Wednesday, August 12, 2026
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
The Roundup with Jeff Stockton (Season 36 Round 9)
This round we got another promising expansion of the Wizarding World, a horror film with a terrific lead pairing that never quite figured itself out, and one of the more frustrating historical dramas of the entire season. Here's The Roundup....
AN UNHOLY UNION
Before I criticize it — and trust me, that's coming — I want to acknowledge what this movie gets right. The concept is excellent. Take isolated horror, mix in psychological obsession, cast Elizabeth Olsen and Aubrey Plaza opposite one another, and you've immediately got my attention. On paper, this sounds like one of the season's strongest pitches.
And for long stretches, the chemistry between Olsen and Plaza justifies that excitement. They're very different screen presences, which is exactly why the pairing works. Olsen brings sincerity and emotional vulnerability, while Plaza's naturally off-kilter energy constantly makes you question her intentions. The movie ultimately doesn't capitalize on that potential.... but the potential was absolutely there.
WIZARDING WORLD
Building a cinematic universe is hard. Building one that audiences actually care about? That's even harder. While Ilvermorny: The Hidden School didn't capture me the way The House of Black did last season, I still came away encouraged by the larger picture. LRF is gradually constructing a version of the Wizarding World that feels willing to explore corners of the mythology we've barely seen before. That's exciting.
Not every entry has to be a home run if the franchise itself continues expanding in interesting directions. Exploring American wizarding culture through Ilvermorny gives the universe a distinctly different flavor without feeling disconnected from what audiences already recognize. Maybe this installment wasn't quite the magical experience I hoped for. The franchise itself still feels like it's heading in the right direction.
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BEST ACTRESS
Let's be honest. The Best Actress race this season has been.... underwhelming. There have certainly been good performances, but very few that have felt like undeniable "this actress is winning the Golden Reel" moments. Compared to other years, the field has lacked obvious heavyweights. At least Round 9 gave the category a little life.
Elizabeth Olsen and Aubrey Plaza both receive substantial showcase roles in An Unholy Union, and whether either ultimately gets nominated remains to be seen, but the category desperately needed recognizable contenders entering the conversation. Sometimes awards races aren't defined by one transcendent performance. Sometimes they're simply waiting for enough credible candidates to show up.
BOX OFFICE
Well.... I think we can officially stop talking about the billion-dollar profit milestone. At this point, it would require something bordering on miraculous. Round 9 essentially broke even, which ordinarily wouldn't be disastrous. But Season 36 lost the luxury of "just okay" financial rounds months ago. The early bombs dug such a deep hole that every remaining release almost needs to overperform just to keep pace.
When I look at what's left on the calendar, I don't see the obvious billion-dollar rescue mission. This season isn't collapsing financially. It's just slowly running out of runway.
KILL BIN LADEN
This one frustrates me because I completely understand the movie Alex Conn wanted to make. A procedural thriller. A tense collection of meetings, intelligence briefings, and impossible decisions culminating in one of the defining military operations of the century. That should work.
Instead.... Everything that should've strengthened the concept seemed to weaken it. The historical accuracy often felt.... flexible. The characters rarely behaved like real people wrestling with extraordinary circumstances. Instead, too many of them came across as exaggerated caricatures, almost like political satire that never fully committed to being satire. At times I honestly felt like I was watching an SNL sketch stretched into a feature-length drama. And structurally, the movie never establishes momentum. It bounces from room to room, briefing to briefing, conversation to conversation, without ever generating the mounting tension a story like this desperately needs.
Instead.... Everything that should've strengthened the concept seemed to weaken it. The historical accuracy often felt.... flexible. The characters rarely behaved like real people wrestling with extraordinary circumstances. Instead, too many of them came across as exaggerated caricatures, almost like political satire that never fully committed to being satire. At times I honestly felt like I was watching an SNL sketch stretched into a feature-length drama. And structurally, the movie never establishes momentum. It bounces from room to room, briefing to briefing, conversation to conversation, without ever generating the mounting tension a story like this desperately needs.
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AN UNHOLY UNION
Yes.... It's in both columns. Because this might be the season's greatest example of wasted potential. The cast works. The concept works. The direction is... fine. Not spectacular, not disastrous—perfectly competent. The screenplay is where everything begins falling apart.
Rachel Hallett Hardcastle clearly had an idea she wanted to explore, and I genuinely appreciate the ambition behind it. But somewhere between the premise and the execution, the movie starts spinning its wheels. Scenes begin repeating the same emotional beats, the tension plateaus instead of escalating, and by the time the climax arrives, the film hasn't really delivered on the horror or psychological promises it spent two hours making. The result isn't a bad movie. It's almost worse. It's a movie that constantly reminds you how much better it could've been.
ON LOCATION (SEASON 36 ROUND 9)
Kill Bin Laden
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Ilvermorny: The Hidden School
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
An Unholy Union
- Astoria, Oregon, USA
Monday, August 10, 2026
Box Office Breakdown (Season 36 Round 9)
AN UNHOLY UNION
Budget: $18,000,000
Total Box Office: $37,350,012
Total Profit: $790,000
An Unholy Union managed to land on the right side of the ledger, but only barely. Its $790,000 profit leaves the horror-thriller about as close to a true break-even result as a film can get, though that tiny victory carries considerably more significance for the writer behind it.
BOX OFFICE FACT
An Unholy Union is the first film from writer Rachel Hallett Hardcastle since Season 20's That Was Then, This Is Now to avoid a loss, ending a streak of seven consecutive box office flops.
GENRE RANKINGS
Horror: #127
Thriller: #131
Supernatural: #35
KILL BIN LADEN
Budget: $50,000,000
Total Box Office: $56,735,938
Total Profit: -$29,221,700
The political thriller failed to translate its provocative subject matter into enough theatrical interest to justify its cost. The result is especially notable because it continues a surprisingly consistent pattern for writer Alex Conn's recent films centered on real-world political figures.
BOX OFFICE FACT
Writer Alex Conn has now penned four recent films built around real-life political figures — Repeal and Replace, Dean, Mises, and Kill Bin Laden. All four lost substantial amounts of money, combining for more than $131 million in losses, or roughly $32 million per film.
GENRE RANKINGS
Drama: #212
Thriller: #113
Historical: #51
ILVERMORNY: THE HIDDEN SCHOOL
Budget: $105,000,000
Total Box Office: $260,440,506
Total Profit: $30,044,424
LRF's second trip into the Wizarding World remained profitable, but the numbers suggest considerably less enthusiasm than greeted the franchise's debut. Ilvermorny: The Hidden School still earned enough to justify its investment, though its performance raises some questions about how much room the series has to expand beyond its initial success.
BOX OFFICE FACT
LRF's Wizarding World took a significant step backward with its second entry. Ilvermorny: The Hidden School suffered a 24% decline in worldwide box office compared with The House of Black — and an even steeper 70% drop in profit.
GENRE RANKINGS
Action: #182
Adventure: #56
Fantasy: #60
Season 36 Round 9 Total Box Office:
$354,526,456
Season 36 Round 9 Total Profit:
$1,612,724
Round 9 finished about as close to neutral as possible. Ilvermorny: The Hidden School supplied just over $30 million in profit, only for nearly all of it to be erased by Kill Bin Laden. An Unholy Union's $790,000 contribution ultimately kept the round from slipping into the red.
Season 36 Total Box Office:
$4,886,846,939
Season 36 Total Profit:
$855,945,264
With only Round 10 remaining, Season 36 enters its finale needing roughly $144 million in additional profit just to reach $1 billion. Even if it gets there, that would still leave the season in decidedly mediocre territory by LRF standards. The top of the slate has produced several major hits, but a deep collection of bombs and disappointments has prevented those successes from translating into a stronger overall financial year.
SEASON 36 BOX OFFICE STANDINGS
1. Boba Fett — $763,673,771 👑
2. Donkey Kong Country — $720,434,668 👑
3. The Hulk 3 — $641,110,407 👑
4. Lobo — $480,893,956 🔥
5. Assassin's Creed: Eternal — $421,105,411 🔥
6. The Song of Roland — $263,839,608 💰
7. Ilvermorny: The Hidden School — $260,440,506 💰
8. Luke Cage: The Purple Man — $249,978,106 💰
9. Stretch Armstrong — $144,189,611 ☠️
10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2 — $131,525,669 💰
11. Fletch — $123,159,160 💰
12. Echoes of Red — $82,814,137 💰
13. Double Date — $80,369,160 💰
14. The Bounty Hunter — $80,094,428 ☠️
15. Gray — $62,441,218 💣
16. Kill Bin Laden — $56,735,938 💣
17. Darkness — $43,316,174 💰
18. 1995 — $40,003,252 💰
19. Pirouette — $39,100,555 📉
20. An Unholy Union — $37,350,012 ⚖️
21. Three Rounds — $34,386,590 💣
22. The Quiet Between Us — $26,319,562 📉
23. Heartbeat — $25,404,407 💣
24. Fading Star — $23,730,087 💣
25. Voice — $23,437,788 💣
26. Diary of a Wimpy Kid — $18,000,669 💣
27. 1016 West Monroe — $12,992,089 💣
LRF TRIVIA TIDBITS (SEASON 36 ROUND 9)
Round 9 of Season 36 puts the spotlight on some familiar LRF patterns: heavily relied-upon stars, writers carving out distinct niches, and creators who keep returning to adaptation as their preferred playground.
AN UNHOLY UNION
An Unholy Union brings together two of LRF’s most frequently cast leading ladies in Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen. Between them, the pair have now appeared in a combined 22 films for the studio, making this horror-thriller something of a showcase for two of LRF’s most dependable recurring stars.
KILL BIN LADEN
Writer Alex Conn appears to be making a serious run at Lon Charles’ unofficial “Fact to Film” territory. Kill Bin Laden marks Conn’s 14th LRF screenplay based on a true story, further cementing real-world events and historical figures as one of the most recognizable recurring threads in his filmography.
ILVERMORNY: THE HIDDEN SCHOOL
Ilvermorny: The Hidden School is already Dawson Edwards’ 11th film for LRF despite the writer having joined the studio just four seasons ago. Even more strikingly, it is his seventh adaptation, revealing a clear early-career preference for taking established properties and reshaping them into LRF projects.
Sunday, August 9, 2026
Release: Ilvermorny: The Hidden School
Ilvermorny: The Hidden School
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Director: Francis Lawrence
Writer: Dawson Edwards
Based on characters from JK Rowling's Wizarding World
Cast: Javon Walton, Elva Guerra, Mason Thames, Hilary Swank, Kyriana Kratter, Angela Bassett, Alexa Demie, Bob Odenkirk
Budget: $105,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $113,140,494
Foreign Box Office: $147,300,012
Total Profit: $30,044,424
Reaction: While not the blockbuster outcome most expect from the JK Rowling's Wizard World, and almost $100 million short of last season's The House of Black, Ilvermorny: The Hidden School still managed a decent little return on investment.
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Rated PG-13 for fantasy violence, thematic material, and some frightening images.
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Top 10 Dawson Edwards Films
Sherman J. Pearson here for another Top 10. Writer Dawson Edwards has only been with LRF since Season 33, but he's now penned 11 films for the studio. Time for a Top 10 list to find out which film doesn't make the cut (meaning I have already viewed Ilvermorny: The Hidden School prior to this list).
Top 10 Dawson Edwards Films
10. Assata
9. Spelljammer
8. Ghost Recon
7. Blade
6. Ilvermorny: The Hidden School
5. The Legend of Zelda
4. The Quiet Between Us
3. Metroid
2. Unkempt Garden
1. Before Love Came to Kill Us
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