Nolan, Spielberg, Ellison, Cruise(!), and the CinemaCon Studio Power Ranking

23:01I have been saying that for a long time.

23:04Matt Belloni:People have dunked on me saying, what are you talking about? I am not saying that Avengers is not going to do well. It is going to be huge. But it is now up against Dune 3. The Dune 3 trajectory is really strong. And it has movie stars that people feel are a lot fresher right now than these Marvel guys who are playing back the hits that were popular 10 years ago. And Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were there on stage again, but like much like as at the Oscars, their chemistry is not really there. You know, you had the announcement of Infinity Vision, which was like very funny, but it's just.

23:40Matt Belloni:We talked about this a little on Big Picture, but Disney, come on. Like you cannot expect us to take this and not make fun of it. I mean, it is a joke. It is a joke. they are taking the non-IMAX PLF screens, which the exhibition industry has been talking about branding the non-IMAX screens in some way that people will be excited about them in a way that they're excited about IMAX. Because these theaters, people come up and say, two tickets in IMAX, please. Oh, we don't offer that. Like, they don't know the difference. Infinity Vision? Like, is this going to work? I think it's like a helpful thing to put on a poster and might actually work long term.

24:23But anybody talking about it right now is probably making fun of it. There's no one who's like, I cannot wait to see what Infinity Vision really looks and feels like on the big screen. Because it is invented. It is a creation and an attempt to undermine the opposition. That's really all it's operating for.

24:41Matt Belloni:And to make up, to take a little bit of brand equity out of Disney and spread it across an area where they don't have an advantage. Also, is there... Dune has all the iMac screens. Is there an upcharge attached to this experience? That's something we need to find out. Well, it's a normal upcharge of the PLF for whatever format. But if this... So is Infinity Vision only available on a PLF screen? I believe so, yeah. I mean, they didn't ask me. What PLF screen? So like on a Dolby screen? Yeah, it's going to be... My understanding is it's going to be all of them. If you go to see Avengers on a PLF screen, there's no IMAX.

25:21Matt Belloni:So all of it is going to be called Infinity Vision. Okay. I can't even say. It's a certification. It's like this gets the stamp of approval. It's like another, you know, card to collect. It is a marketing invention. The rest of your Dungeons and Dragons cards. This is a marketing. This is a Don Draper special. It is a marketing invention. In the same way that I am a certified award-winning podcaster. Yeah. Which means a lot. Did we win anything? No, we haven't won anything. No, but so it felt a little desperate. Or just, you know, like they are showing signs of weakness. And that's why you're right that it's just going to make all the money.

25:54And I know this is the business podcast, but I think Sean and I are slightly resistant of... That's okay.

25:59Matt Belloni:But if Dune can take a couple hundred million out of Avengers, which I think it can, I'm worried if I'm Disney. Because part of the narrative of Marvel right now needs this. They need this to exceed expectations. They can't have this do what Avatar 3 did. Yes. Which did great by any normal expectation. $1.5 billion is great. By Avatar expectation, that's kind of not great. And if this movie does$1.5, are they happy? I don't know. Yeah. I think it throws a real wrench into the long-term plans of the Marvel studio, honestly. I think if Doomsday significantly underperforms relative to Avengers' expectations, it's something that we've talked about for many years on this show actually i think the first time i came on the town we talked about the dip in quality in marvel and what was really happening with marvel that was almost five years ago and so this has been a slow moving train towards this this concern and a lot of this stuff now we're more and more suspicious of because they have not been able to turn the public sentiment the movie's still gonna make a lot of money yeah it's just is it enough for it to set the pathway for the next 10 years in the business right Are you looking for support in your weight management journey?

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29:12Matt Belloni:All right. What about your number two? My number two is universal for all the reasons that we talked about. So then let's go to number three. Yeah. I'm zagging on my number three. Oh, please go ahead. You and I are once again matched. Did you choose this as well? No, I'm matched with Matt. Oh, okay. You guys are matched. I'm going with Sony. Oh, wow. Okay. And here's why. Because last year was a disaster. Last year was Karate Kid. I missed last year's. And the drawn-out Beatles stuff. And yeah. So I missed all that. I wouldn't say that Sony has the best film slate. I wouldn't say it's the most powerful studio or even the most interesting studio.

29:43I think it has a couple of things that are helpful for this game that we're playing. One is that they closed the show with Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart, who are three very big movie stars. In a Jumanji movie I don't really care about, but they hit the mark there.

29:56Matt Belloni:Can we give an award for the best use of Jack Black at CinemaCon? He was there for three presentations. So was he, for one of them, he was just on screen. For Warner's, he only did a video for Minecraft 2, but he did sing a version of the songs. That's right. For Universal, he was for Super Mario. He came out for Super Mario and just did his shtick. Yes. So I think number one is probably the Sony one. Probably the Sony one. And he was in the room for Sony. Yes. So what does it say that he was presumably still in Las Vegas, but did not come out on stage for Warner Brothers? We don't know where he was.

30:27Matt Belloni:Yes, that's true. We can neither confirm or deny. We can only observe. Maybe he didn't want to overdo it. Or maybe Warners didn't need him or want him because that movie's not coming out for a long time. Right. Other things about Sony. One, obviously they have Spider-Man Brand New Day. And there's a lot of puppets there. No Tom Holland in person. He was there via a virtual video screen, which is quite strange. The reason that I'm picking this, and there are movies on the slate I love. I'm really interested in the Resident Evil movie. There's a lot of horror movies that look interesting. the announcement of the Nightingale officially happening with the Fanning sisters.

31:01But Tom Rothman, on the back three of his career, just talking shit to movie theaters was incredibly enjoyable to me. Love it.

31:09Matt Belloni:Only he could do that. And they weren't booing. No. But they certainly didn't love being told that they need to get off the ad crack. Yes. So get rid of the endless advertising and substantially shorten the pre-show get off the ad crack. That was the quote. And he was looking directly at them when he said it. And I know for a fact, because I'm in movie theaters all the time, this is how everyone who goes to the movies feels. Preach. This is exactly what they want. I know. I loved it. It was a great moment. And he's kind of on a heater lately. He came on the town and he's been preaching. He wrote a New York Times piece about, you know, the windows situation.

31:46Matt Belloni:I love it. I think that there should be more shit talking at CinemaCon. I would love it if they were back and forth like, our movie was way better. Their movie, you know, they'd say. They're the highest grocery studio, but they're not. You know, that kind of stuff. I love the social reckoning presentation. My thoughts on Jeremy Strong, you can get over on the big picture. I'm a big fan of this performance already, even though we've only seen snippets of it. And if it turns horribly wrong, I will accept no accountability for that fandom. But the fact that they brought Sorkin out and he talked about his movie's not coming out until...

32:20Matt Belloni:October. Oh, it's October. I thought it was December. Okay. One other thing, too, that they have that I think is interesting is I do feel like the video game era is upon us and they have this synergy with PlayStation. So they have all these properties that if we are actually moving away from superheroes and into video games, they announced both Bloodborne and Helldivers happening. And I think that their slate will continue to be developed around that material. Absolutely. They now have an advantage. They have two advantages Sony has that they've never had before. The anime boom. That's right. And they have that pipeline through Crunchyroll.

32:50Matt Belloni:They sure do. And they have PlayStation. Yeah. Do we think people care still about Jumanji? I'll admit when I saw it, I was like, oh yeah, they're like other characters. I mean, those movies play really well overseas and that's part of the reason why they've done so well at the box office. Have we ever discussed one of them ever on the show? No, but now we have children of movie going age. So that's, we might suddenly be caring about them. Yeah. I know. I think my kid would be interested, but I got to show him the originals. It feels like you kind of need to know the premise. Yes, the Robin Williams original.

33:22Matt Belloni:Yeah. Yeah. So, all right, let's move on. my number three and this was a surprise to me given that last year was sort of a mixed bag from them I'm gonna say Amazon MGM Studios they're learning mine as well their second presentation was better than their first they did take a lot out of the universal playbook in terms of people on motorcycles a live musical performance from Jean-Baptiste to open it there was there was fanfare and they even the star power some of it was from a movie that's already been released in Project Hail Mary. That's true, but I appreciated that they brought Gosling in to do a little...

33:59Matt Belloni:And he was funny. He's always good. They know that. Yes. So it was smart. But no, I have them as well because of the fanfare. And then I think that their... This year's Project Hail Mary is Thomas Crown Affair directed by Michael B. Jordan, Academy Award winner at Michael B. Jordan, which was prominent. They flashed that right away. And it will be released in March 2027. So it's the same playbook. and we and it looked good yes and I'm excited personally for that movie and he's charming and was great out there and he had chemistry with the female lead so yes I thought that was smart to lead with that you know their executives like Mike Hopkins is he I appreciated that he came out they maybe could have used him less oh yeah I think I think Amazon's executive team still needs a little polish in this environment there's a show person quality that you have to have to be able to do this.

34:55One of the reasons why I shout out Rothman is he's very comfortable in his skin. He's done it many, many times at that show. He loves talking to people like that.

35:03Matt Belloni:Courtney Valente, less comfortable. Kevin Wilson, their distribution guy, was a little bit more and was fine. And he carried most of the presentation in the back half. They have some cool looking stuff. I think they're also pushing a lot of original movies that are interesting to me. We saw Colt Is My Passport, Beekeeper 2. There's a new David Leitch, Bank Heist movie, which we'll see. They had Spaceballs, you know. Spaceballs was a great presentation. Mel Brooks was via video, made a very funny joke about not being there because he was going to fish. He was the first person of several to make the joke.

35:35Matt Belloni:Others made that joke, yes. But Masters of the Universe. Let me talk about this. So that was the disaster of last year's CinemaCon where they showed the workout video of the star. Nicholas Glitzin. Nicholas, okay. You said I butcher it every time. they seem to be leaning into the fact that we all know how chintzy it looks they handed out foam swords yeah oh those are foam i thought they were plastic they were foam i i took one i posed with one and then i this morning i gave it to my daughter um and she say i have the now she has the power and i you know i i i was obsessed with he-man when i was five years old and i would love for this movie to be good and i'm a little concerned they they have not articulated why, who this movie's for.

36:25Matt Belloni:Because ostensibly when you look at it, it looks like it's for 10-year-olds. But 10-year-olds don't know or care about He-Man. So presumably it's for you and me who grew up with the character and might want to bring our child to it. But to me, it looks god-awful and it doesn't, it looks fake and cheap and hokey. Well, there has been Masters of the Universe stuff on Netflix. There was a He-Man show. There was a She-Ra show. Like that IP has since been mined in the last five years. So there is some awareness of it among younger people. Obviously not at the level that when we were kids. But I mean, it's a big movie directed by Travis Knight.

37:03And there's like tons of effects work. Who's Transformers movie I liked. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think he's a really talented director. His stop motion animation films are really, really good. It's not about that. I think it's more just like, I feel like they've missed the tone. Like they didn't land comedy. They didn't land pure fantasy action. Like it feels a little bit stuck.

37:21Matt Belloni:And he almost felt like he was embarrassed a little out there. I think he's got to sell this movie. Yeah. Well, he had to lead the... Right. Yeah. But they were joking about the guy's muscles the whole time. And like, did we mention the muscles? Yeah. That's very different from last year when they were presenting this as much more of a traditional kind of superhero action-y style movie. Well, and I think that's part of the problem. we were talking about Clayface on the big picture, which is a movie that understands what it is and who it is for, which is people who know what Clayface is. And as long as they keep the budgets in check, it being just a successful movie for a specific audience will be worthwhile.

38:01Masters of the Universe is very clearly not for me, Amanda Dobbins, who never watched He-Man, but they have positioned it and seemingly budgeted it as something that is supposed to be for everyone, is supposed to be that big superhero thing. And it's not going to be that.

38:17Matt Belloni:Okay, so who do you guys have for three? I had Sony. You had Sony. And you had Amazon. Oh, you did? Yeah, well, we didn't say Verity, but I am all in on Verity. And I have thought every other Colleen Hoover adaptation I've seen was quite poor. I did appreciate them giving out the Verity book. Yes, but I left it in Vegas because I don't want to know. I just want to go in cold and see the movie. I'm never going to read that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I gave it to my wife as well. Well, that's nice. But it looks, that movie looks like the distillation of what works in that genre. Totally. Like scheming women that there may be fighting over the man.

38:52Matt Belloni:There may be some other secret. Right. They sort of look like they almost make out at one point. Yeah. There's a murder, but there's a lot going on. It's Anne Hathaway. It's Dakota Johnson. It's Josh Hartnett. It's like, you know. It's the A version of that. Yes. High class trash. Okay. Let's go to number four. then see i had warners for four i have disney yeah i as well have disney at four that's really just about the quality of the movies to me but see you guys care about the quality energy in the room also that there was really high energy at times for doomsday but i came away from feeling very cold about that and and i think what they showed us was a real like jingling keys like remember when you had so much fun in 2019 feeling and didn't really feel like any ingenuity creativity and more importantly, why are we here?

39:42Like, what is this story? What are we doing? We have not been building towards this story. I felt that. Who are these characters? Why are they all together?

39:49Matt Belloni:I had a bit of an existential moment during the Amazon presentation when they showed the trailer for that sheep movie. Sheep detectives. Yeah, Sean's a big believer. For the second year in a row. We saw it last year and - We thought it was a parody last year. I honestly didn't know if it was real. I agree with you. But then they changed the name. It's now called the Sheep Detectives, which arguably, I don't know, not better, but whatever. They got detective in the title. But I started thinking like, wow, where's my life right now? Where I'm sitting here in Las Vegas watching the sheep movie trailer for the second time in two years.

40:21Matt Belloni:Wait until we do a whole episode about it. I know, I know. So did you feel that way during Doomsday? I've already gone through those emotional cycles with the Marvel films, which I quite liked in the 2010s. And now I think I'm on the other side of something. And so maybe that's just coming through here. And I think a lot of people are going to be made really happy by the movie. Do you believe that all the hoop, like the people that were hooting and screaming for that? Do you believe they were paid plants? Because we talk about this. I genuinely don't know. Disney denies it, but there were clearly influencers there.

40:54Yes, absolutely. There was a core group of people who were given access to CinemaCon who were not there last year and who were very clearly given access because of their particular interest in Doomsday and in...

41:11Matt Belloni:It wasn't just that. In fanboy culture. It was the genre stuff. The thing is, I think at my heart, I don't really care if they were there and paid. I do. If they're gaming the system like that and then these outlets are reporting on the ovations and buzz, then that's true. But that just means it's incumbent upon us to say what we think is really happening. To me, this is a trade show. It's like the studios should be doing everything they can to generate excitement for their movies. But that crowd is famously not a fanboy crowd. It is a business crowd. It is not a hot room, as they say. You've got to really be impressive or bring a big star in order to get attention.

41:49Matt Belloni:And if you're just going to pay influencers to cheer at your trailer, then what's the point of any of it? I think that Disney is at number four for both me and Sean. because in that moment in the room, it felt, if not fake, then forced. Yeah, manufactured. Yeah, and like it was maybe not going to correlate, certainly not to the quality of the movie, but outside of that room and to the box office at large. The whole presentation to me felt like reheating a souffle, which is I know what Hollywood is at this point. Welcome to Disney in 2026. But that is, it did feel like you were not going to get the same experience.

42:23And so I think for both of us.

42:25Matt Belloni:I had it higher because it works. It does work. You're right. It's proven to work. And this is the business podcast. The most effective CinemaCon moment, the history of CinemaCon, I've been going on for a long time, was that one year when they showed the placard of what's coming from Disney over the next five years. This was in like 2017 or whatever, when it was just like banger after banger after billion dollar movie. And people looked at it and there was literal like awe what they were doing. I think if that's your mentality, then I think it's actually fine to be okay with people being paid to generate excitement.

42:59Yeah, I guess. It's not like an address to Congress. It's a room full of exhibitors.

43:04Matt Belloni:But that was impressive to people who weren't being paid. Right. And, you know, Disney's had some rough spots with movies that didn't work. And Marvel is where it is. And the Pixar original animation question. So I was a little bit more impressed that they put this all together. But again, I didn't see Hexed or Avengers. Yeah. Hexed will be huge in my household, no doubt. Whether or not it's going to work as a movie is hard to say. Okay. So where does that leave? Who have we knocked out? Oh. Yeah. Well, we all have the same number six. We have the last place. So let's play the sad trombone, Craig, and let's go into Paramount.

43:39Matt Belloni:I have as my subhead, Yikes Slate, So They Vamped. Pretty much. Now, they did a lot. There was a lot there. So let's talk about David Ellison. I wrote about this in my newsletter and how he sort of ignited this war amongst the theater owners because the big one, AMC, is now supporting him based on what he said there. He got up on stage. It was a surprise. He said, I'm looking you in the eye and I am giving you my word that I am going to commit to a 45-day window for theatrical and a 90-day window at minimum to streaming and I'm doing it right now. So this has all been talk and he started it with the next two movies.

44:20Matt Belloni:I think that was a big deal because it's more than talk. It is a commitment to do it right now. Whether this is going to last beyond when this merger closes, anybody's guess, I don't take his word. I don't think anyone should. There's no incentive for anyone to believe anyone in this business. David Zaslav came to Hollywood and said he's building Warner Brothers for the next generation. Three years later, he's selling to get himself$800 million. So don't believe anybody. But they did produce this video at a considerable expense that touted Paramount as like the new home of talent. And they got all their stars in it to do this thing, including Tom Cruise.

45:02Matt Belloni:What did you think of that? And be on the lot. It was all shot on the lot. Yes. With big shots of LA. The implication there was we're a good neighbor. We're part of your community. We're supporting movie stars. These people are all behind us. We are here to stay. And it's intercut with old footage of the Paramount lot. And look at the history here. And we respect Hollywood. And there's Will Smith and Miles Teller and John Chu. And here are the great Hollywood. Like, you know, Timothee Chalamet takes a chocolate out of the Forrest Gump chocolate box on a bench. All leading to. I did groan a little at that.

45:34Of course. And then.

45:36Matt Belloni:John Chu directed. We should say that. And the climactic image was Tom Cruise sitting barefoot, I would note, atop the Paramount water tower with the vistas of Los Angeles all around him. So it felt like filler and protesting too much and was also just a commercial for Paramount that David Ellison kept referring to as a short film. And I was like, we have different definitions. I gotta be honest. I wasn't really that bothered by this. I kind of liked it. I wasn't bothered, but let's be real about what it was. I think it's show business, right? And he's got to win this war, right? And he's fighting this war.

46:12Totally. And there's a lot going against him. And I can't say I'm very excited about this merger at all. I can't say I'm really happy with anything he's done with CBS News, for example. I have real doubts about whether or not this is going to work at all.

46:21Matt Belloni:But Sean, he loves movies. He loves a certain type of movie. Which is what the rest of the presentation showed us. I mean, that is my takeaway having looked at the slate. But in that moment when they were in that short film, which is hokey and is really try hard. But also seemed weirdly sincere too. It seemed like it was both things at the same time. And I like visiting the Paramount lot. Like, I'm a movie nerd, and I really hope he doesn't put condos on it, okay? Like, let's keep making movies. But it was an advertisement. And to distract from the fact that the rest of the movies, everything they have going is just the testosterone.

46:52Matt Belloni:And they also showed it the same day at their TV Upfront presentation that they were doing in L.A. the same day. So it's designed as a propaganda-hype video for the company, and you need to get behind us. Don't look over there with Barry Weiss at CBS. Look at the legacy of this 100-year-old studio. and we are now good shepherds. Yeah, I understand that intention. I think if you put Tom Cruise on a water tower, like I'm going to pay attention to that. That's just something I like. Is the bare feet implication that he climbed up it and couldn't wear shoes while climbing, or he just didn't want to have shoes on top of the water tower?

47:28I think it was more that he was just getting comfortable. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah, it's home now for Tom Cruise's top water tower? The thing is, is when you drill down on the slate, it looks like the Skydance slate. It looks like a lot of very male-led, special forces, masculine, a very like kind of narrow definition. And so when Amanda and I were walking out after the Paramount presentation, and we were like, is this really like a little like a keyhole into what 28 % of Hollywood movie will be for the next 10 years?

48:05Matt Belloni:And Skydance head Dana Goldberg is now running the studio with Josh Greenstein at Paramount. So you kind of got to look at the track record and what they're going to do. And this slate, to me, was very Skydance-y. Very. Even though they would say that their movies have not yet started to come out yet. They have a Timothee Chalamet movie with James Mangold that they didn't show. They have a bunch of projects. They have the Call of Duty movie with Pete Berg that they kind of tease with video game footage. but they're looking for franchise-oriented films and they will find them wherever they can.

48:41Matt Belloni:And right now they're finding them in Jackass and Paw Patrol and Ninja Turtles and these B and C level franchises. Yeah, Angry Birds. I mean, Sonic is a huge franchise, but Sonic the Hedgehog, the new Street Fighter film, a lot of stuff that seems like it has potential box office power, but feels a little chintzy at the same time. I mean, they did announce new Star Trek movie in development, new Transformers movie in development, new World War Z movie in development, and confirmed Top Gun 3 in development. Those are huge brands. They have to be taken care of. It's very easy to fuck up a Star Wars movie.

49:19They already fucked up one World War Z movie. It's called World War Z. Like, this is very possible to do.

49:24Matt Belloni:Well, in Ellison and Skydance, they had Terminator, and it didn't work out. And it didn't work. So it's not just having this IP or reigniting this old IP. it's a finding it's making sure that you have teams of people and creatives attached to it Star Trek relaunched that worked because JJ and the people who wrote those movies they got it they found a way to reinvent it and make it work it doesn't it's not happening anymore so they're gonna have to find somebody who buys in can this administration do that I don't know Amanda what did you think of Johnny Depp that was my came out for the Ebenezer movie that was my what the fuck moment and it was it was truly grim.

50:03And you and I, Sean and I turned to each other being like, wait, Johnny Depp is really here. And then I will say he got a standing ovation from the people down below. He's a huge star. Biggest pop in the room. I know, but it was... Bigger pop than The Rock, bigger pop than Timothee Chalamet. Yeah. He got the most sincere like, oh my God, he's here. That reaction. Well, maybe because they thought

50:21Matt Belloni:he was going to keel over at any moment, but... I don't know. He seemed a little odd in the moment. But, you know, but Johnny Depp in the flesh, sort of, but it's also not really with us and spirit in the room. Sure. Introducing Ebenezer, directed by Ty West, was just a confirmation of what's going on at Paramount and at the industry at large, which is... That's what franchise can we put a star in? Everyone can be reanimated. We can take this for free and do it? Yeah. Let's do it. He spoke very lovingly about Alistair Sims' performance in the film from the 30s and that he loves that. And that was the only thing he said that I was like, this seems like it's coming from a person.

50:58Everything else was just a lot of bromides and weird sarcastic BS. But that's an interesting gamble, that movie to me, because Ty West has never made a big studio movie like that before. It is IP that everybody knows. Johnny Depp is still a big star to many people who don't care about what's been going on in his personal life over the last 10 or 15 years. But also, it's like, it just looked like a Christmas carol. Like, it didn't really look like anything different than what it is. Why does it exist?

51:24Matt Belloni:Yeah, so I don't know. Yeah, and there's a couple of those in the Paramount presentation where you had to ask yourself why it exists. Like another jackass where they look old. I know. I want the pen for those guys, though. Those are my boys. We love them. You do. Okay, then maybe I'm wrong. You're interested in seeing one of them with a robot giving them a proctology exam? A hundred percent. Yeah, a thousand percent. I'm totally in on that. It's a generational thing, but it did make me feel old when watching it. So I do understand what you're saying. Well, they're pitching that movie as best and last.

51:53Yeah. Like that this is the end for them. That they won't be doing any more until the money comes out. but you know

51:58Matt Belloni:I know but they say that all the time but whatever I don't believe anyone when they say and the scary movie stuff was fun yeah I think that movie will be fun it just felt it felt B level Paramount needs to get back to where the franchise stuff feels A level and they're not there it's just gonna take two to three years for them to really get Star Trek going and you know stuff like that that is gonna make them feel on the same level as all these other studios alright so those are our rankings just to finish this up we're gonna do our biggest WTF moment which Amanda just revealed. Yes. We're going to do our most pleasant surprise and then we're going, what is this?

52:33Matt Belloni:Best audience prop? Oh, the best gift thing we got. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, all right, we'll do that. Okay. So let's do, what's your biggest WTF moment? Well, I find all the awards to be quite strange, but I did think Steven Spielberg getting the America 250 award from the MPA was quite odd. It was like last year where they brought out Kevin Costner and gave him a surprise award. That was last year, right? It was two years ago. Two years ago with Horizon. Yeah, yeah. And it's like, Kevin Costner knows exactly what's going on. And he literally was like, and then he had some fake tears. Yeah. You know, there was a cool conversation between Coleman Domingo and Steven Spielberg.

53:10We got to see new footage of Disclosure Day. I think all of that was good for him. I just think watching Charlie Rifkin talk for five minutes before handing something to Steven Spielberg was just like, we don't need to, you know, is this helping the theater owners? Is it helping the press? Like, what is it really doing other than just shining on someone who like everyone agrees is one of the 10 most important people in the history of movies. Yeah. Like we know. It's good. We don't need to do that. So that was a WTF for me. Also, what is it? 250 years of America? And Rivkin was like, well, that's half the time there have been movies.

53:42I know. It's like, I guess. They're doing a whole thing at the MPA.

53:45Matt Belloni:They're trying to get in on it to like win public opinion, whatever. I mean, movies, nobody is more vocal about how awesome movie theaters are than I am. So I understand. I'm on their side. I'm just like, that was a waste of our time. That stuff doesn't bother me because this is all promotional. Yeah. Yeah. But it is, when we're sitting through it, like, that's tough. I could have been having a cocktail. Yeah. We sort of stepped on my WTF moment because it was Millie Alcott. Like, all of that. I know. Yeah. Like, what was going on. And it kept going. I know. That was bad. It was durational. But she wasn't alone.

54:17Matt Belloni:I don't want to just pick on her. There were a number of stars that were there in, like you said, physically. but like didn't quite know what was going on or what they were supposed to be doing. And that's okay, I guess. You know, it's what makes it fun. But the DC keeps doing it year after year. Peter Saffron, we know you know better. We know you are a charismatic guy. But it's just they spend so much time prepping everything else. You can give her one specific scene. It's unforgivable. There's a lot of politics that go into these things. It's all the people who didn't prep her. Like, Chris Melodondre probably wants to tell us the plot of Minions and Monsters.

54:56Matt Belloni:Right. There are probably people backstage that know better. Yeah. But are they going to tell him? It's just not worth it. That one, I was like, all right, I'm good here. But at least I felt his enthusiasm. He was like, I'm super proud of this stuff that we did. And then he brought out the guy who's the voice of the Minions. Eric Cofen. Yeah. So, whatever. It's fine. At least that movie makes money. Yeah. You know, like for some of these smaller ones, like, okay, we don't need enough of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most pleasant surprise. Other Mommy. Other Mommy. So the Jessica Chastain horror film.

55:24Matt Belloni:Yes. Blumhouse. So we were talking about this movie at the party afterward. And I would love to see the focus group report or the internal debate over naming this movie. And I know this goes on in a lot of horror movies in particular. What the most effective name is. Other Mommy is just Hall of Fame all time. Instantly. Instantly. Yeah. Instantly the best. I have never made a meme in my life. I would like to make a TikTok meme about other mommy right now. I understood it. I connected with it. I will do unpaid marketing for it. It's an evil mom who is the other mommy. Exactly. There's an other mommy within me.

56:04There are other mommies out there in the world. I get it.

56:06Matt Belloni:I want to explain to my own mother what other mommy means. This movie, I really hope it is successful because I want this to be rewarded. It's good material. Whoever came up with it needs a raise, a bonus, whatever. Okay. So we agree on that one. And also, I like the banter between Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. That was reassuring that the 90s are alive and well. They're both doing great. Seemed authentic. Yeah. Who knows? I don't know if they like each other or not. They seem like they're a good time. They kind of have sold it. That was more than enough. I was also pleasantly surprised by Whale Fall.

56:41I thought that that seemed genuinely interesting and fun. I'm talking like moments in the room. You know, I mean, Snoop Dogg and Donna Langley having chemistry was exciting. Yeah, that was fun. I enjoyed that. I've seen that before at parties. Is that a surprise to you, though? Well, Snoop is just, watching him, here's who I thought of. I was like, you know who he is now? He's like Bob Hope or like Johnny Carson. Dolly Parton. Or Dolly Parton, where he's just like comfortable in any room. He's transcended.

57:11Matt Belloni:And the reaction when he came out, Like, there were like 65-year-old white men who probably have not listened to a lot of Snoop music who'd love him. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, he has really entered a very rare filum of American celebrity. I know. Do you think his movie will be good? Well, it's Craig Brewer, who I really like, you know, so I hope so. Yeah, Donna and Snoop are friendly. He came to their Oscar party for The Wicked Year, and clearly they get on. He has a big deal at NBCUniversal in general because he did The Voice, and they were doing an animated show with him, and then they're doing this biopic.

57:47Matt Belloni:So he has a big overall deal with him. They're in the Snoop business. I mean, just as a diehard rap fan my whole life, and remembering when Snoop hit in the early 90s, this feels like the one in a million outcome of his career, based on where he has gone. And that's why he's the rare case where I'm like, biopic kind of justified? like has had a crazy life. Yeah. And so I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, it'd be interesting what they include and don't include in that. Yeah. Okay. I mean, he was, Murder Was The Case is literally one of his first most known songs. Yes. I know he did. He made like a 187 on an undercover cop joke in front of the theater owners.

58:25That's his breakthrough song. He's covering it to the fucking movie theater owners. I know. I don't think they got it. But he was being authentic to himself.

58:32Matt Belloni:Exactly. All right. Best audience prop and then we got to go. Got to be the sword. The sword, right? The sword was the only one. I'm not wearing a Thing 1 or Thing 2 wig. No, that was dumb. That was bad. And they wanted everyone to wear it in there. I was like, I'm not doing that. I did bring the Odyssey beer koozie home. Oh, me too. Oh, that was a thing? Yeah. Oh, I didn't see that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With drink tickets inside. There was a Minions koozie as well. I didn't know that. Yeah, there was. Oh, no. I missed that. Okay. And then otherwise, like, there weren't a lot of big props this year.

59:00Matt Belloni:The sword is probably best, but I'm not taking that on a plane. You didn't get arrested. I drove home. That's why I drove. I knew there might be a sword in play. All right. Well, we had a lovely time. We also went to the sphere. We did. And you guys saw Wizard of Oz for the first time, which you can hear thoughts on the big picture. But thank you guys. This is great. Thank you for having us. Thank you for like indulging, sitting next to me. You guys were like, real movie people. We had a great time. It was so fun. Matt, one other flex that I liked from this week was when we sat down, and usually there were plastic Dasani water bottles next to us for every presentation.

59:29And I sit down and I'm like, oh, weird. They switched to aluminum bottles. And Matt goes, that means James Cameron is near. And you were right. He was with Billie Eilish. He did not allow plastic.

59:39Matt Belloni:You cannot have plastic bottles in an auditorium that Jim Cameron is in. You know what? Good for Big Tim. Good for him. He flexes how he wants. That movie? Does that movie need the 3D? I don't know, but that's also clearly the only reason that he wanted to do it. Well, no. He's friends. I asked about this. He's friends with Billie Eilish's mom through like organic farming and things that his wife is interested in. That's great. And then he just talked a lot about the little cameras they made. You know, life's a science experiment for Jim Cameron. It's just Billie Eilish is an odd choice for this kind of project.

1:00:13She has a huge audience. So I understand it from that perspective. But I've always been a little dubious of this movie. And I can't say I was swayed after seeing what we saw. Right.

1:00:21Matt Belloni:Okay. All right. We got one last shot in there. So thank you guys for coming on. Okay. That's the show for today. I want to thank my guests, Sean Fennessy and Amanda Dobbins. You can check out their podcast, The Big Picture, on the Ringer Podcast Network. I want to thank producer Craig Horlbeck, our editor John Jones. And I want to thank you. We will see you next week.