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👋 Good morning! Netflix would like to remind filmmakers: you're competing with someone's group chat. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck appeared on Joe Rogan to promote their new Netflix film 'The Rip,' and Damon revealed the streamer wants plots repeated "three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they're watching." They also want a big action set piece in the first five minutes to hook distracted viewers. "It's going to really start to infringe on how we're telling these stories," Damon warned. Affleck pushed back, pointing to 'Adolescence' as proof you don't need to dumb it down, but Damon called it "the exception."
Welcome back to The Dailies. It's MLK Day AND National Popcorn Day. Either the stars have aligned or Big Kernel's PR team is working overtime. In any case, consider yourself cosmically obligated to see a movie. But first, box office numbers and headlines, coming right up.👇
BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ Cameron’s reign survives the zombie apocalypse…
Ralph Fiennes in this weekend’s newcomer ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’
🌋 Avatar: Fire and Ash: (Wk 5) $13.3M domestic weekend (-38%), $363.5M domestic total, $1.32B global, $400M+ budget. James Cameron's threequel claims its fifth consecutive crown, the first film to pull that off since ‘The Way of Water.’ It also passed ‘Deathly Hallows Part II’ as the 23rd biggest global release ever.
🧟 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple: 🆕 $13M domestic opening, $31.2M global debut, $63M budget. Sony's back-to-back shot sequel stumbles badly despite stellar reviews (93% RT, A- CinemaScore), earning less than half of last June's predecessor. Seven months between zombie installments appears to have scorched the earth for audiences.
🦊 Zootopia 2: (Wk 8) $8.8M domestic weekend (-12%), $390M domestic total, $1.7B global, $150M budget.
🏠 The Housemaid: (Wk 5) $8.5M domestic weekend (-22%), $107.1M domestic total, $247.3M global, $35M budget. Sydney Sweeney's psychological thriller crosses $100M domestic with leggy holds, becoming Paul Feig's second-highest grosser ever behind ‘Bridesmaids.’
🏓 Marty Supreme: (Wk 5) $5.5M domestic weekend (-27%), $80M domestic total, $97M global, $70M budget.
🐒 Primate: (Wk 2) $5M domestic weekend (-55%), $19.6M domestic total, $24.2M global, $21M budget.
☄️ Greenland 2: Migration: (Wk 2) $3.4M domestic weekend (-60%), $14.1M domestic total, $16.8M global, $90M budget. Gerard Butler's disaster sequel faces an uphill climb toward profitability.
🐍 Anaconda: (Wk 4) $3.2M domestic weekend (-36%), $59M domestic total, $122M global, $45M budget.
🍍 The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants: (Wk 5) $2.3M domestic weekend (-40%), $67M domestic total, $144.9M global, $64M budget.
🇰🇷 No Other Choice: (Wk 4) $2.2M domestic weekend (+63%), $6.5M domestic total, $12.2M budget. Park Chan-wook's dark comedy expands to 695 screens and rewards Neon with its best weekend yet.
The big picture: The MLK weekend brought in a modest $84.3M domestic haul, down 15% from last week but up 8% from the same frame in 2025. That's the industry's third consecutive week outpacing last year. 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' held onto the top spot by a razor-thin margin, with '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' coming so close that Monday actuals could still flip the rankings. A couple of new records were set this week, too: 'Zootopia 2' surpassed 'Inside Out 2' to become Hollywood's highest-grossing animated film ever at $1.7B global, while 'Marty Supreme' passed 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' to become A24's biggest domestic hit ever.
WIDESHOT
🎬 Netflix, BBC, and microdramas…
🍿 Netflix wants to win the box office now. Somewhere, a theater owner just did a spit take. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told the New York Times that if Netflix closes its $83B Warner Bros. acquisition, WB films will keep a 45-day theatrical window. Theater owners had feared Netflix would slash that to 17 days. Sarandos also tried to calm other nerves, saying Netflix and WB would actually release more movies together than apart and that HBO would stay "completely intact." The deal still faces a hostile counter-bid from Paramount Skydance, so these promises come with an asterisk for now.
📺 The BBC is about to start making shows for YouTube. The century-old British broadcaster is finalizing a landmark deal to produce original programming that will premiere on YouTube before moving to its own iPlayer platform. It's a first for the publicly funded network, and a quiet admission that YouTube is simply where young audiences live now. The timing makes sense: YouTube overtook the BBC in UK viewership for the first time in December, reaching 52M viewers compared to the BBC's 51M. Related: former Paramount co-CEO Brian Robbins just raised $100M to produce YouTube content and turn it into theatrical films.
📱 Everyone wants to be the Netflix of one-minute soap operas. Ukrainian microdramas company Holywater just raised $22M from Fox, Endeavor, and Wheelhouse to become the go-to platform for the format. It’s reportedly the largest funding round for the format outside Asia. At the same time, TikTok quietly launched PineDrama, a standalone app for bite-sized serialized content that's currently ad-free with no paywall. The space pulled in an estimated $1.3B in the U.S. last year, and now everyone from ReelShort to Hollywood-backed startups is fighting over who gets to monetize your vampire romance addiction. The land grab is officially on. May the best werewolf billionaire love triangle win.
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LAST LOOKS
Film Development 🗒️
Warner Bros. is developing an animated ‘Speedy Gonzales,’ with Jorge R. Gutiérrez set to direct the Looney Tunes feature. (more)
Snoop Dogg will star in Eli Roth’s horror film ‘Don’t Go in That House, Bitch!,’ after initially signing on as a producer and music contributor. (more)
Vertical has acquired North American rights to Riz Ahmed’s contemporary ‘Hamlet,’ set for an April 10 theatrical release. (more)
Netflix has picked up an untitled shark thriller starring Phoebe Dynevor from Sony after the studio pulled it from its theatrical slate. (more)
Warner Bros. set a Nov. 13 release for J.J. Abrams’ Glen Powell-led ‘The Great Beyond.’ (more)
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to an untitled climate-change conference drama from ‘Spotlight’ director Tom McCarthy. (more)
Cristin Milioti has joined Glen Powell in Judd Apatow’s new Universal comedy, set for a February 2027 release. (more)
Mike Flanagan’s Scarlett Johansson-led ‘The Exorcist’ is back on track with a March 12, 2027 theatrical release at Universal. (more)
TV Development 📺
MrBeast has teamed with Salesforce on a Super Bowl LX commercial, teasing an over-the-top spot set to air during NBC’s Feb. 8 broadcast. (more)
NBC has formally ordered a pilot for Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici’s untitled private-investigator workplace comedy. (more)
NBC has ordered crime drama pilots ‘What the Dead Know,’ from Dick Wolf and ‘Puzzled,’ from Joey Falco as part of its revived pilot season push. (more)
Teresa Palmer has joined Prime Video’s ‘God Of War,’ starring opposite Ryan Hurst as Thor’s wife Sif. (more)
Business 🤝
Other News 🚨
European Film Awards were dominated by ‘Sentimental Value,’ which won best film and top honors. (more)
David Jonsson and Aimee Lou Wood will host the Jan. 27 announcement of the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards nominations, livestreamed from London. (more)
The Horror Movie Report: The most comprehensive study of the horror genre ever produced, as recommended by horror king Jason Blum himself. Use it to understand the genre, build your business plan, and craft the pitch for your horror project. 20% off with code DAILIES. (more)*
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CALL SHEET
📅 The week ahead
THURSDAY: Sundance Film Festival kicks off for its final run in Utah before moving to Boulder, CO next year 🌄
THURSDAY: Oscar nominations are announced 🏆
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