← The Town with Matthew Belloni
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- [00:00]
Matt Bellany
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- [00:30]
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- [01:04]
Matt Bellany
It is Tuesday, February 3rd it finally happened. I feel like we've been talking about the Disney CEO succession issue pretty much since Bob Iger came back to run the company in late 2022. And now it's real. It was supposed to be announced Thursday, but they dropped it today, as expected. Josh d', Amaro, the head of the Experiences division that's Parks and cruises and games. He'll take over for Iger on March 18 at the annual shareholder meeting. And somewhat of a surprise, Iger won't stay on until the end of the year. He's planning to become a strategic advisor instead, maybe to eliminate some of the problems that plagued Bob Chapek, Iger's previous successor felt like he was operating in the shadow of his old boss. We've talked about demaro a lot on the show. He's a career parks guy. He was running Disneyland before being elevated to overseeing all 14 Disney parks around the world and the massive cruises business. It's so massive that Disney brought in $10 billion in revenue from just the Experiences division in the last quarter. They're investing $60 billion in the unit over the next decade, expanding to Abu Dhabi, more cruise ships and Avatar Land in Anaheim. Bunch of stuff. Disney is not expanding its investment similarly in the TV and streaming business, at least not outside of sports. Which I think is why this CEO job did not go to Dana Walden, the TV chief and a Hollywood favorite candidate much better known in LA than demaro, who lives in Orange County. But interestingly, Dana is staying on at the company as president and chief content officer, now overseeing film as well as TV and streaming. Board chair says they nixed the idea of doing A co CEO thing. So why did this arrangement happen? And more importantly, what does it mean for the future of Disney? Lots of challenges ahead for Josh d' Amaro and we're going to get into them with Rich Greenfield, the longtime analyst and Disney watcher. Today. It's a quasi emergency pod. It's the new boss at Disney and what it all means for the company and for everyone who works there. From the ringer and Puck. I'm Matt Bellany and this is the Town. This episode of the Town is presented by the Walt Disney Animation Studios, Zootopia 2. Now nominated for the Academy Award for best Animated feature. The Hollywood reporter hails Zootopia 2, knocks it out of the park with this dazzling visuals, sophisticated humor and genuine emotion. For your consideration for best animated feature. All right, we are here with Richard Greenfield, analyst at LightShed Media and regular contributor to the Talent. Welcome back. Rich, you are wearing a very nice YouTube equals TV shirt. Why are you wearing that?
- [03:45]
Rich Greenfield
Because I think we're at a point in time now where, you know, every single day I wake up and somebody else is launching their show on YouTube.
- [03:53]
Matt Bellany
That's very nice.
- [03:54]
Rich Greenfield
I think you might be. I think you might be.
- [03:56]
Matt Bellany
Okay, so. No. And it's not. Not because you're shilling for the Netflix side of the hearing today in Washington D.C. over whether Netflix's acquisition of Warner Discovery is anti competitive.
- [04:11]
Rich Greenfield
Matt, all I have to say is I would love to see the court case where the government actually sues to convince consumers that YouTube is not competing against Netflix, CBS, ABC and ESPN. That is going to be an amazing.
- [04:28]
Matt Bellany
Many different showrunners who cannot sell their shows to YouTube. But that's a different show. We not talking about Netflix's antitrust problems today. We are talking about Disney. Big news, Josh. Tomorrow, new CEO of Disney, the head of the Disney board, James Gorman, he says that they interviewed a hundred people for this job. Do you believe that? And how did they land on Tomorrow?
- [04:52]
Rich Greenfield
You know, I think, you know, look, I have no idea how many they interviewed, but I actually said.
- [04:56]
Matt Bellany
He said there were a hundred candidates. I don't know what that means. If there was a dartboard, if there was some spreadsheet, we don't know what that means.
- [05:03]
Rich Greenfield
No, no, but Matt, seriously, let's go back to the T shirt because it relates to this. The TV landscape has changed dramatically. And I think even Disney has very much altered its ambitions in tv. It was very aggressive during the pandemic, really trying to gun Disney and even Hulu. And there was a dramatic acceleration in spending And I think if you look at Disney today, they have very much shifted. They now are very focused on their movie output. The TV ambitions have scaled back dramatically. Obviously linear TV is something they don't even talk about outside of sports, obviously.
- [05:37]
Matt Bellany
Esports, they don't even report numbers anymore.
- [05:39]
Rich Greenfield
They don't. But. So I think in a world where YouTube is now the dominant place and where the whole TV landscape has shifted dramatically, I think it makes a lot of sense when you look at the Walt Disney Company, that TV is not the, the stepping stone to being CEO. And so I think when you look at Josh demaro, look at what he oversees, the theme park and experiences and cruise ships, this is the lifeblood of what really drives the Walt Disney Company today. I don't talk to any investors who don't believe that the theme park business is not the driver of growth over the course of the next decade.
- [06:17]
Matt Bellany
$10 billion in experiences, revenue last quarter, a new record.
- [06:22]
Rich Greenfield
But it's also worth of the capex.
- [06:24]
Matt Bellany
$60 billion in investment over the next decade. They're certainly not pouring $60 billion extra into their TV and streaming content now. They do pay that much, but a lot of it is sports rights and they are pulling back on that entertainment content. So do you believe that if, that this was a strategic decision and not a referendum on the particular leadership styles of both Dana Walden and John Josh d'? Amaro?
- [06:50]
Rich Greenfield
Look, I don't know their leadership styles well enough, so I honestly can't.
- [06:53]
Matt Bellany
Well, I know both of them a little bit. I know Dana a lot better. And Dana is a very competent manager. Has managed to, you know, rise up from being a publicist at Fox to running this huge empire of TV and streaming, very well known and liked within Hollywood. And if you, if this was even five years ago where the company was five years ago, I agree with you. She would have had a leg up because they would have seen figuring out the streaming world to be their highest priority. Now I think figuring out the next steps for the experiential business is their highest priority. And games, which tomorrow oversees as well.
- [07:34]
Rich Greenfield
And look, I would take it a step further, Matt. You know, is this step one to altering the company? You know, Iger has said he didn't want to, you know, actually, let's go back in time when Iger first came back, you know, for, let's just say for, you know, the Iger sequel is really one of his first public appearances. If you remember that Sun Valley discussion.
- [07:55]
Matt Bellany
Sure.
- [07:56]
Rich Greenfield
Where he was pretty open that maybe we shouldn't be in Traditional linear TV anymore.
- [08:02]
Matt Bellany
Non core. Maybe they're non core.
- [08:05]
Rich Greenfield
Correct. I mean, he was very open and transparent and he said he went further than that. He said, Genla Entertainment is not our forte. It's very competitive. Maybe we shouldn't be there. And so, you know, while he backtracked on that and it's obviously very difficult to separate ESPN and ABC now that you have a theme park executive who has massive, you know, oversight over the whole portfolio. Now I think it raises the question of is this the beginning? Especially with Iger leaving earlier than expected, meaning March 2027. You're going to see Iger leave March 26, March 2026.
- [08:40]
Matt Bellany
Sorry, like six weeks from now is.
- [08:43]
Rich Greenfield
When Iger transitions out rather than December 31, 2026. Does that create the opening for Josh to do a reevaluation of the whole portfolio? I mean, look at the value.
- [08:54]
Matt Bellany
That's coincidentally, coincidentally, Iger leaving at the beginning of yacht season. So he'll have a nice summer of yacht season yachting around the world.
- [09:02]
Rich Greenfield
But Matt, just think about it. Regardless of what happens with Warner Brothers, there is no doubt that the announcement of splitting the company, certainly increased value to shareholders, has led to all of these M and A conversations. I just wonder whether if you think about over the next year, if you're Josh tomorrow, how do you not look at this and go, why does Disney need to be in the linear TV business?
- [09:27]
Matt Bellany
Yeah, well, Iger was very careful and deliberate in praising his Fox acquisition on the earnings call earlier this week, saying it was very well priced and the Warner deal is showing how well priced it is. A lot of analysts disagree with that and say that Disney should have not doubled and tripled down on general entertainment at the exact moment that an arms race was brewing for general entertainment. They have not done. Disney has had hits. I'm not saying Dana did not generate hits at Hulu and at abc, but they have not had the kind of platform defining success at either platform from her leadership. They have shows like Only Murders. They have shows like Paradise, Percy Jackson. They do not have a Yellowstone. They do not have a Stranger Things and Bluey. Their biggest hit is something Disney doesn't know.
- [10:19]
Rich Greenfield
And I really think to just extend on that because I think what you wrote last night was really well written and thoughtful on this point. Disney's really shifted how they think about. Disney is an outlet for their movies. So they want to create massive movies that drive consumer products, that drive their theme parks, create rides. But they think of those big movies as the thing that drives. They want Zootopia to drive attractions inside the theme parks. Frozen land is opening up. Like that's how they think about it. So it's the movies are the driver of streaming, not TV content.
- [10:53]
Matt Bellany
Well, it's the branded content. I think they would surely still like to have the Marvel and the Pixar and that kind of stuff on the service. But those, the branded content, the most success they've had has been in movies. And Hulu, the big acquisition that they got from the Fox deal and had to pay tens of billions of dollars to Comcast to get full ownership of, they're folding that into Disney later this year. So, so where's the value there? Around the world? Disney is home to everything. So was the Hulu deal. Like what is that? And there's a big reorg going on and Dana's group is going to change significantly. But the question for the leadership is do you think demaro pulls the trigger on some kind of big change to the company this year, next year? Because remember Chapek tried that stuff, Bob Chapek, when he came in, he tried to make some pretty big organizational changes and this company rejected it. They just absolutely did not like it. He had to fire Peter Rice. He basically paved the way for Iger to come back. Does tomorrow make that same mistake or does he have a little bit more momentum cachet to do what he wants without Iger looking over his shoulder?
- [12:06]
Rich Greenfield
Look, if I was sitting in Josh's shoes, I would, you know, take three to six months, really evaluate these businesses. You know, you're stepping into this role in March. I don't think there is, you know, look, while I think there's urgency, I mean Disney stock is down over the last 10 plus years. They clearly need to be shaken up and something needs to be done. And I think if you look at like what are the high profile things Josh needs to do, number one, he has to figure out is this the right corporate structure? Do you need to have all of these assets? Is there really a flywheel to having ESPN and ABC under the same umbrella? And how do you really prove that that makes sense? And two, and I think you touched on this Matt, because he does have purview of this in a world where the younger generation is obsessed with gaming and interactive experiences. And if you look at what the theme parks are, what is theme parks in a digital world and where does, what is Disney's way of winning? Is it, you know, they have this investment and they're working on this thing with Epic with as part of Fortnite that's small in the scheme of Disney. Do they need to own Epic? Should they own Roblox? Like what does the future of the Walt Disney. They didn't buy EA obviously, but like what are the big transactions? You know, if you think about when Iger started the first time, the first he set off events by buying Pixar. So that strategic move was career defining for Bob Iger. I think we're going to look for what is the career defining move for Josh demara over this coming year.
- [13:42]
Matt Bellany
Yeah, it seems like games would be the obvious thing for him to make a big splash in. And it's funny, I've said on the show before that Disney needs to figure out how to make Disney the center of the Disney fans universe. In experiential, in, in games, in content, in everything. And I got a lot of feedback when I said that from people at the company and say, you don't think we know that? We know that, but every time we talk about that it comes down to cost. And these executives have not been willing to pull the trigger on the cost required to make Disney the center of everybody's life. And maybe now that someone like demaro, who's an experiences guy in the top job, will, will invest in that area to get it right.
- [14:25]
Rich Greenfield
Well, I'll tell you one, I'll go a step further. I mean, I will give Iger credit. He brought in Adam Smith, he hired him from YouTube. Actually, I know we keep coming back to YouTube, but he hired a key tech executive from Google, YouTube. And if you look at Disney today, I think the technological, the interface, the actual how you interact with Disney, it's changed pretty dramatically over the course of the last few months. It actually recommends content, very personalized. The graphical look of it is you don't stop there.
- [14:53]
Matt Bellany
You don't plan your day at the parks, you don't play games against other Disney fans around the world. It's not there yet.
- [15:02]
Rich Greenfield
Look, I am not saying, I'm just saying just in terms of getting what I would consider an acceptable streaming interface that hadn't changed in basically since launch in any meaningful way, they are finally embracing change. Yes. Is it too slow? Sure. But at least they're stepping into the right direction. But I think now the question is, now that you have assembled some really high quality tech executives inside of Disney, can you empower them and actually invest aggressively to build this far beyond just TV and movies? To your point, yeah.
- [15:37]
Matt Bellany
And Dana Walden has agreed to stay on. She's getting an elevated title, President and Chief Content Officer Are you surprised? No, I'm not surprised. This is what Gorman did at Morgan Stanley when he ran the succession process there. We. I predicted it. Others have as well. You know, where is there for Dana to go? There's not a lot of jobs out there with this kind of cachet and power and empire. And by all accounts, she and Josh do get along pretty well. There's not a huge rivalry there because they do very different things. She's now reporting to him, so maybe that will change. But I hope he's smart enough to know things that he doesn't know. And he doesn't need to have a relationship with Ryan Murphy or John Fogelman or any of these top creators. The challenge, I think, is the film group now reports to Dana. And we've seen at Amazon when they put a TV executive over film didn't quite work out there with Jen Sulken. You know, Donna Langley now has oversight of TV at Universal. She's a film executive. Bella Bajaria now has oversight of film at Netflix. She is a television executive. That seems to be the trend in the content world is to have these big global TV people over the film unit. But Disney is a very particular film unit. And very interestingly, Alan Bergman, the head of the film group, was not mentioned in any of the releases today. Does that mean he's out? Does that mean that tomorrow's going to need to, you know, powwow with Dana and figure out who she wants to lead the film group there? What do you think it means for Disney film? Because that's where the franchises are coming from.
- [17:26]
Rich Greenfield
I mean, I will say David Greenbaum's taken on an elevated role inside of. He came from. From Searchlight. So he's taken on an elevated role.
- [17:34]
Matt Bellany
But a year ago, Greenbaum was making, you know, 2010, $20 million movies. I don't think they're going to put him in charge of all of the film group.
- [17:43]
Rich Greenfield
I'm just saying it's interesting that you have two Fox executives that have sort of risen up inside of the creative side at Disney because Dana and David are both obviously from Fox. So I don't know what that means.
- [17:56]
Matt Bellany
Yeah. But my point is the top two executives at Disney are not film people, and film is the most potent franchise creator at the company.
- [18:06]
Rich Greenfield
Look, and I think if, you know, if I was going to say one more Big Picture thing that Josh needs to figure out and say sort of, this may be controversial, but Disney needs to stop being a brand manager. They need to figure out how they develop new franchises. They need to take more risk. They literally need to take more risk to find those new franchises because milking, they've done a great job of milking existing franchises, probably better than anyone on the planet earth. But if I think about the next 10 years relying on and continuing to just go back to that well over and over again, I think that's going to prove to be a big mistake by Disney. And I think something that Josh, if he really is taking a long term approach, should be figuring out how they take more swings at new ip, not something Disney's done really well.
- [18:54]
Matt Bellany
Yeah. Why is he going to do that? He's the guy that's been exploiting these massive franchises for decades now at the parks. Like you think he's going to prioritize big swings on unknown properties.
- [19:08]
Rich Greenfield
I think they need to.
- [19:09]
Matt Bellany
I agree. I think there's a kind of malaise. Now they would argue they do have new animated movies coming. They have a new Pixar movie coming in a few weeks. They have another Disney animation movie in the fall.
- [19:20]
Rich Greenfield
But they look forward to your prediction on that new animated movie. Matt. I'm looking forward, I'm looking forward to what you, what you predict for that one.
- [19:28]
Matt Bellany
Well, let's just say that neither Hoppers or the fall Disney movie made it into the draft this year for our box office draft.
- [19:34]
Rich Greenfield
Oh, I noticed.
- [19:36]
Matt Bellany
Neither of us thought that it would gross 400 million.
- [19:40]
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- [20:54]
Matt Bellany
So what does this mean for the overall kind of culture at Disney? Do you think this signals that the power structure at Disney has now shifted fully to the parks? Do you think that this is a moment for reflection on Iger's legacy and what he has been able to do and not do? I know he's very frustrated about the stock price. I know that he knows all of the media coverage when he steps down is going to lead with one thing amazing executive botched succession. And the stock has been down since he returned.
- [21:35]
Rich Greenfield
Look, they need to grow faster, right? And, and I think that gets back to if I'm Josh and I'm looking at this openly and honestly, I'm going, you know, linear tv, it's a great cash flow business, but it is not a growth business. And Jimmy Pitaro is doing as best as he possibly can with espn. But you know, running a sports streaming and linear TV business is no easy task.
- [22:00]
Matt Bellany
No, the rights are getting way more expensive and there's no path forward. They know. I mean, they just did this deal with the NFL. The valued ESPN valued ESPN at $30 billion. Great. Some speculation, by the way, that they did that in part to get that big valuation in case they want to spin ESPN off. And now they have a very big valuation to do that by. But where do you go with sports if you are Jimmy Pitaro in this new regime? Because the NFL is going to absolutely bend you over in the next negotiation.
- [22:35]
Rich Greenfield
Again, that's why this needs to be part of a separate capitalized company.
- [22:40]
Matt Bellany
You believe that?
- [22:42]
Rich Greenfield
Look, I believe Josh tomorrow understands everything that you and I are talking about. And I believe, I don't know if it happens in the next six months in their fiscal year, but I would say over the next 18 months. I would be shocked if Disney didn't move forward with a separation of the company to resemble what Warner did and then use that separation to invest in gaming or some other priority. That when Josh looks at it where he can put his stamp and say this is what the Disney of the next decade is going to look like.
- [23:13]
Matt Bellany
Even though Iger explicitly rejected that strategy.
- [23:17]
Rich Greenfield
Who's in charge?
- [23:18]
Matt Bellany
We know what happened.
- [23:18]
Rich Greenfield
Who's in charge? Who's in charge?
- [23:20]
Matt Bellany
I know, but we know what happened when Chapek did what Iger didn't want to do. All of a sudden Iger has got his feet up at the Brentwood Country Mart, eating his chicken sandwich. And he's telling everybody that passes by that the new guy is terrible. And. And I can't believe he's doing this. And I would have stood up for you and what's going on.
- [23:41]
Rich Greenfield
You know, if you had written the script of what was going to happen in the first go around, I don't think anyone would have believed it played out that way.
- [23:48]
Matt Bellany
I don't know. You know, Iger, he. He's very opinionated. He cares about his legacy. He cares about his image. And what was happening under Chapek was in direct contrast to the way Iger thinks of himself. Creator first, empowering creatives and thinking about the creative community. And Chapek did not give a shit about that.
- [24:11]
Rich Greenfield
I'm going to go out on a limb here, but not very far on a limb. I think the odds that Josh d' Amaro creates D Med is highly unlikely.
- [24:20]
Matt Bellany
That was the distribution arm of Disney. That RIP empowered Kareem Daniel over everything.
- [24:27]
Rich Greenfield
Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. Do I think that, you know, I would be surprised. Again, I go back to what Iger said. I know what he just said on TV the other day, but if you go back to what he said at Sun Valley, I think he knew the right answer was separating the company. Whether the timing was right. Yes, there was a lot of, you know, how to do the NBA deal. They got out of the ufc. Like, there's been. They had a launch D to C. Like, there's things that he wanted to do now that those things are all sort of set and done. I think ESPN is very well set up for the next decade in terms of sports rights. And I think the D2C is launched. I think now would be the time. Like, I think he's. He's got. He's achieved what he wanted to achieve. And I think this is the right time to set that asset free. And look, maybe there are strategic partners. I mean, who knows? I mean, obviously I'm later today I'm going to the Warner Netflix hearing. Who knows where this ends up? And someone's going to be a jolted lover here, right? Like someone's going to want an asset. Will there be other, you know, could there be other interests? Obviously Comcast and NBC Universal, they've signaled they're open to, you know, potential transactions.
- [25:33]
Matt Bellany
Paramount, they're not going to buy espn. I don't think they're going to buy espn. They have their own sports rights issues. I think. I agree. I think Demaro is probably looking closely at how Versant performs and how that spinoff is doing, because they would put a lot of this. Because it's a comp.
- [25:51]
Rich Greenfield
No, it's looking at it is actually the worst comp I've ever heard of. ESPN is not Versant. Those are completely different.
- [25:57]
Matt Bellany
Everything, I'm telling you, everything besides espn.
- [26:00]
Rich Greenfield
Yeah, but I would separate them and.
- [26:01]
Matt Bellany
Then you would add it. You add the $30 billion of ESPN onto whatever they're going to spin off in abc, in freeform, in fx, in all of that.
- [26:11]
Rich Greenfield
Yeah, I would disagree with you. I think ABC and broadcasting is in a very different category than general entertainment, cable networks or news networks like Versant. So, yeah, that's fair.
- [26:21]
Matt Bellany
But ABC and ESPN are coming for them, too. Like we say that now, but the broadcast clock is ticking as well.
- [26:30]
Rich Greenfield
Sure. And look, everyone, as we keep talking about it, everyone is competing for your time, which is. You know exactly why your podcast is now on YouTube.
- [26:37]
Matt Bellany
Right. Netflix competes with sleep. I know, I know. It competes with pretty trees on the side of the road.
- [26:44]
Rich Greenfield
You spend too much time in Hollywood.
- [26:47]
Matt Bellany
You don't spend enough. All right, well, I appreciate your time here. Some of the analysts have said this is a big win for Disney. This is the best possible outcome. I know the history is yet to be written, but are you happy with this? Should investors be happy with this? Should employees be happy with this?
- [27:05]
Rich Greenfield
I think employees should definitely be happy. I think, look, investors are a little nervous that Iger accelerated his exit. While that's good for Josh, I think people are trying to, like, guidance is back end weighted. Iger's leaving sooner than expected.
- [27:19]
Matt Bellany
They end yacht season. They need to understand that yacht season begins in April now. It really does.
- [27:25]
Rich Greenfield
So there is just fear among investors in terms of the timing and how sort of abruptly it all happened. But look, I think for Disney, you know, look, I don't know who were the outside candidates. Like, who else could have done this job? I mean, a hundred people.
- [27:39]
Matt Bellany
I don't believe that. I don't believe they were looking outside. This culture of the company is just so difficult to manage. And they needed an insider. I. That's what I believe.
- [27:48]
Rich Greenfield
But this is what we expected to happen. And so I think this is very much in keeping with what we expected to happen this year.
- [27:54]
Matt Bellany
Yeah, I just, I'm worried about the price of churros at Disneyland. I think with the parks guy in charge and the prices keep going way up, how much more can they extract from parks?
- [28:09]
Rich Greenfield
Look, if you look at what were the Investor concerns coming out of earnings, I think the number one was, hey, other than the hurricane comp, which made it easier, parks didn't really grow attendance in the US in fiscal December.
- [28:22]
Matt Bellany
Q1, yeah, they're just making more money off the people who do go.
- [28:25]
Rich Greenfield
They signaled Q2 attendance was going to be down because of international attendance headwinds. They say they'll make it up in the back half of the year. But you know, when companies say we'll make it up in the back half of the year, that scares investors. I mean that is not something investors like hearing well.
- [28:39]
Matt Bellany
And they've managed to ride the Trump tariffs and ride the universal epic universe opening and all of these things that we thought were gonna really hit the parks and the Canadians boycotting America, they've managed to do okay on that. And it just is a signal of how much parks is is of greatest importance to the company that even a whiff of international tourism being down sent the stock into a tailspin. And now you've got. They are so dependent and we're going to have a recession at some point. And recessions hit parks pretty hard. So they got to figure this stuff out pretty quickly. And I know they got stuff in the works. They got an Abu Dhabi park, they've got new rides opening where they're going to have greater capacity at these parks. And I know there's lots of things in the works. But when Disney is so dependent on their parks and cruises revenue, it opens them up to challenges just like any other consumer products company. Stuff that that all the avatars and zootopias in the world cannot fix.
- [29:47]
Rich Greenfield
I look forward to watching you on my television on YouTube tonight.
- [29:51]
Matt Bellany
Maybe we can get a Disney deal. You can be a Disney star. I'm sure they'd love that. All right, Rich, thank you very much. Thanks. We are back with the call sheet. Craig, first, some accountability. Last weekend I hit on send help. I took the over on 15, came in at 19 point something a little under 20 and I hit on Melania. I took the over on 5 million. Probably would have taken the over on Iron Lung as well, but we didn't get into that. So two W's for me last week. We're on a nice little hot streak. Mercy Melania and send help where you've hit the over. So you're three for three. Okay. This weekend, man, this is the dregs. Not only is this weekend the super bowl, but it is the Winter Olympics opening as well. So the studio is basically punted. We've got a Dracula movie that is scheduled to open this weekend from Luc Besson, who was like quasi canceled. Not really canceled, but he had some issues in his homeland. And this movie is only scheduled to gross about 5 million. That's the tracking. I don't what the NRG tracking is, and honestly, I kind of have no idea. I think that the movies from last weekend were strong and Send Help is probably going to beat it this weekend. So I guess I'll take the under on 5 million. Typically now when these movies don't get traction, they really don't get traction. So I guess I'll take the under. This movie stars Christoph Waltz. Yeah, not bad. But he's made some clunkers too. I mean, there's other movies coming out this weekend. There's a movie called Solo Mio, which is an Angel Studios. Kevin James. Kevin James, who's bald now, didn't realize that.
- [31:39]
Rich Greenfield
Good for him.
- [31:40]
Matt Bellany
Good for him. Yeah. He would look weird. Kevin James would look weird. 60 years old with fake hair. Sometimes you just have to own it. I know. It's way better. It's a good look. Then there's a Strangers sequel. Strangers, Chapter three. Lionsgate Cash grab announcement to the world. We have franchises. Please buy us. This one's not as strong a franchise as some of their others. The tracking is 4 million. The last one got to 21 total gross domestic. So no, that was worldwide. So, God, man, this is depressing. And then something called Whistle, which is another horror movie that is tracking for 1.5 million, which is about as low as tracking goes for movies that they keep track of on nrg. So you want to make a prediction just about Dracula, the Luc Besson film? Yeah, I think they're all going to gross below five. So we'll do a four. Four movies in one are going to gross below five million this weekend. Well, and this movie was released in France last summer and has already grossed about $29 million in France. His home country is still a name there. Don't. I don't trust the French on this one.
- [32:53]
Rich Greenfield
Okay.
- [32:54]
Matt Bellany
All right. So you're taking. He just got a Frankenstein movie on Netflix. No Dracula. Do we care what the critics say about this? Like, what do the critics have to say about the Dracula remake? Rotten Tomatoes has it at 67%. Metacritic gave it a 60. Okay, so who cares? Nobody. Nobody pays attention to this for it's Dracula. You're into Dracula. You're going to see it. Also, don't think that many. That many people are into Dracula the way that Rotten Tomatoes words their stuff. 75% of 20 critics reviews are positive. 75% of 20 critics reviews Are positive. Craig, we're not going to get into a Rotten Tomatoes discussion. We have done that episode that's like the Anchorman platform. It is not something to be trusted. And it's unbelievable that it became the industry standard. That's like the sex panther 60% of the time. It works every time. Okay, on that note, I want to thank my guest, Rich Greenfield Horbag, our director, Justin Lopez and Jon Jones. And I want to thank you. We'll see you one more time this week. Well, the holidays have come and gone once again.
- [33:56]
Rich Greenfield
But if you've forgotten to get that.
- [33:57]
Matt Bellany
Special someone in your life a gift.
- [33:59]
Rich Greenfield
Well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday.
- [34:02]
Matt Bellany
Offer of half off unlimited wireless.
- [34:04]
Rich Greenfield
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