🎟️ Box Office: Aliens Beam Straight to №1

In the US, Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day debuted at №1 with $44M, despite some mixed reviews. Obsession continued to hold strong at №2, adding $19M to its $188M domestic box office haul, while Scary Movie slid to №3 in its second week from the top spot — a terrible drop of 73%. And there was a major drop for Masters of the Universe in its second week too, down to №5 with a 71% decrease in ticket sales. It earned just $8.7M this week.

Michael is now the highest-grossing music biopic of all time with $932M worldwide,

🇺🇸 US Box Office

1. Disclosure Day — $44M (NEW)
2. Obsession — $19M
3. Scary Movie — $14.5M
4. Backrooms — $11.3M
5. Masters of the Universe — $8.7M

In the UK, Disclosure Day likewise took №1 with £5.5M in sales, Scary Movie also dropped from №1 to №3, and Masters of the Universe fell to №5 too. BTS concert movie Arirang debuted at №8.

🇬🇧 UK Box Office

1. Disclosure Day — £5.5M (NEW)
2. Obsession — £1.5M
3. Scary Movie — £2.6M
4. Backrooms — £968K
5. Masters of the Universe — £869K

👀 The Watchlist

Barnaby Page:

“It seems almost churlish to criticise a film that’s so enthusiastically and sincerely humanist, but Disclosure Day is a disappointment — verging on dull, in fact. It’s just about rescued from that by Spielberg’s skill in crafting individual scenes, but even this can’t solve the problem of a script that holds so few surprises, that completely lacks “wow” moments. If you’re burning to know what Close Encounters of the Third Kind would be like without the mystery and the wonder, this is your next watch.

Nobody could accuse Óliver Laxe’s Sirat (2025) of lacking surprises — its last act is one shock after another, far too many for “normal” screenwriting. But this strange, magnetic Spanish-French account of a man seeking his lost daughter amid a Moroccan rave subculture never stops being compelling, and stays with you long afterwards. It’s nominally realistic, but by the end you’ll be wondering if the characters did leave Planet Earth at some point. Absolutely gorgeous desert photography by Mauro Herce helps a lot.

The only really bad thing about No Ordinary Heist (2026) is its title — it might as well be called Interesting Story, Honest. Otherwise this is a modest but well-made and never dull bank-robbery tale (based on the 2004 Northern Bank case in Belfast) which approaches its characters and its subject matter with exactly the right degree of seriousness: it’s not laugh-out-loud funny but neither is it melodramatically sombre. A terrific Éanna Hardwicke and the always watchable Eddie Marsan have by far the biggest parts.”

Rachel Dvorak:

“I saw Disclosure Day and I absolutely loved it. While the ending was a tiny bit anti-climactic, I thought the story was familiar enough to feel like a warm hug but new enough to raise questions. I was surprised and pleased that Spielberg chose to tackle the religious faith and how it fits into a world that includes alien life.”

🔎 Spotlight Review: THE OMEN

Michele Vigorita re-watched Richard Donner’s horror classic The Omen for its 50th anniversary and had mixed feelings.

Damien also remains more symbol than character, which weakens the emotional force of Thorn’s later crisis. The film asks us to feel the horror of a father facing the possible destruction of his child, but it has not fully built that child as an object of love. We understand the dilemma; we do not always feel its deepest wound.

Spielberg’s DISCLOSURE DAY Enjoys An Otherworldly Start was originally published in Frame Rated on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

🎟️ Box Office: SCARY MOVIE’s Killer Weekend

In the US, the return of Scary Movie scared up a $55M opening weekend that broke records for an R-rated comedy. But the reviews were largely terrible and bad word-of-mouth may damage its prospects in the coming weeks.

The weekend’s other big release, Masters of the Universe, despite fairly solid reviews, debuted with a lacklustre $29.3M box office total for №2. Many are blaming the IP’s fairly limited appeal, as a cartoon from the early-1980s, so perhaps nothing anyone under-40 would care about at face-value.

The YouTube-originating horror debuts of Backrooms and Obsession continued to hold strong, and were joined by The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act — an animated adult web series about humans trapped in cartoonish VR simulation of a circus. Oh yes, if last summer taught us anime’s now a box office force to be reckoned with, this summer’s lesson seems to be that young filmgoers will go see movies based on things they watch online.

Embarrassingly, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu has already fallen to №6 after just a few weeks, which brings into focus just how much low-budget horror and indie-spirited filmmaking is kicking the ass of traditional Hollywood blockbusters right now.

🇺🇸 US Box Office

1. Scary Movie — $55M (NEW)
2. Masters of the Universe — $29.3M (NEW)
3. Backrooms — $25.9M
4. Obsession — $25.6M
5. The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act — $12.7M (NEW)

In the UK, it was s similar story with Scary Movie proving to be more appealing than Masters of the Universe, but in a further blow to Hollywood’s ego the Amazing Digital Circus movie pipped He-Man to second place in the chart! Ouch.

🇬🇧 UK Box Office

1. Scary Movie — £4.1M (NEW)
2. The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act — £2.68M (NEW)
3. Masters of the Universe — £2.65M (NEW)
4. Backrooms — £2.2M
5. Obsession — £1.9M

👀 The Watchlist

Remy Dean:

“Spider-Noir quickly earned a place among my favourite Marvel limited series. Happy to see Nicolas Cage perfectly cast. It seems Wonder Man set a trend for having an actor showcase their chops by meta-acting a character who is acting, which adds an extra layer of entertainment value. That aside, the whole atmosphere and knowing nods to noir classics is great fun and the writing is tight, too. Not reached the finale, yet. So, hoping it’s not a disappointment.”

Barnaby Page:

“Travelling and unable to access most of my usual self-consciously intellectual streaming platforms, I ended up watching Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War and enjoyed it. It’s not devoid of cliche, of course, but it is well-paced, it isn’t overly enthusiastic about the weaponry, it doesn’t actually spend all that much time on pure action, and it benefits a lot from several well-judged performances: especially John Krasinski as a likeable lead, the always excellent Michael Kelly (most familiar from Netflix’s House of Cards), and Wendell Pierce (so good in HBO’s The Wire, here apparently making a bid to be the next Morgan Freeman). The musical score by Ramin Djawadi is a bit self-important, but that’s only a quibble; overall, a solid (if unimaginative) action thriller like they used to make ‘em.

From on MGM+ is now on its fourth season and looks like it might finally be about to explain some of the mysteries of the township where its cast are trapped. About time, too: it needs to put up or shut up before it becomes as frustrating as Lost. Wild plot twists are really easy to write if you don’t have to logically connect them to anything else, but ultimately irritating for the viewer.”

Dan Perrin:

“After reading some stellar reviews, I finally started watching Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, and after only four episodes in so far, I’m happy to say it’s one of the best series I’ve seen in quite some time. Set in a fictional New England town that’s got some strange supernatural curse hanging over it, the story is filled with a whole bunch of interesting characters, led by Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) who’s trying desperately to convince everyone there that all of the ghostly tales about the island are simply aren’t true. At the same time, he’s attempting to bring in extra tourists which makes for very funny results when weird and frightening events do actually start happening. Great writing all round that perfectly balances the laughs and scares in equal measure. Highly recommended.”

🔎 Spotlight Review: SCARY MOVIE

Devon Elson reviewed the Wayans Brothers’ return to the parody movie that made their name in 2000 in the wake of Scream and amidst the post-modern slasher boom: Scary Movie.

The opening starts on the right foot. It’s neither bad nor particularly good, which is par for the course. Despite any reservations, Tiddes not only directs a decent-looking comedy but recreates much of the source material with care and attention. I dare say this looks better than some of the films they are parodying. Not the Jordan Peele ones, let’s not go mad.

He-Man Doesn’t Have the Power, But SCARY MOVIE Shrugs Off Bad Reviews was originally published in Frame Rated on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

🎟️ Box Office: Rooms at the Top

In the US, horror made another big splash with Backrooms, the low-budget version of the popular YouTube “creepypasta” web series by Kane Parsons. A24 gave the 20-year-old the opportunity to bring his weird vision to the big screen, and the result has been the studio’s best US opening weekend ever — with $81.5M (obliterating Civil War’s $25.5M). This also means Kane is now the youngest director to have a №1 movie at the US box office.

Obsession also added $26.4M to take its domestic total up to $104M, which is another horror release by a young YouTube star — 26-year-old Curry Barker. It gained ticket sales (up 14%) in its third week, which hasn’t been done since the release of E.T in 1982.

Anyone think Hollywood is going to be scouring YouTube for filmmakers now?

It was bad news for traditional summer blockbuster fare, as The Mandalorian and Grogu plummeted by 69% in only its second weekend, dropping to №3 and only making another $25M. So it seems only diehard Star Wars fans turned out for its debut, and fewer ordinary filmgoers are interested to check it out later. Maybe the mixed reviews haven’t been too encouraging either, so it’s an easy option to wait for Disney+.

The film is also now losing IMAX screens to Masters of the Universe this coming weekend, as the early buzz is surprisingly good for the new He-Man adventure and IMAX are sensing a better opportunity to make money.

Finally, comedy The Breadwinner, starring Nate Bargatze, debuted with $7.5M to take №5.

🇺🇸 US Box Office

1. Backrooms — $81.4M (NEW)
2. Obsession — $26.4M (week 3)
3. Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu — $25M (week 2)
4. Michael — $11.7M (week 6)
5. The Breadwinner — $7.5M (NEW)

In the UK, it was s similar story with Backrooms scaring up £4.2M to take №1, but the other new releases barely competed: crime thriller Tuner came in at №7 with £361K and musical comedy-drama Power Ballad with Paul Rudd only managed №9 with £203K.

🇬🇧 UK Box Office

1. Backrooms — £4.2M (NEW)
2. Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu — £2.6M (week 2)
3. Michael — £1.7M (week 6)
4. Obsession — £1.5M (week 3)
5. The Devil Wears Prada 2 — £875K (week 5)

👀 The Watchlist

Barnaby Page

2001’s Conspiracy is a Holocaust movie like no other — focusing entirely on its origins around a conference table in 1942 Berlin, and featuring no victims, Allies or “good Germans”, just the men who planned it. Many object to the proposed Final Solution, but only on technical or logistical grounds; a few might grasp the horror of what’s being discussed, but of course they won’t say anything. You’d think everyone was talking about launching a new pizza chain. Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth are just three who stand out from a superb ensemble cast in this gripping recreation of a historical event.

In cinemas, Obsession is as good as everyone says, and marks out writer-director Curry Barker — n his mainstream debut — as a talent to watch. The film’s strength is its emotional credibility: despite the fanciful premise, the nightmare relationship that a magic wish creates between Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette rings true, and that produces genuine horror.

Netflix’s Legends is a well-crafted limited series, a realistic-feeling, trueish account of a British undercover drug sting in the last months of Margaret Thatcher’s government. Steve Coogan gives perhaps his best “serious” post-Partridge performance to date, but doesn’t dominate; Tom Burke, Gerald Kyd, Tom Hughes and Johnny Harris are other highlights in an exceptional cast.”

🔎 Spotlight Review: HUDSON HAWK

Devon Elson looked back 35 years to one of Bruce Willis’s biggest bombs, Hudson Hawk.

Hudson Hawk seems rotten to the core. Was this just a bad script the actors shackled themselves to, as Willis has done later in life?

BACKROOMS Box Office Turns YouTube into Hollywood’s New Scouting Ground was originally published in Frame Rated on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.