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SAM SANDERS, HOST: Hey, y'all. Thanks so much for listening to the show. Before we start, quick plug for another show - Up First. It's NPR's morning news podcast. Up First is about 12 minutes long. And it's produced and posted at 6 a.m. every weekday morning. The show makes you real smart real fast, and I listen every day. You can hear Up First on the NPR One app or wherever you get your podcasts.AUNT BETTY: Hey, y'all. This is Sam's Aunt Betty. This week on the show, New York Times reporter Katie Rogers and NPR film critic Bob Mondello. All right, let's start the show.(SOUNDBITE OF BUN B SONG, "THE STORY")KATIE ROGERS: She's so good at that.SANDERS: She's good. Also, a side note, when Betty said, hey, y'all, Bob said, hey.ROGERS: I know.(LAUGHTER)SANDERS: Hey, y'all, Sam Sanders here. IT'S BEEN A MINUTE. No theme music - each week we begin with a different song. I'll explain this one in a second. But first, my friend, Katie Rogers. You know her from our first episode. She's back. Good to have you back.ROGERS: Hey, guys. Hey, Sam.SANDERS: And one of my faves of all time, Bob Mondello, film critic of note.BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Aren't you kind? (Laughter).SANDERS: Thank you, Bob. You were out for a few weeks. But you're back in town, and you're on our show. And we're very grateful.MONDELLO: I'm - it's good to be back. Boy, is it good to be back.SANDERS: So we're here to talk about what happened this week. Obviously, Harvey is the big story these past few days. So we're going to switch up the format of the show a bit to accommodate that. But first, I will tell you about this song.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE STORY")BUN B: (Rapping) ...I ever wrote or said. Wake up with it every day and it take it with me to bed.SANDERS: You guys know it?ROGERS: No, but I like it.SANDERS: Yeah.MONDELLO: Yeah, me too.SANDERS: So this song is by Houston's favorite rapper. His name is Bun B. There's actually a Bun B Day in Houston. Like, he's a big deal - been around for a long time. Half of the great rap super-group UGK. Anyway, this song is from Bun B's solo album, "Trill," which came out in 2005 when I was in college. And I played this thing...ROGERS: Oh.MONDELLO: (Laughter).SANDERS: ...To death. So this takes me way back.ROGERS: Baby Sam...SANDERS: Yeah, baby Sam.ROGERS: ...Grew up with Bun B.SANDERS: And I'm playing Bun B because he's actually organizing a telethon for mid-September...MONDELLO: Oh, wow.ROGERS: Wow.SANDERS: ...To help out with victims of Harvey in Houston. But, wrinkle, he told TMZ that if Donald Trump wants to come to this telethon, there are conditions.ROGERS: Such as?SANDERS: Don't come alone. (Laughter) He said...ROGERS: Whoa.SANDERS: ...You can only come if other presidents come with you. He told TMZ, quote, "after what he did in Charlottesville, he's not a symbol of unity, and it would rub people the wrong way."ROGERS: I wonder if he would even consider it.SANDERS: I don't think he'll be there.ROGERS: To be determined.MONDELLO: Yeah, I don't either, but that's interesting. That's interesting.SANDERS: Yeah. Right? I also...MONDELLO: This is going to be a very strange way of...ROGERS: Recovery.MONDELLO: Yeah. Well, not even just that. The whole arts interaction with the presidency has become very strange.ROGERS: Oh, yeah.SANDERS: Oh, yeah. Well, there's a Kennedy Center Honors...MONDELLO: Right.SANDERS: ...This annual tradition in D.C.MONDELLO: Yeah.ROGERS: He didn't go - or he's not going.MONDELLO: He's not going.SANDERS: He's not going.ROGERS: Yeah.SANDERS: And several artists said that they won't go if he goes.MONDELLO: Right.SANDERS: I think his arts council recently disbanded as well, right?ROGERS: Yeah.MONDELLO: They all resigned en masse.SANDERS: Wow, wow. Well, we're going to see what happens.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE STORY")BUN B: (Rapping) ...File taxes then next thing you know, IRS...SANDERS: So normally in this part of the show, we would each describe our week of news and culture and everything in three words. We're going to do three words. And I think that all of ours is going to be about Houston. But we're going to make this kind of a lightning round to get to some calls with folks from Texas. That said, who wants to go first? Three words for the week.MONDELLO: I will.SANDERS: Go. Do it.MONDELLO: Water, water everywhere. It's Coleridge, but it's also all about what's happening in Houston, what's happening in India.SANDERS: Yeah, flooding there.MONDELLO: What's happening - melting the Arctic ice caps. Water, water everywhere.SANDERS: Yeah. Katie, you're next.ROGERS: I mean, mine was - mine's along the same vein, really. It's help out Houston. I think, you know - I don't think any of us know yet quite how bad it will be. But I spent the first part of the week sort of figuring out, you know, if I were going to donate, how would I do that? And where could I do that? And then...SANDERS: And there are questions about that.ROGERS: Yeah, totally - there are. I mean, the sad thing that happens in the age of social media is that every time there's a natural disaster, I'm always kind of amazed in a bad way that scammers sort of pop up with, like, the Go Fund Me stuff. Or like...SANDERS: Oh, yeah.ROGERS: ...There are ways to protect against that. I think the IRS sort of has a service, I think. There's a site called Charity Navigator...SANDERS: Yes.ROGERS: ...Which has, like, verified organizations - because nobody - I mean, we shouldn't have to feel like in the wake of something like this that the help that people want to give...SANDERS: Yeah.ROGERS: ...Will be used for...SANDERS: Yeah.ROGERS: You know, to not help people.MONDELLO: Yeah, it really is.SANDERS: Yeah, send money. But check out where you send the money to first.ROGERS: Yeah.SANDERS: You know, my three words are thoughts and prayers because I think of those words, and the question I ask after disasters like these is, what is a correct way to respond?MONDELLO: Right.SANDERS: You know, there's been several mass shootings. There always are in this country. But the last several people have said, well, thoughts and prayers is not the right thing to say because thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need action on this thing. And that's one big part of, like, how we as a country respond. What is the right thing to say? What is the wrong thing to say?And in the aftermath of Harvey, rightly so, people are commending the people of Texas for trying to bounce back as strongly as possible. But there are some larger questions about what it means to build a city like Houston on what's basically a swamp and what it means to keep developing over wetlands that would serve as a natural buffer to these places. And, like, at what point can you ask those questions? Is it appropriate to do so? I don't know. Increasingly, when these type of disasters happen, I have more and more questions every time.ROGERS: Sure.MONDELLO: Yeah.SANDERS: All right. Instead of doing our Long Distance segment later on, we're going to do it now. And we'll start with a call to Becky Wright (ph). Becky lives in Refugio, Texas. This is a tiny town of about 3,000 people. It's not too far out from Corpus Christi. And this is where, you'll recall, the storm first hit land as a Category 4 hurricane. And so we talk with Becky before this call. For about six hours, that storm sat over her, in her hometown, with 130 mile winds.ROGERS: Oh, man.SANDERS: It's - it was something. Becky, you there?BECKY WRIGHT: Yes, I'm here.SANDERS: How are you?BECKY WRIGHT: I'm doing OK.SANDERS: OK, all right. Well, thank you so much for your time today. I'm sure you are going through so much.BECKY WRIGHT: Not a problem.SANDERS: You're on the phone with me, Sam, and two of my good friends, Katie and Bob. Say hi, guys.MONDELLO: Hey.ROGERS: Hey, Becky. Glad you're OK.BECKY WRIGHT: Hello. Thank you so much.SANDERS: So you - we know a bit of your story. But I want you to tell it to me again here, if that's OK. You're in Refugio, which got hit pretty badly by the storm. And the storm kind of just sat over that town for a while when it first hit landfall. From what I understand, you and a ton of family just rode it out in your house.BECKY WRIGHT: Yes, at my house.SANDERS: So what happened with that? How many folks were there I guess, first?BECKY WRIGHT: Well, I had a total of 19 in my house.SANDERS: Oh, my goodness.BECKY WRIGHT: Yes, and it ranged in the age from my little nephew, 1-year-old, to my grandmother, which is 85 years old. So...SANDERS: How big is your house?BECKY WRIGHT: My house is a three-bedroom, two-bath home.SANDERS: Oh, my goodness. So the storm hit overnight when it came in - about 3 a.m.BECKY WRIGHT: Yes.SANDERS: At that point, you guys all just sat there in the house and waited?BECKY WRIGHT: Well, the worst part of it was, like you said, about 3 a.m. And we had mattresses on the floor in the living room and in my dining room as well. And we kind of just hung out for a little while and tried to not think about the storm, not try to hear the wind roaring outside and...SANDERS: Were you scared?BECKY WRIGHT: I was very terrified. I'm one to get very nervous with any kind of storms like this. And for me to stay in town and ride it out was not something I normally would do.SANDERS: What made you want to stay?BECKY WRIGHT: I didn't want to leave my family (laughter).SANDERS: Yeah, I hear you. I hear you.BECKY WRIGHT: My mom did not want to leave. And my grandmother did not want to leave. So I stayed. I didn't want to leave them.SANDERS: What did town officials say to do? Like, did the mayor say, everyone get out?BECKY WRIGHT: It was a mandatory...SANDERS: OK, mandatory.BECKY WRIGHT: Yeah, mandatory evacuation. And many of us here in Refugio county chose not to evacuate just because in the past, there's been mandatory evacuations where we actually did leave. And it ended up turning and didn't come our way. And I guess that's kind of what we expected and got the worst.SANDERS: Yeah, you know, I mean, it's so funny. I'm from Texas as well. And when I heard the first reports of Harvey, I said, oh, it'll die down in the Gulf. It'll be fine; it'll be fine. And with tons of these storms, you really don't know how bad it's going to be until it gets there.BECKY WRIGHT: That's right. And it did actually turn into a Category 4 kind of at the last minute before it hit. So, you know, we had no choice - because I did say, in the beginning, if it turns into a 4, I'm leaving.SANDERS: Yeah.BECKY WRIGHT: I'm gone.SANDERS: Yeah.BECKY WRIGHT: At the time it turned into a 4, it was too late.SANDERS: Wow.BECKY WRIGHT: It was too late to run and go anywhere.SANDERS: So that night, when it hits and it's hard, and it's you and 19 people, what do you guys do as you're waiting, hearing these winds knocking around at, like, 130 miles an hour?BECKY WRIGHT: As we're in the living room, we just all gathered hands and said some prayers and hoped that we would live to tell our story. We prayed probably three (ph) times through the night and actually got the Bible out and took turns reading scriptures out of the Bible with a flashlight.SANDERS: You know, it's so interesting to hear you talk about praying in the eye of this storm. I pray a lot. But I have never had to pray in the center of a hurricane. What does that kind of prayer sound like? What did you pray?BECKY WRIGHT: There was some of James - just different scriptures. I mean, we did say some Our Fathers. We said some Hail Marys. We would just ask God to protect us, to die down the wind, to keep my roof on my house, just to make the storm pass quickly and just kept asking him, please don't take my roof; please don't take my roof.SANDERS: Wow.BECKY WRIGHT: And we did have roof damage. We had a 2-inch hole in one part of my house where water was pouring in. It was very hot.SANDERS: So your power went out? You had no AC?BECKY WRIGHT: No AC.SANDERS: Oh, man.BECKY WRIGHT: The power went out probably around 10 p.m.SANDERS: Oh, man.ROGERS: When did it finally let up?BECKY WRIGHT: Not until about 6:30 in the morning.SANDERS: That sounds like a long night.ROGERS: So right when you got daybreak.SANDERS: Yeah, that's a long night.BECKY WRIGHT: Yes.SANDERS: Oh, my goodness.BECKY WRIGHT: Yes, it was very, very long.SANDERS: You know, I was looking at coverage of your town in the aftermath of the storm. And I've heard reports that say every building in Refugio, every single one, was damaged.BECKY WRIGHT: Yes, correct.SANDERS: What does it look like and feel like in your town right now?BECKY WRIGHT: Well, you know, I go back and forth from Raymondville, where I'm staying at a hotel. And driving into town, it's devastating to see your hometown this way. But we have a great community helping us to rebuild. We definitely wouldn't be where we are today with the cleanup and the - everything that had - we're trying to rebuild right now if we didn't have help from all of the surrounding communities in our area. We have people coming from everywhere.SANDERS: And it's not just other folks helping you guys. Brent's telling me now that you've been volunteering at a FEMA center in the midst of having to deal with all that you're going through. I mean, that's really commendable.ROGERS: Wow.BECKY WRIGHT: Yes. Well, I work for the Refugio County Chamber of Commerce. I'm the office manager for them. And we are offering a mobile hot spot with computers for anyone needing to come and apply for FEMA assistance or even just to check their status on their FEMA. Anything that they need to apply for, whether it be unemployment, (unintelligible) solution, we're here to offer that for them.SANDERS: Did any of this - Harvey, the aftermath - make you reconsider staying?BECKY WRIGHT: Definitely, definitely. I have already been looking into Irma. I've never been one to track a hurricane. But when I see that Irma is out there in the Atlantic already, it makes me worried. And I track it now to try to make sure that I am definitely not here...SANDERS: Yeah.BECKY WRIGHT: ...In that storm.SANDERS: Do you want to keep living where you are?BECKY WRIGHT: I do. I love my town. My town is a great community - not just my town, my county is a great community. But Refugio alone, we are all about football and...SANDERS: OK.ROGERS: (Laughter).BECKY WRIGHT: ...It is really devastating for our boys to not even be able to be on that field tonight.SANDERS: Yeah.BECKY WRIGHT: Let alone be back in school. I mean, they're missing out on getting started on their school year. So I definitely do not want to move from here. My home is not livable right now. But it will be repaired. And I plan to stay here.SANDERS: All right. Well, we're sending you good vibes...ROGERS: Yeah.SANDERS: ...As you and your town recover, and..MONDELLO: All the best.SANDERS: Thank you.ROGERS: Thank you.BECKY WRIGHT: Thank you.SANDERS: All right, take care.BECKY WRIGHT: Thank you.ROGERS: Texans, man, they're tough.SANDERS: This is the thing. And the thing is, it's like, we hear a lot about Houston, as we should. But there are towns like Refugio all up and down the coast that we're not talking about that are going through just as much, you know.ROGERS: The small little guys.SANDERS: Yeah. Now is a good time to mention, if you listeners want to help out in the relief effort, NPR has actually assembled a list of organizations that you can support. We have a link to that in our episode data of this episode. Also, want to thank, really quickly, my good friend, Daneisha Deaces (ph). She was able to connect me with Becky. Thank you, Daneisha. I really appreciate it. Hope you're staying dry out there as well.ROGERS: Where's Daneisha live?SANDERS: She is from Refugio, but...ROGERS: Oh, OK.SANDERS: ...I believe she's in Corpus Christi now. She's...ROGERS: ...She's OK (laughter).SANDERS: She's safe. She's safe...ROGERS: Yeah.SANDERS: ...And we're glad she's safe.ROGERS: Good. Thanks, Daneisha.SANDERS: Thank you, Daneisha. So let's talk about Houston, specifically, for a bit.ROGERS: OK.SANDERS: The numbers are changing continuously. But as of taping, at least 37 people have died in Houston due to Harvey. About 32,000 people are in shelters across the state. Governor of Texas Greg Abbott said his state will need relief money in excess - far in excess of $125 billion.The White House is preparing a bill - a relief bill for about 6 billion, with more to come. Some 100,000 homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed. And what's really, really sad is that fewer than 20 percent of homeowners in Houston actually have flood insurance.ROGERS: Have insurance, yeah.MONDELLO: Yeah.SANDERS: It's just a grim, grim picture. So I wanted us to call someone up who could give us the lay of the land in Houston. And we reached out to Laura Isensee. She's on the line from Houston Public Media. She's a reporter there. Laura, thanks for being here. You're talking to me, Bob Mondello and Katie Rogers. How are you?ROGERS: Hey, Laura.LAURA ISENSEE, BYLINE: I'm doing OK. Hi.SANDERS: You must be exhausted.ISENSEE: I am a little tired, but, you know, we still got some news to cover here.SANDERS: Yeah, well, I mean, like, you've been covering Harvey, but you also live in Houston. Like, are you OK? Is your house OK?ISENSEE: Yeah, thanks for asking. I feel like I'm one of the very lucky ones. My house is OK. My family - I have extensive family in Houston. And everyone's pretty much OK. Some had to evacuate a little bit, but they're OK and staying with family.SANDERS: Good, good. As far as the scene in the city, you know, the sun came out yesterday, from what I'm hearing. What is it like today, Friday morning, in Houston?ISENSEE: I think it depends where you are. You know, if you're in the central part of this city that had flood water on the street and you couldn't drive around for a few days, things feel kind of normal in this weird way. Yeah, the sun is shining. There's cars on the road. I went to my local taco shop this morning. It's open. But, you know, just, like, a few miles away, there's still standing water. There's thousands of people in shelters. And so I feel like how things are just depends, like, where you live when the - when Harvey came.ROGERS: Is it all anyone's talking about? I'm sure you haven't talked about anything else in a week, right?ISENSEE: No, not really.ROGERS: Like what are you - are your taco shop people talking to you? Like, what kind of conversations do you have over your morning taco today?ISENSEE: Yeah, it's pretty much all Harvey. It's like, you know, talking about, like, who got flooded, how are people doing, you know, how are people feeling, who's, like, helping, you know, other people clean up. You know, it's basically like, if you didn't flood, people are asking, like, how can I help people who did flood?SANDERS: Yeah. How have Houstonians - I know Houston fairly well. My family actually lived there for a year when I was growing up - got a lot of family and friends there now. I'm there a lot just because it's the biggest city in Texas, and I'm in Texas a lot. And one of the things I found out this week is, like, the specific location of certain flood dams in that city.Like, I'm sure a lot of Houstonians found that out this week as well. How much is this storm going to have Houstonians coming back to their city thinking about, you know, whether they're on high enough ground? I mean, is there going to be a before-Harvey and after-Harvey effect for Houstonians?ISENSEE: I think so. I mean, this storm has been so devastating for so many people. I feel like either you're going to start asking some of those questions of, like, am I on high enough land, do I need to move, you know, where are these dams that nobody talked about before and so many people didn't realize existed... But I think kind of on the opposite end, I think we're going to have people sort of, like, kind of saying, well, we're just going to build, like, bigger and stronger and, you know, kind of like digging your heels...SANDERS: Houston strong.ISENSEE: ...A little bit. But, yeah, I mean, like taking a closer look at flood maps and where you are to the bayous - and, yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people in Houston didn't realize until this week that there's these two major reservoirs that are holding back so much water and protecting the city from even worse flooding.SANDERS: Yeah. Yeah.MONDELLO: I can honestly say I've never thought about where my house sits in regard to - I don't know...SANDERS: Water (laughter).MONDELLO: Water or forest that might burn or - I've just never thought about it.SANDERS: So, Laura, your regular beat is education.ISENSEE: Yes.SANDERS: This was supposed to be back-to-school time for children across the country. What's up with the school kids of Houston? Are they going to be going to school soon?ISENSEE: So the Houston Independent School District, they were supposed to start school this past Monday. And then just yesterday they announced that they're going to have to delay it until September 11. But I - it's - it's still kind of a big question up in the air of, like, what school is going to look like because just like homes were flooded, some schools were flooded.And a lot of districts in the area - not just Houston, which is the largest, but other ones like Fort Bend - it's out in the west side - they're still trying to go to their schools and see, like, can kids even study here? And if not, where are they going to study?SANDERS: Yeah.ISENSEE: And - you know, and then there's a lot of children who are in shelters right now, teachers who've been displaced. So it's kind of like, how do we put back all these pieces together?SANDERS: Yeah, and it's more than just sending children back to schools that may have gotten wet. These are children that have experienced major trauma in some cases and, you know, need to have their hearts and their minds settled again before they can learn.So it's going to be a process. Anyway, what are you going to do fun for yourself this weekend to take your mind off the storm?ISENSEE: Actually, some friends are getting married. So I'm going to go to a wedding.SANDERS: Good.ISENSEE: Celebrate life.SANDERS: Yeah, you have to. I hope you dance the heck out of yourself at that reception. You've earned it.ISENSEE: Thank you.SANDERS: Yeah.ISENSEE: Thanks.SANDERS: Well, thank you for your work in the midst of this storm. Thank you for all your colleagues for telling the story that needs to be told right now.ISENSEE: All right. Thank y'all.ROGERS: Thank you. Good luck.SANDERS: Thanks, Laura. Take care.MONDELLO: Take care.ISENSEE: Take care.SANDERS: All rightISENSEE: Bye.SANDERS: That was Laura Isensee from Houston Public Media. Shout out to all the folks there in that newsroom doing the Lord's work right now. All right, we'll take a break. And we'll be right back to swap some fun-ish (ph) stories from the week that was.(SOUNDBITE OF FLEVANS' "FLICKER")SANDERS: All right, we are back here this week with two of my faves, Katie Rogers, reporter at The New York Times, and Bob Mondello, film critic. I can't tell you how many times I just wander by Bob's desk. And I'm like, should I watch this movie? Should I watch this?MONDELLO: (Laughter) This is true. I have a drawer full of Oscar-winners from last year.ROGERS: Oh.MONDELLO: And he does. He steals them all the time.SANDERS: Bob let me borrow his copy of "Sausage Party."MONDELLO: (Laughter).SANDERS: Not a great movie. But I have yet to give it back to you. I need to bring it back.MONDELLO: No, please, keep it.ROGERS: Keep it.(LAUGHTER)MONDELLO: That one's yours.SANDERS: OK, thank you. Now it's time for the meat of this story - the sausage, you might say.MONDELLO: I get it. I get it.(LAUGHTER)MONDELLO: I saw what you did there.SANDERS: Yeah, our story swap - we each talk about some stories from the week that was. But we're going to keep them kind of light this week. And I want to start with Bob because you're going to give us kind of a state of the box office, state of the film industry so far this year, huh?MONDELLO: Well, it would be catastrophic.SANDERS: Why is that?MONDELLO: The summer - this summer was a disaster.ROGERS: Yeah.MONDELLO: It's down almost a billion dollars from last year...SANDERS: Why?MONDELLO: ...Down over a billion from two years ago. Well, "Wonder Woman" clicked. And...SANDERS: As did the new "Guardians Of The Galaxy," right?MONDELLO: New "Guardians" and "Spider-Man." And everything else tanked.SANDERS: What about "Get Out"? That was this year.MONDELLO: That was before the summer.SANDERS: Oh.ROGERS: That was this year?SANDERS: "Get Out" was this year.MONDELLO: Yeah, it is earlier this year.ROGERS: Goodness.MONDELLO: But the problem is that summer is where Hollywood makes most of its money. It makes over $4 billion every year, until this year, for the last decade. And if they don't do it when kids are out of school, when people are on vacation, then they're not going to - you know, once the TV season starts again and that kind of thing, it's going to be...SANDERS: Oh, because you're staying home to watch TV.MONDELLO: Right, it's much harder for them to turn these enormous box office numbers. So they didn't this summer. And that's a real problem for them. I mean, a lot of picture - I - you know, you can see why they didn't. I mean, who wants to see the fifth "Transformer" movie or the fifth "Pirates of..."ROGERS: Everything is, like, space or, like, robots or, like...SANDERS: Or, like, there was a new "Pirates Of The Caribbean."ROGERS: Like there's no...SANDERS: Who asked for that?MONDELLO: No, but there...ROGERS: There's nothing new.MONDELLO: Yeah, but there are robots that you want - well, they're not robots. Don't get in touch with me on this.ROGERS: Transformers aren't robots?MONDELLO: Well, Transformers are. But replicants are not.SANDERS: What is that?MONDELLO: And we're all looking forward to "Blade Runner 2049," right?SANDERS: Are we? Are we?MONDELLO: Are we not? How could you not? Of course, we are.SANDERS: I didn't watch the first one. Don't @ me, Twitter. Don't @ me.ROGERS: I don't know. I don't know what that is - I mean...MONDELLO: I am not talking to you - oh, my goodness.ROGERS: I know, sorry.(LAUGHTER)SANDERS: So besides the caliber of the movies this summer, are there other structural reasons for this big box-office decline? I mean, I can think initially - well, are folks just streaming more, period?MONDELLO: People are probably streaming more. But I don't think that's actually affecting box office yet. Hollywood has lots of reasons that it can look at for not having done a lot of business. But the real answer is that when the public doesn't want to come, no one can stop them, right?SANDERS: (Laughter).MONDELLO: This is - that's an old Sam Goldwyn-ism. But they didn't want to come and see these pictures. I - you know, the folks at movie studios are convinced that the reason audiences aren't coming to some movies is because the Rotten Tomatoes score is too low.SANDERS: I totally believe it.ROGERS: Yeah.SANDERS: And part of why I went to see "Girls Trip" is because the Rotten Tomatoes score was so high.MONDELLO: OK. But...SANDERS: And the word-of-mouth was so high about it.MONDELLO: But Rotten Tomatoes is a tricky algorithm because...SANDERS: Why?MONDELLO: Well, what the rating says is that - let's say you have a 97 percent rating. That means that everybody basically likes the picture. But they don't have to like it 97 percent of the time. They only have to like it, like, 62 percent. And that - do you get what I mean?SANDERS: So, like, if they gave a strong like or low like, a like is a like.MONDELLO: If they gave it a positive score but a moderately positive score, and everybody agrees with that moderately positive score, it ends up being 97.SANDERS: OK.ROGERS: Interesting.MONDELLO: And that's tricky.SANDERS: Whereas, like, a very polarizing film, where if you do love it, you really love it, that could have a lower score because it's so polarizing.MONDELLO: That's right.ROGERS: You know, usually, I end up checking Rotten Tomatoes after I watch a movie. And it says something about my taste. It'll be, like, 23 percent.(LAUGHTER)ROGERS: I don't care.SANDERS: I'm not above a bad movie.ROGERS: Yeah.SANDERS: I was reading somewhere, though, like, in spite of the bad box office, there were some pretty good movies out this year. I'm thinking of films like "Baby Driver." I'm thinking of "Girls Trip."ROGERS: Yeah.MONDELLO: Yeah.SANDERS: It wasn't bad for a film critic, was it?MONDELLO: No, it wasn't at all.ROGERS: Can I have a guess? Here's my guess.MONDELLO: Pardon?SANDERS: About what?ROGERS: I'm just going to interrupt this conversation.MONDELLO: Go for it.SANDERS: What are you guessing?ROGERS: I guess that there - movies aren't collective experiences anymore.SANDERS: There's no more monoculture?ROGERS: I feel like movies used to be sort of like akin to an eclipse, where everybody goes and sees...SANDERS: And watches the same thing.ROGERS: And now there...SANDERS: We're all going to see "Jaws" together.ROGERS: Now there are so few blockbuster types that have broad appeal because - I don't know - not - "Wonder Woman" is maybe, like, the - almost feels like an exception now, you know?MONDELLO: It was a big one.SANDERS: And that wasn't even for everybody. Lots of folks were like, I'm not going to see that because it's a woman.MONDELLO: "Dunkirk" was a surprise hit.ROGERS: Yeah.MONDELLO: It made $179 million or something like that, basically, on people talking about how much they liked seeing it...ROGERS: Word-of-mouth - old-fashioned.MONDELLO: ...And seeing it in a group because that picture would not be the same...SANDERS: Yeah.MONDELLO: ...If you saw it on a small screen.ROGERS: Yeah.SANDERS: Really quickly, two last questions. One, what can these big film studios do to turn things around?MONDELLO: Well, what they're going to do - I don't - I'm not sure what they can do. But what they're going to do is give you more o