👋 Good morning! It was a big weekend for grown adults watching other adults run, jump, and punch each other in front of enormous crowds. The Knicks won their first NBA championship in 53 years on Saturday, the World Cup kicked off its opening weekend across the US, Canada, and Mexico, and last night the UFC staged a full title fight on the White House South Lawn (yes, an actual Octagon) beneath a structure named “The Claw.” Hope you enjoyed your weekend, whether you tuned in for any of that, headed to the theater for Spielberg's 'Disclosure Day,' or skipped the spectacle altogether.
Welcome back to The Dailies. We've got box office numbers and the latest from around the industry. Coffee up and let's get into it. 👇
BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ Spielberg lands in the no. 1 spot…
Steven Spielberg directs Emily Blunt and Wyatt Russell on the set of 'Disclosure Day.' (Universal/Amblin)
| WEEKEND TOTAL $119.4M| VS. 2025 -22%| VS. LAST WKND -34% | |
Disclosure Day NEW Universal · $44M domestic weekend · Global total: $92.9M · Budget: $115M Spielberg's first summer swing since 2016 landed his best domestic opening for an original film. The crowd skewed older, with 60% aged 35 or up, a group that tends to trickle in rather than stampede opening weekend. And a B CinemaScore (his lowest since 'Crystal Skull') points to softer word of mouth, which could mean shaky legs from here. | |
Obsession WK 5 Focus Features · $19M domestic weekend (-25%) · Domestic total: $188M · Global total: $286.5M · Budget: $750K The little horror hit that could keeps outgrossing its own opening. | |
Scary Movie WK 2 Paramount · $14.5M domestic weekend (-73%) · Domestic total: $84.5M · Global total: $173M · Budget: $30M A brutal sophomore drop, but the spoof already turned a theatrical profit, so Paramount probably isn't sweating it. | |
Backrooms WK 3 A24 · $11.2M domestic weekend (-57%) · Domestic total: $160M · Global total: $262M · Budget: $10M | |
Masters of the Universe WK 2 Amazon MGM · $8.4M domestic weekend (-71%) · Domestic total: $46M · Global total: $86M · Budget: $170M | |
The Mandalorian and Grogu WK 4 Disney/Lucasfilm · $4.7M domestic weekend (-53%) · Domestic total: $165.1M · Global total: $299.5M · Budget: $165M | |
Michael WK 8 Lionsgate · $4.1M domestic weekend (-46%) · Domestic total: $362M · Global total: $932M · Budget: $200M The King of Pop biopic has officially passed 'Bohemian Rhapsody' to become the top-grossing music biopic ever, and now it's just $43M shy of catching 'Oppenheimer' for the all-time biopic crown. | |
The Furious NEW Lionsgate · $2.9M domestic weekend · Budget: $20M This R-rated Hong Kong martial arts film opened small but landed huge with critics, scoring a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore. | |
Stop! That! Train! NEW Bleecker Street · $2.3M domestic weekend · Budget: $20M The drag queen disaster comedy rolls out to a modest debut in targeted release with solid reviews (83% on Rotten Tomatoes). | |
The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act WK 2 Fathom Entertainment · $1.8M domestic weekend · Domestic total: $26.9M · Global total: $37.6M | |
| YTD Domestic Box Office▲ +13% | ||||
| ||||
| Source: RENTRAK |
Up next: Disney/Pixar's 'Toy Story 5' lands next weekend and is tracking for a monster opening, the kind of four-quadrant juggernaut that could single-handedly reset the summer.
CLOSEUP
⚖️ The DOJ just gave its blessing to Warnamount…
(David Becker/Getty Images)
The Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger just cleared one of its bigger gatekeepers. On Friday, the Justice Department's Antitrust Division greenlit the $111B deal with zero strings attached (no divestitures, no concessions, not even a stern look).
After an eight-month dig through 2M-plus documents from 80-plus parties, the DOJ decided the deal is "not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers" across streaming, linear TV, and theatrical film. A few highlights from its reasoning:
It treated streaming as its own market (meaning YouTube and TikTok don't count as rivals, antitrust-wise), but said that even in that narrower market, a combined Paramount-WBD wouldn't kill competition. It would create a beefier challenger to Netflix and the other giants, which the DOJ figures is good for everyone.
It waved off comparisons to the 2019 Disney/Fox deal (which spooked people because Disney slashed Fox's output afterward, gutting the mid-budget slate). The DOJ's logic: Disney's diversified empire (parks, toys) lets it cut films and still profit, while Paramount is a "pure-play" media company that lives or dies on making and distributing content, so it has every reason to keep output up.
On the jobs front, the DOJ said labor worries "do not raise actionable antitrust concerns," its reasoning being that demand for creative workers tracks output (so if output holds, hiring should too).
The combined company would become the largest US theatrical distributor and a top-five streamer.
Looking ahead… It's far from a done deal. The deal still has to get past a coalition of state AGs (led by California's Rob Bonta) who are loading up a lawsuit expected within the month. Overseas, the EU is poking at the ~$24B in Gulf sovereign-wealth money behind the deal, and the UK's competition regulator, the CMA, has its own review going. If everything breaks Paramount's way, they're aiming to close by the end of Q3.
INTERMISSION: A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
FYC: THE MADISON | “A Love Story of Discovery”…
From Paramount+ and Executive Producer Taylor Sheridan comes the record-breaking drama series THE MADISON. Michelle Pfeiffer shines in this epic drama about resilience, transformation and the family ties that bind. Variety proclaims, “Michelle Pfeiffer gives a powerhouse performance” in a show RogerEbert.com calls “rock-solid, gripping television.” For your consideration all categories including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actress Michelle Pfeiffer, Outstanding Supporting Actor Kurt Russell, Outstanding Guest Actor Will Arnett and Outstanding Director Christina Alexandra Voros.
CLOSEUP
🔍 The DGA’s deal details are out…
The DGA's national board gave the tentative AMPTP deal a unanimous thumbs-up this week, and the guild put out a detailed summary of the terms for members. Here's the shape of it:
Affiliated hires: The marquee provision, the one casting directors and showrunners will feel first. It caps how many episodes can be directed by people who already work on a scripted series in another capacity (like a lead actor) and have no real directing track record. The goal is preserving slots for career directors. The DGA didn't say how many episodes, or what counts as a “track record,” and called it the hardest thing to land in the whole negotiation. Situations like Noah Wyle directing on 'The Pitt' are the example people keep pointing to.
Health plan: A 24.4% bump in employer contributions, the largest in the plan's history. In exchange, members face new monthly premiums plus higher deductibles and eligibility thresholds (the gold-plated, no-premium days are over). The actual member costs land later, set by the plan's trustees, so members are voting before they know the number.
AI: Footage generated by AI stays under the director's control, studios must disclose AI use during employment talks, and training-notice provisions mirror what the WGA and SAG-AFTRA won. There's also a new employer-funded program to train directors on integrating AI into their workflows.
Pilot credit: A new permanent “Pilot Directed by” card on every episode of a series, so the person who actually launched the hit gets their name on it all season.
Streaming residuals: A small win that closes a loophole. Studios pay a smaller residual when a film moves from one streamer to another, but now they have to keep paying the original, higher rate. In practice, that would stop a merged Paramount-WBD from potentially shuffling titles between HBO Max and Paramount+ to lower what it owes.
Federal tax incentive: Studios agreed to send their top executives (not just the MPA) to Washington to lobby for a federal production incentive to pull runaway production back stateside.
International jurisdiction: As more U.S. productions shoot abroad, studios and agents had increasingly been leaving DGA members off the list for those directing jobs. The AMPTP agreed to a bulletin barring the practice.
Minimums: Up 2.5% in year one, then 3% a year after that.
Looking ahead… The union's 19,500 members vote on ratification through 5 p.m. PT on June 25, with the board's unanimous backing behind it.
LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
‘Monopoly’ is back in development, with Lionsgate, LuckyChap and Hasbro exploring multiple new takes on a movie based on the board game. (more)
JoJo Levesque and Mike Colter will star in ‘The Very Thought of You,’ a jazz-infused romance about two Angelenos finding a second chance at love. (more)
‘Lilo & Stitch 2’ will be directed by franchise co-creator and Stitch voice actor Chris Sanders following the live-action film’s $1B box office run. (more)
Blumhouse has tapped Thordur Palsson to direct its adaptation of hit horror game ‘Dead by Daylight.’ (more)
TV Development 📺
Business 🤝
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted to reject David Zaslav’s $165M 2025 pay package in a non-binding vote. (more)
Roku is reportedly shopping itself around, with at least one media company in talks about a possible merger or tie-up. (more)
CBS News brought on veteran journalist Trevor Phillips as Senior Global Affairs Correspondent, the latest shakeup under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss. (more)
CALL SHEET
📅 The week ahead…
SUNDAY: Annecy International Animation Festival kicks off 📽️
VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers
MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments
That’s Monday. If a friend forwarded you this, don't just stand there in the doorway, hit subscribe and make it official! 📧👇
We’ll see you back here Wednesday for the next one.
-Max