“The Conjuring: Last Rites,” which scored a franchise-best launch of $83 million domestically and $187 million globally over the weekend, has extended an epic theatrical run for Warner Bros. as the seventh consecutive release to open above $40 million. No other studio has ever achieved that level of consistency at the box office.
After a terrible theatrical stretch with duds like 2024’s “Joker: Folie a Deux” and this March’s “Mickey 17” and “The Alto Knights,” the fortunes at Warner Bros. began to rebound with April’s video game adaptation “A Minecraft Movie” ($162 million debut). The studio’s turnaround continued with Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s vampire thriller “Sinners” ($48 million), followed by a quartet of summer offerings, “Final Destination Bloodlines” ($51.6 million), Brad Pitt’s “F1: The Movie” ($57 million), “Superman” ($125 million) and director Zach Cregger’s horror mystery “Weapons” ($43.5 million).
What’s even better is that all of those films managed to stick around beyond opening weekend, a fate that several major releases recently failed to achieve. (Disney’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Thunderbolts,” for example, dropped steeply after promising debuts.) “A Minecraft Movie” is the studio’s biggest earner of the year with $957 million globally, followed by “F1” (which Warner Bros. distributed for Apple) with $617 million, “Superman” with $613 million, “Sinners” with $366 million, “Final Destination: Bloodlines” with $307 million and “Weapons” with $251 million and counting.
“Warner Bros. is having a fantastic run,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “The studio made outstanding choices and took some big creative risks, and they’re paying off.”
Back in the spring, Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi epic “Mickey 17” with Robert Pattinson, as well as the Robert De Niro-led crime drama “The Alto Knights,” had set the studio back at least $110 million in losses. But the remaining lineup has delivered some enviable profit margins. Case in point: “Sinners” is expected to generate around $60 million in theatrical profits; “Superman” around $125 million; “Final Destination: Bloodlines” approximately $75 million; “Weapons” around $65 million (and counting), according to knowledgeable individuals. For “F1,” Warner Bros. was paid a flat distribution fee as well as a percentage of revenues in line with certain box office benchmarks, resulting in theatrical profits of roughly $34 million. Warner Bros. declined to comment. A studio insider disputed these figures without providing specific numbers; the source added that Warner Bros. has made roughly $600 million in combined year-to-date theatrical profits before counting the latest “Conjuring.”
Thanks to the dramatic turnaround, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy are fully off the hot seat. That wasn’t the case a few months ago, given the studio’s late 2024 and early 2025 run of box office disasters. Right before De Luca and Abdy had to grapple with a steady stream of headlines about whether or not they would keep their jobs, the duo ousted the studio’s marketing chief, Josh Goldstine, and international distribution head Andrew Cripps. The surprise shakeup contributed to a growing sense of uncertainty at the studio.
“Studios get hot, and studios get cold,” Gross adds. “Just before this, they weathered a long, bad run. It won’t last forever. Hopefully they’ll remember this [run] when they go on a cold steak. That’ll happen too; it always does.”
Those outsized wins will take a bit of pressure off the next big Warner Bros. gamble, Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic “One Battle After Another,” which opens later in September. That film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, cost at least $130 million to produce and requires roughly $300 million to break even at the box office. For context, Anderson’s highest-grossing film is 2007’s Western “There Will Be Blood,” which earned $76.4 million globally.
“One Battle After Another” will be the studio’s final release of the year. Then in 2026, Warner Bros. will deliver Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” remake with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s $80 million “Frankenstein” spinoff “The Bride” and two DC’s adventures in “Supergirl” and “Clayface.” There’s also Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor-led original sci-fi thriller “Flowervale Street,” video game sequel “Mortal Kombat II,” an untitled film from “Birdman” director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and star Tom Cruise, and “Dune Part Three.” On paper, it looks like another risky slate that spotlights genre fare and filmmaker-driven originals over time-tested franchises. But then again, most of the studio’s 2025 slate didn’t enter theaters as guaranteed hits. And we know how those bets paid off.
The U.S. Secret Service put on leave an agent who expressed negative opinions on social media about slain conservative influencer Charlie Kirk and revoked his security clearance, two U.S. officials said.
Anthony Pough wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday that Kirk had “spewed hate and racism on his show … at the end of the day, you answer to GOD, and speak things into existence. You can only circumvent karma, she doesnt leave.”
In a memo to staff that was shared with CBS News, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said politically motivated attacks in the United States are on the rise, and staff shouldn’t exacerbate the problem.
“Let me be clear, politically motivated attacks in our nation are increasing — seemingly every day,” Curran wrote. “The men and women of the Secret Service must be focused on being the solution, not adding to the problem.”
Real Clear Politics first reported on Pough’s social media post on Kirk. Pough has not yet responded to a request for comment.
A U.S. Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement, “The U.S. Secret Service will not tolerate behavior that violates our code of conduct. This employee was immediately put on administrative leave, and an investigation has begun.”
Curran’s memo, sent Thursday night and addressed to “the Men and Women of the Secret Service,” said he was reminding employees “we swear an oath to those we protect to conduct ourselves with the highest standards of conduct on and off duty.”
“When our actions draw public attention for the wrong reasons, we fall short of that duty and compromise the trust essential to fulfill our mission,” Curran continued.
He concluded, “We must operate every day without bias towards political affiliation. We owe it to ourselves and those we are sworn to protect. Any distractions, otherwise, will not be tolerated.”
A person targeted during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement traffic stop dragged an ICE officer with a vehicle while resisting arrest in a Chicago suburb Friday morning, prompting the officer to fatally shoot the person and leaving the officer with injuries, the Department of Homeland Security said.
The slain target of the stop, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, was an undocumented immigrant with a history of reckless driving, according to DHS. The officer, whose name was not immediately released, suffered severe injuries but is in stable condition, a DHS official told CNN.
The traffic stop happened in Franklin Park, a community about 15 miles west of downtown Chicago, the DHS official said.
“We are praying for the speedy recovery of our law enforcement officer. He followed his training, used appropriate force, and properly enforced the law to protect the public and law enforcement,” Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security assistant secretary, said in a release. “Viral social media videos and activists encouraging illegal aliens to resist law enforcement not only spread misinformation, but also undermine public safety, as well as the safety of our officers and those being apprehended.”
During the stop, Villegas-Gonzalez “drove his car at law enforcement officers,” DHS said in the release.
“One of the ICE officers was hit by the car and dragged a significant distance. Fearing his own life, the officer fired his weapon,” the release reads.
A suspect has been arrested in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah, officials said Friday morning. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said the suspect had been identified as Tyler Robinson, 22.
Cox said Robinson resides in Southern Utah and confessed to his father.
Two federal law enforcement sources told CBS News that Robinson’s father saw the photos released by authorities and confronted his son. Robinson admitted to being the person in the photos and his father encouraged him to turn himself in, the sources said. Robinson responded to his father, saying he would rather die by suicide than turn himself in, prompting his father to call a youth pastor close to the family, the sources said. The pastor and Robinson’s father tried to calm him, according to the sources.
The pastor, who is also a court security officer, also called the U.S. Marshals Service, which arrived and detained Robinson, the sources said.
The sources said the Marshals called the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who took Robinson into custody. Robinson was taken into custody late Thursday night, FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday.
Cox said he believed Robinson acted alone, and that there is no information at this time “that would lead to any additional arrests.”
Cox thanked the family members of the suspected shooter, who he said “did the right thing” in bringing him to law enforcement.
A mugshot of Tyler Robinson.
Utah Governor’s Office
President Trump was the first to announce the suspect was in custody during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” Friday morning.
Cox said a family member told investigators that Robinson had become more political in recent years, and referenced an incident where Robinson had come to dinner and mentioned Kirk’s upcoming appearance.
Kirk shot while engaging in campus debate
Kirk, who was 31, was engaging in one of his signature “Prove Me Wrong” debates at Utah Valley University when he was shot and killed on Wednesday afternoon. The event was part of Turning Point USA’s “The American Comeback Tour,” and there were over 3,000 people in attendance when Kirk was shot, police said.
Kirk’s next event had been set for Utah State University. The university confirmed that Robinson had attended the school as a pre-engineering major for one semester in 2021 before taking a leave of absence.
Kirk had just begun to debate someone in the audience about gun violence when he was shot, witnesses said. Just one shot was fired, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said on Wednesday night. Kirk was struck in the neck.
A university spokeswoman said the single shot is believed to have been fired from the Losee Center for Student Success, which houses a number of services and resources. A law enforcement source told CBS News the gunman appeared to have fired from the building’s roof.
Details on evidence emerge
After the shooting, the shooter jumped off the building and fled into a neighborhood off campus, Mason said. Photos released by law enforcement showed a person wearing a dark baseball cap, black glasses, a long-sleeved dark shirt that appeared to feature an American flag and an eagle, and dark-colored pants.
The FBI asked for the public’s help in identifying this person of interest in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
FBI
Investigators recovered a high-powered, bolt-action rifle that they believe was used in the assassination, Robert Bohls, the FBI special agent in charge of the bureau’s Salt Lake City field office, said Thursday. The gun was found wrapped in a dark towel in a wooded area where the shooter fled, Bohls said.
Cox also said investigators reviewed messages on the messaging platform Discord from a person named “Tyler” that referenced a rifle wrapped in a towel that was left in the woods and engravings on bullets.
Cox said that there were inscriptions on the casings of the fired bullet and three unfired ones. The fired bullet casing contained the inscription, “Notices bulges OwO what’s this?” An unfired bullet casing read, “Hey fascist, catch!” And a second unfired casing read, “oh bella ciao, bella cio, bella ciao, ciao, ciao.” A third unfired casing said, “If you read this, you are gay.”
Cox declined to speculate on the meaning of the inscriptions.
“I will leave that up to you to interpret what those engravings mean,” Cox said. He added that the “Hey fascist, catch!” inscription “speaks for itself.”
The arrest comes after two people were briefly taken into custody, then released, on Wednesday. Neither individual had ties to the shooting, the Utah Department of Public Safety said on Wednesday night. The second person taken into custody was charged with obstruction of justice, the department said.
Kirk was a close ally of Mr. Trump and a friend of Donald Trump Jr.
The president, who ordered flags be flown at half-staff until Sunday evening, announced plans to honor Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, calling him “a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty, and an inspiration to millions and millions of people.” He also released a video statement blaming the “radical left” for the killing. Politicians and figures on both sides of the aisle have condemned Kirk’s killing.
Kirk is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two young children. Vice President JD Vance accompanied Kirk’s casket as it was transported Thursday aboard Air Force Two to Arizona, where the family lives.
Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.
