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Christopher Nolan just crossed $700 million globally in 12 days. Tom Holland is hinting he’ll play Spider-Man forever. The Willy Wonka anniversary is bringing Gene Wilder back to theaters in 4K, including in New Jersey. This is one of those weeks in Hollywood where everything seems to be happening simultaneously, and if you follow film culture with any seriousness, you already know the feeling. The Vending Lot’s Film Studio Lot is the place where that passion translates into something physical, something you can own, display, and keep long after any given opening weekend becomes a memory.
The box office numbers, the trailer drops, the industry controversies, and what all of it means for the people who love movies not just as content but as culture. Tune in. It’s going to be a full hour.
But right now, let’s talk about what’s happening in Hollywood this week and why the Film Studio Lot is the right place to be paying attention.
The Odyssey Is Rewriting the Rules
$700 million globally in 12 days. Let that sit for a moment. Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic pulled $87 million this past weekend alone against a $304 million domestic cumulative total, which puts it on a trajectory that very few films in the history of cinema have matched at this pace. It’s doing this while simultaneously drawing pointed criticism from classical scholars and translator Emily Wilson, whose celebrated 2017 English translation of The Odyssey brought the poem to a new generation of readers and who has been publicly vocal about her concerns regarding the screenplay’s handling of the source material. That tension between commercial success and scholarly objection is exactly the kind of cultural friction that makes a film interesting beyond its opening weekend, and it’s the kind of conversation that will be happening for years.
The Film Studio Lot doesn’t carry an Odyssey collection yet, but it does carry the properties that define what serious film collecting looks like across multiple genres and eras. And right now, with the biggest cinematic story of the summer unfolding in real time, there’s no better moment to think about what you actually want on your shelf.
Spider-Man Is Back and Tom Holland Isn’t Going Anywhere
Early screening reactions for Spider-Man: Brand New Day are coming in warm, and Holland’s public comments about the role signal something that Marvel fans have quietly been hoping for: he’s not done, he’s not burned out, and he appears to be genuinely excited about where this fourth film takes Peter Parker. The film opens July 31, and the tracking numbers suggest a massive global opening weekend is likely. It’s directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, and features Jon Bernthal as the Punisher, Michael Mando as the Scorpion, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, and Sadie Sink in her MCU debut.
The Film Studio Lot’s Spider-Man section has the collector’s pieces for this moment: Jada’s 1/24 scale Western Star 57X truck tractor in Spider-Man’s blue and red metallic at $51.99, the 1/32 Porsche 911 GT3 RS at $17.86, the Wave 3 Metalfigs four-figure set at $37.10, and two poker card variants at $19.98 each. These are the pieces that connect a fan’s physical collection to the cultural moment happening right now at theaters worldwide. You don’t buy a Spider-Man collectible because you saw a movie. You buy it because the character means something to you, and these pieces are built to reflect that.
Jumanji, Thomas Crown, and the Trailers Everybody Is Talking About
Sony dropped the first official trailer for Jumanji: Open World this week, reuniting Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black for the franchise’s third installment. The original 2017 reboot was one of the more surprising commercial successes of that year, and the 2019 sequel held its own. A third film is a genuine risk in a franchise environment where the audience’s appetite for sequels is increasingly unpredictable, but Johnson, Hart, and Black are a combination that has a documented chemistry on screen, and the trailer’s reception has been strongly positive across social media.
Amazon MGM released the first official look at a reimagined Thomas Crown Affair starring Michael B. Jordan in a role that positions him as a leading man in the heist thriller genre rather than in the action-drama space where most of his biggest recent work has landed. The original 1999 Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan is the kind of stylish, character-driven studio film that doesn’t get made as often anymore, and Jordan’s version appears to be attempting to revive that specific mode of filmmaking. It’s one of the more interesting studio bets of the fall season.
The Film Studio Lot covers properties across the full spectrum of what cinema produces, from blockbuster franchise entries to prestige independent releases to the classic era films that defined the language of American moviemaking. The Mission Impossible section, the James Bond 007 collection spanning individual films across the entire franchise, the Back to the Future lineup, the Marvel Studios section with individual character collections for Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, and dozens more: the breadth of what’s available reflects a genuine commitment to film culture rather than simply stocking whatever happens to be trending.
Willy Wonka in 4K, in Theaters, in New Jersey
This one genuinely matters. Warner Bros. and Fathom Events are bringing the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory back to theaters in a digitally remastered 4K presentation to mark its 55th anniversary, with a special retrospective introduction included in the limited engagement screenings at major national chains. Several of those screenings are happening at locations across New Jersey, which makes this a local opportunity that deserves a specific mention.
The 1971 film, directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder in the defining performance of his career, is one of those properties where the gap between what the film actually is and how it’s typically discussed has always been interesting. Most people remember it as a children’s movie. Watch it again as an adult and it reads as something considerably stranger and more specifically unsettling, a film that seems to be operating in a register that sits just slightly outside normal children’s entertainment, which is exactly why it has sustained its cultural presence across five decades and two remake attempts. Wilder’s performance is the reason. It’s not a performance designed to be reassuring to children. It’s a performance designed to be genuinely unpredictable to everyone, and that unpredictability is what gives the film its staying power.
The Vending Lot’s Film Studio Lot carries Willy Wonka merchandise within the broader Warner Bros. and classic film catalog sections, and the 55th anniversary theatrical run is the right moment to own something that connects you to the property in a physical way. The 4K remaster in a theater environment, on an actual screen with actual sound, is a genuinely different experience from a streaming watch, and if you’re in New Jersey and can make it to one of the screenings, it’s worth the trip.
What’s Streaming This Week
Ted Lasso is coming back. Jason Sudeikis revealed the official trailer for a confirmed fourth season, and the creative decision to reposition the series around women’s soccer signals that the show isn’t simply recycling its original premise. The first three seasons built one of the most genuinely warm and emotionally intelligent series in recent streaming history, and a fourth season that extends the premise into new territory while keeping the character’s essential optimism intact is a promising direction. It lands on Apple TV+ later this year.
Netflix dropped the Outer Banks Season 5 trailer, which the show is positioning as the final treasure hunt for the Pogues. The series has run longer than most of its genre peers and maintains a devoted fan base that has followed the cast through multiple increasingly elaborate adventure storylines. A fifth and final season that delivers a satisfying conclusion to the treasure narrative is what the audience is hoping for, and the trailer suggests the production is taking that responsibility seriously.
Hulu shared a fall release date and first look footage for Chad Powers Season 2, the Glen Powell-led football comedy that found a strong audience in its first season largely on the strength of Powell’s considerable comic charisma and the show’s willingness to lean into the absurdity of its premise rather than trying to make it respectable. Season 2 expands the supporting cast and appears to push the central character further into situations where the disguise that drives the show’s premise becomes increasingly difficult to sustain.
The Box Office, Ranked
The Odyssey led the weekend with $87 million, bringing its domestic total to $304 million and its global number past $700 million. Moana held well in its fourth weekend with $10.5 million for a $104 million cumulative domestic run, which positions it comfortably within the range of a successful Disney live-action theatrical release. Toy Story 5 added $10 million to reach $450 million domestically, a number that confirms the franchise’s continued commercial vitality despite the longer gap between installments. The real surprise of the weekend was Hadestown: The Musical, which opened to $9.7 million against a $12 million cumulative total, suggesting that the theatrical adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical is finding an audience beyond the existing fan base of the stage production. Minions and Monsters added $9.6 million for a $157 million total.
The Film Studio Lot carries official licensed merchandise for several of these properties. The Moana collection is live and stocked with 13 products timed to the theatrical run. The Disney section covers the broader Walt Disney Pictures catalog across multiple eras. For the properties currently in theaters and driving this weekend’s numbers, the Film Studio Lot is where the fan merchandise lives for the collectors who want to connect their physical collection to the cultural moment.
Industry News You Need to Know
Jared Leto issued a public statement this week calling allegations made in a BBC documentary “categorically false.” The documentary raised accusations of sexual misconduct, and Leto’s denial was immediate and emphatic. The situation is ongoing and will likely generate continued coverage as responses from the network and documentary filmmakers emerge.
BTS has confirmed they won’t be submitting music for consideration at the 2027 Grammy Awards. The decision is significant given the group’s enormous global following and the ongoing conversation within the K-pop community about how American music industry institutions engage with international artists. The Grammy organization has not publicly responded to the announcement.
The entertainment world lost two genuinely significant figures this week. Glen Hansard, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Falling Slowly from the 2007 film Once, died at 56. Hansard was not just an Oscar winner but a deeply respected live performer and songwriter whose work with The Frames and his ongoing solo career built a following that went well beyond the film that made him internationally known. Kavinsky, the French electronic music producer and artist whose 2013 track Nightcall, featured prominently in the film Drive, became one of the defining sounds of a specific moment in electronic music production, died at 50. Both losses are genuinely felt across communities that cared about the specific kind of artistry each represented.
The Film Studio Lot: Built for Serious Collectors
Here’s the honest pitch for why the Vending Lot’s Film Studio Lot is worth your time as a collector: it’s not trying to be everything to everyone. It’s curated around the films and franchises that have genuinely mattered to the people who care about cinema, across multiple generations and multiple genres, and it carries merchandise that reflects that care in the quality of the products themselves.
The James Bond 007 collection spans individual films from Dr. No through the Daniel Craig era, with 46 products covering more than 60 years of the franchise’s history. The Fast and Furious section carries 105 products, the largest individual franchise collection in the store, reflecting both the franchise’s enormous commercial reach and the genuine collector enthusiasm it generates. The Batman section carries 35 products across the TV and film iterations of the character. The Happy Gilmore and Happy Madison sections carry 35 and 36 products respectively, a reflection of the store’s commitment to comedy properties alongside its superhero and action-adventure offerings. The Fantastic Four section carries 54 products timed to the current theatrical release. The Despicable Me section has 35 products. The Wicked section carries 54 products in recognition of the musical’s theatrical and streaming success.
The Film Studio Lot also carries some of the more unexpected and specifically beloved properties in the licensed merchandise space. The This is Spinal Tap section has 46 products, the Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere section has 36, the Running Man section has 37, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle carries 25. These aren’t the obvious franchise choices. They’re the properties that a genuine film culture audience actually wants merchandise for, not just the properties that dominate global box office charts.
[Your story here about the film that made you want to own something connected to it, whether that was a poster, a diecast vehicle, or a piece of clothing.]
The TV Studio Store mirrors that philosophy across television, with more than 1,250 products covering scripted series from the classic network era through contemporary streaming. The Merch Stand covers music across more than 250 artists. On Broadway serves the stage production audience. Funko Town brings collectible vinyl figures together from across the entertainment world. The Vending Lot newsletter on Substack is where the deeper conversations about new arrivals, collection features, and cultural context happen between broadcasts.
The box office, the trailers, the industry news, and what it means for the people who love film culture seriously enough to collect it. Tune in, and shop the Film Studio Lot while the week’s biggest stories are still unfolding.