I asked David Poland (read his Substack!) to come on this week to pick his brain about the state of the big studio comedy, a genre that has diminished in recent years as international grosses became more important and a lot of comedy releases shifted to streaming in an effort to reduce advertising costs. Which led to us talking about the states of various genres (including horror and superhero pictures) as well as the state of play around the world. If you learned something this week, I hope you share this episode with a friend!
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The Society-Deforming Spectacle of Jubilee
On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Puck media correspondent Julia Alexander to discuss the absurdities of Jubilee. You might not recognize the name of the company but you’ve probably seen some of their clips; most recently, Mehdi Hasan went up against 20 self-described far-right conservatives that resulted in at least one of the participants losing his job after he proudly declared himself an autocrat and downplayed Nazi crimes during the Holocaust. Is this brand of debate spectacle lucrative? Maybe! Is it bad for society? Undoubtedly. We examine why on this week’s episode. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend!
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Why Anime Is Taking Over Pop Culture
On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Crunchyroll EVP Mitchel Berger to talk about anime’s increasing popularity with those yearning for community. We reference a report on the state of anime several times; you can read it here. The long and the short of it, though, is that anime is increasingly popular with Gen Z and Gen Alpha, which will likely come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the wall of manga in their local Barnes and Noble. From theatrical rollouts in the United States and around the world to the 17-million-subscriber-strong Crunchyroll streaming service to the sold-out Anime Expo in Los Angeles earlier this month, it’s an enormous segment of the market that holds a deep attachment to younger audiences. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, I hope you share it with a friend!
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How 'Sovereign' Tackles a Cult with Compassion
On this week’s episode, I talked to Christian Swegal, the writer-director of the new film Sovereign, about his new film and its focus on the cult-like behavior of the Sovereign Citizen movement. We discussed Nick Offerman’s commanding lead performance, how you adapt a movie with an ending and setting as tragic as this one, and the difficulty of finding compassion even for those who seem to deserve it least. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out Sovereign, which is in theaters and on VOD now. And please, share this with a friend!
Movies like this don’t have huge ad budgets; they need word of mouth to thrive. It’s a tough story with some great performances by Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, and Dennis Quaid. If you want to see something a little different from the standard franchise fare flooding the multiplex, you have to support movies like Sovereign.
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Is 'F1' a Hit? How Do We Even Judge That?
Always glad to talk to the Entertainment Strategy Guy (read him here!) about the state of play in the world of streaming and beyond. Among the topics discussed this week: Whether or not F1: The Movie is a hit (and what being a “hit” means for a $200 million original for Apple as opposed to a different type of movie for a different type of studio); whether F1, the sport, is a butts-in-seats phenomenon in the United States; why the streaming wars are tightening and other streaming services are closing the originals gap with Netflix; and how sports rights are going to shake out over the next few years as the ESPN streaming service comes online and regional sports networks start to dwindle. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!
Sonny Bunch hosts The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood, a new podcast featuring interviews with folks who have their finger on the pulse of the entertainment industry during this dynamic—and difficult—time.
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