🎬 IMAX Revolt

🚨 Billion-dollar alert: Disney's live-action 'Lilo & Stitch' has officially crossed the $1B mark at the global box office, becoming 2025's first Hollywood film to hit the milestone. It’s Disney's fourth billion-dollar film in just 13 months, joining 'Moana 2,' 'Deadpool & Wolverine,' and 'Inside Out 2' in the exclusive club.

Happy Friday and welcome to The Dailies! We’ll get you caught up on Hollywood’s latest before your coffee gets cold. First up, let’s check out what audiences were watching this week. 👇

TOP STREAMED
📊 This week’s top-streamed originals…

How last week’s new releases are stacking up…

• 🌌 Foundation S3: (Apple TV+) Got off to a modest start, pulling 1M views for its premiere episode in week 1. For context, that’s a far cry from ‘Severance’ S2’s debut, which racked up 3.6M views in its first week.

• 🔪 Dexter: Resurrection: (Paramount+ Premium) Back with a vengeance, pulling 3.1M cross-platform viewers and claiming the crown as Showtime's most-streamed premiere ever, according to Paramount.

• 👰🏾‍♀️ Madea’s Destination Wedding: (Netflix) Tyler Perry delivers with 21.1M hours watched in week 1. A strong showing, on par with Netflix hit ‘The Life List’ (21.4M) but below Perry’s ‘Straw’ (25.6M).

• 🔫 Ballard: (Prime Video) The Bosch-verse keeps winning with 21.6M hours watched and 2.7M season views in week 1—a clear hit for Amazon.

• 👧 Too Much: (Netflix) Lena Dunham’s new series logged only 4.3M hours in its first week, landing in niche territory.

Top-streamed chart July 11 to July 17. Data provided by Luminate.

CLOSEUP
📽️ Theater chains are plotting their IMAX revolt…

Major US exhibitors like Cinemark, Regal, and Marcus, have been quietly discussing creating their own premium large-format brand to challenge IMAX's dominance. The discussions could possibly represent the most organized challenge to IMAX in decades—and it all started because Netflix decided to cross a line that nobody saw coming. The backstory:

• Earlier this year, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond secured Netflix an exclusive two-week window for Greta Gerwig's ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ on over 1,000 screens for Thanksgiving 2026. Netflix is reportedly eyeing a similar theatrical run for Guillermo del Toro's upcoming ‘Frankenstein.’

• Studios and theaters were furious, seeing it as a betrayal—IMAX was prioritizing Netflix (a company whose business model represents an existential threat to theaters) over traditional theatrical partners. Disney was particularly vocal, having provided IMAX with many successful premium format hits over the years.

What’s being discussed: The chains are mulling everything from a unified brand name to shared industry standards for their premium locations. Vue Entertainment already launched their "Epic" format partly as a response to the Netflix mess. Notably, AMC (which runs more IMAX screens than anyone else in the US) is sitting this one out.

It’s not hard to see why: While IMAX controls only 372 US locations, it consistently captures over 10% of blockbuster box office revenue. Creating their own format means theaters could keep more of that lucrative premium pricing instead of paying IMAX licensing fees. On top of that it would reduce their reliance on a single company that can apparently make deals behind everyone’s back.

Looking ahead… IMAX isn't exactly sweating bullets just yet. The company is on track for its best box office year in 2025, and their secret weapon remains filmmaker loyalty. From Nolan to Gerwig, A-list directors keep demanding the format. Some analysts even see the theater revolt as "a sign of IMAX's growing influence rather than a threat.”

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WIDESHOT
Colbert, ‘The Odyssey,’ and Netflix earnings… 

🎙️ CBS is pulling the plug on Colbert's ‘Late Show’ next year. The network's calling it "purely a financial decision" as linear TV viewership keeps declining. Even Colbert's show—despite snagging two Emmy nominations this week and leading late-night ratings for nine straight seasons—has seen its audience drop 32% over the past five years, while late-night ad revenue has plummeted over 50% since 2014. The timing’s awkward: the announcement came just days after Colbert criticized CBS parent company Paramount Global’s settlement with President Trump over a ‘60 Minutes’ interview, though CBS insists the timing is coincidental. The decision has triggered an avalanche of commentary from entertainment and political figures, with many openly questioning CBS’s stated reasons. When the show ends in May 2026, CBS will exit late-night television for the first time since David Letterman launched ‘The Late Show’ in 1993.

🎟️ Movie tickets for July 2026 just sold out in under an hour. Universal broke industry norms by putting IMAX 70mm seats for Christopher Nolan's ‘The Odyssey’ on sale exactly 365 days ahead of the July 17, 2026 premiere—the furthest advance IMAX tickets have ever been sold. Within the first hour, 95% of available seats were gone nationwide, with many theaters selling out within minutes. The frenzy was so intense that scalpers immediately flooded eBay with resale tickets priced above $200, some reaching 400% face value. While the film is still shooting (Matt Damon, Tom Holland, and Zendaya were spotted in Scotland this week), the instant sellout is a testament to how strong some filmmaker brands have become—people are buying tickets purely because it’s a Nolan film. It's also another win for premium formats like IMAX 70mm as audiences increasingly crave that big-screen premium experience.

📈 Netflix is having a very good year. The streaming giant beat Q2 expectations with $11.1B in revenue (up 16%) and a hefty 34% operating margin, leading them to bump their full-year forecast to $45B. The streamer acknowledged their competition with YouTube, which has been leading in TV viewing time according to recent Nielsen reports. Netflix is actively courting creators from social media platforms and elsewhere, highlighting how kids YouTube star Miss Rachel racked up 53M views on their service in the first half of 2025. CEO Ted Sarandos emphasized they're hunting for similar creators who'd be a good fit for Netflix—including undiscovered talent. Other wins include those price hikes everyone complained about working perfectly with barely any churn, their ad business on track to double this year, and a strong second-half slate featuring ‘Wednesday’ S2 and the ‘Stranger Things’ finale.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• A ‘Legend of Zelda’ movie has cast Bo Bragason as Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link in the live-action film, releasing May 2027. (more)

• Diego Luna will star opposite Taylor Kitsch in hostage thriller ‘Eleven Days,’ directed by Peter Landesman. (more)

• Millie Bobby Brown and Gabriel LaBelle will star in Netflix rom-com ‘Just Picture It.’ (more)

• Netflix is developing a live-action series based on ‘Captain Planet and the Planeteers,’ with Tara Hernandez set to write and produce. (most)

• Barbie is getting a theatrical animated film from Illumination and Mattel, her first after decades of straight-to-video releases. (more)

• Taika Waititi is set to direct a new ‘Judge Dredd’ movie, with Drew Pearce writing the script in a hot package now hitting studios. (more)

• Ryan Gosling and Will Ferrell will star in the action comedy ‘Tough Guys,’ about two henchmen who go rogue, for Amazon MGM Studios. (more)

• Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman will star in rom-com ‘The Love Hypothesis,’ based on Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling novel for Amazon MGM. (more)

• Netflix has acquired Matt Lawton’s rom-com spec script, ‘I Don’t Know Who You Are Anymore.’ (more)

• Jack Lowden will star in an Apple TV+ drama based on the ‘Berlin Noir’ novels, with Tom Shankland directing and Playtone producing. (more)

• Amazon MGM is rebooting ‘Basic Instinct’ with original screenwriter Joe Eszterhas penning a new take for United Artists. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Ryan Murphy’s ‘The Shards’ has been ordered at FX, with Igby Rigney, Homer Gere, and Graham Campbell joining Kaia Gerber in the adaptation. (more)

• Netflix orders a live-action ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series from Roberto Patino and David Wiener, based on the hit video game franchise. (more)

• Samuel L. Jackson will star in ‘NOLA King,’ a ‘Tulsa King’ spinoff greenlit at Paramount+ and set to debut after his character’s intro in S3. (more)

• FX has ordered limited series ‘Cry Wolf,’ starring Olivia Colman and Brie Larson as women entangled in a high-stakes abuse allegation. (more)

• ‘The Walking Dead: Dead City’ is renewed for S3 with a new show runner. (more)

Other News 🚨

• PBS and NPR face elimination of $1.1B in federal funding as Congress passes a sweeping package of public media cuts. (more)

• TIFF added 11 more titles to its 50th anniversary lineup, including ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.’ (more)

• IMAX has extended CEO Richard Gelfond’s contract through 2028 as he continues to lead the company’s global expansion. (more)

• What do 4M Americans know that you don’t? Find out with 1440—your shortcut to staying informed. (more)*

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RELEASE RADAR
📅 New releases this weekend…

🎥 THEATRICAL

• Eddington: Neo-Western dark comedy from Ari Aster, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal.

• I Know What You Did Last Summer: Slasher sequel directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. returning.

• Smurfs: Animated musical reboot directed by Chris Miller, starring Rihanna as Smurfette alongside John Goodman and James Corden.

📺 STREAMING

• Untamed: (Netflix) Drama murder mystery starring Eric Bana and Sam Neill.

• The Summer I Turned Pretty: (Prime Video) The final season of the coming-of-age romance series.

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: (Paramount+) S3 of the sci-fi series starring Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn.

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: Expect ‘Superman’ to hold onto the top spot with a projected $45-60M second weekend. ‘Smurfs’ and ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ will duke it out for second place with similar $10-18M projections. ‘Eddington’ is aiming low with a sub-$5M arthouse debut. Add in streaming heavy-hitters like ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’ finale and ‘Star Trek’ and you’ve got a weekend where everyone’s fighting for eyeballs.

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