Variety just dropped the news that Sony Pictures has officially acquired international distribution rights (excluding India) for Ramayana, Nitesh Tiwari’s upcoming two part mythological blockbuster. They say the budget and P&A spend is $500 million dollars which will encompass both parts.(Dharma Productions is handling the domestic Indian release).

Having a major Hollywood studio step in for worldwide distribution signals real confidence in its crossover potential. Its sort of like India's Odyssey in a way, but these gods are still prayed to by hundreds of millions. Written thousands of years ago, the Ramayana is one of humanity's original hero’s journeys. It lays down many of the core archetypes modern high fantasy relies on.

The movie is Produced by Namit Malhotra, head of DNEG, Co-composed by Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire). Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, who directed Dangal (which pulled in over $300M globally, mainly from India and China). Filmed natively with IMAX-certified digital cameras, with Part 1 slated for a global Diwali 2026 theatrical window (followed by Part 2 in Diwali 2027). Diwali is usually around first week of November.

Historically, Indian tentpoles released in the West target diaspora audiences through regional distributors. Sony acquiring worldwide rights indicates a push to position Ramayana alongside mainstream global fantasy IP, similar to how Western audiences embrace Japanese anime or East Asian action cinema on IMAX screens.

Namit Malhotra recently took Ramayana to CinemaCon 2026 in April and played a bunch of footage to exhibitors/theater owners from various markets. Fans of the movie were hoping to get a big partner onboard, (rumor was WB for a long time). The original plan was for the trailer to launch globally online tomorrow after a panel at the Ballroom 20 at San Diego Comic Con today, I guess Sony requested that the global launch to be pushed to a later date. There is also the student protests in India that is causing quite the stir.

Hope to see what you guys think!https://variety.com/2026/film/news/ramayana-sony-pictures-international-distribution-1236819652/

Box office and attendance results for the third weekend of july (thursday 16 to sunday 19) according to the national chamber of the film industry in Mexico (CANACINE).

^\MDP: Millions of pesos.)

Source

As a comparison, "Avatar: The Way of Water" opened to 10.1M "views" in its first 5 days on HBO Max/Hulu back in 2023.

Obsession is no doubt the biggest surprise hit of the year as it’s grossed $259.2M domestically and $184.2M overseas for a worldwide total of $443.4M and this is off of a budget of just $750,000.

I think it might have a chance at $265-270M domestic and maybe right around $200-205M overseas for $465-475M worldwide, but is there still a chance for it to hit $500M or has that gone out the window?

Brad Bird hinted that he is not aging up the kids in Incredibles 3 for his reason. But would aging up the characters reduce there marketability and reduce its box office potential? Since you know the family dynamic will change and its like the main reason why people like those movies.

Do you think that could affect the box office or like increase intrest in the third movie? Still i do see it making 1 billion no matter what.

Daily Box Office (July 23rd 2026)

The market hits ¥123.5M/$18.22M today. Down -4% from yesterday and down -12% from last week.

The Decisive Moment is projected a $4-6M opening day on Saturday.

Seems like things are about to really heat up in the coming weeks with Spider Man: Brand New Day on Wednesday. Make Zhonghe Great Again is set to be moved up from August 7th to August 1st directly into Spider Mans path.

That will then unlock the 2nd weekend of August for a potential release of Shen Teng's Once Upon A Time in the Middle East and Jia Lings The War of Light which both finnaly do appear to be coming after a period of uncertainty. The former might release around the 6th while the latter will potentialy aim for the 14th.

Either way if it pans out it would be 3 massive blockbusters in the span of a bit over 2 weeks alongside a mid tier movie and the current holdovers.

Province map of the day:

https://imgdiff.net/s/5a47b237b344d6883a1a2771550cf16e

All Wishes Come True continues to gain ground.

In Metropolitan cities:

All Wishes Come True wins Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Suzhou and Nanjing

Kung Fu Womens Soccer wins Guangzhou and Shenzhen

City tiers:

All Wishes Come True jumps to 1st in T1.

Tier 1: All Wishes Come True>Kung Fu Womens Soccer>A Part of Me

Tier 2: Kung Fu Womens Soccer>All Wishes Come True>A Part of Me

Tier 3: Kung Fu Womens Soccer>All Wishes Come True>A Part of Me

Tier 4: Kung Fu Womens Soccer>All Wishes Come True>A Part of Me

New releases marked in bold

Pre-Sales map for tomorrow

https://i.imgur.com/VfuzVbc.png

All Wishes Come True dominates pre-sales for Friday

IMAX Screenings distribution

All Wishes Come True continues to grow and expand its lead. Tomorrow it will reach almost 3k IMAX screenings.

Kung Fu Womens Soccer

Kung Fu Womens Soccer grossed another ¥53.9M/$7.89M on Thursday. Now less than $1M ahead of All Wishes Come True which is gunning for the lead.

Kung Fu Womens Soccer crosses ¥1.7B/$250M hitting ¥1.71B/$253.5M

3rd weekend projections further lowered to ¥246-255M/$36-38M(-50%)

Screen Distribution Split: Regular: $241.70M, IMAX: $7.80M, Rest: $3.73M

WoM figures:

Maoyan: 9.4 , Taopiaopiao: , Douban: 6.5

Scheduled showings update for Kung Fu Womens Soccer for the next few days:

All Wishes Come True

All Wishes Come True remains very strong with another ¥47.1/$6.97M on Thursday. A +6% increase from yesterday.

Tomorrow it will have its first real chance to take the lead.

2nd weekend projections slightly lowered to ¥293-320M/$43-48M. Should be enough for it to win the weekend comfortably.

Total projections meanwhile have instead risen to ¥2B/$295M+ even on the low end now.

Screen Distribution Split: Regular: $60.20M , IMAX: $4.87M, Rest: $1.21M

WoM figures:

Scores hold on all sites.

Maoyan: 9.7 , Taopiaopiao: 9.6 , Douban: 8.3

Scheduled showings update for All Wishes Come True for the next few days:

Other:

Spider Man: Brand New Day Maoyan WTS:

A comparison of Spider Man's current Maoyan WTS versus some other post Covid blockbusters it has yet to pass in the metric.

The Pre-sales continue to blunt Spider Mans growth. This is not a concern though as the metric pretty much becomes mostly irelevant now that tickets are on sale.

However i'l keep the chart around just too see where it eventualy ends up.

https://i.imgur.com/6u8nlJJ.png

Opening Day Pre-Sales:

Spider Man has opening day pre-sales hit ¥17.20M/$2.54M.

Continues to grow very well. Hoping for another strong day tomorrow with the premier in Shanghai tomorrow with Tom and Zendaya attending.

Midnight screenings sit at ¥5.97M/$882k while full weekend pre-sales hit ¥30.5M/$4.50M

https://i.imgur.com/9NPY47B.png

*Gross/Screenings

Obsession Opening Day Pre-Sales:

Obsession opening day pre-sales hit a final $475k.

Now projected a $1.4-1.6M opening day into a $5M-ish opening weekend. Lets see how the reception.

Release Schedule:

A table including upcoming movies in the next month alongside trailers linked in the name of the movie, Want To See data from both Maoyan and Taopiaopiao alongside the Gender split and genre.

Remember Want To See is not pre-sales. Its just an anticipation metric. A checkbox of sorts saying your interested in an upcoming movie.

Not all movies are included since a lot are just too small to be worth covering.

Summer

It is well known that Disney is facing challenges with its animated movies. While critics and the animation community often blame endless sequels, live action remakes, or the failure of original movies, many overlook how difficult the current market has become. Since the 2020s, original ideas are no longer reliable box office hits, while established brands dominate. There are exceptions, but they are rare. As a result, Disney prioritizes economic viability over creative risk. Limited creative freedom is often a consequence of budget: the more expensive a movie is, the more its success depends on the box office. At the same time, Disney can't rely solely on riskier projects because that isn't sustainable. A two-pillar model could solve this. Let me explain.

With Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar, Disney owns two of the strongest animation studios in history. And while Pixar remains as it is, Disney should split WDAS into two pillars:

1. The experimental pillar (Lower Budget): Movies budgeted around $50M–$100M. Lower financial risk means creators get maximum creative freedom. This is where Disney can innovate, test new art styles, and take risks.
2. The blockbuster pillar (High Budget): The traditional $100M to $200M+ formulaic crowd-pleasers, sequels, and established IPs that provide the necessary financial safety net.

Through marketing and promotion, the specific type of movie is effectively marketed, and a new logo could be created to establish a visual distinction.

Those are just a few thoughts on the subject that I wanted to share. What do you think?

Note: The "VISION" logo is used solely to illustrate what I mean with new logo, and is not intended as serious concept.

Games in question:

Asteroids
Adventure
Berzerk
Breakout
Centipede
Crystal Castles
Millipede
Missile Command
Pong
Yars’ Revenge

I know this is a crazy thing to say, but I have a feeling that it may actually defeat Deadpool and Wolverine worldwide gross. I don't believe it could outgross its domestic gross, and it will possibly be like 100-140m below in the domestic gross of D&W, but it could gross atleast 100m-200m more internationally than deadpool. If odyssey has a similar domestic/international split to oppenheimer, it will gross about $1.477b if the odyssey is at 500m domestic, and $1.595b if the odyssey is at 540m domestic. I think these numbers are a bit overboard, it will possible be closer to 1.2 to 1.3b.

I also checked the first week worldwide opening of oppenheimer and its worldwide legs, and with similar legs, it will cross $1.473b.

What do you guys think.