The Hollywood news kept coming up to and through the holiday, and we round it up here.

Warner Bros.’ Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was the latest superhero film with underwhelming box office receipts; the latest DC film (which continues the run-off of pre-James Gunn films) brought in only $38.3 million in the four day holiday weekend, under its (reduced) $40 million projection, according to Deadline.   The film did better overseas, and brought in roughly $120 million worldwide, also per Deadline. Although not a giant number, it’s ahead of Black Adam, The Flash, and The Marvels. 

In the latest potential deal in a wave of media company consolidation, Warner Bros. Discover is in talks to merge with Paramount Global, according to Axios.  Warners’ market cap is roughly three times Paramount’s, so would likely be dominant post-merger.  Paramount assets include CBS, streaming and cable channels, and movie and TV studios, among others.

Marvel is severing its ties with Jonathan Majors, who played Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (see “Marvel Movie News”) and was slated to play the character throughout the Multiverse Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, according to Variety.  Majors was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of harassment and assault of Grace Jabbari in a Manhattan court this month.

As it did with the last arc of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (see “’Demon Slayer’ Theatrical Event”), Crunchyroll is staging a theatrical event to market the transition to the new arc.  Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba – To the Hashira Training will feature Episode 11 of the Swordsmith Village Arc, followed by the one-hour episode 1 of the Hashira Training arc. It will be released in Imax on February 23.

Netflix has released a teaser for Part Two of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon: Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver. Part One, which dropped last week (see “’Rebel Moon – Part One ‘ Trailer”), topped Netflix’s English Films List with 23.9 million views for the week, making it the streamer’s most-viewed title. 

Marvel has released a second trailer for its upcoming Echo series (below). The first was released almost two months ago (see “’Echo’ Trailer”). All five episodes of the series will drop on Disney+ and Hulu on July 9.