The domestic box office is looking at another phenomenal weekend after the record-breaking success of Backrooms and Obsession. Both horror movies are expected to deliver massive returns this time around as well. It's entirely possible that the industry saw The Mandalorian and Grogu holding fort this weekend, but the Star Wars movie had a cataclysmic second-weekend drop, and is no longer a factor. Instead, Backrooms and Obsession are taking on a couple of major new releases — Paramount's Scary Movie reboot and Amazon MGM's Masters of the Universe. With franchise architects the Wayans brothers back in charge after decades, Scary Movie exceeded expectations with a $24 million opening-day haul and is now projected to gross around $55 million for the weekend.

Despite a glowing track record as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Hemsworth has had a rather difficult time trying to grab a piece of pre-existing franchises. The actor played a memorable supporting role in Paul Feig's Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, which underperformed at the box office for reasons other than its quality. He also played a supporting role in George Miller's long-awaited prequel film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which underperformed commercially as well. He also voiced Optimus Prime in Transformers One, which you probably forgot came out less than two years ago. However, arguably his least successful attempt to join a new franchise remains Men in Black: International.

After nearly a decade in the box-office doldrums, Liam Neeson bounced back a few months ago with the hit spoof movie The Naked Gun. It emerged as his first film since 2018's The Commuter to gross over $100 million at the global box office. Neeson has spent the last decade churning out his trademark action potboilers, while also starring in smaller-scale dramas that have received positive reviews but struggled to attract a large audience. Among these movies is a slick neo-noir that Neeson headlined in 2014; the movie was designed as a possible franchise-starter, but was apparently not successful enough to warrant sequels.

Warner Bros. has had more success with original movies in the last year or so than with IP-driven fare. Sure, movies such as Final Destination Bloodlines and The Conjuring: Last Rites have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars at the box-office, but they were always expected to. The more impressive feat was getting films such as Sinners, Weapons, and One Battle After Another to become mainstream hits. The studio has another major original movie on its slate this year: Alejando G. Iñárritu's Digger, starring Tom Cruise. It's a huge, very expensive risk that needs to do The Revenant-level business to succeed. The studio began 2026 with yet another filmmaker-driven hit: Wuthering Heights, which grossed $242 million worldwide against a reported budget of $80 million. However, two subsequent franchise films have significantly underperformed.

Following the massive success of shows such as Severence, Foundation, and Silo, to name just a few, Apple TV's streak of producing excellent sci-fi shows continued this week with a new title. The streamer's latest offering premiered with two episodes and a perfect 100% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The premiere date coincided with the Season 5 finale of Apple's first-ever sci-fi show, For All Mankind. This is no coincidence, of course, given that the show happens to be a spin-off of For All Mankind. Like the original, it unfolds in an alternate history where the Space Race never ended. This time, audiences will get to experience the political power games from the Soviet perspective.

With a host of new releases competing with holdover hits at the box office this weekend, not to mention the added attraction, at least domestically, of the NBA Finals, there was little room for new streaming movies to make a mark. But one Spanish thriller defied the odds to find a spot for itself on Netflix's global top 10 list, according to FlixPatrol. The streamer's most-watched new movie, unsurprisingly, was the romantic comedy Office Romance, starring Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein. Last week's number one title, Ladies First, was still in contention, as was the blockbuster animated movie Swapped.

Perhaps the last movie that needed to be Nolanized was Total Recall. The goofiness is inherent to what made that film such a hit with audiences and critics. Turning it into a self-serious meditation on the refugee crisis proved a fatal decision, and viewers noticed immediately. The Total Recall remake didn't do very well at the box office, nor did it appeal to critics and audiences. It remains one of the least remembered big-budget Hollywood movies of the post-Nolan era, where every film had to be dark and grounded. Some, like Gareth Edwards' Godzilla, worked. Others — like Total Recall and Snow White and the Huntsman— not so much.

After a solid opening weekend at the domestic box office, during which it outperformed last year's Nuremberg, the new World War II drama-thriller film Pressurehas passed the lifetime haul of another beloved WWII movie. The appetite for a good historical war movie seems to vary depending on when it's released — for instance, these movies typically did better at the box office a couple of decades ago. But, in recent years, the audience for WWII content seems to have moved almost entirely to streaming. This past week was a major one for the genre, beginning with the History Channel documentary series World War II with Tom Hanks and ending with Pressure, which grossed more than $5.5 million in its first weekend.

Some Apple TV series work better than others, but nearly all of them are promoted with the same low-intensity approach that might give the streamer's competitors false hope. However, even without globe-spanning marketing, many of Apple's shows often find an audience during their run and receive tremendous reviews. It also helps that Apple releases new episodes weekly, unlike most major titles on Prime Video and Netflix. This gives the Apple shows time to grow, and their success isn't limited to how well they perform in the first week. This strategy has paid off handsomely this year with arguably the most acclaimed new show of 2026, which is saying something. Apple is on a hot streak thanks to the critically acclaimed Margo's Got Money Troubles and Star City.

June is going to be a terrific month for fans of classic Hollywood movies, with landmark titles such as the Southern Gothic noir thriller The Night of the Hunter, Stanley Kubrick's anti-war masterpiece Paths of Glory, and the single greatest legal drama ever made being released on Prime Video. The legal drama was released nearly seven decades ago to universal acclaim, but had an underwhelming response at the box office. The movie earned three nominations in key Oscar categories — Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Screenplay — and is now regarded as one of the best films ever made. The movie was adapted by Reginald Rose from his own 1954 teleplay, which has since inspired at least one Bollywood film, a Chinese drama, a television movie, and an episode of Family Guy.

As Johnny Depp mounts a return to the mainstream following a decade spent on the sidelines because of personal legal issues, one of his last real hits is coming to Prime Video. The movie can ease the audience back into Depp's corner, provided that they're interested in being there. The crime drama was released at a time when Depp was experiencing something of a purple patch at the box office. In a few years, his commercial pull would take a major hit. This was one of the many reasons why studios severed ties with him when his legal troubles overshadowed every other aspect of his career.

Universal certainly earned flak for its controversial decision to debut certain movies on the PVOD market after 17 days, impacting films such as Halloween Ends, The Holdovers, and Knock at the Cabin. This decision was made around the same time as Warner Bros.' equally controversial move to release every movie on its 2021 slate day-and-date on the HBO Max streaming platform. Universal argued that a given movie would have already generated the majority of its potential box-office revenue within 17 days, especially if it debuted below a certain threshold. Universal has since made major changes to its windowing strategy, having committed to a minimum of four weekends in theaters this year and a five-weekend theatrical run in 2027.