Blockbusters: From Jaws to Barbie… Now What?

From Jaws to Barbie, summer blockbusters have defined moviegoing for nearly 50 years—shark fins slicing through pop culture, superheroes ruling the summer, and billion-dollar hits packing theaters. But in the age of streaming, reserved seating, and “watch it at home tonight,” has that magic disappeared?

In this episode of Original Geek, Steve Scarfo and Jeff Shaw take you on a nostalgia trip through the golden age of the blockbuster, from the birth of the event movie in 1975 with Jaws, to the billion-dollar phenomena of Barbie, Top Gun: Maverick, and Avatar: The Way of Water. They swap memories of lining up for hours, talk merch that became collector’s gold, and debate whether the summer blockbuster is dying—or just evolving into something new.

Expect rants, geek court debates, epic fails (The Flash, we’re looking at you), and critical hits (Deadpool & Wolverine, take a bow). Whether you were there for opening night in ’89 or stream every new release from your couch, this is your front-row ticket to the conversation.

 #BlockbusterMovies #MovieNostalgia #FromJawsToBarbie #SummerBlockbusters #MovieTheaterMagic #GeekCulture #PopCulturePodcast #MovieRants #80sMovies #90sMovies #StreamingVsTheater #MovieMerch #OriginalGeekPodcast #FilmHistory #GenXGeek 

Welcome to Original Geek—the podcast for anyone who rolled their first d20 on shag carpet, waited hours for a comic book JPEG to load on dial-up, and wore the label “geek” back when it got you mocked, not monetized.

Hosted by stand-up comic Steve Scarfo and Forever DM Jeff Shaw, we dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the '70s and '80s—and how that underground culture became the mainstream multiverse we live in today.

🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, comic book chaos, geek court debates, and critical hits from your childhood basement.

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Chapters

• 1:16 Canon Correction
• 1:23 The Summer Blockbuster
• 17:29 Geek Flashback
• 24:54 Geek Court
• 31:16 Basement Treasures
• 38:09 Geek Evolution
• 42:01 Geek Rant
• 47:15 Critical Hits & Epic Fails
• 51:47 Are Blockbusters Really a Thing of the past?

Transcript

Steve Scarfo (00:00)
All right. Welcome to the original geek. It's the podcast for anyone who rolled dice in a basement, waited all night for comic book covers to download and proudly wore the label of geek back when it could get you stuffed into a locker. Each week, we're going to dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the 70s and 80s and how it compares to today's pop culture multiverse. We are your hosts. We are two of the Gen X survivors who didn't just watch geek culture evolve. We lived through every awkward phase.

Hi, I'm Steve Scarfo.

Jeff (00:30)
And I'm Jeff Shaw.

And sadly, my epic fail last week, it was another epic fail of mine. So I've had to do this. My second canon correction. Steve hasn't had to do one. Maybe it's because I keep correcting him during the podcast when he makes a mistake. So he hasn't had to humiliate himself. So I said that the Pink Panther was a failure because it did not launch the franchise. It was one and done. I was wrong.

Steve Scarfo (00:43)
Hey

for two.

Hahaha!

Jeff (01:08)
about that. I still think it was an epic fail overall and that it didn't really create a franchise but it did create it did spawn a sequel. There was a second movie ⁓ but so yes a canon correction yes I was wrong ⁓ but I still stand by that it wasn't quite the success it should have been although

Steve Scarfo (01:21)
and it was so bad and nobody saw it.

Jeff (01:37)
One thing that does stick with me to this day from the Pink Panther was Steve Martin's pronunciation of hamburger. Hamburger, hamburger. Like I have to admit, so I guess that was one area that was successful is that credit that quote that I still use. there was that.

Steve Scarfo (01:57)
It definitely had its moments, but that were about it.

Jeff (02:00)
All right, Canon corrected and let's move on to today's topic because today Steve and I will be your ticket to today's cinematic thrill ride. What is our topic today, Steve?

Steve Scarfo (02:13)
Well, Jeff, do you remember when summer movies were an event? There were lines around the block, sticky floors, and the kind of hype you could feel in your bones. Those days are over, maybe. But let's talk about why summer blockbuster is on life support. And, you know, is it worth saving?

Jeff (02:30)
Well, I know that's what they're saying because we had one summer where that didn't work out. then. Because, know, I know in the 2020s, like it may seem like because we have a relatively small sample size, only halfway through. But this summer didn't have any huge blockbusters. And of course, 2020 during the pandemic, we didn't. So I think it feels that way. But I. And it did. It felt that way to me, too.

Steve Scarfo (02:48)
about halfway.

Jeff (03:00)
But then I looked back and on the 2020s in preparation for this episode and there was some big movies as far as billion dollar movies, ⁓ Avatar, ⁓ the ⁓ Top Gun, Maverick, was Barbie was huge. ⁓ I don't know if, no, was, Deadpool and Wolverine was huge. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (03:16)
Top Gun.

Jeff (03:28)
Inside out too was huge

Steve Scarfo (03:29)
But did they qualify? So that's

that's a good distinction to make, right? Because those were all very popular, very good movies. And some of those do qualify for that blockbuster tentpole style ⁓ label. But. And I don't have I have released dates, but I don't have dates like in like if it was May, June, July, August, like were they?

I know Barbie was a summer blockbuster for sure because we actually took the girls to see it at a one of the last drive ins in existence. ⁓ So we wouldn't have done that in the winter, obviously. ⁓ But I wonder if the rest of those really fit that summer. Did you double check what are the dates?

Jeff (04:11)
I did double check. I double checked.

actually did. Yeah, so those were, there were some big December releases, so I made sure to leave those off. There were, because that's the other big time, right? And I know we're getting too close to geek court, so let's not do that.

Steve Scarfo (04:30)
We're

not going to dive into it yet. So we could talk a little bit though about the history of the blockbuster. So I did a lot of, and I'm going to say I did a lot of research. I did a lot of searching online, Google, ChatGPT, trying to find this information. I think you and I talked about this. So I think that we're on the same zone. The modern day.

Jeff (04:35)
Yeah, I think that's let's see where it started

Steve Scarfo (04:54)
⁓ And it kind of crosses over summer blockbuster tentpole movie before they really knew what a tentpole was. Started in like mid 70s with Jaws. Nineteen seventy five's Jaws was one of the first event movies that they it came out in the summer, probably because it was a, you know, Massachusetts Beach Cape Cod Beach shark movie. They wanted to put it out during the summer. And I don't know if that was happenstance or if they actually did it on purpose. But they really did push that movie and they

they

advertise it, they made it an event, they had people, they had merch and posters to go with it. The number of times I saw that poster with the shark coming up as the girl swimming across was ridiculous. But really that's where it kicked off. But then the industry caught on pretty quick because throughout the 70s there is a stack.

Jeff (05:35)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (05:50)
of of these movies and I have my list here. Jaws was 75 Star Wars. The original Star Wars came out in 77 Empire Strikes Back in 80 Raiders of the Lost Ark 81 ET Return of the Jedi Ghostbusters Back to the Future Batman. All of these from 75 to 89. They really kept refining. Yeah.

Jeff (06:11)
So 75 then 77.

But then from 77, wasn't until, when was Superman not the first, was that the Christopher Reeve Superman? Was that not, I'm sorry. I just try to figure it, cause that came out in 78, but I don't know if it was a summer movie or not. Okay.

Steve Scarfo (06:26)
No, no, that's okay.

It was. ⁓

So I was giving you the top 10 in terms of box office gross. But ⁓ seventy five Jaws, seventy seven Superman. mean, Star Wars, seventy eight Superman, the movie. then actually seventy seven also seventy seven Close Encounters of the Third Kind. ⁓

Jeff (06:37)
⁓ okay.

⁓ yeah.

Steve Scarfo (06:53)
And then of course we jump into the 80s and it's funny because between Jaws, so Star Wars hit 77, Empire in 1980 and then Return of the Jedi 83. So within six years, seven years, they had three of the top grossing summer tent pole movies and they really, they, you you remember, we had.

Jeff (07:14)
They're with us to this

day. ⁓ yeah.

Steve Scarfo (07:17)
my goodness. But the merch that came with it. I remember going

to see Star Wars in the movies and then coming home and going out to buy acts. had the Luke figure, the Luke Skywalker figure after Empire had the tauntaun and the at at ⁓ all of this great merch. And they still merch like like nobody's business today. But ⁓ but there was something about it because you didn't have a choice.

Jeff (07:24)
yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (07:43)
It was a summer blockbuster. And when they, you talked about it before, when they spread it out and did them in holiday releases and stuff too, you didn't have a choice. You had to go to the theater. So this really, really pushed, and it goes into last week's conversation a little bit too, but.

Jeff (07:54)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, I think ⁓ we grew up with this. So this seemed just natural, like summer and blockbuster, like the big movies. we so older generation, the boomers, they didn't grow up with this. This was like a new phenomenon for them. For us, this just seemed normal, which is why I think for us.

It feels like, oh, this is it's dead. We had a we had 2020 and then we had 2025 without a blockbuster. So the summer blockbuster is dead because it because for almost our entire lives that we're aware of pop culture and going to the movies, we've never seen like this happen before, where the we're just so used to it. And yet that's not because I looked it up. Like, what about the year is war in 1970?

Steve Scarfo (08:47)
Right.

Jeff (08:54)
What was there a big I know because they say Jaws is the first like and it seems weird to think that that was but what kicked it off. So I looked at what were the best the top grossing movies in the 1970 and when were they released? Nothing in the summertime. It was there was January, February, March, April. Then it jumps all the way out of the summer into the big movies. And I don't remember all their names.

but it went back into the the the winter and I almost think Like I just wondered It is just me speculating. I didn't actually do any research But like maybe they were thinking of the summers not the best time for a movie big movie We're gonna like the summer people are out. They're enjoying the outdoors they don't want to go into a movie theater and sit in there on a nice summer day and Jaws proved them wrong

Steve Scarfo (09:51)
No, I, yes,

and I agree with you. I think that's exactly what it was. There was, and don't forget from, you know, I was just born a year before you, but from that timeframe, 69, 70 into 1980, there was a conversion across the country from more traditional.

behaviors and travel habits. And, you know, people didn't travel during school time. They only traveled during the summer. And, you know, they they they thought, OK, just it's too nice to be inside. So I agree with you. I think it's absolutely this idea that they felt the summer was why would we bother? No one's going out. They're all at the beach. They're all on vacation. They're all picnicking and barbecuing. They're not going to come to a movie. And you're right. ⁓ Jaws put a stamp on it and then said, no, this is what we're doing.

And again, I don't know if that was intentional. Obviously the marketing for it was intentional, but I don't know if the timing was intentional. And I did look some stuff up, but I did not look that part up ⁓ because I don't know if it was just because it makes sense to release a shark beach movie in the summer.

Jeff (10:55)
So I think it was, I think it

was, yeah. Like they definitely were, I used to teach films, I was a film studies teacher, you know, previous job. And it was, and I remember looking, and they did, they wanted to prey upon.

Steve Scarfo (11:10)
previous life.

Jeff (11:17)
using Jaws terminology, they wanted to prey upon that. And it worked. mean, there were people that terrified to go into the water. And I think that's what ⁓ they kicked off was a marketing genius campaign. Just, it worked so well. Like this summer, don't go into the water. And yeah.

Steve Scarfo (11:18)
No puns in the bum bum bum bum.

But did they do it because, yeah, but did they do

it because it was a shark movie and it happened to be summer or did they do it, like, cause you're not gonna release a shark movie in January, right? Cause people aren't going to the beach in January. It makes sense. It's like a kismet situation. Like, it's a beach movie. We're gonna release it in the summer. Did they do it because of that or was it the idea that let's take advantage of...

this ability to do stuff across the summer. Like, did they intentionally think they were starting a blockbuster tent pole situation or did they just sort of get lucky?

Jeff (12:08)
I think that they think that it was intentional when they released it because they did release movies in the summertime. I don't know if they necessarily knew what they had or that this is going to be such a huge blockbuster. But I think about and I know we're supposed to talk about some of our blockbusters, but I think about. ⁓

you know, a new way of advertising and marketing takes hold, like Blair Witch Project, I don't know if you remembered, but they were the first to do viral internet marketing and take advantage of that. And I think that's just what Spielberg and that team with Jaws did, is they were using marketing in a way with a movie that they'd never done before.

And so, and it just landed in work because it was original and fresh. ⁓ And now we just, everyone just does it. Like they go on all the talk shows. They just, you know, big marketing, advertising push for a movie, making you feel that fear of missing out, that you've got to go see this thing. ⁓ And then. Yeah, so I just feel like they, they were just, it was brilliant for the time and ⁓ and it worked and it landed and then it inspired.

Steve Scarfo (13:13)
Yeah, yeah, it's funny. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

Jeff (13:26)
like this pattern that continued to this day.

Steve Scarfo (13:27)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I think that...

Because I just I wasn't sure while you were talking about I did my second live Google of all time. And I looked up Blair Witch. It was released in ninety nine. So Internet we talked about a couple of weeks ago that it was a thing and it was available. So that did definitely play into it. But these movies like if you go all the way back to the ones we've been talking about, this was pre everything like you didn't get to watch a trailer on the Internet even before cell phones where we could just scroll while you're walking down the street.

⁓ We had to wait for previews to come out on TV. And if you weren't watching TV live when it happened, you missed the trailer. ⁓ And Jaws, Jesus, Jaws came out, was, what was it, 75? I was six. And my parents took us to the theater. We went to a double feature at a drive in. ⁓ And I think they thought we were going to sleep through the second movie, which was Jaws, and we did not.

And I was one of those kids who could not go into the water for a couple of years. was I was even afraid of pools at night. Like I didn't want to be in the pool if I couldn't see the bottom. And it was because of Jaws, ⁓ which doesn't bode well for ⁓ my parents parenting. But ⁓ it was ⁓ it was it was should not have been. It should have been a PG 13. That was before the 13. Now, I don't remember when it came up, but it was much later.

Jeff (14:47)
It was rated PG. So. Well, PG 13 of I don't think existed then.

And I honestly think

it would have been PG-13 had that rating existed at that time. But they didn't feel like it warranted an R, so PG.

Steve Scarfo (15:08)
And let's be honest, most of the

time when they rated stuff R, it was for sex. It wasn't violence, it was always sex and even drug use and swearing. Some swearing was, yeah, but even in PG movies, I guess the swearing was probably an R thing too. But you know.

Jeff (15:15)
language.

It was, yeah.

I remember the first, it was the Simpsons and Bart like turns to the camera, like it's breaking the fourth wall and man, my God, now I can't remember what he said, but it was like the first time they're allowed to say whatever word it was. It wasn't an F-bomb, but ⁓ man.

Steve Scarfo (15:45)
I remember what it was

because it was even simpler than that. It was the word bitch. Yes, because I remember the show mood lighting, not mood, moonlighting with Bruce Willis and ⁓ I can see her face, I can't think of her name. And it was sort of like a detective comedy.

Jeff (15:51)
Really? ⁓

Yeah,

Steve Scarfo (16:05)
It was his first big role.

Jeff (16:05)
yeah, love that movie, that show.

Steve Scarfo (16:07)
And I remember, because I used to watch that show religiously, because I loved him and I loved the show. But I remember the episode where they did it, because at the very end of one of the episodes. ⁓

And I don't remember if he called her a bitch or if he said don't be a bitch. It was the first time they said the word for them, they said the word bitch and then like it kind of everybody did it. It's kind of like when South Park did the F-bomb thing, ⁓ you know, just a much milder. That's why you think it's probably something harsher, but I think it was just the word bitch.

Jeff (16:37)
It was something. Yeah,

it wasn't an F bomb, but it was like the first time and they broke the fourth wall.

Steve Scarfo (16:51)
So we have to stop ourselves from doing this because we tend to start the flashback stuff before we say the flashback stuff. But ⁓ it's all right. think we're kind of in the same zone, right? So. ⁓

I've mentioned it a couple of times. Some of the stuff I've been looking up and like, what was it like? Sadly, at 56 and 2025, I'm like, I don't remember a lot about it, but there were things about I mentioned the previews. You didn't get to see previews, right? And being in that group, being in those lines, it seems annoying at the time, but I remember the energy of the room. We talked about it last time, too, with the streaming.

And I'm sure we'll talk about it again today, but that's that's the thing that I I miss the most is that feeling of the anticipation. ⁓ I stream everything, you know that. And so as soon as something's available, because I'm impatient and ADD most of the time, I will just watch it as soon as possible. And I am a night owl. My family's in bed. So I'll like sometimes at 10 o'clock at night, start a movie. ⁓

They just dropped the new Jurassic World on Prime and I will likely watch it ⁓ coming up rather than, and it's still in the theater, but I could go, but.

Jeff (18:09)
Yeah, it's good. Yeah.

It's not in the theater. It was good. Yeah. Nice job. So are we flashing back to a, to a certain year that may have been a geek supernova?

Steve Scarfo (18:29)
We can talk about that. think you're referring to 1989 because it was a very large glut of these movies.

Jeff (18:34)
Yes.

Well, and I think in there, there were other years where this happened, where it wasn't just a some one summer blockbuster, but there was like a a series of them. And so I think, you know, and in this year, 1989, that we're flashing back to is Batman, Indiana Jones, The Last Crusade, Ghostbusters 2, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, just all like huge numbers for all of these movies.

And that did happen periodically. I think, just, you know, having, you know, going to the theater and I, you know, and I know that, you know, part of the reason this, this worked is because there was no other way to consume it. Like you said, like, now you're already able to stream Jurassic World, it's still in the theaters. And, ⁓ but now you can just, that, that time you had to go.

Steve Scarfo (19:30)
Right.

Jeff (19:35)
and ⁓ and and all of those movies that we just talked that I just listed off those are those are all great movies I mean I remember when that Batman movie came out it was in my in my mind and nothing taking nothing against Superman but I felt like it was for you Superman but I felt like that was one of the the the truly great

comic book movies that are of transformational for comic book movies.

Steve Scarfo (20:11)
Yeah.

Again, it's at that same time when I think the industry started taking these properties more seriously. Pardon me. Superman was one of them, and I think this was number two. And I remember I don't remember the year now for Superman. I'll have to look it up. It was around that same time and maybe a year or two before that Superman, the movie 78. Oh, is it 78? Oh, it was almost 10 years before.

Jeff (20:32)
The Chris and Reeve Superman? 78. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this was a decade

later. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (20:40)
So they started

and maybe Superman was seen as an anomaly because he was such a popular character. Like you didn't have to be a geek or a comic book guy to know who Superman was. Right. He was the one character everybody knew. ⁓ That's different now, of course, because everybody with the MCU and the DCU, ⁓ they all these properties are out there and there's characters who you and I go, they made a movie with that guy. You know what I mean? ⁓

Jeff (21:02)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (21:04)
And then obviously the X-Men movies we'll talk about at some point in time. But in 89 when Batman came out, I agree, it was it was a little darker. It was a Tim Burton. Right. It was a little grittier. Superman. The movie was very bright colors, bright sets. Even when Lex Luthor was trying to blow up the world, everything was, you know, brightly lit and it was sort of a happier tone to the movie. This was the first time it was. And he was the Dark Knight. Right. So.

Jeff (21:30)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (21:31)
You know what's funny about those two is so of the of the four movies you mentioned, three of them are parts of much larger properties, right? They are each in their own right of blockbuster. obviously Batman part of the DC universe has been about 12 Batman movies. There were three Indiana Jones movies and Harrison Ford is the king of the ⁓

Jeff (21:50)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (21:54)
of running movies throughout stuff between Star Wars and Indiana Jones. He's got the most ⁓ franchise things going on. And then, of course, Ghostbusters, we talked a little bit about last week where there's been like three different iterations. Almost every except for one, every one of them had some sort of a sequel to it. ⁓ And they've all got. It had one sequel, yes. So again, we I don't want to make a Pink Panther problem.

Jeff (22:03)
Yeah.

Well, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids had a sequel too.

Yeah, not a franchise, that's true. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (22:22)
I don't want to can it correct. ⁓

Jeff (22:23)
But it also had ⁓ a ride in Epcot, right? Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, an experience. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (22:28)
Honey, I shrunk the audience. Right. But

that's that's a great point, because that's what all of these movies did is they didn't just throw a great movie up and make a lot of money and walk away. They had merch, they had sequels, they had franchises, a they had. Well, look at at Universal Studios. We didn't talk about Harry Potter, but Harry Potter's got like space in three of the universals like this movie created an environment.

Jeff (22:56)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (22:58)
Back to the Future had a ride. ⁓ Jurassic World, Jurassic Park had a ride. These things keep these movies relevant in people's minds so that when the next one comes out, they go, I just did the Jurassic ride. I'll go see that movie now. It was cool. It was very cool. ⁓

Jeff (23:03)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I

actually, and I love that, honey, I shrunk the audience. for those of who may not have gone to it, but ⁓ it was what, 4D? It was one of the first 4D, because you put on your 3D glasses, but then it had all these effects going on, like.

Steve Scarfo (23:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, the chairs would move and air and water would come at you for different things.

Jeff (23:40)
Yeah, so those who have been to Disney World's, the successors of that would have been the Muppets 3D, which is now gone. And then the Bugs Life is also now gone. But yeah.

Steve Scarfo (23:48)
Muppets, Bugs Life.

Hopefully they replace them with other 4D, because those were fun.

But I think it's time to get down to it. I think it's time to decide if this is even relevant or not. Do you think?

Jeff (24:05)
Did you take me to court?

Steve Scarfo (24:18)
So here we're talking about is the summer blockbuster still relevant? Does it matter like it used to? I'm going to say I don't think it is. I again, just like last week, I hope I'm wrong because I love being in the theater. But you and I went to go see the Fantastic Four like in week two and the theater was almost empty. It was.

And you've already said it. We acknowledge this year has been a bad year for summer movies. But like even a few years ago with The Flash, which was which for controversial because of the star and a lot of other reasons, right? Whether you like him or hate him, the movie itself, I enjoyed the movie, but it didn't do great. And maybe it was part of the controversy that hurt him and hurt that movie. But I go back to. The experience is different.

Right. I said it. I can watch Jurassic World later tonight. I don't have to go spend 12 bucks and sit in a theater and spend 20 bucks on popcorn. Like I can just go upstairs and pay nine ninety five or whatever it is that Amazon's renting it for. And for much cheaper, sit here in the comfort of my own home. Now, that makes me a lazy bastard, let's be honest. But the simplicity and the ease of streaming, it's sort of it's it's a slippery slope. I'm I'm sliding down.

And I think it's it's unfortunately one that a lot of us just lied. And I think people are just they're opting to stream versus going out. And especially right now, ⁓ the economy is crazy bad. So people are trying to squeeze their dollars. I think it's just going to keep hurting us.

Jeff (25:58)
So I know it like this year makes it feel that way and of course the 2020 makes it feel that way and But in fact, it's not correct. We have a number of films that I Avatar the way of water over two billion dollars spider-man no way home almost two billion dollars You know inside out to made almost ⁓

1 million. You know, over. Sorry. 1.7 billion. Yeah. 1.5 billion for Top Gun Maverick. About the same for Barbie, the Super Mario Brothers movie. Deadpool and Wolverine made over a billion. So, I mean, there's a lot of billion dollar property movies that came out in in the 2020s. So it definitely.

Steve Scarfo (26:32)
1.7 billion.

Jeff (26:56)
I know we have this kind of immediacy bias. If it didn't happen, you know, within the immediate timeframe that we're in, we feel like this is the way it is this year. Therefore, this is the way it'll always be ⁓ and has been. but it's it's, you know, I understand the feeling and it's and I think it's super disappointing for us who are Gen X geeks who love.

that these movies and to see like Superman not do as well as it should, the Fantastic Four not do as well as it should, it makes us fearful for the future. Like what if we don't get these movies? What if we don't get the sequels? What if they just die out? then, know, cause we just talked about Batman coming out a decade after Superman and there must have been.

a bit of a feeling after the Superman sequel, Superman three didn't do so well, did that kill it? And then, well, Batman came back. So now we're okay. then, then it was a, it was a ⁓ fair amount of time between that Batman movie and the next big superhero movie. had the, the X-Men movies did pretty good. But I mean, like it, the Avengers, right? Like MCU with

Steve Scarfo (28:14)
They weren't blockbusters though.

Jeff (28:19)
Avengers and thereafter like You know, I don't want that to die. I want that to keep going So so it's you know, it's kind of fearful, but I honestly think That it just feels that way Better days are ahead of us

Steve Scarfo (28:35)
Well, again, ⁓ I hope you're right. I hope I'm wrong. ⁓ I'm afraid that I'm not. think because of the shift, have an economic social shift going on where, and maybe the tent pole blockbuster will be the last vestige of this. ⁓

But we talked about it last week with comedy movies, like there's not as much coming out. Although thank God Naked Gun completely destroyed everything I said, because it did great and got great reviews. ⁓ But I think these are the anomalies, right? Because people will wait. People will just, they don't necessarily want to go. And one thing we didn't talk about last week, ⁓ when I thought about it while prepping for today is in the last five,

maybe seven or eight years, it hasn't been that long. You can go online, buy a ticket and pick a seat. Right. So you don't have to line up like even if you're excited for opening night when we were kids, even when we were teenagers, 20s and 30s, right, when we wanted to go to a movie on opening night, if you wanted to see ⁓ The Dark Knight Returns, you had to get in line if you wanted a good seat. You couldn't wait. Right. Because people would just be ⁓

Jeff (29:29)
⁓ yeah yeah that's true too yeah

Steve Scarfo (29:52)
camping out overnight, you they would be waiting for you. And now you can even when you go to the theater, you can four days ahead of time say, these are my three seats, two seats is where I'm going to sit. So you show up sometimes halfway through the the ⁓ previews and credits and stuff like that, you know. So it does change. I am I am and I'm teasing it, if you will. ⁓

Jeff (30:10)
Yeah, I think you're dancing close to one of our future segments, though.

But that

would be a jump to evolution, but we got treasures to dig up first.

Steve Scarfo (30:25)
yeah, no, I was just gonna say we definitely have to ⁓ talk about the stuff that came out of those movies.

So before we dive in too deep, do you don't know how happy it makes me that we're talking Indiana Jones today and I get to use that clip? ⁓ Because it's one of my favorite clips of all time. Yeah, so we're ⁓ swag, movie swag. ⁓ And I'm gonna just defer it right over to you because sitting precariously behind you is some of the newest swag you can get at the theaters.

Jeff (30:59)
Yes.

Yes, so, as I said in a previous podcast that, ⁓ I went and saw Superman at an AMC theater and outside of Boston, that theater was packed. So I also hope that things like this can, can still happen. We can still have a packed theater, but something that AMC does that our local theater does not do is have these popcorn buckets. They're not, they're not cheap.

We're, you know, my wife and I were huge Jaws fans, so I had to get it when I saw it there. And it's $42 for this piece of plastic. So, but I did it. And you know what? If it helps keep our theaters alive, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna take advantage of that, especially when it's something that I want. So, and.

Steve Scarfo (31:42)
That's crazy.

Well, and that's one of those

things that helps the theater directly because movie ticket sales don't help the theaters. I don't know how many people realize that, movie to almost every dime that comes in from ticket sales goes to the people who make the movies. So AMC is able to keep their theaters open by selling stuff like this.

Yeah, I want to say it's 90 or 95 % of all ticket sales goes right back to the distributor. So if it's a Paramount movie, Paramount gets most of that money. Movie theaters are food and beverage organizations. That's why popcorn and drinks are expensive because that's most of the way they make most of their money, especially on first run movies. ⁓

First-run movies are mostly profit for the movie company. And I think it's after two or three weeks that they change the percentages. the last time I looked it up was a few years ago. So that could have changed. But yeah, most of the money they make is from stuff like that. I think it's brilliant.

Jeff (32:53)
So one of my earliest memories was actually of swag from a movie. And I know we can count action figures, but I feel like...

That almost feels a little bit separate to me. Like I think of promotional materials for swag. And I remember going to see, this was a, I looked it up. was hoping it going to be a summer blockbuster. was not, it was a December blockbuster. It was Disney's The Black Hole, a sci-fi movie. was 1978. And I remember going to McDonald's and it was like, the happy meal must've been relatively new.

at late 70s and because it's it's stuck in my mind like Happy Meal, McDonald's. I didn't get to go to McDonald's that much and the Happy Meal like it was just my grandmother bought me and I remember getting a black hole. There was like this little robot in the black hole and it came in the Happy Meal and I was so excited. I don't have it anymore. It you know.

When we were growing up, these toys weren't considered collectibles and they were thinking that they'd have great value everlasting. And to convince my parents to, when you're moving from one house to another, perhaps one state to another, know, you want to keep all of this junk that now is like probably selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay.

Steve Scarfo (34:18)
yeah.

Jeff (34:22)
But because I remember having like all these Star Wars action figures and I would not have ever sacrificed them. But the next day now we're at this new house and wait, where's where's that hammerhead Star Wars guy? where? Yeah, yeah. Where is he?

Steve Scarfo (34:32)
They're gone.

the head came out, right?

⁓ I agree. I had, I was talking before we had the action figures. I remember when. All right. So this might be a false memory, but I'm going to say it anyway. I remember when McDonald's, think it was just maybe some of the other companies had it too. They actually would give you a glass, like a glass glass, not a plastic. And we have like the star wars logo on it and it would have, and you're right. All this stuff would be probably worth the mint today. ⁓ all of the stuff that you could get.

Jeff (35:00)
Yes. Yeah, Burger King had that. It was awesome. Yes.

Went at at

my wife's family's beach house. They because you know beach houses, summer houses, they often keep those things like like you just take advantage because you don't want that's not where you you want to your your normal year round stuff. It's just your vacation house. Exactly. They had this one of those old Batman from 1989 or no, it was the the one with the Riddler, Jim Carrey.

Steve Scarfo (35:19)
Put all the old stuff, yeah.

That's not where we keep the nice china.

Jeff (35:40)
And had like so remember the bat the the glass it was a real glass Yeah

Steve Scarfo (35:40)
yeah.

It was a glass. Yeah. Now they're plastic and they fall apart

the minute you open them up. But yeah, they I will say it's one of the first things they got right was the merch and the cross marketing with other companies. Right. McDonald's was one of the first Burger King ones of the first, you know, that was I think before Wendy's even existed. ⁓

But yeah, the ability to get these things and bring them home and have them in your house was phenomenal, you because you brought home a piece of the movie you have. Look at your shark. You have a shark that's it's yes. Forty two dollars is a lot of money. OK, but you're buying a piece of nostalgia.

that hopefully, and I know you, you'll keep it. And it will remind you of how much you enjoy it. You don't need to be reminded how much you like Jaws, but it's nice to see it. And... ⁓

Jeff (36:33)
Absolutely, and 42 is the meaning of life, so it's meant to be. Yes.

Steve Scarfo (36:36)
It is the life, the universe and everything. In fact,

can I make a weird ⁓ admission? ⁓ I didn't know there were six of those books. Douglas Adams had six books for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I did not know that until just recently. I'm actually listening to Book 2 now. I'm like, wait, how did I not know this? I love the first one. I just somehow never saw the other five. I don't know how.

Jeff (36:50)
⁓ Yeah.

nice. Yeah, good stuff. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (37:05)
⁓ If you knew me, you would know. That's easy to figure out. Jeff is laughing because he knows it's easy. I miss shit all the time. But I ⁓ think it's time to come out of the basement and talk about how things ⁓ are going to go. Where are we heading, Jeff?

Jeff (37:12)
You

Yeah.

We've evolved.

So yeah, 100%, we've been talking about it in this episode of Things Have Changed. ⁓ so because we've touched on it a number of times, I don't want to hammer back on some of those earlier points. But just a quick recap. We didn't have a choice. We wanted to see these big.

movies we had to go to the theater. And I love what you said about, you one of the reasons we don't have to wait in line is we get to book our seats ahead of time. And at AMC, can, you didn't have to wait in line for popcorn if you didn't want to. You could book your popcorn and deliver it to that seat. So things have really changed, but. But now, like, but you're right, like.

Steve Scarfo (38:13)
I think that's the end of civilization when that happens.

Jeff (38:20)
I one of the reasons I wanted to get there early and wait in that line was willing to wait in that line was to get the better seat because otherwise and it didn't work out for AMC because I bought my ticket day of and I really I'm just so spoiled by our small theater what goes to it our town that I could you know day of get get a decent seat but I was I was like three seats back from the screen ⁓ and I still remember

Steve Scarfo (38:48)
Well, and not only...

Jeff (38:50)
I seeing the movie,

break in to Electric Boogaloo. It was like an opening night and it was like standing room only. Like they oversold the, I'm like, hey, you can dance in the aisles.

Steve Scarfo (38:54)
Break into electric Boogaloo.

So

that's the point I was just going to bring up. ⁓ You say that we can pick the seat you want and make sure you get a good seat, but in fact, you can make sure you actually have a seat.

Right. Because there were times when we would go to the theater and get in line and have no idea how many seats were in that theater. And you didn't know if you actually were even getting in. So you could spend two, three hours at a line for a movie on opening night and still not get in to see it because every ticket was sold out. And then theaters started selling them. Right. yeah, it was one here and one here. And then it was, you know, there's a million old jokes from comedians about what it was like to hunt and peck through the theater to find somebody and then the negotiations. Who's going to go?

Jeff (39:26)
Yeah.

Yeah. Or not sit together.

Steve Scarfo (39:47)
back and get popcorn but now we don't know you don't have to do any of that ⁓ and it's it's nice it's convenient but there's no excitement I think I think part of what I'm I miss is the excitement of and trust me I've said it before I'm a lazy bastard I'll take comfort over excitement sometimes but or most the time but I do I miss that excitement of where we were

Jeff (39:53)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, those days, we're not getting those back. That is gone. We have these conveniences, we're not about to give those up. And that's, I feel differently. I actually love having that ability to pick my seat.

If I could get the popcorn delivery, because when we saw Jurassic World or the new, the rebirth or Scarlett Johansson one that came out, I can't remember the exact title of it, but in the newest Jurassic. ⁓

When we got there, we got there a little bit late into, and there was this huge line for popcorn. So I had to leave, I had to get there, sit down, wait for an opportunity in the movie that I felt wasn't gonna be too much to miss and went out to get my popcorn at that point.

Steve Scarfo (41:05)
there.

Jeff (41:06)
when the line had died down.

Steve Scarfo (41:06)
Well...

I think maybe it's time to let folks know ⁓ they don't realize how easy it is.

You wanna go first?

Jeff (41:24)
So I know this is supposed to be a message to the new generation. I know you've got one, but I want to deliver a message to ⁓ the production companies. This is for Sony and Disney and Warner Brothers. ⁓ So in case this message gets to you, this is for you. Think about as much as I believe the summer blockbuster isn't truly dead.

Steve Scarfo (41:28)
I

Well, Feige is a big listener.

Jeff (41:53)
Think about a different paradigm. What if we didn't have some of the best movies all released week to week? Like the maybe Fantastic Four, what if they've been done better in April with no competition? No next movie coming out the next week that's gonna steal their thunder. Like really reconsider.

Do you really have to all compete against one another for ever shrinking amount of people? Like maybe, just maybe give us some of these big movies off schedule. You don't have to compete for such a small number. It would be like as if all the TV shows, of course, I'm talking old school, like as if anyone is watching a show when it comes out. But when it did.

Like they didn't all come out on Thursday. They had some on Monday, some on Tuesday, some on Wednesday. Do the same thing. You don't have to release them all in June and July.

Steve Scarfo (42:48)
Yes, when Thursday night had to be the night, yes.

Yeah, before I jump into mine, I agree with you. And it's funny, I see the same thing in comedy. ⁓ Everybody's more worried about a measuring contest and I'm better than you and I can do this and I'll take your audience. And I've I've made this argument to other booking agents and people I've talked to for years. ⁓ Why not get together and have a plan and say, because you're right, there is only X number of people who are going to do this.

You know, granted, that X number is pretty big for like a Marvel movie. But if you're

If your Marvel movie is coming up against a good DC movie, it doesn't have to be a pissing contest, putting them out on the same weekend or week after. You know you're fighting for the same dollar, right? The same people who love Marvel movies are going to love the DC movies. And I know there's the battle back and forth or whatever, but those people are all still going. Why not give it a few weeks? 100 percent. ⁓ I love that message. And I hope I hope maybe I'll start emailing clips to these companies and go stop. Stop being stupid.

Jeff (44:01)
Tag him.

Steve Scarfo (44:03)
and then hashtag them.

Jeff (44:03)
Yeah, because it's that paradigm. We just got used to it. But Jaws started it. But before that, like I said, in the 19 when the year I was born, like every other month except the summers had the biggest, the biggest numbers and the best numbers. It doesn't have it doesn't have to be.

Steve Scarfo (44:18)
Right. Yep, you shifted the...

Yeah, they shifted the paradigm once. They can do it again.

All right, so here's my rant. I actually prepped this one. ⁓ So I apologize if I'm looking this way, but ⁓ I'm just going to say it streaming has ruined the sacred art of waiting for a movie back in the 70s and 80s. You didn't just click play on a Tuesday and you could sit in your sweatpants. You had to prepare like it was an event. You got your friends together. You picked an outfit. Usually they were T-shirts, but you had to wait in line for hours. We talked about whether it was weather because that was part of what we did. That was kind of a convention before the

convention because you would talk to other people theories about the movie. You only saw one one damn preview. So you couldn't you didn't know the whole movie. We've talked about this guy and I love it. Eric Voss. I forget the the YouTube channel, but you can see most of the movie because he'll break it down for you line by line. We didn't have any of that. You you swap theories, you quote trailers. It was six months between a trailer and a movie being released. ⁓ And everybody that was waiting with you was was hyped and psyched to do it. Now you can stream it on day one. I just set up.

I'm gonna do it with Jurassic, right? You could do it alone in your living room while you're watching you fold the laundry or doing something stupid or wait for it to be less crowded, which is stupid because again, that's not, that wasn't what the excitement was. You're supposed to be in a sold out room full of people laughing, cheering. When you saw Superman, you got to experience it. mean, convenience is nice, but I think convenience is killing the thrill, you know?

We earned that opening night seat. waited for that. We felt the movie was bigger and more important and it meant more because we invested our time and our energy. And now you can watch on your phone while you're sitting on the bus. And I love the convenience, but I hate that it's taking to me some of the magic away from that theater experience.

Jeff (46:13)
Get off Steve's lawn.

Steve Scarfo (46:15)
That's my first true rant. That's the first time I've been like cut the shit and I mean it but I can't just be a downer. We have to talk about some of the good things too.

Jeff (46:36)
All right, I have to share a critical hit because my epic fails, and epically failing because I'm getting them wrong. So I have to share a critical hit. ⁓ Deadpool and Wolverine was such a critical hit for me. Just the fact that, like, I did so much, so much for the true Marvel fan. Yeah, if you're a casual fan, you might have even caught everything that was in there.

But there was so much, and I doubt I caught everything. ⁓ And that's what I loved about it. Like you're watching like, yeah, I know that Wolverine. That's the Wolverine cover from this and that's the Wolverine from this one. And he's got the classic Wolverine costume and just this, of course I love the whole Deadpool character. The Ryan Reynolds did an amazing job with that and thank God.

he was able to get that redemption. Because those of you who might remember his mouth sewn shut, the merc of the mouth with a mouth sewn shut didn't make any sense. But that's what they did to him. So he got that redemption. It did so well in the box office for a rated R movie. It was one of the most successful rated R movies ever. And it was so, so good.

Steve Scarfo (47:44)
Yeah.

Jeff (48:01)
every bit of it, loved it so much. so that's my, that what I feel like is such a critical hit, because it showed that you can, you you can make a movie that does huge fan service. ⁓ And you don't, you don't have to apologize for who you are. Like it's rated R, they're like, just putting it out and we're going to make the thing that we've always wanted to make in every Marvel, you know,

Wolverine fan is gonna you know is gonna love and as far as I can tell it was you know I didn't see too many haters of that film, so that's awesome

Steve Scarfo (48:42)
No,

no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna agree a thousand percent with that. I've watched it probably three or four times now because I love it so much and it's got, it hits everything that I would ever look for in any kind of movie. The two characters I love, ⁓ had the crossover from the worlds, it has the time travel, it's got all the Easter eggs. ⁓ No, great choice, that's a great fuggin movie. ⁓

I can't think of a better, the only one I think of in the same vein is that Spider-Man No Way Home when all three of them are in it. That kind of crossover thing, same kind of idea, right? But Deadpool versus Wolverine, 100%.

Jeff (49:15)
⁓ yes 100 % Mm-hmm Yep It was set that in that

that redemption I think was for ⁓ my god the spider-man that ⁓ the second of andrew garfield andrew garfield like I feel like

Steve Scarfo (49:31)
Andrew Garfield, yeah.

Jeff (49:34)
He found out how many people really appreciated his Spider-Man because of that. Tobey Maguire is well established, well known, very successful. Andrew Garfield wasn't quite as well received, but definitely for us Spider-Man fans, his version was fantastic. And I think he finally got his flowers.

Steve Scarfo (49:38)
Yeah.

He did. ⁓ So all that's left is the fail. I'm going to I'm going to put a movie name out there ⁓ and then I think it's kind of a double double dip, right, because I think ⁓ the flash. ⁓ I just think it didn't do what it was supposed to do, right. It should have been.

Jeff (50:00)
I'm not saying a word.

Steve Scarfo (50:23)
Deadpool Wolverine, should have been Spider-Man No Way Home, right? It should have been that level of crossover, right? Because it had all the elements. had, my God, they brought back ⁓ Michael Keaton as Batman. They had Supergirl, like the Flash. They had all of these characters who should have gelled and.

Jeff (50:41)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (50:47)
Even him playing both parts as both Barry's, which I thought he did pretty good at. Like I've seen worse. I've seen better. Michael Keaton in multiplicity, for instance, is probably one of my favorite movie acting roles of all time, because I think he does an amazing job of splitting those characters. ⁓ But it should have been a home run and it was barely a ground out single. Not that I should be making sports metaphors, but.

You know what I'm saying? It it really it felt like it should have been bigger and I don't know if it was because of the controversy surrounding him at the time ⁓ But I just think it was a swing and a miss there was so many well It's it's like pink panther you talked about last week all the elements were there. They just didn't fit they just had the

Jeff (51:30)
Yeah.

Yeah. And actually some of the things you called out. Well, I know not everyone would agree, but I thought that Supergirl was fantastic. I thought she did an awesome job. thought Michael Keaton's appearance as Batman was fantastic. That like so there were some some things in that that really worked. ⁓ Ezra Miller, is that the actor? ⁓ He was. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (51:41)
yeah.

Yeah.

Jeff (52:00)
His version of the Flash even, you know, take away the controversy, ⁓ is okay. Like it wasn't, you know, there was nothing fantastic of what he didn't bring anything to the Flash character or franchise that like, I don't know how he won that role. Like Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman was fantastic. Jason Momoa's Aquaman, fantastic. it's, kind of like Ben Affleck as Batman. Like he's fine.

Steve Scarfo (52:22)
yeah.

Henry Cavill, Superman.

Jeff (52:29)
He's just not bringing anything like actually and I know you know We left him out last time at Robert Pattinson's Batman at least that's he did bring something new and fresh that kind of detective

Steve Scarfo (52:40)
Yeah, you didn't have to like it, but it was there. Yeah.

Jeff (52:43)
I actually and I actually did like it. So I'm

glad that, you know, I think he's getting one more shot at it. But but, you know, it's it's not like he was a bad flash, but he didn't bring anything to it. And when you have when it's this big of a role, you've got to bring something to it. Otherwise, you're like he would have been fine as just another member of the Justice League. Like he was fine in his cameos. But he, you know, he wasn't able to make that character work.

And there's other problems with that movie, yeah, it didn't work out the way it should have.

Steve Scarfo (53:17)
Well,

have you seen the Justice League Snyder Cut, the extended version? So his character in the original crap, Popcorn-y, surface, no depth. When they recut it and put all the elements back in where he meets Iris and... ⁓

Jeff (53:21)
Yes, I actually like it.

Steve Scarfo (53:39)
There's a lot of stuff, I think that actually did him some justice, which might have been part of why he got the role because they saw, okay, there are these scenes where he can be a better character, a deeper character. He wasn't just a scratch and sniff comic book, you know, surface guy. But yeah, I think the movie, he was lighthearted and funny and he had some good moments, but I agree, just it wasn't there.

Jeff (53:51)
Mm. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (54:06)
But that brings us down to the last part of our show. So we keep putting it out there. ⁓

Listen, check us out on all social media. Follow us. ⁓ YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. ⁓ Drop us comments. Like the show. Rate the show, please. Anywhere you're getting podcasts. If you listen to us on one of the platforms, throw us a rating. It helps us out quite a bit. ⁓ And OriginalGeekPodcast@Gmail.com. Send us some information. We want to know what you think. Do you guys like the blockbuster? Do you like going to the movies still or do you prefer streaming?

You know, it might be dying, but as you can say, Jeff doesn't think so, and I'm hopeful that I'm wrong.

Jeff (54:46)
Yeah, and tell a friend, please. That word of mouth, that's one of the best ways that we're gonna get.

you know, more listeners until we figure out the marketing genius that was Jaws or Blair Witch for our own show that we, you know, but, even then, actually, you know, I think of Blair Witch, because I think a lot of it did end up being like, oh my God, did you see that? Because it made it, you know, had that people talked about it. And that's what we need. We need that buzz. Give us that buzz. Help us buzz this thing out there. Buzz us around.

Steve Scarfo (55:15)
Yes. Buzz us.

All right. Yeah. Originalgeekpodcast.com. Send us an email. Send us a like. And we'll catch you next time.