That’s not a knock on DC, Reeves, Pattinson, or even Batman. Some factors behind predicting “The Batman” performance: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Both franchises are big, but “Spider-Man” has been bigger. It’s not just “No Way Home.” Take it out of the picture, and the prior seven live-action films since 2001 that starred the character of Peter Parker averaged 13 percent more (inflation adjusted) than nine live-action D.C. Comics titles since 1989 that centered on the Caped Crusader....

Listen to the full episode below, or read on for excerpts from our interview.  Partial Transcript Below: Jackson and Olssen on creating “The Beatles: Get Back”: Olssen: Well, the first thing I ever heard [about the project], Peter, was that you sent me an email because you were in England and you had gone into the Apple offices and you had started watching it there on videotape in their conference room....

The original 2017 DreamWorks Animation release, “The Boss Baby,” grossed $175 million in North America and double that in the rest of the world. It was previously scheduled as a theater-only release September 17. Universal’s theatrical releases fall under an established Premium VOD deal that allows for PVOD showings after 17 or 31 days, depending on opening gross. This includes revenue sharing with at least some exhibitors. This announcement indicates that whatever the intricacies of that agreement, Universal retained the right to play films of their choosing day and date via streaming, with theaters then free to play at their choice....

The tiny organization is a familiar source of Hollywood derision; fewer than 100 members of uncertain provenance determine the results of an awards show that receives major media attention and millions in advertising dollars. Now, they face their greatest enemy: themselves. After a February exposé by the Los Angeles Times, followed by a series of increasingly urgent missteps followed by promises to do better, the HFPA and the Golden Globes now appear to be hurtling toward an inglorious, only-in-Hollywood end....

The first season of “The Mandalorian” served as Disney+’s tentpole launch title and helped the streaming service gain a rapid subscriber base shortly after launch. “The Mandalorian” Season 2 is expected to feature a handful of familiar faces including Temuera Morrison (who played Jango Fett in “Attack of the Clones”) as Boba Fett, as well as ex-Jedi Ahsoka Tano, who will be portrayed by Rosario Dawson. Giancarlo Esposito, who portrayed sinister Imperial agent Moff Gideon in the show’s first season, is also expected to square off against the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) as the titular protagonist works to reconnect The Child with his species....

The conclusion that Abbott and Achbar reverse-engineered was convincing enough: Corporations are psychopaths. They don’t care about others, they’re incapable of feeling guilt, they often disregard the law out of their own insatiable self-interest, and they’re only getting worse. While the psychiatrist who Abbott and Achbar used as a human prop has since accused the filmmakers of misapplying his diagnosis, the last 17 years have provided such a constant deluge of evidence to its point that “The Corporation” now seems both impressively prescient and uselessly naïve....

That’s true for “The Serpent,” the eight-part limited series about the life and crimes of Charles Sobhraj, but only to an extent. Though Tahar Rahim plays all forms of the man who led an international crime ring, he exists for most of the series as “Alain Gautier.” What begins as an alias — the origins of which the audience sees in fits and starts as the series progresses — comes to encompass all of what allowed him to grow his intercontinental passport- and jewel-laundering scam, ensnaring a growing net of murder victims and accomplices and enemies along the way....