🎬 Everybody Wants Letterboxd

👋 Good morning! The universe didn't implode, but it came close: Tom Holland met Tom Holland. The Spider-Man actor sat down with the historian (who shares his name) for a special episode of 'The Rest Is History' unpacking Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey.' Actor Tom apologized for burying the historian in search results, making him nearly impossible to Google. Historian Tom waved it off with the serenity of a man who gave up years ago: "I don't Google myself so it's absolutely fine."

Hope the weekend treated you well. Coffee up, we’ve got box office numbers to cover. 👇

A couple of milestones: 'Michael' crossed $1B worldwide, the first biopic ever to get there, and Lionsgate's first billion-dollar movie, period. And 'Obsession' ($750K budget) passed $400M to become the highest-grossing film ever made for under $1M, a record 'Enter the Dragon' had held since 1973.

Up next: 'The Odyssey' hits this weekend, and it's tracking big ($100M+). Then 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' lands at the end of the month.

Disney's live-action 'Moana' opened at #1 this weekend with roughly $43M domestic and $95M worldwide. Normally a chart-topper is cause for a lei and a luau, but against a $250M budget (before marketing), this is a rough result. Some analysts figure the film could lose around $100M theatrically. Some details:

The trades are mostly blaming the timing. Animated 'Moana 2' opened to $139.7M just 19 months ago and crossed $1B, and this is now the third family film in a month, after 'Toy Story 5' and 'Minions & Monsters.' Layered on top is a broader live-action fatigue. The remake is a nearly line-for-line, shot-for-shot copy of the 2016 original, so it's fair to ask: why pay to see something you've already seen (and just saw again 19 months ago in 'Moana 2')?

The bigger picture: Disney's live-action playbook has worked well for the company. Its 22 remakes have grossed $12.5B worldwide, five of them crossed $1B, and live-action 'Lilo & Stitch' did $1.04B just last year. Whether that's proof the model still works or the last outlier before the well runs dry, who knows now. Meanwhile, Disney's already working on a live-action remake of 'Tangled.'

Looking ahead… 'Moana' joins a growing list of would-be summer tentpoles that underperformed, alongside 'Supergirl,' 'The Mandalorian and Grogu,' ‘Mortal Kombat II,’ and 'Minions & Monsters.' Good news is two potential giants are close behind, with 'The Odyssey' (July 17) and 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' (July 31) both tracking huge.

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The cinephile social network that turned movie-logging into a social ritual has quietly kicked off a sales process, and a handful of big names have agreed to early meetings. While taking a meeting is a long way from writing a check, it's a big moment for Letterboxd, which has amassed over 30M users and become one of the few corners of the internet where good word of mouth can actually sell tickets. Who's taken a meeting so far:

Bankers at LionTree are floating a $250M valuation, a steep jump from the $50M that holding company Tiny paid for its majority stake in 2023. Big number for a platform without much revenue.

Why fans are watching closely: Letterboxd's die-hard users are already bracing for "enshittification," that familiar slide where a site people love gets crammed with ads and algorithms once big money shows up. The community's nightmare is opening the app to find their carefully curated diary now recommends "because you watched 'Shrek.'" One reassuring note: co-founder Matthew Buchanan is said to have a real say in who (if anyone) ends up buying.

The 2026 World Cup hasn't just been a hit, it's been a ratings monster. The U.S.-Bosnia and Herzegovina match averaged 26M+ viewers, the most-watched English-language soccer telecast ever. The U.S.-Belgium game pulled a combined 47.9M across English and Spanish, and recent U.S. games have gone toe-to-toe with NFL playoff numbers. It's been a windfall for the current rights holders (Fox, Telemundo, and Peacock have all set records), which is exactly the problem for them: they just proved how much this thing is worth.

FIFA is prepping to sell the U.S. rights to the 2030 and 2034 tournaments, and the contenders are lining up:

The streamers are expected to push hard, seeing the Cup as a potential major lift for their platforms, according to people familiar with the talks.

FIFA plans to sell the English- and Spanish-language rights as one package instead of separately, a big reason the price is climbing. It also likely prices out Telemundo, since NBCUniversal won't pay ~$2B for a bundle that's mostly English rights it doesn't need. A notable loss, given nearly half of this year's U.S. viewers watched in Spanish.

Looking ahead… FIFA is expected to start formal talks with bidders within the next three months.