| AMONG THE CONTENDERS ARE PROJECTS FROM JAMES GRAY, RUBEN ÖSTLUND & IÑÁRRITU'S TOM CRUISE STARRER |
Goodbye 2025 and hello 2026. As the Deadline team catches its breath before hitting the global film festival circuit again later this month, here is our annual (non-exhaustive) list of U.S. and international movies we believe/hope will make the cut.
As with our previous prediction lists, we’ve focused on titles that have already started filming or are in post-production and which haven’t yet been announced for a festival. >>>See The List |
Deadline Exclusives & Originals |
'Avatar' Rings In The New Year - 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Avatar: Fire and Ash led what was a typical slow New Year’s Eve, making $8.1M Wednesday and taking its stateside cume to $250.2M. >>>2025 B.O. Hits $8.87B
Related:
2025 Moviegoer Attendance Hits 780M, -5% From ’24; Majority Went To Cinemas During Pics’ First 30 Days Of Release
WBD's Next Move - When business revs back up next week, Warner Bros. Discovery's board of directors appears to be poised to reject Paramount’s amended hostile takeover bid. Sources tell Deadline the corporate governing body, which has already accepted Netflix's acquisition offer, has concerns concerns about the potential delay that could hamper its planned cable spinoff if a deal falls through. >>> Fraught Regulatory Process
Media Stocks' Wild 2025 Ride- Warner Bros. Discovery stock surged 170% last year as investors bet on the upside of the company’s acquisition by either Netflix or Paramount. EchoStar shares did even better, rocketing 370% due to a deal upping its stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX. On the downside, Comcast shares tumbled 20% amid worries about broadband stagnation, and Sound of Freedom distributor Angel Studios plunged 53% after its IPO last September. >>> Winners & Losers
‘The Long Walk’: Read The Screenplay - Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts behind the year’s most talked-about movies continues with The Long Walk, Lionsgate’s psychological thriller from director Francis Lawrence, adapted for the screen by JT Mollner based on Stephen King’s 1979 novel. >>>The Script |
Matt and Ross Duffer have officially closed the book on Stranger Things.
The supernatural Netflix series rang in 2026 with an epic and emotional two-hour finale that saw the Hawkins crew finally defeat Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) and destroy the Upside Down for good, bringing an end once and for all to the havoc the portal to an alternate dimension has caused for the last four years of their lives.
In this interview, the Duffer brothers discuss crafting what they hope is a satisfying conclusion to the story that launched their careers and the careers of most of the show’s young cast into the stratosphere as well as saying goodbye to the beloved current and former residents of Hawkins, Indiana. >>>Q&A
Related:
‘Stranger Things’ Pays Homage To Its Origins In Emotional Series Finale
Netflix Crashes As Series Finale Debuts
‘Stranger Things’ Finale Delivers $25M+ To Movie Theaters After New Year’s Play, More Than 60% Of That From AMC |
MORE NEWS
📽️ Jafar Panahi and his legal team will begin their legal appeal on January 4 against the one year prison sentence and two-year travel ban the filmmaker was handed by the Tehran Islamic Revolutionary Court. 🎭 The Kennedy Center is defending this year’s Kennedy Center Honors after the Donald Trump hosted telecast delivered all-time low viewership for CBS. The Dec. 23 telecast averaged 3.01 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen. That's an all-time low audience for the annual special, down from 4.1M last year, though the 2024 special aired on a Sunday and the 2025 one on a Tuesday. A spokesperson for the arts center said, "Comparing this year’s broadcast ratings to prior years is a classic apples-to-oranges comparison and evidence of far-left bias."
⚖️ Already-known details of how Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were killed have now been shuttered by the LA County Medical Examiner under a court order sought by the LAPD. The department wants to keep its findings sealed as it tries to make substantial progress before a potentially decisive court hearing next week.
🎬 According to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report, out of 111 directors who helmed the top 100-grossing films, only nine were women, representing 8.1%, a steep drop from 2024. |
BY THE NUMBERS $1.46B - Global B.O. for 'Zootopia 2,' making Walt Disney Animation Studios' highest-ever grossing film |
OBITUARIES
🕯️ Environmental journalist and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, Tatiana Schlossberg, has died. She was 35. 🕯️ Richard Smallwood, a revered singer and songwriter who scored a dozen Top 10 albums and four No. 1s on the Billboard gospel chart and amassed eight Grammy nominations during his long career, died Tuesday of kidney failure in Sandy Spring, MD. He was 77. 🕯️ John Mulrooney, a stand-up comedian, actor, TV host, radio personality and longtime local cop, died suddenly at his Coxsackie, New York home, according to multiple reports. He was 67. 🕯️ Isiah Whitlock Jr., a veteran character actor known for memorable roles in such series as The Wire, Veep, Your Honor and The Residence and a number of Spike Lee movies, died Tuesday in New York. He was 71. 🕯️ Meyer Gottlieb, a Holocaust survivor who was the longtime chief of Samuel Goldwyn Films and produced such movies as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and 2013’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, has died. He was 86. 🕯️ Jasen Kaplan, the celebrity makeup artist who was known for his appearance on Finding Prince Charming, has died. He was 46. 🕯️ 2025 Media Deaths Photo Gallery |
ON THE RADAR
Fri - Palm Springs International Film Fest begins
Sat - Palm Springs International Film Awards
Sun - Critics Choice Awards; NFL regular season ends
Mon - Annie Awards nominations
Tues - CES begins in Las Vegas
Wed - Actor & Art Directors Guild Awards nominations
Thu - ASC & NAACP Awards nominations |
Live Long, And Prosper - Original Star Trek cast member George Takei, 88, in the captain's chair aboard Paramount's Rose Parade float. The float celebrated the 60th anniversary of the series. |
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