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Matthew Belloni, Eriq Gardner, Julia Alexander, Kim Masters & Scott Mendelson
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Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday
An essential, insider-friendly Hollywood tip sheet from Matthew Belloni, who spent 14 years in the trenches at The Hollywood Reporter and five before that practicing entertainment law. What I’m Hearing also features veteran Hollywood journalist Kim Masters, as well as a special companion email from Eriq Gardner, focused on entertainment law, and weekly box office analysis from Scott Mendelson.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
Scott Mendelson
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August 12, 2025
So, Who Gets the Credit for Warner Bros.?
David Zaslav’s once-flailing movie studio has notched its sixth straight $40 million-plus opening weekend, including two of the three top earners of the year. In simple terms, Warners’ hot streak comes from placing smart bets and making the most of them, but there’s always an asterisk in the new tangled Hollywood calculus.
Scott Mendelson
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July 28, 2025
Is $800 Million the New $1 Billion?
As summer hits its final stretch, box office watchers are doing the math on all the ways in which 2025, even with its fearsome foursome and a Man of Steel, could be playing catch-up until Christmas. The subdued month of July tells the story.
Scott Mendelson
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July 7, 2025
A Jurassic-Age Blockbuster Formula
With ‘Jurassic World: Rebirth,’ Universal once again proves that there’s more than one way for Hollywood to build a blockbuster franchise.
Scott Mendelson
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June 22, 2025
A Midsummer Box Office Dream
A timely 2025 midyear health check on the theatrical business, which is outpacing 2024 but behind 2023, as the industry plays with old formulas to manufacture new hits. So far, with a strong incoming late summer slate, $4 billion domestically looks like the floor.
Scott Mendelson
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May 26, 2025
Memorial Day’s Feel-Good Box Office Story
With two franchise hits in ‘Lilo & Stitch’ and ‘Mission 8,’ an oddball comedy, plus early spring hits still legging it out, this crucial bellwether weekend had enough box office and record-breakers to make everyone rethink the rush to streaming, and to adjust their summer estimates.
Scott Mendelson
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May 19, 2025
On the Edge of Glory: Early-Summer Box Office Report
Even without a record-breaking Memorial Day, the first half of 2025 is likely to land in solid box office territory thanks to Jack Black, ‘Sinners,’ and a bunch of Warner Bros. movies that are somehow hitting all the right notes.
Scott Mendelson
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April 22, 2025
Is ‘Sinners’ a Winner?
The Ryan Coogler period horror-drama won the weekend, the Cinemascores, and word of mouth despite its unusual deal framework and the anxiety around Warner Bros. Here’s what Sinners says about the state of the business.
Scott Mendelson
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April 8, 2025
Minecraft Games
A Jack Black video game tentpole offered up the year’s brightest box office., and saved Mike and Pam’s jobs—for now. So what went right with the ‘Minecraft’ movie?
Scott Mendelson
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March 25, 2025
‘Snow White’s Predictably Sleepy & Dopey Flop
Forget the movie’s controversies about Gaza, little people, and its leading lady. What doomed the vastly underperforming ‘Snow White’ is that Disney simply overestimated the value of a live-action remake of a historic, but not exactly beloved, film.
Scott Mendelson
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March 18, 2025
Theatrical’s Long Covid
Five years after the pandemic shut down movie theaters, so many other out-of-home industries have fully recovered—Broadway, the concert business, live sports, etcetera. But the exhibition industry’s “survive til ’25” mantra has proved naive.
