🎬 It's Emmys Season

👋 Good morning! Good news for any LA natives who've mourned the dark marquee at Westwood's Village Theatre: it's coming back to life July 17. Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' will play there in 70mm for three weeks as a fundraiser before the 95-year-old palace shuts down this fall for restoration. Tickets on sale today at 9 a.m. PT.

Yes, we're in your inbox on a Thursday, and no, you didn't lose track of the week. We’re officially in Emmys season, so this one's to help you get your bearings, plus an early Release Radar and the usual Last Looks. 👇

The 2026 Emmy eligibility window closed May 31, which means the pool of eligible shows is locked. To make the cut, a show had to air sometime between June 1, 2025 and May 31, 2026. Nothing's been decided yet, voting doesn't start until June 11, so before the FYC campaign noise hits full volume, here's the road ahead:

The show's on a Monday this year instead of the usual Sunday, because NBC isn't about to bump Sunday Night Football for some trophies. It's also the final year of the current rotation deal, the arrangement where ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC take turns hosting the telecast year to year. The Academy still hasn't named who's hosting.

One bit of context that frames the whole season: the pool is shrinking. Original series peaked at nearly 1,700 in 2022 and fell to barely 1,100 last year, a drop of roughly a third. Voters are working with a thinner field than they were a few cycles ago, and you can feel it in the contenders, fewer breakout newcomers, more returning favorites and franchise plays. Add the usual industry anxieties (contraction, consolidation, the AI question now creeping into awards rules, see below) and this year's race doubles as a check-up on the business.

Homelander controls America through fascist terror, imprisoning dissenters in Freedom Camps. Butcher, Hughie, Annie and The Boys mount a desperate resistance against insurmountable odds to stop his tyrannical rule.

The Television Academy has quietly reworked a few of its rules for the 78th Emmys. A couple are the usual fine-print housekeeping. A couple are not.

The big one: Talk and Scripted Variety are back to being a single category. The Academy merged them into one Outstanding Variety Series, mostly because there just aren't enough shows to go around anymore (and 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' signing off this spring didn't exactly help the talk side). For what it's worth, the merger could reverse: if each format rebounds to 20 submissions, they'll be separated back out.

The interesting part is how it'll be judged. It's now an "area award," which means voters don't crown one winner, they go down the list giving each nominee a thumbs up or down on whether it deserves an Emmy. Clear 90% and you win. So the category could produce several winners, or, if voters are feeling generous, everyone clears the bar and goes home with a trophy, like a youth soccer league.

🍿 THEATRICAL

📺 STREAMING

🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: Paramount's 'Scary Movie 6' is the one to beat, and its projections have climbed for weeks (from a shaky $25-35M in early May to a much healthier $45-55M now). The Wayans reunion is leaning hard on nostalgia, and the spoof is tracking as one of the best live-action comedies in years. Behind it, 'Masters of the Universe' is looking at $30-40M, though Amazon/MGM reportedly spent over $200M on it, so that one might sting. 'Backrooms' is the wildcard. After a huge $81M debut, it's looking at $30-35M in week two and a tight race with Masters for second. All told, the top five could pull in around $140M, way up from this weekend last year.

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