It’s the 4th of July weekend, rarely the biggest weekend at the box office, although there have been many massive blockbusters released on or around this date. The biggest movie that’s opened on this week? Minions: The Rise of Gru! So it’s quite fortuitous that this week offers a new movie in that franchise.
But first, I have a very special guest on this week’s episode, Ms. Kristen Lopez, fellow film critic and CCA (Critics Choice Association) member, accomplished author and essayist, who has written so much about being a film critic, the lack of more women directors getting big budget Hollywood movies, as well as disabilities both in the world of film criticism and in films themselves. She is the publisher, editor-in-chief, and prime contributor to The Film Maven, which features a fantastic collection of new reviews, interviews, and essays, including some about the business and being a film critic trying to make a living. (Become a Gold Member and you can get access to her full articles first!)
She’s been on Turner Classic Movies talking about how disabilities have been represented in classic films. Oh, and did I mention that she’s a published author? Her first book, “But Have You Read The Book?: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films,” is getting a second edition, “the romance edition,” on July 28, with 40 more book adaptations. Last year, she released “Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation,” which she wrote as one of the foremost industry experts trying to navigate the world of film criticism, while having been in a wheelchair her whole life.
We talk about all of these things and more in our lively 30-minute conversation, and you can immediately see why I’ve been wanting to get her on the Weekend Warrior Show since meeting her in person for the first time in November 2025.
You can read more from her in the links above, and there are a couple more things worth reading below:
https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/know-your-critic-pop-culture-writer-kristen-lopez/’
https://www.slashfilm.com/565231/disabled-writers-at-film-festivals/
https://thefilmmaven.com/christopher-nolan-the-odyssey-influencers/
Now, let’s get to the movies and box office stuff, and if all goes well, I’ll have reviews of both new wide releases and this week’s “Repertory Roundup” before this runs sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday morning. The box office stuff starts roughly 37 minutes into this week’s video show, and because I’m the nicest guy on the planet, and it is your birthday, America, I’m sharing my predictions below.
Box Office Predictions for 07/03/2026
Box Office Data Provided by The-Numbers.com
(All predictions below are for the three-day weekend, beginning on Friday)
1. Monsters and Minions (Universal) - $73.4 million N/A
2. Toy Story 5 (Disney/Pixar) - $35 million -50%
3. Supergirl (Warner Bros.) - $15 million -60%
4. Young Washington (Angel Studios) - $11.5 million N/A (up $2.4 million)
5. Obsession (Focus Features) - $6.5 million -33%
6. Disclosure Day (Universal) - $4.5 million -45%
7. Jackass: Best and Last (Paramount) - $4 million -53%
8. Backrooms (A24) - $3 million -31%
9. Scary Movie (Paramount) - $1.4 million -52%
10. Alpha (Yash Raj Films) - $1 million N/A
The bigger of the two new movies (and widest release) is going to be Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s new animated sequel, MINIONS AND MONSTERS, which is actually a standalone movie that doesn’t require any knowledge of previous “Minions” or “Despicable Me” movies (of which there have been six, so far!) Once again directed by Pierre Coffin (the voice of the Minions!), this one co-stars voice actors like Christoph Waltz, Allison Janney, and Jeff Bridges (three Oscar-winning actors), Jesse Eisenberg and Zoey Deutch (from Zombieland: Double Tap), Bobby Moynihan, Trey Parker, and more.
It’s opening in over 4,000 theaters, and these movies have become bonafide four-quadrant family films, and this could end up appealing more to teen and older guys than they usually do. (Except there was that weird thing two years ago when older male teens were going to theaters en massed dressed as Gru.)
Minions and Monsters begins with the lovable minions on their usual mission of looking for an evil boss to help in their role as minions, beginning with an encounter with a Cyclops, which seems like a nod to Christopher Nolan’s upcoming The Odyssey in perfect Universal synergy. After a few failed attempts, the group ends up in old-school Hollywood (probably sometime during the ‘20s) where the creative Minion James and his best friend Henry find themselves loving the atmosphere of making movies and decide they want to be actively involved in making James’ vision for a monster movie.
That’s basically the set-up that perfectly encapsulates the film’s title where monsters play a large role from the beginning with Henry, James and their silent friend Ed become actively involved in Hollywood during the silent era, but as in other recent movies (Babylon, Downton Abbey: A New Era), the advent of sound changes everything, in this case, the Minions being cast in movies. Undeterred, James sets off to make his monster movie, looking to director Max, voiced by Christoph Waltz, one of my favorite characters he’s played, for aid. But first, they need to find a monster, so that returns to a moment from the film’s opening where the Minions are working for an evil wizard who has a book that can call forth mystical creatures.
Personally, I loved the opening, but really loved when things shifted to Old Hollywood and we got all sorts of nods and references to classic cinema genres with the Minions being inserted into well-known scenes from early film history. At a certain point, the movie splits in half, following Henry, James, and Ed trying to find a monster with the Trey Parker-voiced Goomi, while the rest of the Minions encounter an alien robot named Dort, voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, who immediately seems like a perfect new boss for them. The two stories do eventually collide, but not before things just crazier and crazier with some of the ideas wearing out their welcome, though I did enjoy the Zombieland: Double Tap reunion as Dort found a love interest voiced by Zoey Deutch. The last act leads to an enormous Blob-like monster covered in eyeballs plowing through the Hollywood streets, so the movie does get big as it’s getting crazier.
As has been the case with most family films trying to appeal to kids, there is a lot of crazy, fast-paced action throughout Minions and Monsters, and that does keep things entertaining, as does the
I was equally tickled by the thought of director Pierre Coffin being in the recording studio by himself, directing himself while recording the movie’s abundant Minionese, as he voices all these different Minions characters while also directing the other actors – this is a movie where I’d love to see some behind-the-scenes about its making.
I also really enjoyed John Powell’s score for this, since it allowed him outside his usual comfort zone to provide some zanier and more comedic music, rather than just the big, bombastick orchestral flourishes.
In some ways, this could be seen as a gateway film to get your kids into classic cinema, be it great silent movie actors or monster movies, and when they’re old enough, maybe they’ll check out Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. Monsters and Minions is definitely more of a creative stretch for Illumination Entertainment, and it often works better than expected, since it shows a true love for cinema and moviegoing than anyone might expect.
Rating: 7.5/10
The other new wide release this weekend is Angel Studios’ YOUNG WASHINGTON, a historical biopic of sorts about one particular period in the life of the nation’s very first President George Washington, as played by William Franklyn-Miller, whom I’ve never heard of. There are other better-known actors cast around him, including Mary-Louise Parker, Kelsey Grammer, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Andy Serkis, with Jon Erwin (I Can Only Imagine, Jesus Revolution) directing from his own script. I talk about the film’s box office potential in the video portion of the Weekend Warrior Show above.
I went into Young Washington fairly open-minded and optimistic about what a movie like this might entail. As is the case with many biopics these days, Young Washington does focus on a very specific point in George Washington’s life, specifically when he’s in his early 20s and dealing with being born in America, rather than being British at a time when the country was still being warred over by various factions. In this case, it’s the battle for the Ohio Valley that takes focus as Washington is sent to try to settle things with the French claiming land that the British say belongs to them.The local indigenous tribes have something else to say about that, even outright scalping a French officer at one point. Essentially, this George Washington is acting as a Henry Kissinger for the reason, although it ultimately leads to bloody battles between the various factions.
There’s no denying that the battle sequences, the costumes, and the locations (many clearly created with visual effects) are where Young Washington excels, rather than the many discussions about the politics and conflicts of the time. I haven’t seen all of Jon Erwin’s films, just a few, including ones he made with his brother, and at times, it feels like Young Washigton is just too big a movie and a bit of a reach compared to previous films.
There are also bigger problems, like Ben Kingsley with a dodgy Scottish accent and Andy Serkis chewing so much scenery, one wonders whether the production designer quit mid-movie. In general, the young Washington is constantly dealing with snooty British officers and aristocrats always talking down to him, because he isn’t from England, even as we know that this will lead to a massive “Revolutionary War.” I mean, that’s the thing about history: you can’t change it, just because it might make a cooler movie.
I was quite mixed on Young Washington, and I really wanted to like it more, mainly due to the many great battle sequences, but even those started getting silly at times, since they’re surrounded by so much bad writing and over-acting. As much as it’s clearly trying to bring as much historical accuracy to the screen as possible, Young Washington is a movie marred by its flagrant over-acting and an abundance of tree-chopping references.
Rating: 6/10
On top of that, Yash Raj Films is releasing ALPHA, the latest in its YRF Spy Universe series, starring Alia Bhatt and Sharvari and directed by Shiv Rawail. This is probably going to get a moderate release into 400 or 500 theaters on Friday, but it just doesn’t seem to have the marketing that Yash Raj normally puts behind their Bollywood releases. It might be able to sneak into the top 10 with a million or so.
Netflix is also streaming ENOLA HOLMES 3, starring Millie Bobby Brown, beginning Wednesday, July 1, but I’ve only seen the first movie, so I probably will skip this one. I’m more interested in the Japanese sci-fi thriller HUMAN VAPOR, which hits Netflix on Thursday, July 2.
Other movies out this weekend…
LOCKBOX (Aura Entertainment) (Apparently, this is a new horror movie from Daniel Stamm of The Last Exorcism, starring Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci.)
MARY OLIVER: SAVED BY THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD (Kino Lorber)
SWALLOWTAIL AND DRAGONFLY (Indican Pictures)
THE REPERTORY ROUNDUP
We’ll start this week up at the FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER, which may be doing the most patriotic thing ever with its latest 70mm festival, called “It’s All A Big Conspiracy,” running from July 1 through July 9 with a suitably massive program. The oldest film in the series is Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, and then the series includes many movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s, including James Cameron’s Aliens, Tim Burton’s Batman, Brian de Palma’s The Untouchables, and I’ll be doing a double feature of two movies I never got around to seeing, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. More recent films in the series include PT Anderson’s The Master, Jordan Peele’s Nope, and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet (That’s a decision).
The METROGRAPH has its new catalog out this week, which means that new series are starting, as well as a few series continuing from last month. We’ll start with some of the new series beginning this weekend.
“This Night Has Opened My Eyes” is a look at movies that take place in a single night, and this weekend’s offerings include Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995) (which I’ll finally see!), Chantal Akerman’s Toute Une Nuit (1982), The Safdies’ Good Time (2017), and Matthieu Kassovitz’s La Haine (1995), starring Vincent Cassell.
“The Worldwide West” is another series about how Westerns have influenced international cinema, showing Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961), Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965) (with more Leone Westerns to come!)
“When Carolco Was King” is pretty self-explanatory but for those who weren’t alive in the ‘90s, Carolco was a big distributor with lots of huge hits. This weekend, this series will show James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – the 35th Anniversary re-release that just screened a few months back – Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (1990), and Roland Emmerich’s early film, Universal Soldier (1992).
“Like the Wind: Lensed by Christopher Doyle” is, again, self-explanatory, but it’s a tribute to the great (but quite eclectic) cinematographer Christopher Doyle, this weekend showing Patrick Tam’s My Heart Is That Eternal Rose (1989) and Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of Time Redux (2008). And yes, Metrograph will FINALLY be showing M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water after I’ve only been asking them to play it for 10 years! (Just not this weekend)
Some previous series will be continuing, including “The Art of Soccer,” which will screen Wim Wenders’ 1972 film The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick on Thursday night, and then Abbas Kiarostami’s The Traveller (1974) and Daniel Schmidt and Gabriel Abrantes’ Diamantino (2019) a few times this weekend.
“Hotel Europa” will screen Visconti’s Death in Venice on Thursday night, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) on Saturday, and Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad (1961) on Sunday.
“Maybe If You Smile, They One Day Will All Return” will screen Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun (1987) and
Come and See (1985) again as well as Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood (1962) on Friday evening. “Back to the Fox: The Early Films of Michael J. Fox” will have one final screening of Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future on Wednesday afternoon – don’t miss it!
FILM FORUM will continue to screen the 4k restoration of Guy Maddin’s 1992 movie, Careful, plus on Friday, they’ll begin showing a 40th anniversary 4k Restoration of Ross McElwee’s doc, Sherman’s March, ahead of the release of McElwee’s new movie Remake, which opens on July 10. Carol Reed’s The Third Man is also continuing until July 9, so you definitely should check that out if you haven’t seen it, and Phil Hartman’s No Picnic (1985) continues to play for one more week, but it MUST end on July 9, so yeah, use this weekend to go see some movies!
Due to time constraints, I have been neglecting the other downtown rep theater, the IFC CENTER. The Wednesday night screening of Spike Lee’s School Daze with a QnA by Spike is already sold out, but it will play one more time on Thursday afternoon. That’s actually a part of the IFC Center’s “Declaration of Independents” starting on Wednesday that will screen the Coens’ Blood Simple, Charles Ahearn’s hip-hop breakdancing film Wild Style (with Ahearn doing a QnA on Thursday night), Jim Jarmusch’s Permanent Vacation (1980), Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), Fran Rubel Kuzui’s Tokyo Pop (1988), and so many other great independent films, running through July 9. Makes me a little bummed that my IFC Center membership ran out, and I just don’t have the time to get over there as much as I’d like. Some of the late-night movies showing on Friday and Saturday night include Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and another independent classic, Easy Rider. My deep apologies to the IFC Center for being neglectful of your repertory programming over the past few weeks. It was never intentional.
Not to be outdone, Tribeca’s ROXY CINEMA is doing a “Divas on Screen” series with The Pirate (1948) and Mahogany (1975), starring Donna Summer, screening on Thursday, The Way We Were (1973) starring Barbara Streisand and Robert Reiner, and Arthur (1981) with Liza Minelli on Sunday, as well as one more screening of Cruising with Al Pacino on Friday. Monday’s repertory offerings are They Live by Night (1948) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980), and then Cruising AGAIN on Tuesday. I guess no one told the Roxy that Pride Month is over, or else that movie is just really, really popular!
East Village mainstay ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES is doing a series called “Racetrack,” with movies set at racetracks, including Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing, Frederick Wiseman’s Racetrack, Joe Pytka’s Let It Ride, and more.
A few blocks north, VILLAGE EAST is still doing rep stuff with Miyazak’s Spirited Away on Wednesday, and then next week Monday (July 6), they’re screening the 2008 musical Mamma Mia!, another Miyazaki (When Marnie Was There) next Wednesday, and then drag queen Hedda Lettuce presents Joan Crawford’s Straight-Jacket next Thursday night. I need to try to cover this other East Village theater’s rep programming more than I have been.
Way uptown, so far that I only get up there once in a while, is Netflix’s PARIS THEATER, it’s still doing its ”Something Borrowed, Something Blue” series with the “Love Will Tear Us Apart” section, including Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning A Separation, and more. (Hey! They’re ALSO showing Barbara Streisand’s The Way We Were in case the Roxy is too much of a schlep.) The Paris is also starting a baseball-related series called “Big Swings” on the 4th of July, showing John Sayles’ Eight Men Out, Field of Dreams, The Sandlot,42, and of course, Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own. The Luis Buñuel series continues on Sunday with Nazarin and Viridiana with That Obscure Object of Desire on Monday and Tristana on Tuesday.
The “Universal Westerns” series continues at MOMA through Friday with movies from Tourneur, Peter Fonda, and Robert Aldrich, before it transitions into its new series “Immigrant Nation: People in Transit,” which includes the shorts compilation, Coming To America, featuring Martin Scorsese’s 1974 short Italianamerican, Charlie Chaplin’s silent film The Immigrant (1917), Alice Guy Blaché’s 1912 film, Making an American Citizen, and a few early films by Thomas Edison, focusing on the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Other movies in the series include Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, The Godfather: Part II (1974), Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (2002), James Gray’s Little Odessa (1994), and much more, as this series will run through September 9, so yeah, it will be fairly comprehensive.
Let’s head out to the boroughs, starting in Brooklyn, where the NITEHAWK CINEMA PROSPECT PARK, which is screening Alan Pakula’s Oscar-winning All the President’s Men on Thursday and Monday nights for its 50th (!) anniversary. Erige Sehiri’s Tunisian film Under the Fig Trees from 2021 is screening one time on Wednesday night. This weekend, it’s starting a “Traversing Time” series, beginning this weekend with Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow (2014), starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Next Wednesday’s “Adventures in Black Cinema” offering is Save the Last Dance, starring Julia Stiles. WILLIAMSBURG’s “Traversing Time” offering is Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which screens on Sunday and Monday at brunch time. Tuesday night, it will screen Freddy vs. Jason (2001) as part of “Let’s Watch a Movie.” Oh, Williamsburg is also quite appropriately screening Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day on Wednesday and Thursday in 35mm!
Ed Doom is feeling so benevolent this week that I’m even checking out what’s happening at BAM (BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC), ‘cause they’re starting a new series called “Spectres, Devils, and Bad Blood in the Old America,” which is as dark as it sounds. It’s screening everything from Candyman to D. W. Griffiths’ Abraham Lincoln (1930) to Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger (1990) with Danny Glover, Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter (1955), and even straight-up horror films like Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, the original The Blair Witch Project, and Tod Browning’s Freaks. So yeah, you don’t have to come into Manhattan if you want some great repertory programming.
Out in Astoria, Queens, MUSEUM OF MOVING IMAGE continues its “De Palma: Summer of Suspense” with screenings of Blow Out, starring John Travolta, on Friday and Sunday. Also on Sunday (I think MoMI is closed on the 4th of July), they’re showing the 1954 film Salt of the Earth as part of the ongoing “By the People, For the People: Real American Tales.”
And lastly, we’ll go out to Huntington, Long Island, where CINEMA ARTS CENTRE continues to mix new releases with great repertory programming. On Tuesday, July 7, Isabel Sandoval will be out on Long Island for a QnA for her terrific 2019 film, Lingua Franca. Before that, you can see The Princess Diaries on Thursday, V for Vendetta on Friday (as part of the regular “Night Owl Cinema” series), Tom Cruise’s apt Born on the Fourth of July on Saturday, and the animated Hotel Transylvania on Sunday.
Otherwise, that’s it for this week, but next week, it’s the 4th of July weekend, and we’re getting Universal’s animated Minions and Monsters and Angel Studios’ Young Washington. (And those will be my only two print reviews probably.)
