Spider-Man Holds $67M, Disney Books 2028, and Hollywood's D23 Week
The Aug. 10-16 roundup tracks Spider-Man's projected $67 million third weekend, Disney's D23-heavy 2028 slate, a new streaming leader, the Astra TV Awards, and Hollywood's latest deal, labor, and celebrity-rights news.
The Aug. 10-16 week belonged to D23, but the numbers mattered too: Spider-Man: Brand New Day kept climbing, Netflix found a new streaming leader, and TV's awards conversation got a fresh scoreboard. Here are the week's developments worth knowing without opening eleven trade-site tabs.
| Story | Lane | Reader signal |
|---|---|---|
| Spider-Man: Brand New Day | Box office | Biggest weekend number |
| Little House on the Prairie | Streaming | New chart leader |
| Disney's 2028 slate | Film strategy | Franchise-heavy calendar |
| Zootopia 3 | Sequel news | Early green light |
| Clay | Animation | New original bet |
| Live-action Tangled | Casting | Cast gets its queen |
| Netflix's YA slate | Streaming strategy | A direct Prime Video counter |
| Astra TV Awards | Awards | The Pitt leads the night |
| National CineMedia + Captivate | Deal | Cinema ads get bigger |
| DGA and IATSE vs. merger delay | Labor | Workers want a faster answer |
| Billy Joel's AI documentary | Celebrity and rights | A likeness fight in miniature |
Box office and streaming
1. Spider-Man is still the movie to beat
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is tracking to a $67 million domestic third weekend from 4,539 theaters, which would lift its running total to an estimated $782.8 million. The End of Oak Street and Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie are both aiming for about $20 million, while The Odyssey is projected at $23 million in weekend five; these are Saturday estimates, not final actuals.
2. Netflix finds a new streaming leader
Netflix's Little House on the Prairie remake took the overall Nielsen streaming top spot for July 13-19 with 1.18 billion viewing minutes, up roughly 27% from its premiere. Netflix's The Hawk nearly cleared a billion minutes in its debut, while Prime Video's Ride or Die opened with 869 million; the chart measures U.S. TV-set viewing only, so it excludes phones and computers.
Disney's D23 surge
3. Disney books a franchise-heavy 2028
Disney used D23 to set a crowded 2028 theatrical calendar: Pixar's Ghost Market on March 10, live-action Tangled on March 31, X-Men on May 5, Lilo & Stitch 2 on May 28, Incredibles 3 on June 16, Ghost Rider later in the year, and Black Panther 3 on Dec. 15. The striking part is the balance between sequels, remakes, and two new-looking bets, with Marvel still taking several of the year's biggest slots.
4. Zootopia 3 is headed for the birds
Disney announced Zootopia 3 at D23, with the next installment set to focus on birds and Ke Huy Quan joining Ginnifer Goodwin onstage for the reveal. Goodwin and Jason Bateman are returning as Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, following Zootopia 2's reported $1.8 billion global run.
5. Kieran Culkin gets animated in Clay
Kieran Culkin will lead the voice cast of Disney's original animated film Clay, playing Flip, a mentor assigned to a newborn ball of clay named Mushi. The story sends the pair through a fantastical forest, and Disney is targeting November 2028 for theaters — a long runway for an original film with a very strange hero-student setup.
6. Tangled fills out its royal family
Caitríona Balfe is joining Disney's live-action Tangled as Queen Arianna, Rapunzel's long-lost mother, alongside Elliot Cowan as King Frederic and Patrick and Hugo McPherson as the Stabbington twins. Teagan Croft plays Rapunzel, Milo Manheim is Flynn Rider, and Kathryn Hahn is Mother Gothel in the film due March 31, 2028.
YA, awards, and the next watchlist
7. Netflix stages a YA counterpunch
Netflix used an Aug. 14 End of Summer Bash to show off its long YA pipeline, from Never Have I Ever and Heartstopper to upcoming projects including Crew Girl, The Body, and The Sticks. The event was also a clear answer to Prime Video's recent YA push, but Netflix's bigger point was that book adaptations, romance, sports, horror, and coming-of-age stories still feed its talent pipeline.
8. The Pitt owns the Astra TV Awards
HBO's The Pitt led the Hollywood Creative Alliance's Astra TV Awards with seven trophies, followed by Netflix's Beef with five and Hacks and Shrinking with four each. The Pitt won Drama Series, Hacks took Comedy Series, and Beef won Limited Series, giving the Emmy-season conversation a fresh set of winners to argue about.
Hollywood business and labor
9. National CineMedia buys a bigger ad footprint
National CineMedia agreed to buy digital out-of-home advertising company Captivate Holdings from Generation Partners for $275 million. The combination would put more than 48,000 screens across theaters, offices, and residential properties under one platform, including Captivate's 26,000-plus screens in more than 11,000 buildings.
10. Guilds want the Paramount-WBD case moved faster
The DGA and IATSE urged California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison to resolve the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger faster; the current trial date is March 2027. Their letter says the delay is already worsening a California production market down more than 40%, and it proposes conditions including separate studio operations, minimum theatrical output, and keeping Paramount in Los Angeles.
11. Billy Joel's younger self becomes an AI test case
A new 20-minute documentary, 1971: Billy Joel's Lost Interview, uses AI to recreate the singer and the college-radio studio around a real 1971 recording; it premieres Sept. 25. Joel was not consulted, and the film carries a disclaimer saying it is unaffiliated with him, turning a small music-history project into a neat example of the still-unsettled question around celebrity likenesses.
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