Patrick Stewart Dies at 86, a Three-Hour Documentary Tops Halloween, and Hollywood’s Oct. 26-Nov. 1
The death of Patrick Stewart, a three-hour documentary taking Halloween weekend, the Daytime Emmys, a surprise Derry episode and eight more stories from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1.
Hollywood spent the week of Oct. 26 to Nov. 1 saying goodbye to the man who made a starship captain feel like a Shakespearean king. It also went to the movies in numbers close to the year’s weakest weekend.
| Story | Lane | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Patrick Stewart | Obituary | The Star Trek and X-Men actor died Wednesday at 86. |
| You Can See Everything | Box office | A24’s three-hour documentary takes No. 1 in its third weekend. |
| Wicker | Box office | Black Bear’s Olivia Colman comedy keeps five-star exits as it widens. |
| 2026 box office | Industry | Gower Street forecasts a $35.7 billion global year, the best since 2019. |
| Below | Streaming | Netflix’s thriller takes No. 1 on Nielsen and horror fills the chart. |
| It: Welcome to Derry | TV | HBO Max drops a surprise 30-minute episode at midnight. |
| Criminal Minds | TV | Paramount+ sets season 20 as the show’s last. |
| Daytime Emmys | Awards | General Hospital wins best drama; Kelly Clarkson’s show takes five. |
| Hello Sunshine | Industry | Reese Witherspoon’s company cuts about half its staff. |
| Qualley and Antonoff | Celebrity | The couple file for divorce after three years of marriage. |
| Eric Bauza | Celebrity | The voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck is remembered after dying at 46. |
| Taika Waititi | Film | The director calls his critics obsolete as Klara and the Sun opens to $701,000. |
The week’s big story
1. Patrick Stewart, 1940–2026
Patrick Stewart died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles at 86. His longtime spokesperson said he had been on “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.”
He played Jean-Luc Picard for seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and four films, then Charles Xavier in X-Men (2000) and seven more.
He shot Xavier again for Avengers: Doomsday, due in December, and was knighted in 2010.
Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry led the tributes from his X-Men family.
Box office
2. A three-hour documentary wins Halloween weekend
Studio estimates put A24’s You Can See Everything at $10.8 million in its third weekend, from 3,243 theaters.
That should be enough for No. 1 when Monday’s actuals land, and it would make a three-hour documentary the biggest draw in America on Halloween weekend.
Clayface fell 57 percent to $10.4 million in its second frame, leaving the DC movie at $44 million, and Wildwood slipped 42 percent to $7.1 million.
No studio wanted this weekend: all titles together were tracking past $63 million, close to the year’s weakest frame, Jan. 23-25 at $54.8 million.
3. The Olivia Colman comedy that keeps its five-star exits
Black Bear widened Wicker from 1,471 theaters to 2,374 and it held: an estimated $4 million, down 30 percent, for $13 million in ten days.
Audiences are its engine. PostTrak exits show five stars, 74 percent definite recommends, and a crowd that is 73 percent female and 52 percent over 35.
Black Bear modeled the rollout on Focus’s Conclave two years ago, and after a rocky start in the U.S. the distributor finally has a specialty hit.
4. 2026 is heading for its best global box office since 2019
Gower Street Analytics now forecasts $35.7 billion in worldwide ticket sales for 2026, up 6.3 percent on last year and the most since 2019’s $42.3 billion.
The split is $10.5 billion in North America, up 18 percent, $19.7 billion internationally outside China, and $5.5 billion in China, which is down about 26 percent.
Five Hollywood titles have passed $1 billion, led by Spider-Man: Brand New Day at $2.5 billion and The Odyssey at $1.8 billion.
Streaming and TV
5. Horror takes over the streaming chart
Netflix’s Below moved to No. 1 for the week of Oct. 12-18 with 1.3 billion minutes, up from 1.19 billion in its first week.
Carrie slid about 15 percent to 1.08 billion but held at No. 2, while The Diplomat’s fourth season was the week’s biggest debut at 983 million.
Peacock’s Friday the 13th prequel Crystal Lake opened in the top five with 774 million, and Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas returned to the movie chart.
Nielsen counts U.S. viewing on television sets only, so phones and laptops are missing from these numbers.
6. ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ hides an episode in the Halloween dark
HBO Max released a surprise 30-minute episode of It: Welcome to Derry at midnight Saturday, titled “A Story of Derry.”
The episode is set centuries before the series, and well before Pennywise, which makes it a prequel to the prequel.
The show was renewed for a second season in August, and that season moves to 1935 and the Depression-era Bradley Gang massacre.
7. ‘Criminal Minds’ ends at season 20
Criminal Minds: Evolution will finish with its 20th season on Paramount+, which is due in 2027 with no premiere date yet.
That makes 15 seasons on CBS and five on the streamer since the 2022 revival.
“While suddenly navigating the end of this chapter, I’m filled with gratitude,” showrunner Erica Messer said in a statement.
Awards
8. ‘General Hospital’ wins the Daytime Emmys, and Kelly Clarkson’s show goes out with five
At Friday’s 53rd Daytime Emmy Awards, General Hospital took best daytime drama, one of four wins from 13 nominations, and Genie Francis collected the lifetime achievement award.
The Kelly Clarkson Show led all comers with five trophies including best talk series, though Clarkson did not attend and lost the host prize to Sherri Shepherd.
Beyond the Gates won four, with Tamara Tunie taking best actress for her first Daytime Emmy, and The Bold and the Beautiful’s Scott Clifton won best actor.
Industry
9. Hello Sunshine cuts half its staff weeks after the buyback
Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine laid off about 30 people, roughly 50 percent of its staff, after she and France’s Mediawan bought the company back from Candle Media.
Candle paid $900 million for the company in 2021. Variety reported the buyback closed at a fraction of that, and sources told Deadline Candle likely lost hundreds of millions.
What is left will focus on film, television and Reese’s Book Club, with the direct-to-consumer side cut.
Celebrities
10. Margaret Qualley and Jack Antonoff file for divorce
Court records obtained by the Associated Press show a divorce filing was made Friday, ending a marriage that began in August 2023.
A source told People the split is “a mutual decision,” and Qualley’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
The two had separated in July, and Antonoff told The Guardian this week that playing the songs he wrote about the relationship has been “really beautiful.”
11. Eric Bauza, the voice of Bugs Bunny for a new generation, dies at 46
Bauza died suddenly of natural causes on Oct. 25, just before this week began, and the animation community spent the following days remembering him.
He voiced Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety and Foghorn Leghorn in Coyote vs. Acme and pushed #ReleaseCoyoteVsACME from social media to the Annie Awards stage, where he begged in Daffy’s voice.
The film was sold to Ketchup Entertainment for a reported $50 million, has grossed more than $100 million worldwide, and is Ketchup’s 2027 submission for the animated-feature Oscar.
“Other people can do Looney Tunes voices, but you can’t replace Eric Bauza,” producer Alex Kirwan said.
12. Taika Waititi calls his critics obsolete. His film opened to $701,000.
Waititi posted his film’s poster on Instagram Saturday to celebrate its 78 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes; critics have it at 26 percent.
“Let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus became critics,” he wrote. “Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.”
The numbers behind the post are grim: a reported $20 million budget, a $701,000 domestic opening, and a wide release Sony cut to 880 theaters after the reviews out of BFI.
The film stars Jenna Ortega as the android Klara and Amy Adams, and it adapts Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel.
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