The latest streaming and TV ratings, box office grosses, industry data — and narratives behind the numbers.
Last Updated: July 28, 2026
Edited by Erik Hayden and Rick Porter
↑ With all attention on a rapidly consolidating media industry, a look at Nielsen’s latest Media Distributor Gauge is striking: Yes, YouTube is still dominating, but look at Paramount (which includes CBS and Paramount+) in this ranking just below Netflix in total TV use. “Netflix received a boost from acquired series La Brea, which was the second most-streamed title of the month with over 4 billion viewing minutes,” Nielsen noted. And that’s before Paramount CEO David Ellison will get to add in Warner Bros. Discovery’s 6 percent share if his $111 billion deal eventually closes. Another wild card, keep in mind that if Lachlan Murdoch has his way that 3 percent you see on The Roku Channel will be added in to Fox if his $22 billion deal closes.
↑ Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey brought in another $87 million at the domestic box office. That’s a decline of just 30 percent, an extremely good hold for a blockbuster. In terms of holds, that’s the third best ever for a film that opened to more than $100 million, behind only Wicked and Top Gun: Maverick.
↑ Netflix’s latest Harlan Coben series I Will Find You repeats at No. 1 overall and grows from 1.8 billion minutes-watched to more than 2.48 billion. The series has also been called out by Netflix execs as one of the most popular launches of the year on the platform. Love Island USA also scored its best weekly total on record with 1.97 billion minutes; the Peacock show’s previous high was 1.93 billion minutes for the week of the 2025 season finale.
↑ James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash, which grossed $1.48 billion in its run, made its streaming debut on Disney+ and bowed at more than 1 billion minutes-watched. Voicemails for Isabelle finished second on the movie chart with 748 million minutes of watch time. It grew by 88 percent from its premiere week.
↑ The finale run of FX’s The Bear bows at No. 5 on the originals chart as the critically-acclaimed series wraps after five seasons. Notably, the season was down 36 percent from season four’s premiere week (917 million minutes) last year.
↑ House of the Dragon grew by 46 percent to 931 million viewing minutes on HBO Max a week after its season three premiere. And the latest beneficiary of “The Netflix Effect” — aka when an old series gets a big bump after being added to the platform — is the TNT title The Last Ship, which originally ran from 2014-2018.
↑ None of the hugely rated games of the World Cup’s final week aired in primetime, allowing the MLB All-Star Game to take the top spot. Fox’s telecast had its best showing since 2018.
What’s premiering on TV this week:
Tuesday, July 28
9 p.m.: Beat Shazam (Fox)
Wednesday, July 29
House of Stassi (Freeform; full season on Hulu July 30)
Diarra From Detroit (Paramount+)
10 p.m.: The Ark (Syfy)
Friday, July 31
Fightland (Starz)
↑ Proof, starring Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle, played the final performance of its limited run July 19, with grosses rebounding back up to $934,473, one of the higher tallies of the run, and playing to more than 100 percent capacity at the Booth Theatre.