Transcript: Joker 2, Flops and Why Everyone Should Calm Down

WBD took a big swing, shot in L.A. and people are ... mad?

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Elaine Low (00:04):

Welcome to The Ankler Podcast. This is Elaine Low of the Series Business newsletter, filling in for Sean McNulty this Thursday, October 10th. I'm joined as always here in Los Angeles by The Ankler himself, Richard Rushfield, as well as our executive editor, David Lidsky, dialing in from New York. All right, Richard, did you see the Joker: Folie à Deux — and I can say that I know Sean can't pronounce it, but I can, so I'm going to say that on the pod and brag a little — or Megalopolis these past couple of weeks?

Richard Rushfield (00:30):

I saw Joker. I did not see Megapolis.

Elaine Low (00:34):

Ok.

Richard Rushfield (00:34):

Megalop, mega...

David Lidsky (00:36):

Yeah, Snuffleupagus, but it's all good.

Elaine Low (00:39):

David, did you?

David Lidsky (00:41):

No, I have to admit I did not. But that's not going to hold me back from having an opinion.

Elaine Low (00:47):

I have seen neither. So this seems kind of representative of the respective box office performances, which we're going to get into in a little bit. But before we talk about the box office, let's get into some grim facts here. FilmLA. Yeah, don't you like starting off with that, David?

David Lidsky (01:05):

We'll start grim. We're going to work our way up.

Elaine Low (01:07):

We're going to start down. We're going to go up. So FilmLA just released its big scripted content report this week and the numbers, they're not pretty of the total scripted TV series distributed in 2023. These are U.S.-produced, first run, English-language series. 105 of them filmed in L.A. That's a drop. A nearly 23 percent drop from 136 series in 2022. And that actually pales in comparison to Georgia and the U.K., which actually had steeper declines of 35 and 33 percent, respectively. But on the flip side, New York and Ontario series actually increased nearly 8 percent and nearly 30 percent, respectively, over that same period. But FilmLA President Paul Audley said in this statement that "we're now at a place where inadequate investment in this industry places other economic supports at risk." Richard, how does that line up with all of the folks you talk to on a daily, weekly basis about the state of production in L.A.?

Richard Rushfield (02:14):

I mean, we've been reporting for two years here about all the pain and unemployment and hand wringing, and there's less shows and there's smaller shows, and the ones that are less are being sent away. So that's the fact of things. And one of the things that a reader pointed out of the Joker backlash that we'll get to later is that the trades have been taking them to task for wasting all this money filming in Los Angeles.