In this episode, the Ticket to Ride trio breaks down the Memorial Weekend battlefield and what it means for the summer ahead. With high-stakes titles like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch, Superman and Jurassic World Rebirth on the horizon, the crew debates how theaters—and audiences—are navigating the crowd.
Inside the episode:
– Memorial Day Weekend: a crucial litmus test for cinema’s summer momentum
– Opening weekend vs. the long game: why playability might just be the real king
– Marketing muscle, premium formats, and the evolving strategy to win eyeballs
– The fickle audience factor—and how even “can’t-miss” movies still have to fight for attention
– What happens when multiple tentpoles go head-to-head?
– Plus: why strong holdovers might quietly become this summer’s secret winners
Whether you're a studio exec, exhibitor, or box office nerd, this one’s for anyone trying to decode the why behind the what opened big this weekend.
[Music]
Hey guys, welcome to Tickets to Ride.
Hey. Hey. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome
back. Welcome home. Yeah, welcome home.
Right. What What episode is this? I'm
putting Paul on the spot. I know Paul
doesn't I don't know.
It's 11. It's episode 11. Okay. Episode
11. Wow. Look at that. We're just
rolling along here, guys. Well, this is
a very uh critical weekend. not
critical. It's an important weekend.
Critical sounds negative, but with the
Memorial Weekend right here on the
horizon, one of the most epic weekends
in history for the movie theater, uh,
for movie theaters in general and for
audiences and for studios. I think we're
going to have a much brighter
uh, much more fun, much more
stupendous box office memorial weekend
than we did a year ago. a major bummer.
That is, it's funny. I mean, we should
get right into that, Paul, because that
is probably the biggest story like as
we're, you know, there's a lot of
storylines going on right now. And I
think, you know, if you go back six
weeks ago, uh, the sky was falling as it
has numerous times since we started this
podcast. Pre Minecraft. Pre Minecraft,
right? pre Minecraft, it was all over
and movie theaters were going to be
extinct by the time we get to August.
Warner Brothers goes and contributes
what is it $750 million of box office
and all of a sudden Happy Days are here
again. Um, Final Destination goes out
and does 50 million last weekend. Do you
realize I didn't even, you know, I I
started doing the uh the research over
the weekend, 25 years since the first
installment of that franchise came out
and that uh that grossed $27 million
back in March of 2020. This one goes out
and does $51 million. It almost doubled
that. It is the highest grossing
installment of the franchise to
date. Unbelievable. Who knew, Mike, that
people getting killed in strange ways
would be just as popular today
as it was back in the day, right?
Definitely. And I got to give Warers a
lot of credit, man. They they they took
a little bit of a drubbing in that first
quarter, but man, they've come back with
a vengeance, a trifecta of Minecraft
movie Sinners, and now Final Destination
Bloodlines that every studio should be
celebrating because think of all the
people that were in theaters in April.
And then of course we have to give
credit to Disney as well with
Thunderbolts being exposed to in the
marketing and trailers for these
upcoming films coming out Memorial
weekend, postmemorial weekend and
beyond. And wow, you're right, Mike. I
mean, everybody was doom and gloom. And
that will happen when you have a March
that was down 46% versus March last
year, but we had an April that was up
100% versus April last year. And I
predict, if not the biggest Memorial
Weekend of all time, which is a high
bar, and we'll get to that number, but
also one of the best lineup of films
I've ever seen for the summer. But I
think this May, I mean, last May was
pretty bad. And last uh the Memorial
Weekend of 24, we all know why because
of the strikes and the resulting chaos.
So, the release calendar was the lowest
grossing in decades. the 4-day period
according to our com score
data 132.3 million right right for 4
days for all films domestically US I I'm
willing to bet that one of the films
opening this weekend will surpass that
on its own right I think you've stitched
together quite a narrative there Mike
and the and the two and the and the two
blockbusters together will do better
maybe possibly will do better than the
entirety of the best Memorial Day in
history. And that's just those two
films. And then there's all these then
there's all these holdovers that are
doing very very well. Holdovers are key.
And I do have in front of me the and I
can give this to your team, Thaddius, so
we can put up this chart for those
watching on video. But the biggest
Memorial weekend ever, a high bar, by
the way, 2013, Fast and Furious 6 led a
4day of
$314.3 million. Wow. I think that's
going to be a tough bar to That's a
tough bar. I However, yeah, go ahead,
Mike. I think in looking at the data,
Paul, that that you guys put together,
uh, if this is not the second best,
it'll be top three, top four of all
time, which is saying a lot considering
Memorial Day weekend used to be way back
in the day, guys, the kickoff to summer
and then it kind of got moved back a
little bit by, you know, each year. I
think we all saw, you know, now it's
literally the last week of April, first
week of May. That's global warming.
That's global warming, isn't it? Well, I
guess summer starts earlier, right?
Right. Um but but that is I like it. I
like it. Uh, but but I think what what
that's all telling us is, you know, we
keep saying this over and over and over
again, and I know, you know, I've been
accused of sounding like a a homer for
the industry on this, but what it really
comes down to is it's truly about the
content, guys. And, you know, we got
into it a little bit on our last episode
where we talked about, you know,
existing IP versus, you know, the
struggles that some of the the
non-existing IP has had. And but when
you look at something like Sinners which
is just cruising along right now and you
know is the highest grossing you know
original IP I think in 10 years
something along those lines. It's really
amazing what they've been able to pull
off with that. It really is and that's
so important for the summer season
because you need that momentum and this
year we had a Marvel movie to kick off
the summer which is always a good sign.
And uh you know if you look back the
last couple of years like okay we talked
about 24 being 132.3 million for the
4-day memorial frame domestically 23 was
205 right 22 was 224 million the the top
two movies this weekend will earn well
if we do let's say uh uh for let's see
Lilo and Stitch could do 140ish for four
and uh if If Mission does 7580 or more
for Yeah, you're looking at 220 right
there because those two movies those two
movies and as we know the holdovers are
very strong right now. Uh you're going
to have a very strong hold over with um
Final Destination uh which I think it's
safe to say this isn't their Final
Destination. My guess is uh you won't
have to wait 13 years for the next
installment of the franchise. Um, but I
I think between Final Destination,
between Sinners, between, you know,
what's left in Minecraft, Minecraft is
still looking at a very solid, you know,
4-day frame for all film. Did you guys
follow that Sinners had a had a sort of
return run in IMAX last weekend, right?
And for the weekend it did um
$930,000 or something in in nine
locations or $950,000 in nine location.
That's $100,000 per venue in the
weekend. And what you what week is
sinners in now? It's just amazing,
right?
It's amazing. Now I want to ask you guys
both. I want you each answer this
individually. So, you know, we're
fixated, not we, but just in general,
there's a fixation on opening weekend
gross. And Thunderbolts opened to 74.8,
I believe, million domestically. And
people are like, well, Avengers Endgame
opened at 357, all this, you know, back
in 2019. But I I I think, and I'm
already kind of answering my own
question in a way, what's more
important, big opening weekend or
long-term playability? Mike, what say
you? Um, I'm actually going to say it's
very dependent on the film itself. And,
um, there are certain films where it's
all about a big weekend. And, you know,
I I mean, we've talked about this
before, too. You know, there are those
films that are um they're very
commercial. Uh, they've got great
marketability. They may be challenged
when it comes to playability. And in
those cases, Paul, I would say it's all
about, you know, get as much as you can
that opening weekend. It's not like a
fine wine. It's not going to get any
better. However, there are those movies
such as Minecraft, such as Sinners that
we're seeing, uh, which are what I would
call, you know, more of a a marathon,
less of a sprint. They are the And I
know it's hard to say it with a $415
million movie that it's a sleeper, but
in the case of Minecraft, no one had
that on the bingo card doing $415
million and no one had it holding in the
way it did. And no one had sinners
holding in the way it did. So I I don't
think you can say in my mind at least
that it's important that a film, you
know, has long playability. Every film
is different and every film needs to be
judged for for what it is. I mean, if
you look at something like Captain
America, uh, Brave New World, that's one
where I think you could say it's a
little disappointing that it did not
have the legs that, you know, a typical
Marvel film might have. It opened big
and it flamed out very quickly.
Thunderbolts uh, had a second weekend
drop on par with the heyday of Marvel in
the mid50% range for a second weekend.
So Thaddius, what what do you say about
the I'm just going to sort of opening
versus long-term? Yeah, I think I mean
on the one hand, if you're the studio,
it's just whatever the long-term number
is, I would assume, right? Although you
have to make decisions. Here I am not a
studio guy talking about what the
studios think. But you know, the studio
has to make decisions about how to
market the film, right? So you have to
know what you have and how to approach
what you have, which comes back to your
point, Mike. But I think from the
exhibitor's point of view, it's a
symphony. You've got all kinds of
different films going on at one point in
time and you want to have enough volume
weekend to weekend. So if you've got a a
a film that's holding well then you hold
on to it and that contributes to the to
the symphony, right? And then you have
big openers that might come and go in a
flash and you have to kind of have a
variety of product in your in your
cinniplex in order to be successful. So
it depends on which of the two
perspectives you're coming from. And I
like what you said about a symphony
because we're having a symphony right
now at least April, May, and going
through the summer whereas we had last
year we had a cacophony if you
will and that really kind of I think
hurt the hurt the year. I mean we really
didn't get kickarted into summer until
June with Bad Boys Ride or Die last
year, then Inside Out 2, but we were
like making up for a f almost a first
half of the year that was so disrupted.
And this year it just seems like and
Mar, let's face it, and Mike, we've
talked about this for years, that it's
the movie gods, right? Part of it is the
movie gods smiling because if you go
back to March, it was pretty bad. And
there were some really good originals
out there. Mickey 17, Black Bag,
Novacane. I mean, there's some there was
another one. I'm Drop was another one
that what got great. I mean, but that's
got to go back to again and and it's
the, you know, everything is there
there's pluses and minuses on everything
and is what it comes down to and I think
this goes back to the topic from the
last uh time we got together and that is
marketing of original IP is extremely
difficult right now. breaking through
the the clutter and all of that noise is
more difficult than ever when you take
existing IP and you mentioned uh Lilo
and Stitch this weekend coming up. Lilo
and Stitch is probably one of the most
beloved animated um classics that Disney
has in in modern generation. I know a
lot of kids grew up on that who are now
young adults who are adults and actually
have kids of their own that they want to
share that experience with the
underestim not underestimating but it
doesn't have a as big of a hurdle to get
over because it's already like I've
already loved that I want to go see it.
Same way with Mission Impossible.
Mission Impossible is a known uh
commodity. When you get into something
like black bag, like Mickey um 17 drop,
you got that is you have to educate the
audience to why is it that you should
spend $125 to come see this movie? And
that becomes part of the the the big
issue. And I think as an industry, and
this goes back to what we were talking
about, you know, a few weeks ago, that's
a nut we've got to figure out. And if we
don't figure that out, you know, that's
going to lead to much bigger issues down
the road. That's and and last breath was
the other one that was well reviewed and
all that. And then sinners comes along.
You know, people start all we always
talk about this that big pronouncements
are made about our industry during a
sliver of time like March uh where those
originals didn't connect and then s but
sinners had a lot going for it. Ryan
Cougler, Michael B. Jordan, great
reviews. I mean, everything kind of came
into play there. But yeah, I mean that's
what makes our industry so interesting
and difficult to kind of put in a box
because it's everchanging. But I got to
say, I've been going out there a lot and
just talking about this lineup of films
and we may have talked about this on our
last podcast. This the cadence,
frequency, the excitement. I mean, I'm
looking at like I don't know, How to
Train Your Dragon, the response that got
at Cineacon, that could be I'm not going
to say the biggest movie of the year,
but it's who knows, right? Who knows? It
could be huge. That's another one where
if you go back and if you look at the
history of the franchise and those are
all animated movies, there's a ceiling
on what those movies do, right? It's
very possible that this movie opens to
what the total gross is for for those
films, which is, you know, when it's
kind of mindboggling when you think
about it. And to your point, Paul, the
lineup of films between now and the end
of summer, and I know you always like to
uh you know, you you you when we had the
$4 billion summer and you know, you
would equate that to how that was going
to work out for end of year. Um Paul, if
you don't know it, everyone, he is a mad
scientist when it comes to the
algorithms of how the world of the box
office will work. Um, but you know, I
had many discussions going into the
spring with several distributors and
exhibitors who were concerned that we
would not get to $9 billion this year,
right? Um, the the topic now is trying
to keep everybody tempered from the from
saying, "Wow, we can be at 10 billion."
Like, slow down, guys. We're not that
we're not there yet. So, well, I will
predict that we will get to over four
billion this summer. I don't see and
especially with an August that looks
killer. This isn't Leave it on the floor
August or, you know, the dog days of
August. When I look at the uh Naked Gun,
Bad Guys 2, Freak Your Friday, Weapons,
Nobody Too, Cot Stealing the Roses. What
are you kidding me? It's fantastic. I
mean, it's unreal. The punk rock month
is back cuz that's the month where we
got in Glorious Bastards District 9
Super Bad Guardians 1, right? I just
from soup to nuts, man. From beginning
to end, I don't know how to say it. And
it's not I'm not just Look, if the
lineup sucked, well, I wouldn't say it
sucked, but I wouldn't be saying it's
one of the best ever. And I've talked to
a lot of journalists and uh talking
about I think this going to be one of
the best summers ever. And they're like,
it's going to be a record breaker. I go,
I didn't say that, right? I said it's
going to be one of the best summers
ever. That doesn't necessarily mean
we're going to break
4.76 billion like we did back in 2013.
It just means that the currency of
goodwill and the love of the movie
theater and appreciation for the movie
going experience is going to be
heightened and amplified and finally put
to bed this idea that the movie theater
is not going to survive. There's
challenges of course, but let's just get
off of that notion. So, as Mike always
says, it it's always about the movies.
It's about the product. I don't even
like to call it product, but you know
what I'm saying. So, I live in Boston. I
live in Boston. And every summer there
are stories about the tourist industry
on Cape Cod. It was a good it was a
sunny summer. It was a rainy summer. It
was a good tourist season. It was a bad
tourist season, right? And it's it's a
chronic media story every single summer.
And when we're up, we're up. And when
we're down, the whole industry is done
forever. I think the movie industry is
the same thing. There are good summers
because there's good product or good
weather as the case may be and there are
bad summers which is the way it works,
right? I'm stealing that. I'm stealing
that from you, Thaddius. I love that
because that's exactly what it is. It's
as unpredictable as the weather almost.
It's well I mean and and that's the one
thing that is so unique about the the
movie business as opposed to almost any
other industry when you roll out a
product and that is the audience is so
fickle and you have you can you can
think you know what you're doing. you
can put together what you think is the
greatest package of, you know, with
actors and and producers and everything.
And at the end of the day, if the
execution isn't there, everybody looks
at it and goes, "Ho hoham." And, you
know, a movie is also something that
doesn't have this, you know, if you roll
out a box of cereal and for whatever
reason the campaign doesn't work on on
the opening day, you can tweak the
campaign and maybe you can get there.
You don't get that luxury with a with a
movie. If the movie is a crash and burn
on Friday, it's yesterday's news by
Sunday. That's right. It doesn't get
that that it's it's unique in that way.
Conversely, Paul talking about like
that, you know, movie that has the long
legs. Yeah. If a movie comes out and
it's a discovery and people love it, all
of a sudden, you know, it went from what
was that to you've got to see this
movie. Well, do you think that could
happen with F1? Because there's a lot of
grumblings about F1. And I want to
disabuse people of the idea that since
oh it comes on tracking lower than
expected. This is a brand new IP. I mean
Brad Pitt is not brand new IP. Joe
Kazinski is not brand new IP. But
traditionally Formula 1 movies like
Rush, Grand Prix, Lal, they have not
done that well traditionally at the box
office. To me it's going to be a movie
whatever it opens to once people go and
see it especially in IMAX or you know
the premium formats. It's going to build
that buzz. I it's got a lot going for
it, right? I mean that that F1 has a lot
going for it. It's got Brad. They had
they had the industry screenings of this
uh last week and um we happened to have
um the Will Rogers film row golf
tournament last Thursday and uh the big
talk was the F1 screening. And when I
say the big talk, I don't mean the big
talk of oh look out for that. It was
more of like that was absolutely
awesome. I did not hear one negative
thing on that movie. I think that movie
has a chance again. I'm going to put
this in that it's hard to call a movie
like that a sleeper, but I have a
feeling we're going to look back on that
at the end of uh summer going, "Wow, we
didn't we didn't quite see that number
coming from." But it could rack up a lot
of good weekends over many weeks in a
row in the way some of the films that we
were talking about a minute ago. You
know, Paul Paul brought this up and I've
just pulled up the calendar and I let
let's talk a little bit about what we
have coming up. We'll start with this
weekend. We have Lilo and Stitch. We
have Mission Impossible. And then uh our
friends at Angel have The Last Rodeo on
May 30th. Uh we get uh Karate Kid
Legends. By the way, I saw the trailer
for Karate Kid Legends. Looks great. And
we kind of think of like, sorry to
interrupt you, Mike, but I just want to
jump in real quick. We kind of think of
like Memorial Weekend's the last weekend
of May. It's not postmemorial weekend,
you're going to have Karate Kid and then
after that some really cool movies as
well. Well, then you get Ballerina on
June 6 from the world of John Wick. Um
then you have uh uh Paul Dabedian's uh
How to Train Your Dragon on June 13th.
Don't forget the Phoenician scheme. Did
you direct that, Paul? Did you direct
that? Yeah, I directed it.
Right. Right. And I did. I I jumped over
the Phoenician scheme, which, you know,
is is going to be a very interesting
movie that a lot of people have their
eyes on. But then you get to June 20th
and you have Ilio and then you have 28
years later, which looks great, right?
And then you have on the 27th we have F1
and then we have Megan 2.0. And I'm only
hitting the the the the what I would
call the marquee ones here. We have some
really cool like barbenheimer
possibilities here. Oh my god. Do you No
kidding. F1. I don't Yeah, don't get me
started on Yeah. 28 Helios later. I I
don't know. It's kind of crazy out
there. Then there's this little movie on
uh over July 4th called Jurassic World
Rebirth. Wow. Uh then you have another
little movie on the 11th called Super.
You may have heard of that. And then on
the 18th, uh, we have Smurfs and the
reboot of I Know What You Did Last
Summer. Then on and then we get to July
25th and then Marvel's, uh, which which
looks like right now it's probably one
of the most anticipated movies of the
summer. So good. Fantastic 4.
Definitely. Um, and so now that's just
July. Then we get to August, which Paul
was talking about. You have Wait, I got
to play devil's devil's advocate here.
We have to keep it real. Is there too
much good stuff? Are any of these movies
going to get hurt? Is it too much one
after the next? Is it too much to expect
audiences to go out every weekend or
will the marketplace expand to
accommodate all these amazing? That is a
really good question because this is,
you know, we saw a little of this right
after the pandemic. If you guys
remember, right when things kind of
opened up again, there were all those
movies that had been put on the shelf
and they were kind of lined up like
planes waiting to land at an airport.
And we went through that up until I
believe Bullet Train was the last movie
in that that stretch in the first week
of August and then the pipeline dried up
if I remember correctly and we had that
just one monster after another. So the
your question Paul is is very well
founded because post pandemic there
really is no precedent as far as you
know does the marketplace expand as it
previously did. So pre- pandemic the
marketplace would expand and basically
it would make room for all these movies.
Now, the one thing we also know about
the movie business is that while all of
these things look great on on paper,
there are going to be one or two of
these that don't live up to
expectations.
So, we know and we also know there's
going to be one or two of them that
someone's going to go, "Where did that
come from?"
you know, um, you know, you look at this
calendar and one of those could be, you
know, Neon has a horror film on August,
uh, the August 1st weekend called
Together. You know, could that be this
year's long legs? I I don't know. You
know what I mean? But, you know, then we
get into August and then we have Naked
Gun. We have Bad Bad Guys 2. Uh then you
have you know weapons and freak of your
Friday from uh on the eth as well as uh
sketch and then you know now you're you
know once you get into you know toward
the end of August then you have nobody
too and remember nobody was a you know a
pandemic hit. So the question really
goes is, you know, is there, you know,
to your point, Paul, does this keep
rolling all the way through? You know,
what would the shortage be, right?
There's enough seats at the movie
theater. Maybe there's a little bit of a
premium on the premium large format
seats, but by and large, there's enough
seats at the movie theater. There's
probably enough popcorn buckets to serve
the popcorn, right? Well, it's good that
uh AMC is doing that 50% off Wednesdays
cuz that which is another will drive
attendance. Who knows what that will do
to box office, but it'll certainly drive
attendance. Right. Nadius, you bring up
a great point. How are all these films,
not all of them need or have to have
premium screens, but there's a lot of
them here that do. How is that going to
play into, you know, there's a lot
there's only a certain amount of shelf
space, and you have to see Mission in in
IMAX or or a big screen format. You have
to see Superman like that. many of these
other films, F1 as well and others and
Jurassic, how are they all going to, it
may be an open-ended question, but how
are they all going to get those screens
that they need to get those premium
format? I mean, it'll be a struggle.
There'll be a there'll be a kind of
conflict between the different studios
as well as, you know, the negotiations
that the studios have with the
exhibitors around which film is going
to, you know, get those screens at a
given complex or across the whole
circuit. I was just talking to an
exhibitor the other day that has, you
know, a pretty large footprint and
they'll say, "Well, I'll give you this
complex for this title on my IMAX screen
and I'll give you this complex for this
other title." And that's part of the
negotiation. However, I think you we all
need to keep in mind that a lot of these
exhibitors have upgraded their regular
auditoriums in pretty significant ways.
You know, luxury amenities, recliner
seats. So, it's still a very it's still
a premium movie movie going experience
even if you're not in the IMAX screen.
Well, I mean champagne problem to have
like how how are we going to it is a
yeah it's a total first world problem to
have and a lot of it's going to be
survival of the fittest as well and that
is you know as you start going in and as
you start seeing the ticket sales from
one film to another is going to help you
know make those decisions for the
exhibitor. And you you make a a really
good point there, Thaddius, where um
overall the presentation in these
screens is dramatically better than when
I worked in a movie theater way back
when. The difference though is remember
the PLF formats are getting $4 to5 extra
per ticket, right? that, you know, as
much as it's the um experience that is
important, you know, on the business
side, the dollars and cents matter. And
getting that extra upcharge um you know,
is the difference could be the
difference between a $50 million weekend
and a $45 million weekend or The Last
Mission Impossible and Oppenheimer as
the case may be, right? Because that was
a case that comes to mind where there
was really contest over who was going to
get the IMAX screen. All you have to do
is we just we just kind of went over
real quick this summer. You know, you
have a stretch where you're going to
have Superman, F1, and Jurassic World
all vying for the same premium formats
in a very, you know, condensed. July is
like and then with Fantastic 4 to round
out July. So, that's going to be like
the PLF
month to end all PLF month. Well, if if
you're an IMAX stockholder, it's going
to be a good uh good stretch for you.
So, I want to sort of that's true. I
want to touch back on something that you
sort of brought out, Paul, which is, you
know, what happens with um sort of the
studios or the industries. It's not just
the studio, it's the exhibitor as well.
Ability to market all of these titles
effectively. So, you get so the consumer
gets that in his or her head. That's the
film that I want to see. You know,
attendance, it's a sort of a dirty
little secret within the industry, but
attendance is down very significantly
from what it was pre- pandemic still,
even if the box office is inching up and
inching up because the average ticket
prices are increasing. So, I think and
the screen count is also down, but it's
not down that much. So, there's a lot of
capacity in these movie theaters as long
as you can get the people to come to the
theaters, right? There's lots of show
times. The films are great or they will
be great. They are great. They will be
great. So, it's comes back then to your
point you've made several times, Mike,
which is marketing. You've got to
somehow get the message out to the
audience to get them to the theater.
Again, you know, when you know, you're
not wrong. And the the attendance issue
is definitely something that um I think
a lot of industry observers are very
much aware and concerned of and we keep
going back to we have to grow the top of
the funnel and we have to find ways to
um and I don't and and anyone who's ever
heard me on this subject I always say
it's not even bringing people back it's
finding new people to come to the Great
point and to show them that this is a
great value proposition. And and again
that's another key in in my mind and
that is you know whether you're spending
12 13 14
$15 that is a great value proposition
for what you're getting compared to
wherever you could wherever else you
could spend the money for. Talk about
what AMC did this week in terms of
trying to drive attendance. Yeah, but I
would argue too that, you know, for
people who have so many options at home
on streaming, that's what raises the bar
on what it takes to get people in the
movie theater. I always say streaming
and movie theaters are additive and
complimentary, not adversarial, but it
just means the bar has been raised in
terms of what it takes for someone to
say, I've already paid for my month of
whatever name the streaming service. I
can just sit on my butt, watch a movie,
pause it, go to the fridge, take a
bathroom break. you know, the
convenience factor, but then you get one
a person going to see Mission Impossible
and they'll be like, whoa, this is
totally different. We need more people
and I don't know how you do that. I
guess just through marketing and and
Mike, as you said, through proper
messaging and then to get new people to
go, but it's a it's a very complicated,
very competitive entertainment
landscape. and the fact that movie
theaters are doing as well as they did.
I just want to say just for point of
reference, the Memorial Weekend of 2020,
we all know what that than that was. The
total four days, $842,000.
I think we're going to do better than
that. I think we're going to do a little
Well, I I want to go back to one thing
about marketing, and this is something
that caught me caught my eye last week.
I am
fascinated with uh this organization
called the Savannah Bananas. I don't
know if you guys are familiar with them.
They are kind of the Harlem Globe
Trotters of baseball. And uh they have
they have built the brand from nothing
to uh a week and a half ago they sold
out in Nashville um where uh the Titans
play and 81,000 people to come see the
you know this just baseball menagerie so
to speak. The interesting thing is when
you talk to when when you listen to to
the the guy who owns them, he's all
about marketing and he's and he even
calls his company Fans First. And it was
really interesting hearing what he was
saying because he was saying he wanted
to be a great value proposition goes
back to that. And his ticket price,
which is now around $30 a ticket, um
includes food and beverage when you go
to the when you go to the game. So he's
not looking to nickel and dime. He's not
looking to make it a a laborious
experience. He's make he's looking to
make it a fantastic experience that you
want to repeat other people of how your
business. That's kind of what I was
thinking. I'm like these are these it
sounds like common sense. Yeah. And it
sounds like a way that again you can
grow your funnel and this guy has in you
know five years has taken it taken it to
from nothing to it's it's now a major
attraction on on par with something like
WWE. We can apply those lessons to other
places then. That's that's my point. In
a funny way, it reminds me of Angel
Studios, you know, because they came
from nowhere and all of a sudden, you
know, they focused on the community that
they were targeting and, you know, the
the enjoyment of the community
experience, right? So, yeah. Well,
clearly the Savannah bananas are very
appealing.
You get comedy here on with that, Paul.
I think that's that's our cue to call it
a day. Time to call it. I'm gonna make
like a banana and peel out of here. Um,
no, it's great to talk to you guys.
Ticket to Ride Pre-Memorial uh weekend
edition. I know Thaddius's team who we
need to give credit to. They do a great
editing job for all the platforms and we
really appreciate it. So, we look
forward to this episode. I mean, for
providing it to all of you, our dear
viewers and listeners out there, right
guys? You bet. People will be listening
all the way to the to the Cinniplex,
right? On their way to the Cinniplex.
Hey, that's a great idea. I like that.
Love it. Love it. All right, guys. I'm
Paul Garedian, senior media analyst for
ComCore. Daddius Buchard, the head of
Screen Dollars, and Mike Polydoris, the
king of paper airplane media. We're
African, the top banana.
There we go. Love it. See, the comedy
never stops. Never stops here. There you
go. Well, thank you guys. Have a great
Memorial weekend at the movies. For
sure. Thanks. See you next time. Byebye.
Bye. Bye. Bye, guys.
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