Adam Epstein

This story includes plot details from the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, made $40 million in its first weekend in the United States. Many are calling the sum a win for original films. And in a vacuum, it is.

Navigating news about movie franchises can be a challenge. There’s always so much of it, from so many sources, and everyone has opinions! All that stuff can be a movie buff’s dream, but only if you know how to sift through it all to consume what’s really valuable. Here’s how I stay up to date and informed on all franchise goings-on:

You’re not imagining things—movies are less original than they used to be. Sequels, prequels, reboots, and remakes are all accounting for an ever-growing share of US box-office revenue.

Nine of the top 10 highest grossing films of the year so far are franchise movies. Two years ago, all 10 of the top movies at the box office were parts of a franchise.

Avengers: Endgame is now the highest-grossing film of all time, Disney announced during its panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 20. The 2019 superhero blockbuster, originally released globally in April, finally surpassed the global ticket sales of James Cameron’s sci-fi film Avatar, which had held the record since 2009.

Men In Black: International—the fourth film in the Men In Black franchise and the first since 2012—was a comical failure.

The summer used to be when TV networks would air reruns and other low-stakes programming, knowing that people would rather be at the beach than cooped up inside watching television. But eventually some realized that if every network did this, then it would give new shows that did premiere in June, July, and August an excellent opportunity to stand out. So we’ve now reached the point when the summer months aren’t very different from every other time of the year in terms of the quality of TV shows debuting.

If you were to glance at this year’s summer movie schedule, you might think it was the mid-1990s: New installments of Toy Story and Men in Black will hit theaters, and The Lion King is getting a reboot for some reason (money). But a closer look reveals plenty of original—actually original—movies to watch over the next few months.

The latest in a long line of acclaimed HBO miniseries, Chernobyl is undeniably great no matter what measure you use. It’s a hit with TV critics, boasts the highest IMDb user rating of all time, and is generating more think pieces than readers can consume—always the hallmark of a culturally impactful series.

Every generation of high schoolers gets a “one crazy night” comedy movie to call its own. Generation Z just got theirs.

The best Game of Thrones episode of the year featured no dragons, battles, or pivotal monologues. In their places were production designers, location scouts, and, of course, extras. Lots and lots of extras.

By normal human standards, a seven-minute standing ovation for anything—a film, a concert, a speech—is insanely long. But by Cannes Film Festival standards, it’s not very long at all.

If the Game of Thrones finale seemed familiar, it’s probably because large parts of it were already done better by J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson.

Throughout the many ups and downs on Game of Thrones, one thing has remained consistently excellent: Ramin Djawadi’s music. And even though HBO’s epic fantasy series will come to a close this Sunday, the music isn’t going anywhere.

Jaime Lannister might be dead, but Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the Danish actor who portrayed him, thankfully is not. In fact, just a few days after Game of Thrones ends for good on May 19, he’ll team up anew with Carice van Houten (Melisandre, also dead) in Brian De Palma’s first feature film in seven years, Domino.

Game of Thrones is almost over, and it’s never coming back.

On May 19, HBO will air the final episode of Game of Thrones, ending an era of television. While the last few episodes have divided viewers, everyone is still dying to know who—if anyone—will wind up on the Iron Throne when the series concludes. We’ve come too far to turn back now.

This story includes details from Game of Thrones season 8, episode 5, “The Bells.”

Next week, Game of Thrones will end, leaving HBO without its most recent crown jewel. There won’t ever be a TV series quite like GOT, but that doesn’t mean the premium cable network won’t try to make one.

When you hear it, you know something bad is probably about to happen.

Avengers: Endgame took just 11 days to make more than $2 billion at the global box office, passing Titanic to become the second highest-grossing film of all time (at $2.8 billion, Avatar remains in first—for now). The Marvel superhero movie shattered pretty much every opening weekend box-office record in existence.

It seemed like an idea that would leave me swimming in Lannister-level gold: selling hot coffee and melty paninis in a world characterized by the eternal imminence of winter. And for years, things were good: Sure, spelling “Jaqen H’ghar” on a cup is never easy, and if you get it wrong, he kills you and takes your face. Sure, I’ve lost three baristas—to greyscale, not the competition (there isn’t any). But the money was right, and running Westeros’ only Starbucks made me a hit at company retreats.

This story includes plot details from Season 8, Episode 3 (“The Long Night”) of HBO’s Game of Thrones.