🎬 Lights, Cannes, Action! 🇫🇷

👋 Good morning! The trailer voiceover guy just cleared his throat for the first time since 2005. Last week's ‘Materialists’ trailer featuring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans brought back the nostalgic narration we haven’t heard in ages. Social media quickly lit up with nostalgic delight, with one user declaring "voiceover trailer guy employed again... we are so back." Don Lafontaine must be smiling somewhere as Celine Song's upcoming film resurrects the golden era when every trailer began with "In a world..."

Welcome aboard The Dailies. Grab your coffee and let us catch you up on the latest industry news. Forwarded this email? Sign up here. Your industry savvy will increase by a scientifically unverifiable 84%.

🎞 Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• Box Office Breakdown

• Cannes Begins

• MUBI’s $1B Valuation

• WGA Faces Internal Division

• New York Turbocharges Tax Incentives

• Last Looks: 👀 Bite-sized scoops on developing stories/projects

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Martini Shot 🍸

But first, let’s take a look at what happened at the box office this past weekend!

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ A calm before the summer storm…

1. 🦹‍♂️ Thunderbolts*: (Wk 2) $33.1M domestic weekend (-55%), $128.5M domestic total, $272.2M global. Holds remarkably well with the best second-weekend retention for an MCU title since pre-pandemic days.

2. 🧛 Sinners: (Wk 4) $21.1M domestic weekend (-36%), $214.9M domestic total, $283.3M global. Coogler's vampire thriller joins the $200M club with yet another stellar hold.

3. 🐓 A Minecraft Movie: (Wk 6) $8M domestic weekend (-42%), $409M domestic total, $909.6M global. Warner's blockbuster inches closer to the coveted $1B milestone, becoming 2025's potential first member of the billion-dollar club.

4. 👨‍💼 The Accountant 2: (Wk 3) $6.1M domestic weekend (-36%), $50.9M domestic total, $71M global. Affleck's action sequel keeps tallying steady numbers with adult audiences despite its hefty $80M ledger.

5. 🤡 Clown in a Cornfield: 🆕 $3.7M domestic opening. IFC's micro-budget slasher ($1M production cost) delivers historic returns, becoming the distributor's biggest opening ever and instantly proving profitable despite that telltale horror movie C+ CinemaScore.

6. 🎮 Until Dawn: (Wk 3) $2M domestic weekend (-46%), $18M domestic total. Sony's video game adaptation continues fading.

7. ✈️ Fight or Flight: 🆕 $2M domestic opening. Hartnett's airplane thriller struggles despite favorable critical reception (78% on Rotten Tomatoes).

8. 🔫 Shadow Force: 🆕 $2M domestic opening. Kerry Washington and Omar Sy's $40M action flick becomes summer's first certified box office bomb.

9. 🕵️ The Amateur: (Wk 5) $1.1M domestic weekend (-42%), $38.95M domestic total. Espionage thriller hangs in the top 10.

10. ✝️ The King of Kings: (Wk 5) $680K domestic weekend (-60%), $59M domestic total. Angel Studios' faith-based epic continues its steady descent.

The Big Picture: The weekend box office totaled an estimated $86.7M, down 10% from the same frame last year. With no major new releases, this was the calm before the storm as theaters prep for a Memorial Day onslaught with ‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ next weekend followed by the one-two punch of ‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ and ‘Lilo & Stitch.’

CLOSEUP
🇫🇷 Cannes season begins anew tomorrow…

The French Riviera transforms once again into the epicenter of global cinema as the 78th Cannes Film Festival begins tomorrow and runs until May 24. Cinema's most prestigious gathering will draw over 200,000 industry figures and fans to the Mediterranean coast, with a notably buoyant mood compared to recent years. Jury president Juliette Binoche leads an impressive panel including Halle Berry and Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo.

Awards season kickoff?

With Cannes now a key launchpad for Oscar contenders (last year's Palme d'Or winner ‘Anora’ went all the way to Best Picture), all eyes are on these potential awards vehicles:

• 'Die, My Love' — Lynne Ramsay returns with Jennifer Lawrence in a portrait of postpartum depression

• 'Eddington' — Ari Aster's Western epic starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, and Emma Stone

• 'Alpha' — Julia Ducournau's mysterious follow-up to her Palme-winning 'Titane'

• 'The Phoenician Scheme' — Wes Anderson's latest star-studded film with Benicio Del Toro

• 'Nouvelle Vague' — Richard Linklater's nostalgic dive into French New Wave cinema

A striking trend this year: actors directing their first features, with debuts from Kristen Stewart ('The Chronology of Water'), Scarlett Johansson ('Eleanor the Great'), and Harris Dickinson ('Urchin').

This year's lineup also showcases cinema's borderless future, featuring the first Nigerian film in official selection ('My Father's Shadow') alongside works from Iranian and Ukrainian filmmakers. The era of "foreign films" as a niche is over—Cannes now reflects an industry where great storytelling transcends borders.

Marché madness…

The Marché du Film kicks off in parallel with the festival, and streaming giants are already making waves (Apple paid ~$40M for 'Tenzing,' Netflix $34M for 'Monsanto'), while specialty distributors exercise cautious optimism.

This year's market will serve as a key test of whether President Trump's recent tariff threat creates uncertainty in both directions: international buyers hesitating on American projects and U.S. distributors uncertain about acquiring foreign films that could face new import taxes.

As always we’ll keep you updated with details, deals, and standing ovations.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 MUBI, WGA, and New York…

💸 Your pretentious movie-loving friend was right all along—MUBI is worth $1B. MUBI, the streaming service that’s home to art films and international cinema, is in final stages of raising $100M led by Sequoia Capital at a $1B valuation. Why is this potential investment a big deal? It's a massive vote of confidence that investors now believe a business solely focused on arthouse and indie films (historically seen as financial kryptonite) can actually work at scale. Until recently, MUBI was relatively unknown in the global distribution space, but now it's emerging as a legitimate counterweight to Netflix's theater-bypassing strategy. The platform charges film buffs $15-$20 monthly and now plans to release up to 20 films in theaters annually. Their model already has a compelling test case—after Universal dropped ‘The Substance’ over creative disputes with its director, MUBI swooped in for $12M and watched it gross $80M worldwide while earning five Oscar noms. The capital from this deal will fund more boundary-pushing productions that major studios typically avoid.

🗳️ A guild divided cannot stand... or can it? Last week, the Writers Guild of America held a vote on whether to uphold punishments against writers accused of breaking rules during the 2023 strike. Writer Julie Bush's case—sending a script to a company that promised to become a signatory but later backed out without paying her—passed by just 59 votes (745-686). Three other cases showed similarly tight margins, with one punishment overturned entirely. This near 50-50 split marks a dramatic departure from typical guild votes, which usually pass with 90%+ consensus. With 2026 negotiations approaching and writer employment still down 42% from pre-strike levels, some industry insiders see this divide as a warning sign for WGA leadership. The question now: Can leadership mend these cracks before they need to rally the troops for potentially fierce contract talks, or is this just a temporary disagreement over internal discipline with no real impact on the guild’s legendary solidarity?

🗽 New York just turbocharged its bid for Hollywood's business. Governor Hochul signed legislation late last week expanding the state's film incentives to $800M annually—a 14% increase that signals the latest escalation in America's production subsidy wars. The package, locked in until 2036, sets aside $100M specifically for indie projects that big studios don’t control, giving the little guys a fighting change in today’s cutthroat landscape. This comes as California scrambles to double its own program from $330M to $750M per year. Together, that's $1.55B between just two states—numbers that would've seemed absurd a decade ago. And the battle for film dollars is going national: Governor Newsom reportedly pitched a $7.5B federal incentive plan while Trump's team floats tariffs on foreign productions. What started as states trying to poach each other's business has exploded into a full-blown national strategy with serious cash on the line.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• The ‘Godzilla x Kong’ sequel has been titled ‘Supernova,’ with production now underway and a release set for March 2027. (more)

• Republic Pictures has acquired international rights to Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd’s comedy ‘Friendship,’ ahead of its A24 U.S. release. (more)

• Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson will lead Jane Schoenbrun’s horror film ‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’ for Mubi and Plan B. (more)

Cannes Market 🇫🇷

• ‘Stranger Things’ star Dacre Montgomery will make his directorial debut with psychological drama ‘The Engagement Party.’ (more)

• Aaron Eckhart will star in Angel Studios’ faith-based thriller ‘The Old Man in the Dunes,’ set to begin filming later this year and selling at Cannes. (more)

• Mikey Madison and Kirsten Dunst will star in ‘Reptilia,’ a mermaid thriller from Alejandro Landes Echavarría, set to launch sales at Cannes. (more)

• A $100M Donald Trump biopic is in the works from ‘Ferrari’ producer Andrea Iervolino. (more)

• Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller will star alongside Adam Driver in James Gray’s crime drama ‘Paper Tiger.’ (more)

• A24 has acquired worldwide rights to Dev Patel’s medieval revenge thriller ‘The Peasant’ in a $30M deal ahead of the Cannes market. (more)

• Magnolia Pictures has picked up U.S. rights to ‘The Carpenter’s Son’, starring Nicolas Cage, FKA Twigs, and Noah Jupe. (more)

TV Development 📺

• ‘Rivals’ has begun filming S2 with an expanded 12-episode order, after its record-breaking debut on Disney+ UK. (more)

• Edgar Ramírez will star in and executive produce a Hulu drama pilot from Onyx Collective. (more)

• Josh Charles will star in ‘Best Medicine,’ Fox’s 2025-26 adaptation of British hit ‘Doc Martin’. (more)

• Peacock has ordered ‘Ted: The Animated Series,’ with Seth MacFarlane and Mark Wahlberg returning to voice their original roles. (more)

Business 🤝

• Lionsgate has signed action filmmaker Ric Roman Waugh to a first-look deal through his company CineMachine Media Works. (more)

• Sony Pictures has extended Tom Rothman’s contract as film chairman and CEO, keeping him at the helm for a second decade. (more)

Other News 🚨

• The 2025 BAFTA TV Awards have announced their winners. (more)

• The 2025 TV upfronts kick off today in New York, as networks begin pitching their upcoming slates to advertisers. (more)

INTERMISSION: SPONSORED MESSAGE FROM KINOLIME
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It’s your chance to learn what connects, explore bold stories, and help shape the future of indie film—chosen by the people who actually watch it.No gatekeepers. No Hollywood middlemen. Just stories and the audience that backs them.

VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest trends & viral moments