Missing That Insidious White Noise

Since there were no newbies of note this weekend, all due respect to Vertical’s The Damned, Scott Mendelson, Lisa Laman and Jeremy Fuster just talked about the holdover business and that pesky “fewer movies than theaters were once accustomed to” issue that still seems to be in play five years after the start of the COVID pandemic. The good news is that Mufasa: The Lion King is legging like a champ, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is racing into the video game-based movie history books. Moreover, adult-skewing biggies like Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown and Babygirl are thriving concurrently right alongside the all-quadrant tentpoles. The “bad” news is that, yeah, there was no excuse not to have *something* of note this weekend and Wicked Part One’s 49% seventh-weekend drop might make it the rare theatrical success that gets a little bit undercut by PVOD availability. Ask us again next weekend, natch. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe