Saturday, July 18, 2026
Friday, July 17, 2026
THE ROUNDUP WITH JEFF STOCKTON (SEASON 36 ROUND 6)
FLETCH
This was never going to be an easy assignment. When you remake—or more accurately, re-adapt—Fletch, you're immediately inviting comparisons to Chevy Chase. And honestly, trying to beat Chevy Chase at being Chevy Chase is a losing proposition. Glen Powell wisely doesn't even try. Instead, Powell creates his own version of Irwin Fletcher. The sarcasm is still there. The confidence is still there. The charm is still there. But it feels like a different man inhabiting the character rather than someone doing an impression.
A lot of the credit also belongs to Chad Taylor and Richard Linklater. They understood that audiences weren't looking for Fletch Lives all over again. The bones of Gregory McDonald's story remain familiar, but the tone shifts enough to justify the new adaptation. It respects the Chevy Chase version without becoming trapped by it. That's a difficult balancing act. They pulled it off.
ASSASSIN'S CREED: ETERNAL
This is the Assassin's Creed movie fans have been waiting nearly two decades for.
The first LRF attempt, Assassin's Creed: The New Order, largely ignored the games and invented its own mythology. The Michael Fassbender film made a similar mistake by treating the franchise like generic historical science fiction instead of embracing what players actually loved.
Roy Horne finally understood the assignment. Instead of inventing another disconnected protagonist, he leans into characters, locations, and historical settings that fans already had emotional investment in. Better yet, he doesn't simply photocopy one game's plot. By combining elements from multiple eras and multiple games, Assassin's Creed: Eternal feels both familiar and unpredictable. That's exactly how adaptations should work. Honor the source material without becoming imprisoned by it.
And yes... after seeing this one, I'm genuinely looking forward to the sequel Roy Horne recently teased on the board.
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DARKNESS
One of my favorite things to see in LRF is a modestly budgeted movie unexpectedly breaking through. You don't need a $200 million budget to become one of the season's success stories. Darkness proves that.
The biggest reason it works commercially is Maika Monroe. The entire film rests squarely on her shoulders, and she delivers exactly the kind of performance it needed. Without her, I'm not convinced audiences connect with the material nearly as much.
The movie itself has flaws—and we'll get there—but seeing a sci-fi/suspense film turn a healthy profit instead of getting buried by larger productions is always encouraging. These are the kinds of wins that help diversify a slate.
DARKNESS
Yes... I'm putting it in both columns. Because while I respect what the movie accomplished financially, I found the film itself to be... okay. Not great.
Outside of Maika Monroe's excellent performance, I kept waiting for the story to fully capitalize on its premise, and it never quite did. The concept had enough potential to become something genuinely unsettling, but the screenplay seemed content exploring only part of what was possible.
And perhaps my biggest disappointment? This never really felt like an Osgood Perkins movie. Perkins has developed such a distinct identity as a filmmaker—patient, unnerving, deeply atmospheric—that I expected something with a stronger personality. Instead, Darkness often felt surprisingly conventional. Competently made? Absolutely. But if you'd removed Perkins' name from the credits, I'm not sure I would've guessed he directed it. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just disappointing when you know what he's capable of.
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PROFITS
Yes... Every movie this round made money. That's great. Unfortunately, accounting doesn't reset every three films.
The reality is that Season 36 still finds itself well behind pace because of the massive losses accumulated earlier in the year. One profitable round helps stop the bleeding, but it doesn't erase the wounds.
And when I look ahead at the remaining schedule, I'm struggling to identify the cavalry. Sure, The Hulk 3 looks like an obvious blockbuster waiting to happen. Beyond that? I don't see many guaranteed home runs. There isn't a Batman. There isn't a James Bond. There isn't a Superman. The back half of the season feels filled with movies that could succeed rather than movies that almost certainly will.
That makes me nervous.
ON LOCATION (SEASON 36 ROUND 6)
Assassins' Creed: Eternal
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Florence, Italy
Darkness
- Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Fletch
- Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Thursday, July 16, 2026
BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN (SEASON 36 ROUND 6)
ASSASSIN'S CREED: ETERNAL
Budget: $143,000,000
Total Box Office: $421,105,411
Total Profit: $103,097,812
Ubisoft's flagship franchise continued its strong LRF run as Assassin's Creed: Eternal comfortably surpassed the $400 million mark worldwide. The film became another franchise anchor for Season 36 while further cementing Roy Horne's remarkable consistency at the box office.
BOX OFFICE FACT
Assassin's Creed: Eternal marks a dramatic turnaround for the franchise at LRF. The first attempt to adapt Ubisoft's series—Assassin's Creed: The New Order—abandoned the games' characters and settings and ultimately flopped at the box office. Eternal succeeds where its predecessor failed, becoming one of Season 36's biggest hits (so far).
GENRE RANKINGS
Action: #127
Sci-Fi: #52
Historical: #6
DARKNESS
Budget: $15,000,000
Total Box Office: $43,316,174
Total Profit: $20,700,400
One of the season's strongest return-on-investment stories, Darkness demonstrated once again that modestly budgeted genre filmmaking can deliver outstanding financial results. Built on a lean budget and solid audience support, the thriller became another profitable chapter in Maika Monroe's impressive LRF résumé.
BOX OFFICE FACT
Maika Monroe's LRF debut, Salem's Lot in Season 2, narrowly missed profitability with a loss of just $244,658. Since then, every one of her next five LRF films has turned a profit.
GENRE RANKINGS
Sci-Fi: #146
Suspense: #7
FLETCH
Budget: $50,000,000
Total Box Office: $123,159,160
Total Profit: $19,009,446
Richard Linklater's reinvention of the classic detective earned a solid theatrical return, giving Glen Powell an important commercial rebound after one of the few setbacks of his LRF career. While not a breakout blockbuster, Fletch comfortably justified its investment and introduced the character to a new generation of audiences.
BOX OFFICE FACT
Following the disappointment of Robopocalypse in Season 34, Glen Powell returns to profitability as a leading man. Prior to that lone stumble, Powell had appeared in 13 consecutive profitable films, dating all the way back to his supporting role in Season 1's The Associate.
GENRE RANKINGS
Dark Comedy: #2
Mystery: #11
Season 36 Round 6 Total Box Office:
$587,580,745
Season 36 Round 6 Total Profit:
$142,807,658
Round 6 became the season's most balanced commercial success, with all three releases turning a profit. Assassin's Creed: Eternal led the way, but Darkness and Fletch ensured the round wasn't carried by a single blockbuster alone.
Season 36 Total Box Office:
$3,368,582,496
Season 36 Total Profit:
$638,165,550
Through six rounds, Season 36 has generated $3.37 billion worldwide and $638 million in profit. While blockbuster performances from Boba Fett and Donkey Kong Country have provided a strong foundation, the season has also been weighed down by several notable disappointments. With four rounds remaining, LRF remains on pace for a respectable—but not exceptional—financial finish.
SEASON 36 BOX OFFICE STANDINGS
1. Boba Fett — $763,673,771 👑
2. Donkey Kong Country — $720,434,668 👑
3. Lobo — $480,893,956 🔥
4. Assassin's Creed: Eternal — $421,105,411 🔥
5. Luke Cage: The Purple Man — $249,978,106 💰
6. Stretch Armstrong — $144,189,611 ☠️
7. Fletch — $123,159,160 💰
8. Echoes of Red — $82,814,137 💰
9. Double Date — $80,369,160 💰
10. Gray — $62,441,218 💣
11. Darkness — $43,316,174 💰
12. 1995 — $40,003,252 💰
13. Pirouette — $39,100,555 📉
14. Three Rounds — $34,386,590 💣
15. The Quiet Between Us — $26,319,562 📉
16. Heartbeat — $25,404,407 💣
17. Diary of a Wimpy Kid — $18,000,669 💣
18. 1016 West Monroe — $12,992,089 💣
LRF TRIVIA TIDBITS (SEASON 36 ROUND 6)
Round 6 of Season 36 looks toward both the future and the past—laying the groundwork for an ambitious franchise, celebrating one of LRF’s modern horror icons, and revealing how an established filmmaker’s personal relationship helped secure one of the season’s most anticipated directing gigs.
Assassin's Creed: Eternal
LRF is thinking well beyond a single installment with Assassin's Creed: Eternal. Every featured actor signed on to the project is under a three-film contract, with the expectation that each performer will portray at least two different characters across the next two sequels—a fitting approach for a franchise built around generations of interconnected Assassins.
Darkness
With Darkness, Maika Monroe further cements her status as one of LRF’s premier scream queens. The film marks her sixth appearance for the studio—and remarkably, her fifth in either the horror or suspense genre—continuing a career that has become closely associated with modern psychological and supernatural thrillers.
Fletch
Before Richard Linklater officially came aboard, writer Chad Taylor's new Fletch adaptation briefly had Rian Johnson under consideration for the director’s chair. In the end, Linklater secured the project thanks in large part to his existing creative relationship with star Glen Powell, giving the film a filmmaker-actor pairing already built on mutual trust.
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Release: Fletch
Fletch
Genre: Dark Comedy/Mystery
Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Chad Taylor
Based on the novel by Gregory McDonald
Cast: Glen Powell, Christina Hendricks, Tracy Letts, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Kaia Gerber, Shea Whigham, Hunter Schafer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Joe Lo Truglio, Toby Huss, Zoey Deutch, Danny DeVito
Budget: $50,000,000
Domestic Box Office: $84,104,595
Foreign Box Office: $39,054,565
Total Profit: $19,009,446
Reaction: A big budget dark comedy (or really a comedy of any sort) is always a risky proposition. Considering the marketing almost completely relied on Glen Powell's star power, it is safe to say he's officially an A-Lister.
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