The Odyssey's Record Run: What It Means for Hollywood

With the Odyssey breaking box office records and giving Hollywood its biggest hit of the summer, the movie business is getting a major boost. At the same time, Netflix's latest earnings show how the streaming wars continue to evolve, even as big screen movies prove they can still draw massive audiences. Joining us now to break it all down is Paul Dergarabedian, head of Marketplace Trends at Red Crack. Thank you so much for being here, Paul. Great to be here, Justine. Live this morning, it's great. Yeah, we're so happy to have you. There's so much to talk about. First of all, the Odyssey has become just the biggest movie of the summer. What has made this film such a phenomenon? I know you've seen it, so tell us all about it. So I've seen it twice. I saw it last Thursday at a 2 p.m. showing, the first showing of The Run over here at my local Westlake, Sinopolis. Phenomenal film, unbelievable. Came out of I did last night, 11 p.m. showing at the Chinese Theater right here in Hollywood, and it was a packed house on a Sunday night at 11 p.m. I mean, the line for concessions, you would have thought it was a Saturday night with a big Marvel movie opening in the middle of the summer. It was incredible. And this 70mm IMAX, I mean, there's only a handful of theaters around the world that can present The Odyssey in that format. It was incredible. And I have to say, I've seen it in both. I did the A-B comparison. As long as you see this movie on the biggest screen possible, you're going to enjoy it, whether it be IMAX, 70mm, other premium formats. It's just a thing of beauty to behold. I haven't seen a movie like this in so long. They say they don't make movies like that anymore. Well, they do. Christopher Nolan is. Reminds me of David Lean-type widescreen. No CGI in this movie. No AI in this movie. Look out, Oscar, because Nolan's coming for you. Yeah. I mean, it just seems like it's an incredible feat, just the undertaking to make it, and then now the success that it's been having. So tell us a little bit more about how really big of a box office performance it has had so far, and what it also means for movie theaters. Well, it was $264 million globally on the estimates, over $120 million domestically, $139 million internationally. IMAX was huge. I think it was their biggest weekend ever, if I'm not mistaken. And it's a big deal because of what I think is going to happen with this movie. Much as two very different movies in this, different scale, Obsession and Back Rooms inspired people to go to the movie theater, this likewise is doing that. So it shows you in a summer where you have like these very modestly budgeted films earning hundreds of millions of dollars, but also you've got a big epic film old school from a storied and iconic film director. And then you have the Invite out there from Olivia Wilde that's expanding week after week and doing great business. So when you have that combination of films, Toy Story 5 is out there, of course, Minions and Monsters. There've been some missteps over the past few weeks. Not every movie is connecting, but more often than not, they are. And I think what this movie does, it instills in people that idea that going to the movie theater is differentiated from every other type of entertainment. That big screen experience, it was electric in that movie theater last night at the Chinese theater, got out of the theater at 2 a.m. I'm sure a lot of people had to work today like me, and it was fully worth that experience. Yeah. It's just amazing to hear that it's bringing so many people out to the movie theaters again, which again, for a long time, it was a little bit questionable how many people would return to actually going to the cinema. Now we're seeing that people really are. Turning now to the streaming side. Can I interrupt you real quick though, Justine? Yeah, of course, sure. So in two weeks, we have Spider-Man Brand New Day opening, and Zendaya, Tom Holland, and Jon Bernthal, who are in The Odyssey, they're in that movie in two weeks. So anyway, just a sidebar, pretty interesting. Yeah, it is interesting, and it's so funny to see these actors in these completely different types of roles coming out so close to each other. I've never really seen anything like it, and Spider-Man is going to be a massive film, and just having Zendaya, and Tom Holland, and Jon Bernthal in this movie, it's going to inspire a huge opening weekend. Some are saying $200 million plus domestically for the opening weekend on Spider-Man Brand New Day, and that'll lead into a really strong month of August for movie theaters, and that's the home stretch of the summer. Yeah, I mean, it really seems like it's just one big power-packed punch after another here with these huge stars in these huge productions that a lot of people have been looking forward to. We were talking about The Odyssey tickets being sold out, especially at the IMAX specialty theaters, well in advance. So people are so excited for these experiences, and so interesting to see people wanting to go out to the theater and actually go to a movie, but then we're also seeing people wanting to stay home as well, and being in that air conditioning in the comfort of their own house, their own apartment, and with Netflix now just reporting their earnings recently, they're continuing to outperform many expectations. So what do you think is driving that success that we're seeing with streaming, with Netflix, also in the context of everyone going to the movie theaters now, too? Well, Justine, you just made a great point, because simultaneous to this big-screen Christopher Nolan extravaganza, and people just going to the movie theater and seeing the film on the complete opposite end of that scale spectrum, not in terms of dollars or revenue, but in terms of the size of the screen, is Netflix. And look, Netflix, it will always have those ups and downs in the stock, and I know they just reported their earnings. For Netflix, it's all about getting subscribers and keeping them, eliminating churn, having great original shows, but also those library titles. I did notice the stock kind of went down, but I'm not a stock analyst. So I just look at it as they have to stay the course, keep bringing what they're bringing in terms of the content, and also the way they market the content or the way they present it in their user interface on screen. And it's almost like a utility. I mean, for me and a lot of people, I have no stake in Netflix at all, but I mean, there's no way that I could live without it. So people do have to choose between which streaming service they have to keep because it's expensive to have, unless you bundle, and to figure out where each piece of content is. Like if you want to see the show Lucky with Daniel Taylor-Joy, which is on Apple TV, that's different than Netflix, which Netflix has a lot of documentaries and a lot of reality TV. Not that I watch reality TV, but they have a lot of it. Yeah, I mean, we definitely have so much to keep our eye on with all of this, but we really appreciate you being here to break it all down for us and go through all the ins and outs of Hollywood here. Paul Daugherty, our BDN Head of Marketplace Trends at Rentrack. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Justine, and go see The Odyssey as soon as possible. Oh, I will. I'm excited. I can't wait. Thank you.