The summer season is warming up, and we round up the news here.

Thunderbolts* (see “’Thunderbolts’ Trailer”) kicked off the summer movie season with solid box office receipts, according to Variety, and great reviews and audience scores.  The take was $76 million domestic and $86.1 million internationally for $162.1 million worldwide.  The Rotten Tomatoes scores are 88% Fresh from reviewers, and 94% positive from filmgoers, indicating what will likely be strong legs for the film despite the relative obscurity of its characters.

In the latest blow to the business of geek culture (or more generally, culture) from tariffs, the U.S. administration is proposing a 100% tariff on movies produced overseas, which the President termed a "national security threat" in a social media post that called the content of foreign movies "…messaging and propaganda."  The President did not explain how digital content, on which tariffs are banned under a World Trade Organization moratorium through 2026, would be taxed, or how the tariffs would apply to movies from Hollywood studios that shoot in foreign countries, with preproduction and post-production in the U.S.  U.S. studios would seem to have a lot more lose than to gain from a digital content trade war, as many Hollywood movies have bigger grosses overseas than they do in the U.S. (e.g., see results for Thunderbolts*, above).

A new 4K restoration of The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been completed in preparation for 50th anniversary events planned for this year.  The 10-month restoration included a digital scan and preservation process to give the images new clarity and vibrancy; as well as a newly mixed Dolby Atmos audio track.  The original mono audio has also been restored to allow purists to hear the movie as it was originally created.  The restored version will get a theatrical and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release later this year.

It's unlikely that there will ever be a Season 2 of Marvel’s Hawkeye series starring Jeremy Renner (see "’Hawkeye’ Gets a Date"), as he was offered only half his salary on the first season to do the second, according to The Hollywood Reporter, quoting from the High Performance sports podcast.  The first season debuted in 2021 to high ratings and strong reviews.  Although salaries for series often go up after the first season, Renner said he had asked for the same salary for the second season as he was paid on the first, and rejected what he called "…the insult offer."

Pre-production on DC’s Sgt. Rock feature, starring Colin Farrell (see "’The Penguin’ Circles ‘Sgt. Rock’"), has been shut down, according to Deadline.  The shutdown was attributed to the desire to allow production to begin earlier in the summer in 2026, so the film could be completed before the weather turned.

Big-time TV producer Greg Berlanti will write and executive produce comic adaptation Stillwater for Amazon, according to Variety.  The comic series, written by Chip Zdarsky with art by Ramon K. Perez and Mike Spicer, was released by Image in the early 2020s under the Skybound imprint.  The series has been collected into three trade paperbacks.