The "Ask Sean Anything" Mailbag. Plus: The Amazing Life of a Character Actor, with Patrick Fischler.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

$1.67B in 12 days; Sean, wrong two weeks earlier, concedes it's a sensation.

Spider-Man: No Way Home 2021

The $814M domestic mark Brand New Day chases.

Avengers: Endgame 2019

$858M domestic; the next bar up.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015

$958M domestic, probably out of reach.

Spider-Man: Homecoming 2017

Zendaya was 19 when they shot it.

The Mandalorian and Grogu 2026

Underperformance drags Star Wars' average down.

The Odyssey

Nolan; the summer's other event, seen by his whole extended family.

Thunderbolts 2025

Cited to rebut 'you always hated the MCU.'

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 2022

Warfare 2025

Kit Connor, rumored Cyclops.

Sinners 2025

Jayme Lawson rumored for Storm, and for Black Panther 3.

X-Men: Apocalypse 2016

Lana Condor's Jubilee; keep her.

The Fabelmans 2022

Gabriel LaBelle, Sean's pick for Iceman.

Snack Shack 2024

Saturday Night 2024

Pillion 2025

Harry Melling, floated for Nightcrawler.

Artificial

Guadagnino; Yura Borisov as an obvious Colossus.

Primetime

Lance Oppenheim's debut feature, Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen; out Sept 25.

Predators 2025

David Osit doc Primetime feels in communion with.

Nightcrawler 2014

The Pattinson comparison point.

Magnolia 1999

Cruise using leverage for good, the Pattinson parallel.

Paper Tiger

James Gray 1970s crime thriller; Driver, Teller, Johansson; out November.

The Lost City of Z 2016

The Gray conversation that reshaped how Sean interviews filmmakers.

Oppenheimer 2023

Sperm World 2023

Oppenheim doc Sean recommends.

Eddington 2025

Ari Aster; the mailbag's 'ahead of its time' pick, and very funny about how we are with each other.

Bob Roberts 1992

Tim Robbins political satire; ahead of its time, needs a revival.

Jennifer's Body 2009

Diablo Cody; comfortably queer slasher-comedy that predates the wave.

Ghost in the Shell 1995

Sees everything, style-wise; couldn't recommend it more.

Psycho 1960

Would make a great Rewatchables.

They Live 1988

Carpenter on obeyance in society.

Speed Racer 2008

Wachowskis; the 4K reissue won him over after he missed it in '08.

The Matrix 1999

Cloud Atlas 2012

Never quite clicked for him.

Jupiter Ascending 2015

Silly, strange, admirable.

Thief 1981

James Caan's 'let's get on with this big romance.'

52 Pick-Up 1986

80s pick; John Glover as nasty trash.

The Boost 1988

80s pick; Safdie-style anxiety, James Woods.

Fade to Black 1980

80s pick; movie-obsessed teen killer.

Miracle Mile 1988

80s pick; Anthony Edwards, Armageddon fun.

The Package 1989

Gene Hackman; teeing up the fall Hall of Fame with Tracy Letts.

China Girl 1987

Ferrara's West Side Story; Abel Ferrara prep.

Innerspace 1987

80s pick; Joe Dante, a favorite of his wife's.

Suspicion 1941

Cary Grant, No. 1 chemistry alchemist.

The Witches of Eastwick 1987

Nicholson opposite all three.

Reds 1981

Nicholson and Keaton as Eugene O'Neill.

Ironweed 1987

Nicholson-Streep chemistry.

Desperado 1995

Jack's shout: Banderas as force multiplier.

Assassins 1995

Banderas opposite Stallone.

Barbie 2023

Even Gerwig doesn't get a $250M blank check.

The Third Man 1949

Dream Criterion commentary, with Orson Welles.

Red Rooms 2023

Stock buy: Juliette Gariépy.

Mile End Kicks 2025

Gariépy again, unrecognizably transformed.

Lurker 2024

Stock buy: Théodore Pellerin.

The First Omen 2024

Arkasha Stevenson, about to be a thing.

Influencer 2022

Curtis David Harder, Shudder.

Influencers

Harder's follow-up.

Spider-Man 3 2007

Raimi; Sean's subjective-forgiveness example.

Project Hail Mary

Didn't take with his daughter; too human, too complicated.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982

The prerequisite for Project Hail Mary.

Mulholland Drive 2001

The Winkie's nightmare; where Lynch taught him film acting is 'just less.' Began as an ABC pilot he'd have played an agent in.

Speed 1994

First film job: the guy in the elevator; two weeks downtown, took his dad to the Chinese Theatre for it.

Twister 1996

Jan de Bont again; a residual check bigger than any he'd seen.

Idiocracy 2006

One half of the smart couple with no kids.

Under the Silver Lake 2018

The talisman role Sean ran out of time to raise.

Foul Play 1978

Goldie Hawn at the Roadhouse - where he learned actors were real.

Private Benjamin 1980

Seems Like Old Times 1980

Cousins 1989

The Teddy Z remake he screened as a Paramount intern.

Cousin, Cousine 1975

The French original.

The Lost Boys 1987

NYU friend Jameson Newlander, a Frog brother.

The Big Chill 1983

Saw it at 13; friends-as-family became his life.

The World According to Garp 1982

Start of the Glenn Close run he reveres.

Fatal Attraction 1987

Dangerous Liaisons 1988

Blue Velvet 1986

At 16, changed what movies could be.

Ghost World 2001

Pen-in-the-ear; his wife plays the 'fuck you' yard-sale girl.

Old School 2003

Read for Piven's part, took the other guy.

The Black Dahlia 2006

De Palma; candidly thinks he's miscast; everyone was 'in a different movie.'

Carrie 1976

First movie he saw in a theater, at six.

Dressed to Kill 1980

Blow Out 1981

From Dusk Till Dawn 1996

Saw it at the Academy Museum; Clooney's pivot moment.

Something's Gotta Give 2003

Four auditions for three lines; Keaton the loveliest, Nicholson watching the Lakers on set.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Jane Schoenbrunn; he pitched the Norman Bates rewrite; a Mulholland Drive talisman.

The Social Reckoning

One of four projects out this summer.

Moneyball 2011

Showed it to his daughter; realized he's in it.

Memento 2000

His daughter now calls it a favorite.

Pain and Glory 2019

The Almodóvar/Banderas film that brought Banderas on the show.

I Saw the TV Glow 2024

Loved it - why he said yes to Schoenbrunn.

Friday the 13th 1980

Lifelong fanatic; likes killers who aren't just monsters.

Obsession

Patrick's last-great: took his horror-averse wife opening weekend; all three loved it.

The Invite

One of his favorite films of the year.