# Wall Street Journal Entertainment Reporter Ben Fritz

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/first-time-go-6464248/wall-street-journal-entertainment-reporter-ben-fritz
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/first-time-go-6464248/wall-street-journal-entertainment-reporter-ben-fritz.md
Podcast: [First Time Go](https://stenobird.com/podcast/first-time-go-6464248)
Published: 2026-05-05T21:00:23+00:00
Episode link: https://redcircle.com/shows/9ddc691d-2273-47d5-a1b9-5a4acb0670f5/episodes/07270b97-ff9e-41e1-a2a9-8b99275d71a7
Audio file: https://audio4.redcircle.com/episodes/07270b97-ff9e-41e1-a2a9-8b99275d71a7/stream.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/first-time-go-6464248/episodes/wall-street-journal-entertainment-reporter-ben-fritz
Duration seconds: 2108

## Resource

Watch This Episode On YouTube If you're looking to understand the business of film, let me suggest listening to Ben Fritz, who covers entertainment for the Wall Street Journal and is my guest for the podcast. Why? Well, for me, it's two things. First of all, if you listen to his astonishing documentary podcast called "With Great Power: The Rise of Superhero Cinema" , you get to hear why he's such a successful journalist. An executive will offer a throwaway line, and Ben simply asks: why? You get something much closer to the truth from a one syllable question than one might expect. It happens throughout this podcast series from 2023, and it is a true masterclass on how interviews should be conducted. And two -- he's just straight with people. In this episode, we talk about an article he recently co-wrote on MUBI, the streaming service, and the money they've lost over the past year. In almost any other situation, the company doesn't participate, the article is branded a hit piece, and the audience is left wondering about the veracity of the story. Instead, MUBI's CEO is quoted in the article, which tells me the respect he gives the co-authors. Or maybe it's three: just listen to the insight Ben provides in this episode. If you go by the notion that the business offers an explanation of the films that show up on our screens, there's no better person than Ben Fritz. In this episode, Ben and I talk about: his preference for hosting a podcast or being a guest on one; his ability to tell a story evenly without looking for gotcha moments, which distinguishes his journalism; how he got started in filmmaking; what he expects out of the summer festival market; what he's learned between covering filmmaking to AI and back to filmmaking; the future of AI in filmmaking; the "$50 Movi…

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## Transcript

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