Star Wars Is Back In Theaters!

Star Wars is finally back on the big screen for the first time in 10 years, and we’re not easing into it. We talk The Mandalorian And Grogu, why Grogu still feels like peak Star Wars, and how practical creatures and old-school filmmaking tricks can add a kind of grounded magic that CGI alone can’t replicate. Then we put our reputations on the line with opening weekend box office predictions and ask the real question: is this a massive comeback, or are audiences ready to move on?

Before we jump to hyperspace, we reconcile our last prediction with the numbers for The Sheep Detectives, a family-friendly crowd-pleaser with a wild premise and a slow-burn box office story. We unpack how movies can build through word of mouth, why critics aren’t the whole story, and what “legs” look like when people genuinely recommend a film to friends and family.

We also zoom out to the wider movie world in New Zealand, where international cinema is filling gaps left by a shaky Hollywood pipeline. We highlight Drishyam 3, a Malayalam-language thriller with English subtitles, and talk about how Indian films are growing in theaters. Plus, we share a quick shout-out to young Kiwi filmmakers getting their work on a real screen, and we touch on special-event programming like The Metropolitan Opera’s I Puritanni for anyone who wants a different kind of night at the movies. Wrap it up with a cozy extra: a Field of Dreams recommendation if you’re staying in.

If you like smart, grounded movie talk and practical tips on what to watch next, subscribe, share the episode with a fellow film fan, and leave a review so more listeners can find us.

Book your tickets to the movies at Cathay Cinemas Kerikeri here  -   or at Lido Cinema Hamilton here!

Transcript

Welcome And Star Wars Tease

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Eat, sleep, movie, repeat, repeat. A podcast on all things movies with Brent Harbour and industry insider Ross Churchell. G'day Ross, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Oh mate, couldn't be better. How are you? Good, thank you. I'm very excited because we'll talk about this later, that there is a new Star Wars movie on the big screen for the first time in 10 years.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Yeah, and look, I knew you were going to go straight to the Star Wars. I knew you were going to totally jump the gun because I've I know you're a huge fan. Uh, and uh I've probably fed that addiction for you a few times, haven't I, with a few little bits and pieces. But um, but that's that's great. I mean, Star Wars is yeah, it's back on the big screen. It's just opened yesterday, and we'll we'll we'll crack on and we'll talk about it for sure.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

You know, ten years ago I went with my mate uh for midnight screening of The Force Awakens. Did you go to Sylvia Park? No, no, I didn't, no. I was up north actually, and uh you you weren't the owner of Cafe Cinemas, I was in Fangaday. So I went to the Fangade Cinemas at midnight with a whole lot of people dressed as stormtroopers.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

No, no, that was the look, I I I remember doing um doing those back in when I was working for Hoytz back in the day. And oh Lord, that I mean I remember the opening, the very first opening one that we did of the new trilogy. We had 1,500 people come.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Well, that we'll have to make a prediction on it, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, well, unfortunately, I think times have changed since then, but yeah, let's crack on, shall we? Okay, let's do it. Excellent. Okay, well, folks, the preamble's over. So welcome to season four, episode nine of Eat, Sleep, Movie, Repeat, the bi-weekly matterings and ramblings of myself and Brent as we talk about uh movies that are brought to you by Cafe Cinemas Kerry Kerry and Lido Cinemals Hamilton, your home of fine film from around the world. And look, this is where we talk about movies, the show is about uh things that are happening in the movie world. It doesn't go too long, so if you've got 20 minutes, we've got probably 20 good reasons for you to go to the movies this weekend. So let's let's crack on, shall we, Britt? Okay.

Box Office Check On Sheep Detectives

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Excellent. Look, folks, we always uh do a prediction at the end of every show, every fortnight, and uh we're gonna start the show by uh just re-uh reconciling with last week's oh sorry, last fortnight's prediction. I always say week, and I always get that wrong. It's just one of those glitches that always happen in this show, folks. Anyway, look, um the box office result that we were looking for was the sheep detectives brent. Now, the sheep detectives has been super popular. Everybody who's going to see it loves it. It's done very, very well in its second week, uh, which is really good news. Nice family story, great for the kids, great for the grandparents, great for the mums and dads. So that's uh just if it's raining in your part of the world this weekend, go check out the chef detectives if you're not gonna go and see the Star Wars film. Now, the story is about a guy called George Red. Uh, we talked about this, played by Hugh Jagman, and he's a shepherd, he reads murder mysteries to his sheep, and then one day George is found dead under mysterious circumstances. It's very dark for a family film, but it's actually great. Uh, and the sheep realise at once that, of course, it was murder, and the sheep decide that they are going to help the local policeman who's a bit of a wally to solve the crime and avenge George, their um their shepherd. And that is the premise of the film. So, Brad, you thought the film would do 1.1 million, and I thought at the time it was probably a very uh bold bid that you were putting in there, which I appreciate. Um, and obviously we did say we thought it would strike a chord with the families. Um I thought it might be a little bit less than that. I thought maybe 850 in week one because I was really banking that this film would probably follow in the footsteps of the Michael Jackson film and would do extremely well. But the film, while it's done well, didn't do quite up to our expectations, Bred. So uh the film brought in $459,000 at the box office. Oh, okay. Uh, but it has now bought in over $750,000 by the end of its second week. So look, that is not a flop in the grand scheme of things. And I think that film's gonna easily get into the $1 million range, $1.2. It's got legs, and like I said, people are finding this film, they're really enjoying it. And uh, I just spoke to an old friend of mine tonight uh before the show, and his wife was organizing a big group to go and see it. So there you go. Is it one of those ones you think will build by word of mouth? Yeah, definitely. It's um it's one of those films that everybody who sees it loves it, and they tell all their friends to go and see it, and then you get that sort of week two, week three trickle of people starting to come and see it. And sometimes that's a bad thing because if a film opens really soft, sometimes you know they can drop off the screen by week two, and then of course you get this little bump in week three. The best example I can give anybody of that is a few decades ago, back in the day, when the world's fastest Indian opened. Um, it opened, it wasn't too well received because people were just oh, it's a motorbike movie. But then in week two, it actually did better than week one, and then three week three was better than week two, and it just built and built and built and became a juggernaut because it was solid film, entertaining, and that's what look, that's what films are, they're entertainment. And if you're entertained, you will go and see it. And as we saw with the recent Michael Jackson movie, the critics panned it, the crowd loved it, and it has just gone on and on and on, and it is now well into the um potential of hitting five million dollars by next week, which is a fantastic result for New Zealand.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

So yeah, who cares about the critics? It's about the people who go see the movies. They're their take on it, kind of like ours, pointless. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

It is, yeah, our don't listen to our opinions, folks. Whatever we say, we're probably wrong.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

But we're chatting about it, but we we like to be positive about all movies because you know, you and I know what goes in behind the scenes to get a movie done, right? Yeah, look, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

And the funny thing is, um, you know, this is another win on the scoreboard for me, so I'm gonna take the win. But um, you know, I think that I think the film, if the economy had just been a little bit turned around and we weren't in the situation of all one at the moment, I think that film would have easily got onto the 800,000 because it's just one of those films that people are finding and they'll continue to find. But that's okay. We're gonna do Star Wars, we're gonna guess what that does, because that's right in your wheelhouse, Brent, and I suspect you'll win this one this coming fortnight. So before we get into that, we'll talk about a couple of things.

Drishyam 3 And International Films

SPEAKER_01 6:37

So the first film we're gonna cover is there's an Indian film that has come out this week. It is sort of played yesterday, playing today, mostly plays in that first weekend. They do tend to burn out quite quickly. Uh, it's called Drishyam 3. It's an Indian film in the Malayalam language uh with English subtitles, and it is the third film in a story of uh a man who has to protect his uh wife and daughters from corruption, and it basically the very first film, his daughter was being pursued by a um and blackmailed, I should say, by the spoiled son of a corrupt police commander. And while shielding his family, uh unfortunately, they accidentally kill this young man, and so then they have to cover up. And so the film is just basically going along these lines of how far they're prepared to go to cover up. So that was the first film. We're now in the third um incarnation of this film, and look, I think this Drushram 3 uh is gonna do really well. It's international cinema that has been on the rise worldwide, and Indian cinema in particular has been just getting bigger and bigger and bigger in New Zealand. And if you look at most of the large chains, uh particularly in the um metropolitan areas, you know, where the bigger populations are, they are often playing two to three to four international films per week now, which is really filling the void that Hollywood's left after some of the franchises have really failed. And um, of course, the Hollywood uh actors and writers strikes that really put the spanner in the works back in 2023. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Still feeling those effects, eh?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Yeah, absolutely. And and and I think we will be for another 12 months at least. 2026 has definitely improved though in that space. But yet we've still got movies that are are struggling to get out of the gate, and uh that comes down to good writing and of course the economy. So um, but yeah, that international cinema, Indian film, that is definitely where things are growing.

Helping Young Kiwi Filmmakers Screen Work

SPEAKER_01 8:38

And um, talking about um, you know, international film or even our local films, um, before we go any further, I just want to give a very quick shout-out to a group of young filmmakers. A few months ago, I was approached by some young guys, uh guy by the name of Milago Morris, up in Kerry Kerry about the possibility of shooting a film. They called the film uh Baby Bird, and they shot it in our cinema. Uh, and it brought together a group of young people, about six students between the ages of say 15 and 19, and they basically got together, came in, shot this little film that they'd made, which was a satirical take on a 1990s kind of romantic comedy uh about a young girl who works at a movie theatre and a guy she's really keen on, and this other girl who sort of treats her disrespectfully. So, yeah, I actually really enjoy that sort of stuff. I like working with young filmmakers. So I sort of worked with um Malago and Chrissa and Evie and Corinne and the rest of the team there um just to sort of point Malago, particularly, in the direction of how to get his film on screen. And since then, uh they've had the film rated, we've put it on our screen, we've played it for about a week, and it's been an interesting mix of popular um conversation where young people seeing themselves on screen. So that's just been a something that I think is really cool to do.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Good on you for doing that. I think that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Yeah, but look, if we're in a really interesting country where New Zealand is on the global stage all the time now, film-wise, and young people are making a bigger and bigger um impact and getting it out there and actually making films. I was literally just contacted by a young producer the other day out of Wellington who I've worked with before. Uh, she was trying to find a cinema that she could potentially play uh her movie in uh later on this year. So I pointed her in the right direction for that, uh, specifically into Tauronga, funnily enough. But uh I just contacted the local um cinema there and said, Hey, could you help this person out? So I'm sure they'll help her out. And then there'll be another Kiwi film that's getting on screen, so it's great.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Keeping it all going and showcasing that local, it's you know, they're these are the Peter Jacksons of the future, right? They're gonna make the big movies overseas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Yeah, definitely. And and they do us proud. These young people do us proud by getting out there and and creating this new content. Um, I I I will almost guarantee you, I'll put money on it that one day this young guy is gonna be like, if he's not directing, he'll be acting. Yes. Um and up on the big screen. I just hope that when he's in Hollywood, uh leading the charge um and making millions, he just remembers to pop back and see us and you know, grace us with his presence. You know, that's all we need. Exactly. We don't we don't want anything else. Just pop in or say hi when he's getting his award. That'll be fantastic. I'd like that.

Met Opera On The Big Screen

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Excellent. Look, let's get into the next uh couple of films. Uh we haven't got a lot to cover this week. Um, I know, again, having your favorite subject, I've got another opera on from the Metropolitan Opera. It's the 2025-2026 season, it's I Puritanni. Uh, these operas are quite long. This one's two hours and 27 minutes uh in three acts, and there's always a break in between. Uh very old school, having a nice little break in the middle of the uh the movie. But it's basically an opera that was set in 19. I sorry 1650s England. It's in a Puritan stronghold where the Royalist Queen is being held prisoner and being threatened by Royalist troops. Elvira, the daughter of the fortress's commander, is in love with this guy Arturo, who's on the other side. And these games begin as Arturo was trying to save his queen, but at the same time he's trying to secure the hand of his enemy's daughter. So if you like Opera, Brent, and I know you do, I know you secretly do, um, go and check out a good opera on the big screen. Uh, the Metropolitan Opera, just in my opinion, is the strongest um opera offer out there for um big screen, but there are other operas and royal opera and ballet, uh, and we've played all of them. Um, but yeah, they're just great entertainment for the people who are into it.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Yeah, and they do well too. You have full screenings, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Yeah, well, it's it's actually interesting. This year has been a lot again. This year's been a lot stronger for films in general, and it's been str for us personally, it's been stronger for operas. We're getting um getting people traveling, you know, um from as far away as say Fangare, which is a good 90k, and coming down from the top of the North Islands. So, you know, people are traveling to come and see these, and we only play them a couple of times because they are so niche, but we're getting, you know, 30, 40, 50 people to these screenings, which is fantastic. And just fills up a small cinema, which is great. Okay, well, let's get to the next one.

The Mandalorian And Grogu Hype

SPEAKER_01 13:10

The next movie, the big movie that we're going to talk about. And this is probably gonna be the next topic of conversation for the next five, ten minutes. Uh, Star Wars, The Mandalorian and Grogu Bread. Now, go, Brig, tell us all about Star Wars.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

No, no, no. Look, I mean, you know what? To be honest, I mean, I watched all the Mandalorian Mandalorian TV series, and I thought it was great. I haven't watched a lot about this one behind the scenes because I want to be surprised when I go there a little bit, you know, and I've the critics are already panning it. But you know, the Mandalorian is a great character, and of course, Grogu, everybody calls him Baby Yoda. It looks great. I mean, there's some fantastic people involved in this movie. Uh, Jeremy Allen White is uh he's the evil hut, uh, like like Jabber, but speaks English. So, so I'm looking forward to that. And yeah, I mean, the continuing story of Grogu getting his powers, really.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Yeah, look, I I haven't seen as much of this as I don't own Disney Plus, so I've only seen it when I've been at friends' places and we've we've watched it. So I haven't seen the whole thing, but I'm kind of enthusiastic to watch the film. I think the film is um, like you say, critically it's getting a little bit panned, just like Michael Jackson movie before it. Um, and as we said, the Michael Jackson movie's gone on do extremely well with fans and and even people who are just mildly interested. And I think Star Wars is gonna be the same. Look, the story basically revolves around the empire has fallen, there's warlords from the imperial regime who are scattered across the galaxy, there's this new positive new republic who are working to protect everything that the rebellion fought for, and they've basically said, Hey, well, we need a bit of help, uh, and they've you know contacted the Mandalorian and said, Look, could you assist us to solve some problems and do some things that we need to do? I'm not gonna get too deep into the story. But you know, obviously, the young apprentice Grogu is is the key to the movie. I mean, they should have just called it the Grogu movie uh to a degree, because when you watch the trailer, and I've watched all the trailers and I've watched a bit of the behind the scenes stuff, and I've watched even so far as going down rabbit holes of um if you watch YouTube, you might have watched the Adam Savage um YouTube shows where he talks about the props and behind the scenes, and oh look, I yeah, right, I'm down deep in those rabbit holes on YouTube. Every time Yoda, the baby Yoda Grogu character comes on, that is to me, that is peak Star Wars. Um I love the fact that we're used they're not using so much CGI, they're using puppets like in the 70s. Um but I think that's that adds this um like a sense of I don't know, nostalgia's not what I'm looking for. It's just this realism to it.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Yeah, the director said that basically, you know, Star Wars was based on creatures. Well, you all remember the Cantina scene in the first movie, and you know, you you got you got you know Darth Vader as a character, but all all those creatures like Chewbacca and Yoda and everything, it's been about creatures, and that's what you're gonna see a lot of in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, and I mean look uh the technology wise, I mean, like as a kid, you know, seeing Luke flying across the sand on a sand speeder, I was like, that is the coolest thing. And then as an adult, you find out later on there was just mirrors behind it, which was again super clever because you'd never noticed. Oh, that's really, really good. Oh filmmaking, eh? It's just they're so clever some of these things they do. And you think, how do I not see that? But look, um, you know, I've been watching a lot of things about X-Wing Fighters and um Thai fighters. Uh I I really go down that rabbit hole sometimes when I'm doing looking into into film and I'm following things. But like you, you know, I grew up on Star Wars. It is it is such a cool series, it is it's inspired millions of people across the planet, you know. It is it's touched the hearts and the minds of so many people, and it's intergenerational. So my father took me to that movie. My father's probably uh coming up 80 now, very close to 80, if not slightly. No, he's actually older, 82. You know, I went to the movie with him. Uh, I've taken my boys to see Star Wars films, and highly likely that when my kids have kids, if they're still cranking out Star Wars movies, they'll be taking their kids because there's something iconic about that, you know, space opera slash western um vibe. And I think that's why other movies that have done so well but that have followed that same recipe, these are movies that we should be watching, Bread. These are the family films, they're fun films, and you know what? Uh who doesn't like that escapism of getting into outer space? I mean, clearly Elon Musk does.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Well, one of my daughters has got Grogu posters all over her room, and she's a huge fan. Her and her and her boyfriend. They've got lots of Star Wars stuff. They're like, and you know, I've got stuff from the 70s that they're amazed about. I got out the records the other day that I got when Star Wars came out. So it's a Star Wars story, it's bits of the movie narrated on vinyl. I had that too. I've got I've got all three of them sitting there, and they were just like, wow, this is amazing memorabilia, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

So in our office at work, actually, one of the guys at work, he was in a bookshop and he found the most, I must show it to you, he found the most amazing um book about Star Wars, which is just uh it's not a pop-up book as such, but when you move it, the the pictures move, and it's like it's very um tactile and very basic. Uh reminds me of stuff we used to see in the 70s at our high at primary school, but it's just it's just so clever at all Star Wars. I think you you could stab Star Wars on literally anything these days, though, and turn it into some sort of merch or other. But no, the book's very cool. I will show it to you. Um, but yeah, I I like I like the brand. I think the Star Wars toys are uh the games, all those things are just intergenerational. Um, kids love it, and the posters have been the thing that we've been asked the most about. So many people have walked in and said, Can I get a poster? And we only get a few posters, and we've had to sort of say, Oh, look, so sorry, we can't get any more of the posters. But yeah, even the merch. I know a lot of the cinemas buy the merch, and you know, we're not in the position where we can afford to buy all the little bits of merch and the popcorn buckets and all that sort of stuff. But great, great um, you know, marketing for that business and for that um for that brand. So yeah, look, Star Wars, Mandalorian, Groger, get out and see it and uh get out the kids. Right, and we've got to make a prediction on it, right?

Opening Weekend Box Office Predictions

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, we do. This is gonna be a tricky one, actually, Brad, because um, yeah, I mean, is this gonna be huge? Uh a little bit of bad weather down south this weekend, a little bit of bad weather up north this weekend. Is it going to um get everybody out to the movies, or are people gonna go, you know, maybe not? I'm I'm it's time is done and you know it's time to stick a fork at it, as we talked about.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Yeah, I I think I think we're gonna be surprised by this one. We haven't had a Star Wars movie on the big screen. The Mandalorian has been a very popular TV series. The director involved and everything that's going with it just says to me it's gonna be a a great Star Wars film. So I'm gonna go nuts and I'm gonna say $1.1 million dollars.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

1.1 million.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

That sounds familiar, didn't you do that last time? Yeah, yeah, but I think it's uh it's a safe range, right? I think you're right.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Uh okay, all right. Uh I'm gonna say. Oh, quick math in my head. Let's say it gets five seven. Oh geez. I'm I'm I'm tempted to go slightly over you, uh, but at the same time, I'm a bit trepidatious about this. But I I'm gonna be bold and I'm gonna say 1.2 million. Okay, cool. And uh I think it'll I think it look at the end of the day, if it doesn't do 1.2 million, folks, it doesn't matter. If it does 400 grand, it doesn't matter. As long as people are going out and having a great time at the movies, that's that's all that matters at the end of the day. Absolutely.

Field Of Dreams Recommendation And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Um and I must say, just one last thing before we sign off, um, now that we've just passed our uh time limit that we usually set ourselves, um I'm I'm just before you um jumped on the call, I was sitting in my lounge and I'm just watching Netflix and up pops um the Field of Dreams movie, Kevin Costa movie. And they've just added it to Netflix. I love that film. I'm watching it right now. I'm about a third of the way at the moment. Um, if you have never seen Field of Dreams, thoroughly recommend if you've got Netflix, checking it out and just enjoying a really cool um story and you know of its time, but you know what a great, great uh story that is about just enjoying life.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

If you build it, they will come. And it's got Darth Vader's voice in it, James L. Jones, one of the finest actors. It does. And Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

You're just about to go on the road trip.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

That's right, yeah. You're kidnapping me?

SPEAKER_01 22:08

So yeah, look, I honestly I think that was one of the quintessential movies. Like early 90s, I think, from here. Um, so yeah, look, uh, go and check it out. If you're if you're not gonna go to the movies, but it's raining at your thing and watch Netflix, uh, watch Field of Dreams.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

I can recommend that too. All right, we'll see how we go with our prediction next time.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Thanks for listening to Eat Sleep Movie. Repeat, repeat a movie podcast available at Bug Sprout, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.