“Dominion,” which left dinosaurs running loose with humans all over the world. However, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs, with many dying off. The remaining dinos mostly live in isolated environments near the equator, which have climates resembling the one they once lived in.
Writer David Koepp has said that he saw “Jurassic World Rebirth” as a chance to start over. Koepp, who also wrote the script for the original “Jurassic Park,” decided it would be easier to once again isolate the dinosaurs in places largely removed from humanity rather than try to contend with a world in which these species separated by tens of millions of years would have to find a way to co-exist.
The first act of “Rebirth” does deal with some of what the world looks like with dinosaurs in it, causing traffic jams and whatnot, but by and large, one of this movie’s biggest contributions to the franchise’s future is undoing what director Colin Trevorrow accomplished with “Dominion,” in some ways. Much changed in the five-year gap between these films.
Welcome to the Neo-Jurassic Era
Universal Pictures
The previous “Jurassic World” trilogy, particularly “Fallen Kingdom” and “Dominion,” did a lot of work to get dinosaurs off of Isla Nublar and out into the real world, so much so that “Fallen Kingdom” literally blew up Isla Nublar and brought the dinosaurs elsewhere, teeing up the events of “Dominion.” But Edwards and Koepp opted to try and scale things back once again by isolating dinosaurs to islands where humans can conveniently avoid them.
Another big thing that this “Rebirth” does is actually explain, within the universe that these films exist in, how humans have defined this strange period of modern history when dinosaurs once again exist after going extinct roughly 65 million years ago, thanks to John Hammond and the geneticists at InGen. Early on in the film when Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett goes to recruit Jonathan Bailey’s Dr. Henry Loomis, some animated documentary footage at his museum reveals that this era is known as the “Neo-Jurassic Era.”
Basically, dating back to roughly the early ’90s when Hammond first brought dinosaurs back to life, historians and scientists had to come up with a way to describe this period, which represented a seismic shift. For a time, it was chaotic, from a T-rex rampaging through the streets of San Diego at the end of “The Lost World” to the deadly events that forced Jurassic World to close. But that chaos is being reined in quite a bit as this film’s events are unfolding.
Jurassic World Rebirth isolates humans and dinosaurs once again
Universal Pictures
Most crucially, Edwards’ film once again establishes a situation where humans can, for the most part, avoid dealing with dinosaurs. There are no active dinosaur theme parks. The public has largely lost interest in dinosaurs, as they’ve been alive again for more than three decades. It’s old news. While the short film “Battle at Big Rock” offered a promising, cool vision of this franchise where we get a first-person view of the chaos that results from dinosaurs existing where humans live their day-to-day lives, that’s not something that Universal and/or the filmmakers were interested in exploring here, for better or worse.
Whatever one’s thoughts are on “Rebirth” as a whole, the decision to scale things back in this way does raise the question once again of what the whole point of “Jurassic World Dominion” was. Trevorrow went out of his way to help set up this “dinosaurs and humans coexisting” concept, which Universal supported (in no small part because the first “Jurassic World” was one of the biggest movies ever). It does feel a little odd for them to just walk that all back now. At the same time, “Dominion” focused largely on giant locusts as opposed to dinosaurs attacking cities. So if they weren’t ever going to fully commit to that idea, even in a movie where it ostensibly should have been a big part of the plot, maybe pulling things back makes some sense.
Whatever the case, this film largely exists as a standalone story. The future of the franchise is uncertain, as no direct sequel is set up. There are no post-credits scenes to speak of. If there is an eighth “Jurassic” movie — and there likely will be — barring a reboot, the next filmmaker will once again have to find a good reason for humans to head to a place where these dangerous animals live.
Neil Druckmann, who developed the original PlayStation games with his Naughty Dog team, is stepping down as co-showrunner. With that said, fans of Naughty Dog’s game portfolio might have good reason to be really excited.
“I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in ‘The Last of Us’ on HBO,” Druckmann, who previously served as co-showrunner alongside Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”), said in a statement posted on Naughty Dog’s official Instagram account. “With work completed on season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, ‘Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet,’ along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative.”
“Co-creating the show has been a career highlight,” Druckmann’s statement went on to add. “It’s been an honor to work alongside Craig Mazin to executive produce, direct, and write on the last two seasons. I’m deeply thankful for the thoughtful approach and dedication the talented cast and crew took to adapting ‘The Last of Us Part I’ and the continued adaptation of ‘The Last of Us Part II.'”
There’s no question that Druckmann has been an enormous part of HBO’s “The Last of Us” since the series began its run in early 2023, so while it feels like a game changer to see him step away, it’s good to know that it’s in service of Naughty Dog’s continued work. So, what does Mazin have to say about all this?
Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin may end up leading The Last of Us on his own
Liane Hentscher/HBO
Outlets like Variety have obtained a statement directly from Craig Mazin, a guy who was once best known for the “Hangover” sequels before he shifted his focus to a much darker subject and created the HBO series “Chernobyl,” making it clear that he’s an incredibly skilled dramatic showrunner. Unsurprisingly, Mazin was supportive of his co-showrunner’s next move.
“It’s been a creative dream to work with Neil and bring an adaptation of his brilliant work to life on HBO,” as Mazin’s statement puts it. “I couldn’t have asked for a more generous creative partner. As a true fan of Naughty Dog and Neil’s work in video games, I’m beyond excited to play his next game. While he focuses on that, I’ll continue to work with our brilliant cast and crew to deliver the show our audience has come to expect. We are so grateful to Neil and [the original game’s co-writer] Halley Gross for entrusting the incredible story of ‘The Last of Us Part II’ to us, and we’re just as grateful to the millions of people around the world who tune in.”
The references both Neil Druckmann and Mazin make to “The Last of Us Part II,” Naughty Dog’s 2020 sequel to “The Last of Us,” should make sense to anyone who watched the show’s second season. It ends with — semi-old spoiler alert! — Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby looking out at Seattle at the beginning of a narratively vital three-day run as the fate of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) hangs in the balance. It’s going to take a while, at the rate the show is going, to adapt all of “The Last of Us Part II,” the story of which spans years. In any case, it’s very possible that Mazin won’t replace Druckmann (who could possibly replace the guy who created the original game, after all?), but based on his work on the series, we can all feel pretty comfortable about Mazin steering this metaphorical ship on his own.
Neil Druckmann directed some incredibly important episodes of The Last of Us
Liane Hentscher/HBO
Something that fans of “The Last of Us” will likely miss most about Neil Druckmann’s departure from the series is that, after cutting his teeth on directing video games like “The Last of Us” itself, Druckmann stepped behind the camera for two incredibly important episodes in the series. His first episode, “Infected,” is the second-ever episode of the show and opens with one of its most stunning scenes, where we see Indonesian mycology professor Ratna Pertiwi (Christine Hakim) makes a horrifying realization about the cordyceps virus that will, eventually, overtake the world and turn people into bloodthirsty zombies. (The scene concludes with her in tears saying Jakarta should simply be bombed; it’s frankly unforgettable.) This is also the episode that fully reveals Ellie’s immunity to her new caretakers Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) as they attempt to safely transport her across a ruined United States — with Tess sacrificing herself to an infected horde to save Joel and Ellie — so it’s pretty important … and well-directed by Druckmann. (Mazin, for his part, wrote this episode.)
Then, in season 2 of the series, Druckmann took up the director’s chair once more for “The Price,” the season’s penultimate episode (which was also written by Druckmann alongside Mazin and Halley Gross). After Joel’s shocking and brutal death earlier in the season, “The Price” serves as one big flashback, similar to the game, that shows Joel and Ellie’s relationship throughout the years as they live in the protected settlement of Jackson, Wyoming. Not only is this the episode where we find out what actually happened to Joe Pantoliano’s character Eugene, but it also features one of the most emotionally resonant scenes in the entire show between Joel and Ellie, which is stunningly performed by both Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Druckmann’s departure as showrunner is tough for the series, and losing him as a director is hard too; maybe, one day, he’ll pop back in for another directing credit (though he may be too busy, so let’s not hold our breath).
Jason Blum — who struck out on his own as an independent producer in the early 2000s after leaving Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax — was haunted during those years by the fear that he would never succeed on his own.
That’s when he received a DVD of a tiny horror film titled Paranormal Activity that was shot for less than $15,000 by unknown filmmaker Oren Peli. Blum and others believed the film could be a hit and tried to find it a distributor. One door after another was slammed shut, but Blum wouldn’t give up and eventually helped garner the interest of none other than Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks. Spielberg himself watched the movie and was thoroughly spooked, according to Hollywood lore.
DreamWorks and its then-partner Paramount Pictures first released the film in more than a dozen college towns in late September 2009 before rolling it out nationwide as Halloween approached. Paranormal would go on to earn $107.9 million domestically and $194.2 million globally to become one of the most profitable titles in Hollywood history. It also put Blum’s banner, Blumhouse, on the map and ushered in the Golden Age of the micro-budgeted horror pic that scared up multi-million dollar franchises such as Paranormal, Insidious and The Purge.
Blum made Universal his home studio per a lucrative deal that allows him creative autonomy, as well as the freedom to work with other studios. Among his many successes for Universal, he helped revive the Halloween franchise, and also returned to his prestige roots when producing Oscar winners such as Jordan Peele’s Get Out (2017) and Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (2018).
Now, however, Blum’s long-ago fear of failure has returned in a reversal of fortune that began in 2024 and has continued in earnest this year, with all four of its 2025 releases becoming major box office misses, beginning with Wolf Man ($34. 1 million globally), The Woman in the Yard ($23.3 million globally) and Drop ($28.6 million globally).
But by far the most shocking failure was M3GAN 2.0, which bombed over the June 27-29 weekend and stunned Hollywood, considering it is a sequel to an unqualified hit. Released in January 2023, M3GAN — about an AI doll who takes on a life of her own with horrendous consequences — launched to $30.4 million domestically on its way to grossing $181.7 million globally against a mere budget of $12 million.
M3GAN 2.0, which cost at least $25 million to produce before marketing, opened to just $10.2 million domestically and $17 million globally.
So, what happened? Director Gerard Johnstone, Blumhouse and partner Atomic Monster, run by James Wan, decided to go in a different direction and make the M3GAN sequel more of a sci-fi action pic, whereby the doll becomes the protagonist in the style of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Audiences simply weren’t interested in the about-face. Box office pundits and Hollywood insiders also question the wisdom of releasing the sequel in the far more competitive summer corridor.
Insiders at Blumhouse tell The Hollywood Reporter that the soul-searching within the company has already commenced. It is absorbing lessons from this tough year, and is reevaluating its slate through the lens of whether a horror film qualifies as a cinematic event in an era where the market for such fare is oversaturated. There’s also a recognition that Blumhouse’s ambition to release as many as 10 titles a year theatrically may be too grand, with Blum agreeing that the box office cannot withstand as many horror films as it used to, especially smaller single and titles. Most importantly, a course correction is required in terms of remembering what the Blumhouse horror brand means, with a key takeaway being that what has worked in the past does not necessarily work in today’s changing landscape.
The company is now looking ahead to October’s Black Phone 2, which is a pure horror feature, and December’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, which test audiences are said to have responded enthusiastically to. The first Freddy’s grossed a massive $297.1 million at the global box office to become the top-earner in Blumhouse’s history against a $20 million budget, not adjusted for inflation. Insiders at both Blumhouse and Universal are hopeful that the pic will restore the luster to the house that that Blum built.
One pressing matter facing Blumhouse is M3GAN 2.0 spinoff SOULM8TE, which hits theaters Jan. 9, 2026, and tells the story of an adult AI robot companion. While it’s to soon to say whether plans for the film will change, insiders say discussions are underway regarding the entire upcoming slate, including SOULM8TE, but add that the spinoff has tested incredibly well.
Blum himself decided to speak out proactively about M3GAN 2.0 and Blumhouse’s slump in a podcast interview with The Town’s Matt Belloni during the weekend of the film’s opening. He owned up to what may have gone so wrong.
“We all thought Megan was like Superman. We could do anything to her. We could change genres. We could put her in the summer. We could make her look different. We could turn her from a bad guy into a good guy. And we classically over-thought how powerful people’s engagement was with her,” Blum said, reiterating that the audience wasn’t ready to genre-swap. (He also admitted to being in “pain” all weekend.)
One horror producer familiar with the inner workings of Blumhouse couldn’t agree more, telling THR the film’s failure boiled down to hubris. “They thought they were being all clever changing the dates and the genres,” the person said. Adds another horror producer: “This was not the sequel audiences wanted. It was the movie that the director wanted.”
The good news: no one at Universal is freaking out about M3GAN 2.0 or Blumhouse’s recent slump, since its titles are far more modestly budgeted than most studio pics. “We would be having a different conversation if they weren’t responsible,” says one studio insider. “At the end of the day, every one of these movies will make money.” All told, the 42 releases from Blumhouse since it was founded in 2002 have grossed more than $6 billion at the worldwide box office (not all belong to Universal). The vast majority cost less than $20 million to produce, and in many cases, notably less.
“I said to [Blumhouse employees] this morning that if you look at any massive talent, whether they are a movie star or whether they are a production company or whether they are a studio, every one of your favorite people have gone through slumps. And that applies to Blumhouse, too,” Blum said in his The Town interview.
Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian says no one is immune to the traffic jam taking place currently at the summer box office, whether it’s family films going up each other or genre films such as 28 Years Later and M3GAN 2.0. He adds, “It’s playing out more like a cinematic gladiator school or a Dickensian marketplace, where it’s the best of times for some and the worst of times for others.”
Charlize Theron is explaining why she won’t name the director she alleged sexually harassed her.
While on the Call Her Daddy podcast on Wednesday, the Old Guard 2 actress was asked about coming forward with her story about once being asked to go to a director’s house late at night for an audition, which was her first audition ever. Theron first shared her experience during an April 2019 interview on The Howard Stern Show.
At the time, she alleged the director opened the door in his pajamas and kept trying to talk during what she thought was going to be an audition. When the director put his hand on her knee, she said, she left.
“The little voice inside me definitely said, ‘This isn’t right,’” she said. “But then the other voice in me says, ‘Well, I don’t know. Maybe it is right.’”
After publicly sharing the story, Theron said the director heard and seemingly got nervous.
“This guy, he got a little nervous for a while there. I’ve never said his name because honestly, I don’t want the story to be about him. It’s not because I’m protecting him or anything, but he got nervous for a little bit,” Theron added.
When host Alex Cooper asked why the unnamed director was nervous, Theron explained, “Because he heard me tell the story, and he knew it was about him, and he wrote me a pretend letter trying to explain his behavior and how I must have misunderstood it, which is classic, isn’t it?”
Theron said she believes the director “started panicking.”
“He was waiting for me,” she said before clarifying why she won’t reveal his name. “And I just realized, like, I won’t even fucking say your name because you know you’re the scumbag. You know it’s you and if anybody ever asked me about him, I would be completely honest. And he knows that. And I kind of like that he’s got to be on a hot seat. He doesn’t know when it’s going to come. I kind of like that a little more.”
In her recent Hulu documentary, Call Her Alex, Cooper alleged that she was sexually harassed by her soccer coach, Nancy Feldman, at Boston University. When the two discussed how women feel guilt and shame for something that isn’t their fault, Theron recalled feeling that at the time.
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“I remember being furious with myself because I couldn’t believe how I had let myself down. I was like, “Who the fuck are you? Why the fuck would you allow that? Why?”
She continued, “I still get those feelings, because it’s you know yourself so well and there’s something that really kind of like breaks my heart to the core when people in this very luxurious manner talk about ‘Well, you know what, next time you should fucking say something. Like, don’t wait 20 years.’ This kind of like callous way of not wanting to believe. That’s really what it boils down to. It’s instead of saying, ‘I don’t believe you,’ it’s like, ‘Well, don’t be a fucking pussy. Like, maybe you shouldn’t have been a pussy about it.’ And we all know what that feels like. It feels like no matter what they say, it can’t hurt more than what you’re telling yourself.”
Theron then said that anyone could say whatever they want, and no one could hurt her “more than I hurt myself about what happened that day.”
Theron also told Cooper she’s “grateful” and respects Cooper’s “choice” to share her story: “I think that we need to tell these stories so that we can understand that we’re not alone.”
Kenny dying an absurd number of times. Now, however, the situation has gotten dicey, with the official “South Park” social media account having shared a, well, very “South Park” statement from creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
“This merger is a s*** show and it’s f***ing up ‘South Park.’ We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow,'” the statement reads.
Specifically, Parker and Stone’s statement is referencing the proposed merger between Comedy Central’s parent company Paramount Global and Skydance Media, which was inked last year but has yet to fully close. Now, Parker and Stone’s response absolutely rules. This is a very “South Park” reaction, a bridge-burning, no-nonsense, filter-off comment we rarely see from creators. (For a very tonally different shot at executives, watch the response from the creators of “The Tiny Chef Show” to their series getting canceled.)
But there is a lot more here than just Parker and Stone being mad at Comedy Central, because this statement is but the latest chapter in a long fight between the duo and Paramount. Let’s go back to the very beginning. It all started back in 2007 with the establishment of South Park Digital Studios, a partnership between Paramount (which owns Comedy Central) and Parker and Stone. The plan was for the studio to handle the streaming rights to the show (a new concept at the time), with neither of the concerned parties fully in control.
Why Parker and Stone are mad at Paramount
Comedy Central
By 2019, however, things had drastically changed in the industry. Streaming was not just a thing, it was dominating Hollywood, and every studio wanted a piece of that large cash pie. Since Paramount had no streaming platform at the time, it saw an opportunity to make a lot of money and sold the “South Park” streaming rights to HBO Max, making every episode of the show available to stream on that platform (including new episodes). Except, by 2021, Paramount had launched its own streamer with Paramount+, and that same year, the studio struck a deal with South Park Studios for an additional six seasons of the show, as well as streaming-exclusive “special episodes” meant for Paramount+.
Yes, Parker and Stone were technically double-dipping by producing “exclusive” new “South Park” projects for both HBO Max and Paramount+. This is essentially what their whole “Streaming Wars” special was about, and that special is spectacular. Still, HBO Max was not happy about what it saw as a breach of contract and sued Paramount for streaming what the company saw as new episodes on its own platform.
But that HBO Max streaming deal was set to expire now, in 2025, meaning “South Park” would only be streaming on Paramount+ after that. If only it were that easy. Instead, that streaming deal has neither been renewed nor replaced with an alternative, and Parker and Stone’s South Park Studios has been shopping the rights to other companies. Except, according to documents revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, Parker and Stone are now also threatening to sue Paramount for allegedly interfering with a new deal for the show’s streaming rights.
Specifically, Parker and Stone are accusing Jeff Shell, who is set to become president of Paramount Global after the pending merger of the studio with Skydance, over attempting to prioritize Paramount+ and shorten terms with other studios in a new streaming agreement.
In short, Parker and Stone are expressing their anger over what they see as corporate shenanigans drastically changing the way they make “South Park” (the recent seasons have been shorter since they’re also making “specials”), when the show’s episodes are released, and who can even stream them.
unexpected box office success of “Paranormal Activity” more than 15 years ago, the house that Jason Blum built has generated tons of hits, several massive franchises, and more than $6 billion at the global box office. Unfortunately, the studio has been in a bit of a slump recently and, despite seeming like a slam dunk on paper, that didn’t change with “M3GAN 2.0.”
On opening weekend, director Gerard Johnstone’s “M3GAN 2.0” opened to just $10 million domestically, which is roughly one-third of what the original film did on its way to $180 million worldwide against a $12 million budget. This one carries a $25 million budget and, though maybe not an outright flop, is going to be far from a hit. So, what the hell happened, exactly? Well, Blum has weighed in on the situation directly.
Appearing on an episode of the “Town” podcast, Blum got very honest with host Matthew Belloni about the disappointing opening for Blumhouse’s latest sequel. Blum admitted he was in a “death spiral of depression” by Monday when the final numbers had come in, which should give some sense of how rough this opening was. Speaking further, he explained that he and the other creatives behind the film got a little too confident when they started putting “M3GAN 2.0” together. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“We all thought M3GAN was like Superman. We could do anything to her. We could change genres. We could put her in the summer. We could make her look different. We could turn her from a bad guy into a good guy. And we classically over-thought how powerful people’s engagement really was with her.”
Who’s to blame for the downfall of M3GAN 2.0?
Universal Pictures
Blum had reason to be confident, but he also had reason to be sick come Monday morning. Mere weeks ago, “M3GAN 2.0” had been expected to make at least $30 million in its debut. However, between stiff competition in the summer from the likes of “F1,” weaker buzz, and a combination of other factors, those projections collapsed.
“People wanted more M3GAN just like she is,” Blum added. “Every time you do a sequel, you have to ride this very fine line. Which is, if you make it too close to the first movie, everyone says, ‘You ripped off the first movie.’ And, ‘Why’d you make this movie? What a waste of time.’ And if you make it too far away from the first movie, everyone says, ‘Why the f*** is this a sequel? This has nothing to do with the first movie and we’re pissed about it.'”
Indeed, even the trailers for “M3GAN 2.0” made it clear that this a “Terminator 2” situation. The villain becomes the hero and it goes full sci-fi instead of horror. The sequel also failed to catch on with social media the way the first movie did. There was no viral TikTok moment to rival M3GAN dancing the first time around. Blum addressed that, explaining they couldn’t just manufacture that sort of thing again. He also didn’t feel the need to shift blame to the movie’s director, saying the following:
“Gerard is a terrific director … Gerard is someone who can solve almost anything you throw at him, but he needs time. He’s just one of those directors that needs a lot of time. On the first ‘M3GAN,’ he had all of the time in the world.”
Jason Blum takes the blame for Blumhouse’s failures
Universal Pictures
“The marketplace is very different, and it’s incredibly hard to get your arms around,” Blum mused, explaining that the state of the box office has changed dramatically in the aftermath of the pandemic. He pointed to the success of movies like “Sinners” and “Final Destination Bloodlines,” noting that cinematic events seem to get the job done these days. It’s much harder for low-budget, non-event pictures.
“I shoulder the blame for this, not Universal,” Blum added. Blumhouse Productions has had a longstanding relationship with Universal Pictures, with the studio handling marketing and distribution for many of the company’s films. Even so, Blum doesn’t blame it for the sequel’s downfall.
“They play a role, but we’re in this together. I’ve made plenty of movies that have gotten a 4 [percent on] Rotten Tomatoes and they don’t call me and say, ‘You messed up.’ We locked arms and they understand like I understand that the business is long term. It goes on a long time.”
Blum was very willing to acknowledge that Blumhouse was in something of a slump, with movies like “Night Swim,” “Imaginary,” “Afraid,” “Wolf Man,” “The Woman in the Yard,” and “Drop” all serving up varying types of disappointment. Fortunately, it’s got seemingly surefire bets on the calendar that include “The Black Phone 2” and “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.” (Recall that the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” film made nearly $300 million worldwide.) Blum also made it clear that the company will take a good hard look at what went wrong and determine what needs to change once their emotions die down a bit:
“We really try and learn from our mistakes. But it really takes time. You have to get un-emotional about it and you have to get enough distance from the release to leave your emotions behind. That’s when we really look. We’ll have smaller meetings where we’ll discuss, and discuss, and discuss. Really dig into it.”
