Will 'Moana's Flop Finally Remind Disney That Imagination Is Important?

After last week’s Best Films of 2026 list, it’s time we return to our regularly scheduled formatting. Luckily the last two weeks have been a bit quiet on the film front, so we haven’t missed much there. The first weekend in July brought us both Minions & Monsters and Enola Holmes 3 for a family double feature. (Watch one in all that silky movie theater AC and the other in the comfort of your own home.) Then this past weekend, yet another family-friendly film took charge of the box office with the arrival of the live-action Moana (more on that in a bit). Most adult movies with grand blockbuster ambitions cleared the way for The Odyssey, which comes out next week, but I’ve already seen. (Some predictions about that below as well.)

While movie theaters have been waiting patiently for Christopher Nolan’s Trojan horse (which I have some practical questions about), the world of reality TV has been going haywire. Love Island and The Real Housewives of Rhode Island wrapped up. Big Brother and The Real Housewives of Orange County returned, and then of course we have my beloved Next Gen NYC with it’s cast of 68 Gen Zs.

But before we venture too far afield, I have a pitch for you, my dear readers.

Awarded to THE standout figure of the week, recognizing exceptional talent across disciplines.

If ever there was a summer to start watching Big Brother, it is this one. We’re only two episodes into Season 28 (which means you can easily catch up), but it’s already shaping up to be an incredible summer for a number of reasons. The first, and foremost, is the cast. This year, we’ve got one Big Brother returnee, Angela Murray, who is, in my mind, the most iconic player in the last decade. (Please watch these clips.) She’s volatile, she’s emotional, and she loves charcutterie more than anything. When she competed in Season 26, she started the season by picking a fight with the largest alpha male on the cast, sending him home.

If you don’t have a strong affinity for mouthy middle-aged women, however, there are three other reality TV entry points for new viewers. On the Survivor front, both Rick Devens and Dee Valladares headed straight from Survivor 50 to the Big Brother house. While they’re both reality TV vets, neither are Big Brother superfans, which is already twisting the typical strategy. Survivor, which eliminates a player ever two or three days, moves much faster than Big Brother, which sends home one house guest per week. Also adding chaos to the mix is RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Salina EsTitties, competing under her boy name Jason De Puy, who had her own meltdown just weeks ago on All Stars 11. And then of course, there are a bunch of newbies.

Two seasons ago, Big Brother added the BB Blockbuster as a twist, and while I won’t get into the history, let me tell you that it has revolutionized the game for the better, delivering two excellent seasons back to back prior to this one.

Perhaps the best thing about Season 28, however, is that you can just tell the producers are having fun. Half of the premiere was spent on a bit. Producers announced that a fan favorite player was returning to the game, only to have said player enter the house, chat up the houseguests, and then get pushed into a volcano by a velociraptor during the first challenge and die. Yes, you read that right. Host Julie Chen got on the mic and informed the houseguests that the woman had passed away, before the cameras cut to a shot of a seleton in the lava. Just the absolute best version of ridiculous that one can imagine. If you’ve never watched Big Brother, PLEASE stare this season. You can always quit if you don’t like it.

Awarded to the best-dressed individual of the week, either a real-life human or an on-screen character.

Robert Wun’s couture fashion always brings a bit of whimsy, but that was blown (hehe) into epic proportions this year, when he debuted several balloon looks on the runway. The silhouettes were jawdropping, and they served as a reminder of the unending combinations artists can make. Is this look practical to wear at all? No. But am I dying for Zendaya to take on a clown movie so that she can wear it to a red carpet? Yes.

LizaMinnelliOutlives@LiZaOutlives

Liza Minnelli has outlived Senator Lindsey Graham. He has gone to the big closet in the sky.

7:23 AM · Jul 12, 2026 · 549K Views

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Awarded to the best use of the English language in the past 7 days.

I know that I’m supposed to hate Twitter because Elon Musk owns it now, but I’m sorry, you can’t make me hate all of the incredibly funny people I have spent the past decade following. They never disappoint, but they were really landing some excellently crafted pieces of work when Senator Lindsay Graham passed away unexpectedly this weekend (several days before Mitch McConnell’s ransom newspaper photo dropped). Do yourself a favor and search Lindsay Graham on the app. You won’t be disappointed. Oh, and Liza Mennelli Outlives, obviously claimed yet another.

Awarded to the individual(s) who deserve(s) an Oscar for their remarkable performance(s) on screen, large or small.

Not to shamelessly plug my own writing, but I did spent a LOT of time interviewing folks for my latest New York Times piece. Two of those people were Jon Hamm and John Slattery, both of whom play versions of themselves in this slapstick comedy. Ever since James Marsden’s turn on Jury Duty, I’ve been obsessed with celebrities playing themselves, and these two really went all in on the ridiculous charicatures they’ve been tasked with here. Also, they were both lovely people to talk to, which as a longtime Mad Men fan, I really appreciated.

Awarded to the entity with the worst energy, most unwell aura, and bleakest constitution.

2026 has been a very interesting year for movies. While there have been obvious original success stories such as Project Hail Mary, Obsession, and Backrooms, as well as money-making old stalwarts in Toy Story 5, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and The Devil Wears Prada 2, we’ve also had a series of interesting flops. The issues started early in the year when horror sequels Scream 7 and Ready or Not 2: Here I Come both underperformed at the box office, but the real first blow came when The Mandalorian and Grogu crashed and burned (something I wrote about at the time). Only a month later, Supergirl, another movie that would have been an instant money maker ten years ago, did even worse. Then just last week, Minions and Monsters, while pulling in a healthy chunk of change, opened to the lowest numbers of the franchise.

Which brings me to the live-action Moana. Up until now, Disney’s trove of classic films have been teflon to negative reviews given that their primary audience is children. Moana, however, did so abysmally at the box office that Deadline ran a headline about how the film is likely to lose $100M. While theatergoing is alive and well, it feels like audiences are hungry for something new. There’s franchise burnout and cinephiles are sick of reboots, sequels, and spinoffs that require them to have an ever-growing knowldege of previous films and TV shows.

I think this is an especially interesting problem for Disney, where the live-action remakes, Marvel and Star Wars eat up a considerable portion of their theatrical lineup. Other studios certainly have their own share of IP, but no one is clinging so desperately to old content. Now part of this has to do with theme parks (as weird film choices often do), because a new Moana movie does revitalize a whole set of attractions for another 10 years at least, BUT part of it has to do with risk-averse corporate executives who didn’t come up through the creative pipeline.

Walt Disney was a great businessman, but he was a great artist and animator first. He understood that the heart of his business was storytelling, and so he was able to take risks and make business calls using the creative side of his brain. If he had a hunch that something would work, he didn’t have to run his ideas past shareholders and board members. And it’s that artist’s brain that made “imagineering” so important to him. Imagination was THE central componant to his business.

Now, however, Disney is run by businessmen. Former CEO Bob Iger worked for a bit as a low-level TV producer in the 1970s, but current CEO Josh D’Amaro started his career working in sales and finance. Someone like that approaches a fundamentally creative business from a financial perspective. They aren’t making creative risks, something that is necessary in order to make the future classics of cinema. Instead, they’ll look at spreadsheets and choose to rehash old properties that data tells them is likely to draw in pre-existing fan bases. It’s always lost on execs that those fan bases were all created originally through new ideas. At one point, The Lion King, Star Wars, and Harry Potter were all just new stories without a single fan in the world.

So will Disney’s string of losses call for a new direction? Most likely not, as it’s nearly impossible to turn a ship the size of Disney, but if their slate of upcoming sequels keep underperforming, then shareholders might begin to demand some new ideas, and unfortunately money is the only thing that matters over there ATM.

If you’re going to engage with media in the upcoming week, this is what you should be engaging with.

I really love a good article, even if it is a terrifying one. This piece from The Atlantic made the rounds last week, drawing attention to the literary crisis in America. As someone who has spent their entire life reading, from my bookish childhood through being an English major in college, working in publishing, and eventually becoming a writer myself, this was a bit haunting. AND YET I will always believe in the power and necessity of the written word, and so in the face of “the end of reading,” I will still continue to hone my craft. Because really what is the life of an artist if not one of forging on in the face of adversity. This article will hopefully inspire you to buy some more books (and ready them) though.

Sorry kids, but it’s time for the grown-ups to talk. If you’re a paying subscriber, feel free to read on for gossip, hot takes, and potentially controversial subject matter for your eyes only.

Hello, hello, hello! While you (more likely than not) have not seen The Odyssey, I have, and I’d like to make a few predictions now as to the film’s response before the world takes it.