Intro for April 13, 2026

Dear Gossips,

It was a strong weekend at the North American box office this weekend with impressive holds from the top three movies: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Project Hail Mary, and The Drama.

Project Hail Mary has now passed the $500 million mark, an encouraging achievement for Amazon Studios, which is why already it’s being talked about as an Oscar contender for next award season, including another Best Actor nomination for Ryan Gosling – which could continue a trend for Oscar contenders coming out in the Spring, like Everything Everywhere All At Once and also Sinners. We don’t need to be talking too much about it now but it’ll be interesting to see how much goodwill Project Hail Mary retains through the year as more and more blockbusters and prestige films enter the conversation.

As for The Drama, the film dropped just 21% during its second weekend, and should now clear $100 million throughout its entire run. Considering its budget was under $30 million, this is a win – for A24 and Zendaya, who some outlets are referring to as A24’s Queen and also “our new indie box office queen”.

Bigger picture, though, it’s good news for original films, period. There are people who want to see non-franchise, non-sequel, not game/toy adaptations. And also, in particular, where Zendaya is concerned, with Challengers and The Drama on the independent side, and Spider-Man, Dune, The Odyssey, etc, plus Euphoria on television, it’s another reminder that in the industry right now, and especially of her generation, there’s Zendaya and then there’s everyone else.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey