👋 Good morning. Great news for everyone who's driven past Sunset and Ivar and sighed audibly: Sony and Alamo Drafthouse confirmed they're reopening the Cinerama Dome, with renovations starting next month and wrapping in early 2028. The old ArcLight complex next door is coming back too, with dine-in service and 35mm, 70mm, and 4K laser projection. And the Dome stays the Dome: same name, same curved screen, same traditional concessions. The line for opening night already exists in spirit.
Welcome back to The Dailies. You made it to Friday. Somebody get this reader a trophy, or at least a decent latte. While you sip, we'll catch you up. 👇
TOP STREAMED
📊 This week’s top-streamed originals…
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 | The Hawk NetflixSERIES The Will Ferrell golf comedy pulled 4.6M average US season views and 23.4M hours watched in week one according to Luminate. That beats Apple TV+'s 'Stick' (2.9M views) in the same window, with the caveat that Netflix has a lot more subscribers to work with. Solid for a Netflix comedy. |
 | Ride or Die Prime VideoSERIES Opened to 3.7M average US season views and 25.8M hours watched. Basically in line with 'Scarpetta's' debut (3.6M views, 25M hours). Solid, middle of the pack. |
Top-streamed chart (U.S.) July 16 to July 22. Data provided by Luminate.
CLOSEUP
🇮🇹 Venice dropped its 2026 lineup…
The 83rd Venice Film Festival dropped its lineup yesterday. If Cannes is the spring warm-up, Venice is where the fall festival circuit actually begins. The fest programs world premieres only, so anything screening there is playing for the very first time anywhere before hitting Telluride, TIFF, and beyond. Some titles making the rounds:
Martin McDonagh's 'Wild Horse Nine,' a dark comedy about CIA agents on Easter Island ahead of the 1973 Chilean coup, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell.
Florian Zeller's 'Bunker,' a psychological thriller starring real-life couple Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz.
Lance Oppenheim's 'Primetime,' with Robert Pattinson as 'To Catch a Predator' host Chris Hansen.
Werner Herzog's 'Bucking Fastard,' the first film to put sisters Rooney and Kate Mara onscreen together.
'Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger,' the reunion tour doc, with the Gallagher brothers expected on the Lido.
See the full lineup here. 👀
The trends: Festival chief Alberto Barbera is calling this the most political edition ever, and the slate backs him up (see: Alex Gibney's four-hour Elon Musk doc, a Laura Poitras short on the protests around the Minnesota ICE raids). It's also big on auteur comebacks: Nanni Moretti's first Venice film since 1989, Lee Chang-dong's first feature since 'Burning,' and Martin McDonagh back on the Lido, where 'The Banshees of Inisherin' launched.
Meanwhile, the major studios and streamers were basically no-shows, continuing the pullback we saw at Berlin and Cannes. It’s less of a boycott, and more strategy and timing (several big titles just weren't ready, and Warner Bros skipped last fall too without hurting 'One Battle After Another' or 'Sinners'). Venice still carries real awards weight though, since more and more Oscar voters live overseas and the fall festivals are how you court them.
Looking ahead… Venice runs Sept. 2-12, opening with Danny Boyle's Rupert Murdoch drama 'Ink.'
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WIDESHOT
🎬 Aronofsky, microdramas, and LA production…
💸 Darren Aronofsky is raising $15M for his AI studio. The 'Black Swan' director made headlines last year when he launched Primordial Soup with Google DeepMind to make shorts blending generative AI and traditional filmmaking. Its AI-assisted series 'On This Day... 1776,' a set of shorts recreating moments from America's founding, was widely roasted by the industry earlier this year. But that didn't scare off investors: per an SEC filing, the studio has already locked in $11M of its $15M target. It's also hiring generative artists and a Head of Studio, hinting at ambitions beyond film and TV. Aronofsky, for his part, is undeterred and doubling down.
📱 Micro dramas are coming to Paramount+. The streamer will test the soapy vertical series, which run just a few minutes per episode, on its mobile app this quarter, making it the latest to jump on the short-form trend (Peacock, Netflix, and Disney+ are all experimenting too). The goal is to create a daily habit with users, similar to TikTok. And the micro drama explosion shows no signs of slowing down: a new report from vertical video company Holywater values the overall economy at $150B, and that's outside China, the format's biggest market. Per the same report, 70% of viewers watch in bed before sleep, the hours TV has long considered prime time.
📉 L.A. filming fell again last quarter. FilmLA just dropped its quarterly report, which is basically a health check for Hollywood's hometown, and it showed on-location production down nearly 13% from a year ago. That's despite California's newly expanded film and TV tax credit kicking in. The incentives are actually doing their job (a third of feature shoot days came from subsidized projects), there just aren't enough of them to offset steep declines in categories that can't apply, like reality TV and commercials. The good news: many of the 170 projects awarded credits so far haven't hit the permit records yet, so the numbers could look better next quarter.
LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
Tom Cruise is returning to star in and produce Paramount's 'Days of Thunder 2,' with Jonathan Levine in talks to direct. (more)
Sony Pictures is in talks to land Ridley Scott’s 'Treasure Island,' with Hugh Jackman set to star as Long John Silver. (more)
Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Laura Linney are teaming up for Sharon Maguire's rom-com 'The Joy of Sex.' (more)
Glen Powell and Richard Linklater are reuniting for Universal’s Lou Gehrig biopic, with Powell set to star as the baseball legend. (more)
Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing Ali G back in 'Ali G: Who Iz I?,' set for an Oct. 23 theatrical release. (more)
Atari has struck a deal with Universal to develop movies based on 10 of its classic video game franchises. (more)
TV Development 📺
Kenneth Branagh is starring in 'Laird,' a Scottish family drama just ordered at Paramount+. (more)
Apple TV has greenlit its first dating series, 'The Last Person on Earth,' with Esther Perel hosting. (more)
Benicio del Toro will star opposite Ben Stiller in Apple TV’s comedy 'Protective Custody.' (more)
Business & Earnings Season 📊
Providence Equity is buying out Casey Wasserman to take full control of The Team (formerly Wasserman), valuing the agency at about $3.4B. (more)
IMAX had a strong quarter, with revenue and profit both up on premium screenings of 'The Odyssey.' (more)
YouTube pulled in over $11B in Q2 ad revenue, helped along by big FIFA World Cup viewership. (more)
Peacock is finally profitable, hitting 48M subscribers as Comcast gets ready to spin off NBCUniversal. (more)
Warnamount ⛙
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RELEASE RADAR
📅 This week’s new releases…
🎥 THEATRICAL
Motor City: Near-silent 1970s revenge thriller set in Detroit, starring Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley, and Ben Foster, directed by Potsy Ponciroli.
Her Private Hell: Nicolas Winding Refn's sci-fi thriller about a deadly mist engulfing a futuristic metropolis, fresh off its Cannes premiere.
📺 STREAMING
Ransom Canyon: (Netflix) S2 of the romantic Western drama.
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: (HBO Max) 'Big Bang Theory' spinoff.
72 Hours: (Netflix) Comedy starring Kevin Hart.
The Dink: (Apple TV+) Pickleball comedy starring Jake Johnson, with Ben Stiller, Ed Harris, and Mary Steenburgen.
🔮 BOX OFFICE PREVIEW: With no wide releases daring to challenge it and the World Cup out of the way, 'The Odyssey' should cruise to another #1 finish. Projections range from $55M to $85M, but strong word of mouth and packed premium screenings have it favored to hold well. 'Hadestown' could sing its way to $7-10M, possibly out-grossing the wider-released 'Motor City.'
VIDEO VILLAGE
📺 Latest trailers
MARTINI SHOT
🍸 Latest viral moments
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Now, go enjoy your weekend, you've earned it.
-The Dailies Team