Universal’s Good Boys outperformed expectations, coming away with the weekend crown with $21.4 million. Of the four other new releases, only The Angry Birds Movie 2 with $10.4 million for a no. 4 place finish drew more than $10 million. Holdovers Hobbs & Shaw and The Lion King kept the nos. 2 and 3 slots with $14.2 million and $12.3 million, respectively- Box Office Mojo

Good Boys is only the third original movie to release at no. 1 in 2019, and the first comedy, a genre studios were reportedly beginning to give up on after numerous hyped releases opened much further down the charts- The New York Times

Toy Story 4 inched its way across the $1 billion worldwide mark last week, becoming the sixth film this year to hit the mark. Five of them- Toy Story, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin and The Lion King– are Disney properties, and the one exception, Spider-Man: Far From Home, may as well be- The Hollywood Reporter

A movement to boycott Disney’s upcoming live-action Mulan remake hit Twitter on Friday after star Liu Yifei stated her support for Chinese police in Hong Kong, who have drawn widespread criticism from international media for their use of excessive force in silencing pro-democracy protests on the island. The international criticism has been largely absent from Chinese state-run media, where Liu posted, and China has a history of blacklisting entertainers who do not toe the line for the government- The New York Times

As Yifei rose in popularity in China over the past decade or so, several female action stars are on the rise in Southeast Asia- The Hollywood Reporter

For the past several years, Netflix’ strategy seems to have been built around its own ubiquity rather than a particular offering. That will need to change when Disney joins the streaming wars in November, but Netflix is showing no interest in making the adjustment- The Hollywood Reporter

How producer Anders Tangen used targeted Facebook adverts to hack Netflix’ algorithm and get his show to rise to the top of the service’s 1,700 other offerings- The Hollywood Reporter

Netflix reshaped stand-up comedy when it entered the industry in 2016, but starting with Jim Gaffigan’s new special on Amazon, competitors are starting to pick off its selection- Forbes

Danny Masterson of That ‘70s Show fame has been accused of several sexual assaults by four women, two of whom have identified themselves, over a period of eight years. The women all tell similar stories of Masterson assaulting them while they were intoxicated or unconscious after giving them alcohol, which some suspect was drugged. Masterson is a Scientologist, as were three of his accusers during the alleged assaults, and the Church of Scientology is implicated heavily in the criminal complaint. The complaint states that it is against church rules to for one Scientologist to accuse another of a crime, and that when sexual assault allegations arise within the church, accusers are normally forced to settle things with their rapists face-to-face. Each woman filed sexual assault reports against Masterson with the Los Angeles Police Department over the years, but many of those filings were several years after the alleged assaults. Each woman has also reported varying degrees of stalking and harassment since filing their reports- The Hollywood Reporter

Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra may take the stand to testify against Harvey Weinstein.. Sciorra, who says Weinstein raped her in 1993, is one of more than 80 women who has accused the disgraced producer of some degree of sexual misconduct, but like many women, her allegations fall well outside of the statute of limitations. Weinstein is scheduled to stand trial Sept. 9 in Manhattan for five charges related to two of his accusers- The New York Times

Significant Snyder Cut news dropped this week. While Justice League’s main villain Steppenwolf was ultimately beamed away in the theatrical version, in would-be writer/director Zack Snyder’s original version, he would have been horrifyingly beheaded by Wonder Woman. Snyder stepped down from his role in the film to grieve his daughter’s suicide, and Warner Bros. took the opportunity to hire a new director, Joss Whedon, to execute significant changes in tone that they’d already wanted to make. After the film’s critical and commercial failure in November 2017, fans have been pleading for the release of a Snyder Cut of the film- Screen Rant

On the other side of things, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that Snap victims who would have reappeared in mid-air during the events of Avengers: Endgame would be OK. He took time out of his schedule to say that- Den of Geek

Universal’s Sept. 27 release of The Hunt was cancelled two weeks ago after President Donald Trump blamed mass gun violence on Hollywood, singing it out as an example. Indiewire debates the merits of pulling the film- Indiewire

Climate change is the underlying anxiety that has driven many recent movies featuring massive global catastrophes. However, few movies addressing this show anything that looks like a solution, instead casting the villains as eco-terrorists for some degree of false depth and having the heroes beat them up. A growing number of voices want to see that changed- The New York Times

And finally, the newly released Sundance film Adam is courting controversy in the LGBT community over its subject matter. The film concerns a 17 year old boy who tells his crush, who is a lesbian, that he is trans. This sort of gender deception is an age-old transsexist trope and one that is frequently brought up as justification for the murder of trans people. The other side of the argument is the film’s sterling inclusion record — it is the directorial debut of trans Rhys Ernst, and a massive swath of the film is transgender, nonbinary or otherwise queer- The New York Times

Leopold Knopp is a UNT graduate. If you liked this post, you can donate to Reel Entropy here. Like Reel Entropy on Facebook and reach out to me at reelentropy@gmail.com.