Salkowitz looks at the state of Hollywood movie franchises as the summer tentpole season kicks off.

This week’s home entertainment releases are slim,but there are a few items of real interest including the latest season of the best police procedural on American TV, a gritty medieval historical drama that should appeal to fans of Game of Thrones , new editions of two anime classics that have been selling for big bucks online, plus a reduced price edition of the complete Beauty and Beast live-action TV series.

Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales didn’t measure up to box office analysts' expectations ($80-85 million), but it did earn $62 million from Friday through Sunday, and easily topped a weak Memorial Day weekend that was 15% below the same frame last year.

McFarlane Toys will be making figures, role-play weapons, and accessories inspired by the Star Trek Universe.

Bennett considers the role of superheroes in American society, how merchandising is affecting modern moviemaking, and how merchandising can influence entertainment.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to be the model that has captivated the Hollywood studios, who are never shy about invoking the “sincerest form of flattery” at every possible turn. The latest Tinseltown studio to opt for the creation of movies with interwoven storylines and characters is Universal.

This week’s home entertainment offerings include Fox’s best X-Men film to date, Jordan Peele’s slyly subversive, horror film Get Out , an animated film Vixen , and the second season of the cartoon series Static Shock.

This week’s home entertainment releases include xXx: The Return of Xander Cage starring Vin Diesel, the final film in the horror/survival series Resident Evil , the teen drama The Space Between Us , and a gritty Japanese anime series.

James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 brushed aside an expensive challenger and cruised to an easy second consecutive victory at the weekend box office.

We talked about the kids comics and graphic novel market, IDW’s strategy, and got some insights into the company’s top kids releases for the rest of the year.