Sound of Freedom, a faith based indie, was neck-and-neck with the mega-budget Indiana Jones at the July 4th box office.

The July Fourth tentpole appealed heavily to older adults, who have become more and more discerning about what they watch on the big screen versus on streaming.

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (Disney), with a reported production budget close to $300 million, opened to $130 million worldwide. That includes the studio’s generous estimate of $60 million for the U.S./Canada (that includes a 10 percent Sunday drop, but other distributors calculate a drop of 20-25 percent for their own films).

Disney and Pixar have been the pinnacle of animation for as long as anyone can remember. While the castle and desk lamp still hold weight no other animation studio can hold, their most recent entries into the box office history books have been major letdowns.

At this point it’s hard to imagine Die Hard starring anyone but Bruce Willis. But when film producer Joel Silver was searching for the lead role of his 1988 summer blockbuster, the list included just about every leading man in Hollywood at the time. Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, and Arnold Schwarzenegger were among the prospects. The last two had worked with Silver in 1987 on Lethal Weapon and Predator respectively, both massive action hits.

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” the conclusion to Marvel’s trilogy about an extraterrestrial crew of misfits, kicked off with $114 million in its domestic box office debut. Those ticket sales rank as the second-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with $146 million. Despite the towering figure, the film ever-so-slightly missed expectations of $120 million and arrived considerably behind its predecessor, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” which debuted to $146 million in 2017.

It’s all good news for Disney/Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as the threequel is on its way to a $260M+ global debut. Through Friday, it has grossed $119.7M worldwide. Of that, $71.5M is from the international box office. That latter number should grow to $150M+ when Saturday and Sunday are factored.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie has jumped past $1 billion at the global box office and has become the 10th animated film to achieve that impressive milestone.

Illumination and Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie is checking off another notable milestone. The Nintendo video game adaptation will cross $1 billion at the worldwide box office sometime on Sunday, its 26th day in release. It becomes only the 10th animated film to achieve the feat, and is easily the first title of 2023 to do so.

Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” continues to show “Top Gun: Maverick”-esque legs with $58.2 million grossed in its third weekend, pushing its box office totals to $434 million domestic and $871 million worldwide.

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” emerged victorious over last weekend’s champ “John Wick: Chapter 4” at the domestic box office, rolling $38.5 million from 3,855 North American theaters in its opening weekend.

As well as getting a theatrical release, there are new reports indicating that Avatar 3 may be turned into a limited series for Disney+, with this version of the project clocking in at nine hours worth of content. James Cameron’s Avatar films are some of the most successful movies ever made, with both projects currently sitting in the top 5 for highest-grossing films of all time.

Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard and Scott Adkins are among the newcomers for this new installment of the big-screen series about the hitman who just can't stay successfully retired.

Do you like scary movies? The rest of the box office does. “Scream VI,” a Paramount and Spyglass co-production, looks to spook off “Creed III” for the top slot at the domestic box office. The self-branded slasher “requel” grossed $19.3 million from 3,675 locations on its opening day, a figure that includes $5.7 million in previews. That’s more than enough to fend off the weekend’s other new releases, Sony’s science-fiction dinosaur thriller “65” and Focus Features’ sports comedy “Champions.”

Ke Huy Quan said he lost his health insurance after he filmed "Everything Everywhere All At Once" because he couldn't land another job. Quan told James Corden that "Everything Everywhere All At Once" started filming in 2020 and the crew shot almost the entire film before being shut down on the last day of shooting because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It would be eight more months before the cast and crew convened again to finish the movie.

Elsewhere, an experiment slashing ticket prices for the older-skewing '80 for Brady' is showing promise, while 'Avatar: The Way of Water' nears 'Titanic' globally.

The estimated global cume through Sunday is $1.894B. Avatar 2 still ranks as the No. 7 biggest movie of all time. Ahead of it at No. 6 is Spider-Man: No Way Home with $1.921B, so it should overtake that early this week.

A24’s drama “The Whale” surpassed $10 million at the domestic box office, a notable milestone for an indie movie in the pandemic era. In pre-COVID times, those ticket sales wouldn’t be particularly impressive. But the arthouse sector has struggled to rebound as adult audiences remain selective as ever about movie choices.

M3GAN is slaying at the box office and there are already plans for a sequel. Screenwriter Akela Cooper opened up about writing the script for the horror film and revealed that it was originally “gorier” and an unrated version is possibly in development. “No shade to Universal, love them, and I understand that once the trailer went viral, teenagers got involved and you want them to be able to see it. There should be an unrated version at some point,” she said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Isla Nublar has nothing on Pandora. James Cameron’s blockbuster sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water” has grossed $1.708 billion globally, overtaking “Jurassic World” ($1.67 billion) as the seventh-highest grossing movie in box office history. After only four weeks of release, “The Way of Water” has generated $517 million in North America and $1.19 billion overseas.