Hollywood Weekly: Moana Misfires, Spidey Swings Big, and HBO Max Rules Emmy Morning
Moana underwhelms at the weekend box office, Spider-Man: Brand New Day tracks for a giant opening, and HBO Max leads the Emmy nominations. Plus: Love Island USA keeps streaming hot, Meta retreats from an AI likeness tool, and Backrooms and Obsession race toward home viewing.
Moana landed with a thud, Spidey suddenly looks like the summer's biggest swing, and HBO Max is walking into Emmy season with the fattest nomination pile. Around the edges: AI likeness panic hit Instagram, two scrappy genre hits rushed home, and Wimbledon somehow became a better celebrity sidewalk than half the red carpets in town.
The week in 12 quick hits
Moana found choppy water at the box office
Disney's live-action Moana is now looking at a $42 million-$46 million domestic opening after an $18 million Friday/previews start, far below the $60 million-plus launch Hollywood was hoping for earlier in the week. The audience grade is not the problem, since it earned an A- CinemaScore; the tougher read is that families may be tapped out after Toy Story 5 and Minions & Monsters, which are still pulling an estimated $19 million and $21 million this weekend. Read more ↗
Spidey is tracking like the movie that saves late July
Spider-Man: Brand New Day hit three-week tracking at $180 million-$190 million domestic, which would make it the biggest opening of 2026 so far if the forecast holds. That would put it behind only No Way Home in the franchise's opening-weekend history, even without Imax screens because those are tied up by The Odyssey. Read more ↗
Toy Story 5 quietly crossed the $800 million line
Pixar's fifth toy-box trip reached $808.6 million worldwide, with $381.3 million domestic and $427.3 million overseas. It is now Pixar's ninth-biggest global release ever, and Deadline says Germany still has not opened, so the movie has another major market left to play. Read more ↗
Love Island USA got even hotter in week two
Season 8 jumped to 1.83 billion viewing minutes for Nielsen's June 8-14 streaming week, up 40 percent from its premiere week and close to the show's all-time weekly high. Nothing else crossed the billion-minute mark; Netflix's Sweet Magnolias and Paramount's Dutton Ranch were playing catch-up in the originals lane. Read more ↗
HBO Max owned Emmy nomination morning
HBO Max led the 2026 Emmy nominations with 122 nods, ahead of Netflix at 111 and Apple TV at 87. The Pitt scored 25 nominations, Hacks took 24, and the main Emmy ceremony is set for Sept. 14 on NBC with Mariska Hargitay hosting. Read more ↗
Meta backed off its Hollywood-baiting AI image tool
Meta disabled its Muse Image feature on Instagram days after CAA and SAG-AFTRA objected to a tool that let users generate images by @-mentioning public accounts. Meta said the feature "missed the mark," while SAG-AFTRA called the shutdown the responsible move because the tool encouraged nonconsensual digital replicas. Read more ↗
Backrooms is coming home fast
A24's Backrooms will hit digital sales and rental on July 14, just 46 days after theatrical release. The speed makes more sense when you look at the haul: $192.3 million domestic and well north of $361 million worldwide, making it A24's biggest movie at both the domestic and global box office. Read more ↗
Obsession booked its Peacock date
Curry Barker's breakout romance-horror hit Obsession will stream on Peacock starting July 17 after a 63-day theatrical window. The tiny-budget shocker has reached about $400 million worldwide, including $249.5 million domestic, and Focus is planning an awards push because why not ride the weirdness all the way? Read more ↗
Amazon MGM TV reshuffled again
Amazon MGM Studios global TV chief Peter Friedlander rolled out another reorganization, promoting Kara Smith to head of drama and moving toward flatter genre teams for drama, comedy and young adult programming. Jen Chambers, Michael McDonald and Odetta Watkins are leaving as the studio tries to make its scripted pipeline faster and less layered. Read more ↗
George Lucas' museum made a neighbor-first move
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opening Sept. 22 in Los Angeles, will offer free annual passes and an early preview to residents in the nearby 90037 ZIP code. The $1 billion museum plans to show more than 1,300 objects and sit on an 11-acre landscaped campus, which is a very George Lucas way to turn a neighborhood perk into a spaceship-sized civic statement. Read more ↗
Film representation numbers went the wrong way
GLAAD's latest film study found LGBTQ characters in 46 of 225 films from the 10 largest studio distributors in 2025, or 20.4 percent, down from 23.6 percent the previous year. The report also found no LGBTQ characters in the 19 animated or family films rated PG and under, and no transgender characters across the full 225-film sample. Read more ↗
Wimbledon became the week's sneakiest celebrity runway
THR's Wimbledon scene report had Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Cynthia Erivo, Bad Bunny, Maude Apatow, David Beckham, Joe Jonas, Elle Fanning, Rami Malek, Dustin Hoffman and Benedict Cumberbatch all orbiting the tournament. The best gossip-adjacent detail: Andrew Garfield and Monica Barbaro used the event as a Ralph Lauren-coordinated public outing, proving tennis whites may now be Hollywood's soft-launch uniform. Read more ↗
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