Franklin Leonard Launches Substack to Clarify He Didn’t Call Hollywood Execs Racists Over ‘Sinners’
Franklin Leonard launched his Substack a bit earlier than planned on Thursday, noting that he was inspired to respond to “a podcast moment” from Matt Belloni’s “The Town” from Monday in which the host incorrectly recalled the Black List creator saying studio execs were “racists” amid frenzied coverage of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” deal earlier this spring.
“I was not actually planning on launching this week,” Leonard said in a video posted to X Thursday, linking out to his debut Substack post. “Something happened this week — a podcast moment, let’s call it — that was clarifying for me, and so, instead of waiting, I wrote something.”
You can watch Franklin’s announcement below:
On Monday’s episode of Hollywood insider podcast “The Town,” Belloni and guest Lucas Shaw discussed an April episode of their show where the duo, joined by Leonard, talked about coverage regarding the box office performance of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.” Shaw noted that many studio heads and employees responded poorly to that conversation.
Belloni laughed, and explained the execs’ discontent: “Franklin Leonard was calling them racists, which I don’t think anyone appreciates.”
Leonard, however, never called anyone “racists” on the April episode of “The Town” — which is what his first Substack post addressed.
To Belloni’s credit, he has since issued corrections to his statement on “The Town.” Belloni clarified in an edit to Monday’s episode as well as Wednesday’s that Franklin “never actually called anyone racist. He called out the underinvestment in Black films using data from a McKinsey study as evidence.”
Leonard acknowledged Belloni’s apology Thursday and expressed appreciation. Still, he used the moment to address the mischaracterization — and restate the importance of his initial criticism. He underscored his goal to critique systems rather than individuals on “The Town.” Though he had intended to wait before launching the virtual newsletter, he felt it necessary to restate the points he made regarding “Sinners.”
Leonard last appeared on “The Town” in April shortly after “Sinners” debuted at the box office to speak about reporting from the New York Times, Variety, Vulture and elsewhere on the film’s finances. Articles questioning the deal Coogler and Warner Bros. struck — a deal that gave Coogler first-dollar gross and full ownership of the project after 25 years — gained traction in Hollywood circles as it became clear that “Sinners” was a runaway hit.
Leonard reiterated on his Substack Thursday that he criticized the media’s insistence that international audiences aren’t interested in Black films — a piece of “conventional wisdom” he debunked with data from McKinsey & Company. He likewise took some outlets to task for their use of anonymous critics in their reporting.
Since these articles’ publication, “Sinners” has gone on to become the highest-grossing original film of the decade domestically.
“Framing a systems-level critique as a personal accusation of racism is a rhetorical sleight of hand that replaces substance with outrage,” Leonard wrote. “It turns an argument about policy and economics into interpersonal drama, an amusing little culture war spat, and it shuts down the conversation before it can even begin.”
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