America’s Weekend at the Movies

America returned to the movies this weekend. With the opening of Barbie ($155 million) and Oppenheimer ($80.5 million), Hollywood posted its fourth-best-ever weekend box office. Tom Cruise’s latest Mission: Impossible installment, despite being bumped off premium screens by Oppenheimer, is still putting up decent numbers and is now in a supporting role for what’s turning into a comeback year for the silver screen.

Literal and figurative blows against Silicon Valley’s attempted takeover of Tinseltown abounded. Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan had left Warner Bros. over its decision to put its 2021 movie slate directly onto HBO Max’s streaming service. Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, is in many ways an unsubtle commentary on the industry’s need to save storytelling from the subversion of a digital foe.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

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America returned to the movies this weekend. With the opening of Barbie ($155 million) and Oppenheimer ($80.5 million), Hollywood posted its fourth-best-ever weekend box office. Tom Cruise’s latest Mission: Impossible installment, despite being bumped off premium screens by Oppenheimer, is still putting up decent numbers and is now in a supporting role for what’s turning into a comeback year for the silver screen.

Literal and figurative blows against Silicon Valley’s attempted takeover of Tinseltown abounded. Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan had left Warner Bros. over its decision to put its 2021 movie slate directly onto HBO Max’s streaming service. Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, is in many ways an unsubtle commentary on the industry’s need to save storytelling from the subversion of a digital foe.