Topic: Weird Al and Obsession Backlash

This week Topher Mac is treating things more like a vlog than a review of a particular movie as he wanted to tell you a little about what he’s been up to and briefly discuss Weird Al for reasons you’ll learn about when you listen.  He also touches on the Obsession backlash in more detail.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Alright, let's get in. Let's get out. Let's do this thing, huh? Welcome to Shadows That Shine, a movie podcast. I am Tofram Mac, and today we're gonna talk about Weird Ow. Um, are we gonna talk about Naked Gun? No. He was in Naked Gun for a cameo. So I guess maybe, you know what? Yeah, we'll tell a Naked Gun story. Apparently, Weird Ow used to dress in the same outfit that he wore in the Naked Gun movie, uh, and would take girls on dates wearing this outfit as like a thing, and not tell them that he was in the movie. Kinda genius. Kinda sort of genius. Um, that's not what we're gonna talk about. Are we gonna talk about UHF, one of my favorite movies? With one of my with probably my favorite on-screen joke of all time. Look up, look down, now look at Mr. Frying Pan. Boom! I love it. No, we're not gonna talk about that. Not not today, eventually, but not today. Um, originally we were gonna talk about weird, the Al Yankovic story. We're not. Um I'm gonna give the box office and then I'm gonna tell you why we're talking about Weird Owl after that. So, uh box office results for this week. What are they? They're actually very interesting, I think, because Scary Movie beat the frontrunner. Everyone thought Masters of the Universe was gonna crush, and instead, we had Scary Movie bring in $55 million for Paramount Pictures. Ooh, Paramount Pictures, but yay, Scary Movie and the Redemption story that is within. They also made 50.5 million internationally for a total of 105.5 million dollars worldwide. Not not a bad opening, you know what I'm saying? Not not a bad way to go. Hey, the fact of the matter is I went and saw a scary movie and it was Chef's Kiss. Was it a brilliantly plotted out film with an intriguing story? No, but it was funny. That's why you watch movies like that. Funny. Okay, so all these people giving negative reviews can all the way off. Second place this week was Masters of the Universe making $29.3 million domestically, internationally. They brought in an additional $25 million for a total of $54.3 million. And I gotta tell you, I'm not interested in seeing this movie at all. But hey, good for Amazon MGM Studios for for taking a risk, doing something I know I've had friends that are very excited about. I hope they enjoyed the movie. I have no interest in watching it. I'm probably not gonna talk about it beyond saying I'm glad my friends seemed to enjoy it. I haven't heard I've heard some bad things, but I've also heard some good things. If it's your thing, I say go for it. Now, the next two movies y'all already know that I'm excited about. If you listened to last week, and you probably didn't, my listenership on the last episode was a little down. Um, but I don't care because I'm still on Cloud9 after watching uh Backrooms. I mean, they crushed it. A24's most successful movie ever. Ever. Over the weekend, they brought in another $25.9 million. Well, why does that matter? Because you throw that on top of their other domestic, and that's $135 million delivered to us by a 20-year-old director. And he's not just direct, I mean, he's the creator of this bad boy. He's not the writer of it, but like he is the true author of this. He took a public domain, creepy pasta, made something brilliant, $77.6 uh million dollars internationally, worldwide total, 212.7 million. Best uh most profitable A24 film ever, one of the best ones. I mean, I really enjoy this movie. Um, I'm probably gonna see it again if I'm being honest. Like, depending on how my week goes and if I get the time, I have to prioritize some new movies first. Well, fourth place. Let's talk about that, which is obsession. $25.6 million added to obsession, which makes its total $152.1 million dollars domestically, $72.7 internationally for a total of $225 million. I'm sorry, $224.8 million dollars internationally. Uh I mean, altogether in total. Focus that's for focus features. It's also focus features most successful film of all time. Huh. It's almost like we should have been, I don't know, letting young uh uh letting millennials and Gen Z start directing movies, giving them opportunities. Look what happens when you do. You see money, you see bleeping money. Well, this film has some controversy. We'll get back to it um a little bit later. Again, I saw it last week. I uh very much enjoyed it, especially the ending. I was just not filling it at the beginning of that movie. That movie had to win me over because by the time we were 30 minutes into that movie, I was like, I don't like it as a movie. By the time I walked out of the theater, I was like, this movie's fucking incredible. Um so then we uh so that's your four, well, fifth place this time around, uh, a little film called The Amazing Digital. The Amazing Digital Circus, The Last Act, added $11.6 million to its coffers. Now, it is a feature-length version of the final two episodes of what I think is an anime, uh, episodes eight and nine, they say, uh, the amazing digital circus showing the conclusion of a cast of characters trapped in the digital realm under the mercy of an unstable ringmaster. It brought in 19.5 million dollars for Fathom Events. That's uh, you know what? Good for them. Good for them. I don't know anything about it, I didn't even know it was on its way, but it uh was very successful. It beat out uh Star Wars Mandalorian and Gru uh Grogu, which you know brought in a uh apparently $10 million even, which is wild. Uh it beat Michael, who's still making a lot of money with 7.7. It beat the breadwinner, which is the comedy from uh that comedian that does the crossing the Delaware thing, you know, on Saturday Night Live. Yeah, that guy. 3.4 million that he he brought in. Oh, also big news in the box office Super Mario Galaxy movie, first movie this year to cross a billion dollars. I say first because it probably won't be the last. You know what I'm talking about here. You know exactly what I'm talking about here. The Odyssey. Mm-hmm. Correct the mundo. Uh what does that what does that mean for uh the whole weekend, June 5th to 7th? Well, June 5th to 7th, 180.4 million dollars down 0.6%. Now I noticed when I pulled this up, the totals have apparently changed from last week, and this doesn't surprise me because the first thing I do when I wake up Monday morning is I check box office mojo, so I'm positive that the numbers are not exactly right. And apparently that was the case. Uh so last week they actually had made 181.6 million dollars, which was up 2.3% from the week before. I thought it was um up much less than that, if I remember correctly. Well, the point is it did uh it did great business, good for them. Hey, you're listening to Shadows that shine, a movie podcast, and I'm your host, Topher Mack. And you know, movies, uh oh, you know, uh oof. I'm all over the place. You know, one of the reasons I like to go live to tape is in this AI-driven world. I, for one, am tired of uh overly rehearsed, overly structured stuff. Uh, you know, if I had uh when not if when I launch the YouTube stuff that I'm gonna do with this, it will be, in all honesty, a lot cleaner, a lot more polished, and a lot more streamlined than what you're getting. Uh, but I like that this is more conversational. It's as if you called me on the phone on these solo ones and you're listening to me talk about stuff that excites me. You know? Well, anywho. Uh, the last week of movies. What were we looking at in the last week of movies? I'm gonna tell you. Let me just double check some things. I told you about obsession and the sheep detectives last time I was here. Well, since then, I saw three movies worth talking about Penn and Teller's Invisible Thread. Funny enough, this was not directed by a great director, and I liked it more than Pen uh Penn and Teller Get Killed. And Pen and Teller Get Killed was like a proper movie. This is like uh a weird like TV movie. It's I think it's only like an hour long. Let me see if I can actually pull that information up. Uh it was released in 1987, and I don't uh I don't believe I have a runtime on that. Uh I've been doing a lot of research for magic stuff related to another uh aspect of my career. It was 41 minutes long, so it's technically a feature film because anything 40 minutes and ab uh above is considered a feature film. However, theatrical feature, I think society pretty much accepts that around the 115 mark. I'm not saying that that's like a hard fest fast rule. The the 40-minute thing is an actual like rule. It's something that I learned in school. It may have changed, um, but unlikely. It has to do with rules, how many rules something is, which is back from the film days. You know, maybe I'll have to dig a little deeper than that and give you more information if you're interested in it. So um the day after I saw the Invisible Thread, which I enjoyed very much, um we I watched a scary movie and loved it. It was four stars. I bumped into an old friend of mine when I did that. Uh, it was a lovely time getting to talk after the movie about the movie business. We both uh said theories about what's going on with cinema. Is it gonna be around in 10 years? I think it will be. My friend uh it's with does not, he's not as optimistic as me. I'm very optimistic because look at backrooms, you know, look at obsession. How could it not succeed? You know, I don't I don't think it's gonna look like it looks now. I'm pretty sure Hollywood is going the way of the record label where they will have lost any significant uh meaning. And my hope is that Union Stage Handwork uh remains popular in the process. Anywho, I also watched The Bird Cage on the 6th. Uh that's a 1996 film with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane, and Nathan Lane, you know, had just got nominated for a Tony Award that he did not win for Death of a Salesman. I um, for personal reasons, am not the biggest Nathan Lane, uh Nathan Lane fan, uh, but I do have a lot of respect for the performances that that man gives. Uh and of course, Robin Williams is brilliant. And that movie was funny and interesting and a great watch for Pride, by the way. I don't know if I've said it this month. Happy Pride. Um shout out to all my friends that fit into the alphabet soup. Um good, you know. I hope hope you're happy. I mean, I'm that was a weird way to say it. I really do actually hope. I hope everybody's fucking happy because oh look, that's what took F-bomb right there. Anywho, uh, yeah, that's what we're dealing with. Bird Cage. Great movie. If you haven't seen it, see it. I know a lot of people have. It's based on a Broadway musical, La Cog La Cogle Faux, le Coming. I'm not doing all that French stuff right now, okay? It's based off of a musical that has a French title. Le Carge Faux. I think that's how you say it. Now, earlier in the box office, I alluded to the fact that I was gonna bring up obsession.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

And it's because there is all this news floating around right now about this movie made $200 million and I only got paid $75,000.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Or which that's an exaggeration. They didn't get paid $75,000. I doubt anybody got paid that much money because the the film's budget was $750,000. It was it was just not a huge thing, and more than one person have has complained about it, but what they're not understanding is like that's that's the film business. I worked on a film since the last podcast. We recorded in my old high school, my alma mater, uh uh a director by the name of Maximilian Wood invited me on set and allowed me to participate uh both on and off screen. Uh the on-screen was a surprise, it was sort of a last-minute thing. Um, but I was happy to play a director. I am not happy with my work, but we'll see how it turns out. Uh they seem to be okay with it. But I was very happy to be on that set and to work with surprisingly uh talented people. Like, I know that's such a condescending thing to say, but like independent independent cinema has a wide range of people working in it, and some people know what they're doing, and some people don't. And some people like to act like they know what they're doing, and some people don't. And guess what? I think I know more than I probably do, and I still think I don't know dick. I just don't know enough. I get extremely uncomfortable on film sets um because I know enough to know that I don't know anything. That being said, I made a lot of suggestions and and they seemed to like some of them because they they did some of what I suggested. It was very weird. Four uh, I think four of the people working on the film uh on these two days actually had gone to high school at different points during the history of us, and we were all working on that movie together. It was very cool, very weird. I kept getting called the wrong name. It was it was strange. I but it was a good time, and uh, you know, I was gonna uh I was just bringing that up to bring up the obsession thing, they're complaining about not getting a big enough cut, but it's like when you go onto a film set, like you're accepting a deal, and you either do or you don't accept it. Period. You're either gonna get your upfront money or you're gonna get a back end deal, or you're gonna get like uh one or the other. Uh it's not one or the other. Sometimes you'll get a merge as a third option. Like, we'll give you a little bit of money up front, and then we'll give you, you know, a cut of profits if the movie ever makes profits. But most of these movies don't make profit. I have seen independent films that are good, like good, never make money, lose money existing. And these people who are complaining about obsession are doing the wrong thing. What they should be doing right now is they should be getting agents, the people that were in it as actors, the people that are behind the scenes should be trying to book work. They have one of the most successful movies of the year. You make your move, you make your money on the next movie. That's how the industry works. If you don't, if it what's wild to me is that they don't seem to understand that that's how the industry works. And they're like, well, we want a bigger cut. You did you make a deal like that? No. And if you didn't make like I would feel all the sympathy in the world if they were getting like hosed by Hollywood accounting, but that's not what's happening. They don't have a back-end deal. Now, what's the right thing to do in terms of this uh studio? The right thing to do is for them to give bonuses. I'm a big believer in bonuses. George Lucas did it on Star Wars and New Hope. I think that it's the right thing to do. If your film wildly exceeds expectations and you make a bunch of money back, you should go back. And and this will get thrown in my face one day that I'm saying this, because I have a movie that I think is a million-dollar idea. And if I went in there and it made $20 million, $40 million, or in this, or in the case of Obsession, $200 million off of what really I mean, that the movie I have in mind could be made for anywhere between $350 and $750,000, depending on uh some very uh variables. And yeah, I think you can make that much money, the idea that I have. I I've not been that confident about a lot of things that I have written uh or come up with. I feel that way about this idea. And the reality is that if I made $200 million, you better believe that I'm gonna I'm gonna call up my cast, I'm gonna call up my crew, especially my crew. There's no movies without crews, and I'm gonna say, hey, look, I can't give you huge bonuses, but here's what I can give you. And then I'd give them a few thousand dollars. I'd give them, you know, I don't know how much. You'd have to look at the what is the movie actually making to do that? Because $200 million is not $200 million. $200 million is probably actually like I don't know, $40 million of pure profit. That's a lot of money, and some of that money should absolutely be shared with the people that made that movie. I'll give them that. But what they're doing right now is is not good for their long-term career because they should be they should be um what do you call it? Uh words. They should be marketing and pushing for their next gig. They should be saying, hey, did you like the scene design uh the set design? Sorry, it's different for theater and film. Uh did you like set design? I did that. Oh, did you like the gore effects? I did that. That's what should be happening right now. I'm just realizing that there's a possibility that my facial hair is messing with my microphone. I hope that hasn't happened. I apologize if it has. So I want to say all that about obsession. Uh, I've said it now. On to the main topic, which is Weird Out. I brought it up at the beginning. We're gonna close out with this right now. Um, I got to go see Weird Out Yankovic in concert. I'm so jazzed about it that even though this is a movie concert, that's what I'm gonna. To talk about for a second. Uh, me and a buddy of mine who will eventually be a guest on the pod went, loved it. It's uh this man, I think, is in his 60s. Uh at the oldest, he's in his early 70s, but I think he's in his like 60s. Weird Iankovic crushed it. It was incredible. He just announced he's about to do a musical called Dare to Be Stupid. Um, at first I was like, that's a that's gonna be a weird thing to pull off, and then I'm like watching it on on stage and going, you know, yeah, this could work. This could be a thing. Highlight for me, you know, uh spoiler alert for the concert. He does this Elvis thing. Brilliant. His opening act was uh puddle pity party. Brilliant. Incredible voice, weird fucking dude, great presentation. I I don't stand a lot, like I don't do standing ovations, like every everyone does it. Like, I feel like, oh, we're supposed to stand because it's the end of the show. I don't. I'm not, I'm definitely not that guy, and I'm not gonna be that guy ever. If I stand, you earned it. Period. And I stood for both of them and and clapped loudly and and yelled and hooted and hollered. Um what's cool, and here's you know, we'll tie into the movie side of things. They did clips from movies, including doing the entire my favorite scene from Weird the Alyankovic story, which is um another one rides a bus. It was hilarious, it bought them enough time to set up for what they needed, and it just it just freaking worked. Um, I I kind of had hoped he would do a clip from UHF because I like UHF more than I like Weird. Um, but Weird is very good. It's got Daniel Radcliffe, which is everyone thinks about him for Harry Potter, but the reality is that that man is a very good actor. I mean, watch what if very good. Watch watch weird, he's brilliant. I'm just getting to a point where I don't always think Harry Potter when I see him. Um so, anywho, you know, blah blah blah. Well, I'm not gonna hold you late uh on this one. This I just wanted to get in and out and say, hey, Weird Owl uh wrote, co-wrote UHF, and uh I believe he co-wrote uh Weird as well, and they're both very good. And he starred in one of them and he and he cameos in the other, and it's great. He is a national treasure. I've I'm honored that I got to see him perform live, and I continue to watch his movies regularly, you know. I've uh I've probably seen UHF, I want to say no less than 20 times in the last two years since uh since I found a physical copy of it, which I I think I found that last year actually. So it might be most of those 20 times uh would have been recent. I appreciate each and every one of y'all for listening. I am Topher Mack. This is oh, oh wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute, hold up, wait a minute. This week in cinema. Oh buddy, what what came out what's coming out? I haven't bought my tickets yet, but I know that one of them is the Spielberg movie that a lot of people other than me have been waiting for. I don't uh I don't fancy um sci-fi a whole bunch. I'm probably gonna go see this for you guys. Speaking of which, I'm thinking of shifting the day that we release um thinking of shifting the day that we will release the podcast and switching to new movies for the summer and covering a new movie every week. Uh, I wanted to do other topics, but I don't I don't have quite as much time as I need to deliver qual the quality that I want to deliver. So I don't know. What do you think? Do you have an opinion? Reach out to me. You can reach out through Instagram at Shadows That Shine on Facebook, Shadows That Shine. You can do any of those things. Uh or if you know me personally, then let me know. Reach out. First of all, it would be nice to know that you guys are uh listening. You know, I wish my I wished uh little G a happy birthday last week. Don't know if the people who would know who I'm talking about would have heard that. Alright, coming out uh next week is disclosure day. The Furious and Stop That Train. I saw the first 20 minutes of The Furious, but uh if you remember last week there was an awful incident that occurred uh around me. And I didn't get to see the whole thing. I'm going to try to see The Furious because that 20 minutes was a good 20 minutes. Stop That Train is going to be the funniest movie of the year. I just I can't wait. I know that Scary Movie was funny, but I'm expecting Stop That Train to be funnier. And Disclosure Day should be good. Um I read I skimmed one review of it, said that the beginning of the movie is rough, but the first half is rough, but the second half reminds you that Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors to ever live. But never leave that. A few other things that are coming out, uh, but nothing that I really feel like talking about there. I will say that, you know, I think a week after that we get Toy Story 5 and the death of Robin Williams and uh Leviticus, which I plan on covering. I'm giving you a heads up now. I plan on covering Leviticus uh as soon as possible. Alright, y'all are caught up, and that's where we're at. I want to thank each and every one of you one last time. Thank you very much uh for listening to me, Topha Mac, on this podcast, Shadows That Shine, a movie podcast. So we'll see you next week, uh Wednesday or Thursday, depending on some variables.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

Bye! Of course, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Even Thursday might be too early because if I'm watching the movie Thursday night, that means I wouldn't be able to release the podcast till Friday morning. So we're gonna think on that for a little bit. Because I kind of like being Wednesday. We're gonna think on that. Anywho, I'll see y'all next week at some point.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Bye.