Netflix launches popcorn brand / Costner exits "Yellowstone" / Jetflicks 5 convicted / "Bridgerton" remains at #1

Plus the weekend calendar, "The Boys" S4 views, Disney scores Flag Football championship, Chernus to star as JW Gacy, and more

Inside Streaming For June 21, 2024

Thanks for opening today's Inside Streaming brief! If you got a few extra issues delivered yesterday, we apologize! I'm very hopeful that all the technical issues have now been smoothed over and we're ready to return to normal daily editions. By the by, last night, I went to a screening of Ti West's horror double feature "X" and "Pearl" at the Vista Theater here in Los Angeles. As a surprise, the filmmaker came out at intermission and announced we WOULDN'T be seeing "Pearl, as planned, but a special sneak preview of the THIRD FILM in the series, "MaXXXine," opening in theaters on July 5. Let me tell you, folks, it is great.  An epic tribute to '70s and '80s LA sleaze classics like "Angel," "Body Double," and "Hardcore" with another great turn from Mia Goth and INCREDIBLE supporting work from Kevin Bacon and Giancarlo Esposito. Highly recommended for my fellow fans of exploitation B-movie trash. If you haven't seen the previous two films, "X" is now on Netflix while "Pearl" is on Hulu. Enjoy today's edition. Lon p/lon-harris

1 Netflix partnered with Popcorn Indiana on a new line of the familiar movie snack, branded "Netflix: Now Popping." The popcorn is exclusively available at Walmart stores in the US. More: The popcorn is available in two flavors: Cult Classic Cheddar Kettle Corn and Swoonworthy Cinnamon Kettle Corn. AMC Theaters have also partnered with Walmart on customzied popcorn releases. AMC has also had recent success selling branded, collectible popcorn tubs, themed after films like "Dune: Part Two" and the upcoming "Deadpool & Wolverine."

2 In a post to Instagram, Kevin Costner confirmed that he will not return for the conclusion of Paramount Network's "Yellowstone." In the clip, Costner said that, while he loves the show, he "just realized that [he's] not going to be able to continue Season 5B or into the future." More: Costner starred on the series for four-and-a-half seasons as powerful rancher John Dutton; he declined to return for the second half of Season 5 due to a combination of scheduling conflicts, creative differences, and pay disputes. The second half of "Yellowstone's" fifth and final season makes its cable TV debut on November 10. This is the first definitive announcement that John Dutton will not appear in these final episodes. Costner departed the show, in part, to develop and produce his multi-part Western movie epic "Horizon: An American Saga"; the first installment hits theaters next week.

3 WEEKEND CALENDAR FRIDAY, JUNE 21 TRIGGER WARNING: 2024 action thriller starring Jessica Alba as a Special Forces commando who squares off against a violent gang in her hometown following the death of her father. Anthony Michael Hall, Mark Webber, and Jake Weary co-star; Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya ("Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts") directs. [Netflix] GANGS OF GALICIA (CLANES): Debut crime drama series from Spain, starring Clara Lago as a former Madrid lawyer who sets up shop in the small Galician town of Cambados, capturing the attention of a powerful local drug lord (Tamar Novas). [Netflix] THE VICTIMS' GAME: Crime drama series from Taiwan, starring Joseph Chang as a forensic detective with Asperger's syndrome who's investigating his daughter's link to a string of murders. It's back for a second season. [Netflix] BREAD AND ROSES: Feature documentary from filmmaker Sahra Mani ("A Thousand Girls Like Me"), looking at the impact of the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan on the rights and freedoms of local women, while profiling three activists who have dared to speak up and fight back. Executive producers include Malala Yousafzai and Jennifer Lawrence. [Apple TV+] SHORESY: The Canadian sports comedy series -- a spinoff of "Letterkenny" originally produced for the Crave platform -- returns to Hulu this week for a third season. Creator/writer Jared Keeso also stars as Shoresy, who moves to Sudbury and joins their struggling senior AAA ice hockey team, the Bulldogs. [Hulu] MARMALADE: 2024 romantic heist film from first-time writer/director Keir O'Donnell, starring Joe Keery as a sentimental convict recalling the caper that landed him in prison while simultaneously plotting his escape. Camila Morrone and Aldis Hodge co-star. [Hulu] TAYLOR SWIFT VS. SCOOTER BRAUN: BAD BLOOD: Original two-part docuseries, produced for Max as part of its "Vs" franchise, chronicling the feud between pop star Swift and industry mogul Braun, who purchased her master recordings in 2019. The series features a variety of experts and journalists presenting both sides of the dispute. [Max] SATURDAY, JUNE 22 STEVIE VAN ZANDT: DISCIPLE: HBO documentary profile of the musician, activist, and actor, known for his work alongside Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, as well as with James Gandolfini on TV's "The Sopranos." Bill Teck ("Hobo with the High Kick") directs. [Max] PREY: 2024 direct-to-VOD action thriller from writer/director Mukunda Michael Dewil ("The Immaculate Room"). Ryan Phillippe and Mena Suvari co-star as a couple of Christian missionaries who are forced out of their Kalahari Desert settlement by a militant gang, setting them off on a perilous journey through the wilderness. [Hulu] RISING IMPACT: Debut anime series, based on the classic manga by Nakaba Suzuki, about a young baseball star who discovers a new passion for golf following a chance encounter, and hones his skills at the prestigious Camelot Academy. [Netflix] SUNDAY, JUNE 23 ORPHAN BLACK: ECHOES: Debut Canadian sci-fi thriller series, set nearly 40 years after the events of the original "Orphan Black," in which a now-adult Kira Manning (Keeley Hawes) attempts to help a teenage girl with amnesia. Krysten Ritter, Amanda Fix, and Avan Jogia co-star; Anna Fishko ("Fear the Walking Dead") created. [AMC+] MAGNOLIA TABLE WITH JOANNA GAINES: The Magnolia Network series features the "Fixer Upper" vet and Magnolia co-founder sharing her favorite recipes from her home kitchen. It's back for an 8th season this week. [Max] GETTING LOST WITH ERIN FRENCH: Debut food and travel series from Magnolia Network in which the restauranteur and author hits the road along with husband Michael Dutton in search of fresh culinary inspiration. [Max]

4 A federal jury in Las Vegas convicted five men on various charges related to operating Jetflicks, one of the nation's largest illegal streaming services. The platform charged $9.99 per month for access to bootlegged streams of popular TV shows, generating millions in illicit subscription revenue, accrording to the US Department of Justice. More: Jetflicks claimed to host a line-up of 183,200 TV episodes, a larger archive than the combined catalogs of Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and Amazon Prime Video. The five individuals -- Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi and Peter Huber -- used bots to scour piracy services like Pirate Bay for bootleg copies of TV shows, which were then downloaded to Jetflicks' servers and shared with paying subscribers. All five were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement; Dallman was also convicted on two counts of money laundering, and faces the most severe maximum sentence of 48 years in prison.

5 Netflix's "Bridgerton" held the top spot on the Nielsen streaming charts for the second week in a row from May 20-26, with 2.19 billion minutes of viewership. That's just a 21% from the previous week's total of 2.76 billion minutes. More: "Bridgerton" had almost double the viewership of the second-place finisher, the ABC medical drama series "Grey's Anatomy," which was viewed for 1.1 billion minutes. Both "Bridgerton" and "Grey's" are executive produced by Shonda Rhimes and her company, Shondaland. The animated family series "Bluey" was viewed for 1.07 billion minutes on Disney+, the 20th week so far this year that the show has crossed the billion minutes-viewed milestone. The Jennifer Lopez sci-fi action film "Atlas" debuted on May 24 on Netflix and was viewed for 795 million minutes by the close of the week, finishing in fifth place. The theatrical sci-fi epic "Dune: Part Two" hit Max on May 21, and was viewed for 711 million minutes.

6 According to Amazon's internal data, Season 4 of the satirical superhero comedy-drama "The Boys" received around 21% more viewership in its first week than Season 3. Both seasons released their first three episodes simultaneously. More: Amazon reports that Season 4 of "The Boys" now ranks among its Top 5 most popular TV seasons of all time, and that it was the most-watched "returning season" on Prime Video in its first four days after only "Reacher" Season 2. The company did not release specific viewership numbers. According to Amazon, "The Boys" has increased in viewership with every new season. 60% of "The Boys" audience is based outside of the US; the show is particularly popular in Brazil, the UK, and India. The show has been renewed for a fifth and final season; it also has one active spinoff, "Gen V," with more in development.

7 Disney signed a new deal with the NFL to both broadcast and stream the first-ever flag football championship. ESPN cemented a five-year deal to air matches from the NFL Flag league in February. More: The Flag finals will air on ESPN , ABC, Disney Channel, and Disney XD, while also streaming on Disney+, ESPN+, and NFL+. ESPN will televise 32 hours of flag football matches in total; most games will also stream on ESPN+ and NFL+, while some games will broadcast on ESPN2 or stream on YouTube. 280 youth teams -- both boys and girls -- will compete in this year's event, along with six international teams; the league runs from July 18-21 at the Hall of Fame Village in Canton, Ohio.

8 QUICK HITS "Severance" vet Michael Chernus will star in Peacock's scripted true-crime series "Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy" as the infamous serial killer; the series is inspired by a 2021 Peacock docuseries of the same name. Patrick Dempsey joined the cast of Showtime's prequel series "Dexter: Original Sin"; he'll play the captain of the Miami Metro homicide division in the early 1990s, when the show is set. Season 4 of Hulu's "Only Murders in a Building" centers on a Hollywood studio adapting the characters' story into a film; Eva Longoria, Eugene Levy, and Zach Galifianakis play themselves, taking over the roles of "Mabel," "Charles," and "Oliver," respectively. The Prime Video animated DC Comics series "Batman: Caped Crusader" announced its voice cast; Hamish Linklater stars as Bruce Wayne/Batman, alongside Christina Ricci as Catwoman, Diedrich Bader as Two-Face, and Jamie Chung as Harley Quinn. According to The New York Times, videos of chiropractic adjustments are having a viral moment on YouTube, but some experts are concerned that they misleadingly present the practice as a "miracle cure." Anthony Carrigan, who memorably co-starred as NoHo Hank on HBO's "Barry," joined the cast of Peacock's "Twisted Metal" as a series regular ahead of Season 2; he'll play Calypso, a character carried over from the "Twisted Metal" video games who runs a demolition debry. Animated "Harley Quinn" spinoff series "Kite Man: Hell Yeah!" hits Max on July 18. Hulu dropped a trailer for "Breakin' on the One," a documentary feature from Andscape and filmmaker JamsBash about the history and cultural impact of breakdancing. Animated family series "Star Trek: Prodigy" returns for Season 2 exclusively on Netflix on July 1; the streamer posted a new trailer for the season, which adds Jameela Jamil and Daveed Diggs to the voice cast. Paramount+ announced the three-part musical docuseries "Nöthin But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of '80s Hair Metal" from "Jackass" and "The Dirt" vet Jeff Tremaine; it's arriving later this year.

Lon Harris Writer Lon Harris is the writer and editor of Inside Streaming and was the very first person to ever write an Inside newsletter. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and also writes about TV and film for Fandom, Screen Junkies, Rotten Tomatoes, Gamma Ray and others. Plus he has a Game of Thrones podcast called "Casterly Talk" and competes on The Movie Trivia Schmoedown as "The Professor." This newsletter was edited by Lon Harris

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