Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Focus Features’ Obsession, Cooper Hoffman’s TV and Quaid goes West.
Let’s go!
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THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Focus Features’ Obsession jumps 39% in its second weekend.
Patrick Paolini named Tegna CEO.
Oscar-winning costume designer Albert Wolsky (Grease) dies at 95.
Skywild Pictures options Tom Ryan’s adult mystery The Treasure Hunters Club.
Crave options Penelope Douglas’ dark romance Five Brothers after Heated Rivalry.
Cooper Hoffman makes TV debut in Hulu drama pilot Durango.
Cuba Gooding Jr. boards Hong Kong-Philippine action thriller Lotus.
Brian Geraghty joins Matt Ross’ crime thriller Kockroach.
Ray Mendoza casts Sam Worthington and Jack Quaid in Blood on the Promontory.
Osmosis Global acquires documentary Stan Lee: The Final Years.
Veep writers Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci set to pen Paddington 4.
WestEnd Films secures global deals for Maisie Williams thriller Ignition.
Netflix launches first Brazilian medical drama Med starring Clara Moneke.
Last correct answer: Marty first film to win Palme d’Or.
14% got it right.
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Focus Features’ Obsession pays off big time. The film, which they acquired for $15M out of TIFF, in what was a major strategy shift took a massive 39% week 2 INCREASE at the box office this past weekend.
This is almost unheard of, only matched by Sound of Freedom (2023).
For a horror film, it tops the genre’s previous top three’s smallest week 2 drops in the 2020s:
Sinners (2025)
6% week 2 drop
$48M opening
$45M 2nd weekend
$280M domestic total
$370.3M worldwide
Get Out (2017)
15% week 2 drop
$33.4M opening
$176.2M domestic total
$255.8M worldwide
Smile (2022)
18% week 2 drop
$22.6M opening
$105.9M domestic total
$217.4M worldwide
This puts director Curry Barker in a rare category of horror directors, one that is already seeing him take on iconic IP like A24’s new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. He may be the next Zach Cregger, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, or Jordan Peele.
Tidbits:
The Oscar-winning costume designer, Albert Wolsky, has died at 95. From the gritty, Bob Fosse-inspired dancewear in All That Jazz (1979) to the iconic, skin-tight pants and leather jackets in Grease (1978), Wolsky’s versatile career spanned five decades, reaching far beyond the movie musical to acclaimed dramas like Sophie’s Choice (1983) and Revolutionary Road (2008). His costumes became as memorable as the performances themselves, and he will be very missed.
Patrick Paolini is the new CEO of Tegna (value: $3.2bn, with 64 local stations). Right now a judge has blocked the Nexstar-Tegna merger while antitrust issues are reviewed. And for good reason, Nexstar’s value is $6.3bn with 200 local stations. If approved by the FCC, the combined companies would own 80% of local stations across the US.
Keep This to Yourself author Tom Ryan’s The Treasure Hunters Club is being optioned for a series by Toronto’s Skywild Pictures (Our Little Secret). Ryan’s first detour from YA to an adult murder mystery that sees three strangers who come together in a remote seaside town to uncover lost pirate treasure. Ryan’s Our Little Secret and The Affinities are also being adapted.
Canada’s Crave, the streaming service behind Heated Rivalry, has optioned its next series adaptation of dark romance Five Brothers from author Penelope Douglas. The story follows one woman who discovers the steamy secrets of the mysterious five Jaeger brothers.
Renewal:
CBC’s Saint-Pierre (Renewed for S3)
Trailer:
Netflix’s Calabasas Confidential
Release: May 29
Premiere Date:
Paramount+’s All the Queen’s Men S5
Premiere Date: June 10
Paramount+’s Ruthless S6
Wri: Tyler Perry
Cast: Melissa L. Williams, Matt Cedeño, Lenny Thomas, Yvonne Senat Jones
Premiere Date: June 30
Christopher Nolan: Grand Designs
Nolan retrospective at TIFF showing all his films on 35mm and 70mm
Dates: July 8-Aug. 20
Netflix’s Sacrifice (just acquired)
Premiere: TIFF 2025
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Evans, Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel
Release Date: TBD
Netflix also recently scooped another less-than-stellar reviewed festival film with an A-list cast, In the Hand of Dante (Premiere: Venice).
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Cooper Hoffman is headed to Hulu. The Long Walk actor is making his television debut in the drama pilot Durango, from writer Eliza Clark (FX’s Y: The Last Man), 20th Television, and Media Res.
A love story following two Gen Z drifters on the run from the cops after a string of terribly impulsive decisions, Hoffman will play Mikey, a street-savvy former snowboarding legend who not only falls for the new girl in town but is brought into all the trouble she brings.
We’ve seen Hoffman portray a young man caught somewhere between charm and their own self-destruction before, like in his breakout role in the Best Picture-nominated Licorice Pizza (2021), as the fast-talking, overly ambitious hustling teenager Gary Valentine. These two limerence-stricken, reckless young men feel close to the same kind of unpredictable chaos Hoffman plays really well with.
There is no word yet on who else will star in Durango.
Tidbits:
Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire) boards Hong Kong-Philippine action thriller Lotus. No detail on the plot, but the production will run from September through October in Manila. It has been a while since Gooding Jr. has been in an action thriller role, but he may have a spark of the intensity and grit he showed earlier in his career with Judgment Night (1993, trailer).
Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) joins the cast of Matt Ross’ (Dir: Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen) thriller Kockroach. Based on William Lashner’s novel of the same name, the film follows an outsider who rises through New York’s criminal underworld. Geraghty joins a star-studded cast including Chris Hemsworth, Taron Egerton, and Rachel Sennott.
Mini Tidbit:
Kate Mansi is exiting ABC’s General Hospital. After three years in the role of Kristina Corinthos Davis and even directing two episodes of the show, she has made the decision to leave the show at the end of her current contract.
Apple TV’s Off Weeks casts Tony Award nominee Tom Francis (Broadway’s Sunset Blvd.) to star as Richard Gere’s son in the new limited series. The drama follows Ben Stiller’s stressed divorcee character who begins to fall for a woman (Jessica Chastain) during the off weeks where he doesn’t have his children.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
Ray Mendoza (Co-dir: A24’s Warfare) has found his troops.
He has cast Sam Worthington, Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard), and Jack Quaid in his western drama, Blood on the Promontory. The film follows five convicts shackled together by foot as they try to escape through the mountains following a train robbery.
In Warfare, Mendoza took 20+ actors, some of whom seemed most at ease with lighter films (Will Poulter, Kit Connor, etc.), and turned them into more grounded, precise fighting machines. And then dragged them through hell to test their mettle.
No word on the exact roles for Worthington, Courtney, and Quaid. But the casting of Quaid here is exciting, given that Quaid is trying to further cement himself as an action hero post-The Boys with Novocaine. If Mendoza captures that same level of raw realism and camaraderie he brought to Warfare, this transforms Quaid, giving him a level of machismo intensity vs. his usual skittishness.
The Final Years of a Marvel Legend. Osmosis Global (Distributor: We Will Dance Again) acquires the rights to the documentary Stan Lee: The Final Years, which tells the tumultuous story of Lee’s final years.
Told through his longtime assistant Jon Bolerjack, the feature doc is a wild portrait of how Lee was taken advantage of in his last years by various people who wanted to take control of his care and his estate. Using footage Bolerjack shot before Lee’s death in 2018, the film raised nearly $85,000 on Kickstarter when it was announced in March 2025.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The writing masterminds behind HBO’s Veep, Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci, are set to pen the highly anticipated Paddington 4.
Besides feeling like a warm hug for 120 minutes, the franchise has grossed over $800M worldwide. Featuring a large ensemble cast of English greats like Hugh Bonneville and Julie Walters, endlessly lovable and critically untouchable, Paddington has become one of the most beloved family IPs around.
Blackwell and Iannucci both share a specific dry sense of European humor that, paired with Paddington’s signature slapstick and sincerity, would make them a strong fit for the franchise.
StudioCanal announced the next installment at CinemaCon last month, with no word yet on what Paddington’s next adventure will be.
Tidbit:
WestEnd Films (sales rep: Green Room) has secured multiple global deals for the Cannes-launched thriller Ignition, starring Maisie Williams (GoT). Some of the sales include Signature Entertainment (Couture) for the U.K. and Twelve Oaks (Palm Springs) in Spain. Sharing the screen with BAFTA nominee Rory Kinnear (No Time to Die), the film follows Williams as a woman unwittingly drawn into a terrifying terrorist plot.
Mini Tidbits:
Accent Aigu Entertainment (Prod Co: Heated Rivalry) undergoes structural changes. Company co-founders Jacob Tierney (Showrunner: Heated Rivalry) will switch his role to Chief Creative Officer, and Brendan Brady (Producer: Heated Rivalry) will take on the role of CEO.
Netflix is launching its first Brazilian medical drama, Med. Clara Moneke (Vai na Fé) will star in the series, which will follow a groucp of young doctors working in a busy university hospital. Netflix recently opened a new Brazil HQ this January.
Park Seo-ham (Our Universe) and Kim Ji-yeon (The Haunted Palace) to lead a Rakuten Viki series, Dive Into You. The series will follow a woman who is thrown back in time after a near-fatal incident and finds herself body-swapped with her twin brother. The fantasy romcom will be produced by Dexter Pictures (Prod Co: Head Over Heels) and Rakuten Viki.
ON THIS DAY
2005. Madagascar is released.
Written by Gabriel Miller, Madelyn Menapace, and Tony Jaeyeong Jeong.
Editor: Gabriel Miller.
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