The Box Office Podcast
by Scott Mendelson
A weekly conversation about the weekend box office between myself (Scott Mendelson) and a few younger (Jeremy Fuster), hipper (Ryan Scott) and cooler (Lisa Laman) entertainment journalists. Spoiler: I am what they grow beyond. scottmendelson.substack.com
Episodes
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I Told You Guys. They Wanna F*** the Wicker Man!
In what we can only hope is the calm before the year-end storm, the three of us begin by chatting about the late Patrick Stewart’s best roles, as well as what made him a uniquely momentous screen presence, and whether it will be more or less funny when Professor Charles Xavier presumably gets...
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‘Wild’ About ‘Clayface’
Jeff Ewing (finally?) joined the Box Office Podcast to discuss everything Wildwood and his ongoing work on an upcoming stop-motion documentary. After a quick weekend box office rundown, the next 45 minutes or so are 95% about Wildwood and Laika (with a touch of tough-love criticism), because Mr....
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Vore-Adjacent Questions
Most of this episode discusses what went so incredibly right for Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything and what went only kinda-sorta okay for Legendary and Paramount’s Street Fighter. We also mourn Whalefall, raise a modest glass for Sense and Sensibility and discuss what’s “finally” a…
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Podcast: Evil Marks < Evil Mommies
No guests this week, so it’s just Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and Jeremy Fuster talking shop (mostly) about Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster’s The Other Mommy and Sony’s indifferently received The Social Reckoning. Oh, and Lisa pitches an A+ idea for a Hot Wheels movie while Jeremy helps...
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Podcast: Deceased Dogs and Jewish Mice
The episode title refers to one of Verity's odder moments, but you’ll have to listen to figure out what it means. Speaking of “what it all means,” we do eventually get into spoilers for Digger around the 40-minute mark (with a literal countdown), and we eventually discuss (at roughly 75 minutes…
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Is Marvel Ready To Return to ‘Primetime’?
No special guests this week, just a meat-and-potatoes episode about what turned out to be a surprisingly crowded and relatively “better for theaters than for studios” end-of-quarter three weekend. Avengers: Endgame was #1 with $26 million as it prepares to knock Avatar out of the all-time global...
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When You Ace The “Yes, And...!” Test
Apocalypse, Extinction, The Final Chapter… all potential outcomes as the proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. seems on the cusp of fruition. What was supposed to be an upbeat episode, about a studio taking the right lessons from successful IP revivals and scoring a…
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Practically Tragic
This is a somewhat overstuffed, super-sized episode, whereby Kenny Miles stops in to discuss the Telurude Film Festival, Aaron Neuwirth and Terence Johnson stop by to discuss the Godzilla Minus One trailer (as 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla premieres its third season), and everyone joins in on...
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All-Time High!
When you have the biggest-grossing summer in domestic box office history, there’s only one person to call. The Box Office Podcast welcomes back Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Rentrak (the company until recently known as Comscore), as we dive into what went right (and what could...
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That’s (Not) All Folks?!
Civilian animation nerd Mickey Dolphin joins The Box Office Podcast as Scott Mendelson, Jeremy Fuster and Lisa Laman break down the not-half-bad near-$16 million domestic debut for the shelved (by Warner Bros.) and rescued (by Ketchup Entertainment) Will Forte and John Cena-starring Looney Tunes...
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Still ‘Insidious’ After All These Years
It’s just the three of us, as Scott Mendelson, Jeremy Fuster, and Lisa Laman discuss what keeps going right for Insidious amid digressions about the absurdity of Paramount buying Warner Bros., alongside our picks for the summer’s most “underrated” or “should have had a larger audience” releases…
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Dino Scores and Dino Sores
Ryan Scott returns to help Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and Jeremy Fuster litigate and dissect what went wrong for WB’s acclaimed The End of Oak Street and what went relatively right for Paramount’s Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie. The question of the day is which fictional dinosaur you would most like...
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Doing What Only a 'Spider-Man' Can
Pardon the delay, but it was worth the wait. I won’t spend too much time on a recap, since it’s pretty much what you’d expect. Somehow, Chrissi Michael returned, and the occasion was Will Gluck’s attempt to replicate his lightning-in-a-bottle magic of Sony’s ‘Anyone But You’ with Universal’s…
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"I didn't know you could get that big...!"
The majority of this 77-minute episode is spent discussing all of the reasons why Tom Holland and Zendaya’s MCU-affiliated Spider-Man: Brand New Day nabbed a record $360 million weekend in North America amid a near-record $912 million worldwide debut. Joining us, once again, is Aaron Neuwirth of...
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'The Odyssey' Way Down (To) Hadestown
With little in the way of new releases, although Bleecker Street’s Hadestown triumph gets its flowers and then some, most of this week’s chatter is still about Chris Nolan’s The Odyssey. Nate Rice, of Box Office Watch, returns to help Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and Jeremy Fuster dig into a...
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Sometimes People Deserve to Have Their Faith Rewarded
Original co-host and now semi-regular guest Ryan Scott returns for an old-school “year one”-style episode, as the original core four discusses, well, what else? Yes, we do offer a few notes related to Minions & Monsters, The Invite and other holdovers. However, the bulk of the discourse focuses…
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Lost At Sea
Pretty cut and dry folks, as Scott, Lisa, Jeremy and Max are joined by Mike Scott (Action For Everyone) and a newbie guest, visual artist, horror nerd and Disney music fan Shondrel Ortiz, all team up in a packed episode to discuss all things Moana and Evil Dead Burn. Among the more specific…
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More Minions = Less Money?
With Jeremy Fuster and Max Deering both on holiday, it’s a pretty loose, off-the-cuff and unstructured, even by our standards, episode. With Lisa Laman again offering another round of “financial flashback,” this week’s guest is Nathanael Rice, who just four months ago launched a potential rival…
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Maybe It's Time to Let The Old Ways Die...
As Bradley Charles Cooper once sang, it takes a lot to change your plans, and a train to change your mind. Yes, Chrissi Michael is back to chat about Supergirl and all the fortune and glory it most certainly did not achieve. Alas, with $40 million in North America and $68 million worldwide as of...
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To Infinity And Beyond... Again!
With Jeremy Fuster having to bow out for the week, Caroline Siede, she of The AV Club, the podcast Role Calling (each episode is “a five-film retrospective starring an actor they love”), stops by to discuss all things Toy Story 5, with a few brief notes related to Obsession’s ridiculous legs…
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'Disclosure' Yay!
This won’t exactly be the most hard-hitting critical discussion about Disclosure Day. I probably liked it least among the four of us, and yet my thumb is still firmly pointing upward. Nonetheless, Aaron Neuwith, fresh from a trip to Japan with 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla co-host Terrance Johnson,...
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Masters of the Scary Circus
As expected, Masters of the Universe became the latest example of “good movie, don’t care” IP adaptation in the tradition of Power Rangers, Transformers One, and (at least overseas) Predator: Badlands. And, as somewhat expected, Scary Movie 6 was a nostalgia-skewing relaunch that successfully...
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An Hour With... Fathom Entertainment CEO Ray Nutt
Having already announced his intentions to step down from his role as the Chief Executive Officer of Fathom Entertainment at the end of this year, Ray Nutt also stopped by for a brisk 35-minute chit-chat for another irregular “an hour with” episode of The Box Office Podcast. On the eve of Amazing...
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I Believe The Children Are Our Future!
Chrissi Michael, content strategist by day and box office nerd by night, returns to talk shop for what could be a line-in-the-sand weekend for movies and movie theaters. This weekend’s episode was mostly metaphorical high-fives and champagne-popping, a momentary moment to exhale for a podcast…
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"I Wish Audiences Still Loved 'Star Wars' More Than Anything Else in the Entire World”
Will The Mandalorian and Grogu begin to make things right? That’s the key subject of discourse as our original fourth-chair co-host returns to dissect yet another example of a once-towering franchise pulling merely okay opening weekend grosses. It’s a reunion of the, uh, “core four.” Scott...
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'Obsession' Compulsion and 'Shrek'-cavation
Rendy Jones returns to discuss what went right with Focus Features’ Obsession (which actually opened with a $17 million opening weekend, with a very promising 2.46x multiplier) and what went wrong for Is God Is. - Rendy notes how Alisha Harris’ terrific crime melodrama caught between Michael (now...
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'Devil' Slays 'Kombat'
Andy Gorham, self-titled gentle giant and vanilla gorilla of “Action Twitter,” joins to discuss, obviously, Mortal Kombat II. What went right (an actual Mortal Kombat tournament), what went wrong (the return of Kano meant Cage was redundant), and whether a solid ($38.5 million, and now with $41...
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Lotta Prada or Narnia and Chill
Somehow, Chrissi Michael returned. She and Aaron Neuwirth stepping in for last week’s Michael episode was more of a concurrent personal favor and/or a last-minute request. Still, she had always intended to reprise for this week’s Devil Wears Prada 2-centric episode. At the risk of stating the...
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An Hour With... Barco Cinema’s EVP Gerwin Damberg
If you followed any of the online discourse related to The Devil Wears Prada 2 in the run-up to its release, you’ll recall much back-and-forth over the new film seeming to be, in terms of its pre-release trailers and TV spots, not as bright, colorful or otherwise “cinematic” as its 2006...
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Moonwalk Hard
With Jeremy Fuster unable to make it this week, two of our more frequent guests, Chrissi Michaels and Aaron Neuwirth, stopped by to discuss all things Michael. By the way, the Michael Jackson biopic earned $7.65 million on Monday (-70% from its $25.4 million Sunday gross), bringing its domestic...
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Mummy Money, Cinema Cons and Summer Previews
Shawn Robbins, currently at Fandango and owner/operator/etc. of The Box Office Theory, stops by for a slightly extended episode, since it’s a triple feature. First, we talk about the weekend box office, namely Lee Cronin’s The Mummy and Normal alongside a promising platform launch for Mother Mary...
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You, Me and Nintendo's Power
Pardon the delay on both the podcast and the CinemaCon coverage. Honestly, there has not been a ton of outright news offered up amid the panels, so I’m hoping those who are interested can wait for a deep-dive analysis of what was said and shown until I have time to actually spellcheck the damn...
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So the (Super Mario) Drama!
Kenny Miles, film critic and CinemaScore poller, returns for his (I think?) third go-around on The Box Office Podcast as we discuss, well, it’s pretty obvious. Jeremy Fuster couldn’t make it because of… journalism. Still, he gives A24 its flowers and offers a pithy, not-incorrect summation of The...
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Proud 'Mary' Eats 'Forbidden Fruits'
Luke Y. Thompson returns for his… uh… fourth guest spot since February 2025, giving the likes of Aaron Neuwirth and Chrissi Michaels a run for their money. Of course, he pops in just BEFORE we get a second Masters of the Universe trailer. But fear not, he’s already been penciled in for June 8.…
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All Hail 'Mary'
Aaron Neuwirth (of 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla and OutNow With Aaron and Abe) pops in yet again to chat alongside Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and Jeremy Fuster about why Project Hail Mary soared so high, why Ready or Not: Here I Come was the opposite of a breakout sequel, and the reasons for and...
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The Original Core Four Talks Oscars (and More)
In a show that’s half box office punditry and half Oscar telecast discourse, original co-host Ryan Scott returns for what’s a comparatively old-school episode. Among the subjects this week are everyone’s favorite Oscar night win, Hopper’s strong domestic hold, Colleen Hoover going 3/3 with...
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Beavers and Bridezillas!
Charlie Jane Anders, long-time sci-fi author and sci-fi entertainment journalist (whose work has won — among others — the Crawford Award, Hugo Award, Lambda Literary Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award, and Theodore Sturgeon Award) joins the gang as we dig deep into what went right with Disney and...
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Make You Wanna Scream?!
Semi-regular guests Aaron Neuwirth (of 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla and OutNow With Aaron and Abe) and Brandon Peters (The Brandon Peters Show) reprise yet again to discuss the confluence of Tinseltown terrors and real-world horrors that makes a $64 million domestic and $97 million worldwide debut...
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A Failure of Soft Powell
Longtime film writer, movie reviewer, entertainment journalist, and author Marya E. Gates is this week’s extra-special guest. Considering this relatively barren weekend for new releases, it would have been deeply ironic had this (among other things) expert in the realm of silent cinema arrived on…
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Wuthering Fights!
Longtime journalist and podcaster Jordan Crucchiola guests on this week’s episode as the gang discusses the reception and commercial performance of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights. Well, she eventually skips out at around the halfway mark since she hadn’t yet seen the other new releases amid…
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The Little Movies That Could
In what was a needlessly barren weekend in terms of new releases from major studios, the newbies and the smaller distribution outlets picked up some of the slack. So, for the occasion of what was technically Super Bowl weekend, Chrissi Michael, content strategist by day and box office nerd by...
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Inherent Vyce
In his long-awaited debut in the revolving (or fifth?) fourth chair of The Box Office Podcast, long-time film pundit and action film expert Vyce Victus pops in presumably/theoretically to discuss the latest Jason Statham joint. And while we find enough time to discuss Shelter’s place in the…
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An Hour With... Paul Feig
I’m not thrilled that Lionsgate has already dropped The Housemaid onto PVOD, even if I’ll note that A) it got a now (kinda-sorta) standard 47-day window and B) it’s probably going to lose a bunch of screens and get steamrolled by Wuthering Heights the weekend after next anyway. This was recorded...
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2 Mendelson 2 Hertz: Another Hour with Barry Hertz, Talking 'Hobbs & Shaw' and (Eventually) 'Fast Forever'
The listeners demanded it, the author agreed to it, and so the podcaster (oh-so-reluctantly) allowed it. For those who came in late, Barry Hertz popped by on “An Hour With…”, the semi-regular offshoot of The Box Office Podcast, to discuss his sprawling and comprehensive literary deep-dive into…
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Are We Not 'Mercy'-ful?!
Comscore Sr. Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian returned to talk shop with the usual gang. He was only able to stick around for the first third before making like Steven Seagal in Executive Decision. Still, that first third covers the “Hey, the domestic box office cleared $9 billion after all!”...
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'28 Years Later' Pull a (Box Office) Boner
Aaron Neuwirth returns for… what is this, the sixth or seventh time (?) since March 2025, to pontificate about what went right (artistically) but wrong (commercially) regarding Nia DaCosta and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Among the areas of discourse are whether a mixed…
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Monkeying Around After the End of the World
While you’d think that the terrific trio, alongside producer Max Deering and special guest Rendy Jones (another superb fourth-chair occupant who’s so young but has been doing this for so long that I shudder to think how old they were when I first started reading their reviews and commentary)…
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New Year, Old(er) Movies
The new-to-the-show guest for the first episode of 2026 is Tre’vell Anderson, prolific author, podcaster and journalist (who was recently named co-director of the Trans Journalist Association alongside TJA co-founder Kae Petrin). Oh, and Jeremy Fuster recorded from Japan, making this another…
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Sure Plays a Mean Ping Pong...
This may be the very first weekend since I started this podcast, nearly two years ago, when we literally ran out of time to appropriately discuss the relevant new releases (and higher-profile holdovers). However, unless Kids Bop: The Movie pulls an ERAS Tour, I imagine the next (mostly...
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Does Payakan Know It’s Christmastime at All?
Sure, you’ll probably be a bit today, celebrating either Christmas or National Jews Get Chinese Food and Go to the Movies Day. The plan is for our “mixed” family (Wendy is half-Jewish/half-Catholic/all-guilt) to do both: open presents in the morning and catch up with Anaconda later that…
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About this show
A weekly conversation about the weekend box office between myself (Scott Mendelson) and a few younger (Jeremy Fuster), hipper (Ryan Scott) and cooler (Lisa Laman) entertainment journalists. Spoiler: I am what they grow beyond.
scottmendelson.substack.com
Hosted by
Scott Mendelson