Detail of the entrance gate at Walt Disney Studios in Paris, July 10, 2010 (Getty Images)

MAGIC KINGDOM

Disney just became the first studio to gross $2 billion at the box office in 2026

With a string of successes so far, and some major releases on the slate, Disney is storming the box office this year.

5/11/26 10:21AM

Right after an earnings beat last Wednesday, the second weekend of May marked yet another box office triumph for movie powerhouse Disney.

Following a groundbreaking debut, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” added $118.8 million worldwide across its second weekend — not only seeing the stylish sequel stay atop the box office, but also bringing Disney Studios’ total global cinema ticket takings to over $2 billion worldwide in just the first five months of 2026, per Deadline. This makes the House of Mouse the only studio so far to reach the milestone this year, having also bested Warner Bros. and Universal by some way in the 2025 studio rankings.

Other titles that have added to Disney’s total since January include “Hoppers” ($371.7 million globally) and “Send Help” ($94 million). But holdover theatrical earnings from late 2025 releases “Zootopia 2” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” — which have now grossed almost $1.87 billion and $1.49 billion worldwide, respectively — have also helped to boost the company’s 2026 tally.

Disney is no stranger to a billion-dollar blockbuster. According to data collated by Box Office Mojo, there are just 60 films that have grossed more than $1 billion since their release... and Disney Studios is now behind 35 of them. Even more staggeringly, Disney owns the rights to six of the seven movies that have notched lifetime grosses exceeding $2 billion.

Bibbidi-bobbidi-billions

Across its expansive portfolio of hit factories — Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios, to name a few — Disney has become a moneymaking machine at the box office, with “Star Wars” spin-off “The Mandalorian and Grogu” set to premiere later this month and the hotly anticipated “Avengers: Doomsday” slated for December.

However, as the company highlighted in last week’s earnings, it doesn’t just stop at the silver screen. With streaming revenue growing 13% in Q2, Disney+ is clearly cashing in on the rewatchability of some of its family-friendly movies, only adding to their universal box office appeal.

Tom Jones

big deal

6/15/26

Lionsgate persists with decade-long effort to make a “Monopoly” movie

America’s favorite board game is proving a tricky subject for a feature film.

Daily Life in New York City Around The One-year Anniversary of The COVID-19 Shut Down

Tom Jones6/9/26

The BBC has become the world’s top news website... by collapsing a little less than its competition

Press Gazette just published its annual look at the biggest news sites in the world across all languages; for the most part, it doesn’t make for particularly pretty reading.

The journalism industry publication’s latest update, which is based on estimates provided by Similarweb for May, found that 37 of the world’s 50 most visited news sites saw their reach shrink. Press Gazette highlighted that American outlets have been hit particularly hard by declining Google traffic compared to European counterparts, owing to the platform’s AI features rolling out earlier in the US.

Even the BBC, having climbed the rankings from last year to top the 2026 chart — reportedly in part thanks to Similarweb’s decision to combine the “.co.uk” and “.com” versions of the URL, given that the sites redirect to each other depending on the user’s location — showed a 1.9% decline from last year.

Millie Giles

PLAY THE BILLS

6/8/26

Last night’s Tony Awards were a curtain call for a record-smashing season on Broadway

This year’s star-studded theater awards wrapped up the highest-grossing season Broadway’s ever seen.

Millie Giles

SOUND FAMILIAR?

6/5/26

Kids these days are listening to more songs from the good old days

Music nostalgia is in full swing, and the younger listeners of today appear to be partying like it’s pre-1999.

Saleah Blancaflor6/4/26

Drake whiffs on an expected No. 1 on Spotify

Drake started at the bottom and he’s here, but not quite at the top... of Spotify, at least.

It’s been nearly three weeks since Drake dropped his three surprise albums — “Iceman,” “Habibti,” and “Maid of Honour.” Heading into the month, prediction markets were rating it a near certainty, a 98% chance, that Drake’s sonic onslaught was enough to snag the No. 1 slot on Spotify at least once in June.

But, while he surpassed the late Michael Jackson and took up three slots on the Billboard album chart at once, his newly released songs haven’t quite cracked the popular music-streaming platform’s top charts, and market seem to think the moment has passed.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Spotify’s “Top Songs - Global” chart currently show that Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” which is more than four decades old, Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and a Beat,” which climbed back to the top of Spotify charts following his Coachella set in the spring, Olivia Rodrigo’s new angsty love song “The Cure,” and BTS’s “Swim” are all ahead of Drake’s “STFU Janice” from his “Iceman” album.

While Spotify previously reported last month that Drake’s “Make Them Cry” was the most streamed album in a single day this year, that was later revealed to be a data error.

Prediction markets currently show traders are betting there’s only a 15% chance Drake will have a No. 1 song on Spotify in June.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift is in the lead at 98% — a day before the release of her new original song “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she wrote and performed for Disney and Pixar’s upcoming “Toy Story 5” — followed by Olivia Rodrigo, whose highly anticipated album “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” comes out next Friday.