Trump goes to China, summer box office predictions, Hantavirus & UFO files dropped | Ep. 69

Conner Jones: [00:00:05] Hi, I'm Connor Jones.

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:07] I'm Micah Tomasella.

Conner Jones: [00:00:08] And this is Culture Brief, a Denson Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, technology, and so much more. And we do it all from a Christian perspective. And Micah, I just feel like it's the beginning of summer. I know some people might still be in school, some people may be taking finals over in college. Others are just trying to get on their first summer vacation. I don't know. I wore, I wore the shirts, got some palm trees on it, golf carts. I'm going to the beach next week. I'm ready, dude. I'm ready for the summer.

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:34] Let's go. Dude, I'm I'm I'm ready for the summer too. Thus my facial hair. Everybody who's going to be watching the video, got a good little summer stash going on. It's a little controversial. I have an ongoing discussions with my wife about it, but what's done is done. And so we'll see what happens next.

Conner Jones: [00:00:50] Yeah, I mean, it's definitely there.

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:52] Well, what what are we going to be diving into today, Micah?

Conner Jones: [00:00:54] It's definitely there. It's definitely there. No comment, just like it's present.

Micah Tomasella: [00:00:57] It's definitely on your upper lip. Yeah, thanks Connor. Always so encouraging. All right, so we're going to talk about Trump. Well, he's going to China. So we're going to talk about what's going on there and all the the big implications at play there with uh an American a sitting uh US president going to China and bringing a lot of the top brass in the government and a lot of the biggest business leaders, technology leaders in America with him. It's it's going to be really interesting. And then we're going to do, I know everybody's been waiting for this heading into summer, Bust the Block year two. But this year, I'm going to be hosting it because as we know, I'm not a big movie goer. I've got other important things going on in my life. However, we're going to be bringing on a special guest who's going to be competing with Connor who might, just might have some of his movie knowledge and skill that seemingly no one's been able to match so far. We'll talk about the Hantavirus and a few more things, maybe UFOs too. So let's jump into the brief.

Conner Jones: [00:01:54] The brief.

Micah Tomasella: [00:01:57] Yep, you said it, Micah.

Conner Jones: [00:01:58] Trump, he is set to arrive in Beijing on, I believe Wednesday night. So we're recording this on Tuesday. Wednesday night is the day he's supposed to arrive, but Thursday, Friday, if you're listening to this on Thursday, today is the day of the big meetings. Uh he's going to be meeting with President Xi Jinping over there. Um mostly on Thursday and Friday and then, you know, the White House is describing this as kind of a a trip of their quote is tremendous symbolic significance, which is a whole lot of jargon for nobody really knows what's going to happen. It's a it's a big deal that it's happening, but we don't know what's going to come out of this, right? This is the first state visit to China since Trump actually went in 2017. So Joe Biden never went. Um this is not a common occurrence. This is maybe once in a decade situation. Now they have planned for Chi to come over here at some point to the US later this year and maybe a little bit more back and forth. Um but we'll see. I want to quote Axios here because I thought they defined the significance of this meeting pretty well. And they said this in their Monday newsletter. They said, beneath the pageantry sits the defining geopolitical question of the century, whether the world's two superpowers can manage their rivalry or are destined for economic rupture and military confrontation. The summit was also once seen as a de facto deadline for stabilizing the Iran war, but Air Force One is set to land in Beijing on Wednesday evening with the war unresolved. Yeah, Micah, I think that's true, right? I mean, Trump is going over there. Uh the intention was initially to go back in March, but the war was raging on right in March with with Iran. So they postponed, they delayed it. There's already kind of a setback to this whole meeting sequence. And now here we are, a few months later, the idea was Iran was supposed to be wrapped up. We were supposed to already have this whole thing short up, but really that's at a stalemate. Um even Trump this week said that the negotiations for a peace deal are currently on life support. Nobody really knows what's going to happen there either. They are not coming to an agreement whatsoever. There's been some skirmishes here and there with the Navy, with the UAE and everything else. So, I don't know, Michael, what do you think of right now as Trump heads over to China?

Micah Tomasella: [00:03:54] Well, I mean, it could mean everything, it could also mean nothing. I mean, that's what's interesting about calling this like a symbolic gesture, right? Is, you know, this isn't some planned peace talk. You know, this isn't the Geneva convention. You know, this is this isn't Davos, like I don't know, name anything that gets this isn't a NATO meeting. I mean like the list goes on and on. However, the most powerful people in the world will be there. Um, and so I mean, I guess we'll just have to see what happens. I mean, I think I think you could come away with some concessions on the American side to have something to rally around and you could come away with some concessions on the Chinese side to have something to rally around. Uh I think China can put their thumb on the scale more with what's happening in the world with Iran. Um and so I just wonder what give and take is going to happen because then people start getting into, okay, is Trump going to make some sort of concession regarding Taiwan because China has stated explicitly by 2027, at least starting in 2027, they very well might try to take over Taiwan and American support is kind of up in the air on what would happen. There's just a lot that comes from this and that's just that's some of the the specifics outside of, hey, these two countries that have been somewhat in a cold war with each other for years, competing in on every single level, the two biggest superpowers in the world by far, well, they're about to sit down for a couple days. So, I guess buckle up and in the words of TO, Terrell Lawrence, get your popcorn ready.

Conner Jones: [00:05:28] TO. Good. We love TO from a back in the Cowboys heyday. Uh, yeah, you're right. This is probably the two most powerful men on the planet. You could argue that Putin is somewhere in there as well. Probably the top three most powerful men on the planet. Uh but two of them are here meeting. They're going to be in the room together trying to hash out deals that ultimately will affect billions of people including you and I, Micah and probably most people listening to this. We will be impacted by decisions made in that room. And I think that's just very crucial to remember is like they're going to hash out economic details, AI details, war details. We should be praying for this. Yeah, we should be. And that's kind of the call here is this has a lot of implications and it's going to be very far reaching. We need to pray for this. We need to pray for the discernment in that room. We need to pray for freedom of religion in China. There are so many Christians who are hiding underground and that's actually something Trump may bring up as a couple of pastors who have been arrested in China and are currently in prison. He might try to seek their release, um which would be very uh awesome and obviously a huge answer to many prayers of people over there who are praying for the release of these pastors who have been wrongly, um, you know, rounded up, but in China, it's not legal to preach the gospel of Jesus. And so everybody doing it over there has to do it underground. Beyond that, the geopolitical implications, they're also just big. I mean, China likes the war with Iran because one is depleting our munitions. They like seeing our missiles get used, our weapons get used, our aircraft, um, you know, get more wear and tear on them. All of this, the aircraft carriers being not in their vicinity anymore, but over in the Middle East, it just opens the door for future conflict with Taiwan to look different for them. It might be easier if they can have a a weakened US military that has used up a lot of their stock pile. Uh they also like when Americans are frustrated with their government. They know uh the just massive ordeal that it is for a culture to be upset and frustrated with the government that they it would there's not really a rallying cry behind the war with Iran for much of America. Um and then they know that, you know, gas prices over here are really high, but they're also high in China. That's part of the problem that China has is they need that Iran.

Micah Tomasella: [00:07:28] They're higher in China.

Conner Jones: [00:07:30] Higher. I mean, they need oil from Iran. That's where they get a bulk of their oil. And so they

Micah Tomasella: [00:07:35] Which is why they've been quietly pushing Iran to do some things, but they're also funding certain things and also giving pieces of info and material to the Iranians. So it's it's um, I don't know, man. It's kind of like a catch 22, but I think for China, probably the long game is better for them if if taking Taiwan is like their main goal, but I think in the short term, they're feeling the crunch plus some right now.

Conner Jones: [00:08:02] They definitely are. Um and I think a lot of the Chinese people probably are as well. Of course, their information there in China is not as robust as we get here. It's very cracked down on. But the people in power in China are trying to figure out a way forward as well. And they need the US. I mean, trade is so important with the US. That's where so much of their product sells to. They need the US economy to be trading with them. The US needs China to help manufacture and to help uh keep our prices lower on things. It is a both countries do not like each other. They do not see the world eye to eye, but they need each other. So they have to come to some sort of agreement. Um, yeah, and China specifically, the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article this week titled China has dazzling technology and military muscle, but it is also an economic mess. And it's just talking about how Chi has led the country through a military revival. He has built up the military, but in the midst of that, they've had just so much economic wreckage. Uh they've built massive cities that sit empty. They can't figure out their real estate. They have a massive property bust that's destroyed trillions of dollars in wealth and consumer confidence and there's really not a big job market there and the jobs that are available are kind of depressing. Uh you know, they they sit in factories in a lot of these big cities all day long, no sunshine, fluorescent lights all day, so much so that they have to build nets around the roofs of these buildings. It's really a sad situation for many people in China and they would like to be free of that, I am sure. Uh so yeah, Trump's just got to go into this. He's got to decide does he want to play hardball with Chi or is he kind of want to cut a deal that could include some sort of Chinese investment in the US, uh maybe purchasing of like American crops, soy beans, all of that, or does he want to go in and play more hardball, clamp down on things, clamp down on AI and Fentinel production, all of that. So, yeah, and AI specifically, this is something else that we're kind of in an arms race with China here in AI. So I think we'll get some details on uh, you know, how China and the US are both feeling about AI with each other. But as we already said, I would just encourage everybody to join us in praying for this meeting. I mean, if if you think of it, if you see it in the headlines, just remember to just stop and pause and pray for a minute and and pray for ultimately just the decision makers there. You may not like any of the individuals in the room. I mean, it's really hard to like dictators like Chi, you may really dislike Trump, but doesn't mean we can't pray for the situation. It's got such a big impact. Um and so so consequential. Um, you know, we may not have any influence over the decisions that are made. We likely won't. I mean, unless you are in power in one of these positions and you have an, you know, you're close to Trump or Chi or something, you're not going to have a whole lot of power here. We kind of just have to wait and see what comes out of it that impacts the rest of us. But, you know, we can make parallels. We are all trying to mend relationships in our lives. We're all trying to make uh relationships go forward. So, you know, if we're going into a situation thinking, are we going to win the conversation? That might not be the best mentality or or are we trying to make a deal like Trump and Chi might try to do here? Just think about that as you go forward with your conversations this week, with your relationships. Go into them as Jesus did. And that was humbly. Jesus was obviously just the prime example of humility. Um and he showed us how it looks to act graciously and use words of love and healing, not of competition, not of um power and all of that. Um, you know, when Jesus died for our sins on the cross, he showed that humbling oneself and approaching humanity with grace and love always triumphed over self- exaltation and selfish ambition. Both of those characteristics, Micah, I would say have stunted the impact of kings and presidents and prime ministers and Popes over many centuries. We have watched um greed and self- entitlement totally stop people from becoming who they could have been, including King Saul. Uh, you know, God had allowed him to become king over Israel and it just he he became so wrapped up in his own power, his own desire to maintain that power that he did not allow God's will to be played out. And that's why he continued to chase after David. Um and his heart was hardened in that way. But Colossians 2:13 to 15 tells us, and you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. So yeah, I mean, you know, we may not be dealing with world leaders in our daily life. Most of us probably are not, but we do have the opportunity every day to show love to the people that are in our lives. Micah, you have any thoughts to add to that?

Micah Tomasella: [12:33] I love it, man. Uh it's a good way to wrap up the discussion because it's a situation that's seemingly so far above our heads, but you're right, decisions made in those next 48 hours really could have an impact on oh goodness. I mean, it's just the billions of people, you know, if you want to combine the populations, China, USA, but really anything our country and their country does affects the world. I would just say, uh one way that I try to look at things is is God has kind of been working on my heart and discipling me hosting this podcast, consuming more news is how can I take what's going on out there and instead of just accepting it at face value that this is this has nothing to do with me. This is happening all the way over there. What on earth can I do about it? There's there's a certain peace in that. You you shouldn't be carrying what you weren't meant to carry. Uh we'll let them deal with that. Ultimately, we'll say a prayer and we'll let God deal with that because God is the Lord over China and the Lord over the USA. But I would just say, how do we how do we take it and how do we look inwardly? How do I approach my conversations more humbly? How how do I approach those around me instead of looking at what can I gain from them, how can I serve them? How can I be humble in the way that I approach things and do my work and and and have relationships and interact with family and friends and raise my kids and serve my wife. How do I implement the ways of Jesus into every aspect of my life. And so I just think that there's something that God can teach us through these negotiations, through these symbolic meetings that are above our head. I think God can teach us something through that. And I just think sometimes we need to slow down and pay attention to what God is trying to say to us.

Conner Jones: [14:20] Totally. Completely agree. What a great way to wrap that up. Um, yeah, be praying for this meeting and we'll just see what comes out of it. We'll probably touch on that next week. But for now, let's talk about movies. Okay, so the summer blockbuster season is officially here. It's upon us. We're going to break it down. We're going to do it the same way we did last year. Micah, you mentioned at the top of the episode, it's time for year two of Bust the Block. Now, if you were here last year listening, we're going to say it together of Bust the Block. That was terrible, man. Oh yeah. Okay. Wow, that we did not. We were on totally. We're excited though. Yeah, we are. It kind of, you know, gave a vibe of like a 70s game show, you know, where they were all like, price is right, you know, like there was an opportunity there. We we we flubbed it. But because of this, we, you know, we played last year. We're going to play it again. It's a popular game. I think people like playing alongside us. And Micah and I did it as a competition last year, but there is one issue. Uh Micah is not actually a big movie goer. As you've heard him on the show talk about, he's not like a guy who just is a savant on movies. Um I think Micah, you probably check out maybe one big movie a year, but that's okay because we have our friend AJ joining us. AJ, uh welcome to the show.

AJ Baxley: [15:34] Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Conner Jones: [15:36] So we brought AJ on because she actually is a movie person. She likes movies. She goes to the movies. We talked about this the other day. She's like, yeah, I see most of the big summer blockbuster movies, which same. Hey, I'm right there with you, AJ. So it made sense to bring AJ on to come play this game. So Micah is going to host us through Bust the Block here. Um AJ is our graphic designer here at Denson Ministries. She is incredibly talented uh at just designing all kinds of art. If you see any big graphics from us at Denson Forum or any of our other brands that we've got at Denson Ministries, there's a good chance either Micah's wife Emily has been behind it or AJ has been behind it. They are our graphic designers here. So what a blessing that is to have them on this team. That said, I think we can probably start diving into this and just with a preface of, hey, the movies are kind of back. Uh a couple years ago, there was a big fear that movie theaters were were really going to struggle and that movies were going away. Uh but already this year, 14% up on last year in the box office. A lot of that's from Project Hail Mary and the movie Michael on Michael Jackson being huge hits. The Devil Wears Prada 2 came out last weekend, massive hit. Uh so this success is kind of probably going to bleed into the summer. That's what movie studios are hoping. So we're going to break down. I think I've got 11 of the biggest movies. We're not going to do every single release this summer, but we got 11 big movies that we're going to just kind of offer a little preview on and our predictions. Micah, I'm going to hand it off to you.

Micah Tomasella: [16:50] Yeah, so I'm going to list the rules of the game here. So again, I'm not the one competing anymore because Connor wanted a fair fight. So he brought on um somebody who's more on his level in movie knowledge. I appreciate you both for um single-handedly keeping a dying movie industry alive. No, I'm just kidding. Movie theater industry. But again, the numbers are up. I do hope it continues. Movie theaters are good for communities and for our country, right?

Conner Jones: [17:16] I agree.

Micah Tomasella: [17:17] Totally. Yeah, okay, good. Yeah. All right, so I'm going to list off summer movies. I'm going to list off the whole slate like Connor talked about that are releasing in theaters, not streaming only. So for people like me, again, I don't hate going to the movies. I just have young kids and it's like, well, I'd rather just do something else. Like we Emily and I watch a lot of movies, but we kind of wait until it comes out on streaming or just watch streaming only movies. Um, but these are only movies that are being released in the theaters, okay? Because we're going to be talking budgets, we're going to be talking about all that stuff. So and I'll tell you guys the budget of each movie, then you're going to say if you plan to see the movie, if you're excited, um if if you are, you need to talk about what you're excited about and most importantly, if you think the movie will break even, which either hits the industry's 2.5 times metric for determining if a film breaks even, recouping the film's productions and marketing costs, right? So break even is simple. Is it going to make back what was put in? Bust the block, make at least three times the budget, big profits, flop. It's not going to recoup its budget, okay? Big losses. At the end of the summer, we'll review the results and each corrected prediction is worth one point. Um last year Connor did beat me 5-2. So we will tally the scores at the end of the summer and see how it shakes out. All right, you guys ready to play Bust the Block year two?

Conner Jones: [18:34] Yeah, let's let's do it.

Micah Tomasella: [18:36] All right, let's go. All right, on May 22nd, I'm excited about this one. This might be the type of one that I go and see. I'll I'll give a preface for each one or at least that I think might be interesting. Um all right, so the Mandalorian and Grogu budget, 166 million, break even point would be 415 million. I'm going to go back and forth and let you guys go first. On this first one, Connor will go first and then we'll go back and forth on who goes first. Connor, what say you?

Conner Jones: [19:06] Mandalorian and Grogu is obviously a big movie because it is Star Wars. I mean, there's a lot of people that are going to go out just to see this because it's the Star Wars realm. The Mandalorian TV show was obviously a huge hit. Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, just a massive fan favorite. So I think, I think this movie will do good. I just don't think it's ever going to get to the point where previous Star Wars films did. So that leads me to believe it's going to be break even.

Micah Tomasella: [19:30] Break even. Okay, what say you, AJ?

AJ Baxley: [19:33] I think this one's going to do pretty good too because everyone loved the Mandalorian on Disney Plus. And this is the first one in theaters. Yeah. I don't know if it's going to break the block, but I think it might be one of the best movies of the summer. I probably, I might see it. I feel a little behind because I haven't seen any of the other Mandalorian, but I think it'll do pretty good.

Conner Jones: [19:53] That is kind of the problem here is it requires a little bit of homework to like know who this character is, who Grogu is and all that. I didn't even say it, but I don't plan on seeing this because I don't like Micah and I've had the Star Wars debate here. I think Star Wars is fine. I'm not like a massive fan. I went to see all the movies.

Micah Tomasella: [20:07] I actually like Star Wars a lot more than Connor does, which is interesting, right? But but AJ, just for tallying purposes, is this going to break even or bust the block?

AJ Baxley: [20:16] Trying not to let Connor's answer influence me. I'm going to say bust the block.

Micah Tomasella: [20:21] Stand on business, 10 toes down. Bust the block. Love it. All right, next one being released, May 29th, back rooms, okay? I don't even know what this one is. Back rooms, budget is 10 million. Break even point would be a cool 25 mil. Again, these are not small amounts of money, right? Like imagine getting a group of people together and your budget's 10 million. You can do a lot with 10 million, but coming right off of that 166 million budget for Mandalorian Grogu, it does seem a little bit smaller. So AJ, what is what is your prediction for back rooms?

AJ Baxley: [20:56] I think this one will definitely break even just because it's a pretty low budget. I'm excited about this one. Um I love A24 and I love a psychological thriller. So I'm definitely going to be seeing this one. Um I love trying to figure out what the heck's going on. So.

Conner Jones: [21:13] Love it. Yeah, if you don't know what this is, I suggest watching the trailer or the YouTube video that this is based off of that came out like three or four years ago. It's like a 18-year-old kid made a YouTube video, got seen by like 75 million views. The the YouTube video is called back rooms. So, yeah, naturally A24 is like, hey man, take your eight-minute video and make it a whole movie. And that's why it's so cheap. They just hired this 21-year-old kid to to literally direct a movie. Any famous people in it or no? Uh kind of like some B-level actors. Um people whose face you might recognize, but nobody super famous. That's part of the way they keep the budget so low. But I think this bust the block because I believe that this will be one of those kind of like psychological thriller horror type movies that just, you know, it it out does its budget and is somehow really popular.

Micah Tomasella: [21:56] It's going to be one of those things where like, I think with Mandalorian Grogu, if on the first weekend, I mean, there's no way they make 415 million on the first weekend, right? But like on the first weekend, let's say the reviews are super bad, then it might not make it, right? Because it'll discourage other people from going. Let's say in that first weekend, back rooms makes like 2 million, but then everybody on social media and all the movie critics are like, my goodness, you got to go see this. Then it will absolutely bust the block, right? I mean, there's um so much rides on that first weekend. So much rides on on that premiere just with how quickly people's voice, you know, everybody has a platform these days, right?

Conner Jones: [22:32] Yeah, man, that word of mouth is going to be huge for a movie like this. And that's typically what happens with these cheaper horror movies. Word of mouth sends them and propels them and they then you get a whole new franchise out of it. So, yeah, could be a fun movie.

Micah Tomasella: [22:43] All right, so AJ said break even and Connor said bust the block. Okay. All right. Next one is Masters of the Universe being released on June 5th. Here's the budget, 170 million, bigger than Mandalorian Grogu. Break even point would be 425 million, a cool 425 mil. Connor, what say you?

Conner Jones: [23:05] This is going to be a massive flop. It's already trending in that direction. This is from the the He-Man universe, which maybe our older audience is like, oh, I like He-Man. That was from, I want to say the 70s and 80s, like a cartoon. But dude, our generation has no clue who He-Man is and this movie, the trailer just looks terrible. This is and it was really expensive, man. They paid a lot of money to do this. It's going to be a huge flop.

Micah Tomasella: [23:24] More than more than Disney spent on their movie, man. That's crazy.

AJ Baxley: [23:29] I was saying, I think this look like an off-brand Avengers after watching the trailer, you cannot pay me to see this. Great value Avengers. Avengers light. Yeah. Uh-huh. Good and gather Avengers, you know, for my target fans out there. Okay. So you're going to say flop, AJ? Yeah. Okay. All right. Next one, June 12th, we got another good one coming. Disclosure day. Let me hit you with this budget, 200 million. Break even point's going to be 500 million. Uh just easy half a billion dollars. Uh AJ, what say you?

Conner Jones: [24:05] I think this one will break even. I don't know. I don't know if we can get to that 500 million, but Steven Spielberg, awesome, and it's a pretty stacked cast. So I'll probably see this one. Oh yeah. Man, you'll catch me there day one. This is one of the movies I've been looking forward to for a long time. Love a Spielberg film.

Micah Tomasella: [24:23] Can you tell us a little about it, Connor? Just for context?

Conner Jones: [24:26] Here's the deal. It's about UFOs. I don't think it could come at a better time. The whole idea is disclosure day, like disclosure about UFOs. We just kind of somewhat got that. We just did that kind of. Yeah. A little bit. I but I then I think we're actually going to see UFOs and aliens and that's a thing that Steven Spielberg's always loved. ET, third encounters with the third kind. What the name of that movie? I cannot think of the full name there. Uh and then obviously War of the Worlds too. And Spielberg, dude, it's Steven Spielberg. I'm going to go see this. Yeah. But what your prediction? By the way, I I do think it's going to I think it's going to bust the block. This is going to be a summer classic June summer blockbuster.

Micah Tomasella: [25:03] And AJ said break even, right?

AJ Baxley: [25:05] Yeah.

Micah Tomasella: [25:06] Okay. All right. You guys need to make it clear, all right? I got to I got to keep I got to keep us on track. You both, you both aren't making it super clear. You you know, you're both in a nerd out on these movies. Make it clear. All right. Next one, June 19th, Toy Story 5. Okay, I've seen the trailer for this one, all right? And it's like not toys anymore. It's like tablets and games and phones and like social media and stuff like that, which is just going to be really interesting. I mean, we've all grown up on Toy Story. Here's the budget, 150 million, obviously a very stacked cast, but it's, you know, a cartoon. And then the break even point is 375 million. Connor, what say you?

Conner Jones: [25:43] Dude, this is going to bust the block. It is Toy Story. This franchise always makes money. And it's just really good. And you're right, dude. This one looks so fun because the bad guy being an iPad, I'm here for it. The idea that iPads are like disrupting childhoods and they're putting away their toys and they're just sitting on a screen and Toy Story's coming to fight back against this, which is funny because Disney is its own big tech company. And in the trailer, they're just like tech, tech, tech is like the bad guy. I love it because we're all going to go see this movie. Probably a lot of people are going to watch it on their iPads, but nonetheless, it's a good premise. It's going to bust the block.

Micah Tomasella: [26:16] Bust the block. Okay. AJ?

AJ Baxley: [26:18] I think it's going to bust the block as well. My first thought was how many Toy Stories can we make? But then I watched the trailer and I was like, okay, this is a pretty genius plot and they never do bad and kids always want to see them. So I think parents are going to be taking them.

Micah Tomasella: [26:32] How many Toy Stories can we make? How many Mission Possibles can we make? How many um how many Fast and Furious movies can we make? How many Star Wars movies can we make? Right? I mean, the list goes on and on. Toy Story, it's just their fifth one. I mean, they could do they could do 10 or 15, however much they wanted to do. You know, um I don't normally like a movie preaching to me, but I would love to see a good story out of this one. I'd love to be preached at a little bit as this generation, uh a generation who's already kind of grown up, has grown up on screens and not outside, not playing with toys, and it's affecting all of us. We all struggle with the addiction to the screen. Um so this is the type of concept I'd like for them to preach at me a little bit if it's done the right way.

Conner Jones: [27:14] You know, there's there's even this cool scene in the trailer. It's very brief, but the dad is telling his daughter, no more screen time while the dad is sitting there scrolling down his phone. He's trying to get her off the screen, but he's it's like we can all relate, right? So I think they're hitting on something that a lot of people can relate to. It's going to be great.

Micah Tomasella: [27:30] No doubt. All right, good stuff. Next one, June 26th, we've got Supergirl coming out, not Superman, Supergirl. Budget, 150 million, break even point, 375 million. Uh, who went first on the last one? Uh oh. I think I did. Okay. AJ, what say you?

AJ Baxley: [27:47] I don't know about this one. I think it might flop as much as I wanted to do well. I don't know if people are super excited about the girl superhero movies as much as I want them to be.

Micah Tomasella: [27:58] Who's who's in it? Do we know who's in it?

Conner Jones: [28:01] I recognize the actress. I don't know her name. Her name is uh I think it's Millie Alcock and she is from several different TV shows. She's from one of the Game of Thrones spin-offs. Again, another franchise there. Is she British? I believe she's British. Um and so yeah, she's coming. She was she was briefly featured in Supergirl's British? Come on now. Come on. Seems wrong. It's it's like a it's like an American James Bond. It just seems wrong.

Micah Tomasella: [28:22] We keep hiring British people to play Americans. Can we just hire Americans to play Americans? Like what? We got to get these this homegrown talent. I know, man. I mean they're like a factory over there, man. Just turning out all these actors and actresses. Okay, so AJ, you think flop?

AJ Baxley: [28:36] Yeah.

Micah Tomasella: [28:37] Okay. Connor?

Conner Jones: [28:38] Yeah, AJ, did you see Superman last year? I didn't, but that's a movie I would like to see. Did you see it? Did you like it? It was a very okay movie. It was very mid, which leads me to believe that this will be even worse because it's not around the main title character of Superman. I'm sure he's going to be featured in it, right? Like they're going to bring him in for a cameo. But this movie looks like an off-brand Guardians of the Galaxy. It's all like space-based. This is not for me. I don't think it's for a lot of people. I do believe this thing's going to flop. Maybe it breaks even, but my actual prediction for the record is flop.

Micah Tomasella: [29:08] Okay, both both predicting flop. You know, Connor, he's a great resource because anytime I'm ever thinking about, all right, we're going to get babysitting, we're going to go on a date, we're going to go see this movie. I always run it by Connor first. I'll even run older movies like I find on Netflix by Connor and and I'm sometimes I'm just like, hey, have you seen this? And he'll just be like, no, period. And I'm like, okay, hey, thanks so much for your help, buddy. Have a good night, you know. And he doesn't understand how frustrating that is. He's supposed to have seen them all and tell me if it's worth my time or not. I mean, two hours is a big commitment.

Conner Jones: [29:38] Well, I think when I when I respond no, it's me telling you, it wasn't worth my time, so it's probably not worth yours either.

Micah Tomasella: [29:43] No, when I say when I say no, like, no, no, no, like when I say should I watch it and you're like, no, I haven't seen it or like whatever it might be or yeah, you just clearly state it's not worth it. So I do appreciate that. All right, next one, July 1st, Minions and Monsters. Oh, okay, interesting. Budget, 100 milli, break even point, 250 million, quarter of a billion dollars. Connor, what say you?

Conner Jones: [30:09] Dude, this is like Toy Story. It's just it's just printed money. It's going to be a bust the block situation because minions, they bring out the masses and there's going to be so many people who go to see this movie, even if it's really bad, it probably will be just bad. Personally, I'm not going to see it. My kid's not old enough to like go enjoy these movies yet. One day when he is, I'd probably take him to a minions movie, but I'm not going to be the adult guy who goes to see minions by myself surrounded by a bunch of families. And then of course, probably the groups of teenagers who show up in their suits because that's what they do too. They always get a viral trend going on. Gosh. Uh this movie will make probably $800 million and just completely bust the block.

Micah Tomasella: [30:42] Whoa. Wow. That's my real prediction, Connor? I mean, that's not bust the block. That's blow it up, dude.

Conner Jones: [30:49] Despicable Me and Minions, people love it. They love it. It's they're funny movies. They're goofy.

Micah Tomasella: [30:55] Yep. Okay. AJ, stand on business. What you think?

AJ Baxley: [30:58] I was going to say break even, but I guess write it down as that, but Connor's convincing me otherwise.

Micah Tomasella: [31:03] Do not let him convince you of anything. No, yeah, you can put break even. I'm tired of the minions, but I don't think the kids are yet, unfortunately.

Conner Jones: [31:11] Yeah, no, they're not. They're not.

Micah Tomasella: [31:13] Okay, next one. Okay, we have three more to go. No, no, four more to go. Let's keep going. All right, July 10th, we've got Moana, another Moana coming out. Budget 200 million, break even point 500 million. The first Moana movie, okay, the second one was great. I mean, they were, I mean, my kids love them. This is live action, right? Okay, okay. Uh, Connor, what say you?

Conner Jones: [31:38] Yeah, live action. It's got the rock reprising his role from the animated movies. I'm sure Lin Manuel Miranda's in here. Maybe they're going to throw in a new song that's not in the animated films. I think this is really just a recreation of the original Moana film though. This is kind of like what they did with Lion King, right? Like they just took the movie and just made it like live action per se, but nothing super changes. And I'm like, this movie was kind of recent. I remember going to the theaters to see this when I was in college. Like very recent. Yeah. This is weird and honestly, it just looks like a washed out movie. Uh like they they took the color away. It's all filmed on this interior studio in Atlanta, Georgia. Like for me, I'm like, this is not this is not success, you know, algorithm in my opinion. But

Micah Tomasella: [32:19] What's the Georgia what's the Georgia song? Made in Georgia. You know what I'm talking about at the end of movies or shows? They put that little peach up there and it sings the song. Yeah, am I making that up? No, it's a thing because Georgia gets so many film companies to come out there and film in their state because they offer such great. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I can't miss out on an opportunity to sing a good jingle. You all know that about me. Connor, what's your official prediction before I interrupted you?

Conner Jones: [32:44] I do think that this is going to at least break even because it is Moana. It's popular. Tons of kids are going to go see this.

Micah Tomasella: [32:49] Break even. AJ?

AJ Baxley: [32:51] I think it's going to break even too. I don't think it's going to be anything spectacular, but I think the kids are going to want to see it.

Micah Tomasella: [32:56] I mean, if you make 200 million on a movie, I mean, people are going to see your movie. It's not a small amount of money either. Totally. I'm with you. All right, July 17th, the Odyssey. All right. Budget, 250 million, break even point, 625 million. This is the biggest budget movie we uh are going to be talking. No, it's not. No, it is not. There's one right after it that has an even larger budget. I was speaking too soon. So again, the break even point 625 million. AJ, what say you?

AJ Baxley: [33:27] I think this is going to bust the block easily. I think this is the movie of the year. Christopher Nolan, everyone's in this movie and it's a classic.

Micah Tomasella: [33:35] The music's going to be great. You know the music's going to be great too, right?

AJ Baxley: [33:38] Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll definitely be seeing that.

Micah Tomasella: [33:41] All right.

Conner Jones: [33:43] Yeah, uh same. I mean, just bust the block. Christopher Nolan is the director of our lifetime. The music, yeah, the music is just going to be one piece of it. It's going to be incredible. You love Christopher Nolan, right? You're a big fan of him, right? Favorite director, love all of his movies. Um the only problem it could be if he starts to bring in like sexual content into this film that makes me not want to go see it because that is part of the the story of the Odyssey. Hopefully they kind of don't do that. But dude, this this cast, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendeya, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, John Bernthal, Charlie Theron, and then I saw this morning, Travis Scott is in there too. I don't know what role he's playing. The rapper. Okay. Yeah, it's just and so many more people and then there's always people you don't expect until you show up to the theater and it's like, whoa, this person is in the movie. And then that's the Nolan effect, man. Everybody wants to be in his movies. He is the best director of our time. And all of his movies, Oppenheimer made a billion dollars. So this one, this is going to make a close to that too, right? This is definitely going to bust the block.

Micah Tomasella: [34:41] Do you think do you think that Spielberg kind of, I mean, Spielberg's with us obviously still, but do you think he like kind of passed the the torch on to Christopher Nolan? Like it was Spielberg and now it's Nolan?

Conner Jones: [34:52] Yeah, I mean, what do you think, AJ?

AJ Baxley: [34:54] I don't know. I just think of both of them as two of the greats, but I don't know really much more than that.

Conner Jones: [35:01] Yeah, that's a really good point. They are both just Spielberg was the guy in the 80s and 90s, right? And then Nolan kind of took over in the 2000s with the Batman movies and he's just he's kind of cooking right now, dude. He's at the prime of his career.

Micah Tomasella: [35:14] He's cooking, man. It's getting hot in that kitchen. Okay, all right, cool. All right, next one, July 31st, Spider-Man, brand new day. Budget, 275 million. Break even point, 687,500,000. We'll we'll round up 688 million. Uh, Connor, what say you?

Conner Jones: [35:39] This is an interesting one. I I struggle to say bust the block. I don't know that it's going to make three times the profit because I think people's desire for all these Avenger type movies, Marvel movies has dissipated and it's losing its steam. We're years out. This is also coming the weekend after Tom Holland and Zendeya are in another movie together, the Odyssey. Like the the kind of like anything you were hoping to get out of them being your stars is juiced out a little bit because people have seen them the weekend before. I don't know, man. Spider-Man's great. It's my favorite superhero. I love Tom Holland as Spider-Man. I'll probably go see this. I don't know if it'll be opening weekend. Uh I think this one just breaks even. I'm not sure it's going to be a blockbuster.

AJ Baxley: [36:18] I think I'd say break even because um it's so high, such a big number. I feel personally behind with the Spider-Man's with Tom Holland, even though I love Tom Holland and Zendeya. One thing they do have going for them is that they got married this year. So that might bring more people out. Brings girls out like me.

Conner Jones: [36:36] Yeah, because Zendeya is so popular.

Micah Tomasella: [36:38] I didn't even know they got married. Good for them. Oh yeah. I love them as a couple. They're awesome. I knew they had been together for a long time. Well, good for them getting married. That's good. That's a good thing.

Conner Jones: [36:48] There's an argument to be made it was a PR stunt to build up, you know, popularity going into the summer because they're uh Zendeya is also in Dune later this year too. And then they got another Avengers movie in December. It could have been a PR stunt, but hey, they're married. There's a ring on it.

AJ Baxley: [37:02] I don't know. At this point they've been together for a while.

Micah Tomasella: [37:04] Long time. Long time. Okay, so we're both saying break even, right? Okay. And again, that would be making at least 275 million. That's a lot of people going to see your movie, you know. Okay, all right, last one. Thanks for riding with us. Uh August 14th, we've got the end of Oak Street. So a movie you can go see right before school starts. Uh budget, 85 million, break even point would be 212. AJ, what say you?

AJ Baxley: [37:33] I don't know. I'm curious about this one. I think it'll break even. Um I mean, it has a pretty good cast as well. I'm curious. I don't really know. I don't know what to think. Connor?

Conner Jones: [37:44] Yeah, the concept's interesting. It's Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as the stars here and the idea is like they wake up one morning and their neighborhood and their street, Oak Street, that's the title of the movie, has just like landed in a jungle somewhere. It's been moved and they are they wake up in a jungle. That's kind of all you get from the trailer. Apparently this is based off of a popular book. So I think it'll do pretty well. It's not a huge franchise situation. I think it breaks even as well. Um mostly just if there's good word of mouth, people will go. I don't think it's going to be a flop. It could be. My official answer is break even. So I think really we came away from this with only one real flop predicted. Um

Micah Tomasella: [38:19] I think it was just one. So hey, that could be a good sign for the block, but uh for the box office this summer, right? You know?

Conner Jones: [38:25] Yeah, we both said Supergirl would flop. You both said that.

Micah Tomasella: [38:29] And uh the Masters of the Universe.

Conner Jones: [38:30] Actually two flops.

Micah Tomasella: [38:31] Masters of the Universe. So two two flops. Yep. And you guys were both on the same page about those flops as well. Um so a lot of the competition will be, did it perform to standard or did it exceed expectations between break even and bust the block? That is my time. Thank you all for playing Bust the Block year two. Connor, take it away.

Conner Jones: [38:50] Yeah, well and we'll come back at the end of the summer. Um AJ, we'll we'll have to reconcile our predictions here and see who won, who won the game. We'll we'll we'll come back and see just how these movies actually performed. Last year I was surprised. We made some predictions and then the movies did either way better or way worse than we had expected. Uh and you know, guys, this is kind of just a silly game about movies. The idea is to help you understand what's coming down the line because honestly, these movies are big cultural moments. You can think back to other summer blockbuster hits. Think of Top Gun Maverick in 2022. We were coming out of those pandemic years and people needed something to help like revive their uh excitement and hope even in America and like a uniting movie. That was a huge deal. And then the next summer was the Barbenheimer thing where so many people wanted to see uh you know, a happy, bright pink movie with Barbie. And then at the same time, they went to go see Oppenheimer, a dark and gritty, serious movie about nuclear weapons. Uh there's a lot we can learn about our culture from these movies. And so as we think about that, and we look at what's coming down the line this year, what movies are going to pop off? That's going to tell us stuff about our culture and how we can even respond biblically. Like are people going to movies that they are like, please, I just want some hope. I just want some brightness in my life. I want to be able to detach from the world and go see this happy movie or they're seeing something totally different. Um we'll we'll learn a lot about our culture, I think from these movies and, you know, at the end of the day, these people are making movies. They may not realize it, but in a way, they're glorifying God by using their talents. God has given them talents to be creative um and make things that can bring people together. Um and at the end of the day, my hope would be that a lot of them would come to find Jesus and that their talents would be used for incredible glorifying reasons um always. So, we'll see what the culture loves this summer. It'll be fun. Okay, that's bust the block. Micah, what do we got to check into?

Micah Tomasella: [40:32] Yeah, let's talk about the how do we say it? Hantavirus, Hantavirus? How do we how do we say it? AJ, how do you say it?

AJ Baxley: [40:39] I would say Hanta.

Micah Tomasella: [40:40] Hanta? Connor, what say you?

Conner Jones: [40:42] I don't know if I can fully guess. Well, I say everything wrong. So whatever I say, it's it's not it. I've been in my mind, I've been reading it as Hantavirus, which is probably totally off.

Micah Tomasella: [40:51] Well, you said Hannah virus at first, like you took the T out. Um all right, so let's so let's call it let's call it Hantavirus, Hantavirus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So we've got 17 to 18 Americans that were flown back to the US after their cruise. They just put your like, you know, I'm I'm making light, but at the same time, this could end up being something super serious. Obviously, a few people died on the cruise from contracting this. So you got these Americans coming back. Imagine you you go halfway across the world, you go on this cruise, you go on this vacation, you've been budgeting for it, you go on the vacation, you enjoy yourself and then all of a sudden this absolute disease starts breaking out while you're on the cruise ship. Everyone in the world is talking about you. You then have to fly back and go to Omaha, Nebraska. All right. So you got 17 Americans that were flown back, okay, and they were taken to the National quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. One passenger has that is American has tested positive for the Hantavirus and another has been showing mild symptoms. So they were transported in specialized, seriously, specialized individual biocontainment units, okay? Health officials continue to stress that the overall public risk is very low, okay? They keep saying that, no one panic. At the same time, just for me personally, I'm not falling for it again in terms of all of the hysteria and everything that came from COVID. I'm just hoping we as Americans have learned something. I'm not making light of a sickness or a disease, but you better show me some real facts before churches and schools and businesses start getting closed. We're far from that, but you can sense some of the anxiety and culture over this. I do not think this is what this is, um but you can sense some of that anxiety. And again, health officials are stressing this is overall a very low public risk, but they're taking extra precautions and the um those people will be monitored for up to 42 days and then they'll be able to go home if they're cleared. They will have to stay in Omaha in these containment centers for that long. What do you guys think about this?

Conner Jones: [42:59] Yeah, I mean, there there's definitely parallels to COVID, right? The idea of it starting on a cruise ship and that's not where COVID started, but that's when a lot of people started to recognize is like, hey, there's these cruise ships filled with a bunch of sick people and they're not letting them port here in America. Like something was going on right there in like February, March of 2020 with those cruise ships. There's parallels there. There's these people who were recording their vacations, posting them on Instagram. I don't know if you've seen these videos on Tik Tok and Instagram of these people who are like, we're in Antarctica with the penguins. And then like three days later, they're like, we're quarantined in our room, you know, like they were kind of documenting this thing go down and they've become kind of celebrities through this whole thing and they're also traumatized. They're like, we've been stuck on this boat. We're scared for our lives. This is a very deadly virus. It just doesn't spread that easy. It's also the virus that killed Gene Hackman's wife. Remember last year, Michael, when we were talking about Gene Hackman and his wife just randomly died. It was they discovered she had Hantavirus. She'd gotten it from rodents. Uh their their droppings essentially had landed in her food and it killed her. And then Gene Hackman had dementia and was unable to take care of himself. She was his primary caregiver. Do you remember that? Like that's I was like, why do I know the name of this virus? I didn't know it was the same disease. Same thing. Just a different part of the world, different different strain of the disease, but yeah, man, it's kind of scary. What do you think, AJ?

AJ Baxley: [44:07] You know, I haven't done a lot of research on it, but I feel like people have a little PTSD. I hope that people don't freak out. I think, yeah, it doesn't spread that easily. So I'm not super concerned and I think they'll be cautious about it, especially because of COVID.

Conner Jones: [44:23] Yeah. Yeah. It's just the imagery of people in like full on, you know, medical suits going out there to to bring these people off these planes. It just it is reminiscent.

Micah Tomasella: [44:31] What else, Connor?

Conner Jones: [44:33] Yeah, guys, something else that I mentioned with the movie disclosure day is, as you know, we probably got uh I would say they were okay videos of UFOs from this UFO file drop. Apparently there's more coming, but yes, Trump did order a few months ago, we talked about it, the release of files that the Department of Defense and the FBI and CIA had uh and new videos that the public had never seen, but some congressional members had seen of these apparent UAPs or UFOs, whatever you want to call them. The deal is these videos all look the same. They're they're gray, they're from like sonar cameras on drones or aircraft or ships and you can't really tell that much. It's these objects far off in the distance, they're kind of blurry, they're moving fast. Something looks weird with each of them, of course, but I wouldn't say anybody came away thinking, yep, that's definitely an alien ship or yep, that's definitely this. And then there was this rumor that pastors had been pulled into some secret clandestine meeting because it was going to be, you know, this biblically magnificent, it's going to change the way Christians see the the world or whatever. That has kind of been proven to probably not actually happened. Uh that's kind of these like YouTube pastors are like, yeah, we were pulled into this meeting and the government told us

Micah Tomasella: [45:35] I'm sure you were. I'm sure you were, famous YouTube pastor. Yeah, thanks.

Conner Jones: [45:40] Yeah, so if you see that, take it all with a grain of salt. Maybe there's some truth there somewhere. Um but the deal is, here's what I would say. Should we ever find out anything crazy, which seems very unlikely and I don't think the government even knows what half these things are. And they they even say that in these files are like, well, we still don't know what this is. We're just like giving you the video, but we don't know what it was. Uh you cannot let it shake your your faith. You cannot let it shake the core of your faith. We know who our God is. We know Jesus came to die for our sins, right? That that's what I would say. Um as we just try to figure out what's what's going on here. Even Trump posted, he's like, there the videos are out. The people can decide for themselves what the heck is going on. Have fun and enjoy. So Trump is saying, we don't know. You guys take a look, maybe you'll figure it out. I don't know. I'm sure there must be more files coming.

Micah Tomasella: [46:21] Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure they'll figure it out. And you know, again, just like with all these file releases, it's just never enough. It's never enough. However, the UFO stuff is super interesting. Let's see what else comes from that. All right, let me make sure to mention the mailbag and then I'll close this out here. We want to continue to hear from all of you. Please make sure that you're sending your your questions, your topic ideas, things you love, things you don't like, whatever it might be to [email protected] and you can follow us on Instagram at Culture Brief podcast, send us a DM on there and you can send us what you'd like and we'll do our best to cover it. AJ, thank you so much for joining us today. You made us better today. We really enjoyed having you. And thank you, loyal Culture Brief audience for joining us for this week's episode of Culture Brief, a Denson Forum podcast. And remember, all our articles, videos mentioned, everything we talk about it will be listed in the show notes, linked in the show notes. If you want to help us reach more believers with truth in today's chaotic, very chaotic culture, please share this podcast around and leave a five-star review and we'll see you next Thursday.

Conner Jones: [47:25] See you.

AJ Baxley: [47:26] See you.