I’m Matt Belloni, author of Puck’s Hollywood private email “What I’m Hearing” and host of “The Town” podcast. AMA about the summer box office at 3:00 p.m. ET TODAY (Friday, May 10).

Hey Matt! Been a fan/follower for a while (The Town is fantastic).

With the recent announcement of the Brad Pitt F1 movie reportedly costing $300+ million, why are studios allowing for these types of budgets on non-sequel/IP projects? Will we see this trend continue as studios go "all in" on four-quadrant films? Why can't the studios allocate these budgets to more $30-50 million projects to give themselves a better shot at ROI?

Why we shouldn’t pay much attention to opening weekends anymore

I'm curious what you mean by this. I don't think legs have gotten better or anything, looking at the Challengers box office trajectory which was the type of film that should have had a leggy run. Or looking at The Fall Guy having a low opening but not being able to leg it out despite good word of mouth.

Any insight into how Apple views the performance of Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon? Obviously neither were profitable purely from the box office, but we all know Apple had other considerations.  

Were they satisfied or disappointed? Do you think they’ll continue to make prestige blockbusters?

I have some questions that might be part of something you’re already investigating but if this is the first time any of it has been raised to you, it would be cool to see you do a deep-dive into some of them eventually if you don’t have any related information right now.

Sorry in advance for having a lot to ask but there hasn’t been that much coverage of these topics in the news recently so that’s why I was curious to ask about them.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do an AMA here and I hope you have a great weekend ahead.

WarnerDiscovery:

   1 - We’ve seen the Global Cycling Network Plus & MotorTrend Plus streaming services being ended 
   last year and this year with their content being folded into both Max & Discovery+. Discovery+   
   has been and will probably be sunseted in countries that has already gotten and will eventually 
   get Max in the future, except for the U.S. where it’s still profitable.

   Given there’s a push to continue further cost-cutting because of the company’s large debt load, is 
   there any reason behind why CEO David Zaslav & Streaming President/CEO JB Perrette hasn’t 
   considered folding and integrating the U.S.-only niche Boomerang streaming service into Max yet?

   
   2 - The company does share ownership in some of its TV networks with others but only 3 big 
   channels have a big minority stakeholder: Food Network & Cooking Channel (31% of it is held by 
   Nexstar) and Discovery Family (40% is held by Hasbro).

   Nexstar has an option to acquire both WarnerDiscovery’s and Paramount Global’s 12.5% stakes in 
   the CW this August. Is it possible that WarnerDiscovery exchanges their 12.5% in the CW for 
   Nexstar’s 31% in Food Network & Cooking Channel?

   
   3 - We’ve seen that the company plans to sell parts of Rooster Teeth after the decision to shut it 
   down as a standalone department. 

   If some of the parts like live-action & animation content production or video game development, 
   for example, don’t manage to find a buyer, could it be possible they will be absorbed into the rest 
   of the company like WB Television, Adult Swim, and WB Games or would they just be shut down?

   
   4 -  Is the status of the Coyote Vs. Acme film at the moment more like Batgirl & Scoob: Holiday 
   Haunt being tucked inside the company’s vault, being shopped out like Looney Tunes’s The Day 
   The Earth Blew Up movie, or possibly getting a theatrical release directly from WB itself?


  
   5 -  CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said last year, the company has a large portfolio of real estate which 
   has less-visible, non-core properties that could be sold to generate cash to pay off towards the 
   debt.

   Has much of that portfolio been tapped to reduce part of the debt yet or that is being saved as a 
   last option to be used before all other options to help pay off the debt are exhausted? 


  
   6 - If the company manages to trim its debt load down heavily in the next few years, could 
   Legendary Entertainment or Embracer’s Middle-Earth Enterprises & Friends be possible   
   acquisitions that Zaslav could pursue to grow WarnerDiscovery before preparing a company sale 
   down the road?

Paramount Global:

   7 - Regardless of the whole drama saga that’s taking place over the company’s fate, is it possible   
   that in the near future, the niche BET+ streaming service could very well end up in a similar fate 
   as the Showtime & Noggin services, which both got folded and then integrated into Paramount+?


   8 -  Given former CEO Bob Bakish has been retained as a senior advisor for the company until the 
   end of October, is it possible he’s been kept in that capacity as a fail-safe option in case the 
   chosen “Office Of The CEO” trio replacement doesn’t manage to actually execute as well or even 
   better than him if the Redstone family determines no sale will be made except only for their own 
   company, National Amusements instead?

Disney:

   9 - Is the intention for the ESPN flagship service that’s coming next year (not the Disney-
   WarnerDiscovery-Fox joint-venture one) to be a U.S.-only service or there’s plans for it to expand 
   internationally later on?

General Streaming Prediction:

   10 - After some of these various streamers reach their profitability stage, will they shift focus 
   towards continuing international expansion, improving the user interface and video streaming 
   capabilities, adding additional engagement features like games, digital publishing access, 
   shopping, etc, or doing a mix of all of them in addition to increasing their profitability?

How many more weak summers at the Box Office can Hollywood realistically withstand before things get drastic or need shaken up significantly? It's been a disappointingly downward trend at box office for many major blockbusters over the last few years, how long can movie companies overcome the low numbers before change occurs?

Hey Matt, we're big Townies here at Think Jam and really appreciate the insights you share on the media & entertainment industry. Since the strike ended, studios have made a big push with extravagant global press tours -- thanks Timmy and Zendaya for slaying the carpets around the world. Outside of Dune and Challengers, do you think the global press tour for Furiosa will move the needle on box office? Do you think we will continue to see these big investments in press tours through the rest of 2024?

Hello, Matt Belloni!

Which movie's box office performance are you personally most anticipating for the rest of this year, and - assuming every movie stays on schedule - which of the currently slated for 2025 is your most anticipated as well?

Matt love listening to The town on my commute. Two questions: If Paramount is sold, do you except them to wind down Paramount+ and sell each piece of content separately or sell it all to one company for a certain amount of money per year? Also a majority of Paramount+ subscribers are either on a discounted deal or get free from another company (Walmart+), how is that sustainable when all Netflix subscribers pay full price (Netflix doesn’t even have free trails)? I pay 30 bucks per year for paramount+ and pay 25 bucks per month for Netflix

If you can take one M&A question, would you bet on EA, Amazon, and maybe WBD as potential suitors for Paramount, after the Skydance and Sony/Apollo bids? I came up with a scenario in which Comcast has a change of heart and decides to acquire key Paramount units like the Paramount Pictures studio, Nickelodeon, and streaming units, while the remaining cable networks are spun off as a standalone publicly-traded entity.

Disney lost 600 million plus theatrically how much do these theatrical losses affect them in the grand scheme of things

How do you feel about the recent surge of old movie releases that end up in the top 10? Recently Spiderman, Alien, Phantom Menace? What’s with the sudden uptick in ticket sales there? Should distributors/exhibitors take this as a sign to lean in?

Any word on what AMC Distribution might be doing next as their follow-up to Taylor Swift and Beyonce and their Billie Eilish listening events next week? How did your panel with Adam Aron at CinemaCon come about and after hosting the panel with him has your opinions changed at all? Relatedly thoughts on the other big chains like Cinemark and Cineworld/Regal after the bankruptcy exit?

Matt given the success of Mario at Universal, do you think Disney would work on a Final Fantasy/Kingdom of Hearts Disney animation films with Square Enix?

Does it sting when Lucas is right?

How do you feel about the future of theatrical animated originals? Considering Disney and Pixar focusing on sequels with an original here and there, Paramount, WB, Illumination and DWA following suit but with adaptations and IP, and Sony seeming to have nothing under its banner theatrically but SpiderVerse sequels, I'm curious on if the studios are just going to focus on IP and adaptations. I know IF is a hybrid that comes out next week but it has good buzz, as does The Wild Robot. I think Elio could turn it around for Pixar if IO2 does great.

Hi Matt!! Really big fan of your podcast and Puck generally, especially as someone who used to work on political campaigns but now does corporate pr.

a) I'm curious if y'all have ever considered some cross-programming between the town and the political folks at Puck, especially as more people pay attention to the presidential (re:strategy, not actual politics) b) Would love to know what you/y'all see as the most interesting similarities and differences between the kind of campaigning that goes on in hollywood (award campaigns, movie marketing, talent personal branding, etc.) and political campaigning.

Matt, I, like seemingly everyone else in this town, am a rabid listener to The Town. Great job and congrats on the success.

In your Fall Guy post mortem, you and Lucas talked a lot about why this movie didn't open. But I feel that one item that got the short shrift was release date. When Deadpool moved, Fall Guy jumped onto the date, but it was in retrospect the wrong movie at the wrong time. Distributors and movie theaters are already at odds: Exhibition wants a 52 week schedule, but studios want key dates for their tentpoles. I see this getting even more fraught in the future. Thoughts?

hi Matt do you see Inside out 2 doing more than its precessdor

Hey Matt!

Long time listener of KCRW's The Business and your banter with Kim is a highlight from me. From there, I found The Town, and it is HIGHLY informative and super awesome! Thank you for all your hard work!

2024 B.O. is looking shaky, and it feels like we're all "waiting" for next year already.

Do you think if the summer box office lands not in line with studio expectations, that it will adversely affect the 2025 summer slate and summer movies going forward?

Do you think A24 has a chance of being a wide release/100+ million grossing studio? Is it worth it for them to try?

Really enjoy the podcast, so thanks for that!

How important will PVOD become (or is already?) in release strategies when the theatrical boxoffice is declining? Is it a viable alternative? Are there movies that make more on PVOD than in theaters?

Comment deleted by user

5 years after the deal was finalized, Disney is leaning heavily on Fox properties at the box office this year (Poor Things, Deadpool, Apes, Alien). What do you make of this? How would the success of these movies affect Disney’s succession plans?

Does Horizon: An American Saga perform better or worse than Killers of the Flower Moon? Killers topped out at $156m WW.

What non-trades do you read for movie/TV content?

Hi Matt! Thank you so much for doing this!! My question is that could you please give us a definite answer of how much box office share does domestic theaters take? Is it really 50%? or does it changes over the period of release window … thank you again : )

Hey Matt, love The Town! Do you have any fun stories about any of the actors you did the hollywood reporter roundtables with?

As a future law student (on the clock to enroll at Michigan Law or Georgetown by Monday!), I'm curious how the role lawyers play in the industry will evolve through potential consolidation, AI, changing exec structures, and less emphasis on agents. You're a lawyer-- how do you see this playing out?

A movie exec once got fired for making the movie Battleship and is now, because of Barbie, making an adaptation of Monopoly. Do you think he will be fired again for the same offense?

It feels like there are too many movie theaters. What percentage do you think need to close in order to right size the theatre market?

With Oscar rules being revised to require broader theatrical releases, will Netflix finally start to (begrudgingly) embrace theatrical as a method of exhibition? I think they would have a lot more Oscar wins if they weren’t so openly hostile to theatrical exhibition. 

What would it take for Blue Bloods to get a 10 episode 15th season to get to over 300 episodes? It's still a top rated show, it also does well on Paramount Plus. Why does that not count for anything?