This week in entertainment.
The wrestling world lost one of its best. AEW star PAC, known to WWE fans as Neville, passed away Sunday at just 40, one day after wrestling his final match at All Out. AEW turned Wednesday’s Dynamite into a full tribute show, and the respect crossed company lines — Kevin Owens broke down in tears on SmackDown wearing a “Ben” armband, and Bayley wore one on Raw. His friends and family will be in our prayers.
At the box office, the book beat the movie star. Colleen Hoover’s Verity opened to about $32 million despite a 39% Rotten Tomatoes score, because Hoover fans show up no matter what critics say. Meanwhile Tom Cruise’s Digger, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s $125-million-plus satire, managed only $10 million — the weakest wide opening of Cruise’s career in 19 years.
The biggest business story in Hollywood becomes official Tuesday: Paramount’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery closes, and the new parent company will be called Skydance. Warner film chiefs De Luca and Abdy are out, with Paramount’s Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein taking over both studios. Warner shareholders even rejected a nearly $887 million exit payout for David Zaslav.
So what does the merger mean for DC? James Gunn and Peter Safran are staying — they met with David Ellison this week and were told to keep doing what they’re doing. They’ll report to Goldberg and Greenstein, with Clayface out October 23 and the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow next July as the real tests. One honest caveat: Gunn’s contract reportedly ends in 2027, so the long-term picture is still unwritten.
And what does it mean for your streaming apps? Paramount+ chief Cindy Holland is out, and HBO’s Casey Bloys is expected to run the combined HBO Max and Paramount+ operation. Analysts expect the two services to eventually merge into one platform, though nothing’s been formally announced yet.
Marvel had a week too. The Avengers: Endgame Encore re-release pulled in $86 million worldwide in its opening weekend — the third-biggest re-release opening ever domestically — pushing Endgame’s lifetime total to $2.885 billion, closing in on Avatar’s all-time record. It comes with an exclusive look at Avengers: Doomsday, out in December.
And Spider-Man: Brand New Day keeps rewriting the record book: $937 million domestic, passing The Force Awakens, and $2.45 billion worldwide — third all-time behind only Avatar and Endgame.
That’s the week. Which story are you still thinking about?