Matt is joined by WME senior partner Robert Newman to talk about how much an Academy Award win still matters. Robert represents several accomplished auteur filmmakers and can speak to the impact an Oscar win could have on an up-and-coming director, how it influences their next project, and whether that cache has dwindled. Later he shares a few opinions on ho ... Show More
Nov 20
Did Hollywood Ever Have a Chance Against YouTube?
Matt is joined by Tom Freston, former CEO of Viacom and MTV Networks, to discuss why legacy companies missed the boat with YouTube in the early aughts, the similarities YouTube from the aughts shares with the AI boom of today, why MTV died, and whether it can be revived (02:13). ... Show More
31m 59s
Nov 19
The Brewing Backlash to Hollywood Consolidation
Matt is joined by Jonathan Kanter, a lawyer who served as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2021 to 2024, to look at the looming Warner Bros. Discovery sale from an antitrust perspective, highlight the biggest antitrust i ... Show More
37m 26s
Nov 17
The Fall Box Office Crisis: A Phase, a Fluke, or the Future?
Matt is joined by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw to investigate a historically bad fall season at the box office by highlighting which issues are actually real and which are insignificant. They look at larger industry-wide trends, like the shortening of theatrical windows and the rise of ... Show More
33m 28s
Jan 2025
Michelle Yeoh, Adrien Brody: Oscar Winners And Oscar Nominations
This week's episode of the Empire Podcast brings you not one but two Oscar winners, as first Chris Hewitt sits down with Michelle Yeoh to talk about her new Star Trek movie, Section 31, and how the Best Actress Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once changed her life [20:56 - ... Show More
1h 47m
Jan 2025
2025 Oscar Nominations: Snubs, Surprises, and WTFs
Sean and Amanda give their instant reactions to the Oscar nominations announced this morning, including their takes on what films are running hot and which ones seem to have cooled off over the past few months (1:00). Is ‘Emilia Pérez’ the full-on front-runner? Will recent storie ... Show More
1h 39m
Feb 2025
The 2025 Alternative Oscars, a.k.a. the 5th Annual Big Picks!
Sean and Amanda return for their fifth annual Alternative Oscar awards (a.k.a. the Big Picks), in which they award alternative nominees and winners for the major Oscar categories, as well as some of our own homemade categories. The snubbed, the beloved, and more are all represent ... Show More
1h 48m