🎬 Major Deal

👋 Good morning! Filing under “reality TV ideas that make you go hmm,” producer Rob Worsoff (of 'Duck Dynasty' fame) is pitching 'The American' to the Department of Homeland Security—a competition show where immigrants tackle challenges like mining San Francisco gold or assembling Model Ts for a shot at citizenship. While Worsoff insists it's "not mean-spirited" but a "celebration" of American identity, many industry observers find the concept of turning immigration journeys into entertainment fodder troubling. DHS confirms they're "vetting" the pitch, though they receive "hundreds of television show pitches a year."

Welcome to The Dailies. Grab your coffee and we’ll get you caught up on that latest Hollywood news. Here’s what’s on the reel today:

• Box Office Breakdown

• Cannes Update: First Major Deal

• China Gives ‘Mission: Impossible’ Thumbs Up

• Cable Mega-Merger Incoming

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

• Video Village: The latest trailers

• Martini Shot 🍸

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ Sixth time’s the charm for ‘Final Destination’…

1. 💀 Final Destination Bloodlines: 🆕 $51M domestic opening, $102M global debut. The film scored the biggest horror "episode 6" opening of all time (beating ‘Scream VI's’ $44.4M) and crushed the franchise record by 68%. The opening nearly triples the horror genre average and is 2.5x bigger than the 2011 installment. Critical reception was killer at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes with a "B+" CinemaScore.

2. 🦸‍♂️ Thunderbolts*: (Wk 3) $16.5M domestic weekend (-49%), $155.4M domestic total, $325.7M global. Marvel's antihero team crossed the $300M global milestone on Friday but continues to track similarly to ‘Eternals’ domestically and ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ worldwide.

3. 🧛 Sinners: (Wk 5) $15.4M domestic weekend (-30%), $240.8M domestic total, $316M global. Warner's vampire thriller showcases remarkable legs with a total now 5x its opening weekend.

4. 🐓 A Minecraft Movie: (Wk 7) $5.9M domestic weekend (-23%), $416.6M domestic total, $928M global. The smallest drop in the top 20 despite being on PVOD, as it inches ever closer to the $1B milestone.

5. 🔫 The Accountant 2: (Wk 4) $5M domestic weekend (-26%), $59.1M domestic total. Amazon MGM's sequel continues to do decent numbers.

6. 🎵 Hurry Up Tomorrow: 🆕 $3.3M domestic opening. The Weeknd's musical thriller hits all the wrong notes despite star power from Jenna Ortega. Audiences rejected it with a "C-" CinemaScore and critics dismissed it with a dismal 13% on Rotten Tomatoes.

7. 👬 Friendship: (Wk 2) $1.4M domestic weekend (+210%), $2M domestic total. A24's cringe comedy starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd dominates with the weekend's highest PSA ($23,338) as it expanded to 60 theaters. The film will go wide, adding hundreds more screens next weekend.

8. 🤡 Clown in a Cornfield: (Wk 2) $1.3M domestic weekend (-63%), $6.4M domestic total. Horror counterprogramming drops hard in its sophomore frame.

9. 🎮 Until Dawn: (Wk 4) $800K domestic weekend (-59%), $19.6M domestic total. Sony's video game adaptation continues fading away.

10. 🕵️ The Amateur: (Wk 6) $712K domestic weekend (-39%), $40.1M domestic total. 20th Century's thriller hangs on in the top 10 as it approaches the end of its theatrical run.

The Big Picture: The box office got back on track with a solid $105.6M total, up 21.2% from last week and 8.7% from the same weekend in 2024. While improving year-over-year, we're still lagging pre-pandemic levels. Next weekend's Memorial Day battle between Disney's ‘Lilo & Stitch’ and Cruise's ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ should jolt the market with projections of $100M+ and $65M respectively.

CLOSEUP
🌴 Cannes hits its midway point with first major deal…

Today marks the seventh day of the 77th Cannes Film Festival, with premieres continuing to generate buzz. Here are some highlights from the past few days:

• 🏛️ 'The Phoenician Scheme' (Wes Anderson) — Anderson's dysfunctional family comedy starring Benicio Del Toro earned the festival's longest ovation so far. Critical reception: Critics appreciate "tongue-in-cheek divertissement" with Anderson's signature visual style. The film arrived with distribution from Focus Features, releasing May 30. (👏 Standing O': 7.5 minutes)

• 👶 'Die, My Love' (Lynne Ramsay) — Adaptation of Ariana Harwicz's 2017 novel starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. Critical reception: Lawrence's unhinged performance is generating early Oscar buzz, despite some calling it a "showy mess." MUBI acquired the film for ~$24M (worldwide) in the festival’s first major deal so far. (👏 Standing O': 6 minutes)

• 🎬 'Nouvelle Vague' (Richard Linklater) — Black-and-white French film chronicling the making of Godard's ‘Breathless.’ Critical reception: Considered one of the biggest successes of the festival, praised for period authenticity and joyous approach. (👏 Standing O': 6.5 minutes)

• 🏊‍♀️ 'The Chronology of Water' (Kristen Stewart) — Stewart's adaptation of Yuknavitch's memoir starring Imogen Poots. Critical reception: Stewart's directorial debut has impressed critics with its distinctive visual approach. (👏 Standing O': 6.5 minutes)

• 🤠 'Eddington' (Ari Aster) — COVID-era Western set in New Mexico starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler. Critical reception: Polarizing—"annoying and empty" (THR) vs. "gonzo high-adrenaline fun" (BBC). (👏 Standing O': 5 minutes)

• 🏙️ 'Urchin' (Harris Dickinson) — Frank Dillane stars as a homeless man in London struggling with mental health issues. Critical reception: "Knockout directorial debut" praised for authentic voice and visual approach to street-level realism. (👏 Standing O': 5 minutes)

Cannes 2025’s market reflects an industry in reset mode: Movies cost more to make and market than ever, but studios and streamers are no longer buying everything in sight. Pre-sales volume is thin, with most buyers only showing interest in high-profile packages. Trump's bombshell 100% foreign film tariff proposal is only adding to the industry jitters. The exception? Completed films with festival validation, like those in Competition or Un Certain Regarde. After ‘Anora’ rode its Palme d'Or all the way to Oscar glory, everyone's hunting for the next golden ticket. Despite reports of bidding wars for elite Competition titles, only one major check has actually been written: MUBI's eye-popping $24M acquisition of ‘Die, My Love.’ It's a market where everyone's talking big numbers but few are actually signing on the dotted line.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 ‘Mission: Impossible’ in China and cable mergers…

🇨🇳 Mission: Possible, actually, even in a trade war. Paramount's ‘Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’ just snagged a May 30 China release date, joining Disney's ‘Lilo & Stitch’ remake and Universal's ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ in the "apparently-we're-still-friends" club. The development comes despite Beijing's April threat to "moderately reduce" American film imports in response to President Trump’s tariffs. While Chinese audiences increasingly favor homegrown hits like ‘Ne Zha 2,’ the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise keeps flexing its cross-cultural muscle with approximately $500M from Chinese theaters alone across its run. For those nervously watching the tense trade environment, this offers a rare moment of "maybe everything won't implode after all" optimism.

📺 Charter and Cox are doing the corporate equivalent of huddling for warmth. Charter Communications (Spectrum's owner) is buying Cox Communications in a massive $34.5B deal that combines America's #1 and #7 cable providers as cord-cutting steadily erodes their business model. The merger creates a 15M+ TV subscriber behemoth. For Disney, WBD, and NBCUniversal—who still rely on those sweet, sweet cable carriage fees for billions in revenue—this consolidation means negotiating with one bigger, more debt-laden ($100B+) distribution partner with enhanced leverage. Remember Charter's 2023 Disney channel blackout? That little staring contest ended with Disney blinking. Now imagine that, but with even less Disney negotiating power. Regulatory approval is expected by 2026.

LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️

• Apple and The Walsh Company have acquired Sophie de Bruijn’s dark comedy spec script ‘Early Action.’ (more)

• Vertical has acquired rom-com ‘The Threesome,’ starring Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, and Ruby Cruz, with a theatrical release set for Sept. 5. (more)

• Netflix has acquired ‘Devil’s Rope,’ a female-led thriller spec set in rural Texas from writer Melanie Toast. (more)

• Ralph Fiennes will play a young President Snow in ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,’ taking over for Donald Sutherland. (more)

• Jacob Elordi and Lily-Rose Depp will star in ‘Outer Dark,’ a Cormac McCarthy adaptation directed by Laszlo Nemes. (more)

• Paramount has acquired international sales rights to Peacock’s Miami-set crime drama ‘M.I.A.,’ created by ‘Ozark’s’ Bill Dubuque. (more)

TV Development 📺

• Shemar Moore will reprise his role as Hondo in ‘S.W.A.T.’ Exiles, a new spinoff from Sony following the CBS series’ finale. (more)

• ‘The Bondsman’ is cancelled at Prime Video after S1. (more)

Cannes Market 🇫🇷

• Andrew Garfield is in talks to lead Paul Greengrass’ 1381 revolt drama ‘The Rage,’ with Focus Features nearing an $11M deal. (more)

• Brie Larson will star in ‘Fail-Safe,’ a creature horror film produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by JT Mollner, launching at Cannes via FilmNation. (more)

• Will Poulter, Kit Connor, and Manu Ríos will star in ‘Rapture,’ a medieval zombie horror film that’s pre-sold in the U.S. and UK. (more)

• Gen Z horror reboot ‘The Creep,’ starring Jasmine Jobson and Aitch, has sold U.K. and Irish rights to True Brit Entertainment. (more)

• Jim Caviezel and John Travolta will star in ‘Syndicate,’ a faith-driven action-thriller launching sales at Cannes via Arclight Films. (more)

• Tilda Swinton will star in David Lowery’s psychological whodunnit ‘Death in Her Hands,’ adapted from Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel. (more)

• Jason Isaacs joins Maika Monroe and Thomasin McKenzie in ‘Victorian Psycho,’ a gothic horror-thriller, now selling at the Cannes market. (more)

Business 🤝

• Ben Kelly is exiting his role as Netflix UK’s Director of Unscripted Series after six years shaping hits like ‘Too Hot to Handle’ and ‘Love Is Blind: UK.’ (more)

Other News 🚨

• The WGA is demanding the immediate reinstatement of Copyright Office head Shira Perlmutter following her firing after a critical AI report. (more)

• VFX workers behind Marvel, Disney, and ‘Avatar’ have ratified their first union contracts, securing better wages, benefits, and AI safeguards. (more)

• Netflix and IMAX are in talks for a potential limited theatrical run of Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ ahead of its streaming release later this year. (more)

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VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers

MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest trends & viral moments