🎬 Victory Lap 🏁

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👋 Good morning! After releasing 20 titles daily, The New York Times finally revealed the #1 spot on their ‘100 Best Movies of the 21st Century’ list—and it's Bong Joon Ho's ‘Parasite.’ More than 500 filmmakers, actors, and industry insiders voted to determine the top films released since 2000, and the Korean dark comedy beat out David Lynch's ‘Mulholland Drive’ and Paul Thomas Anderson's ‘There Will Be Blood’ to take the crown.

Welcome to The Dailies. Monday means fresh box office numbers and weekend industry news to unpack. Grab your coffee and we’ll get you caught up.

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN
🎟️ ‘F1’ takes the checkered flag, ‘M3GAN’ stalls out…

1. 🏁 F1: The Movie: 🆕 $55.6M domestic opening, $144M global debut. Brad Pitt racing movie delivered Apple's long-awaited box office breakthrough with authentic Formula 1 thrills that demanded the IMAX treatment (55% of business came from premium formats). The $250M-budgeted racing epic scored an "A" CinemaScore and 97% audience score.

2. 🐉 How to Train Your Dragon: (Wk 3) $19.4M domestic weekend (-47%), $200.1M domestic total, $454.4M global. Now sitting at #8 on DreamWorks Animation's all-time domestic list and poised to overtake the original's $494M worldwide haul.

3. 🚀 Elio: (Wk 2) $10.7M domestic weekend (-49%), $42.2M domestic total, $73M global. Pixar's latest continues to struggle despite solid reviews.

4. 🤖 M3GAN 2.0: 🆕 $10.2M domestic opening, $17.2M global debut. The killer doll's sequel earned about a third of the original's $30.4M opening. It seems the AI horror phenomenon may have been more of a viral moment than a franchise foundation.

5. 🧟‍♂️ 28 Years Later: (Wk 2) $9.7M domestic weekend (-68%), $50.4M domestic total, $103M global. Danny Boyle's zombie sequel suffered a brutal second-weekend drop, though it's still tracking toward profitability on its $60M budget.

6. 🌺 Lilo & Stitch: (Wk 6) $6.9M domestic weekend (-29%), $400.1M domestic total, $946M global. Continues its march toward becoming 2025's first billion-dollar blockbuster, with a sequel already greenlit.

7. 🕴️ Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: (Wk 6) $4.15M domestic weekend (-36%), $186M domestic total, $542M global.

8. 👩‍❤️‍👨 Materialists: (Wk 3) $3M domestic weekend (-53%), $30.4M domestic total, $47M global. A24's rom-com becomes their biggest hit of the year, surpassing ‘Warfare's’ $25.78M total.

9. 🩰 From the World of John Wick: Ballerina: (Wk 4) $2.13M domestic weekend (-53%), $55.5M domestic total, $134M global.

10. 🥋 Karate Kid: Legends: (Wk 5) $1M domestic weekend (-58%), $51.6M domestic total, $89M global.

The big picture: This weekend's $127.6M domestic take was down 17.3% from last year, capping off the weakest June since 2001 (excluding pandemic years). With fewer releases (only 36 this June vs. 74 in 2018) and underwhelming tentpoles this month, June has mainly been carried by May holdovers like ‘Lilo & Stitch’ and ‘Mission: Impossible.’ July's loaded lineup of ‘Jurassic World Rebirth,’ ‘Superman,’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ needs to deliver big to salvage the summer.

CLOSEUP
🏎️ Apple’s taking an ‘F1’ victory lap…

After six years of expensive theatrical misfires, Apple finally has its box office hit with 'F1.' The Brad Pitt racing drama proves Apple's bet on premium-only content wasn't completely off track. Apple threw everything at this one:

• CEO Tim Cook personally hit the press circuit (he only does this for major product launches)

• Kicked off their Worldwide Developers Conference with an ‘F1’ trailer

• Created haptic trailers that let iPhone users "feel" the racing experience

• Sent iPhone push notifications offering ticket discounts

The stakes were high: Apple's theatrical resume reads like a masterclass in how to lose money. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ ‘Napoleon,’ and ‘Argylle’ (all in the $200M+ budget range) underperformed at the box office. Most telling, Apple pulled ‘Wolfs’ from wide release last year just weeks before launch, dumping it straight to streaming instead.

What success means: Unlike fellow tech giant Amazon, which has committed to 14+ theatrical releases next year, Apple's strategy has been unclear—relying on different studio partners for each film (Warner Bros. for ‘F1,’ Sony for ‘Napoleon,’ Paramount for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’) while seeming to waver on theatrical releases. ‘F1's’ success might finally push Apple to go all-in on theatrical rather than retreating to streaming-only.

Premium format validation: The film dominated premium formats with 55% of revenue, including IMAX's 4th-best performance ever. This validates Apple's high-end approach and suggests future films will double down on theatrical experiences that can't be replicated at home.

Looking ahead… ‘F1’ still needs serious legs to make back its ~$375M investment. Insiders say Apple has previously considered building its own distribution arm (Amazon is reportedly doing the same internationally), and ‘F1's’ success might finally give them the confidence to pull the trigger.

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WIDESHOT
🎬 California, HBO, and Disney…

💰 California just made it official: Hollywood's getting a massive tax break. On Friday, the state legislature formally voted to more than double film tax credits from $330M to $750M annually through 2035, totaling $1.5B in subsidies over the next decade. The expansion passed by huge margins with minimal opposition. The move comes after months of heavy lobbying by a coalition of filmmakers and major industry unions. Companion bill AB1138 is expected to pass this week, which would boost individual project credits from 20% to 35% and broaden eligibility to include shorter TV shows, animated content, and competition shows, addressing longstanding complaints that California's incentives weren't competitive enough to prevent productions from fleeing to states like Georgia and New York.

💸 HBO just changed how it pays its talent. The premium network ditched its decades-old "net profits" system (notorious for making it nearly impossible for talent to earn backend money even on hits) and replaced it with a new bonus structure tied to clear metrics like viewership thresholds, Emmy wins, and show renewals. While HBO previously made up for those stingy backends by cutting massive overall deals (think eight-figure paydays for ‘The Last of Us’ creator Craig Mazin), the new system codifies exactly how much talent can earn from success. HBO isn't alone: Disney, Amazon, Apple, and even Netflix are all moving to their own versions of performance-based compensation models. It's yet another clear sign that Peak TV's free-spending era is over, as debt-laden studios pivot from "pay everyone like they're making the next ‘Game of Thrones’" to "prove it's a hit first, then we'll talk."

🟢 Disney's changing how shows get greenlit. For decades, getting a TV show made meant climbing a corporate ladder where top executives had the final say on everything. But with pilot season becoming a thing of the past and streaming demanding year-round development, studios need faster decision-making. Disney's Dana Walden recently revealed how they’re handling it: specialized teams for each Disney brand (FX, Hulu, Disney+) now greenlight shows without C-suite approval. Each team gets its own budget to option material and hire writers right off the bat. If a project isn't working, they axe it early, but if it's got legs, that same team sees it through to the finish line. Instead of playing telephone up the corporate chain, the people who actually get each genre are making the calls. Seems like it's paying off: Disney racked up 60 Emmy wins last year—more than any other studio in history.

STATISTIC
📉 Writers are facing fewer jobs than ever…

The Writers Guild West's 2024 report, released on Friday to members, reveals a troubling paradox: writers' earnings are up but jobs keep disappearing. Some numbers:

• Total earnings rose 12.7% to $1.5B (recovering from 2023's strike-hit $1.3B)

• Only 5,228 writers reported income in 2024 vs. 6,910 in pre-strike 2022—a devastating 24.3% decline over two years

• TV and streaming jobs got hit hardest: down 28.5% total since 2022, including an 11% drop in 2024 alone

• Film work was a little more resilient, but still dropped 16% from pre-strike levels

The takeaway: Fewer writers are working now than even in pre-strike 2022, suggesting this isn't temporary recovery but permanent downsizing.

LAST LOOKS
Film & TV Development 🗒️

• Amazon MGM and Scott Stuber acquire rights to ‘The Tenant,’ adapting Freida McFadden’s bestselling thriller for the big screen. (more)

• Kate Winslet exits Hulu and A24’s ‘The Spot’ over creative differences, with a new lead now being sought. (more)

• Karen Read partners with LBI Entertainment to develop a scripted adaptation of her high-profile murder case acquittal. (more)

• Prime Video casts Levi Miller as Haakon the Good in Viking drama ‘Bloodaxe,’ from ‘Vikings’ creator Michael Hirst. (more)

• The Duffer Brothers are developing ‘The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne’ at Netflix, adapting Ron Currie’s crime-thriller with Joshua Mohr. (more)

• Scorpions biopic ‘Wind of Change’ sets cast including Dominic West and Alexander Dreymon, with filming underway for a 2025 release. (more)

Renewed & Canceled ✅ ❌

• HBO renews ‘The Comeback’ for a third and final season, with Lisa Kudrow set to return in 2026. (more)

• NBC cancels ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ after S1. (more)

Business 🤝

• RTL buys ‘Sky Deutschland’ for $175M, adding ‘WOW’ and titles like ‘Das Boot’ to its empire. (more)

• Paramount axes UK originals ‘Gonzo’ and ‘Fresh Out’ amid layoffs, marking the end of MTV UK’s local music era. (more)

• Tommy Dorfman launches Good Girl Productions, debuting with body thriller ‘Aesthetica’ and a slate of queer-focused adaptations. (more)

Other News 🚨

• Sony will distribute select Amazon MGM films overseas, starting with ‘After the Hunt,’ starring Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield. (more)

• Vox Media Union ratifies a new 3-year contract with wage hikes, AI protections, and unlimited PTO across its editorial brands. (more)

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