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Stugats. It was not that long ago that Zion Williamson was Duke's third biggest recruit in a recruiting class. This was when Coach K went from being all the things Duke was to playing the same game everybody else was with one and done. And since then, Duke hasn't mattered the way that Duke used to matter. Even though Coach K had that farewell tour, it hasn't quite felt like that until perhaps right now. When you have a recruit that is a great white hope with a wonderful name, cooper Flag with two G's is very athletic. He is someone who's exciting people because he is long. I mean, he's not Chet Holmgren or Wembanyama. Nobody is those people other than those people. But he is someone whose athleticism jumps off your screen and what just his athleticism.

Guy's got crazy good game, too. And he looks a little bit even at the age 15 in the World Cup, he looked more filled out than some of the NBA comparisons you just made right now. I wasn't that familiar because typically following 15 year olds playing basketball isn't my forte. But NBA players were posting on social media about him. I think LeBron posted about him and what this kid did at the World Cup. It jumped off the screen that this guy is going to be a great not a good a great pro. Now, for the class of 2024, he is easily the number one recruit, and he just committed with one of the more terrifying photos I've ever seen for.

A lot of reasons.

First off, PTSD, white boy that can ball. Going to Duke. That's just naturally scary to me as an ACC supporter.

He was going to Yukon, right?

Also scary, yes. But the photo shoot in North Carolina, if a white guy is coming at me with a pitchfork that's on fire, I start running the other way. And when you couple that with this dude who's built out more than most teenagers at that position, trust me, he is terrifying, and I hate that he's going to Duke. It is such a perfect signing for Duke. By the way, rutgers is recruited very well at the time. They have the number two and number three recruits overall in that class, so keep an eye out for them. But there are rumors that a Miami recruit, Alibothea, is going to jump to number two overall. So you get to see those two guys doing battle in the ACC. Provided that the ACC is still a thing next year, you have to you have to watch his highlights on YouTube. It's one of those things that gets shared in group chats. He is an absolute baller, and it sucks that he's going to Duke. But also, I'm happy.

Why is he holding a flaming pitchfork?

Well, they're the Blue Devils.

Duke Blue Devils.

Come on.

The pitchfork, historically, is the weapon of the demon, and a Blue Devil would like a blue pitchfork that is on fire to torture you. And that's what Cooper Flagg is going to be doing, both with his game and quite literally a pitchfork that is on fire. Just don't do that in the south. Just don't do that anywhere.

And we don't want him burning a flag either, right?

No. Well, you did that. And there's two G's.

I know that's important. It is his name, and he does look a little stronger than your average freshman coming into college.

He does. And he's got to fill out a little bit more. Look, some of these guys that are a little bit on the lanky side that have those dimensions, they don't have this perimeter game, especially at that age. But he's got handles. I'm telling you. He's going to be a superstar in the NBA, which is going to excite a lot of people. A lot of all right, I'll just say white people, right? And if you're a fan of the international if you're a fan of the international game, I know Dan's big on evolution of the sport, and there's probably a bingo game out there from our listeners when they mentioned the evolution of the sport. But this is something really cool to see because for the longest time, guys like Wemby Luca, Joker, they're allowed to excel in places like Europe because they play positionalists. They look at you, they see your skill set and what are you good at? And it doesn't matter if you're seven foot, if you can initiate offense, if you've got handles, if you got full court vision, we'll play you like jokic. But here in the States, we're still kind of more married to even though that's changing little by little, still kind of married to how tall are you?

All right, we'll put you on the inside. Cooper Flag and others that came before him are signaling a sea change that the US. Is gearing up to be more like Europe. Cooper flag is a dynamite talent.

Let's talk about a different evolution in entertainment. Stugats, your movie theater experience is going to need to change for the movie theater not to go extinct. One of the ways that you could keep it alive beyond Tom Cruise is everything that Taylor Swift is doing with her popularity, but another way that you can do it, and I don't think I saw this one coming. Five nights at Fredy's. The idea of turning video games, popular video games, into movies, this one is very poorly rated. But that doesn't matter because it's making money and it is not a good movie. I don't think even the purchased rotten tomato critics are making it something that's above a 25.

But young people are attracted to this.

Movie, not just young. I mean, you can assume young people, nostalgic people. It made $80 million crazy at the box office. Do you know how hard that is to do in this day and age.

With inflation, that's like six tickets.

But especially when, and this may surprise you if I told you a movie made $80 million at the box office, especially with Taylor Swift's movie out there and Scorsese having a recent picture, you'd be impressed if I told you that it's not exclusive to theaters. You can watch this movie from your home right now on Peacock. It got released on a streaming service the same day. And that didn't stop people that are familiar with the intellectual property to go out and spend money in a time that's not great in our country, to spend money on this movie specifically. And I fear that the Wrong lessons we talked about it a little bit with Mike Sher in Los Angeles. I fear that the wrong lessons were taken from Barbie in that surely this was a huge hit. The move is let's buy up all the mattel intellectual property. And that's a secret to success. Not great star power, not a great script, not great filmmakers that really transform that intellectual property into something special. Hollywood's going to take the wrong lessons from that. We see something like The Last of US that goes out to much critical acclaim.

Huge hit on Max and now Five Nights at Freddy's, which is also like The Last of US, derivative of a video game property. And the move in Hollywood right now is carbon copy. Let's do. Last of us. Let's tell these stories that are more thought out because video games take very long to finish a story arc. Let's do miniseries with these things. Limited run series. But now you're seeing with a movie that's going out on a streaming service on the very same day. There's a lot of money attached to these properties. I guess I'm of a certain age and all I really play are sports games. I wasn't really aware that Five Nights at Reddy's was a video game. Totally missed it. I learned through its success that it was a video game. If you're doing that with video games that aren't part of the pop culture lexicon, imagine what you can do with major properties like Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto. If you were ever to turn that into something, you're looking at something that could potentially be the biggest box office smash of that year. It's a crazy pivot in the industry.

One of the things that has happened I saw Christopher Nolan was complaining about this the other day, saying that the cinematic experience is something that should be about the story, not the screen. And Martin Scorsese says the opposite. He wants to make something that is a film, even if films aren't as long as the one that he's making with Killers of the Flower Moon, where that's nearly 4 hours Dugat and I ask you this question sincerely. Scorsese an artist. He's a genius. He's one of the first filmmakers that anybody would mention on greatest filmmakers in the history of film. But I do wonder why someone like that wouldn't want his movie to evolve into something that could be even more than three and a half hours. Could be four or five or 6 hours if he were to I'm not.

Going to a theater for 4 hours. You want me to go for five, six or seven? People don't have the bandwidth.

No, what I am saying is limiting yourself to only showing something in theaters when clearly your audience has outgrown, that the reluctance to evolve to where your audience is because you're preciously protecting this thing, that isn't any different to most people watching it at home through a convenience.

I know you're saying to most people I'm not even pushing back on that, but God damn it, it is different. It is special. Maybe I'm too much of a romantic, but there is something different about going to the movies and 100% something communally, especially when it's a big epic picture with a great filmmaker attached. And I know that you cherry pick Christopher Nolan, and it seemed as though with those quotes, they were lined up in opposition. But Christopher Nolan's been a champion for seeing things at the silver screen. He released tenet in. Now what in retrospect still seemed like kind of the middle of the pandemic. And I went at that time in my mask to go see it the way that the visionary wanted me to see it. I love going to the movies. I love going to the movies by myself sometimes. And the fact that movies are catering to your experiences as times age, you get a recliner, you get drinks, you get a meal, but they're not wonderful.

Experience, but they're not communal. At this point, it's usually like six people in the entire theater by yourself spread out.

I mean, one guy's sleeping because he had too much alcohol.

I'm with Mike. But it's just that you got to be going like opening weekend to a popular movie to get that communal experience. Most of the time it's seven people in theater.

Some of my favorite my favorite movie experiences aren't necessarily sitting down, watching them at my home with my loved ones. It's seeing a crowd gasp at a theater. It's seeing a crowd cheer. It's seeing people emote. And that's not something that watching something at home affords you. And by the way, there is a whole industry that is really important to pop culture, to this country, to the economy that we kind of have a shared responsibility in helping keep alive.

I am legitimately surprised because it's almost something that I didn't even notice happening to me, stugatz and no one could have explained it to me eight years ago that I would absolutely want something that is eight installments and don't want anymore when I'm at home. Anything that's 2 hours. And I can't even explain it as I'm talking to you because it doesn't make sense to me that I want something that I can come in and out of that I don't have to invest the three and a half hours in at one time. I don't want the obligation of it. The weird thing about it is I'm sitting here telling you that I would binge watch Killers of the Flower Moon if it was four episodes. But if you ask me to 45 minutes episode, you asked me to sit down and watch it. I don't know how it happened. It was a real I'm confused by it.

I saw something on IG Reels that kind of reminded me of the binging experience. And it's a guy going to a Mexican restaurant. He sits down and he orders chips and salsa. And the waiter puts down a big cup of salsa and 20 tortillas. And the guy's like, Why would I eat 20 tortillas? Give me the tortilla chips. And the guy just cuts up the 20 tortillas, puts them in a fryer, and gives them to him like that. He's like, that's more like it. I would never eat 20 tortillas when that's what you're eating every time you order a bountiful platter of chips and salsa.

If I gave the choice to everyone listening to this and said, you can watch this Scorsese movie in four parts at home, or you can watch an epic Scorsese movie from a maestro toward the end of his career in a theater, what are most people choosing? What's the majority of people at this point?

It's always been one that he's had trouble with.

I'm at home.

Dan.

To answer your question, maestro, interesting.

Give me the series at home.

Where are you on this, Lucy?

I like going to the movies. I think it's a fun thing to do. I like to go when it is empty. So I don't want the community aspect. I want to sit by myself and want the whole row, nobody around me. I would probably pick watching it at home, though.

Yeah.

Give me an 11:40 a.m. Showing any day of the week.

You know what I miss with all these digital projectors and IMAX screens? I miss the sound of a projector starting up.

Dimming.

Probably an app that you could just play that sound if you wanted to.

No phone. No phone created at home. You can't use your phone in the cinema.

You're the only one there.

I'm not I mean, I saw it was Los Angeles, which is obviously Tinseltown, but there were plenty of obviously, everyone knows that about Los Angeles, and it was adjacent to opening weekend, but I was in a sold out theater for Killers of the Flower Moon on a Monday.

There it is.

You can do magical.

That does make it a lot better.

You can do it off of your phone.

You play that first, and then you start the movie.

Then all of a sudden, a bunch.

Of alligators having sex with each other, getting candy.

Why is it tinseltown.

Well, what is tinsel is something that makes something shiny. Right? Like holiday.

I call it the City of Angels, I think tinsel.

I think of it as just sort of a silver confetti type of thing.

Yeah. Which is what? I don't know. Tinseltown.

Just because it's sparkly.

Yes. You got it.

You are longing for 300 people in the theater, and I think that most people listening to this would prefer four people.

Then it startles you. When someone has a reaction, when there's a big group, you're like, oh, these noises are normal. It startles you. It's like, I don't even see the person. Where'd that noise come from?

It all depends on the type of movie.

Right.

If I'm seeing a tentpole summer blockbuster, I want to experience it with a large group of people because there's comedies like that. Movies I saw get out in a big theater, and it's one of the more memorable experiences that I had. If I'm watching.

Was it a big empty theater?

That would be terrifying for a scary movie.

No, Mike. You're yearning for a day that simply does not exist anymore. And I'm with you. The communal nature of going to a movie is great. You go see Karate Kid, you walk out and everyone trying the crane kick. I miss those days as well.

But you're not doing anything about it because you value the convenience of being able to watch it at your home.

But Stu would get so stoned before these.

What? I fold. I have a losing, guys. I'm sure you see the appeal, but not enough to actually do it. But it's a shame, and it's something that I'm going to miss for future generations.

I just don't understand Scorsese's need to hang on to this with just stubborn reluctant.

He's not going to be compromised.

He came up through it, right? He came up through it. He was inspired by going to the cinema for the vast majority of his career. He got people to go to the cinema and experience the movies romantically the same way that he did. I mean, there is nobody on this planet more passionate about movies than Martin Scorsese.

I don't know what the longest movie ever made is, but it is not normal. And he doesn't have a lot of other examples of the four hour movie.