The Town with Matthew Belloni
Puck founding partner Matthew Belloni takes you inside Hollywood, using exclusive reporting and insight to explain the backstories on everything from Marvel movies to streaming wars. Multiple times each week, Matt will touch on what is getting made and why, who is winning and losing, and what people in show business are actually talking about.
Episodes
October 6, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw use the disappointing box office performance for A24’s sports drama ‘The Smashing Machine’ with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to examine the current state of A24, the difficulty of living up to its sky-high valuation, and the natural life cycle of a growing indie movie studio (03:04). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the new cast of 'SNL' (25:20). For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollyw...
Mark as Played
October 2, 2025 • 37 mins
Matt is joined by SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland to discuss OpenAI’s new app, Sora 2, an AI video tool and video-sharing app, and the problems it presents for Hollywood. They discuss how this product can threaten the legitimacy of image and likeness rights and infringe on intellectual property and why Hollywood isn't suing OpenAI immediately. They dive into what is allowed to be used to train AI model...
Mark as Played
October 1, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by Entertainment 360 literary manager/producer Geoff Shaevitz to discuss why spec-script sales have taken off in Hollywood over the past year. Geoff speculates on what kick-started this trend, why buyers are moving away from fully packaged deals, which genres are selling, which studios are buying, and whether the original-script boom is here to stay (02:50). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about the opening ...
Mark as Played
September 29, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the weekend box office performance of ‘One Battle After Another’: Was the film a flop or a hit? With Warner Bros.' film slate done for the year, Matt and Lucas discuss the studio's performance this year and how it could affect chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, as well as the studio as a whole, amid a potential sale to David Ellison (02:58). They also discuss President Trump’s r...
Mark as Played
September 26, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by Scott Purdy, a media strategy leader at KPMG, to discuss their illuminating new study outlining how much the major networks are spending on content and, more importantly, where. They discuss why these companies need to start spending their money differently and how user-generated content might soon become more powerful than the traditional content models (02:36). Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box ...
Mark as Played
September 24, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by Puck’s Eriq Gardner to discuss the return of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ and unpack what could happen next. They talk about why Brendan Carr and the FCC may not be as powerful as they might seem, whether affiliate stations can preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ indefinitely, and whether Disney could leverage its power by withholding its most valuable content—like the NFL and college football—from these affiliate networks (02:4...
Mark as Played
September 22, 2025 • 34 mins
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss the announcement that Jimmy Kimmel will be returning to ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ this Tuesday night, and the various ramifications that could follow. They talk about how Disney has handled this situation, the possibility of ABC affiliates refusing to air the show, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner's criticism of current CEO Bob Iger, and how this affects Iger’s legacy (02:47). Matt fin...
Mark as Played
September 18, 2025 • 35 mins
Matt is joined by journalist Bill Carter to discuss the suspension of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after portions of Kimmel’s monologue on Monday night sparked outrage among several ABC affiliate groups as well as FCC chairman Brendan Carr. They discuss Disney’s decision to pull Kimmel off the air, why certain affiliate groups might be motivated to side with Carr, what leverage the FCC has in this situation, Trump's online celebration and ...
Mark as Played
September 17, 2025 • 38 mins
Matt is joined by Rotten Tomatoes awards editor Jacqueline Coley to reveal how the Rotten Tomatoes rating system works, the reasoning behind its binary grading system, whether the system favors certain movies, why the Tomatometer scores have increased over the past 10 years, and why Rotten Tomatoes is so popular in the current online movie criticism landscape (02:39). Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office predic...
Mark as Played
September 15, 2025 • 41 mins
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw and LightShed’s Rich Greenfield to discuss the report that David Ellison is interested in making a majority-cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Matt, Lucas, and Rich discuss why Ellison is doing this now after just acquiring Paramount, whether a merger like this is even possible, the ramifications of the continued consolidation in Hollywood, how valuable Warner Bros. is to Ellison, a...
Mark as Played
September 12, 2025 • 35 mins
Matt is joined by Puck’s Julia Alexander to preview the 2025 Emmy Awards and look at which shows should already be considered winners from a business perspective. They discuss how many people are actually watching the nominated shows, whether they justify their budget, and which show got the biggest boost from their nomination (02:01) Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office prediction for ‘Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no...
Mark as Played
September 9, 2025 • 34 mins
Matt is joined by the New York Times’ Jim Rutenberg to discuss the bombshell news that the Murdochs have settled their ongoing family trust succession dispute, which will now keep Lachlan Murdoch on top, with the other siblings taking buyouts for over $1 billion each. Matt and Jim discuss why the siblings finally settled, if this was a good deal for them or a disappointing capitulation, and what's next for the Fox empire under Lach...
Mark as Played
September 8, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss YouTube’s exclusive NFL debut on Friday night, which brought in 17 million viewers; the surprising box-office success of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at the Sphere in Las Vegas; and if there is a path to sustained success for The Sphere as a movie venue. They also discuss longtime billionaire investor John Malone’s attempt to find a new home for Warner Bros. Discovery, and if David Ellison ...
Mark as Played
September 5, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by Fergus Navaratnam-Blair of National Research Group to discuss his surprising study revealing Generation Alpha’s love for and interest in the theatrical movie experience. They look at the most interesting data from the study, including Gen A’s interest in seeing movies with friends, their strong attention span, and their ability to put down their phones during a movie. They also dig into the most important IP and a...
Mark as Played
September 1, 2025 • 60 mins
Live from the El Rey theater in Los Angeles, Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw and Adam Aron, the CEO and chairman of AMC Theatres, to discuss the state of the moviegoing business, why there are so many trailers and ads before the movie starts, Adam's relationship with Netflix, and how the theatrical business can evolve (02:22).
For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ ...
Mark as Played
August 28, 2025 • 42 mins
Matt is joined by Puck’s box office expert, Scott Mendelson, to judge their early summer box office predictions by looking at the biggest hits, misses, and questions from the 2025 summer slate (02:09).
For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! thetown@spotify.com
Host: Matt Bell...
Mark as Played
August 27, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by prominent independent film producer Christine Vachon to discuss the general state and health of the independent film market. She discusses her newest film, ‘Materialists,’ how her company, Killer Films, has lasted 30 years, the challenge of getting challenging films made, where money is coming from in the indie space, and the current film festival hierarchy (02:15). Matt finishes the show with a prediction about t...
Mark as Played
August 25, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to discuss Netflix’s surprise hit ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ which has become their second-most popular English-language film. Unexpectedly, Netflix decided to release ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ in theaters, where it brought in nearly $20 million in ticket sales despite releasing on streaming in June. Matt and Lucas discuss why Netflix did this despite its very clear view on movie theaters, whether the...
Mark as Played
August 22, 2025 • 45 mins
Live from the Edinburgh TV Festival in Scotland, Matt is joined by television producer and executive Stephen Lambert to discuss the current state of reality TV, his newest hit, ‘The Traitors,' how to cast reality competition, what streamers are looking for in 2025, how that's changed, and whether America is falling behind in creating fresh reality formats (02:11).
For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ...
Mark as Played
August 20, 2025 • 32 mins
Matt is joined by Pete Distad, CEO of Fox's direct-to-consumer streaming platform, to discuss Fox One, the company's first significant foray into streaming, which will offer all of Fox’s news, sports, and entertainment branded content together in one platform. They talk about the juggernaut of news and sports, the end of NFL exclusively on broadcast, why the price is so high ($20 per month), the potential that it will cannibalize F...
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.