much appreciation for Scott.
But for now he's gonna be taking a break from
the Movie Breakdown and I am going to miss him. Obviously,
we'll still try to connect as much as we can,
but this was a great way for us to stay together.

(04:19):
And I think we Yeah, like I've already said, I
think we put on a great show.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
And I hope you listeners enjoyed what we've done.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
But I don't want to put the Movie Breakdown on hiatus.
I feel there's been enough stops and starts. I feel
the last two years there's been enough long stretches where
you haven't been able to listen to the movie breakdown.
I have stated that I want to get back to
it being a weekly show again, and I'm sticking to

(04:48):
that goal. It's just gonna have to be without Scott
for now. So what does that mean what's my strategy
going forward? Well, first of all, we do have some
reviews and episodes stored away in the vault that you've
never heard, and so the plan is to refurbish some

(05:08):
of those, do a few edits and tweaks so that
they don't feel too dated, and those are going to
be posted at different times going forward. There's also going
to likely be episodes that will have to be solo episodes.
It's just going to be me talking and hopefully that's entertaining.

(05:31):
Hopefully I can find a way to keep you engaged
and with it. With the potential they're being solo episodes,
this may finally open the door for me going forward
with something I've thought about for quite a while, which.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Is doing a YouTube version of this, a video version
of this, because it's going to be a lot easier
doing a video version of sort of one person that
it would have been with two people sort.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Of recording from different spots just to make it look good.
I know that's possible too, a lot of people do it,
but this will be easier sort of getting that started,
and so that may be something I'm looking for looking
to do soon, not right away, because there is different
logistics for that and lots of kind of work to

(06:19):
get that started and make sure it looks good.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
But it's something that I'm going to.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Eventually work towards, so there will be some solo episodes.
But I'm also really thinking about looking out and finding
an interim host or sort of a rotating collection.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Of guests hosts. And I have two visions for that.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Either what it means is I'll have a guest host
that I do the entire episode with and we do
our normal thing where we review a certain collection of movies.
Or but this made it be more work than it's worth.
But or I could be doing several hosts where each
review has a different host in that episode. So if

(07:07):
I review four movies that week, maybe one of those
episodes is solo. Then one episode could be with another host.
Another episode another review could be with another host and
you get to hear different voices throughout the episode. I
haven't worked out how all that's gonna how that will

(07:27):
all work out. It's going to be dependent on how
many people are interested in being a guest host on
the Movie Breakdown. I am actively looking and reaching out
to some different people about being the being a potential
host on this show. But if some of you listeners
have been here for years or maybe even a month,

(07:51):
but you're like, I really love this show and I
really wanted to keep going. I want to hear those
dulcet tones of Christopher Spitzer every week. This is your
opportunity to If you love talking movies and you love
the idea of podcasting, then I am doing an open

(08:12):
call the potential of being a guest host on this show.
So please reach out to me if you are interested
in being a guest host on this show, and we
can talk and discuss and see how that will work.
Like I said, I would like to sort of try
a few different hopes and see which ones we have

(08:32):
good chemistry with, who I have good chemistry with, and
who sort of we seem to be a good fit together.
I think with me and Scott doing it for so
many years, we really got into our groove, and I
think we really sort of knew how to play off
each other and put on an entertaining show. And that's
a hard thing to sort of recapture. But it doesn't

(08:55):
have to be the same chemistry.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
We can have.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
I got have a different vibe with a different host.
We just want to have someone that works well with
it makes the show work well. And so that's my
open call if you're interested, and you can reach out
to me at Christopher dot D dot Spicer at gmail
dot com, or the Movie Breakdown at gmail dot com.

(09:19):
Either one of those, you can contact me and say
that yes, I would like to look at the potential
of being a guest host on this show. I've already
had a few really cool people say that they'd be
interested in being a host, and so I haven't reached
out with them got back to them completely with sort

(09:39):
of the details because I'm still sort of figuring out
my vision of.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
How we're going to do this. Probably the next few
episodes are going to either be solo episodes.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
Or some posting some stuff from the vault where you
can hear Scott's voice a few more times. I'm also
cleared considering at least most weeks have been my son Everett,
who is now twelve years old and loves movies almost

(10:09):
as much as I do. That he's going to come
in and at least review maybe one movie with me
most weeks, seeing if we can make that work, because
it's been a long time since everyone has made an
appearance on this podcast, and.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
People seem to be a big fan when he did
show up. He's a lot older than he was.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
When he used to make his appearances. But we might
review some movies as well and see how that goes,
and maybe he'll be such a great fit he'll be
a long term host, or at least until Scott comes,
or who knows, maybe it'll be a three man team.
We'll figure that all out as things go. Kind of
roll with the punches. But that is a plan, is

(10:50):
that I want to keep the Movie Breakdown going.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
I just haven't quite work see, I haven't quite figured
out how that's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
But the plan is most definitely that we are going
to return to weekly shows. It's just unfortunately gonna be
without Scott. You're stuck with me every single week.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
But the Movie Breakdown will return to a weekly show.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Most people will remember that when the Movie Breakdown first started,
it was every Monday, would be posted every Monday morning,
and then a few years ago, for various reasons, it
worked out better to be every Tuesday morning, and then
we recently, but this has been so sporadic that who

(11:35):
knows how often it actually ended up being the case.
But it started being a Wednesday posting time was every Wednesday.
I think I want to go back to Mondays now
that it's sort of a one person show at this point,
I think I want to return to Mondays. I just

(11:55):
like that idea better, especially if I'm reviewing a new
release picture, then it's much closer to the day the
movie came out than Wednesday, where now it's been several
days that the conversation has already got going, There's already
been lots of reviews that have come out, and so
the podcast gets a little behind.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
So my plan now is we are going to move
it back to Mondays every single week so that the
movies are a little bit fresher. And I just like
the idea of kicking.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Off the week with the Movie Breakdown. Now saying that
I still am contemplating of doing maybe some more bonus episodes,
but we're just going to see how I can manage
that with everything else.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
In my life.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
But right now, definitely guarantee that there'll be an episode
on Monday, but there is potential of maybe having some
smaller episodes show up on Wednesday and Friday, sort of
either two episodes, being like a Monday and a Wednesday.
Then maybe even some weeks when it's really working, sort

(13:06):
of three episodes where you have the Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
And the Friday.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
I don't know what those episodes would exactly be, they'd
probably be on the shorter side. It's very likely that
all these episodes are going to be on the shorter side.
There's a there was once a time where we were
popping out these giant episodes that were over two hours long,
and then it started getting down to more ninety minutes.

(13:31):
They're likely not gonna hopefully even approach an hour, especially
the ones where it's just me, because that's a lot
of me just talking that you have to listen to me.
But here we are already over the ten minute mark
and I haven't even done too much other than explaining
that Scott's gone and we have some new plans going forward.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
So I get definitely, you know, hold my own.

Speaker 2 (13:57):
It comes to talking, talking by myself going a long time,
I'm afflicted a bit with the verbal diarrhea. Hopefully all
of you have not turned off this episode already and
you're still listening, but yeah, I gab gab, gab gab.
But yeah, So expect episodes on Monday mornings and then

(14:18):
sometimes potential of some bonus episodes going forward, and as
well sort of eventually looking at video and all that
fun stuff. I want to There were some reasons why
we sort of moved away from doing new releases now
that it's just me the play will also try to
do a new theatrical movie most weeks when that is

(14:43):
something that I can pull off. So yeah, look forward
to all that. That'll be a lot of fun. But
what are we doing today now that I got my attention? Like,
is that gonna be the whole episode?

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Man?

Speaker 2 (14:55):
You're just saying that Scott has left. I read it
on the social media. You're wasting my time, that's what
you're saying. Or that's why I'm guessing that one of
you is saying. And no, I've decided that we will
still try to do some kind of episode this week
and what it is. What we're doing this week is
obviously the Summer box Office Challenge, the annual event that

(15:20):
we've done where we do the draft in April and
we both pick ten movies, me and Scott, and then
we see who did the best in their movie selections,
as it's what movie had the best.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Opening weekend, and then you total all up at the
end and we declare a winner, and then the winner
gets to choose three really awful movies that the loser
has to watch and review. Well, because Scott is.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Not going to be doing the movie breakdown for the
foreseeable future, there's not really much point to sticking with
this edition of Theummer box Office Challenge. It was pretty
obvious I was going to win, but I don't think
it's fair now that Wiscott and I even podcasting that
I'm going to force him to have to review his

(16:11):
three movies.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
So we are going to.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Declare the Summer box Office Challenge. Unfortunately canceled this summer,
but I thought that since that now is sort.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Of off the table, what I did want to do
is quickly look at sort of how did.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
The summer box office go this year? And this is
with very little research. Right now, this is me just
looking at sort of the box office mojo from.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Week to week.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
That is all I'm doing here right now, and so
bear with me. But I just thought it'd be interesting
to sort of look at what the this summer has
been because it's it's an interesting summer because obviously, now

(17:04):
we are distanced away from COVID, people are ready to
start going out again. People have returned to movies, and
so you can't use sort of the COVID reasoning as
excuses why people aren't going to theaters.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
But we are coming.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Off of a big giant actors strike last year, which
really slowed things down because you can't make movies without actors,
and so a lot of the big budget tent pool
style pictures that were supposed to come out this summer

(17:42):
got delayed because they weren't able to finish it.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
And so twenty twenty five is more likely going to
be your more traditional stacked summer. This summer didn't have
that those same big budget spectaculars.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
It didn't have some, but it wasn't your traditional loaded
summer and so this so for that reason, that's what
makes us a bit more interesting summer. Is how did
this summer fair? We don't have those same level of big,
heavyweight pictures, and we're in a spot where people are
really nervous about the future of theater going and sort

(18:21):
of that state of the theatrical experience, and so I
just want to look a bit of like what are
the things are connected with audiences and how did this
summer turn out? That is what I thought would be
an interesting thing to look at this week. And I
know there is a few of our listeners that are
really into sort of the.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
The box office.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
When we do talk about box office, we don't do
the box office every all all year, just because I
don't nessay like, I feel like the industry as a
whole has become more business business, business, and really sort
of commercializing cinema, and I'd like this show focusing more
on sort of the artistic side and the creativity and

(19:08):
looking at sort of the movie's value and what it
is in connecting with us emotionally and as an artistic
creation rather as a product.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Because my thing.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Is a movie's value isn't really and how it did
in the box office, It's in how actually good is it?
What is it as a creative piece a movie could
have bombed in the box office but been this amazing picture.
And so I feel our podcast job it's the champion
that movie and try to get more people.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
To see it rather than care about how well it
did as as a piece of product. So so we don't.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Focus on the box office all the time, but I
think it's an interesting thing to do once in a while.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
And that's what we're.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Gonna do for the rest of this episode. And so
let's go to the first week of what's considered the
summer in terms of movie going, and that's the first
week of May, which I know for most people is
not summertime. It's not summer until school's out in a
lot of people's minds, but in the movie business, it's

(20:22):
become the beginning of May because that's when traditionally the
big Marvel movie has come out in the last decade,
and often it's the biggest movie of the summer that
comes out the first week of May or sometimes at
the very end of April.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
That's not the case this.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
Year because lots of those Marvel movies ended up getting delayed,
and so we end up only having one Marvel movie
this summer, and it didn't come out the first week
of May. The big kickoff movie of the year was
The Fall Guy. We've already talked a little bit about
the disappointment that opening weekend of The Fall Guy. We

(21:04):
really thought it was going to because it had such
a great spot kicking out the summer.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
We thought it was gonna be a way bigger hit.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
But its opening weekend end up only being a little
under twenty eight million opening weekend. And I think, and
we've talked about it a bit, so I'm not gonna
go too long, but I think there's a.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Few reasons why I had a bit of a disappointing
opening weekend.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
One of the cases is Ryan Goslin. I mean, the
year before he was in The Barbie Movie, which was
a big, massive hit. And then you also have Emily Blunt,
who is a great, great star and a great actor.
But I don't think their names themselves are massive draws.

(21:56):
They themselves just being in a picture doesn't necessarily prove to.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Be something that people come out to.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
But we're also living in an eerror where stars don't
mean as much anyways. I also think there was a
bit of an issue of sort of the marketing it's
called The fall Guy, and I don't think that's a
TV show that really resonates with people in twenty twenty four,
So that name I don't think sells the picture at all,

(22:24):
and the marketing maybe wasn't quite clear.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
In what people were getting here.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
It is an action fueled, stunt driven romantic comedy, really
a romantic action comedy, And I don't think the marketing
ever really let people know that this is kind of
like Romance in the Stone or Lost City, that this

(22:52):
is something that is it's got a lot of comedy
and it's got a lot of romance, it's the love story.
I don't think that was conveyed properly to people. I
think it really pushed more on sort of that stunt
part and that Hollywood part. And Hollywood loves making movies
about Hollywood, but Hollywood movies have not necessarily proven like

(23:15):
movies about Hollywood. Movies about movie making are interesting to be,
but at a mainstream level don't necessarily seem to connect
with broad audiences. They don't really care about seeing a
movie about movie making. It seems a little bit too
much like self congratulatory. It seems a little bit sort

(23:35):
of self centered.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
And when it's like, oh, let's make a movie about ourselves, Hollywood,
and so I think people weren't aware of what this
movie was and this movie is a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
You could listen to the past episode where I recommend
this movie. I gave it three and a half out
of four stars. I thought Ronin gos what Emily Blunt
were great. If you have an opportunity to see this picture,
because you haven't seen it yet, CO see it as
a blast. It's fun, it's got a little bit of
crime noir, it's got a lot of energy it is.

(24:12):
It's one of of the most fun movies I've had
in the theater this year.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
I just thought it was a great time.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
And I think that's the thing is we're so used
to talking about opening weekends because that has become so
important with the box office nowadays. Is but there's been
so much stuff out there, so much like you've got
the YouTube, you've got video games. There's just so much
media that you can watch, all this different type of TV,
streaming services, all this stuff that it's coming to a

(24:42):
spot where when it comes to the box office, we're
all about sort of that opening weekend. That's where you're
gonna get all kind of the money, and we don't
focus on sort of what it used to be like
in the eighties, the seventies and even further back. It
was about the legs.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
It wasn't about opening week It was about how many weeks,
how long can you extend I mean et and Star Wars,
back to the Future, these past hits, they tended to
grow as the weeks went on. They tended to get
word of mouth.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
There was a time where movies sort of hats of
legs and they lost the whole summer, and The Fall
Guy ended up proving to have legs. It maybe didn't
quite have the opening weekend that I was hoping for
it that I think it's a great movie, but it ended
up proven to do all right. It didn't quite make

(25:33):
one hundred million when all said and done, but it
was almost ninety three million in the end, which still
I think doesn't necessarily make it get all its budget back.
It wasn't quite the hit it wanted, but considering the
fact that after two weeks they already jumped to doing
video on demand and they lost all faith of it

(25:55):
being in the box office, and despite that, people kept
on going to the theater, still doing deesely in the theater.
I think it shows about how this movie did eventually
get word of mouth and it did connect with audiences.
And I think the best lesson you could get from
Fall guys that studios sometimes need to be a little
bit patient to realize some movies they may not be

(26:18):
that big massive hit opening weekend, but have a little faith.
Give it some time, give it a few weeks, and
it's going to grow an audience. It's going to end
up having legs. It's going to end up sustaining itself
a bit better. I'm addressed. You're never gonna know, but
I'm I feel that if they didn't jump to rental

(26:38):
so quickly, if they just let it stay in the
theater for a little while without there being other ways
of viewing it, would have it even done better. Would
have it had longer legs, would have it sustained itself,
would have.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
It, yeah, proven to make even more, would have it
broken the one hundred.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Million mark, And part of me feels like it would
have if it go with the on demand.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
But that was.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Your first sort of big picture of the summer, and
then the next week after that we are jumping into
probably one of the biggest movies of the summer, and
a summer where, like I said, there wasn't a lot

(27:23):
of tent poles.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
Kingdom of the Plan of the Apes and most summers would.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Have been considered it's sort of that middle blockbuster, that
not quite big epic picture that a studio leans on,
but a bigger movie but not sort of one of
your top pictures of the summer. But in this summer
where so many things got delayed, Kingdom of the Planet
Apes was one of the big heavyweights of the summer.

(27:48):
It ended up being around fifty eight million opening weekend,
which for a Plan of the Apes movie is pretty
good because that's kind of floating around where most of
them sort of land. I mean, there is Plan of
the Apes fans, but let's be realistic here, going all
the way back to the original. I grew up loving

(28:11):
Plan of the Apes. I saw the Plan of the
Apes movies when I was a little kid, and I
remember watching the Plan of the Apes series and being
all in on it. But I think Plan of the
Apes is always kind of a step above cult status
type thing. It's never been sort of this big zeitkeist
defining series.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
It's always been.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Sort of a movie that people that the people who
loved The Plan of the Apes, they really do love it,
and it's got its audience, but it's never been anywhere
near Star Wars level or MCU level or Indiana Jones.
It's it's kind of a like I said, it's a
step above kind of cult status type picture.

Speaker 1 (28:54):
And I think the recent sort of prequel trilogy that
came out with its Andy serkis The Rise of Planet Apes,
The Donald Planet Apes, and The War of the Planet Aps,
it sort of did redfine what this series is, and

(29:15):
I think it didn't make it. It captured a new.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Audience, and I think it in some ways did grow
in its popularity, but still isn't what you would call
sort of those guaranteed hit series. And so I think
that fifty eight million definitely is good because it's showing
that the series is sustaining that after three movies. There's

(29:38):
a lot of pictures that after you've sort of done
your trilogy, people are ready to.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
Move on with their lives.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
But this proved that people are still really interested in
the Plan of the Apes. And this was a really
really good movie. This is another one that I just
thought was a great summer movie. You can listen to
the podcast where I review this, and it's a lot
of praise. I'm ready for another trilogy. This picture is
clearly setting up another trilogy, and I'm all for it.

(30:08):
I'm excited, and I think this movie was such a
good picture and it did such a great job of
introducing new characters. I feel like the sequel could what
you can do better. I feel this is a franchise
that's going to continue to sort of be a hit
and grow an audience, and I encourage people to track
it down if you like kind of those sci fi

(30:31):
epic series.

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Came of the Planet Apes is one to definitely jump
on and enjoy.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
And after that the next week, so the May seventeenth,
May nineteenth weekend, we got if Imaginary Friends. It did
a little under thirty four million. And there was a
time where live action family movies were very common. You

(31:04):
could go all the way back to sort of you know,
Wizard of Oz, but you think of the eighties where
you got The Labyrinth and Et and the Explorers and Goonies,
and the nineties there was a whole bunch of them.
For some reason, Heavyweights is like the first one that

(31:24):
pops in my head. It probably should have been Home
Alone or something like that, but that was something that
was way more common than it is now. Most family
movies we just instantly think, you know, Pixar and the
Disney animated movies and the dream Work animated movies. That

(31:46):
is what we've been leaning into more in sort of
the last decade. There's been less of these type of
movies where I mean, also, there's a lot of CGI
here and all the creatures are animated. They did not
cast real monsters here, they didn't real imaginary friends, but
there is live action here and that has not been

(32:07):
as common, and so that was kind of fun to
see them kind of go back to sort of the
type of movie that they used to have maybe a
decade ago or a decade a half ago.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
And I think it did all right.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
You're talking about an original movie that is live action,
and those things sometimes struggle a bit more. And I
think this is a picture that seemed to connect with
certain audiences, and I would love to see studios take
a chance on a few more sort of original live
action of family movies.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
I know my daughter was really.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Excited to see this one, and so I think there
was a bit of an audience for it. I think
based off the budget, it didn't end up being as
much of a hit as many as studios were hoping.
Around this time. The narrative was.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Ah, the summer is a disaster and the theater experience
is in trouble and Hollywood's going to explode, because we
had hit that one hundred million opening weekend by the
third week of May, when we normally would have at
this point. But I think that as the summer went on, we.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Realized maybe people were overreacting a little bit.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
But yeah, if maybe.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
Wasn't quite its hit, but I think it it did alright,
it did fine. It I mean it's in the top
ten right now. It's for the summer. No, it actually
just got booted out of the top ten for twenty
twenty four. It's number eleven right now. But in the end,

(33:50):
I think that that's fine for a picture that does
it did not have sort of that brand name behind it,
that recognizable name in an error where that's people go
out too. I think it did fine. And I do
want to say for those people who keep on sort
of playing like ah, everything's like either sequels or based

(34:10):
off of franchise or based off something what happened to
the original movie. The problem is people just don't go
out to a lot of original movies, and so they
are not willing to put a budget behind it like
they did with the Era of the Ets or the
original Star Wars, or they Indiana, the Rares, a Little
Lost Arc or Back to the Future. There was a

(34:32):
time where those pictures did well in the box office,
and it could still happen. Original movie could still do well,
but it just it doesn't happen as much. And we're
in a global market where we have to try to
where studios are trying to appeal to countries that English

(34:55):
isn't their first language and they're not maybe as aware
of American culture. So they have to find something that's
instantly recognizable that's going to draw out those audiences. And
so that's why they lead on the sequels and the
recognizable names. But if you go out and support an
original movie, a good quality original movie, then studios are

(35:17):
gonna listen.

Speaker 1 (35:18):
That's what they listen to is what draws out the people.

Speaker 2 (35:20):
And so that's my big thing is if you want
more original movie, support them and I mean if did
break the one hundred million mark, and so I would
say in the end they should be happy with how
it did. And we're just in an era too where
studios need to watch those budgets they use of making
their picture. If you cut down the budget a little bit,

(35:41):
be a bit more expert with your spending, then pictures
like if they're gonna be considered more of a hit.
Let's move on to May twenty four weekend, May twenty
four to the twenty six that weekend. And of course
this is one that me and Scott we're completely wrong on.

(36:01):
Barriosa end up being a disappointment that only hit twenty
six million opening and it really did not prove to
have tons of legs. It never quite ended up being
a hit that sadly kind of has to be a flop.
And I think there's two big reasons I've already talked
about a previous podcast. I'll be quick, but what I

(36:21):
don't think people are really all that interested in prequels
and seeing like what something happened. I mean, if prequel
was such a good story when if you started there,
and so I think people want to see the stories
move forward. There is exceptions. There are some prequels obviously
that have been hits, but I think they don't quite
do as well as maybe a straight sequel would. And

(36:44):
in this case with the prequel, I think what was
a really big mistake is I love Anna Taylor Joy.
I think she's one of the best actors going. I
think she is an absolute star, but she wasn't the
original Furiosa. Charlie's Farin was, And this may have been
a totally different story if this starred Charlie's Starren instead
of putting a new actor into an established character, I

(37:07):
know they'd be more big fans of new actors replacing
established characters.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Same thing with it.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
I think that's one of the reasons why Solo didn't
do great, because it wasn't Harrison Ford, and so when
you put a new actor in that spot, I think
people have a harder time being connected to connected to it.
And I think that's what hurt Fariosa, which is a
disappointment obviously, because I think it's a movie that deserves
a bigger audience.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
This is your great, big epic action piece.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
George Miller always does something interesting, so it would have
been amazing.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
If it did better it didn't.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
And then the other big movie that weekend was the
Garfield Movie, which did about twenty four million, which I mean,
my kids aren't aware of Garfield. They know it's a thing,
but it's Garfield. I don't believe it's in the Zeitch
guys like he was in the eighties and the nineties

(38:03):
when there's a cartoon series and there's all these posters
and he was a big thing. I don't think this
generation kids really know who Garfield is or necessary care
about Garfield. The other issue, obviously, is it was a
Garfield movie in name. This was not the cynical, selfish

(38:24):
Garfield that people are used to in the comic strip.
They made this a lighter, cheerier, nicer, snuglier Garfield, and
so you're kind of left with why did you even
make a Garfield movie if you're not going to do
the real Garfield. So I feel it did as well
as it was going to do because it's gonna eleenate
Garfield fans. And I just don't think the younger generation

(38:48):
cares about the Orange fat Cat. I mean, kids love
animated animals, so they're gonna go out and see animated animals,
but using the Garfield name. I think it's like a
fall GUYE Jenner situation where how many people actually care
about that brand?

Speaker 1 (39:06):
And so that's my take on that.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
And then the May thirty first June second weekend, we
don't really have any big box office pictures that weekend.
It was sort of a retrend. There was not much
of a big weekend. So Garfield ended up winning that
weekend at fourteen million, so it shows you it was

(39:32):
a slow weekend. I feel that weekend is always a
slow weekend for whatever reason. They don't tend to seem
to release a new movie on that sort of May
going into June. Not really sure why, but you look historically,
there doesn't tend to be a lot of big movies
that come out on that weekend.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
At some point, Strangers Chapter one came out.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
That may have been the weekend four, I think, because
looking at it right now, they're showing let me just
see when did Strangers Chapter one go. I know this
is riveting me trying to hear on the show find

(40:17):
out when there was another movie. But I just want
to mention Strangers Chapter one because that's a picture that
neither me or Scott picked and we weren't necessarily high
on that one and ended up doing okay. It was
way back on the May seventeenth weekend. It was the

(40:38):
number three movie, so it lost out to Kingdom of
the Plan the Apes, but it was the number three
and it came out with almost twelve a little under
twelve million. So I mean, this is an interesting summer
because at this point back in May, we hadn't had
that big horror hit yet in twenty twenty five four

(41:00):
the last few years, we've had a lot of horror
movies that have done really well in the box office,
and that's a genre that really connects to people the
theatrical experience.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
And we hadn't done that yet.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
And at like a little under twelve million Strangers Chapter one,
that's not quite what you want for your opening weekend
for a horror movie, which it tends to deappreciate quite
quickly in the weekends after that. A horror genre tends
to often be sort of an opening weekend thing. There
is exceptions, there is those big hits that do have legs,

(41:33):
but this shows that I don't think the Stranger franchise
is something that really means a lot to audiences. But
like I say it did better than some of Scott's picks,
and so I think it did better than maybe we
were thinking he would do, but it still wasn't a
massive hit. It just shows that interesting situation that we
weren't finding that big.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Horror hit yet we do get there eventually. But that's
just fascinating to me that there, but there it didn't.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Okay, opening weekend, apparently they've shocked three movies already. They've
already filmed the entire trilogy, so we're getting chapter two
in a chapter three. They're coming anyway, despite this why
not being a massive hit. So we'll be interesting to
see what they do with these ones, the ones going forward.
Apparently Chapter one was not really a prequel at all.

(42:25):
It was just a remake of the original essentially. I
really have no interest in scene it because I've never
really been a huge fan of the Stranger movies.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
But I just wanted to mention that.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
And we will just move all the way now to
the June seventh weekend because this is where we do
have another big hit, and that's Bad Boys, Ride or
Die at fifty six million. I have not liked a
Bad Boys movie yet. This is just a series that

(42:57):
has not connected with me. I like Will Smith a
lot when he's not slapping people. I like him in
a lot of the movie he's in. I think he's
very charismatic. But this has just been a series. It's
always been so aggressively loud and over the top, and
it just feels like it's trying to capture that forty

(43:19):
eight hours and lethal weapon type charm that sort of
mismatched Buddy actually comedy, But I just feel the comedy
never lands and it doesn't have the heart that those
pictures do. But there's people that really like these movies.
They like the big action sequences. And I was really curious,

(43:41):
sort of in this post slap world, what Will Smith
was going to mean as a draw if Bad Boys
meant anything. And obviously it did. It had a decent
opening weekend, it did very well in the box office,
so people still love Bad Boys Ride or Die. So
we clearly are going to have sort of a fifth
one in the future, I'm sure, and I'll be just

(44:04):
as interested in that one as I was about this one.
And then June fourteenth weekend, June fourteenth to sixteenth weekend,
and this is where we have got at least to
this point the highest grossing movie not only of the
summer but of the year.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
And we had a big, massive opening as Inside Out
To landed with one hundred and fifty four million opening weekend, which.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
That finally kind of shut people up as people were
going on about how we had had one hundred million
dollar weekend. This summer is a disaster. And then Inside
Out two comes as you know, hold my beer, I
am going to show you how you be a hit
and I love this for a few reasons. The narrative
for the last few years is that Disney Plus has

(44:59):
killed Pixar, that Pixar is not able to make hits
or connect with audiences anymore in the theater people are
just gonna wait for Disney Plus. People aren't going to
see Pixar movies anymore. Its brand has been tarnished. It's
not a draw. That was sort of the big talk
and bam, Nope, that wasn't the case, not the case

(45:22):
at all. Pixar ended up smashing all the other movies
that we're trying to be hits this summer, and people
are still into Pixar, and Inside Out Too obviously shows
that there is value in sequels, and people want to
return to this character, these characters, they want to see

(45:42):
joy sadness.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
Riley wanted to see them all again.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
That was something that connects, and so there is a
reason why we keep on getting sequels. People like returning
to those characters is even a bigger hit than the
original Inside Out. But I also think this has a
bit of sort of the Barbie effect, and that people
want to see a big, funkent poll picture and they

(46:07):
want to see something that is recognizable, but they also
want to see something that connects with them because it
has something to say.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
And I mentioned this before on this podcast.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
Again I'm repeating myself, so hopefully you guys haven't turned
off this podcast.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Yeah, but this is the.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
Idea that it's connected something that means to people right
now because so many children after this COVID and just
all the state of our world right now with social
media and all these different things, a lot of kids
are struggling with mental health and anxiety and stress. I mean,
we all are, but it's happening to a younger age now.

(46:45):
And so this picture about where new emotions come and
they are those type of emotions. There is an anxiety
emotion that shows up in this voice by the Great
Maya Hawk, and so I think that connects with people.
This is a picture that is saying something that people
can relate to. They can resonate with this, and I

(47:07):
think it's great when there is those big pictures that
are willing to actually deal with themes and things that
are going in on in our world right now, things
that we're dealing with. So when you can connect to
that personal level where you can hit people right at
the heart, is going to provide It's going to draw

(47:28):
in audiences. It's going to mean something to them. People
want to be entertained, but they like it when you do.
When you focus on something that is relatable, when you
deal with the big issue, but you do it in an
entertaining way. I think that's the formula for a big hit.
And that's why Inside Out not only had an amazing

(47:48):
open weekend, but it proved to have legs. It is
just a massive hit, and I love it because that
could happen to a better movie. I love Pixar, I
love the Inside Out series. So all those things are
good for me, good for you inside Out too. And
then we move on over to the June twenty first,
twenty third weekend, and Inside Out two still did over

(48:13):
one hundred million, landed that number one spot. Bad Boys
Rider Dies showed it had a lot of legs keeping
that number two spot. And then the new release picture
that did the best that opening weekend was Bike Riders.
It did a little under ten million, which it's a

(48:36):
focus features, it's a smaller picture. It's not going to
give this get the same level of marketing. I think
that was actually a pretty good opening weekend for the
Bike Riders based off the type of movie it was.
Maybe in another era it would have done better. Talking
about the eighties something like that, maybe this is the

(48:57):
type of picture you know starring Tom Hardy, Jody Comer,
Austin Butler, that you're hoping for a bigger hit during
that time.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
But we're not living in that time anymore. And with
all this streaming and stuff. I think that doing well
in the box office, I think it is a bit
of a sign that if the results of picture have
a bit of a smaller budget, that these movies that
now are deemed like, oh, that's a streaming movie, they
can do all right in.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
The box office. If you're smart with your budget and
you have a little bit of faith. I mean, you
still got to mark these pictures. People need to be
aware of them.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
At this point. I also want to mention that King
of the Planet Apes was in the top five at
this point after being the being in the theaters for
a month, and so it clearly shows that that movie
connected with people.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
The Fall Guy had fallen out of the top ten
at that point, but at that point it had been
over a month, it had been out, and like I
had said, it was also already available for rentals. And
now we're going to hop on to the June twenty
eighth to thirtieth weekend, inside Out the Team to be the.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Number one movie inside Out two, that is, but the
number one movie.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
It was the number one movie at the box office
that weekend and then but the number two was a
Quiet Place Day one with fifty two million. And this
goes against my whole thing about Oh Fariosa didn't do
well because people aren't into prequels, because this was very

(50:38):
much a prequel.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
But I think there.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Has to be a caveat in that this was different
because this was a prequel that was sort of explaining
how a world was created. Clearly people were interested in
knowing how did the Quiet Place monsters get here, how

(51:03):
do they invade the world, what was that first day like?
And so it shows that this is a franchise that
connected with people and they were interested in digging into
the mythology, and.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
That does happen. Sometimes you can have hits.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
And this is a case that people were invested in
this world. You had Lapita Nango in the lead role.
That's a fantastic actor. How can you not love the Nango?
So I'm glad this did well. This clearly shows that
this is a horror franchise that's got its loyal fans.

(51:36):
It's a hit series, probably rivaling like Conjuring when it
comes to modern newer horror franchises that kind of have
their loyal audiences.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
And so it was one of the bigger summer hits
and well deserved.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
And then we had a bit of some people are
marketing as a flop, Horizon American Saga Chapter one only
doing about eleven million. The Kevin Costner starring directed picture
hit number three that weekend as opening. I don't really

(52:12):
know what people thought it would do, how they thought
it would do in the box office, I mean, it's
not like westerns are super hot.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
I don't remember a great marketing campaign for it. I'm
not really sure.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
I guess you can call a flop maybe because of
what the budget was for this picture.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
But in my world, eleven million for that movie.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
I mean, neither me or Scott picked it for the
summer box office challenge. I mean it's over three hour runtime.
I feel like it should be happy with that, But
people are declaring it a flop. My guess is because
of what the budget would have been on that picture,

(53:00):
maybe Kevin Costner had better hopes of it being a big.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Box office hit.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
They also reality is that's a movie that's marketed towards
an older demographic. You're marketed towards people like meat and
even older and those type.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
Of people, people with kids, people who just have very
busy lives. They're not as concerned about those opening weekends.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
The younger audiences are all but you gotta see the movie
the opening weekend. You gotta see it when the dialogue
the conversation is hot, so we can talk about it
on social media and stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
But older audiences aren't like that. They'll take their time.
I think back several years.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Ago, The Greatest Showman did not have a good opening weekend,
and then it'd be appealing the highest grossing movies of
the year because it had so much legs, people could
start coming out after it. Actually, the audience grew the
weeks after and after you had weekends that did better
than its opening weekend, which is almost unheard of with

(54:05):
the when it came to the Greatest Showmen to start
connecting with people, and so movies like that, you can't
see them as opening weekends. You have to see them
as how their legs are going, how they do the
weekends after. Horizon didn't really do great though the weekends
after either, But there you go.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
I like a good Western.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
I would have been happy for it to be a
hit because I'm all about diversity. Let's have a whole
bunch of different movies in the in the theaters. Let's
have a whole bunch of different genres. So that's my
stance on that July fifth and seventh weekend, Animated Power
Despicable Me four. It did not break one hundred million.

(54:48):
It only ended up at seventy five million for its
opening weekend. But for me, it's showing that franchise is huge.
It's hot fourth movie, and at that seventy five million,
that's showing it something that's still connecting with the kids.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
They love those minions. What's crazy about the Despicable Me
series is the minion movies, the ones that are called minions,
so the mini and branded ones, which have been two
of them. I believe at this point, they do better
than the original. So Despicable Me came first and then

(55:26):
he had the spinoff with the minions, and the minions
actually do better in the box office than the Despicable
Me movies, which is crazy, partly because I don't really
know the huge difference. I mean, the minions are all
over the Despicable Me movies too, and you usually still
have Grew. I guess Grew wasn't really in the first one,
but the second one. He was a younger version of him,

(55:48):
but he was still all over the movie, just like
he is in the Despicable Me movies. But the mini
movies do better.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
It's one of those cases where sort of the sidekick characters,
people want to see more of the psychic characters.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
They want them to drive the movie.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
And because they're aware of that, they let them drive
the movies in the Dispicable Movie movies now too in
both cases, but for whatever reason, people like the mini
movies even more. And knowing that knowledge, I think this
is one with the studios.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Universal Picture needs to be happy with how this We're
going to be four DNA. It's opening weekend, it's proven
to continue to do well in the box office, and
that's while Inside Out two was still they.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Would gray in the box office. It did thirty million
after being out already for several weeks, and it was
the number two movie, and so animation dominated the top spots.
The other significant release Maxine at number four.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
I had the art house horror series, you had ex
Pearl and then this is the third in Maxine a
little under seven million, and it's coming from a twenty four.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
It's a smaller kind of studio. I feel like the
series is only going to do so well. It didn't
even make it to Bramford. It was in a lot
of theaters, it was in twenty four hundred theaters, but
it wasn't even available in my area, and so it
definitely wasn't necessarily gained a big release, which is kind

(57:26):
of weird because Pearl X both made it to Bramford,
but for some reason Maxine didn't, so I haven't been
able to review it yet, but according to all of
the critics is sort of the lesser of the three too.
This one's considered a little bit of a disappointment.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
And so there you go with that.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
As we move along to the July twelfth, fourteenth weekend,
and this is a fun little story.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
So the big sort.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Of new release movie that weekend would have been the
Channon Tatum Scarlett Johansson starring romantic comedy fly Me to
the Moon, which has to be considered a bit of
a disappointment. It was the fifth highest grossing movie of
the weekend. It didn't even hit ten million, and that's

(58:13):
a big disappointment, especially as someone who likes romantic comedies
and you have this romantic comedy that didn't do great well.
I'm saying, hey, romantic comedies are connecting with people. We
need more in the theater because we've had evidence of
some romantic comedies that have done well recently, like anything
anyone but you with Glenn.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Powell did well at the end of last year and
was at the Trip to Paradise, the George Clooney and
Julia Roberts starring picture that did really well, Lost City.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
Consider sort of a comedy, and it did really well.
But this one, this one wasn't quite the the hit
that people were hoping for. And so to me, that's
a little bit of a disappointment. And I just to
go back to Anyone but You because her name.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Was not coming to my brain, Sidney Sweeney and Glenn Powell.
Sidney Sweeney has been all over movies recently, so she
deserves to be mentioned. She was I believe it was
an immaculate a horror movie earlier this year, and then
she was also in obviously this Anyone.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
But You, She was in Madame Webb. She is she's
becoming a star as well, and so she deserves to
be mentioned. So I mentioning me, I see mey Sweeney.
But going back to this one, fly Me to the
Moon didn't quite I think do what people were hoping
in the box office. And I hope studios don't take

(59:54):
this as a lesson of oh, let's stop putting in
romantic calm in the box.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
Office, because we have evidence that no, they do work.
I think this one is just what is it? Is
it a romantic comedy or is it a parody, because
there's also that whole idea of them filming as back
up a case of Americas don't make it to the moon.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
They film footage sort of going with that whole belief
that the moon landing was fanked and Stanley Kubrick filmed it,
and that whole conspiracy. This movie's kind of leaning into that,
except they referenced Danley Kubrick. He's not the one who
who films this sort of fake footage.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Of going on the moon. And I think the fact
that the marketing was sort of confusing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Is this a romantic comedy, is this a parody? Is
this the satires? It's a political comedy, what is it?
I think that mixed messaging probably was the undoing. And
again I think romantic comedies are less about the opening
weekend too, and more about what and legs and so.

(01:01:03):
But I think in all cases, Flying to the Moon
didn't quite deliver in sort of what people we were
hoping as a picture.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
I'm trying to find where it is at for the year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
As a picture, how it did in all of twenty
twenty four.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
My computer is not helping me for that case. Flying
to the Moon is the thirty ninth.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
Ice grossing picture of twenty twenty four. It only ended
up at this point with eighteen million, so that's going
to be considered a little bit of a disappointment. So
it hasn't necessarily proved to kind of grow an audience.
I mean, it came out on July twelfth, and as
of this recording or just at sort of the end

(01:02:04):
of July, so it hasn't had tons of time. But
I think it definitely did not connect the way that
people were hoping. But the big story of that weekend,
of the July twelfth weekend was Long Legs. Because it
was distributed by a smaller studio. This was not sort

(01:02:26):
of a big studio picture, and it's kind of a
horror picture, kind of a thriller. And I don't think
anyone released this thinking it was going to necessarily be
a big, massive hits, especially when some of the other
kind of bigger deal horror movies didn't end up being
big hits this year. But twenty two million dollar weekend

(01:02:50):
for Long Legs. Wow, that's a great opening weekend for
Long Legs. Scott sort of picked this movie and thinking
it was to be sort of one of his foolish picks,
and it was not. It was one of his better picks.
And long legs, you could just say it was a hit.
Stars Bacon Monroe, who I absolutely loved, but not necessarily

(01:03:14):
a big box office star. She does more a lot
of kind of independent pictures. She was great, and it
follows a horror movie from way back. I think at
twenty fourteen that both me It's Got really loved gave
a lot of praise to, and.

Speaker 1 (01:03:28):
Nicholas Cage, who I love, who Scott loves, who all
of you should love. We think Nicholas Cage is fantastic,
but his last few pictures that were mainstream wide releases
did not do great in the box office.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
You had ren filled and you had what was it,
the massive weight of unbearable talent. Both those pictures did
not do fantastic in the box office. In why to release,
oh sorry it was, I got it all wrong. It's

(01:04:05):
the unbearable weight of massive talent. It's not massive weight,
it's unbearable weight. It's weight that we can't bear folks,
because the talent is too massive. But I mean, I
did not do what I had hoped or anyone hoped
in the box office, so he hasn't necessarily approved in
the last few years that he's a box office draw anymore.
So you can't say, oh, Nicholas Cage was the draw

(01:04:29):
here and making Moro was the draw here. It's just
clearly people wanted a horror picture, and maybe they didn't
want the same old, same old. We've had enough of
those sort of supernatural haunting pictures in the last few years.
Long Legs is about a serial killer. It's kind of
like Signs of the Lambish, that style of picture, and

(01:04:51):
clearly that's something that people missed.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Totally original movie, original idea.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Not based off something as far as I know. So
all that's fans pastic news. It's showing that if you
do original horror you can bring people out. That is
a genre that still works for original movies that isn't
kind of animated or the two. And so this is fantastic.
This is a sign of may we can get some
more movies like Long Legs. It's a weird, kind of
art housey style horror and it connected with an audience

(01:05:20):
and that's fantastic And I'm hoping to review that movie
on the podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
In the very near future. But that's great. I love
it when horror does well.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
And it definitely connected with an audience and make them
a row and Nicholas Cage being in a hit.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
I'm all for that, ye huh. And then we go
to the next weekend July nineteenth, twenty, first weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
And Long Legs eleven almost twelve million, and that second
weekend fourth spot just beneath those two animated powerhouses to
speak on Meet four and Inside Out two. The number
one movie of the July nineteenth weekend was Twisters with
any one million, and that has got to be considered

(01:06:09):
a win for Universal Pictures. The first Twister came out
in nineteen ninety seven.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
I was a long time ago.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
And kind of like a top Gun Maverick situation where
you're having a sequel to a movie that was quite
a bit ago.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
And you're wondering.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
You always wonder with sequels that are, you know, those
legacy sequels several decades later, how much does that movie
still resonate with an audience? And I feel like Twisters
not necessarily something that people have super fond memories of,
or it doesn't seem to be anyone's kind of favorite movie.
I know, it's gotta be someone's favorite movie, because every
movie is someone's favorite movie out there, and maybe one

(01:06:51):
of my listeners that is your favorite movie.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
But I don't feel anyone.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Was really begging for another Twister movie, and so with Twisters,
I had no idea how it would do. And then
sort of natural disaster movies and not in vogue right now.
There hasn't really been too many in the last few years,
and when they were out, the most recent ones were
more kind of flops, and so I was really wondering.

(01:07:17):
But one of the reasons why I thought it could
do all right is.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
The fact that we're in a world a sort of
superhero fatigue.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
I mean, there weren't a lots There was almost no
superhero movies this summer, but in the last few years
there were signs that that genre was waning, and I
think people were wanting something different there. They weren't want
of the same type of pictures, but they still want
that big special effects experience, and that's what Twisters delivered.
We haven't had a supernatural movie in a while. They
were very popular in the past, and so I think

(01:07:49):
this is something that is And again you talk about
that branding and something that's recognizable. And I'm not talking
about the Twister franchise. I'm talking about the fact that
people know what a natural disaster is. There are of
the natural disaster, and it does go well for big
special effect type picture and so I think movies that
have sort of that easily understandable concept is going to

(01:08:11):
draw audiences out, especially promises spectacle. Twisters did all those things,
and so it ended up being a hit. I talked
about natural disasters. They were sort of one of the
first big kind of blockbusters of the nineteen seventies. You
had Towering Inferno and Earthquake and The Poseidon Adventure. Those
were big, massive, kind of blockbuster special effects pictures of

(01:08:34):
the nineteen seventies. Airplane are Airport. Airplane is the parody
of it, but you had the airport pictures as well,
and then Twister kind of reinvigorated the natural disaster genre.
I'm talking about nineteen ninety seven's Twister, because right after

(01:08:55):
that you had like Volcano and Dante's Peak and arm
Get In and so there started to be this re
emergence of disaster pictures again, and so there's a there's
an interesting history there with sort of the Twister franchises

(01:09:15):
that sort of brought back a genre, and I'm interested
now with this Twister's being a hit, will it bring
back a genre? Are we going to see some studios
greenlight a few more natural disaster pictures? That's not really
one of my favorite genres. I've never been a huge
fan of natural disaster pictures, but I could take one

(01:09:37):
or two here. It's fun seeing some things get destroyed.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
What is not your stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
If we can go to personal corner as as we
will speak of natural disasters, if we.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
If you want to.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
Be offered up an excuse for whether it was not
a podcast last week, I mean I haven't been consistent
on the site to I haven't been consisted with a podcast,
So I mean you'd be forgive.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
If you're just like, ah, it's just your usual week
where you've just allowed your emotions getting your way of
not being able to manage things. But to toss in,
to toss in my already battered emotions and struggles I've
had for the last little while. We had a big
giant flood last week. My daughter went downstairs to see
if we had any ice cream, and instead she found

(01:10:29):
that we had an indoor pool now, and so our
basement was like ankle deep water, and so we had
to get someone to get all the water out of
our house and we had to tear up the entire basement,
which sucks because we renovated of the family room down
there nine years ago, and so that's the room that
my kids grew up in. That's the room that my

(01:10:51):
kids played in. I have so many fond memories of it.
And it was a huge emotional gut punch seeing that
room get torn up and we had to throw out
like fifty percent of our possessions up.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
We're down there because the flood was so bad. We've
had to try.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
To rescue photo albums because you know, there's a time
where not every picture went up on a cloud. These
were pictures from sort of pre cloud era, pre digital,
because we're that old and yeah, so that it was not.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
A fun time. So natural disasters in the real world
not fun, but they're okay on the big screen. But
that was a peak into the life of Christopher Spicer.
And now that that's it for weekends that have happened,
but for weekends that are coming July twenty sixth to

(01:11:46):
twenty eighth, weekend, this weekend, right in front of us,
right here coming, We're all the pundits are saying, we
are going to have the highest grosing movie of the summer,
and if not, the highest grosy movie summer. If it
doesn't catch up Side Out two, we are gonna have
a big hit. And I think they are right. It's
Deadpool versus Wolverine's coming this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
This is gonna be a big, massive movie. Or I
guess it's not Deadpool versus Wolverine. It's Deadpool and Wolverine.
But I've seen the trailers. They fight guys. I guess
they team up too. But all these versus movies they
team up. King Kong versus Godzilla, they teamed up, Batman
be Superman, they teamed up, so the and what's the difference.

(01:12:35):
But anyways, I think what this movie is gonna show
is the value in not doing three or four MCU
movies in one year. Let's slow down on the number.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
Of superhero movies, the number of MPT movies you get
a year, the number of series that you put out,
you put a little less, I think you're gonna get
bigger returns. People are for an MCU movie this also
the return of Wolverine. I think that's a huge draw
human Jack Hugh Jackman b Wolverine Again. Deadpool movies are

(01:13:10):
going to offer something different. It's gonna be OUR rated,
the first Disney MCU R rated movie, So that is
a huge deal.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
I think all those things are really big draws for people.
And so that's that's what we have here, is Deadpool
and Wolverine. It's it's a it's an interesting deal there,
and I think people are going to be interested to
see how Deadpool fits into the cinematic universe. What does

(01:13:44):
Deadpool mean to the cinematic universe? How is he going
to fit into this world? And so people are interested
in that. I think it's going to.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
It'll be it'll be interesting what it does for future
MCU movies. But this one alone, I think it's going
to be a big, massive hit. I think it will
be one of the biggest movies of the summer. And
I think, yeah, the lesson here is you don't need
to do a whole bunch of one thing in one year.
To space it out a little bit, make people anticipate

(01:14:16):
and you'll have a big hit. So that's the summer
for now.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
As it stands, and so thank you very much for
if you've stuck around and listen to that.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:30):
The plan is to review Dead Pulling Woverine in the
next episode. The plan is for the next episode to
be Mondays from now on, and so hopefully you will
have a review of' Dead Pulling.

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
Woverine come Monday, and we'll see what else I decided
to put on that podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
And we are, like I said, now playing to do
weekly shows on Mondays, and again I want to apologize
for the episodes be so infrequent. I've done the tales.
I have been struggling with mental health.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
I am going forward with that, getting medical help, trying
to get that worked out, and my career is building up.
I'm working with a great ad agency right now where
I am doing work for several clients and then have
some other clients on top of that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
My career is in a rebuilding phase. It's not where
I quite want it to be, but it's going in
the right direction. And I'm hoping with all those things
in place, that I can focus a bit again on
the podcast and on the site, and there will be
some interesting stuff for people to read on the site,
which is Beyond the Balcony beyond Balcony dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:15:46):
Please check it out. There is some stuff on there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
I have a picture I've ever gone off to camp.
I talk a bit about the flood, and I have
some revisits on there, and just trying to get sort
of the podcasts moving and or sorry, the site moving
and grooving, but also trying to get the podcast going.
There'll be stuff for you to read, stuff for you
to listen to. And if you do like this show,

(01:16:11):
one way you can help us out is rate and
subscribe to us on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all
the different places Amazon Music and all those places. And
another way you can help us out or help me
out is listen to us on the Spreaker app. Consider it,

(01:16:34):
think about it. That would be fantastic. And so yes,
I will be back here next week, maybe by myself,
maybe with someone else who knows. It's going to be
a mystery, but the plan will be to review Deadpool
in Wolverine and maybe a few other things too. So
I really hope you enjoyed this episode. All by myself.

(01:16:56):
I am Christopher Spicer and that's it. I'm the only
one there's no end, Scott Martin, and there won't be
for a while except for when I post stuff from
the vault. But Scott Martin, if you are happy to
listen to this, I love you. You're amazing. Thank you for
over ten years of doing a fantastic podcast. You'll be

(01:17:18):
missed and can't wait until you can come back. But
once again, thank you for listening to this episode, and
have a great week at the movies.