Entertainment Series 13: Ben Fritz / Movie / Theater Industry / Disney News / Paramount & HBO

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Welcome to another episode of
Come Together.

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Ben Fritz, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for coming.

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I'm so excited to have you here.
How are you?

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It's my pleasure.
Thanks for having me.

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Yeah, I, I want to thank you
more than just for coming now.

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But I reached out to you a
couple of years ago after I read

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your book, The Big Picture.
And, and before you know, I, I

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at the time I wanted to start a
different podcast called All

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things Entertainment, just about
the entertainment world.

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And one of my fears eventually
was that I cut it would take me

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too long to succeed before
getting burnt out of the topic

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of entertainment and exclusively
talking entertainment guests.

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And so I figured I had to widen
my scope a little bit, but 2-3

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years later where I really
appreciate you coming back.

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So thank you very much again.
It means a lot.

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Sure.
Yeah, it's my pleasure.

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So there's a lot going on in
entertainment world and I know

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that I've been following your
reporting and it's been a ton of

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fun and I really appreciate it.
And and I also know that you've

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been back and forth in the AI
world a little bit and obviously

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AI and Hollywood are going to be
blending.

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So I'd like to try to touch on a
little bit of both of those

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topics that the conversation if
possible.

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But the state of movies in
general actually feels like it's

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been kind of getting better,
right?

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Like, you know, project to hell,
Mary's doing well.

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A lot of studios are making
originals.

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It looks like we're willing to
take a little bit more creative

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chances.
What have you observed?

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What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah.

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I mean, I think the if you care
about creativity in movies, it's

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definitely a good trend.
I mean, the, a lot of the in the

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20 tens, the mega franchises
were just dominating the

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business and it seemed like they
couldn't seem like they couldn't

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lose, right?
Like a good Marvel movie, a bad

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Marvel movie, a good Fast and
Furious movie, a bad Fast and

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Furious movie, like they were
all making a billion dollars,

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right?
So understandably the studios

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were pumping them out and not
making much of anything else.

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Who could blame them?
But a lot of those franchises

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have lost steam and they're not
making as much money as they

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used to.
And so they're and partly maybe

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that was studio missteps, partly
that was a lot of momentum lost

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when the pandemic.
Partly I think young people now

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are a little cynic, more cynical
about those franchises, which if

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you'd like to see original stuff
in the movies is is a good sign.

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And yeah, so people are
responding some better to, you

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know, holy original, let's say,
you know, things that have not

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been film franchises before.
Be a product, Hail Mary, be at

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the house maid.
You know, Hoppers is done

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reasonably well for Pixar.
I think those are all good

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signs.
Sinners, Jesus Christ, of

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course, sinners was, you know,
sinners was huge last year.

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I mean, they proved a lot of
doubt was wrong with that film,

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obviously.
And I think that is a that's a

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good sign for Pete for people
being open to new stuff and

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positive things in Hollywood.
That said, like this year, the

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box office is up, but we cannot
forget that attendance is down

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like 1/3 from before the
pandemic.

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So the long term trend, it's a
still tough time for the movie

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business.
Yeah, totally, totally.

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I mean, I would, I guess that
since the pandemic, I think that

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like you said, there were a
bunch of factors that kind of

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kind of led to the big
franchises kind of being slowed

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down a little bit.
And we'll kind of get into a

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little bit more of those
details.

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I mean, it could have also, I, I
mean, post pandemic, I think

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that the studio's probably tried
for three or four years, maybe

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even more to continue this whole
franchise model.

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And so I mean, I guess you can,
even though it's not necessarily

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as good as say, you know, pre
pre pandemic levels as far as

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intendants is concerned, I think
we have more of a reason now to

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go to movies than we've had in a
couple of years since the

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pandemic even, you know, kind of
came to an end.

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What do you want to call it
202223, whatever you want to

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call it, But I mean, it'll only
the last year and a half I feel

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like or two years really since I
think the Oppenheimer Barbie

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kind of spectacle.
Did you know things really pick

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up?
And even then, it probably took

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another six months to a year for
more originalist to get laid

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out.
Rolled out rather.

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Yeah, I think that the business
is getting back to the levels of

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releases, at least that it was
at.

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We're getting more big releases,
20.

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There's a lot of interesting
movies coming out this year and

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there was a pandemic and then
there were the strikes.

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So those really both damaged
production in the big way was

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hard for Hollywood to get back
on its on its footing to as far

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as how many movies they were
going to make.

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So, yeah, as a film fan, I think
you we're, we're at least as far

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as the releases we're getting,
we're we're as close to the

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levels pre pandemic as we as we
as we've been this decade.

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It's the best it's been this
decade.

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That's what I would say.
Yeah, yeah.

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And I think that's great.
I think it's exciting.

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I wanted actually, because I, I
until I started following Matt

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Bellamy's podcast The Town, I, I
didn't know how big of a market

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horror was.
And I didn't know, you know,

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especially I wouldn't associate
it with being so big in theaters

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and being so popular in
theaters.

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And, you know, your, your
previous book, the Big Picture

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had talked about franchise
movies as making a ton of money.

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And your main argument, I think,
if I recall correctly, was that

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globally, you know, like you had
to have something that could

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convert globally that across
different cultures that people

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could, could still relate to by
the millions, you know, and, and

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there's certain genres that lend
themselves to that, like

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superhero movies or, or Mission
Impossible or.

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Big, big spectacle action, yeah.
Right.

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Exactly.
But horrors kind of always been

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in the back of, but always been
even through COVID and

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everything like it.
It, it feels like that genre has

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always been a movie genre.
Can you maybe elaborate on the

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business end or the
entertainment and why that?

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Yeah, horrors been one of the
few genres that have survived

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sort of the rise of of precedes
TV and streaming.

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You know, there's a lot of
genres that like movies used to

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do that TV didn't do well.
And an obvious 1 is like these

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drama, like back when they were
just four networks, people who

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wanted to see like high quality
drama, you had to go to the

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movies because you wouldn't you
weren't going to get anything,

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you know, sort of let's save
like a Meryl Streep kind of

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movie.
You weren't going to get

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anything remotely that quality
on CBSABCNBC, Fox, right.

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But then as like HBOS are doing
original programming and

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effects.
And then Netflix, Netflix got

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into it and some Prime.
There's a lot of good stuff to

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watch at home.
And the same thing happened with

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comedy to a large extent, but
also because of all that, so, so

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much great comedy on YouTube,
frankly.

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And people didn't have to go to
the movies for it.

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And those genres have really
struggled to stay relevant at

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the box office.
And you see very few adult

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dramas, comedies doing well
anymore.

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Horror is something that people
really like to go out and see

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together, you know, And it makes
sense because people like to be

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scared together and they and
being in a dark room lends

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itself really well to that
genre, right?

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And horror just doesn't work
that well at home to watch

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alone, certainly doesn't work
well to like, you know, watch on

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your phone with half attention
the way some entertainment does.

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So horror has really, really
been set up as any other thing

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Hollywood loves about horror is
you can make a good horror movie

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cheap.
You can spend a few $1,000,000

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and have a horror movie that can
be really, really successful.

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And that's not true of many
other genres.

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Yeah, definitely.
I remember hearing, you know,

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projected or at least reading
articles on opening weekends for

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horror movies and thinking, you
know, made 25 million or

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something like that.
And everyone's raving about it

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and like, what's the, what's the
big deal?

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And then I found out the budget
was two and a half million

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dollars or something like that.
And I'm like, oh man, that's

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awesome.
But case in point.

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And I don't even, I think this
movie ended up on Netflix

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somewhere and obscurity,
relative obscurity.

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But there was a movie, I think
missing, and it was this

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thriller movie about a girl
whose mom dates a sketchy guy

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and then she basically uses her
social media presence to help

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find her mom in South America or
something crazy or, or, or

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across the border or something
like that.

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And I mean, just from a
speculative place or just a

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rather anecdotal place.
It was an incredible experience

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in the theater, you know, I
mean, you know, yeah, for sure.

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And, and, and, you know, I'm not
a, I'm not a thriller or a

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horror kind of person, but I
think that that, that like you

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were saying, like you were
mentioned at least, so much of

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that is psychological.
So much of that is dependent on

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the environment, is dependent on
whether or not you're zoned into

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the music that is slowly like
making your heartbeat, you know,

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heart rate slow down a little
bit right before a big jump.

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And I, you know, so, so it
almost is its own a little world

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in and of itself within the
movie world that like just

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exists on its own in theaters.
Yeah, and horrors really

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recently expanded, frankly,
beyond the sort of just cheap

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thrills of it or the gore.
I mean, look at weapons.

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A lot of people would say that
was one of just the highest

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quality films last year.
It's certainly one of the most

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original movies.
I think you sort of can't can't

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argue against that.
And or there's, you know,

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there's really like if you saw
the the Nosferatu film a couple

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of years ago, which I loved that
was like that that was released

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by Focus features.
I mean, that was like a, that

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was like kind of half European
art house movie and a half like

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really, really scary monster
movie.

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So you people are finding ways
to like do horror in all these

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different in many different from
many different angles that we

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ever seen before.
There's a lot of creativity

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happening in the horror zone
genre right now.

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Yeah, it's fun.
I'm a I'm a big fan of it.

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I really, I think it's great.
I read your article, I think

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today or yesterday about Regal's
$50 ticket and coming out to

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Dune 3.
And there's a couple of places I

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want to go with Dune, especially
comparing, especially just

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talking about or observing the
fact that they're taking all the

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IMAX screens, which is, which is
a pretty big deal, especially

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compared to the competition, who
I'll talk about in a minute.

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You know, movie.
How, how do you think they, how

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do you think they came up with
this game plan?

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How do you think they justify a
$50 ticket?

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If the, if the problem is
getting people's butts and seats

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and you know, and, and, and
attended to stole, let's say 1/3

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down from or whatever you said
it was down from pre pandemic

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levels, then I mean, you're,
you're obviously, you know, de

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incentivizing the audience.
And that's aside from whatever

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advertising or new advertising
that's been happening in

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theaters recently.
I only just recently saw that

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with Saving Private Ryan, but I
I was blown away by how many ads

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there were.
Yeah, right.

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So there's a ton of things there
like there's there's sort of

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two, but because we're fewer
people are going to theaters and

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this year box office is up a
bit.

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But overall is, you know,
definitely not at the levels it

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was at in the 20 tens.
Theaters are like, well, we need

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to make more money.
How can we make more money?

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Say one way is more pre show
ads, which you can say degrades

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the experience, but the theaters
would say, well, we've done the

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research and when we put it, we
put in more ads more.

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It's not like fewer people come.
That's what they would say.

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And this $50 ticket is part of
this broader trend I'm running

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about where the theaters are
saying, look, we need to make

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more money.
Well, one way to make money is

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to sort of take the approach
like airlines do, which is that

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if you, if you're willing to sit
in like a middle seat in the

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back, then you can pay a lot
less than the person who wants

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like first class treatment,
right?

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Even though you all get to the
same place.

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So some people who love movies
and have discretionary income,

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they need to be in the IMAX
theater watching a 70mm film on

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opening night.
That's really important to them.

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Those people will spend 50 bucks
and, and I think the theaters

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would say, well, why not charge
them what they're willing to pay

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and charge the person who's
happy to see it on a matinee on

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Tuesday, 10 bucks and everybody
gets to go.

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But you pay a different price
depending on who you are.

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That's what they would.
And it's a way for them to make

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more revenue and keep their
business going.

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That's what they would say.
And I think there's some

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validity to that.
And the flip side of it is,

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yeah, But the more people see it
as like a premium, expensive

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experience, the less movies, the
movies become just this casual,

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cheap date, you know, just like,
what are you going to do

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00:11:58,040 --> 00:11:59,600
Saturday night?
Oh, we'll go see a movie, right.

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That's what it was like when you
when we were kids.

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And sometimes you didn't even
know what you were going to see

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until you got there.
And it was common for people to

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see a movie every week or two.
And now it's coming for people

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to see like, one or two movies a
year.

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And the more people think of it,
it's there's this bad cycle

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where the prices go up and that
causes people to see it as like

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a premium experience that this
is special night out.

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They don't do as much.
And then the more they don't go,

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the more the theaters are like,
well, we'll we'll have to check

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out the prices more to comp.
And then it then it's going in

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the wrong direction that that's
the problem with it.

256
00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:34,680
Yeah, yeah.
And I hear I think you did a

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great job explaining the
theaters side of it or that you

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know the business perspective of
it because they've been really

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hurting for a long time.
So I mean, especially as all Hey

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00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:47,240
everyone, real quick, if you're
enjoying the show, click

261
00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,120
subscribe and rate the show 5
stars helps a ton.

262
00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:52,920
Thanks so much.
At least streaming platforms,

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Amazon Prime making that switch
earlier, maybe a year or two

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ago, I don't remember to
everyone that's signed up for

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prime automatically being the ad
tier, you know, which was a big,

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which is a big business decision
and a very ballsy move on their

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part to, you know, to Netflix
really pushing people to.

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I mean, you could see all the
all the stream, all the

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mainstreaming platforms look
like they're pushing people to

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the to the ad tier because
they're making the premium tier

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so much more expensive in the
jacket.

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The prices every, you know,
three to six months.

273
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I feel like it almost makes
sense that that that that that

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studios will follow suite.
Yeah, it's the same approach.

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You're right, which is that some
people are willing, some people

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are willing to pay a lot to have
a more creamy experience, be it

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an IMAX green, be it, you know,
Amazon with no ads.

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And some people you just
literally don't have the money

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or don't think it's worth as
much.

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And so they find ways to charge
them less, which is you got to

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00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:46,160
watch a bunch more ads when you
watch your streaming video, or

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you have to see the movie at an
inconvenient time in a smaller

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00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:51,760
theater.
Right, right, right, right.

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I was thinking.
I was thinking about your

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00:13:58,680 --> 00:14:01,640
writing in particular and your
journalism in particular, that

286
00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:04,520
you're in a very polarized
political world.

287
00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:07,160
And one thing I've noticed from
consuming a lot of your content,

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00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:09,480
your podcast, the book, and
then, you know, whatever your

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00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:14,120
posts are, you do an incredible
job at maintain at maintaining

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00:14:14,560 --> 00:14:19,160
an apolitical completely, you
know, just on the fence,

291
00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:22,000
observing the facts as they are
and making it as clear as

292
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,160
possible that there's no
personal opinions behind that.

293
00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:28,000
I want to compliment you on that
because it's incredibly rare to

294
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:29,800
find, but how do you find that
balance?

295
00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:31,200
Is that your personality in
general?

296
00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:32,720
What's that?
What's that been like?

297
00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:35,960
Thanks for noticing that.
I do take that very seriously

298
00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:40,240
and I work hard at it.
I mean, it is first of all, it's

299
00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:42,040
it's my job.
Where were the Wall Street

300
00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:46,080
Journal newsroom is very much
like we are apolitical like that

301
00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,320
is our approach is that.
And you know, I take pride the

302
00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:49,600
Wall Street Journal of urban
surveys.

303
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:52,200
It's the only news outlet in
America that a majority of

304
00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,440
Democrats and a majority of
Republicans trust.

305
00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:57,480
And, you know, that's unique.
And I'm proud of that.

306
00:14:57,480 --> 00:14:59,880
And to do that, we have to keep
our political opinions to

307
00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:04,880
ourselves.
So it does take a lot of work

308
00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:06,960
to, like, parse.
And my editors often point out,

309
00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:08,760
hey, we could phrase that
differently to make sure it

310
00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:10,960
doesn't, you know, come across
as biased.

311
00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:13,680
But it does it.
I will say, like some people

312
00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:15,680
would be like, I can't do that.
I kept to, you know, I have to

313
00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,160
express myself.
And it does suit my personality.

314
00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:24,040
We're like a very analytical
person and I tend not to want to

315
00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:28,960
share my opinions unless I
really feel very confident in

316
00:15:28,960 --> 00:15:31,480
them and feel it's important
that I say them.

317
00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:37,080
You know, and frankly, when it
comes to politics, like there's

318
00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:39,960
enough political opinions out
there, you know, there's more

319
00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:41,680
than a political opinions.
You can stop the work.

320
00:15:41,680 --> 00:15:43,960
The Internet is not is not.
And the Internet and news

321
00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:45,600
outlets are not short of
political opinions.

322
00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:48,680
Coverage of the entertainment
media is not short of people

323
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:52,040
opining on what the political
agenda behind this film may or

324
00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:55,200
may not be and how it intersects
with this kind of American

325
00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:57,320
culture.
So I think that's out there and

326
00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:00,000
that's great if you want that.
You know, I think the value add

327
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:04,080
that I hopefully bring is like
fact is like deeply reported,

328
00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,960
extremely reliable, fact based,
fact based journalism.

329
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:10,160
That's that's what I focus on.
Yeah.

330
00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:13,120
Well, it's really commendable
and, and I, I appreciate, I

331
00:16:13,120 --> 00:16:15,800
think that anyone that I think
that is something that we should

332
00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:17,440
all strive for.
Thank you even.

333
00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:20,240
You know, and even if you say
it, I think that I've been

334
00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:23,240
watching and I think that
recently I've seen a couple of

335
00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:25,960
debates or conversations that
have happened recently that

336
00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:29,000
people like, I've seen more
stabilized debates in a, in a,

337
00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:31,120
in a, in a long time than I've
seen a long.

338
00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:33,800
And I'm very happy about that.
I hope that that's considered.

339
00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:35,440
That's a trend that's
continuing.

340
00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:38,280
I hope so too.
Yeah, because we could really,

341
00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:45,400
you know, use it for sure.
So, so you mentioned earlier

342
00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:48,320
that that that, that that Doom 3
is taking up all the IMAX

343
00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:52,880
theater, all the IMAX screens
and, and that is a massive deal

344
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:57,480
because Avengers is opening the
same day or weekend.

345
00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:59,880
Is that correct?
The same.

346
00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:05,960
The same weekend, yeah.
Yeah, Marvel's been trying to

347
00:17:06,760 --> 00:17:10,680
get their grip back, I think on
the audience and I think they're

348
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:16,280
trying to, I think they're, I
think they have to reclaim their

349
00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:23,240
storytelling narrative.
I maybe, I guess and this and

350
00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:28,920
this seems like a really
competitive move from another

351
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:32,960
big player that directly.
How big of a deal do you think

352
00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:35,480
this is for Marvel that they
have to that they have to

353
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:40,680
compete with this?
It is it's definitely like a

354
00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:42,720
problem for them to not have the
IMAX screenings.

355
00:17:42,720 --> 00:17:45,080
It's not just that they're going
to lose a bit of revenue because

356
00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:47,160
you can make, you know, IMAX
tickets the most expensive.

357
00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:50,560
It's not just that, but the IMAX
brand at this point has almost

358
00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:52,840
come to signify like date event
movie.

359
00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:55,800
Like when the Billboard says see
it in IMAX, then you know it's a

360
00:17:55,800 --> 00:17:58,960
big movie, right?
So the fact that the Dune is

361
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:02,760
going to Dune Chapter 3 Part 3,
sorry, will advertise that way

362
00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:06,720
and Avengers can't is is a bit
of a blow to them.

363
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:10,360
But you know, Disney could have
picked a different date and when

364
00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:12,480
they could get IMAX screens, but
they're stay stuck.

365
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:16,160
The Dune is getting the IMAX
screens because because Denise

366
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:19,160
has a long standing relationship
with IMAX and he shoots his

367
00:18:19,160 --> 00:18:22,440
movies with IMAX cameras.
And as soon as he said he was

368
00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:24,880
going to use the IMAX cameras
for Doom Pro 3, IMAX committed,

369
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:27,080
they would give him older
screens and that's that.

370
00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:31,960
And so it's sort of too bad for
for Disney and Avengers, but

371
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:35,400
Disney wants to stay because
it's because 11 week before

372
00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:38,960
Christmas is historically like a
great date for big event movies.

373
00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:41,040
And then it's going to play all
through Christmas break.

374
00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:42,760
A lot of people are at school
and work, obviously.

375
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:45,360
And there's definitely room for
two movies to succeed.

376
00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:49,920
That's happened many times in
history that the price doesn't

377
00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:51,960
even have to pay to get the IMS
greens would be to have a much

378
00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:55,520
less desirable date.
So that's, that's the trade off

379
00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:56,560
that they've that they're
facing.

380
00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:03,040
Do you think that five years ago
just the presence of a Marvel

381
00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:06,160
movie would have scared Dune off
of that date?

382
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:09,800
And then like this statement
right now, like this is almost a

383
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,040
statement by saying, hey, you
know, we don't we don't like

384
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:13,880
like Disney could change.
You said Disney could change

385
00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:16,480
their mind, But Disney is not
usually in the position to have

386
00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:18,920
to back away from from that kind
of head to head confrontation.

387
00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:22,000
No, that's a great point that
yes, I think I think in the 20

388
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:25,800
tens by the late 20 tens.
I mean I have to check my

389
00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:28,800
calendar but no other big movie
with their opening at some more.

390
00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:31,800
Because they.
All worked and they were all

391
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:34,320
huge and everybody who tried it
in the early 20 tens got their

392
00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:36,000
asses handed to them.
Excuse my language.

393
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:40,640
And I think that yeah, I think
Warner Brothers looks at it and

394
00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:43,640
it's like, look, his Avengers
going to flop unlikely, but his

395
00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:46,920
Avengers going to not offenders
are not going to so dominate the

396
00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:48,800
conversation.
It's no room for anything else.

397
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:53,800
You know, and I it is completely
conceivable that Dune could open

398
00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,080
bigger than Avengers.
I mean, it's not it is not

399
00:19:56,080 --> 00:19:59,120
impossible.
You know, like people are super

400
00:19:59,120 --> 00:20:01,880
people are super excited that
didn't even know there's like an

401
00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:03,960
acclaimed filmmaker that
franchises a lot of love.

402
00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:05,600
It is one of the biggest stars
in the world.

403
00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:08,480
The footage they showed at
Cinemacon was fantastic.

404
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:09,760
I will say I want to hear about
that the room.

405
00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:10,840
I'd be happy to tell you about
it.

406
00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:13,480
The room.
I would say that footage and the

407
00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:16,440
odyssey were like some and and
this little Disney movie, Fox

408
00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:18,480
movie called whale fall.
We're sort of we're some of the

409
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:20,720
biggest.
Some of the biggest reactions in

410
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:22,760
the room.
So I think one of others is

411
00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:25,160
completely confident that yeah,
I did that.

412
00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:26,320
You're right.
It says something that somebody

413
00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:29,320
feels confident that they can at
least compete with Marvel, which

414
00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:31,040
didn't used to be possible.
Yeah.

415
00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:32,760
And I think it's a good thing,
by the way, because I think that

416
00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:35,640
a little bit of competition is
just what you need.

417
00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:38,120
Yeah.
And, and I want to talk more

418
00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:40,280
about Disney after.
I do want to hear more about

419
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:42,960
cinema, about Cinemacon, because
I saw a lot, I heard a lot of

420
00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:45,760
reporting and I watched a good
amount on the Internet.

421
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:49,160
So you.
So I want to hear about that 3rd

422
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,640
movie that you mentioned.
Disney Fox, you said.

423
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:53,600
Yeah, yeah.
It's called Whale Fall.

424
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:55,360
It's a Fox 20.
So starts to say Fox.

425
00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:57,720
You know Disney, when Disney
bought Fox, they shrunk the

426
00:20:57,720 --> 00:20:59,320
studio.
They still still label called

427
00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:04,640
20th Century Studios that makes
smaller movies for adults

428
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:05,840
mostly.
They're doing the devil with

429
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:07,360
Prada too, because they own that
IP.

430
00:21:07,360 --> 00:21:09,440
But they're they have this
literary adaptation book called

431
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:13,480
Whale Fall and it's most of the
movie is a boy who is a teenage

432
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:17,040
boy alive in the stomach of a
whale who was remember who was

433
00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:21,240
like remembering who he had gone
to find the whale because that

434
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:23,240
whale killed his father.
It's a bit of a booby Dick thing

435
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:25,240
and he's flashing back to his
dad.

436
00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:27,760
But the scene they showed is
when the whale swallows the kid

437
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:31,520
alive, which seems like how
could that not seem ridiculous?

438
00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:34,680
But it's it was riveting and
completely believable.

439
00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:37,440
It happens in this way.
I won't ruin for you, but it was

440
00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,840
the footage was like that kind
of like edge of your seat, like

441
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:43,240
this is really scary and I
didn't and I didn't know what

442
00:21:43,240 --> 00:21:46,040
was coming, you know, so it it
that was one of the biggest

443
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:47,680
surprises of cinema con in a
good way.

444
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:49,640
That's awesome.
Yeah, that sounds great.

445
00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:52,120
And again, that's another that
sounds like another win for the

446
00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:54,080
for the new movie, The Risky
Original.

447
00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:56,360
Movie, Yeah, yeah, I hope.
I hope it works.

448
00:21:56,360 --> 00:21:58,520
But I think it's I, I was
definitely excited for it.

449
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:01,160
Yeah, yeah.
And Devil Wears Prada too.

450
00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:05,520
Is, is up there.
I mean, I'm seeing on the slate

451
00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:08,600
with Avengers and like, you
know, like Disney's marketing

452
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,760
The Devil Wears Prada too, with
some of the biggest franchises

453
00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:14,120
and biggest movies coming out
with Toy Story and Avengers and

454
00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:16,000
all the other movies.
Yeah, it's going to be big.

455
00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:17,840
It's going to be big.
And it that's goes to show

456
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:19,160
another.
At the same time, their

457
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:21,280
originality is doing better than
it has for a while.

458
00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,560
So is nostalgia.
Nostalgia is a really powerful

459
00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:27,000
force of the box office.
And like 20 years is a pretty

460
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,840
sweet spot for people are like,
it's been long enough that I

461
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:31,800
have fond memories for that
movie and I want to go back

462
00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:33,320
again.
And maybe I was a teenager when

463
00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:36,040
I saw it and now I'm middle
ager, you know, I was 25 now in

464
00:22:36,040 --> 00:22:38,840
my 40s, whatever.
So that's what it's been for

465
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:41,920
that movie.
Millennial women are just like,

466
00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:44,800
so are going to be turning out
into, if it's an event movie for

467
00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:47,320
millennial women, right, who
don't give a crap about like

468
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,840
action adventure films.
You know, that's what Disney's

469
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:52,360
got, Disney's 20th has got with
this film.

470
00:22:52,360 --> 00:22:54,600
And it's like looking like it's
going to open really, really

471
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:56,680
well.
And yeah, it's it is as much an

472
00:22:56,680 --> 00:22:59,320
event movie for a certain
segment of the audience as like

473
00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:03,280
the Michael Jackson film was for
fans of him who have great

474
00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:06,760
nostalgia for him.
Yeah, definitely and and and and

475
00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:11,440
it feels so hard to.
It feels so hard to for like to

476
00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:15,400
not say like, listen, there's
such, there's, there's obviously

477
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:17,320
such a thing as overdoing it.
And there's such a thing as,

478
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:20,480
like, leaving something, you
know, be for a while and then

479
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:22,680
and then until everyone misses
it just a little bit, you know?

480
00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:23,400
Yeah.
Exactly.

481
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,360
So you have to find that balance
where you're like, you know, you

482
00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:30,440
keep, you know, you, you give
people something that they love

483
00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:32,520
and they're happy to see more
of, but you don't, People don't

484
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:35,080
feel if people, if you're
overdoing it, people start to

485
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:37,920
feel like it's cynical, you
know, and it's not coming from

486
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:39,760
like a creatively inspired
place.

487
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,960
And I've not seen the devil with
Prada too, but it sounds like

488
00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:45,080
something that at least the fans
are going to feel comes from a

489
00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:47,760
place of love and not a place of
like cheap cheap cash grab.

490
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:51,800
Yeah, and I, I was actually
going to ask you this, but I'm,

491
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:55,000
I think I'm going to answer the
question myself, which is I

492
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:56,960
just, I was going to ask if you
think you could be fresh a

493
00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,600
franchise.
But I was really impressed.

494
00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:01,640
I, I didn't watch it in
theaters, but with the James

495
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,600
Gunn Superman and I, I, I
didn't, I didn't dream that

496
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:06,680
after all the Superman movies
that there were and all the

497
00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:09,560
different variations that that
I'd be particularly interested

498
00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:12,160
in, in.
I was actually confused why DC

499
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:16,640
would be making a bet another
bet like, you know, and, and,

500
00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:19,120
and yeah, James Gunn is great in
Guardians of the Galaxy.

501
00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:22,040
He's a ton of fun and and he
does an amazing job for sure,

502
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:29,600
But I, I, I'm pretty surprised.
I, I, I think that I think I, I,

503
00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,440
I'm excited.
I'm more excited about the

504
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:36,640
upcoming upcoming DC freshness
and and the new vigor that's

505
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,440
coming into their into their
into the slate.

506
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:44,400
I'm hoping that that Avengers
could kind of re spark reignite

507
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,480
that and Kevin Feige almost
seems to hint at that happening

508
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,960
by saying we should be release
Avengers end game beforehand

509
00:24:51,280 --> 00:24:54,160
because like we kind of want to
just rebrand.

510
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,520
We associate it.
He didn't say that obviously,

511
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,920
but I mean that it sounds like
the implication to me.

512
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,400
What do you think about that?
There's a lot of stuff there.

513
00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:04,400
I think that where DC has
learned some lessons from Marvel

514
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,280
and like DC wanted to be
successful as Marvel in the 20

515
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:09,640
tens and they failed, right?
Those are no question about it.

516
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:13,800
But now they have the benefit of
seeing Marvel's rise and

517
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:18,480
Marvel's, Marvel's downturn
recently and knowing just like

518
00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:21,840
creating a movies that feel like
homework that are all the same

519
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:25,280
and all part of the same
universe, people have lost

520
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:26,880
interest in that.
It feels overwhelming and they

521
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:28,240
don't.
They want to see the movie they

522
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,160
want to see and not see the
movie they don't want to see and

523
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,640
the streaming show.
So D CS approach has been like

524
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:34,240
very light.
They're doing very light

525
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:36,960
connections between stuff and
each movie and TV shows meant

526
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,480
really to stand on its own and
even do different genres.

527
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:46,720
So like, you know, Supergirl is
like sort of a buddy action, you

528
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,680
know, with two women buddy act
like buddy sci-fi quest, right,

529
00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:52,560
And Clayface is going to be a
horror movie.

530
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:54,000
I just heard about that this
weekend.

531
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,600
Yeah, Clayton, yeah, if you've
seen the teaser trailer, that's

532
00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:57,880
out.
I mean, it looks, if you if you

533
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,240
didn't know it's ADC movie, you
would just say it looks like a

534
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:02,800
really box scary body horror
film.

535
00:26:03,080 --> 00:26:05,920
And you can do that within DC,
you know, and that's their

536
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:08,800
approach is you can do any kind
of movie, any kind of genre

537
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:10,640
within our universe of
characters.

538
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,200
So it's an interesting approach.
It definitely, I think allows

539
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:17,040
more creativity, which is cool.
It's you know, that's never been

540
00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:20,480
Marvel's brand.
It's been like Marvel is a

541
00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:24,040
little bit Marvel's more
everything is connected and we

542
00:26:24,440 --> 00:26:27,560
we there's some variations, but
still you kind of know the kind

543
00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,160
of the kind of box in a Marvel
movie sits in generally.

544
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:34,640
So it's it's interesting,
interesting going forward to see

545
00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:35,760
if they're willing to push out
of that more.

546
00:26:35,760 --> 00:26:39,800
I think with with Avengers and
with Avengers Doomsday, they're

547
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:42,240
basically trying to recapture
the magic of what they had with

548
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:43,600
end game.
You know, they're bringing back

549
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,680
Downey and they're bringing back
Chris Evans and Captain

550
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:48,560
America's alive again directors
again, the Russo brothers.

551
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:53,000
They're literally like pretty
much every character who's still

552
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:56,320
justifiable to include.
They're bringing back even.

553
00:26:56,480 --> 00:26:59,440
Though you like personally, and
again, this is like, I know you,

554
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:02,120
you're, you know, generally like
to be reporting it and

555
00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:06,080
objective, but like that doesn't
even excite me as much anymore,

556
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,920
you know?
Here, here's I'll keep my I'll

557
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:10,720
keep my opinion myself on this
one, but I'll tell you what I

558
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,520
think are like the cost and like
the risks and the possible

559
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:16,120
rewards, right.
The risks are that it it could

560
00:27:16,120 --> 00:27:17,880
feel desperate.
It could feel like they're just

561
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:18,960
like, hey, do you like this
before?

562
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:21,120
We'll give it to you again, but
bigger and more and more and

563
00:27:21,120 --> 00:27:24,240
more because like throwing
everything they've got at you

564
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:28,560
and it could feel on on.
On the other hand, you could

565
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:31,560
say, well, I think they've
wisely.

566
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:33,640
They have definitely learned
their lesson that they overdid

567
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:36,560
it with too many streaming shows
and movies.

568
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,120
And because Fayou is paying
attention to all the shows, the

569
00:27:39,120 --> 00:27:42,920
movies kind of like reduced
quality like stuff like Ant Man

570
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:44,800
3 and the marvels.
I mean, those were not up to the

571
00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:47,280
caliber of what you expect from
Marvel from Marvel Studios.

572
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,520
And I think they definitely are
paying more attention.

573
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:53,280
They are.
You know, they're only releasing

574
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,900
one movie, this one movie this
year, if you don't count Spider

575
00:27:55,900 --> 00:27:59,800
Man Sony is there's only one
Marvel Studios movie from Disney

576
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,680
coming this year.
And they're, you know, they and

577
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:05,680
they understand that movies
can't be like homework anymore.

578
00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:07,080
And they're basically doing a
reset.

579
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:10,680
All this stuff that was all the
kind of continuity from the past

580
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,760
five years is kind of being put
to the side and they're going

581
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,920
back and they're connecting back
to end game and going from

582
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:18,400
there.
So they've also learned their

583
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,800
lesson and they're trying to
say, Hey, we know that you

584
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,600
didn't like some of the past few
years and we're going and we're

585
00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:27,640
trying to give you what you like
and create a new springboard to

586
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:30,440
go forward more successfully.
I would love for that to be the

587
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:32,280
case.
I hope that I I hope that is the

588
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:33,200
case.
Right.

589
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,080
That, that that's what the fans,
and I will say, like the fan,

590
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:39,440
Marvel fans love Downey.
They love Downey, and there's a

591
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:40,880
lot of excitement for him to
come back.

592
00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:43,920
And I think it's actually smart
to put him in a different role

593
00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,160
to be like, hey, we respect that
Iron Man is over, you know, But

594
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:48,880
we that's what.
Was fun about Chris Evans and

595
00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:50,320
Deadpool 2, right?
I mean, yeah.

596
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,000
Yeah, yeah, true.
So blown away and that and.

597
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:54,760
That was really fun, I agree.
You know, what he was doing to

598
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:56,880
the budget was absolutely
hysterical.

599
00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,840
I thought that was too great.
Yeah, yeah, 100%.

600
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:06,640
Right.
Yeah, That was it's it's, it's

601
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:07,360
too great.
Yeah.

602
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,200
I, I, I hope they, I hope
they're right.

603
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:12,320
I hope it succeeds.
And I think that they are

604
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:17,920
compelling enough storytellers
that that if they are, I believe

605
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:21,240
in their talent.
I believe that I, I, I, I, I, I,

606
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,200
I like to hope that corporate
bureaucracy kind of got in the

607
00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:29,400
way of, of the, of the creative
output and, you know, kind of

608
00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,000
forced a lot of decisions that
people probably would have,

609
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:33,320
should have had more time to
make.

610
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:36,800
And I hope that, you know, if
like with time again and you

611
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,040
like like you mentioned, they're
slowing down one or two movies a

612
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:43,440
year, if that that that that you
could come back to really great

613
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:45,680
storytelling in addition to
lovable characters.

614
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:50,080
Yeah, yeah, they absolutely,
they, they made, you know, they

615
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,640
were basically ordered by Disney
to make a ton of streaming shows

616
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:56,440
for Disney Plus and everybody
realizes that was a mistake.

617
00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:58,600
OK, well, we're on the Disney
topic.

618
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:00,120
We're going to keep on going
then.

619
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:05,040
OK, we'll keep on going.
Josh tomorrow and Dana Walden,

620
00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:07,880
who were competing for the CEO
spot.

621
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:13,280
Josh one out.
This is the second parks parks

622
00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:17,240
guy to run to take, to try to
take over from Bob Iger and

623
00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:20,680
Michael Eisner.
I've read in James Stewart's

624
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,680
Disney Disney war said that he
was going to be the last of the

625
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:27,960
creative CE OS and, and, and I I
have no doubt.

626
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:30,000
I don't think that that that
that he's wrong.

627
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,480
I think he's correct in that.
What do you think?

628
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:35,360
What's your what was your
reporting on this decision

629
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:36,640
making or what do you think
about it?

630
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:39,080
And what's Dana's new role?
And what's Josh?

631
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:44,480
What's Josh's plan?
Even though he's a second parts

632
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:47,400
guy, tomorrow's very different
than Bob Chapeck, who was.

633
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:51,480
You know.
Chapeck is was a real kind of

634
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,840
operational number cruncher guy.
Chapeck was a guy you bring in

635
00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:57,200
to be like, hey, we need to get
this budget under control.

636
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,120
We need to make this division
that's not profitable,

637
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,040
profitable again.
We need to figure out a process.

638
00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:05,120
And Chapic didn't was not a
creative person, didn't pretend

639
00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,080
to be a creative person, didn't
really know how to work with

640
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:10,440
creative people.
He was, he was a process guy and

641
00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:13,480
he was very good at that.
But it turned out that like when

642
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:16,960
you're leading a creative
company, that was a real problem

643
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:18,680
because he clashed.
He didn't know how to manage

644
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,320
creative people effectively.
And he's really lost their

645
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,120
respect.
And there were just a ton

646
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:27,960
missteps along the way.
And that's why Eiger kind of had

647
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:32,880
to come back Josh tomorrow,
although he does come from parks

648
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:38,600
and he definitely is more in the
Eiger mode where he has spent a

649
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:40,680
lot of time getting to know
creative people.

650
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:42,920
He he knows how he knows how to
work with them.

651
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:46,600
He's much more people person.
He's not so much of like, I'm

652
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,080
going to grind down the numbers
as much as possible just to get

653
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:51,640
profits out.
I mean, he cares about profits

654
00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:55,360
for sure, but he is, he doesn't
really rebel in the budget

655
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:57,040
crunching the way that Bob
Chapic did.

656
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,320
I would say he's he's incredibly
charismatic, which is an

657
00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:03,160
important trait for a Disney CEO
because it's a very public

658
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,440
facing role, because Disney is a
company that people have such a

659
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:10,440
strong feelings for.
And I will say, as far as what

660
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:16,440
we expect from him, you know, he
is, he's really bet a lot on

661
00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,680
trying to use digital technology
to make the company move faster.

662
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:21,440
Disney's a very slow moving
company.

663
00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:24,000
They make big movies that take
years, they build theme parks

664
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:25,920
that take 5 or a little more
years.

665
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,800
You know, and everything they've
tried to do online, frankly, has

666
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:35,280
been pretty weak.
And he's wants to use digital

667
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,480
technology, video game engine
technology, stuff like that to

668
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,880
make the company's production
processes move faster so they

669
00:32:41,880 --> 00:32:44,680
can go from idea to moving and
from movie to theme park ride

670
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,600
and from theme park ride to
consumer product faster than

671
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:49,560
they've moved before and less
more efficiently, less

672
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,040
expensively.
That's what he hopes to do to

673
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,160
like, keep the company as
creative as it's ever been, but

674
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:56,120
use tech to make it faster and
cheaper.

675
00:32:57,640 --> 00:32:58,680
And then look, they created
this.

676
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:00,640
Yeah, that's that's the goal,
right?

677
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:03,400
Much easier said than done, but
that's, that's that's his

678
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,160
general goal.
And you know, Dana, the company

679
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,440
wants to keep Dana Walden, who
was the other top contender for

680
00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:11,120
the job.
And to keep her, they gave her

681
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,240
this newly created elevated
role, president and chief

682
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:16,480
creative officer, basically.
I mean, she's in charge of the

683
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:18,800
movie studio and the TV
streaming operation.

684
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:24,200
So all the all creative content
production goes goes through

685
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:25,480
her.
And she's a veteran TV

686
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:28,640
executive.
She's all respected and you

687
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:32,800
know, we'll see whether Josh and
Dana can can get along and run

688
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,000
things effectively.
Hollywood can often be a place

689
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,280
of vicious corporate infighting.
You know so.

690
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:39,320
Michael Ovitz and Michael
Eisner.

691
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:41,120
And Michael Eisner, of course,
at Disney War.

692
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:42,480
You know about that really well.
Yeah.

693
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:44,640
That's the, that's the bad
version, Yeah.

694
00:33:44,760 --> 00:33:47,440
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
I mean, it gets a good version

695
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,120
is something like DreamWorks
where those, you know, the

696
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,360
superstars came together and
made a studio.

697
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:56,000
Yes, one 100% there.
There are positive examples of

698
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,040
it.
It definitely can be done, but

699
00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:02,120
it requires a lot of ego
checking and it requires, you

700
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:07,280
know, it requires people being
them being able to balance like

701
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:10,560
their business responsibilities
and making sure the company's

702
00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:13,440
create creativity is still at
the you know, at the at the top

703
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:15,520
of its game.
Right, right.

704
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:18,360
I was, I mean, I was thinking to
myself and I was reading about

705
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,040
this, I was kind of, I was kind
of rooting for Dana.

706
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:28,800
But the reason why is because I,
I, I, I value the, the film and

707
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:30,320
the, and the, and the, and the
streaming side.

708
00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:32,639
I've added the creative side.
So I was, I was hoping that

709
00:34:32,639 --> 00:34:37,080
she'd win that out and, but I,
but I couldn't like, I wasn't

710
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:40,520
surprised because the parks is
really Disney's, you know,

711
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:42,239
money.
It's it's a money printing

712
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:43,840
factory, you know.
Yeah, you're right.

713
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:45,800
I didn't even mention that.
But of course, like one of the

714
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:50,520
main, I mean, then picking
tomorrow also, you know, signals

715
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:54,199
of facts that like, even though
Disney's everything at Disney

716
00:34:54,199 --> 00:34:57,560
starts with the creativity, it
starts with the with, you know,

717
00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:00,000
animated movies, right?
Especially at its core, you

718
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,680
could say.
But on the other hand, most of

719
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:05,320
the money that was made by theme
parks and consumer products,

720
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,280
especially the theme parks and
the cruise ships, which is the

721
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:09,600
businesses that Tomorrow came up
in and that he oversaw.

722
00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:12,280
Those have grown tremendously in
the past few years.

723
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:14,600
Whereas movie business has been
kind of stagnant as we've

724
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:16,840
discussed.
And streaming makes a lot less

725
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,320
profit than TV used to.
So the company really the

726
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:23,240
creative stuff, the movies and
TV and you know, to some extent

727
00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:26,680
they exist in order to drive the
theme parks and to sell toys and

728
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,320
get people, inspire rides, to
get people into theme parks

729
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:33,680
where the profits are are huge.
And it's important for Disney

730
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:35,840
CEO to understand those
businesses and Josh Tomorrow

731
00:35:35,840 --> 00:35:38,160
understands them very well.
Yeah, yeah.

732
00:35:38,160 --> 00:35:41,400
And and that, and that really is
really what I guess what I would

733
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:43,760
imagine it came down to,
because, I mean, especially at a

734
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,760
public company, a company under
as much scrutiny as they've been

735
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:49,040
under and they've been under a
ton of pressure.

736
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:52,440
I mean, listen, the other, the
other streaming services have,

737
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,120
you know, people could trash
Netflix all they want.

738
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:59,080
They put it, they put out great
content and, and they get a lot

739
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:03,480
of eyeballs on them and people
could trash Paramount.

740
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:06,120
They've been I, I mean David
and, and we'll talk about them.

741
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:09,680
David Ellison has been buying
everything and, and like it

742
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,920
almost I, I, I've been feeling
recently like Paramount is the

743
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:17,960
is the conservative dad's
Netflix. 100% there's, there's a

744
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:20,240
lot of, there's a lot of dad
shows, right?

745
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:21,520
Paramount Plus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

746
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,240
And especially with the UFC now
being integrated and like this

747
00:36:24,240 --> 00:36:27,520
whole and Taylor Sheridan
basically having a Blink check

748
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:30,400
to just do whatever he wants
and, and and succeeding every

749
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:32,320
single time too, you know, I
mean, it's really awesome.

750
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:35,560
What amazing traffic.
Yeah, it, it puts, I'm sure it

751
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:37,480
puts a lot of pressure on Disney
in a lot of ways.

752
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,480
And, and it doesn't leave you.
I, I mean, I guess Dana didn't

753
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,160
really stay like from a business
perspective and as a public

754
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:45,160
company perspective, I, I guess
she didn't stand much of a

755
00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,400
chance in that way.
Yeah, she was always the

756
00:36:47,400 --> 00:36:50,760
underdog because, yeah, because
this like Disney Plus is doing

757
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:54,520
fine, but not great.
It's just it is not, you know,

758
00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:56,640
it's nowhere close to Netflix,
it's nowhere close to Amazon

759
00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:58,600
Prime.
And although it has more

760
00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:01,440
subscribers, I mean, when you
look at like who's making the

761
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:03,320
most buzz talk about talk about
shows?

762
00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:07,080
I mean, Paramount Plus, like you
said, HTO Max, like they they

763
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,560
have, they have that, they have
that prestige in a way that

764
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,200
Disney Plus and Hulu they have,
I mean, you know, they have

765
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,560
Shogun, I mean, they have stuff.
But I would say they're not,

766
00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:21,360
they're not, they're not, they
just don't have as much buzz and

767
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,640
they're not have as they don't
have as high of a track record

768
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:27,280
of hits.
And yeah, if you're, if you're

769
00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:29,640
thinking of who should run
Disney, who understands what

770
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:32,520
makes this company run right now
when where the profits come from

771
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:35,960
you for the first time in its
history, you wouldn't say a, you

772
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:39,440
know, a film or TV person.
That's just not where the heart

773
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,080
of the company is anymore.
It's really interesting to think

774
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:46,800
about it really is.
And I'm reading because I'm

775
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:49,040
reading a biography right now
and it's, it's been by a

776
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:52,960
gentleman named Mark Elliott,
who I, who, who told me he's the

777
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:55,560
only other person, one of the
few other people that wrote a

778
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:59,960
biography on Disney, I think Bob
Thomas's other big one.

779
00:37:59,960 --> 00:38:05,120
And and he, and he told me he
did a podcast together that

780
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:07,800
Disney and he, you know, he
wrote this book, I guess the

781
00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:12,600
late 90s and early 2000s.
And he Disney basically offered

782
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:15,120
to cooperate with him and give
him complete access to the

783
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:20,480
archives as long as he would
give them final cut, I guess of

784
00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:22,760
what his version of what the
book is going to end up being.

785
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:25,320
And he pushed back in it.
I mean, they gave him, they gave

786
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:27,880
him a lot of grief and they gave
him a very, very hard time

787
00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:31,360
reporting on them.
Huh.

788
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,160
I'm not surprised you hear that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

789
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:38,040
And, and, and, and, but, so I'm
reading this biography and, and

790
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:42,080
one of the things that he made
a, that I, I found consistent

791
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:45,040
all across the board is that,
you know, when Disney himself is

792
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:49,400
making these movies, he would
often use the funding from the

793
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:53,240
park, I guess, merchandising to
continue funding movies and to

794
00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:56,520
break ground technologically
and, and, and have the studio

795
00:38:56,520 --> 00:38:58,840
focus on the film.
And that would inevitably kind

796
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:02,200
of maintain their reputation,
which allowed more selling, more

797
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:05,080
merchandising, more parking.
And then, and then you expand

798
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:07,000
into greater forms of, of
storytelling.

799
00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:09,560
And now it's, and now they have
a different type of corporate

800
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:12,800
responsibility to be
conservative and risk averse,

801
00:39:13,440 --> 00:39:15,880
which they're fine, which comes
down to this type of

802
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:17,400
conversation that we're having
now and how they're making

803
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,880
decisions.
Yeah, and Disney was very risk

804
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:21,560
averse in the movie making in
the 20 tens.

805
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:23,960
I mean, they didn't make.
It was all franchise movies in

806
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:25,680
the 20 tens.
If you recall, it was all

807
00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:28,920
Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars and
those live action remakes of the

808
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:30,400
fairy tales.
Like that's pretty much all they

809
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:32,800
did.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was.

810
00:39:33,280 --> 00:39:35,400
They had a couple of, they had a
couple of good stuff in the

811
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,760
earlier with Frozen Entangled.
I think those were like real

812
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:41,080
home runs and those were like
cultural home runs too.

813
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:43,440
And like a really.
Yeah, yeah, that was the only

814
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,160
place they were making. 90s for
sure.

815
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:47,760
Yeah, the only time they were
making original, the only

816
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:50,720
original movies Disney was
making then was an animation.

817
00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:51,880
That's it.
And you're right, they

818
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:54,160
absolutely had like Frozen was a
monster hit.

819
00:39:54,160 --> 00:39:56,760
Coco was a monster hit.
I mean, they they made some very

820
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:58,040
good original movies.
Zootopia.

821
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,640
Yeah.
Do you have, can you maybe

822
00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:03,720
explain, I don't know if you
have more information because

823
00:40:03,720 --> 00:40:06,360
you've also been on the AI side
as well as entertainment side.

824
00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:09,880
What happened with the Sora AI
deal with Disney and what was

825
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:11,880
going on?
Yeah, I'll tell you what I know,

826
00:40:11,880 --> 00:40:15,760
which is, you know, so Sora, the
Sora app, especially the

827
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:19,120
consumer app like launched in I
think September and it had a lot

828
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,600
of heat at 1st and people in
Hollywood are like, what are we

829
00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:23,840
going to do about this?
It was really good, right?

830
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:25,160
It was good.
I mean, it's good.

831
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:28,200
The video generation was high
quality and the app at first was

832
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:30,360
getting a lot of attention and
people were making also, you

833
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:33,240
know, the first step Hollywood
took was to get open AI to to

834
00:40:33,240 --> 00:40:35,720
not allow blatant copyright
infringement on there.

835
00:40:35,720 --> 00:40:39,440
And then Disney Bob Iger, to his
credit, has often said like we

836
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:43,040
need to embrace technology, not
like not not only try to like,

837
00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:46,840
you know, keep it at Bay.
This was like a very classic.

838
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:49,440
I can move to say, well, we'll
make a partnership with them.

839
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:54,160
So, you know, we'll allow them
to use some of our care.

840
00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:57,760
And in exchange for that and
instead of them paying us,

841
00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:00,360
they'll give us a billion
dollars worth of equity in open

842
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,600
AI, which is a tiny piece of it,
which could be worth more.

843
00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:06,160
And they they could use some of
the sort videos on Disney Plus.

844
00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,400
And it kind of reminded me of,
you know, when, when Steve Jobs

845
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:13,320
launched the video iPod, Disney
was the first company to put his

846
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:16,000
TV shows and movies available to
watch on there.

847
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:19,840
So that was all great.
The the thing they didn't

848
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:24,240
anticipate was that open AI, you
know, is a loses a lot of money

849
00:41:24,240 --> 00:41:26,440
because AI is a very expensive
to develop.

850
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:31,600
And they were sort of starting
to lose some momentum to like

851
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:35,480
Google, Gemini and Anthropic.
And they realized that they need

852
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:38,840
to, they have a limited amount
of really what it is, is they

853
00:41:38,840 --> 00:41:42,520
call the compute limited amount
of like server chips, a lot of

854
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:47,720
of chips in in, in data centers
to develop AI and run AI and

855
00:41:47,720 --> 00:41:50,360
they can't make.
So they decided that we need to

856
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:53,200
focus on the things that are
most important to us.

857
00:41:53,840 --> 00:41:57,360
And they realized that like
being involved in video is not

858
00:41:57,360 --> 00:41:59,440
core was not the most important
thing they're doing.

859
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:02,120
And actually, so after a huge
launch, so it was kind of

860
00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:03,920
starting to lose interest in
people.

861
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,880
So they did, openly.
I decided this is not worth our

862
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:10,360
time and our limited amount of
of compute that we can devote to

863
00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:11,640
projects.
When you want to, that's what.

864
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:13,440
Happened that's.
What happened?

865
00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:15,440
They were like, we need, we want
to devote it all to making

866
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:19,120
chachi PT great to competing
with, with Claude for like

867
00:42:19,120 --> 00:42:22,560
enterprise coding stuff.
And we're going to sacrifice the

868
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:24,000
sword team.
It's just not worth our energy.

869
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,840
We'll just and they cut it and
they got rid of it and, and

870
00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,280
literally Disney found out like
a few hours before it was

871
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:34,320
announced in the world.
Wow, and that's a big deal to

872
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:39,360
Disney's such a huge player to
not tell them something like

873
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:42,160
that a couple hours before is
considered is considered a

874
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:44,400
massive.
Well, it goes to show you where

875
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:44,880
the.
Power.

876
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:47,600
It goes to show you where the
power is in the world right now.

877
00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:50,160
You know, like Disney needed
open AIA lot more than open AI

878
00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:51,520
needed Disney, right?
Yeah.

879
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:54,400
So yeah.
And now, now Disney needs to

880
00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:56,320
figure out what their AI
strategy is going to be.

881
00:42:56,320 --> 00:42:58,320
They were going to try tonicate
to Sora, so now they need to

882
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,400
figure something else out.
Yeah, the whole the, the I've

883
00:43:01,400 --> 00:43:04,200
been learning.
I I just read a great book by a

884
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:07,240
woman named Karen Howe who's a
tech journalist.

885
00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:09,720
And the empire of AI.
That's right.

886
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:12,520
And and she and she really broke
down.

887
00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:14,520
I I didn't even realize
everything.

888
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:17,040
You just explained.
She, she had just elaborated on

889
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:21,640
and explained in her book and I
didn't realize how expensive it

890
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:24,080
is.
And it really got me thinking as

891
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:25,960
to the question of the
efficiency in the trade off.

892
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:28,280
And So what, you know, whether
or not the, what they're, what

893
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:32,160
they're providing, what, what a
open AI or what most of these

894
00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:36,560
LLMS are providing are worth the
expense of, you know, what, what

895
00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:41,480
it takes to actually generate it
and create it for sure.

896
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:46,480
And, and at the, and on top of
it all, Entropic I heard this

897
00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:51,080
week is, is valued at a trillion
dollars and, and almost

898
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:52,440
certainly going to IPO this
year.

899
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:55,960
So it looks like more trouble
for open AI, even in the

900
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,360
competitive front.
Yes, absolutely.

901
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:02,880
Open AI seem like they were the
dominant player and now they are

902
00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:05,680
absolute and minimum in a very
tight race with Anthropic and

903
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:07,080
Google.
Yeah.

904
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:09,400
And how do you know how this
works?

905
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:10,880
And I don't know if you know how
this works.

906
00:44:11,200 --> 00:44:14,440
I just saw within a couple of
days Amazon invested I think 5

907
00:44:14,440 --> 00:44:16,600
billion into Anthropic.
And then Google announced a

908
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:19,160
couple of days later, they're
also investing 5 billion into

909
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:22,480
who does it.
So I know that one thing that

910
00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:25,800
happened with Open AI is that
there was a inherent competition

911
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:28,640
in the company with between the
safety team and the commercial

912
00:44:28,640 --> 00:44:30,880
team that was that that had to
raise enough money to be

913
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,600
competitive in the safety
research is the way that they

914
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:38,760
raise it to the public, right.
And and they would get the money

915
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:41,200
from Microsoft, who would give
you initially ejected them with

916
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:44,880
a billion dollars and I think 10
and and more since then, but

917
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:49,240
they were now held respond.
They had to answer to Microsoft

918
00:44:49,240 --> 00:44:51,640
for saying, Hey, you know, we we
got a billion dollars from you.

919
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:53,400
We have to give you access to
XYZ.

920
00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:56,560
We're working on this.
These two enormous

921
00:44:56,560 --> 00:44:59,760
conglomerates, Amazon and Google
are both investing in anthropic.

922
00:44:59,960 --> 00:45:04,040
Doesn't that put them in a very
precarious position when when

923
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:07,280
all when all the competition is
investing together in one

924
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:10,800
industry in one company?
Some you mean just open AI in a

925
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:15,600
very position a bit, but I would
say that you know, the reason

926
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:18,520
Google and and Amazon are
investing is is remember they

927
00:45:18,520 --> 00:45:21,920
are the two big they are two of
the three biggest cloud

928
00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:26,560
computing companies.
So ran you know, regular mid mid

929
00:45:26,560 --> 00:45:28,800
sized companies.
You know, they get all their

930
00:45:28,800 --> 00:45:32,240
cloud computing from Amazon Web
Services or Google Cloud or

931
00:45:32,240 --> 00:45:35,960
Microsoft and Microsoft Azure.
And when they sign up for that,

932
00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:37,520
you often buy software through
it.

933
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:43,720
So Claw Infravic wants to offer
clawed enterprise through

934
00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:47,800
through AWS and through Google
Cloud and Google and Amazon want

935
00:45:47,800 --> 00:45:49,880
to have it on there because it
brings people in.

936
00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:52,320
So that that that's why that
investment kind of kind of

937
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:57,120
benefits everybody.
So previously Open AI had an

938
00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,520
exclusive relationship with
Microsoft because Microsoft

939
00:45:59,520 --> 00:46:02,880
invested early in them.
But just recently they their

940
00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:07,160
deal has changed where Open AI
is allowed to take investment

941
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:08,880
and do cloud work with other
companies.

942
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:12,280
And the you know, this deal with
Anthropic is not exclusive and

943
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:16,360
it would not shock me to see
Google more and or Amazon make

944
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:18,880
make a similar kind of a deal
with Open AI as well.

945
00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:21,000
Really.
So you could see them spending

946
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,640
spending the money around and
just trying to integrate both.

947
00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:26,960
Absolutely, yeah, they want it.
They want to, if they think like

948
00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,760
enough of their customers want
to have access to it and they

949
00:46:29,760 --> 00:46:32,800
want to make sure that they are,
you know, that they, that they

950
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,920
have a tight relationship to
make sure that open AI will be

951
00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:38,160
on say, AWS for a long time to
come.

952
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:41,840
You could completely see that,
see that coming.

953
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:45,480
I think that the, the, the, the
stock, the tech giants like

954
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:49,920
Microsoft, Google, Amazon, they
can spread their money very

955
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:51,120
widely.
They have, they have.

956
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:53,320
It's $5 billion is not a lot of
money for them, you know.

957
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:55,240
Yeah, certainly, certainly,
certainly.

958
00:46:55,240 --> 00:46:57,280
Yeah.
And I get, you know, the way I

959
00:46:57,280 --> 00:46:59,560
was thinking about it was that
you had to be beholden to

960
00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:01,680
someone and who would it be?
But you're saying there's enough

961
00:47:01,880 --> 00:47:03,960
like it's just the software
they're buying and like, oh,

962
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:05,640
they need to just access
permission to use it.

963
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:07,280
So like.
It's just a, it's a partnership.

964
00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:10,840
They're just basically making
aligning themselves more closely

965
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:12,240
as partners is what they're
doing.

966
00:47:13,240 --> 00:47:16,200
They're not getting in a $5
billion in a company that's

967
00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:18,600
worth will probably be worth,
you know, because you said

968
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:21,080
potentially a trillion by the
end of the year is not very much

969
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:26,280
equity actually, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

970
00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:30,160
Not at all.
Back to Disney real quick, Josh

971
00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:34,600
tomorrow just posted today that
he plans on hanging on to ESPN

972
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:40,280
Now sports and streaming has
been a whole mess and I'm going

973
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:41,960
to hold myself back from using
the word cluster.

974
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:44,880
But you know, that really feels
more like what it's like.

975
00:47:45,720 --> 00:47:51,280
But but I feel like this is so
antithetical to everything we've

976
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:53,600
been hearing about ESPN for a
decade.

977
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,320
You know, that like it, that
it's losing their money and

978
00:47:56,320 --> 00:47:57,440
they're not sure what to do with
it.

979
00:47:57,440 --> 00:47:59,560
And they're not sure whether to
spin it off or just sell it or

980
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,600
to like, what what, what's going
on over here?

981
00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:05,560
Yeah, sport.
I mean, Disney's real sure with

982
00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:07,080
these pans.
Always been weird because the

983
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,480
rest of Disney is kind of what
they call a flywheel where

984
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:12,240
everything is connected, right?
Like the the entertainment

985
00:48:12,240 --> 00:48:14,240
content.
They make shows, they sell toys

986
00:48:14,240 --> 00:48:17,480
and they shows up in the theme
parks and so on and by and vice

987
00:48:17,480 --> 00:48:20,680
versa.
Sports is just its own thing and

988
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:23,280
it was a very profitable
business for a long time because

989
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:26,640
every cable system had to have
ESPN and every, so they paid a

990
00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:28,520
lot of money.
Everybody had cable, but

991
00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:30,160
everybody got ESPN in their
package.

992
00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:33,120
Cable companies paid 5 bucks a
month for every one of their

993
00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:35,960
subscribers to Disney, ESPN.
It was hugely profitable.

994
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:39,040
Now obviously cable, you know,
was withering because of cord

995
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:40,800
cutting.
ESPN makes a lot less money.

996
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:47,040
So I, I don't know for sure why
Disney decided to hold on to it.

997
00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:50,200
It could be, you know, the
sensible reason is, and this

998
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:53,600
some truth to this, that in
Disney's looking for a

999
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:56,920
competitive advantage, you know,
they want to a lot of people

1000
00:48:56,920 --> 00:48:59,760
sign up for Disney Plus, Hulu
and ESPN together, right?

1001
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:02,160
And that's sort of a lot of
people who want sports will be

1002
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:04,320
like, well, I'll just spend a
few more bucks to add on Disney

1003
00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:07,120
Plus and Hulu with it, right?
And so it brings them more

1004
00:49:07,120 --> 00:49:10,320
customers that way.
So that's sort of like that.

1005
00:49:10,320 --> 00:49:12,360
That's their best argument for
why they want to have it.

1006
00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:17,360
That's entirely a great argument
as far as like you sports are

1007
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:20,160
all over the place.
Like, I mean someone and and I

1008
00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:22,680
could imagine they'd probably
piss off more customers than it

1009
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:23,840
would be than than it would
actually.

1010
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:25,880
Be well, it pisses people off,
but if you're a sports fan, you

1011
00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:28,000
have to have ESPN.
If you're a sports fan and

1012
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:30,640
you've if you're a sports fan
and you've cut the cord, you

1013
00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:34,040
don't, you don't use like, you
know, Comcast Cable or DIRECTV

1014
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,280
or YouTube TV.
You have to subscribe to the

1015
00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:39,080
ESPN streaming service.
I mean, it doesn't have close to

1016
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:41,440
everything, but it has a lot,
right?

1017
00:49:41,720 --> 00:49:45,040
I mean, most obviously, like
Monday Night Football and they

1018
00:49:45,040 --> 00:49:47,400
have a playoffs and they have a
ton of important college

1019
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:50,880
football games, for example.
And they have some of the NBA.

1020
00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:55,400
You have to have it.
That's that, you know, the

1021
00:49:55,520 --> 00:49:58,520
sports streaming is worth
something to people.

1022
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:00,600
And the more people cut the
cord, the more valuable it's

1023
00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:03,320
going to be.
But it's also possible to see

1024
00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:05,840
that Disney may have said, I'm
sure there's a price in which

1025
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:07,400
Disney would be willing to sell
ESPN.

1026
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:09,560
And maybe they looked around and
we're like, we're not going to

1027
00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:12,880
get that price, frankly, You
know, it's all about how how

1028
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:14,920
much value does it bring us?
How much money could we get for

1029
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:17,440
selling it?
You know, and does any like

1030
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:20,760
maybe a lot of people don't want
to buy ESPN right now, at least

1031
00:50:20,760 --> 00:50:23,440
at a big price, given the
problems, you know, that are,

1032
00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,080
that are happening in the sports
market?

1033
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:28,320
Do you think I don't, I don't
know the answer to this

1034
00:50:28,320 --> 00:50:30,960
question, but just from a
strictly financial perspective,

1035
00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:35,080
are they are they even in the
like the realm of competing for

1036
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:37,840
sports rights to kind of put a
bunch of big sports on, on, on

1037
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:41,600
or, or bigger sports or more
sports on ESPN to make it worth

1038
00:50:41,720 --> 00:50:44,640
keeping and to try to kind of
like, listen, we have the brand.

1039
00:50:44,720 --> 00:50:48,440
Everyone knows the everyone
knows ESPN like, you know, let's

1040
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:51,400
just try to get a couple more
NFL games, a couple of different

1041
00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:54,040
sports rights that that you
know, other that haven't spread

1042
00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:57,440
throughout these other streaming
services and try to make a blitz

1043
00:50:57,440 --> 00:51:00,360
for it.
They're never going to get even

1044
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:03,080
the majority of stuff.
Partly like nobody has no, they

1045
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:06,160
don't have that much money, but
also the the leagues don't want

1046
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:08,000
that.
Like for the leagues, the

1047
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:10,960
leagues make more money by
having a bunch of bidders, you

1048
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:13,680
know, and they want to have as
many different media and tech

1049
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:16,880
companies as possible having
some sports because that's

1050
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:20,160
health, that's healthy ecosystem
in the long run for for the NFL

1051
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:23,640
in the NBA and MLB, because then
they always have more buyers,

1052
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:25,320
right?
The last thing they want if ESPN

1053
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:28,160
dominated the market, then the
next time the rights come up,

1054
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:30,760
maybe ESP NS the only bidder.
And that would be terrible for

1055
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:33,800
the sports week.
So that's why what they want,

1056
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:35,840
they want Monday Night Football
on ESPN and Sunday Night

1057
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:38,880
Football on NBC and Thursday
Night Football on Amazon and the

1058
00:51:38,880 --> 00:51:41,600
Sunday day games on CBS and on
Fox.

1059
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:43,960
Like that's perfect for them
because everybody's doing well.

1060
00:51:44,720 --> 00:51:47,760
And but I you do point to an
issue where on the one hand,

1061
00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:51,040
ESPN needs to keep a certain
amount of key sports or else

1062
00:51:51,040 --> 00:51:52,920
nobody does.
The network has no more

1063
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:55,720
relevance.
But you know, the tech companies

1064
00:51:55,720 --> 00:51:57,560
are getting into sports in a
big, big way.

1065
00:51:57,640 --> 00:51:59,920
Amazon is into sports in a big
way right now.

1066
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:03,400
I predict you are going Yeah,
Apple TVI believe he doesn't

1067
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:06,400
have a lot, but they.
They they you can see that with

1068
00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:08,000
desire to start getting.
You can see they do it.

1069
00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:11,640
Here's what's really the danger
is that YouTube could start

1070
00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:13,720
buying more games for its free
service.

1071
00:52:13,720 --> 00:52:15,840
Like yes, there YouTube has
already a Sunday ticket.

1072
00:52:15,840 --> 00:52:16,840
You got to pay a lot of money
for it.

1073
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:20,640
But YouTube put one NFL game
last year on for free on AT

1074
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:22,600
supported YouTube.
Then they have some soccer

1075
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:24,000
games.
I believe in Latin America.

1076
00:52:24,440 --> 00:52:27,040
They could easily decide to buy
more sports rights for free.

1077
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:29,280
And because they can make so
much money with advertising on

1078
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:32,840
YouTube.
You know, Amazon and Google have

1079
00:52:33,040 --> 00:52:37,120
more money than you know Disney
has ever had in its in its

1080
00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:40,880
entire existence.
You know, available if Amazon

1081
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:44,760
and app and and or Google
YouTube really want to write a

1082
00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:46,920
big check.
Disney, ESPN can't compete.

1083
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:51,560
That is the danger that that
ESPN is going to be facing in

1084
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:54,160
the years to count as they're up
against much bigger and richer

1085
00:52:54,160 --> 00:52:56,640
tech companies.
Yeah.

1086
00:52:56,960 --> 00:53:01,440
And I I I don't know much about
any of their content, but

1087
00:53:01,440 --> 00:53:05,720
historically their non sports
content hasn't done as well,

1088
00:53:06,040 --> 00:53:09,560
right?
I don't know, ESPNSESPN.

1089
00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:12,360
Yeah, yeah.
The original content that you'd

1090
00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:13,600
call it.
Yeah, they've done a little bit,

1091
00:53:13,600 --> 00:53:17,280
and it's never really caught on,
frankly.

1092
00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:20,920
If anything, ESPN is more
reliant than ever on the games

1093
00:53:20,920 --> 00:53:23,000
like they used to, you know,
like Sports Center doesn't get

1094
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:24,240
anything close to the readings
that used to.

1095
00:53:24,240 --> 00:53:27,400
Because people who want, if you
want to like, get your Sports

1096
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:29,320
News and information, you can
get that in a million places

1097
00:53:29,320 --> 00:53:31,520
online.
If you want to see clips of

1098
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:34,040
sports, you're better off
getting those on like, Instagram

1099
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:37,000
and YouTube, right?
And if you want to hear like,

1100
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:40,720
you know, ex players and
commentators talking about

1101
00:53:40,720 --> 00:53:42,560
sports, there's a million
Twitter, there's a million party

1102
00:53:42,560 --> 00:53:46,960
Twitter or podcasts, right?
So that's that's all the stuff

1103
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:48,560
ESPN used to wrap around the
games.

1104
00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:50,960
And people are getting that a
ton of other places now, right?

1105
00:53:50,960 --> 00:53:54,120
The only thing ESPN has that
nobody else has is certain

1106
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,600
games.
Wow.

1107
00:53:59,840 --> 00:54:02,480
Oh man, I don't know.
It doesn't sound like a winning

1108
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:05,000
strategy to me, but.
I think it is, it is a very

1109
00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:06,920
challenge.
It's a very, it is a more and

1110
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:08,880
more challenging business every
year, that's for sure.

1111
00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:12,280
Yeah, and and poor Josh tomorrow
we just kind of given the

1112
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:14,320
problem and I'm sure he knew it
existed beforehand.

1113
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:17,720
But like, this is, this is
between this and lay and having

1114
00:54:17,720 --> 00:54:20,520
to lay people off like within
the first couple of weeks of his

1115
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:24,400
being ACEO.
I, I, I, I hope that he gets

1116
00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:27,120
through this well and know that
a lot of every company's doing

1117
00:54:27,120 --> 00:54:28,720
it.
Nike's doing it, Meta's doing

1118
00:54:28,720 --> 00:54:31,560
it, you know, like, you know,
there are cuts everywhere.

1119
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:34,080
I, I, I, I, I want the company
to do well.

1120
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:36,720
You know, I, I hope he, I hope
he settles in nicely.

1121
00:54:37,240 --> 00:54:39,720
Yeah, if you care about, you
know, if you care about like

1122
00:54:39,720 --> 00:54:43,880
movies and TV and entertainment,
then you should, you should want

1123
00:54:43,880 --> 00:54:46,280
these companies to be, to be
healthy, you know.

1124
00:54:46,840 --> 00:54:48,480
Yeah, definitely.
OK.

1125
00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:51,080
I would love to hear a little
bit of the inside of what

1126
00:54:51,080 --> 00:54:55,680
Cinemacon is like and what the
energy was like this year.

1127
00:54:55,880 --> 00:54:57,920
What's the what's the usual
schedule like?

1128
00:54:57,920 --> 00:55:02,000
You, you go, you go to Vegas,
there's a bajillion people that

1129
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:06,080
everyone knows all around.
Are there particular hotels that

1130
00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:08,160
are assigned to like different
like groups?

1131
00:55:08,160 --> 00:55:09,280
Is everyone meeting up in one
place?

1132
00:55:09,280 --> 00:55:10,680
What's what's?
What's the environment like?

1133
00:55:10,960 --> 00:55:13,160
So Cinemacon all takes place at
Caesar's Palace.

1134
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:18,440
So every, everybody's, most
people are staying there and all

1135
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:23,560
the presentations are in the,
the, the Coliseum, which is

1136
00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:26,640
usually where like, you know,
big, big singers perform.

1137
00:55:26,640 --> 00:55:28,960
So for the week of Cinemacon
from Monday through Thursday,

1138
00:55:28,960 --> 00:55:31,080
there's no performances.
It's just booked for these

1139
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:36,080
studio presentations and and
then Caesar's has like a

1140
00:55:36,080 --> 00:55:39,400
Conference Center that is and
that's taken over by Cinemacon.

1141
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:42,920
And there's tons of companies
that like sell different movie

1142
00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:46,640
theater chairs and projectors
and new kinds of popcorn and

1143
00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:47,880
whatever.
And they take over all these

1144
00:55:47,880 --> 00:55:49,080
rooms and you can like check it
out.

1145
00:55:49,080 --> 00:55:51,000
And they're trying to convince
theaters to, you know, buy their

1146
00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:54,560
stuff and people are having
meetings all the time.

1147
00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:57,320
And you, and there's tons of ads
for every, there's like a poster

1148
00:55:57,320 --> 00:55:58,800
for every movie coming out in
the next year.

1149
00:55:58,800 --> 00:56:03,440
If you walk down the halls.
And I will say, you know, it's

1150
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:05,400
all built around the studio
presentations.

1151
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:08,320
And there's the first one is
Monday is month.

1152
00:56:08,320 --> 00:56:11,160
The 1st 2 actually are on Monday
and they go through until

1153
00:56:11,160 --> 00:56:13,400
Thursday afternoon.
There's like pretty much 2:00

1154
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:16,040
every day.
And then in between those, you

1155
00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:20,480
for myself, like I try to meet
with different sources who might

1156
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:22,560
work like people who work for
different movie theaters around

1157
00:56:22,560 --> 00:56:23,880
the country.
It's a good opportunity that for

1158
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:26,520
me to meet them, interview them,
talk about what they're going on

1159
00:56:26,520 --> 00:56:28,640
with their businesses, what
their challenges are, what they

1160
00:56:28,640 --> 00:56:30,280
think's interesting happening in
the business.

1161
00:56:30,280 --> 00:56:33,040
So I have a bunch of like
meetings, sit downs, lunches,

1162
00:56:33,040 --> 00:56:37,320
drinks, etcetera with people and
I go to the presentations and,

1163
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:42,160
and then sometimes like
different studios or, or theater

1164
00:56:42,160 --> 00:56:44,760
companies will have like a
drinks about drinks before a

1165
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:47,120
presentation or a party
afterwards and can have some

1166
00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:49,920
time to go to those and meet
some people and, and talk more.

1167
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:54,040
And for a reporter like me, it's
just a great opportunity to just

1168
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:56,240
to get a sense of all the movies
coming out the next year and to

1169
00:56:56,240 --> 00:56:58,400
meet a lot of people who are
useful for me to know.

1170
00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:02,560
Totally, totally.
And what was the, were you there

1171
00:57:02,560 --> 00:57:04,960
the last couple of years?
How, how was this, how this year

1172
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:07,520
feel especially with that like
there's a lot of movement going

1173
00:57:07,520 --> 00:57:09,280
on in the industry now.
So how does how environment?

1174
00:57:09,920 --> 00:57:11,400
Like this is the second year in
a row.

1175
00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:13,240
The year before that I was in
the AI field.

1176
00:57:13,240 --> 00:57:16,320
So I didn't go in 2024.
But this year I will say it was

1177
00:57:16,320 --> 00:57:18,640
definitely more optimistic.
One reason is there's always

1178
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:23,360
been a lot of fight over windows
over how you know how long from

1179
00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:25,040
when the movie opens in a
theater to when it's on

1180
00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:26,920
available to watch online for
VOD.

1181
00:57:27,880 --> 00:57:30,280
Everybody's kind of agreed
finally on 45 days, which is

1182
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:31,480
actually what the theaters
wanted.

1183
00:57:31,480 --> 00:57:35,120
The studios have pretty much all
all agreed to that.

1184
00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:38,760
So there was no arguing over
windows, which was so that

1185
00:57:38,840 --> 00:57:41,280
people are positive about that
and people were feeling very

1186
00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:43,200
great.
Good that so far the box office

1187
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:46,920
is up this year and it's been
down so many years in a row that

1188
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:50,200
does having any positive
momentum make made made people

1189
00:57:50,200 --> 00:57:52,680
feel good.
So in that sense it was a much

1190
00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:57,160
more optimistic Cinemacon with
more positive energy than I saw

1191
00:57:57,160 --> 00:57:59,600
last year.
So much fun, so cool.

1192
00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:02,720
What were what were some of your
favorite presentations?

1193
00:58:03,600 --> 00:58:05,600
Well I mentioned whale fall was
a big surprise.

1194
00:58:06,680 --> 00:58:10,640
I also I will say the the Dune
they showed the 1st 7 minutes or

1195
00:58:10,680 --> 00:58:14,480
so of or so of Dune and I liked
the first two Dune movies.

1196
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:17,560
I wasn't like the biggest fan.
I liked them but this was my

1197
00:58:18,720 --> 00:58:21,520
opinion.
I will just say was at a whole

1198
00:58:21,520 --> 00:58:24,320
other level.
It was basically without getting

1199
00:58:24,320 --> 00:58:26,960
too much with the 1st 7 minutes,
it was like imagine the D-Day

1200
00:58:26,960 --> 00:58:29,920
scene of stating Private Ryan,
but I'm like an alien planet

1201
00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:33,760
with like sci-fi tech like that.
But it was that level of like

1202
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:36,360
it's felt like documentary kind
of filmmaking and it'll really

1203
00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:40,240
get close with the soldiers.
I didn't expect that in a dude

1204
00:58:40,240 --> 00:58:42,960
movie.
And I really was really was

1205
00:58:42,960 --> 00:58:45,480
extremely well done.
And I would say like the room

1206
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:47,000
was really, really impressed by
that.

1207
00:58:47,080 --> 00:58:50,240
So it was it's also another
reason why I think they can feel

1208
00:58:50,240 --> 00:58:51,720
very good going up against
Avengers.

1209
00:58:51,720 --> 00:58:54,440
Like they showed great, they
showed a great scene that people

1210
00:58:54,440 --> 00:58:55,720
were really, really impressed
by.

1211
00:58:55,720 --> 00:58:57,640
I'm.
So happy to hear that.

1212
00:58:57,640 --> 00:59:00,480
I love that I have cried.
The truth is, I tried to I I

1213
00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:03,320
tried to watch Dune one probably
4 times.

1214
00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:06,840
Really not your, not your thing.
You know what, I wanted it to be

1215
00:59:06,840 --> 00:59:09,000
my thing more than I think it
was.

1216
00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:12,600
But I also particularly because
I, I, I remember Dude 2 came

1217
00:59:12,600 --> 00:59:14,160
out, everyone was raving about
it and I was like, you know

1218
00:59:14,160 --> 00:59:15,520
what?
Even if I have to push through

1219
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:18,440
Dude 1 to get to watch Dude 2 in
theaters, I'll do it.

1220
00:59:18,560 --> 00:59:20,120
You think I try to watch 22 to
watch?

1221
00:59:20,120 --> 00:59:21,720
Do you want to get to 2 and
three in theaters?

1222
00:59:22,080 --> 00:59:23,720
I don't know.
I don't know the spot of dude.

1223
00:59:23,840 --> 00:59:25,760
I mean, here's what I would say.
I always say this to people

1224
00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:28,080
like, don't you don't have to
watch a movie anymore.

1225
00:59:28,080 --> 00:59:30,560
Like frankly, you can just read
like the Wikipedia summary of

1226
00:59:30,560 --> 00:59:34,960
the plot or ask like sometimes
if I'm like seeing a movie and I

1227
00:59:34,960 --> 00:59:37,720
haven't or TV show I haven't
watched the prior season in a

1228
00:59:37,720 --> 00:59:41,960
long time, I'll just ask, you
know, I'll ask an AI to dislike,

1229
00:59:42,440 --> 00:59:44,960
hey, hey, hey, remind me of
everything I need to know, you

1230
00:59:44,960 --> 00:59:50,000
know, before I watch the sequel.
Yeah, I hope I What do you did

1231
00:59:50,000 --> 00:59:54,320
you see the Toy Story 5?
I thought that looked awesome.

1232
00:59:54,720 --> 00:59:56,000
I did.
I'd actually seen it earlier

1233
00:59:56,000 --> 00:59:59,560
because I did a story in Pixar
in March and I went up, I went

1234
00:59:59,560 --> 01:00:01,440
up to Emeryville, where the
headquarters is for the store

1235
01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:02,680
and they showed me some of the
footage.

1236
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:08,240
So yes, I saw it and it's
definitely like I.

1237
01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:12,360
I would comfortably predict that
movie and it's going to be one

1238
01:00:12,360 --> 01:00:14,440
of the biggest movies of the
year, quite possibly the biggest

1239
01:00:14,440 --> 01:00:17,000
movie of the year.
I mean, it looks like it has all

1240
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:18,680
the elements people love about
Toy Story.

1241
01:00:18,920 --> 01:00:23,160
And you know, it's dealing, it's
it's dealing with a tablet,

1242
01:00:23,240 --> 01:00:24,960
right?
Which is obviously like whatever

1243
01:00:25,400 --> 01:00:28,280
what every parent of a kid is,
you know, it's like their

1244
01:00:28,280 --> 01:00:31,160
biggest, their biggest crisis,
right, is like, how do I deal

1245
01:00:31,160 --> 01:00:33,320
with technology for my kids?
And wouldn't it be nice if they

1246
01:00:33,320 --> 01:00:35,400
just played with dolls and
action figures the way that we

1247
01:00:35,400 --> 01:00:39,880
used to do 20 years ago?
So it's feels very current,

1248
01:00:40,480 --> 01:00:44,960
simultaneously feels current and
yet also captures the nostalgia

1249
01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:46,440
a lot of people have for those
characters.

1250
01:00:46,440 --> 01:00:49,520
So that's so, which is why I
think it will get like

1251
01:00:49,520 --> 01:00:52,200
middle-aged adults and if people
can very feel very happy

1252
01:00:52,200 --> 01:00:53,640
bringing their seven-year olds
to see it also.

1253
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:57,280
I'm I'm I'm really looking
forward to it and I and I you

1254
01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:00,040
know, I, I was definitely
hesitant about Toy Story 4I

1255
01:01:00,040 --> 01:01:04,840
remember liking it, but I, I, I
I did this trailer really was

1256
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:08,000
was really impressed on me.
I it it stuck with me for sure.

1257
01:01:08,440 --> 01:01:13,000
Yeah, it's a good trail.
Yeah, I mean, I hope for I'm,

1258
01:01:13,160 --> 01:01:14,440
I'm really hoping for a big
year.

1259
01:01:14,440 --> 01:01:17,480
It just, it feels exciting and
it does.

1260
01:01:17,480 --> 01:01:19,600
Yeah, yeah.
Look, there's a lot of like

1261
01:01:19,880 --> 01:01:21,480
people are saying this to me,
like, look, if you just look at

1262
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:25,400
the cadence of the next few
months, like Devil Wears Prada

1263
01:01:25,400 --> 01:01:29,720
is almost certainly going to do
really well and The Mandalorian

1264
01:01:29,720 --> 01:01:31,880
and Grogu, we'll see.
But it's a big movie coming on

1265
01:01:31,880 --> 01:01:33,560
Memorial Day.
Like there's a shot we'll see.

1266
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:36,960
And then you like Toy Story in
June, which is like guaranteed

1267
01:01:36,960 --> 01:01:41,000
to be massive in July.
You have a new Minions movie

1268
01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:42,960
that they showed some of it in
Cinemacon.

1269
01:01:42,960 --> 01:01:44,800
Like it looks kind of like cool.
Like they're not.

1270
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:46,160
They're definitely trying some
new stuff.

1271
01:01:46,160 --> 01:01:50,720
I'll give them and we'll see.
And then that month also has has

1272
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:53,200
the Odyssey, which is almost
certainly going to be massive,

1273
01:01:53,200 --> 01:01:55,280
and it has a new Spider Man
movie that's almost certainly

1274
01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:55,960
going.
To be massive.

1275
01:01:56,400 --> 01:01:58,680
So we have like the next few
months, there's a lot of

1276
01:01:58,680 --> 01:02:00,480
opportunities for a lot of
success.

1277
01:02:01,240 --> 01:02:02,560
Yeah, it might.
It might even.

1278
01:02:02,960 --> 01:02:05,280
It might even encourage me to
get my stubs passed for the

1279
01:02:05,280 --> 01:02:06,520
first time since myself.
Yeah.

1280
01:02:07,400 --> 01:02:09,760
You know, yeah, yeah, I could
see that that might, that might

1281
01:02:09,760 --> 01:02:11,240
be a good value if you're going
to see them all.

1282
01:02:11,680 --> 01:02:14,240
I've been, yeah.
I, I, I keep on making very

1283
01:02:14,240 --> 01:02:16,720
brave attempts at renewing them.
And I'll, and I'll keep them for

1284
01:02:16,720 --> 01:02:17,800
like, I'll be like, you know
what?

1285
01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:20,680
My kid is finally old enough
that he's sleeping through the

1286
01:02:20,680 --> 01:02:22,000
night.
I can go to a movie even by

1287
01:02:22,000 --> 01:02:25,160
myself for a couple hours.
And then I, I keep it for a

1288
01:02:25,160 --> 01:02:26,320
month.
I'm like, it's not happening.

1289
01:02:26,800 --> 01:02:28,720
You're not actually seeing
enough to be worth the money,

1290
01:02:28,720 --> 01:02:30,880
Yeah.
Yeah, No, no, but I hope so.

1291
01:02:31,040 --> 01:02:32,760
And then I, I, I appreciate your
time.

1292
01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:34,080
I, I want to let you go in a
couple of minutes.

1293
01:02:34,080 --> 01:02:37,600
I want to just ask real quickly
about some of your thoughts on

1294
01:02:37,600 --> 01:02:41,240
this Warner Brothers Paramount
merger, because it'd be, I'd be

1295
01:02:41,240 --> 01:02:43,280
awfully remiss if I if we didn't
talk about it at all.

1296
01:02:43,680 --> 01:02:46,760
Yeah.
First of all, I don't know

1297
01:02:46,760 --> 01:02:49,160
whether there's a Twitter big
deal or Twitter thing or not a

1298
01:02:49,160 --> 01:02:53,840
big thing or anything.
I heard that like 48 or or 49%

1299
01:02:53,840 --> 01:02:56,600
of the funding from the deal is
coming from the Middle East.

1300
01:02:56,920 --> 01:02:58,520
Do you know about that?
What does that mean?

1301
01:02:58,520 --> 01:03:00,560
What does that?
Mean 49% of the equity.

1302
01:03:00,560 --> 01:03:03,040
There's also a lot of debt, I
will say, but of the the actual

1303
01:03:03,040 --> 01:03:06,680
equity portion of it is coming
from the Middle East because

1304
01:03:07,160 --> 01:03:09,280
frankly, if you want to get 10s
of billions of dollars these

1305
01:03:09,280 --> 01:03:12,000
days, one of the best sources is
Middle Eastern money.

1306
01:03:14,560 --> 01:03:16,720
It's you know, they're because
they're a minority.

1307
01:03:16,720 --> 01:03:18,600
You can know how how not people
would say, well, they're not

1308
01:03:18,600 --> 01:03:20,400
going to have any influence like
David Ellison.

1309
01:03:20,400 --> 01:03:22,400
This will still have control of
this company.

1310
01:03:22,880 --> 01:03:25,840
But you know, they're going to
have a voice that he has to talk

1311
01:03:25,840 --> 01:03:27,680
to them because they're big
investors of his.

1312
01:03:28,120 --> 01:03:33,440
And you know, this he's
paramount is going to own if

1313
01:03:33,440 --> 01:03:36,840
this deal closes like 2 news
networks and here's Middle

1314
01:03:36,840 --> 01:03:38,720
Eastern money controlling two
major news networks.

1315
01:03:39,520 --> 01:03:42,200
I understand why people are
concerned about it.

1316
01:03:42,200 --> 01:03:45,000
I would say but yeah, they're
going to own, you know, they're,

1317
01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:46,680
they're going to be, they're
going to be major investors.

1318
01:03:46,680 --> 01:03:49,320
That's absolutely true.
So you made the difference, but

1319
01:03:49,360 --> 01:03:52,520
you, you made the the
distinction between the debt and

1320
01:03:52,520 --> 01:03:54,760
the and the funding or the
equity rather.

1321
01:03:54,760 --> 01:03:56,680
Can you can you just explain
that if in case anyone doesn't?

1322
01:03:56,680 --> 01:03:58,560
Sure.
So Paramount is paying, I

1323
01:03:58,600 --> 01:04:01,880
believe $110 billion.
That's how much this deal is

1324
01:04:01,880 --> 01:04:06,760
worth in total.
So where does that money come

1325
01:04:06,760 --> 01:04:08,160
from?
Like I and I don't have all

1326
01:04:08,160 --> 01:04:09,200
this.
I don't have the split in front

1327
01:04:09,200 --> 01:04:12,200
of me, but some portion of it,
some portion of it is equity,

1328
01:04:12,200 --> 01:04:14,040
meaning like they're just
writing a check, right?

1329
01:04:14,040 --> 01:04:16,960
What they're like, hey, wonder
bro, Hey, you know, here's cash

1330
01:04:16,960 --> 01:04:19,400
that we have, right?
It's from some of it's from

1331
01:04:19,400 --> 01:04:21,920
Larry Ellison, some of it's from
other investors, some of it's

1332
01:04:21,920 --> 01:04:24,920
from cash Paramount already has
and a big chunk of it's from the

1333
01:04:24,920 --> 01:04:27,080
Middle East.
But some of it is debt, right?

1334
01:04:27,080 --> 01:04:30,160
Which is like a bank is loan
essentially loaning Paramount

1335
01:04:30,840 --> 01:04:34,000
10s of billions of dollars.
And then and then Paramount's

1336
01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:36,600
going to have to pay that back
in the coming years, right?

1337
01:04:36,600 --> 01:04:39,120
They don't have to pay back
their the equity investors.

1338
01:04:39,600 --> 01:04:42,520
The equity investors want to own
Paramount going forward and they

1339
01:04:42,520 --> 01:04:45,200
think eventually hopefully
Paramount will be worth more in

1340
01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:46,920
the future.
And you know, but the debt

1341
01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:49,840
holders like expect to get paid
back with interest over the next

1342
01:04:49,840 --> 01:04:51,600
several years.
Right.

1343
01:04:51,960 --> 01:04:55,200
Do you think there's going to
be, I, I just thought of this

1344
01:04:55,200 --> 01:04:57,600
right now, just because I asked
you about the Netflix, you know,

1345
01:04:57,640 --> 01:05:00,720
and I rather the Paramount being
the dad's conservative station.

1346
01:05:01,080 --> 01:05:04,600
Do you think there's going to be
any kind of tension with the HBO

1347
01:05:05,360 --> 01:05:08,480
crowd?
Because the the HBOHBO crowd has

1348
01:05:08,480 --> 01:05:11,720
always been looking to push the
envelope in in a lot of

1349
01:05:11,720 --> 01:05:13,920
different ways.
Yeah, no, I mean, I think, I

1350
01:05:13,920 --> 01:05:20,440
think actually Casey Cloys on
the HBO team are going to be

1351
01:05:20,440 --> 01:05:22,920
left alone to do what they do
because they do it well, what's

1352
01:05:23,920 --> 01:05:24,760
right.
Absolutely.

1353
01:05:24,760 --> 01:05:27,320
I think basically pound out
right now.

1354
01:05:27,640 --> 01:05:29,760
What are they succeeding with?
They're succeeding with the dad

1355
01:05:29,760 --> 01:05:32,960
shows and you know, and they
have the they have some key big

1356
01:05:32,960 --> 01:05:34,400
NFL games, of course, in the
UFC.

1357
01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:36,440
They have a lot of they're
basically succeeding with men

1358
01:05:36,680 --> 01:05:41,560
and they they don't do very well
with non sports fans with women

1359
01:05:42,200 --> 01:05:45,760
with and they don't have a lot
of like prestige shows, right.

1360
01:05:45,760 --> 01:05:47,760
They won't have a lot of like
the kind of shows that win Emmys

1361
01:05:47,760 --> 01:05:50,440
and that the kind of more
affluent college educated

1362
01:05:50,440 --> 01:05:53,400
audiences really love high class
entertainment.

1363
01:05:53,400 --> 01:05:55,560
One that's obviously what HBO is
great at, right?

1364
01:05:55,560 --> 01:05:57,640
So they're very complimentary
actually.

1365
01:05:57,640 --> 01:06:00,640
And what you're going to do some
other random stuff on HBO, like

1366
01:06:00,640 --> 01:06:04,040
on HBO Max, like the Max
programming, you're going to see

1367
01:06:04,040 --> 01:06:07,160
that kind of shed away because
Paramount's already doing some

1368
01:06:07,160 --> 01:06:10,560
of that, I think.
But the HBO part of HBO Max is

1369
01:06:10,560 --> 01:06:11,960
absolutely going to be
preserved.

1370
01:06:11,960 --> 01:06:15,240
That's a really valuable brand,
has a lot of cachet with

1371
01:06:15,240 --> 01:06:17,320
consumers.
And I think, I don't know

1372
01:06:17,320 --> 01:06:19,320
whether when they merged them,
it's going to be called

1373
01:06:19,360 --> 01:06:21,800
Paramount Plus, it's going to be
called HBO Plus.

1374
01:06:21,800 --> 01:06:23,720
Who knows what it's going to be.
But no, I hope not.

1375
01:06:24,280 --> 01:06:26,120
I have no idea what they're
going to call it, how they're

1376
01:06:26,120 --> 01:06:29,400
going to do it, but within that,
so within that streaming bundle,

1377
01:06:29,400 --> 01:06:32,240
whatever it is, HBO will
absolutely remain A distinct

1378
01:06:32,240 --> 01:06:34,600
brand because that brand just
one of the most powerful brands

1379
01:06:34,600 --> 01:06:38,520
in entertainment and you would
be a fool to swander it.

1380
01:06:39,360 --> 01:06:43,280
Yeah, yeah, I hope so, because I
mean the HBO of Euphoria and

1381
01:06:43,280 --> 01:06:46,520
White Lotus and Rooster and I, I
don't know if you've seen

1382
01:06:46,520 --> 01:06:48,080
Rooster.
I'm I'm a big fan.

1383
01:06:48,080 --> 01:06:50,440
I actually the reviews were not
that great so I haven't watched

1384
01:06:50,440 --> 01:06:51,080
it.
Is it good?

1385
01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:55,680
Yeah, I think you know what I
think it's it's a really good

1386
01:06:55,960 --> 01:06:58,040
it's a really good HBO vibe
show.

1387
01:06:58,040 --> 01:07:00,440
And you know, like it really
feels authentic and it really

1388
01:07:00,440 --> 01:07:03,120
feels true to like the to HBO
self.

1389
01:07:03,120 --> 01:07:06,000
And also it's, it's, it's the
quirkier comedy that's kind of

1390
01:07:06,000 --> 01:07:11,200
been more in I, I, I like this
new phase of quirky TV, whether

1391
01:07:11,200 --> 01:07:14,960
you want to call it plebeis or
severance or white loadance or I

1392
01:07:14,960 --> 01:07:18,200
think like this kind of falls
into not having a particular

1393
01:07:18,200 --> 01:07:19,920
genre.
And so you don't really know

1394
01:07:20,320 --> 01:07:22,960
quite how to consume it except
to just trust the brand and

1395
01:07:22,960 --> 01:07:26,240
understand the that you know the
makers and like they're going to

1396
01:07:26,240 --> 01:07:30,200
do a good job with it.
Yeah, I mean, there's no TV

1397
01:07:30,200 --> 01:07:32,440
brand, let's call them, that
takes more creative risks than

1398
01:07:32,440 --> 01:07:34,840
HBO, you know?
So if you'd like creativity, you

1399
01:07:34,840 --> 01:07:35,440
go.
You can.

1400
01:07:35,440 --> 01:07:37,800
You have to have it.
Yeah, definitely.

1401
01:07:37,960 --> 01:07:40,400
I also I and and I.
I hope that the Penguin

1402
01:07:40,400 --> 01:07:42,800
continues because I was a huge
fan of the Penguin.

1403
01:07:43,240 --> 01:07:45,640
I like the Penguin too, but
there's there's no that was like

1404
01:07:45,640 --> 01:07:47,320
a mini series unfortunately.
Really.

1405
01:07:47,360 --> 01:07:48,640
You don't think there's there's
no more?

1406
01:07:48,640 --> 01:07:50,000
There's no more.
Plans, no, I've heard them say,

1407
01:07:50,040 --> 01:07:52,080
you know, there's no there's no
plans to do another season,

1408
01:07:52,080 --> 01:07:54,160
unfortunately.
I mean that story was

1409
01:07:54,160 --> 01:07:55,960
self-contained.
I also think like, you know,

1410
01:07:56,000 --> 01:07:58,720
getting a movie star like Colin
Farrell to do multiple, multiple

1411
01:07:58,720 --> 01:08:01,840
seasons may be a challenge.
But what it did show and you

1412
01:08:01,840 --> 01:08:05,440
will see more of is that you can
take random characters from the

1413
01:08:05,440 --> 01:08:07,920
DC universe, like villains or
supporting characters.

1414
01:08:07,920 --> 01:08:11,360
And if you if you put like high
class writers and actors and

1415
01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:14,720
directors around them, you can
make like a really good show out

1416
01:08:14,720 --> 01:08:16,080
of it.
It doesn't like not every show.

1417
01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:18,200
It just has to be like Wonder
Woman, Superman, Batman.

1418
01:08:18,200 --> 01:08:20,040
You know, you can take all lots
of other characters.

1419
01:08:20,040 --> 01:08:25,200
So I think you will see other
character like actually, you

1420
01:08:25,200 --> 01:08:27,359
know, the Green Lantern show
coming to summer.

1421
01:08:27,359 --> 01:08:29,960
I think this is called Lanterns
is an HBO show.

1422
01:08:30,120 --> 01:08:32,880
Like it's, it's between this,
which means it's like HBO

1423
01:08:32,880 --> 01:08:35,479
quality, even though it's, you
know, from DC.

1424
01:08:35,479 --> 01:08:38,680
So I think you definitely will
see more HBODC shows going

1425
01:08:38,680 --> 01:08:41,640
forward like the Penguin.
Yeah, and what's and what I what

1426
01:08:41,800 --> 01:08:43,800
it's cool and I hope it remains
consistent.

1427
01:08:43,800 --> 01:08:46,560
Is that like you said with DC,
that they don't mind having

1428
01:08:46,560 --> 01:08:49,160
different genres?
HBO is almost its own genre.

1429
01:08:49,160 --> 01:08:52,640
Like this felt like an off the
HBO show that kind of had with

1430
01:08:52,680 --> 01:08:55,600
DC adjacent, you know?
But yeah, 100% and even though,

1431
01:08:55,760 --> 01:08:58,080
you know, it was Colin Farrell
who was in the last Batman

1432
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:00,399
movie, like you did not not have
to see that Batman movie to

1433
01:09:00,439 --> 01:09:02,880
fully enjoy them.
Put no no, in fact, I didn't put

1434
01:09:02,880 --> 01:09:05,080
them together and I saw the
previous Batman movie I never

1435
01:09:05,080 --> 01:09:07,000
put together until you just
mentioned that to me right now.

1436
01:09:08,640 --> 01:09:13,120
Wow, OK, this covered a lot of
fun information then.

1437
01:09:13,760 --> 01:09:18,080
I really appreciate your time.
01 thing One last thing.

1438
01:09:18,080 --> 01:09:19,439
I'm so sorry.
Last last question.

1439
01:09:19,439 --> 01:09:24,960
Last question is Netflix buying
Matt Damon's a sorry Ben

1440
01:09:24,960 --> 01:09:32,359
Affleck's BI company?
Yeah, not a big deal PR move it

1441
01:09:32,359 --> 01:09:35,200
or or indication of what the
future of what the future is

1442
01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:36,560
going to be like.
What do you think?

1443
01:09:36,560 --> 01:09:39,200
Or all three maybe?
Actually, I would say not much

1444
01:09:39,200 --> 01:09:40,880
of APR move.
Like I've talked to them about

1445
01:09:40,880 --> 01:09:44,160
it and it's I think it was a
savvy move.

1446
01:09:44,160 --> 01:09:46,479
Like Affleck has actually
developed to some AI tech that

1447
01:09:46,479 --> 01:09:50,080
does something useful.
Like what this company basically

1448
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:57,280
does is it's it it's an AI model
that is trained on the material

1449
01:09:57,280 --> 01:09:59,120
from your movie.
So say you've shot a movie, you

1450
01:09:59,120 --> 01:10:02,520
put everything you've done into
that movie in on that movie into

1451
01:10:02,520 --> 01:10:04,880
the I I system, like every frame
you've shot all the scripts,

1452
01:10:04,880 --> 01:10:07,320
etcetera.
And then what often happens in a

1453
01:10:07,320 --> 01:10:10,840
movie is you're like, shoot,
there was like and 1 angle on

1454
01:10:10,840 --> 01:10:12,920
this scene that we should have,
we should have gotten and we

1455
01:10:12,920 --> 01:10:16,200
didn't right.
Like and going getting all the

1456
01:10:16,200 --> 01:10:18,840
actors together, getting back on
location is really expensive.

1457
01:10:19,240 --> 01:10:22,160
This AI is really good at just
helping you to reconstruct like

1458
01:10:22,440 --> 01:10:27,800
a few one shot or, you know, one
line of dialogue, which is not a

1459
01:10:27,800 --> 01:10:29,640
problem.
Austin for movies and TV shows.

1460
01:10:29,640 --> 01:10:33,880
They either it cost millions of
dollars to reshoot stuff or they

1461
01:10:33,880 --> 01:10:35,880
can't do it.
And then there's like a flaw in

1462
01:10:35,880 --> 01:10:39,000
the movie where you're like, why
do they not have this shot that

1463
01:10:39,000 --> 01:10:40,600
they need?
Or why is this scene seem to be

1464
01:10:40,600 --> 01:10:42,560
missing?
And it's because because you

1465
01:10:42,560 --> 01:10:45,800
know, it did it either they
forgot to do it or they it

1466
01:10:45,800 --> 01:10:47,920
didn't come out the well they
expected for some reason.

1467
01:10:47,920 --> 01:10:51,320
So it lets them just kind of do
a little bit of like reshooting

1468
01:10:51,320 --> 01:10:54,720
or touching up in in post
production for a lot less money.

1469
01:10:54,760 --> 01:10:58,040
So that's why they bought it.
I think it makes a lot of makes

1470
01:10:58,040 --> 01:11:00,560
a lot of sense.
It's kind of a shame that

1471
01:11:00,560 --> 01:11:02,680
Netflix now controls it and
nobody else will be able to use

1472
01:11:02,680 --> 01:11:06,080
it.
Yeah, I, I you don't think

1473
01:11:06,080 --> 01:11:08,960
that's similar to search engine
or chat bots that other

1474
01:11:09,200 --> 01:11:12,720
variations of this of this idea
are going to just start popping

1475
01:11:12,720 --> 01:11:14,040
up and trying to sell
themselves?

1476
01:11:14,560 --> 01:11:16,240
Yeah, absolutely.
Other people will do it, but

1477
01:11:16,240 --> 01:11:18,280
it's just, you know, obviously
Netflix is now in the lead,

1478
01:11:18,280 --> 01:11:20,320
right?
They bought the to my knowledge

1479
01:11:20,320 --> 01:11:22,600
is the first success.
Ryan Ryan Ryan Ryan Meynolds

1480
01:11:22,600 --> 01:11:24,080
might be the next next one to
try.

1481
01:11:24,080 --> 01:11:25,520
To sell.
Yeah, sure, I'm sure.

1482
01:11:25,800 --> 01:11:31,960
Yeah, after his alcohol brands.
Anyway, Ben, thank you so much

1483
01:11:31,960 --> 01:11:33,120
for the time.
If you don't mind hanging out, I

1484
01:11:33,120 --> 01:11:34,800
just want to ask you a quick
question after you finish.

1485
01:11:34,800 --> 01:11:37,360
But thank you so much and this
is really such a pleasure.

1486
01:11:37,720 --> 01:11:38,680
Yeah, it's my pleasure.
Good.

1487
01:11:38,800 --> 01:11:39,360
To talk to you.