Hi everyone, from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is the third

act of the barbenheimer phenomenon. Just kidding, this is on with Cara Swisher and I'm

Cara Swisher. Name is out this week, so we're going to dive right into the interview portion

or in this case, it's a panel about one of my favorite topics, the movie business.

For a long time, I've been saying that the theater business is getting smaller and smaller

due to consumers going digital, and well, box office numbers and the pandemic push to

streaming have borne me out on that. But this past weekend, Hollywood finally had some

solid wins. Even as the strikes of writers and actors continued, two films had explosive

openings at the box office. And while we don't have the week's final numbers yet, they

seem to be on track to push Barbie over the $200 million mark and Oppenheimer over

the $100 million mark. So are the movies back in business or is barbenheimer a cultural

phenomenon that will be impossible to replicate? I want to discuss this with three experts.

Matt Bellany is an entertainment journalist at Puck News who pens the what I'm hearing

newsletter and was previously editorial director of the Hollywood Reporter. Franklin Leonard

is a film and television producer who founded the blacklist. That's the list of Hollywood's

favorite never produced screenplays. And Brooke Hammerling is a communications expert

who writes the newsletter pop culture Mondays. Let's go.

Welcome Brooke, Matt and Franklin. It's been a busy week for Hollywood. So let's dive

right in starting with the barbenheimer weekend. That's the last time any of us can say that

word by the way. It is everywhere. And the media has lost its mind about it. But let me

start with Matt. Assess the weekend box office Barbie made I think $150 million domestically

and Oppenheimer made $80 million. It's finally now a hot summer movie after a cool one.

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