👋 Good morning! Everyone becomes an Oscar expert in March. Your Uber driver has a Best Picture take. Your dentist is calling the Cinematography race. The barista spelling your name wrong has strong feelings about Sound Design. We built something for that: The Dailies’ Oscar Predictions app lets you fill out your ballot, create a league with your friends, and put some stakes behind the "I called that six months ago" energy. Every friend you drag into your league enters you to win a year of AMC A-list membership. And if you nail a perfect ballot? We've got a little Dailies surprise for you.
Happy Monday and welcome back from the weekend. Grab your coffee, shake off the Sunday scaries, and let us catch you up on everything that happened in Hollywood while you were offline. 👇
BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ Never, ever, assume the franchise is dead…
'Scream 7' (Paramount)
| WEEKEND TOTAL $110.9M| VS. SAME FRAME 2025 +50.9%| VS. LAST WKND +33% | |
Scream 7 NEW BEAT TRACKING $64.1M domestic weekend · Global total: $97.2M · Budget: $45M As Randy's rules of horror clearly state: never, ever, under any circumstances assume the franchise is dead. 'Scream 7' blew past tracking ($40-55M) with a franchise-best opening, topping 'Scream VI''s $44.4M and becoming the biggest February horror debut ever. Neve Campbell's return and a first-ever IMAX rollout (40% of gross from premium formats) clearly did the trick, though a B- CinemaScore and 34% on Rotten Tomatoes suggest the drop next weekend won't be pretty. | |
GOAT WK 3 $12M domestic weekend (-29%) · Domestic total: $73.9M · Global total: $130.5M · Budget: $80M Sony's animated family film is showing real legs with minimal week-to-week drops, giving off 'Elemental' and 'Wild Robot' vibes as a slow-burn earner. | |
Wuthering Heights WK 3 $6.95M domestic weekend (-50%) · Domestic total: $72.3M · Global total: $192M · Budget: $80M The Warner Bros. adaptation is cleaning up overseas with $119.7M international, racing toward the $200M global mark. | |
Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined NEW $3.7M domestic weekend Solid per-screen numbers for the concert film, with some IMAX screens in the mix. | |
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert WK 2 $3.5M domestic weekend (+9%) · Domestic total: $7.8M · Global total: $14.3M Baz Luhrmann's concert doc went wide this frame (from 325 to 1,940 locations) after a strong limited opening, with an A+ CinemaScore from audiences. | |
Crime 101 WK 3 $3.4M domestic weekend (-38%) · Domestic total: $30M · Global total: $57.1M · Budget: $90M | |
I Can Only Imagine 2 WK 2 $3.1M domestic weekend (-60%) · Domestic total: $13.3M · Budget: $18M | |
Send Help WK 5 $2.8M domestic weekend (-36%) · Domestic total: $59.9M · Global total: $87.4M · Budget: $40M | |
How to Make a Killing WK 2 $1.56M domestic weekend (-55%) · Domestic total: $6.2M | |
Zootopia 2 WK 14 $1.4M domestic weekend (-35%) · Domestic total: $425.8M · Global total: $1.86B | |
The bigger picture: 'Scream 7' did most of the heavy lifting in an otherwise lackluster frame. Year-to-date revenues are running 9% ahead of 2025, though domestic ticket sales are still down roughly 20% from pre-COVID levels. Next weekend we’re getting Pixar's 'Hoppers' and Warner Bros.' 'The Bride!,' which should keep the momentum going.
AWARDS SEASON
🏆 The guilds have spoken…
The cast of 'Sinners' accepts the Ensemble prize last night at the Actor Awards (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
It was billed as the weekend that would settle the Oscar race: PGA Awards on Saturday, Actor Awards (formerly the SAGs) on Sunday.
The PGAs are one of the best Oscar predictors out there, matching Best Picture 13 of the last 16 years. That's partly because it uses ranked-choice voting, the same system the Academy uses for Best Picture, which tends to reward consensus picks over polarizing ones. The highlights:
This year's top prize went to 'One Battle After Another,' further cementing it as the Oscar frontrunner. That's now Critics Choice, Golden Globes, DGA, BAFTA, and PGA. If this were a boxing match, they'd have stopped it by now.
'Adolescence' won limited series and its making-of special took Best Short Form. Even its making-of doc is collecting hardware at this point.
Elsewhere, 'The Pitt' won drama, 'The Studio' took comedy, 'KPop Demon Hunters' got animated feature, and Stephen Colbert won for late night.
See a complete list of winners here. 👈👀
Then last night’s Actor Awards told a different story…
The Actor Awards took place at the Shrine Auditorium, hosted by Kristen Bell and streamed live on Netflix. 'Sinners' took the big prize, winning Ensemble and breaking 'OBAA's' winning streak. Michael B. Jordan also took Best Actor for his dual role, beating Timothée Chalamet and Leo DiCaprio. Some other wins:
Sean Penn won Supporting Actor for 'OBAA' and Amy Madigan continued her Supporting Actress sweep for 'Weapons.'
Jessie Buckley added another Best Actress win for 'Hamnet.' At this point, the Oscar is hers to lose.
The late Catherine O'Hara won Best Actress in a Comedy Series for 'The Studio.' Co-star Seth Rogen accepted with a moving tribute. The show swept comedy with three wins.
'The Pitt' and 'Adolescence' did what they've been doing all season in drama and limited series. Harrison Ford received the Life Achievement Award.
Full list of winners here. 👈👀
What it means for the Oscars: 'OBAA' has now won every major precursor this season. Historically, when a film runs the table like this at the precursors, it wins Best Picture. 'Sinners' got a late jolt from its Ensemble win and Jordan's Best Actor trophy, and actors are the Academy's largest voting bloc, which counts for a lot. But it feels like 'OBAA' would have to collapse for the crown to slip.
Looking ahead… Oscar voting is open now and closes Thursday, so ballots are being filled out as we speak. The WGA Awards ceremony was cancelled due to a staff union strike, so this weekend was effectively the last stop before Oscar night on March 15.
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CLOSEUP
🗣️ The reactions to Warnamount are rolling in…
Netflix is out, Paramount is in, and the champagne is staying corked. Paramount has already wired Netflix the $2.8B termination fee it was owed for walking away from the WBD deal, and now that the $111B bidding war is officially in the rearview, the scrutiny that dogged the Netflix deal has pretty much just shifted to Paramount. It took about five minutes. Here are some of the reactions that rolled in over the weekend:
The WGA said "the combination is different but the outcome is the same," calling the merger "a disaster" and demanding it be blocked.
Cinema United, the exhibitors' trade org, warned that consolidation historically leads to fewer movies being made and urged regulators to "heed the lessons of the past." They also noted a combined Paramount-WB could control up to 40% of the domestic box office, giving it significant leverage over theaters.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the deal "an antitrust disaster threatening higher prices and fewer choices for American families."
California's AG Rob Bonta has opened an investigation, saying the deal is "not a done deal."
EU regulators are expected to scrutinize everything from the deal's size to its ~$24B in Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund financing.
One of the biggest knocks on the Netflix deal was its threat to theatrical. Ellison has positioned Paramount as the anti-Netflix on that front, promising 30 theatrical releases per year and "healthy traditional windows." Sounds great on paper, but insiders are skeptical. WB and Paramount released a combined 20 films in 2025, and we've seen this movie before: Fox went from 14 releases pre-merger to as few as 3 under Disney.
Then there's the balance sheet. The combined entity would carry ~$87B in gross debt (more than the GDP of most countries), and ramping up to 30 films while slashing headcount is a tough sell. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, who actually got to peek under the hood during the deal process, has a less rosy projection: cuts "in excess of $16B" within 18 months, far above Paramount's stated $6B target, with people and productions being the biggest cost centers.
Looking ahead… The deal still needs a WBD shareholder vote (expected this spring) and regulatory clearance. WBD CEO David Zaslav told employees at a town hall on Friday that the whole process could take 6 to 12 months. He also acknowledged the deal may not close at all, telling staff that if it falls through, “we get $7B, and we get back to work.”
LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
Dakota Johnson, Saoirse Ronan, Jessie Buckley and Josh O’Connor will star in Alice Rohrwacher’s ‘Three Incestuous Sisters.’ (more)
Paramount has tapped Max Landis and Danny McBride to write separate ‘G.I. Joe,’ scripts. (more)
Sony Pictures Classics nabbed global rights to Sundance comedy ‘Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.’ (more)
Liam Neeson and Zachary Levi will star in Iran-set thriller ‘Hotel Tehran,’ set for a wide theatrical release. (more)
TV Development 📺
Hulu is developing fantasy comedy ‘Last Second Chance,’ based on Nippon TV’s Japanese series ‘Rebooting.’ (more)
Studio Lambert has won Netflix’s bake-off to produce a reality competition series based on ‘Monopoly.’ (more)
Ashley Tisdale will star in CBS comedy ‘You’re Only Young Twice,’ about high school sweethearts who divorce at 35 and start over as empty nesters. (more)
Business 🤝
The FCC has approved Charter’s $34.5B acquisition of Cox, clearing the way for a combined cable and broadband giant. (more)
Other News 🚨
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VIDEO VILLAGE
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MARTINI SHOT
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See you Wednesday.
-The Dailies Team