On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, in our Box Office segment, Variety’s Brent Lang breaks down the numbers and a second-weekend sigh of relief at Amazon MGM Studios as “Project Hail Mary” hangs in at No. 1. And Michael Schneider speaks to daytime TV soap mogul Bradley Bell, the writer-producer who has launched a subscription app for diehard fans of CBS’ “The Bold and the Beautiful.”
Editor’s note: “Daily Variety” will be on spring break from March 31-April 6, returning with fresh episodes on April 7.
Lang, who is Variety‘s executive editor, says the strong showing this weekend for the Ryan Gosling starrer cements “Project Hail Mary” as the year’s first major hit and a rare four-quadrant success story at that.
“It works as a spectacle and it’s doing particularly well in Imax, which is where people seem to prefer to see big movies,” Lang says. He also noted that it’s subject matter — set in outer space, with one man on a mission to protect the sun — speaks to the mood of the moment in a heavily polarized U.S.
“This is a movie that speaks to our present day and some of the concerns that we all have about the health of our planet, but it does it in a light way. It’s very humorous and hopeful,” Lang Says. “And I think that the fact that it is reflecting some of the concerns that people have, but not doing it in a manner that is just overwhelmingly pessimistic, is part of the reason it’s been so successful. I think the other thing that’s helping this movie is that, yes, it is appealing to adults, it is appealing to women and it is appealing to men, but It’s a PG-13 movie. So you actually can bring younger people to it. And it’s not a really violent movie. This is a four quadrant hit. And I would say that this is the first blockbuster of the year.”
Schneider, who is Variety‘s television editor, draws Bell out on how “Bold and the Beautiful” has endured when so many other daytime soaps have folded. The show is set to mark its 40th anniversary on CBS next year.
“Fifteen-20 years ago, soap operas were dropping and dying off. They went from 20 or so now to just a handful — us and ‘General Hospital’ and ‘Days of our Lives.’ It was really attention to detail, making sure that every show was special and never taking your eye off the ball, keeping the drama there, keeping people addicted to the characters in love with the families and being really an extension of their families.”
Bell sees the BBTV app as a natural opportunity for fan engagement in the U.S. and drawing new viewers in overseas markets. The show has amassed more than 9,000 episodes over its long run.
“We really want to build our community in the United States and have our viewer base even stronger and more committed as they have more access to the product,” Bell says. “We’ve had such reach over the years. The 1990s was a great time for selling American product overseas. And we were hitting all over Europe and Africa, Australia, India and over the years, some of those countries have dropped out. So this is really an opportunity to reach back to them and say that we’re here, we’re back. And wherever you left off, you can now pick us up and just continue the series as though it was never changed.”
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(Pictured: Bradley Bell, center, celebrates the 35th anniversary of “The Bold and the Beautiful” at the Monte Carlo Television Festival in 2022. Pictured from left, actors Tanner Novlan, Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, Bradley Bell and actors Krista Allen and Thorsten Kaye.)
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