Young Audiences Fuel Summer Box Office as 'Thor: Love and Thunder' Challenges 'Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

We debate the future of Marvel movies, arthouse audiences, and the Academy and Golden Globe awards.

Young Audiences Fuel Summer Box Office as ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Challenges ‘Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

With Screen Talk cohost Eric Kohn on vacation and the summer box office going strong, my guest co-host, IndieWire’s new awards editor Marcus Jones, joins the podcast this week. We debate where Marvel is heading in the post-Thanos MCU. Will “Thor: Love and Thunder” outperform “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” which has notched more than $947 million worldwide? Meanwhile, non-Marvel sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” leads the box office with over $1 billion in ticket sales.

And as well as big studio movies are doing at the box office, there’s clearly still room for sleeper hits like A24’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and Indian global juggernaut “RRR,” a breathless three-hour Telugu-language action epic from S. S. Rajamouli. We both loved it on Netflix, even if it should be experienced on the big screen.

If the multiplexes are pulling audiences, it’s younger moviegoers who are supporting some arthouse hits. Will arthouses pull adult audiences to quality fare like “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” (July 15, Focus Features) starring “Phantom Thread” star Lesley Manville, or Claire Denis’ “Both Sides of the Blade” (July 8, IFC Films), starring Denis veterans Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon? We agree that Sara Dosa’s riveting Sundance breakout “Fire of Love” (July 6, NatGeo/Neon) will appeal to a wide swath of audiences as it heads for an inevitable Best Documentary Feature Oscar campaign.

With Emmy nominations looming next week, Jones takes us through the prime contests for Best Drama and Limited Series. He’s rooting for some new players to nab attention from Emmy voters, who often reward the same old popular shows. Will Netflix’s Korean sensation “Squid Game” topple HBO’s juggernaut “Succession?” Tune in to NBC on July 12.

"RRR"

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DVV Entertainment

In other awards news, we parse the changes at the embattled Hollywood Foreign Press Association that mounts the Golden Globes, who have yet to make peace with publicists withholding their clients, as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. New AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer has already jettisoned outgoing Dawn Hudson’s COO Christine Simmons, and wasted no time appointing his successor at the Academy Museum, chief programmer and film scholar Jacqueline Stewart.

Kohn returns to Screen Talk next Friday.

Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.

Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous installments here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.