McCarthy’s Red Line, Elon’s Twitter Fears, The IMAX Wars

Happy Friday and welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon dispatch of the latest reporting from Puck.

Today, we lead with Matt Belloni’s chronicle of Tom Cruise’s ferocious crusade to push Oppenheimer from IMAX theaters in favor of his latest Mission film—signaling the first truly competitive summer for blockbusters since Covid.

Then, below the fold: Lauren Sherman resolves a fashionworld whodunnit. Tina Nguyen considers why the Taliban 20 kept their cool following McCarthy’s debt-ceiling concessions. On The Powers That Be, Ben Landy and Tina narrate how McCarthy quashed the rebellion, before detailing Elon’s misadventures trying to court the far right. And on The Town, Matt is joined by film producer and TV executive Gail Berman to offer the studios’ P.O.V. on the writers’ strike.

MATTHEW BELLONI

Cruise has been forcefully pushing exhibitors to put ‘Mission: Impossible’ ahead of Chris Nolan’s film on large-format screens after he lost three weeks of IMAX exclusivity in the first truly competitive summer for blockbusters since Covid.

LAUREN SHERMAN

Notes on an evolving fashion business scandal.

TINA NGUYEN

Sure, the right-wing House insurgency was pissed that their Speaker backed off some of his promises and (quelle horreur!) cut a deal with the Democrats to save the economy. But they decided not to defenestrate him. At least not yet.

BEN LANDY & TINA NGUYEN

Tina Nguyen joins Ben to decipher how Kevin McCarthy put down the House debt ceiling rebellion and gave Biden a surprise win. Then they dig into Elon’s misadventures trying to court the far right.