👋 Good morning. Adam Savage, of 'Mythbusters' fame, brought that same energy to IMAX HQ last week. He toured the vault, hoisted 600-lb reels, and documented the rope-and-pulley system that gets 15/70mm film up to the projection booth. The engineering is kind of crazy, and worth a watch if you’re into that sort of thing. Add it to the film-format-explainer canon Ryan Coogler kicked off with his viral 'Sinners' rundown last year. Meanwhile, IMAX is only getting more popular. The format just posted its biggest year ever in 2025 at $1.28B globally, up 40% YoY.
Welcome back from the weekend. Box office is tallied, the news cycle's already moving, and we've got it all. Let's get into it. 👇
BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ Mario three-peats, ‘The Mummy’ unravels…
This week’s newcomer, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (New Line Cinema)
| WEEKEND TOTAL $90.6M| VS. 2025 -39.9%| VS. LAST WKND -31.6% | |
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie WK 3 $35M domestic weekend (-49%) · Domestic total: $355.2M · Global total: $747.47M · Budget: $110M Mario and co. pull off the first box office three-peat since 'Avatar: Fire and Ash,' with the domestic cume running about $80M behind the original 'Super Mario Bros. Movie' at this frame. | |
Project Hail Mary WK 5 $20.5M domestic weekend (-15%) · Domestic total: $285.1M · Global total: $573M · Budget: $248M gross budget | |
Lee Cronin's The Mummy NEW $13.5M domestic weekend · Global total: $34M · Budget: $22M Warner Bros./Blumhouse/Atomic Monster's R-rated reboot came in below the low end of forecasts, saddled with a C+ CinemaScore and a 46% RT score, making it WB's second horror stumble of 2026 after March's 'The Bride!.' | |
The Drama WK 3 $4.8M domestic weekend (-44%) · Domestic total: $39.6M · Global total: $81.8M · Budget: $28M | |
You, Me & Tuscany WK 2 $3.8M domestic weekend (-51%) · Domestic total: $14.4M · Global total: $16.1M · Budget: $18M | |
Hoppers WK 7 $2.9M domestic weekend (-30%) · Domestic total: $161.2M · Global total: $359M · Budget: $150M | |
Normal NEW $2.65M domestic weekend Bob Odenkirk and 'Nobody' writer Derek Kolstad run it back, though the opening's well off 'Nobody's $6.8M 2021 bow. | |
Busboys NEW $1.6M domestic weekend · Budget: $3M David Spade and Theo Von's self-financed comedy lands on 800 screens for a $2,017 PSA (one of the better averages outside the top two). | |
Bhooth Bangla NEW $977K domestic weekend · Budget: $14M Bollywood horror-comedy made it into the top ten. | |
A Great Awakening WK 3 $824K domestic weekend · Domestic total: $6.6M · Global total: $6.6M · Budget: $13M | |
The bigger picture: Despite the soft weekend, 2026's still the best box office year since the pandemic, running ~16% ahead of 2025 YTD. More help's on deck next weekend: Lionsgate's 'Michael' (Jaafar Jackson playing his uncle) is tracking to set an opening record for a musical biopic, joined by Jason Segel/Samara Weaving dark comedy 'Over Your Dead Body.'
CLOSEUP
🎓 Top arts schools are taking the AI plunge…
USC's School of Dramatic Arts launched an Adobe-backed "Institute For Actor-Driven Innovation"
It's a weird time to run an arts school. In a roughly two-week stretch, three of the country's most prominent arts academies have rolled out AI deals of their own, wading into a technology the industry itself is still sorting out. The moves vary in shape, but they all point the same direction:
USC's School of Dramatic Arts announced an "Institute For Actor-Driven Innovation," sponsored by Adobe, promising to teach actors everything from AI basics to reading scenes opposite deepfaked A-listers.
NYU's Tisch School of the Arts struck a deal with Runway for near-unlimited video-generation credits across several programs, though notably not Tisch's flagship film school (the one that trained Spike Lee and Todd Solondz).
Chapman's Dodge College invited AI "actress" Tilly Norwood to give a lecture (how, exactly, was unclear), then announced $40,000 in grants for students making AI-heavy projects. Chapman declined to name the donors.
They're joining a crowd: USC already has a $10M Center for Generative AI and Society from 2023. CalArts runs a Chanel-funded AI center. LMU's AI screenwriting course is reportedly its fastest-filling elective. And Google.org gave Sundance Institute $2M in January to train 100,000 artists in AI skills.
The deans' pitch is consistent: their students are walking into an industry AI is already reshaping, and the schools would rather teach them to wield the tools in class than let them get blindsided in the workplace. Administrators are quick to say they're preparing students without endorsing the tech itself. Or, as USC professor Holly Willis put it two years ago: "just because we're teaching it, it doesn't mean we're endorsing it."
The pushback on campus rhymes with the pushback in town. Dodge's Tilly Norwood post pulled nearly 1,300 comments calling the school "tone deaf" and "spitting in the face of the industry," which is basically the same case SAG-AFTRA made when it condemned Norwood as an attempt to replace human performers with "synthetics."
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WIDESHOT
🎬 LA mayor’s race, Live Nation, and ‘Ricky’…
LA mayoral contenders: Karen Bass, Nithya Raman, Spencer Pratt
🗳️ Runaway production is now a central issue in LA's mayoral race. The primary is June 2. The three frontrunners (incumbent Karen Bass, councilmember Nithya Raman, and reality-TV-guy-turned-outsider Spencer Pratt) are all pitching themselves as the candidate who can rescue local shoots and fix FilmLA, the city's much-maligned permitting office. Credit (or blame) Fox's 'Baywatch' revival, which took $21M in state tax credits to shoot in LA, then spent a month tangled in late permits and surprise fees at Venice Beach. Every candidate has been swinging at the issue since. TV filming ended 2025 more than 50% below its five-year average, and the crisis has officially become kitchen-table politics for the industry's working class.
🎫 State attorneys general just took down Live Nation. A federal jury ruled last week that Live Nation ran an illegal monopoly in concerts and ticketing, and the state coalition, led by NY AG Letitia James, now wants Ticketmaster spun off. Quick refresher: DOJ filed the suit in 2024, then settled in early March under AG Pam Bondi for a deal critics called far too soft. State AGs weren't satisfied and pressed on to a jury trial themselves. What it means for Paramount-WBD: the Ellisons have a friendly Trump administration, but that only gets them federal approval. California AG Rob Bonta, a lead voice against Live Nation, has already promised an aggressive state review of the merger, and European Commission and UK CMA reviews are coming too.
🌄 Winning Sundance isn't the golden ticket it once was. 'Ricky,' Rashad Frett's debut feature, took home the U.S. Dramatic directing prize 16 months ago and still couldn't find a buyer. So the filmmakers are going the DIY route and self-distributing. They're booking theaters themselves on April 24, keeping the rights, and running a Kickstarter to help audiences in cities like Chicago and Detroit get tickets. They've also screened the film at San Quentin (the film follows a man re-entering society after 15 years inside). And it's not just 'Ricky.' The 2025 Sundance class has had one of the toughest acquisitions runs on record. Grand Jury winner 'Atropia' took until October to sell, and most of the class still hasn't. This is the indie market now: what used to be a last resort is fast becoming the default.
CLOSEUP
📺 A24’s quietly taking over television…
Nick Offerman, Nicole Kidman, and Elle Fanning at the premiere of A24's 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' (Stephanie Augello/Getty Images)
Three A24 shows landed within days of each other this month: 'Euphoria', 'Beef', and the new David E. Kelley drama 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' (Kelley being the veteran TV creator behind 'Big Little Lies' and 'Ally McBeal'). The indie studio has become the most disruptive buyer in the TV business, winning bidding wars with speed and terms that have rivals scrambling.
How they got here: A24 launched its TV arm back in 2015, best known at the time for distributing indie films like 'Spring Breakers' and 'Ex Machina.' The early slate leaned small, with comedies like 'The Carmichael Show.' The breakthroughs came in 2019 with HBO's 'Euphoria' and 2023 with Netflix's 'Beef' (both Emmy winners). In 2024, a cash infusion from Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital (at a $3.5B valuation) signaled the company was done being just an art-house movie darling.
A few things industry insiders are noticing…
Legacy studio deals can take 8 months to over a year to close, and many projects sit in development for years after that. A24 routinely compresses both timelines. 'Margo' is a case in point: the rights landed at A24 in October 2023, the show set up at Apple TV by February 2024, and it's streaming now. At a legacy studio, it would probably still be in development.
Creators are being offered up to 50% backend, well above the ~35% long considered standard.
Rival buyers now tell their execs to prep for $1M+ if A24 is in the room.
'Overcompensating,' the A24 comedy at Amazon based on Benito Skinner's semi-autobiographical coming-out story, was considered dead internally before A24 fought to bring it back for a second season. That kind of advocacy is becoming a key part of the pitch.
Why it matters: A new aggressive buyer in the market is good news for creators. More competition means faster deal closes, richer backend, and fewer situations where a few giants dictate the terms. With the Paramount-WBD merger about to shrink the field further, A24's rise is a real counterweight to the legacy studios, and a headache for the ones being forced to match its pace.
LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
‘The Batman Part II’ is circling Charles Dance to join Robert Pattinson in the DC sequel. (more)
‘FernGully’ is getting a live-action remake at Amazon MGM with Marielle Heller set to write and direct. (more)
Kathryn Newton is suiting back up as Cassie Lang for 'Avengers: Doomsday.’ (more)
‘Minions & Monsters’ has tapped composer John Powell to score Illumination’s latest franchise spinoff ahead of its July release. (more)
‘John Rambo’ has added David Harbour to star opposite Noah Centineo in the Lionsgate origin film, playing Major Trautman. (more)
TV Development 📺
‘The Book of Two Ways’ is in development at Netflix as a series from ‘Outlander’ showrunner Matthew B. Roberts. (more)
Ethan Embry joins Prime Video’s ‘Cross’ as a series regular for S3. (more)
Bokeem Woodbine and Nona Parker Johnson are joining ‘Dexter: Resurrection’ S2 as series regulars. (more)
‘The Last of Us’ has cast ‘Sinners’ breakout Li Jun Li for S3. (more)
Business 🤝
The Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions is going independent after its Netflix deal wraps, opting to work across multiple studios instead. (more)
A federal judge has blocked the $6.2B Nexstar-Tegna merger on antitrust grounds. Nexstar plans to appeal. (more)
Leïla Bekhti will serve as jury president for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section at the 2026 festival. (more)
WGA West staff, voted overwhelmingly to continue their strike past the two-month mark as contract talks with management remain stalled. (more)
AI is moving fast. Most people are already behind. Superhuman AI is the easiest way to catch up — a free newsletter that breaks down what matters and how to actually use it. (more)*
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-The Dailies Team