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Exclusive: 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Franchise Gains Momentum on Heels of Disney's Succession Saga
With Dana Walden now in charge of film operations, she may have a big decision to make about Johnny Depp and the future of one of the studio's biggest franchises.
Jeff Sneider
February 04, 2026
Happy Wednesday, folks!
Apologies for the delay, but I’ve been busy prepping a few different newsletters for you guys, including a massive TV-themed issue and an interview with writer-director Matt Johnson. I’ve also got a bunch of irons in the fire as far as scoops go, so after an off-week, it’s safe to say that I’m back in the game and holding a hot hand!
Over the weekend, I caught up with Send Help, which was an absolute blast from Sam Raimi, who delivers his best movie in more than 20 years — sorry, Drag Me to Hell fans! Rachel McAdams is fantastic in this clever, gory survival thriller, and I’m hearing she’s in high demand all over town following the film’s $20 million domestic opening.
It was actually a wild weekend at the box office, where Iron Lung, an indie horror movie from YouTube sensation Markiplier (aka Mark Fischbach), grossed nearly $18 million, which is an astounding figure for a self-distributed genre film. It speaks to how YouTube stars can be the new movie stars — if they know what they’re doing.
It’s unclear if anyone knew what they were doing on the Melania documentary, though it’s possible that everyone knew exactly what they were doing. Reviews for the “propaganda film” came in, predictably, at 5 percent fresh from terribly biased critics, while the audience score was 99 percent. Go figure! It seems everyone played their role perfectly…
Frankly, I got a kick out of the debate surrounding the film’s box office coverage. A $7 million debut for any documentary is impressive, yet viewed against Amazon’s $75 million total spend — a $40 million bribe/budget, plus $35 million for marketing — Melania is an undeniable failure. Or is it?
The dirty little secret that I didn’t see a single box office writer address is that Melania was never supposed to make money. It’s very clearly a vanity project that was meant to serve as a bribe from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to President Trump. This was basically a gift from Amazon to the White House, only it cost $75 million — no free shipping this time.
It’s an embarrassment all around — for Amazon, embattled director Brett Ratner, his acclaimed DPs, and the box office writers who couldn’t hide their seething contempt for this administration for one weekend — but for Melania herself, it’s a win, as she got to play Movie Star for a few months and distract herself from her real role as Eva Braun.
And that’s enough about Melania. Let’s hope I never have to sully the pages of this newsletter with her name ever again, all due respect to our beautiful First Lady.
Last night, I began watching DTF St. Louis, the upcoming HBO series starring Jason Bateman and David Harbour. I’m also eager to dive into screeners for Season 2 of Jon Hamm’s Apple TV series Your Friends and Neighbors. And I plan to check out Reality Check, Netflix’s three-part docuseries about America’s Next Top Model.
Tonight, I weigh in on the week’s biggest story — the Disney succession saga — and throw a little fuel on the fire with a hot scoop that could force Dana Walden to make one of her first big decisions as the head of Disney’s film studio.
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