ScreamWire Daily

Lucasfilm/Disney’s The Mandalorian and Grogu is tracking to a $97M–$98M 4‑day Memorial Day opening with international around $69M, while Focus Features’ Blumhouse/Atomic Monster title Obsession is delivering a strong hold (projected ~$27M 4‑day), marking notable horror marketplace resilience and robust studio tentpole performance in the holiday frame.

Paramount's horror thriller Passenger opened to an estimated ~$8.7M weekend (projected $10.5M four-day) and added $4.8M internationally for a $13.5M global cume amid strong competition from Obsession and The Mandalorian & Grogu; the crowded release slate materially suppressed Passenger's kickoff.

Los Angeles mayoral primary shaping up to a likely Bass vs. Pratt runoff; Bass has lined up union support including IATSE while Nithya Raman has heavy backing from writers and the creative community; all leading candidates pledge production-friendly moves such as streamlining bureaucracy and reducing location costs, signaling potential local production policy shifts that matter to studios and indie producers.

U.K. Commons Business and Trade Committee urges a full Competition and Markets Authority market investigation into Live Nation/Ticketmaster; report flags Live Nation controlling 58% of 23.1M UK ticket sales (66% including affiliates), repeated concerns about exclusivity, venue access and a ‘climate of fear’ among independents; follows a U.S. jury finding of illegal monopoly power and signals cross-border antitrust scrutiny for live-entertainment marketplace.

American Horrors Channel greenlights Joyhorror Entertainment Tonight for a summer launch; Michael Joy hosts a weekly indie‑horror news/clip show intended to pipeline trailers, clips, interviews, and breaking indie horror news to a 24/7 linear horror streamer, strengthening specialty channel programming and grassroots marketing channels for underground titles.

Indie horror hub BloodStream locked exclusive distribution rights to the anonymous slasher franchise Game001–Game005 credited to the masked auteur 'Playgame Tipplayer'; the multi-film pick-up highlights indie platforms scooping viral/anonymous IP and the economics of content-farm horror packages.

Marvel Animation locked a world premiere preview of X‑Men '97 season 2 at Tribeca; creative shakeups include firing former head writer Beau DeMayo and bringing in Matthew Chauncey, who oversaw extensive rewrites and a darker season direction with rumored returns for Cable and X‑Force.

Dark Star Pictures is releasing queer slasher BLOWIE on Digital and On Demand May 26; the film leans on adult-performer casting and camp-supernatural slasher elements, positioning for niche VOD platform performance and targeted genre-drive marketing.

Duncan Jones' animated Rogue Trooper film, written and directed by Jones and starring Aneurin Barnard with Hayley Atwell and others, is set to premiere next month at the Annecy Animation Festival; Rebellion timed reprints and collected editions to align with the film's release, indicating coordinated IP marketing and cross-media tie-ins.