Lionsgate Play has confirmed a second season of “Heated Rivalry” for 2027, alongside a theatrical-first release model for a curated slate of premium Hollywood titles and more than 100 premieres lined up for India in 2026.
The theatrical push, set to begin in September, will see 10–12 titles debut in Indian cinemas before arriving on the platform. Among the films earmarked for that window are Russell Crowe’s “Billion Dollar Spy,” Gerard Butler’s “Empire City,” Robert Pattinson‘s “Primetime,” Mark Wahlberg’s “By Any Means,” and snake creature feature “Titan.”
The wider 2026 lineup is also heavy on high-profile Hollywood talent. Butler returns in “Greenland 2: Migration,” joined by Jason Statham in “Mutiny,” Angelina Jolie in “Couture,” Zac Efron in “Famous,” and Matthew McConaughey in “The Rivals of Amziah King.” The franchise side of the slate grows with “Apollo Has Fallen” and a third season of “Vigil.”
“Over the past few years, we’ve built Lionsgate Play into a destination for bold, high-impact storytelling,” said Rohit Jain, who acquired the platform from Lionsgate earlier this year following an eight-year tenure as its Asia president. “In 2026, we’re delivering on that vision at full scale, with 100+ premieres, returning franchises, and now, the big screen itself under one roof.”
Lionsgate Play operates across eight Asian markets and reaches more than 40 million viewers in India, where it distributes primarily through a B2B2C model via partners including JioHotstar, Airtel Xstream, and Amazon Prime Video Channels. The platform, which focuses on Hollywood content alongside regional originals, operates under a multi-year licensing agreement with Lionsgate covering branding and content.
The Annecy Animation Showcase comes back to Cannes’ Marché du Film for yet another year, shedding light on five promising animated features.
Hailing from Japan, France and Mexico, these ongoing projects bring animation to Cannes, a collaboration between Cannes’ Marché du Film and the Annecy Festival which started in 2019 with an Animation Day and has been growing ever since.
“For Annecy, this Showcase represents a key extension of our commitment to supporting animation beyond the Festival itself, throughout the year,” said Annecy Festival CEO Mickaël Marin.
“Built over time with the Marché du Film, this collaboration allows us to accompany projects at a decisive stage, within one of the most strategic global platforms. It’s both a continuity and an amplification of our mission, in service of the movies,” he added.
“Animation has always had a strong presence in Cannes, particularly within the Official Selection,” underlined Alexandra Zakharchenko, head of industry programs at the Marché du Film. “In recent years, several animated titles presented in the Festival have achieved major international recognition and the role of animation within the broader ecosystem of the Marché du Film has significantly evolved.”
Zakharchenko refers to films such as “Flow,” which debuted its circuit run at Cannes 2024, before meeting global success with audiences and critics alike. “Flow” and its surprise Academy Award win opened a path that other major indie animated titles such as Ugo Bienvenu’s “Arco” and “Little Amelie and the Character of Rain” have since tried as well.
“We are also seeing a growing interest in the potential of animation among professionals already attending Cannes, many of whom are no longer exclusively specialized in animation but are increasingly engaging with it,” continued Zakharchenko. “Private investors also increasingly view animation as an IP-driven business model. Animation travels across territories, platforms and generations, while offering long-term value beyond the screen. As buyers shift from volume to durability, animation stands out as a resilient ecosystem – connecting storytelling, fandom, distribution and global exploitation in ways few other formats can.”
According to Zakharchenko, this shift is something the teams aim to reflect at the Marché du Film itself, where animation is no longer confined to a single Animation Day, but is now embedded across the entire market under the Cannes Animation umbrella, spanning a wide range of formats: from work-in-progress and finished film showcases to panels, workshops, networking events, and its integration into other programs, including targeted co-production meetings.
This year, with Japan the 2026 Country of Honor at the Marché du Film, the teams are also placing a particular focus on Japanese animation, alongside the longstanding strength and global reputation of French animation, a focus that is mirrored in the five projects selected for this year’s Annecy Animation Showcase.
Betrayed during Edo Castle’s reconstruction, legendary craftsman Jingoro Hidari loses his father figure, fiancée, and even his right arm. Forging lethal mechanical prosthetics, he turns grief into vengeance and carves a path to justice with his loyal “Sleeping Cat.”
A pilot film teasing the mindblowing wooden stop-motion technique used to bring “Hidari” to life was shared three years ago by the project teams as proof of concept, along with BTS footage. Per “Hidari’s” team, Japanese animation is still highly recognized across the world for its unique visual language, which gives it the distinct flare. “We wanted to create an entertainment piece that no one has seen before, by merging this world of Japanimation and the technique of stop-motion animation. To do so, breathing life into wood (through wooden puppets animated in stop motion) mirrored both our artistic intentions and the anecdotes surrounding Jingoro Hidari’s life.” The project goes beyond live-action and 2D animation to craft a one-of-a-kind look, with a lot of potential for memorable action sequences.
On a cold winter morning, a battle rages in the surroundings of a small town in the Italian Renaissance. As the military tactics gradually go awry, two movements oppose each other: the desire to win and the desire to live. Written and directed by Annecy-nominated artist Vergine Keaton, “Bataille” draws from Renaissance art to transform a single conflict into a universal allegory.
“Beyond the grand scale,” said Keaton, the film “dissects group dynamics (hierarchy, power, submission) and transcends history to focus on the intimate. And in doing so, ‘Bataille’ weaves a tapestry of individual stories.” With French singer-songwriter Pomme taking part in the project, which is backed by France’s CNC National Film Board, “Bataille’s” distinctive style and universal message have all that it takes to charm international buyers at this year’s showcase.
‘Bataille’
“Les chiens ne font pas des chats,” Alain Gagnol (France, Canada, Belgium)
Producers: Jérôme Duc-Maugé (Parmi les lucioles films), Brice Garnier (Kaïbou Production Inc.), Cédric Iland (UMEDIA)
Language: French; Genre: Drama; Artistic technique: 2D animation with 3D elements; Completion: 2027
Jules and Lola’s life has taken a sad turn after their parents’ death, but their routine is disrupted by their grandmother Jeanne, who turns up with a very special mission: to find a missing teenager. Thanks to their grandmother, they discover an extraordinary family legacy within themselves. With a star-studded French cast including Josiane Balasko as Jeanne, Golshifteh Farahani as Sunny, Philippe Katerine as Bono, Prune Bozo as Lola and Ethan Maury Tragherset as Jules, the latest film from Oscar-nominated writer-director and French animation veteran Alain Gagnol (“A Cat in Paris”) explores the bond between animals and humans, as the latter discover that cats and dogs can actually speak.
“I like to think that the world doesn’t stop at what our eyes can perceive,”, added Gagnol, as he shared details about a story playing with our imagination and moving across genres, from fantasy to road-movie to slapstick to poetry. “I wanted to address a family audience, as I’m convinced that the children’s perception of a film becomes richer with time. But above all, for this new film, I wanted to make them laugh!”
KMBO distributes in France, with Playtime handling international sales. “Les chiens ne font pas des chats,” has already received support from Eurimages, and is set for completion in 2027.
A young chef chasing a lost flavor lands in a ruined city without taste. Saved by Kasumi, his cooking awakens forgotten memories. But a dark force threatens to erase all desire — making his quest the last hope to save both worlds. The project, first revealed by “Pompo: The Cinephile” and “Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack” director Takayuki Hirao in 2024 at the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, Hokkaido, Japan, is a completely original film reuniting the “Pompo” team.
Ryoichiro Matsuo, Yunosuke Uno and Kosuke Arai produce for CLAP studio, which teased “Wasted Chef” as “a unique yet classic Japanese animation that challenges a new genre, combining cooking and science fiction.” Although few details have been made public yet, Crunchyroll previously reported that Hirao’s collaborators Shingo Adachi (character design) and Kenta Matsukuma (music) are working with the director again, after their successful collaboration on “Pompo.”
In a world where insects have gone extinct, Lexi preserves specimens in a collection for her uncle, Dr. Krause, an entomologist. After removing the pin from a rare Attacus atlas moth, she takes it home to hide her mistake, only to discover it has come back to life.
“Insectario” itself is brought to the big screen by established Mexican filmmaker Sofía Carrillo.“Sofía is one of the most distinctive and vibrant voices in animation in Mexico,” said Pimienta Films’ Nicolas Celis, producer of Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma.” “Her work stands out for its visually striking style, imbued with an unsettling and deeply emotional poetics.”
The two-time Ariel Awards winner and Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio” team member makes her feature debut with this ambitious, narratively unique and sensitive film, already selected for Ventana Sur and the Quirino Awards Co-Production Forum, and backed by Mexican National Fund, Spain and Ibermedia Next.
The upcoming ITV drama Believe Me features established and rising British stars coming together to tell a harrowing British story. Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses, Peaky Blinders, Mr Burton), Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves, Bloods, The Beast Must Die) and Miriam Petche (Industry) feature in the four-episode series opposite Daniel Mays (Line of Duty, Des, A Thousand Blows, Moonflower Murders) as John Worboys, who is known in the U.K. by a more sinister moniker: the “Black Cab Rapist.”
He has drawn many a headline, so now it is time for women who suffered because of him to see their stories and their experiences told. From the indignity of multiple police interviews and intimate evidence gathering to skeptical lines of questioning from police officers, Believe Me takes audiences through many a painful, frustrating and anger-inducing experience.
Indeed, Believe Me, written and executive produced by Jeff Pope (Philomena, Stan & Ollie, Cilla), produced by his Etta Pictures, part of ITV Studios, and directed by Julia Ford, tells the story of the victims of “one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history” and how they “were failed by the system,” a show description reads. “Worboys was convicted in 2009 for crimes, including sexual assault and drugging with intent, against 12 women between 2006 and 2008, with their cases selected from a large number of suspected further victims. His modus operandi was to pick up women in his cab after they’d been on a night out, claim that he’d had a win at a casino or in the lottery, then persistently offer them a drug-laced glass of champagne to help him ‘celebrate’ – which then rendered his victims unconscious.”
Believe Me focuses on the ordeals of two women, portrayed by Edwards and Shah, who reported sexual assaults by Worboys, only to see London’s Metropolitan Police, aka Scotland Yard, failing to thoroughly investigate their cases, effectively leaving Worboys free to commit assaults undetected for years. Following his trial came the realization that he was linked to allegations of further sexual offenses against more than a hundred women. Believe Me is expected to premiere on ITV and ITVX in the coming weeks, with a launch date yet to be made official.
As a writer and/or producer, Pope has explored true-crime stories in such series as The Widower, about convicted murderer Malcolm Webster, and The Reckoning, about the sexual crimes of British media personality Jimmy Savile. But he prefers to explore the human fallout of crimes rather than glorify their perpetrators. “That’s really been my process for a long time now,” Pope shared during an online discussion about Believe Me with members of the press. “I’m not really interested in trying to get inside the mind of psychopaths.”
In fact, he shared that the creative team, including director Ford, knew quite quickly where the story’s focus would lie. “We really settled very early in the creative process on making this very much about the experience of the victims,” Pope explained. “These women were drugged and they could tell something had happened, but they didn’t know exactly what had happened.”
Daniel Mays in ITV drama ‘Believe Me’
Courtesy of ITV
The creative team is showing us not the crimes themselves, but what led up to them and the emotional fallout. “We take the audience along the journey with [these women] on the day they report being assaulted, hours and hours and hours of interviews, intimate examinations, more interviews, samples are being taken, intimate swabs,” highlighted Pope. “These women just went through the most horrendous process of all, ultimately to be told we don’t believe a crime has happened. Essentially: ‘We don’t believe you’.” That is also where the title of the series comes from.
Mays had in the past already collaborated with Pope on Mrs Biggs and Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, so he was confident that Believe Me would be a strong show. “If Jeff’s going to come at you with a script, you know it’s going to be heartfelt, it’s going to be engaging, it’s going to be thoroughly researched,” the actor shared with the press. “He’s absolutely meticulous with his storytelling. He comes from a journalistic background, and so, in as much as it was a huge character to take on, with all the challenges that it threw at me, Jeff, as a writer, seems to get the best out of me as an actor.”
Mays kept highlighting the challenges of portraying a convicted criminal like Worboys, also describing the role as “a huge thing to take on” and an “acting challenge.”
The star shared: “You’re being asked to sort of humanize someone who is evil, essentially. It’s about delving beneath those headlines and trying to play him in as three-dimensional a way as possible.”
Pope said that he knew Mays would be able to pull off this challenge. But how about the emotional toll of slipping into the role of Worboys? “I underestimated how difficult that was going to be,” Mays told journalists. “I’ve got 26 years of experience as a professional actor, but I’m not going to lie to you. It did, at times, take its toll. It was a difficult thing and an unsettling thing to portray, and very isolating by its very nature.”
Director Ford was asked about her description of the show as a fair and balanced portrayal of what happened to Worboys’ victims. “It’s just that this felt like the best way to tell the story,” she explained.
“Undeniably, these women were treated very, very poorly by the police, … and we tell the story from their point of view,” she continued. “But I suppose what I meant by that was that we don’t point the finger at one individual, one police man or police woman. It’s not about one particular individual, it’s about the whole system.”
A BigBang world tour in the year 2026? Wow, fantastic baby.
The legendary K-pop group, comprising current members Taeyang, G-Dragon and Daesung, announced a new world tour during their weekend two set at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Sunday night. The tour will be in honor of BigBang’s 20th anniversary as group, which they’re celebrating in 2026.
As the group said their goodbyes to the massive crowd gathered at the festival’s Outdoor stage, they teased that Coachella was the beginning point for a new chapter. Daesung promised that the festival wasn’t just a comeback for BigBang but a “reset” for the group. G-Dragon then announced that they’d be embarking on a 20th anniversary tour later this year.
Though few details are known about the upcoming tour, G-Dragon promised the crowd it would be begin this August. The rapper didn’t clarify where the tour would kick off, but nearly all K-pop tours begin in Seoul, or a surrounding city in South Korea, so it’s a safe bet BigBang’s will also.
“Do not miss out, and stay tuned,” G-Dragon told the crowd. After the announcement, the three men performed their song “Still Life” to close out their time at the festival.
BigBang was one of the final acts of the desert-set musical festival, taking the stage after Karol G’s headlining set began at the nearby Coachella main stage. The group kicked off their set with a pair of iconic songs, “Bang Bang Bang” and “Fantastic Baby.”
The set featured a slew of hits and fan favorites, even adding their single “Bae Bae” for weekend two. Coachella marks the first performance of the song in nearly a decade. Each member of BigBang performed a solo song during the set; Taeyang and G-Dragon also performed their legendary duet “Good Boy,” meanwhile Daesung brought the Korean pop genre trot to the Coachella stage.
Both awards will be presented by Prince Albert II of Monaco during the event’s 65th edition, taking place June 12–16 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
“We are thrilled to honor Kurt Russell and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas. Their exceptional careers, spanning both film and television, perfectly reflect the artistic excellence and international perspective. These awards celebrate two remarkable talents who have made a lasting impact on the global audiovisual landscape,” Cécile Menoni, executive director of the festival, stated.
Scott Thomas will be honored during the opening ceremony on June 12. Most recently seen in the acclaimed series “Slow Horses,” the actress made her directorial debut with “My Mother’s Wedding,” which she wrote, directed and starred in.
“I am deeply honored to receive this recognition in Monaco, a place that has long celebrated artistic excellence with such grace,” Scott Thomas said.
Russell, who will receive his award during the closing ceremony on June 16, has recently returned to television with “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” and will next appear in the highly anticipated series “The Madison.”
“It is a great honor to be selected for this distinguished award, and I very much look forward to spending time with His Serene Highness Prince Albert. It has been a long time,” Russell said.
The Crystal Nymph Award has previously been presented to international talent including Michael Douglas, Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland, Morgan Freeman and Robin Wright.
The line, spoken by a Kuwait-based meteorologist in Jacqueline Zünd’s “Heat,” anchors a film that examines global warming not through explanation but through what the Swiss filmmaker describes as “a sensory experience.”
Premiering in the main competition at Visions du Réel, Switzerland’s leading documentary film festival, “Heat” immerses the viewer in environments where extreme temperatures are entirely reshaping the way people live and work, exposing stark inequalities as the wealthy retreat into air-conditioned worlds, leaving those who serve them to endure the extremes.
Shot across the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Egypt, the film shifts between a handful of characters, including a delivery driver on 12-hour shifts in scorching urban landscapes, a Kenyan woman working in a Dubai ice lounge, a real estate agent who brings ice and food to stray cats, and the meteorologist who reflects on how daily life has changed as temperatures rise.
The film grew out of Zünd’s fiction feature “Don’t Let the Sun,” which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival last year. The two were developed in parallel, each feeding into the other.
“While researching my fiction film, I found so many interesting details about the subject that it felt like an invitation to make a documentary,” she tells Variety.
In “Don’t Let the Sun,” entire societies shift to living at night – an idea inspired by real working conditions in the Persian Gulf. “There are construction workers who already live at night because it’s too hot during the day,” she explains. “I pushed that idea further in my fiction work: what if our entire lives were reversed?”
Making the documentary, she says, she found that this imagined future is already taking shape. “I was writing about a dystopia,” she adds. “And then I found this dystopia in real life.”
Gaining access to these environments proved challenging, says Zünd, not only due to temperatures sometimes exceeding 50 degrees Celsius, but also because companies were reluctant to participate and filming conditions in the region are tightly controlled.
Filming was done with a minimal crew, sometimes without formal authorization, particularly when shooting inside the delivery driver’s shared accommodation.
This scene offers only a partial view, Zünd notes. “This one was actually a nice camp compared to the others – some are horrible places, where you have 10 to 15 men in one room without proper air.”
The shoot also drew attention from authorities. While filming in Dubai, members of the crew were briefly detained and questioned before being released. Zünd says they were not given any explanation for the questioning, which was treated as routine.
The film’s striking, highly stylized visual language was developed in collaboration with longtime collaborator, cinematographer Nicolai von Graevenitz. The goal, says Zünd, was for the viewer to “feel” the unbearable heat.
“I always want to translate states visually,” she says. “Not through text or dialogue, but through something physical with images and sound – like a cinematic mirage.”
Early footage shot in extreme temperatures failed to convey the sensation Zünd had experienced on location. “We were filming in 50 degrees, but it didn’t look hot at all,” she recalls.
That realization led her to focus more on sound early on in the edit. “The editor was working a lot on levels, on winds – ‘Does this sound hot or not?,’” she explains. “There are a lot of uncomfortable sounds and we had to make sure they were not too uncomfortable and wouldn’t drive the viewers out of the cinema theater,” she jokes.
Visual strategies also play a key role. The film opens with real mirages filmed near Aswan in Egypt, where atmospheric conditions produce optical distortions. Zünd sought out the location specifically. “I wanted to translate heat visually for the opening of the film – I wanted something powerful,” she says.
Later in the film, sequences shot on Super 8 introduce what she describes as a temporal shift. “It’s a nostalgia of the present,” she explains. “As if we are remembering today from the future.”
For Zünd, the decision to focus on sensation reflects her wish to engage with audiences suffering from climate fatigue. “People are tired of being told what’s happening,” she says. “So I wanted to approach it in a different way.”
“Heat” will premiere in the international competition at Visions du Réel on April 20. Produced by Louis Mataré for Lomotion AG in co-production with Zünd’s Real Film, the documentary is backed by ARTE and SFR (Swiss Radio and Television). Sales are handled by Taskovski Films.
Several days ago, the Pope weighed in on the Iran war, saying that “whoever is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, never stands on the side of those who yesterday wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Noted Oliver: “It was one of a series of statements that made Trump lose his shit.”
The Last Week Tonight host then pointed to a lengthy post that Trump made on Truth Social that began with the statement that the Pope is “weak on crime.”
Which, Oliver said, “in terms of insults, just doesn’t work. It’s like saying this possum is weak on Balkan geography: OK, but who gives a shit? It’s not a possum’s job to correctly place Bosnia and Herzegovina on a map. Her job is to eat garbage, hang upside down and, by this evidence, fuck,” he joked, showing a photo of possums caring for multiple offspring.
Oliver then showed the image that Trump posted depicting him as a Christ-like figure, wearing a tunic with orbs of light coming out of his hands as if to heal someone. The image “understandably generated fierce backlash and his excuse was pretty weak,” Oliver said, showing a video of Trump explaining that “I thought it was me as a doctor.”
Responded Oliver: “Oh, that makes sense, a doctor. You know how when you go to the doctor and you get checked in by a nurse and a few bald eagles, and then the doctor comes in and he’s wearing an ancient tunic and says, ‘We’re gonna get you started on antibiotics and on orbs of light born from my very skin. Take them with food.’”
On Thursday, the president was asked about his feud with the Pope. Oliver showed a news clip in which Trump replied: “I’m not fighting with him. The Pope made a statement. He says Iran can have a nuclear weapon. I say Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
The reporter then fact-checked Trump, saying: “Pope Leo has never said Iran should have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump was then asked if he’d be willing to meet with the Pope, and he replied he didn’t think that a meeting was necessary.
“Yeah, I don’t really think it’s necessary either,” Oliver said on his HBO show. “This battle of words has not gone well for Trump. Plus, I don’t think they’d see eye to eye on much other than maybe whether it’s a good idea to cover your workplace in more gold shit than seems physically possible,” he joked, comparing Trump’s infamous gaudy decorating taste and the Vatican’s own aesthetic. “The point is, Trump seems to be on an epic run of picking losing fights, and whatever air of invincibility he had last year is fading fast, all of which is a pretty good reminder that one day he is gonna be gone.”
The local horror-thriller “Salmokji : Whispering Water” retained its position at the top of the South Korean box office during the weekend of Apr. 17–19.
According to data from KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, the film earned $3.3 million from 472,121 admissions, maintaining a commanding 50% share of the weekend revenue. Directed by Lee Sang-min and starring Kim Hye-yoon and Lee Jong-won, the film follows a road-view camera crew that encounters terrifying supernatural events at a remote reservoir. Since its launch, the Showbox-distributed title has reached a cumulative gross of $10.2 million from 1,461,849 admissions.
“Project Hail Mary” held steady in second place, earning $1.3 million over the weekend. Starring Ryan Gosling, the film has now reached a cumulative gross of $17.5 million from 2,298,106 admissions since its Mar. 18 opening.
In third place, “The King’s Warden” added $712,905 to its record-breaking total. With 104,955 admissions over the three-day period, the film’s cumulative attendance now stands at 16.5 million. While it has slowed significantly in its eleventh week, the historical drama continues to extend its record as the second most-watched film in Korean history, trailing only “The Admiral: Roaring Currents” (17.61 million). Its cumulative revenue has reached $108.6 million.
The identity drama “My Name” debuted in fourth place, earning $380,515 from 60,953 admissions. Directed by veteran filmmaker Chung Ji-young and starring Yeom Hye-ran and Shin Woo-bin, the film is set in 1998 and follows a boy named Young-oak who struggles with his feminine name and complex identity at a testosterone-heavy boys’ school, while his mother Jeong-sun (Yeom) begins to confront long-repressed memories of the 1948 Jeju April 3 Uprising. As Young-oak navigates school violence, his mother’s trauma regarding the historic massacre and state crackdown resurfaces, forcing both to find their place in a society still reckoning with its violent past. Since its Apr. 15 release, the film has grossed $611,162. The film played at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.
Animation “Goat” debuted in fifth place, earning $114,641 and its cumulative gross stands at $115,563.
Miyazaki Hayao classic “Kiki’s Delivery Service” re-entered the charts in sixth place following a specialty re-release, earning $140,117. It was followed by the action-thriller “Shelter” in seventh place, which grossed $41,752. Since its Apr. 15 debut, it has earned $71,594. American action-thriller “Normal” opened in eighth place with $34,259.
Rounding out the top 10 were a re-release of “The Truman Show” in ninth place with $48,875, and the Japanese sports anime “Haikyu!!: The Dumpster Battle” in tenth with $47,969.
The overall market collective gross for the weekend was $6.6 million, down from last week’s $8.01 million.
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With its popular $25/month “Essential” package, Philo has long been one of the best values in streaming, when it comes to OTT television. Subscribers get access to more than 70 live TV channels and 130+ on-demand streaming channels for the under-$30 price point, with the ability to livestream shows and movies on up to three devices.
Now, the San Francisco-based streamer is pitching a new “Bundle+” package that adds HBO Max and Discovery+ to the lineup for a new price of $33 monthly.
The expanded offerings launched last fall, and was formerly known as “Philo Core.” Current Philo subscribers automatically had HBO Max and Discovery+ added to their accounts. New users, meantime, can snag the deal at Philo.com.
The $33 price point includes access to 70+ live TV channels including A&E, AMC, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV, Lifetime and MTV, plus access to the ad-supported tiers of HBO Max and Discovery+ for on-demand content. Philo already offers AMC+ at no additional charge.
On their own, an HBO Max subscription starts at $10.99 and Discovery+ starts at $5.99, so you’re saving yourself a few bucks by getting them as part of the Philo bundle.
You can use Philo to stream shows like “Euphoria” and “Hacks” on HBO Max, along with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” on MTV, the new season of “Dr. Pimple Popper” on TLC, “Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta” on VH1 and more.
Subscribers also get access to more than 130 free streaming channels, and more than 75,000 on-demand TV shows and movies to watch online on your computer, tablet, phone or smart TV (via the Philo app).
Philo’s plans include unlimited DVR so you can record content to watch back later, and you can stream on three devices at a time (note: Philo lets you create up to ten profiles per account though you can only have three simultaneous streams).
Philo is one of the few streamers that offers both live TV and on-demand content in one package, with the company hailing it as “an integrated, unified experience” (while Hulu + Live TV also offers live TV streaming and Hulu’s on-demand library, their monthly price is increasing to $90/month). Philo adds that the “HBO Max library brings appointment viewing and cultural moments, while Discovery+ delivers the deep catalog engagement that complements our audience preferences perfectly.”
Sign up for Philo’s new package here for just $33. You can also test out the $25 “Essential” service with a seven-day free trial here.
The local drama “It’s OK” maintained its position at the summit of the China box office during the April 17–19 weekend, earning RMB19.7 million ($2.9 million), according to data from Artisan Gateway.
Produced by China Film and directed by Yang Lina, the film features Wen Qi and Qin Hailu in a story centering on a young woman whose life is disrupted by the sudden arrival of her mother as she prepares for an urgent medical procedure. The production has now reached a cumulative total of $23.7 million.
Columbia Pictures’ “Project Hail Mary” moved up to second place in its fifth weekend, taking in $2.2 million for a total of $37.1 million.
The romantic drama “Nobody But You 2” debuted in third place, earning $2.1 million over its two-day opening weekend. Produced by Zhonglian Jinyi and directed by Chen Chen, the film serves as a sequel to the 2023 romance. The plot follows a protagonist who meets a kindred spirit and travels to the Daliang Mountains to heal old wounds and bring hope back to her hometown.
Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” moved to fourth place, adding $2 million for a cumulative total of $17.2 million.
Rounding out the top five, horror-thriller “The Caged Butterfly” earned $1.9 million, bringing its total to $10.6 million. Produced by Ultra Comedy and directed by Hao Han, the film stars Li Meng, Liu Siwei, and Jiang Zhuojun. The story is set within the notorious Butterfly Mansion villa. The plot follows a physiotherapy therapist and a greedy schemer who move into the haunted estate, only to be plagued by bizarre events and a life-or-death game involving a woman in a red dress and a distorted, eyeless boy.
The frame continues an exceptionally slow period for the market, with the overall weekend gross of $17.8 million marking one of the lowest collective takes of the year.
The 2026 year-to-date revenue stands at $1.86 billion, down 49.8% from the same period in 2025.
