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The Box Office Podcast

The Box Office Podcast

Von: Scott Mendelson
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 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.comScott Mendelson Kunst Ökonomie
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  • New Year, Old(er) Movies

    New Year, Old(er) Movies
    Jan 8 2026
    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 truly international episode. All respect to We Bury the Dead and KidzBop Live: The Concert Movie, the vast majority of the show is spent discussing holdover news alongside hopes and fears for the new year. Among the areas of focus are the sky-high — especially in Asia — success for Zootopia 2 (Jeremy Fuster recorded from Japan, making this another truly international episode), the robust legs for The Housemaid and the continued “absurd by any other standard” earnings for Avatar: Fire and Ash. This includes an important discussion about both the extent to which (and why it matters that) Zootopia 2 is “copaganda” and whether Gazelle is hotter than Judy Hopps. #TeamHopps, but after that, the final third pivots to a bit of “rebellions are built on hope” discourse. No, not about the real-world hellscape necessarily, but merely about what may or may not happen to Warner Bros. and the entire exhibition ecosystem if the streamer buys and (comparatively) kneecaps its theatrical ambitions.Recommended Reading…* Scott Mendelson offered the best movies of 2025 and predictions for the top global grossers for each month of 2026.* Jeremy Fuster’s 2026 box office preview is essentially (my words, not his) “things are looking up, but Netflix can still make it all irrelevant.”* Lisa Laman picked the ten best motion-capture characters, and (among others) I’m thrilled that I’m not the only one who remembers A Monster Calls.* Ryan Scott offered five (pretty reasonable) suggestions for whoever (presumably Dave Filoni) will replace Kathleen Kennedy as head of Lucasfilm. * Tre’vell Anderson’s Time Magazine cover story in May of 2021, interviewing Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir author Akwaeke Emezi.If you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe (using a cartoon mallet) with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you’d like to reach out and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or suggest ideas for bonus episodes, please email us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com (which I finally fixed so that it’ll forward to my personal business email, natch).* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap* Lisa Laman - Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone* Tre’vell Anderson - podcasts, books and articles Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 Std. und 28 Min.
  • Sure Plays a Mean Ping Pong...

    Sure Plays a Mean Ping Pong...
    Jan 1 2026
    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 holdover-centric) episode will make up the difference. No matter, having too many movies that are doing “too well” in for one reasonably-sized episode is an excellent problem to have.Courney Howard, longtime freelance critic for (among other joints) Variety, The AV Club and FreshFictionTV, makes her “in the fourth chair” debut to discuss why Avatar: Fire and Ash is continuing to kick butt, why and how Timothee Chalamet’s Marty Supreme opened so darn well and what did and didn’t work (commercially and artistically) for Anaconda.Among the topics are Avatar 3’s marquee characters (including a raising of the glass for Zoe Saldana), A24’s comprehensive Marty Supreme marketing campaign, and whether Anaconda (which is doing fine on its own smaller-scale merits) would have played better as a scarier, more violent “horror comedy.”Recommended Reading…* Scott Mendelson discussed how The Housemaid gave Lionsgate its third (nearly) consecutive end-of-2025 success from the kind of films (The Long Walk and Now You See Me Now You Don’t that Adam Fogelson’s tenure should prioritize alongside franchise extensions and whatever nonsense Millennium wants them to distribute.* Jeremy Fuster’s year-end review (one of three parts) discusses how theaters can’t just survive on semi-regular or periodic hot streaks or occasional overperforming tentpoles.* Lisa Laman offered five New Year’s resolutions for movie studios and movie theaters.* Max Deering’s 70th-anniversary retrospective on Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter discusses the classic thriller’s influence on religious horror films.* Courtney Howard’s review of My Oxford Year for Variety, which got a (comparatively… and not positive) extended reference amid this week’s podcast episode.* Ryan Scott notes the skewed circumstances behind Thursday night’s theatrical screenings of the Stranger Things series finale, for which Netflix receives no box office revenue. The “price of the ticket” was a $20 coupon for concessions at that showing. It’ll help theaters but won’t explicitely boost year-end box office totals. Weirdly enough, it’s somewhat similar to my “modest proposal” for theaters to retroactively comp kids’ tickets to kids’ flicks upon purchase of concessions for that showing.Anyway, I took Ethan to Stranger Things this evening. The show itself was… fine (certainly better than the seven episodes that preceded it). However, it looked and played exceptionally well in my local AMC’s most enormous non-PLF auditorium. It won’t be, but it should be, a “come to Jesus” moment for the company likely about to buy Warner Bros. sometime next year.If you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe (using a cartoon mallet) with every justified ounce of strength and passion. If you’d like to reach out and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or suggest ideas for bonus episodes, please email us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com.* Scott Mendelson - The Outside Scoop and Puck News* Jeremy Fuster - TheWrap* Lisa Laman - Dallas Observer, Pajiba, Looper, Comic Book and Autostraddle* Ryan C. Scott - SlashFilm and Fangoria* Max Deering - Fangoria and Action For Everyone* Courtney Howard - Variety, The AV Club and FreshFictionTV Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 Std. und 37 Min.
  • Does Payakan Know It’s Christmastime at All?

    Does Payakan Know It’s Christmastime at All?
    Dec 25 2025
    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 afternoon.However, if you’re stuck at a Christmas gathering and wish to avoid small talk with relatives, here’s 95 glorious minutes to consume that’s subtler than trying to discreetly watch the next three episodes of Stranger Things on your phone.So do listen to our 100th (!) episode as you A) watch the world (of dread and fear) outside your window, B) dry your bitter, stinging tears, C) tune out the clanging chimes of doom and… sing it with me now… D) Thank God it’s them instead of you!To the business at hand. With a $347 million global opening weekend and a (by the time you read this) global total just over/under $500 million, Avatar: Fire and Ash looks to be doing that thing that every James Cameron movie since Piranha II has done.Onto the matters at hand...Yes, I checked, and even The Abyss ($53 million from a $9.5 million launch in 1989) and True Lies ($146 million from a $26 million debut in 1994) both legged out like proverbial motherf***ers, even if the underwater sci-fi flick barely doubled its $45 million budget in global grosses. Also, I’ll assume that Piranha II: The Awakening did eventually recoup its alleged $146k budget, but I digress.In a skewed irony of sorts, both of the elder statesmen (Luke and I) have mostly nice things to say about the third Avatar, while the comparative “barely old enough to rent a car” co-hosts are far sharper and crankier. To be fair, I actually agree with 85% of the criticisms offered, I just didn’t find them dealbreakers, and seeing it a second time in IMAX 3-D honestly “helped” with many of my initial comparative misgivings.Nonetheless, all parties are more than satisfied with the money procured by Jake and Neytiri and overjoyed with the strong grosses offered up via the slew of new movies in what looks to be an “everybody wins” year-end holiday blitz.Topics of discussion…— Jeremy Fuster offers the bluntest and most straightforward explanation of the ongoing divide between the Avatar franchise’s lack of comparative non-theatrical monetization (ie, merchandise) and the sheer-of-the-moment popularity of each respective chapter. He’ll eat his words when Payakan becomes next Halloween’s most popular costume, but he’s right for now.— Lisa Laman expresses frustration with Cameron’s comparative “just because he can” use of high-frame-rate, in a far more regular and less concentrated way than in The Way of Water.— Luke Thompson contrasts the conversation about the repetition of elements from Way of Water in this new chapter with the initial 45-year-old criticism lobbed at the “barely a single movie” The Empire Strikes Back. Scott Mendelson, meanwhile, compares Fire and Ash to the “Richard Donner Cut” of Superman II.— Scott Mendelson, alongside all of the Avatar 3 chatter, gives a hearty horay for everything else in the marketplace while arguing that The Housemaid, not Americana or Christy, is the kind of movie that should be a measuring stick for Sydney Sweeney’s alleged box office bankability.— There’s quite a bit more, including Action For Everyone’s Max Deering debuting as a real-time engineer/producer for the first of… well, however many times he finds it convenient to hide in the corner, while inquiring as to what Avatar 4 might look like, especially if (speculation alert) Cameron opts to produce instead of direct.Recommended Reading…— Scott Mendelson argues that the first Avengers: Doomsday trailer is an admission that Disney has spent the entire 2020s failing to cultivate new-to-MCU heroes, while debunking the “Avatar 3 only opened well because of that teaser for The Odyssey” narrative.— Jeremy Fuster explained why another $2 billion-plus worldwide gross is probably not in the cards for Avatar 3.— Lisa Laman offered up her picks for the best trailers of 2025.— Ryan Scott discussed the late James Ransone’s under-the-radar MVP status in a slew of iconic horror movies over the last 15 years.— Max Deering discusses the Alan Wake video game series and how it deals with hyperstition.— Luke Y. Thompson defends ten ill-received TV series finales.If you like what you hear, please like, share, comment, and subscribe (using a cartoon mallet) with every justified ounce of strength and passion.If you’d like to reach out and offer good cheer, request in-show discussions, or suggest ideas for bonus episodes, please email us at Asktheboxofficepod@gmail.com. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe
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    1 Std. und 33 Min.
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