This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 06.29.2026.
This Past Weekend In New Movies
Obviously, this past weekend’s biggest new movie release was James Gunn’s DCU sophomore effort, Supergirl, of which you can read my C+ review. The film was met with mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and, quite frankly, pathetic audience scores for a comic book movie. Among critics, it earned a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 49 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it landed at a 77% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.1 on Letterboxd, a 6.1 on IMDb, and a B- CinemaScore. It’s easy to blame the incel chuds online who had it out for this movie from day one simply because it was female-led, but it’s hard to claim review bombing when the reception is this consistently mediocre across virtually every major movie-logging site and even CinemaScore. It’s surreal to see general audiences shrug their shoulders just as much as critics, and that speaks volumes about how underwhelming the film ultimately is. Warner Brothers and DC Studios have already come out waving the white flag, admitting this was a step backward while maintaining optimism about the franchise’s future.
A24’s counter-programming effort, The Invite, began its staggered rollout this weekend, meaning it’ll take a few more weeks before it reaches a wide release and we get a clearer picture of where audiences ultimately land on it. My market is among those still waiting, but at this extremely early stage, the film is enjoying excellent critical reception, with a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 80 on Metacritic. Its only audience metric so far is a 7.5 on IMDb. The film is already generating early awards buzz, though with half-a-year still to go, we’ll have to wait and see how those prospects hold up.
Netflix’s straight-to-streaming gross-out comedy Little Brother debuted to mixed reviews from critics and downright awful audience scores. It earned a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 51 on Metacritic, while audiences gave it a 51% Popcornmeter, a 2.5 on Letterboxd, and a 5.1 on IMDb. I have to admit I’m a little taken aback by just how poorly it was received, though not completely surprised. As someone who was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it despite its over-the-top gross-out humor, I expected it to be divisive, just not this divisive.
By far the worst wide release of the weekend was Netflix’s other straight-to-streaming title, In The Hand Of Dante, which was met with disastrous reviews from both critics and audiences. It posted a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 33 on Metacritic, while audiences gave it a 44% Popcornmeter, a 2.5 on Letterboxd, and a 4.8 on IMDb. This is a Megalopolis-level disaster from a director who’s made significantly better films with casts no less impressive than this one. I said before seeing it that I’d heard nothing but terrible things about this movie, and now that I’ve watched it myself, I can confidently add my voice to that growing pile.
This Next Weekend In New Movies
For the big America 250 Fourth of July weekend, the biggest new release will be Minions & Monsters, the third installment in the Despicable Me spin-off series. I’ve always found these movies to be just okay-to-decent, so I don’t have the same affinity for them that many who grew up with them do. They’ve consistently been major box office hits, though there’s been some chatter that this one is tracking a bit below expectations. Anyhow, I’ll be attending a press screening for it and will have my review up on the first day of July to kick off the second half of the movie year.
Meanwhile, Angel Studios, the faith-based distributor that’s given us everything from some of the worst movies imaginable to a handful of surprisingly decent ones that older moviegoers and evangelical audiences tend to embrace, is offering its own counterprogramming with Young Washington. The film focuses on George Washington’s early years as a soldier rather than the legendary general and president he would later become. I’m interested in checking this one out, as Angel’s historical biopics tend to be at least halfway decent, and it feels like a fitting watch for the holiday weekend.
Netflix will also be releasing a new straight-to-streaming title as it wraps up the Millie Bobby Brown-led Enola Holmes trilogy that began back in 2020 with Enola Holmes 3. It’s a bit bizarre to anchor a British franchise on Fourth of July weekend, but these films have become one of Netflix’s rare original franchise success stories. I’ve always found them enjoyable enough, and I suspect this one will be about as okay as its two predecessors.
Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention
We are officially halfway through 2026, and I have to say it’s been an overall middling year for movies so far, with a lot of consensus favorites that simply didn’t click with me. I wasn’t on board with the hype for films like Backrooms, I Love Boosters, Obsession, or even the rom-com Voicemails For Isabelle. I liked, and in some cases really liked, and appreciated films like Leviticus, Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie, The Drama, and The Furious, but I didn’t love them to the same extent that many others did.
On the flip side, I landed on the more positive end of the spectrum for divisive releases like Mortal Kombat II, The Bride, and Wuthering Heights.
That said, there have absolutely been some great movies this year. At the halfway mark, I’d highlight Project Hail Mary, Toy Story 5, Disclosure Day, The Sheep Detectives, Pressure, Tuner, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and I Swear as the early contenders for my year-end “Best Of” list.
The good news is that there are plenty of years that feel a little underwhelming at the halfway point before the back half delivers in a big way, so I’m not sweating it. I still haven’t caught up with the Cannes titles, the fall festivals are right around the corner, and we still have several major blockbuster heavy-hitters and awards-season hopefuls on the horizon. There’s plenty of time for 2026 to finish strong.
The Hollywood Creative Alliance has released its mid-season nominations for the 2026 Astra Awards. I’m typically not big on covering these kinds of awards since they’re almost useless when it comes to figuring out what will ultimately matter in the Oscar race.
That said, for all the flak the HCA has received over the years due to various scandals and controversies, their Best Picture lineup has actually lined up with the Oscars surprisingly well in recent years, usually matching 7 or 8 of the eventual 10 Best Picture nominees. They also release their nominations earlier than any other major critics group which gives them an edge on giving us a cold hard reality on what will likely get into Best Picture.
The HCA is also easily the most populist and mainstream-friendly of the larger critics organizations, so their picks can offer a decent gauge of which films are connecting beyond Film Twitter and the more niche critical crowd.
Now, I wouldn’t read too much into this mid-season lineup. Their 2021 mid-season Best Picture slate didn’t have a single film that repeated when they announced their actual year-end awards. Still, it’s something worth keeping an eye on as the season unfolds.
Their 2026 mid-season Best Picture nominees are:
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Backrooms
Disclosure Day
Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie
Obsession
Project Hail Mary
Send Help
The Drama
The Invite
Toy Story 5
It is interesting to note that crowd-pleasers like Michael, Pressure, The Furious, The Sheep Detectives, or even Tuner didn’t show up here. Even critical darling I Love Boosters struggled to make much of a presence. Really speaks volumes on how those awards campaigns are flopping already. You can read their entire slate of mid-season nominees here, via Next Best Picture.
I did want to pause for a moment to recognize the passing of Ann Blyth, who was best known for playing Joan Crawford’s spoiled daughter in Mildred Pierce, one of the defining dramas of the 1940s. Blyth lived to the remarkable age of 98 and was still making public appearances as recently as a few years ago, including at the annual TCM Classic Film Festival. She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in Mildred Pierce, and with her passing, I believe we’ve now unfortunately lost the last surviving Oscar-nominated actor or actress from ceremonies held before 1950.
I do have to kind of call out some of the trades that reported on her passing, though. For those who haven’t seen Mildred Pierce, there’s a pretty major twist involving her character toward the end, and several of these outlets were just outright spoiling it in their headlines and obituaries. I get that the movie is over 80 years old, but there are still plenty of modern audiences discovering these classics for the first time. I just found it kind of funny how casually they gave away one of the film’s biggest surprises.
A shocking and tragic event also occurred this past week as Luis De La Rosa, a 34-year-old Mexican animator who worked on major titles such as the Spider-Verse films, was struck and killed by a train while attending the Annecy Animation Festival. Witnesses, along with the train conductor, reportedly indicated that De La Rosa was walking on the tracks and did not see the train approaching, while the conductor’s warning horn did not appear to get his attention. The incident remains under investigation.
I can’t fathom the pain his family is going through. Losing someone in such a sudden and shocking way is unimaginable, and it especially catches my attention whenever I see someone younger than me pass away under such tragic circumstances. Just an incredibly sad and far too early loss of life.
Per Clayton Davis at Variety, the Academy unveiled its annual list of new member invitations this week. This year’s class includes names such as Disney’s new CEO, along with rising actors like Anthony Ramos, Jacob Elordi, Jenna Ortega, and Teyana Taylor, as well as directors including Zach Cregger and both Safdie brothers.
I’d highly recommend reading Clayton’s thorough coverage of this year’s expansion in membership. It also includes some fascinating statistics on how the Academy’s makeup has evolved over the past decade as younger and more diverse members have continued to join its ranks.
The 2026 jury for the Venice Film Festival has been announced, and this year’s president will be none other than Maggie Gyllenhaal. Given some of the controversy surrounding last year’s jury process and the festival’s eventual winners, I’ll be very interested to see how this year’s edition plays out. The rest of the jury also includes names such as Daniel Blumberg and Kaouther Ben Hania.
I’ll tell you what, we’re getting release date announcements for major awards priorities from studios like Netflix and Neon, we’re about to finally get our first look at the super-early Best Picture frontrunner (The Odyssey), and now the fall festivals are beginning to unveil their plans. Awards season may still feel a long way off, but the earliest stage of the campaign is much closer than you think.
This was a stacked week for film news, and I had to cut a lot just to fit most of it into this week’s digest. But I did want to highlight some wild news coming out of Warner Brothers, who have reportedly decided to shelve Jonah Hill’s upcoming film The Cutoff, about spoiled adult kids who get cut off by their wealthy parents.
Hill was set to star alongside Kristen Wiig, Bette Midler, and Nathan Lane. The film was ultimately deemed “un-releasable” following reportedly disastrous test screenings.
Now I’m honestly just too curious, I kind of need to see it for myself. My advice to WB would be to try and sell it to someone, or at the very least just dump it on HBO Max if it really is that bad.
What Else Is On My Mind
My Miami Heat pulled off a blockbuster trade this past week, acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis led that franchise to an NBA championship just a few years ago, but it had become increasingly clear that his relationship with the organization was deteriorating. As a Heat fan who’s grown tired of the mediocre regular-season finishes and play-in exits following those deep playoff runs in the early 2020s, I’m excited to see this massive shakeup to the roster. That said, we gave up a bevy of quality role players to land him, and that does leave me a little concerned that we’ll be asking Giannis to do too much without enough help around him. I’m hoping “The Godfather,” Pat Riley, has a bigger vision in mind to rebuild this roster into a legitimate championship contender once again.
