The month of July might go down in history for having delivered two movies that passed the coveted $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey is a tough sell to all four quadrants of the audience, but the filmmaker is coming off the astounding success of Oppenheimer, which was arguably even less of a sure thing. The three-hour R-rated biographical thriller exceeded all expectations to gross $975 million worldwide, in addition to winning the Best Picture honor at the Oscars and earning Nolan his first Best Director Academy Award. Later this month, Sony will release Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which should be in tremendous shape even if it grosses half of its predecessor’s nearly $2 billion worldwide haul. However, another movie is poised to beat The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day to the $1 billion milestone.
The movie was released two weeks ago to massive box-office success and excellent reviews. It continues to hold the record for the biggest debut of 2026, with nearly $160 million domestically in three days. We’re talking, of course, about Toy Story 5. Directed by Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton, the movie holds a “Certified Fresh” 92% critics’ score and a “Verified Hot” 95% audience score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Proving that old toys can learn new tricks while reckoning with an era of endless screen time, Toy Story 5 largely sidesteps franchise fatigue by reaffirming that children everywhere still got a friend in these lovable characters.”
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Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
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🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
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01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
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02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
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03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
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04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
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05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
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06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
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07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
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08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
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09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
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10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
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The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
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Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
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Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
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Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
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Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
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No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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Here’s How Much ‘Toy Story 5’ Has Grossed at the Box Office So Far
Produced on a reported budget of $250 million, Toy Story 5 has grossed $880 million at the worldwide box office in two full weeks of release, and is poised to become the year’s third blockbuster to pass the $1 billion mark after The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and the Michael Jackson biopic, Michael. It’ll also become the third film in the three-decade-old Toy Story franchise, after Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4, to hit the $1 billion mark. Only five Pixar movies have passed this milestone so far; besides the third and fourth Toy Story installments, Finding Dory, Inside Out 2, and Incredibles 2 are all a part of this esteemed club. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Thrillers have consistently proven themselves among the most versatile and emotionally striking genres of filmmaking, with their mixture of layered storytelling, mature themes, and high-stakes tension making the genre home to some of cinema’s greatest achievements. Even more praised and complete with impactful storytelling than thrillers themselves are psychological thrillers, whose focus on dynamic characters and painful stories often make them icons of exceptional adult filmmaking.
Many great psychological thrillers have come out over the years, yet it takes a truly special work of cinematic artistry to create an experience that delivers greatness at every second of its runtime. From beginning to end, the psychological thrillers on this list are some of cinema’s greatest achievements and the most acclaimed films of their respective eras. Many of these films often litter the varying greatest-of-all-time lists, their stature and reputation preceding them.
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‘Prisoners’ (2013)
Keller (Hugh Jackman) walking through the snow in ‘Prisoners.’Image via Warner Bros.
While Denis Villeneuve is recognized nowadays for his work on striking sci-fi films like the Dune films and Arrival, the director also helped shape one of the greatest thrillers of the 2010s, Prisoners. The film sees a community’s painful reaction to the mysterious disappearance of two young children, with one of the fathers, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), going down a spiral of anguish and rage in search of answers. At the same time, hardened detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) tries to keep up and stop Dover before he does something terrible.
With a seamlessly effective dual story that focuses on different protagonists as they similarly approach this central mystery, Prisoners keeps audiences engaged and on the edge of their seats throughout the entire runtime. Between the subtle hints, various red herrings, and monumental reveals,the film does a great job of keeping the mystery compelling while exploring the anguish of the characters on-screen.
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‘Black Swan’ (2010)
Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers performing ballet onstage in a white feathered costume in Black Swan.Image via Searchlight Pictures
A work of art equal parts beautiful and haunting, Black Swan cuts to the heart of the toxicity and madness that arises from a mentality of perfection above all else, to the point of complete disassociation and losing grip on reality itself. The film follows a highly dedicated ballerina, Nina (Natalie Portman), whose mental and emotional health spirals after becoming the prima ballerina in a prestigious production of Swan Lake.
The exceptional choreography and beauty of the dance on display proves to only scratch the surface of Black Swan‘s strengths, as its highly dedicated characters go to maddening lengths in their plight of perfection in the art form of dance. With masterful performances from the likes of Portman and Mila Kunis at its center, Black Swan isn’t afraid to massively unnerve the audience with its unsettling story and filmmaking.
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‘Whiplash’ (2014)
Miles Teller screaming while sitting behind a drumset in Whiplash (2014)Image via Sony Pictures Classics
Yet another story of the sacrifices and pain that come from fighting towards perfection in art, Whiplash has much more rage and painful discomfort as opposed to Black Swan‘s outright horror. The film follows a dedicated young drummer (Miles Teller) with aspirations of becoming one of the very best, learning under the eye of Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), one of the most ruthless and strict music instructors imaginable. It doesn’t take long before Fletcher’s teaching begins taking a physical and mental toll.
Whiplash does not hold back in its ruthless depiction of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse, with exceptional performances to accompany the pain and weight of every mistake. It’s a dynamic exploration into this type of toxic mentality towards art that still feels powerful and brilliant. Time will only continue to be kind to this perfect mixture of top-notch jazz music and nail-biting thrills.
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‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968)
Mia Farrow as Rosemary in Rosemary’s Baby (1968)Image via Paramount Pictures
A masterclass of horror and humanist themes from one of the most celebrated filmmakers of the era, Roman Polanski‘s Rosemary’s Baby has only grown more legendary and influential in the decades following its release. This masterclass of tension and dread follows a young couple moving into a notorious New York apartment building with hopes of starting a family together. However, Rosemary (Mia Farrow) begins to get increasingly paranoid when she begins to suspect that their neighbors have sinister plans for her and her baby.
The distinct mixture of dynamic characters, overwhelming tension, and powerful psychological themes made Rosemary’s Baby one of the most striking and one-of-a-kind horror experiences of the era. Its level of thrills and tension is still entirely unmatched by any other thriller of the ’60s and has made the film an icon of both the thriller and horror genres. Its feminist themes and messaging on Catholicism have further cemented it as an unmistakable pillar of the genre.
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‘Mulholland Drive’ (2001)
Naomi Watts and Laura Harring looking upward in Mulholland Drive.Image via Universal Pictures
No singular filmmaker comes close to David Lynch, whose distinct style has elevated numerous exceptional thrillers into classic status. However, it’s Mulholland Drive that remains his best feature-length work, seamlessly blending his classic style with a dynamic mystery and the illusive energy of Hollywood. It’s the type of wild, abstract thriller that is best experienced without knowing anything about it going in, as fresh eyes enhance its abstract elements that much more.
What can be said without directly spoiling the film is that Mulholland Drive thrives off of the personality-driven directing style that Lynch has cultivated throughout his entire career. It almost, at times, feels like a combination of everything that has made Lynch’s films so distinct and compelling, all wrapped up in a compelling puzzle box that never feels too out of reach for the audience.
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‘Oldboy’ (2003)
Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) holding a hammer at the camera in OldboyImage via Show East
One of many masterful films from legendary South Korean director Park Chan-wook, Oldboy is a brilliant exploration of pain as it delves into the hollow, destructive aspects and consequences of revenge. The film follows a man (Choi Min-sik) who has been held prisoner and tortured for 15 years. His sudden release sends him on a revenge-fueled web of conspiracy and violence in search of answers. With powerful psychological dynamics at play and top-notch filmmaking elevating the material, Oldboy delivers a true masterpiece experience from beginning to end.
Every aspect has an allure of perfection and pristine craft that adds to the entire experience, from the powerful emotional performances to the shocking climactic twists. Oldboy even features one of the most celebrated and impactful action sequences of the 2000s despite not even being a full-on action thriller. This icon of South Korean cinema has stood as one of the region’s greatest cinematic achievements for decades, only growing more appreciated and acclaimed with each passing year.
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Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
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Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
🎖️Rambo
🍸James Bond
🏺Indiana Jones
🔧John McClane
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🎭Ethan Hunt
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01
You’re dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
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02
You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.
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03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
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04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
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05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
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06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
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07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
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08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
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09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
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10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.
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Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
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Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
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Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
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John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
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Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
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‘Memento’ (2000)
Image via Newmarket
Christopher Nolan has made a legendary legacy for himself with his filmography of abstract concepts and dynamic filmmaking. However, arguably his greatest achievement is still his breakout film, Memento, which embellishes Nolan’s greatest strengths as a storyteller. The film has an ingenious methodology for non-linear storytelling, showing the sequence of events starting with the very end as well as the very beginning, switching back and forth and going backwards from the end and forward from the beginning until meeting in the middle.
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While seeming complicated from the outset, Memento does an exceptional job of establishing information and making sure that the audience is never lost. It constantly recontextualizes scenes with newfound information, as we learn more and more with each scene. This flawless thriller is as captivating and exceptional as mystery thrillers get, being even more compelling on rewatches where audiences pick up on all the small details.
‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter smiling sinisterly in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).Image via Orion Pictures
One of the most critically acclaimed films of all time and an absolute icon of ’90s filmmaking that completely dominated the era culturally, The Silence of the Lambs is a masterclass thriller whose reputation speaks for itself. The police procedural elevates the already exceptional story into a league of its own thanks to some brilliant central performances, pitch-perfect pacing, and shocking visuals that don’t shy away from the brutality and terror of its concepts.
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The film became an overwhelming cultural phenomenon that other psychological thrillers could only hope to achieve, as it was one of the must-watch masterpieces of the ’90s that just about everyone had experienced. Anthony Hopkins‘ legendary performance as Hannibal Lecter is touted as one of the greatest villain performances of all time, while Jodie Foster became an A-List star and broke free of her legacy as a child actress.
‘Rear Window’ (1954)
Jeff Jefferies (James Stewart) looks through his camera in Rear Window.Image via Paramount Pictures
The inherent mastery of Alfred Hitchcock‘s thrillers has been explored and screamed from the rooftops for generations, as his influence as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time is not without merit. Of all of his brilliant thrillers, no singular one speaks to his masterful blend of story and tension like Rear Window, often considered to be the greatest bottle movie ever made. This striking tale of a nosy photographer convinced that one of his neighbors committed a murder still stands as one of cinema’s most captivating stories.
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Hitchcock goes all out to amplify the intrigue and excitement of this premise, seamlessly placing audiences in the main character’s perspective, learning things at the same time as him and inviting the audience to make sense of what is being witnessed. It’s been an icon of psychological mystery filmmaking ever since its release, one of the greatest achievements of the genre that feels just as powerful over 70 years after its release.
‘Parasite’ (2019)
Park So-dam and Choi Woo-shik check their cellphones in a scene from ParasiteImage via NEON
Arguably the most acclaimed and massively celebrated movie of the last 10 years. It may seem presumptuous to have Parasite at the top of the list above so many icons of the psychological thriller genre, yet its overwhelming quality is undeniable. Bong Joon Ho‘s masterpiece of comedic thrills and class divide is rife with flourishes and charm that make it deeply compelling, all without taking away from the exceptional storytelling and thematic depth at its center.
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Parasite exemplifies and expands upon the greatest strengths of the psychological thriller genre while simultaneously breaking new ground with its execution and style. It’s the definitive psychological thriller masterpiece of the modern era that will assuredly attain a dominating legacy in the genre, as the only thing holding its legacy back is time.
Until last weekend, only one movie released in 2026 had hit the coveted $1 billion mark. The video game adaptation sequel The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which features the voices of Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black, just edged past the milestone as its theatrical run came to an end, becoming the latest recent animated sequel to do so, following the likes of China’s Ne Zha 2, Inside Out 2, and Zootopia 2. Many had expected the next film to hit this milestone to be Toy Story 5, but the King of Pop has officially gotten there first.
Although an uncanny lead performance from Jaafar Jackson (Michael’s real nephew) earned widespread praise, Antoine Fuqua’s musical biopic, Michael,faced enormous backlash from critics upon arrival. However, the shiny musical experience proved enticing enough to earn praise from fans and calls for a sequel. Lionsgate film chief, Adam Fogelson, previously confirmed that a sequel was in development, saying, “We are really excited about the progress we’re making with respect to a second ‘Michael’ film. All the conversations that we’ve been having with all of the appropriate parties continue to go exceptionally well.” A sequel would inevitably have to tackle some of the more controversial aspects of Jackson’s life, which the first film almost entirely ignored.
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Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
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Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
Advertisement
🪙No Country for Old Men
Advertisement
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
Advertisement
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
Advertisement
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
Advertisement
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
Advertisement
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
Advertisement
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
Advertisement
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
Advertisement
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
Advertisement
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
Advertisement
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
Advertisement
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Advertisement
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Advertisement
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Advertisement
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Advertisement
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
Advertisement
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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‘Michael’ Makes Box Office History
Thanks to its run in overseas markets after an impressive display in domestic theaters earlier this year, Michael has now surpassed the $1 billion mark, split between $629.8 million overseas and $371.8 million domestically. This milestone is particularly significant, as it marks the first biopic to achieve such a feat, as well as being Lionsgate’s first billion-dollar movie. Recently, Michael also became the biggest film based on a real person in cinema history, surpassing Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer just before the director debuts his most ambitious film yet in The Odyssey.
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“Audiences have embraced the film from the beginning, turning it into a unique cultural phenomenon in theaters around the world,” said the aforementioned Fogelson. “Their passion speaks to the enduring appeal of one of the greatest recording artists of all time, and it underscores the continued strength and vitality of the theatrical moviegoing experience.”
For the biggest movie news, including box office updates, stay tuned to Collider.
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Sunscreen’s main purpose may be to protect your skin, but it’s much more than that — any product you apply to your face should make you feel good. What’s the point if it doesn’t bring you joy? That’s how Julianne Hough feels about her favorite sunscreen.
The multihyphenate has waxed poetic about the EltaMD UV Daily Tinted Broad Spectrum SPF 40 for years. Hough has always believed in the importance of taking care of her skin and putting it “first.” But beyond effective ingredients, it’s all about how a product improves her mood. “I love how this sunscreen makes me feel fresh and beautiful,” she once shared in an interview with E!.
I’m gonna take a wild guess that the reason this sunscreen makes Hough feel “fresh and beautiful” is its tint. The sheer color works to even out skin tone so you can go about your day without any additional coverage — yep, that means no foundation — and fully embrace your skin throughout summer.
Essentially, the multi-tasking formula acts as a moisturizer, face base and sunscreen to simplify your routine so you can spend more time doing the things that you love. Hyaluronic acid keeps skin plump and hydrated, while SPF ingredients protect against the sun’s harsh rays, which contribute to signs of aging like wrinkles and fine lines.
Britney Spears has found an unlikely voice coming to her defense following the freeway stunt that sparked days of intense online debate.
Just as criticism surrounding the pop star’s recent behavior reached another fever pitch, someone with one of the most complicated histories in her life urged the public to respond with compassion instead of judgment.
The unexpected comments come after a week in which Spears also defended herself an Instagram post.
MEGA
Days after Britney Spears made headlines for standing through the sunroof of a moving Mercedes SUV on Los Angeles’ 101 Freeway, her former manager, Sam Lutfi, offered an unexpected response to the controversy.
Rather than criticizing the singer, Lutfi urged people to avoid rushing to conclusions.
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“I think compassion is a better response than mockery,” he told the Daily Mail.
Calling for empathy, Lutfi added, “She’s a human being before she’s a celebrity. People are very quick to judge, especially when it’s Britney.”
He also cautioned against speculation surrounding Spears’ well-being, saying, “Social media isn’t someone’s medical chart,” and stressed that he had no desire “to diagnose [or] criticize” the Grammy winner.
Acknowledging the extraordinary level of public scrutiny Spears has faced throughout her life, Lutfi concluded, “She’s already spent her life under a microscope, so why don’t we show her the same grace we’d want for ourselves, period? I wish her nothing but the best.”
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Lutfi’s comments marked a striking departure from the years of legal conflict that once defined the pair’s relationship.
Britney Spears Has Already Responded To The Freeway Backlash
Lutfi’s remarks arrived after Spears had already addressed the viral freeway incident herself.
As The Blast previously reported, photographs captured the singer standing through the moonroof of a black Mercedes SUV while traveling along the 101 Freeway near Studio City. The images quickly spread online, with many questioning whether the moment had been unnecessarily dangerous.
Spears, however, dismissed the assumptions in an Instagram post.
“What people see is two seconds of insanity of me arching me to the lords !!!!!” she wrote.
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She continued, “Yet the days and hours of my reality !!!!!! Nothing is what it seems.”
Spears jokingly added, “Psss I think I need to come out of the roof quite a bit more.”
Spears Shares Her Innermost Thoughts
Only hours later, the singer returned to Instagram with another lengthy reflection, sharing thoughts about mythology, vampires, mermaids, hidden worlds beneath the ocean, and the power of fiction.
She also described feeling as though she briefly looked “6 or 7 years old” after reading a novel reminiscent of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
Taken together, the posts suggested Spears wanted followers to look beyond viral snapshots and understand that her inner thoughts and daily life are far more complex than a single headline.
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Britney Spears And Sam Lutfi Share A Long And Complicated History
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Lutfi’s defense has drawn attention largely because of his deeply controversial history with Spears.
He became closely involved with the singer during the turbulent period surrounding her highly publicized struggles in 2007 and early 2008, shortly after her divorce from Kevin Federline. His role in Spears’ life quickly became the subject of intense legal disputes involving her family.
In 2008, Spears’ mother, Lynne Spears, sought a restraining order against Lutfi while making numerous allegations about his conduct. Lutfi denied wrongdoing.
The legal battle ultimately became part of the wider events surrounding the conservatorship that governed much of Spears’ personal and financial life for the next 13 years.
The conflict continued over the following decade. After filing a lawsuit against Spears and her family that was eventually settled out of court, Lutfi later became the subject of another restraining order in 2019 after the singer’s legal team accused him of harassing her family and attempting to interfere with matters related to her conservatorship. Lutfi again denied the allegations.
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Against that backdrop, his latest public comments stand out because they contained no criticism, accusations, or legal threats, only a call for compassion.
Sam Lutfi Has Defended Spears More Than Once Since The Conservatorship
Although Lutfi’s relationship with Britney Spears ended in years of courtroom battles, his public comments about the singer have changed considerably in recent years.
Following the end of Spears’ conservatorship in 2021, Lutfi repeatedly voiced support for her right to make her own decisions and argued that many public assumptions about her personal life had been unfair.
More recently, he also pushed back against claims made about Spears in Kevin Federline’s new book, saying the public had never been given the complete picture of what happened during the final months before the conservatorship began.
Lutfi has maintained that he witnessed much of that period firsthand and has consistently argued that Spears has long been judged through headlines rather than context.
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Whether people agree with his account or not, his latest comments after the freeway incident follow a pattern that has emerged over the last several years: publicly urging people to resist making sweeping conclusions about the singer based on isolated moments.
Laura Dern is breaking her silence on former Jurassic Park costar Sam Neill’s death with a meaningful tribute.
“Sam was my beloved lifetime friend,” Dern, 59, said in a statement shared with Us Weekly on Monday, July 13. “He showed me the depths of loyalty, protectiveness and love always with the driest of wit.”
She added, “He was a true and noble gentleman, wrapped up in my dream leading man. I will love you forever, Dr. Alan Grant.”
Dern played Ellie Sattler in 1993’s Jurassic Park alongside Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant. The duo reprised their roles for 2001’s Jurassic Park III and 2022’s Jurassic World Dominion.
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MCA/courtey Everett Collection
Neill’s family announced in a statement on Monday that he died at age 78.
“It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia,” wrote via his Instagram page, using the Māori word for family. “Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.”
The statement concluded, “They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
Celebrities are mourning the loss of Jurassic Park and Peaky Blinders star Sam Neill. Neill’s family announced on Monday, July 13, that he died unexpectedly at age 78. They promised “more details will be shared later,” asking for privacy as they navigate the loss. “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill […]
Neill revealed in his 2023 memoir that he was diagnosed with stage III angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. He was put on an anti-cancer drug after chemotherapy failed. While he was considered to be in remission, doctors told him that the medication would eventually stop working.
“I know I’ve got it, but I’m not really interested in it,” Neill told Australian Story in October 2023. “It’s out of my control. If you can’t control it, don’t get into it.”
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Before his death, the actor became known to a new generation of fans as Chief Inspector Chester Campbell in the first two seasons of Peaky Blinders.
“We are devastated to hear that Sam Neill has died. Sam’s portrayal of Chester Campbell is one for the ages,” the official Peaky Blinders Instagram shared in a statement on Monday. “A villain who is despicable, petty, manipulative, but also charismatic, vulnerable, funny, and supremely entertaining to watch.”
He added, “Sam was one of the key forces that got Peaky Blinders off to a running start, for which we will be forever grateful. Our love and thoughts are with his family.”
Fans are feeling the loss of Stargate all over again following Amazon’s cancellation of the revival series while it was still in pre-production. Joseph Mallozzi, longtime writer for the franchise who wrote Stargate SG-1’s “Window of Opportunity,” “Wormhole X-Treme,” Stargate Atlantis “Enemy at the Gate,” and Stargate Universe’s “Incursion” two-parter with his longtime writing partner Paul Mullie, among many, many other acclaimed episodes, shared on X the scrapped plans for a Stargate Atlantis movie. Called Stargate: Extinction it would have served as a wrap-up movie for the series, and Mallozzi went into great detail for the fans.
Joseph Mallozzi Pulls Back The Curtain On Stargate: Extinction
Stargate: Extinction would pick up after the end of Season 5, with Atlantis relocated to the Milky Way Galaxy and now resting on the surface of the Moon. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) and Richard Woolsey (Robert Picardo) are among those who think the IOA is making a bad choice, but their pleas to keep fighting the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy fall on deaf ears. Upon firing up the Stargate, everyone learns The Ancients put in a failsafe, and now, removed from the Pegasus Galaxy, the Stargate is rigged to explode.
Woolsey “gets the band back together” as Mallozzi calls it, including John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan), Ronon (Jason Momoa), and Todd the Wraith (Sanctuary’s Christopher Heyerdahl), as they attempt to use the wormhole drive to reach Pegasus. It falls short, burning out some 300,000 light years away, leading up to “a high-flying adventure involving a mysterious civilization tapping the limitless potential of the accretion streams between two stars, time travel, and a race against time to avert not only the destruction of Atlantis but the extinction of an entire race.” That right there sounds fantastic, but Mallozzi goes even further, and highlighted two sequences that would leave fans screaming.
Joe Flanigan As Stargate Atlantis Badass John Sheppard
One, involves Sheppard on the enemy mothership, with nowhere to run from the hordes of soldiers after him. He winds up in a storage room that contains stolen Atlantis tech. The camera would show the aliens lined up outside the door, ready to finish him off, when we hear thumping against the door. That’s when Sheppard emerges inside an Asgard exo-suit. All of a sudden, he’s not the one who’s trapped.
Todd
The second featured Todd the Wraith facing off a Future Version of himself. They fight, argue over their philosophy, and then, at the last moment, Todd is saved by Rodney McKay. Alongside Sheppard, they fight together for the greater good while Carson Beckett (Paul McGillion) has the helm of Atlantis in a head-to-head battle against the mothership. Against the odds, they pull out a victory, and Atlantis is returned to the Pegasus Galaxy.
The Death Of The DVD Was The End For Atlantis
That sounds incredible. Joseph Mallozzi explained that what happened was the bottom fell out of the DVD market and with it, the green light to make Stargate: Extinction. What Mallozzi and the rest of the talented crew in the writer’s room put together is the send off that the series deserved. Stargate SG-1 had a series of direct-to-DVD movies to wrap up the battle against the Goa’uld, and while the movie didn’t finish the fight against the Wraiths, it would have solved the gigantic cliffhanger from Season 5, while setting up the crew for more adventures.
Instead, Atlantis was canceled and any plans for a follow up film or Season 6 went with it. Mallozzi and Mullie went on to create Dark Matter, one of the best SyFy original shows, while Stargate was put on the backburner following the end of Stargate Universe. Someday Amazon, the current rights holder for the franchise, will decide to bring it back, and do it right, but after the last sudden cancelation it doesn’t look good. Until then, fans have their memories, and three great shows that are all available for rewatching right now, while we dream over what could have been.
Nolan Xavier Wells’ Mom Shares Message For Those “Joking” About Her Son’s Death
On Sunday, July 12, Christine Wonsley took to Facebook to share a message “for those… making light or joking” about the death of her son.
“For those of you making light or joking about my son’s death I pray you never have to go through this pain,” she wrote. ” However if you are ever in this situation or similar, I pray people give you grace. I pray that people WILL NOT joke about you losing your loved one. I saw the comment of two people that I went to high school with and it was absolutely disgusting. I’ll pray for you. Losing my son is not a joke. #JusticeForNolanWells#Forever18″
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She Also Shared Words For Her Son’s Friends
Previously, on Saturday, July 11, Christine Wonsley also took to Facebook to share a separate message. This one was shorter and focused on her family, friends, and her son’s friends.
“The internet is unhinged. To my family, friends, and to Nolan’a friends please do not engage and take care of your mental,” she wrote.
Prior to this, Wonsley had shared a photo post regarding her son and his friends.
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More On The Ongoing Investigation Into The Death Of Nolan Xavier Wells
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