And old “obsession” and a new Obsession in this week’s Weekend POURcast
Every Friday, we here at Cocktails and Movies serve up the Weekend POURcast: a quick-hit look at what’s new in theaters, what might matter at the box office, what’s fresh on streaming, and what cocktail should be in your hand while you decide whether to buy a ticket or let your living room do the heavy lifting. This weekend has weird, crowded energy, which usually means one of two things: a surprise breakout or an elegant fight to see who lands on top.
Last weekend, Mortal Kombat II opened loud, but not loud enough to unseat The Devil Wears Prada 2, which kept strutting, and Michael stayed very much in the conversation. The box office is finally behaving like an actual marketplace again instead of a one-movie hostage situation, and that makes this weekend more interesting than the release board might look at first glance.
Last Weekend in Review
The larger story right now is that the 2026 box office has real holdover strength. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Project Hail Mary, Michael, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 have all shown genuine staying power, which means big newcomers are no longer arriving into a bored cineplex. They have to fight for oxygen.
That matters this weekend because none of the new arrivals feels like a guaranteed universal consensus pick. Instead, the frame is splintered. You’ve got horror-comedy energy, sharp revenge drama, prestige politics, action muscle, anime franchise fuel, and a Top Gun double bill built to lure Gen-Xers into theaters in packs so they can relive “the need for speed” with overpriced popcorn and absolutely no shame.
New in Theaters This Weekend
Obsession
This is one of the weekend’s more overt “bad decisions will be made” titles, and the name alone does some useful marketing work. On a crowded release weekend, that helps. A movie that knows its own hook gives people something immediate to grab onto.
Is God Is
This one may be the most intriguing new adult play of the weekend. With Sterling K. Brown, Vivica A. Fox, Mykelti Williamson, and Janelle Monáe in the cast, it has the kind of lineup that suggests the movie is not here to coast. It feels dangerous, a little severe, and like it could punch above its weight if the right audience locks in.
Shrek 25th Anniversary
This is either shameless nostalgia bait or smart theatrical programming. Probably both. Either way, it gives families and millennials a very easy yes. Re-releases do not need to win the weekend to matter. They just need to remind people that communal comfort food still works.
The Wizard of the Kremlin
This is the most prestige-coded title on the board. A political drama about the rise of Putin through the lens of a young filmmaker-turned-adviser is a very specific flavor, but at least it is a clear one. If audiences want something serious instead of explosive, this is the lane.
In the Grey
This is the weekend’s more straightforward action play, and honestly, that may be its best asset. On a weekend loaded with heavier ideas and nostalgia plays, “just give me one that moves” is not a bad sales pitch.
Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe
This is the anime franchise wildcard. It does not need broad mainstream love. It needs fan turnout with purpose, and these releases are usually very good at getting exactly that.
Top Gun / Top Gun: Maverick 40th Anniversary Double Bill
And yes, this absolutely belongs in the conversation. Paramount’s wide double bill of Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick is not just some sleepy repertory side note. It is a four-hour nostalgia missile aimed straight at Gen-X, older millennials, Tom Cruise loyalists, aviation junkies, and anybody who still hears “Danger Zone” and becomes spiritually 17 again.
This is the kind of re-release that can sneak into the lower Top 5 because it is not selling novelty. It’s selling Gen-X memory with dads, old friends, date nights, and people who want to sit in a dark theater and remember when movies were swagger, speed, and volleyball-level homoerotic confidence. Never underestimate the power of audiences deciding, collectively, to go be young again for one weekend.
Box Office Forecast: May 15th-17th, 2026
1. Obsession
$25M to $30M
This could go horribly wrong and not even land in the top 5, but I’m thinking that a good scare is what will drive the box office.
2. The Devil Wears Prada 2
$17M to $20M
This thing still has real holdover energy and a very loyal audience. It opened like an event, and event movies do not vanish in week three.
3. Mortal Kombat II
$12M to $15M
This will drop fast. There just aren’t enough gamers invested in cross-over films like this.
4. Is God Is
$8M to $10M
Of the true newcomers, this feels like the adult-skewing title with the best chance to become the weekend’s surprise. It has the strongest “serious but still dangerous” energy on the board.
5. Top Gun / Top Gun: Maverick 40th Anniversary Double Bill
$6M to $10M
The double bill has a real chance to ride group nostalgia into the bottom of the Top 5. It does not need teenagers. It needs Gen-Xers texting each other some variation of “you in?” and then showing up to worship jets, Cruise, and the simple miracle of a movie star movie. That is more powerful than people give it credit for.
New Movies on Streaming This Weekend
If you are staying home, the streaming bench is perfectly respectable this weekend. Recent at-home arrivals include Driver’s Ed, An Enemy Within, Voices Carry, Sofia, Lisa Ann Walter: It Was An Accident, and The Crash.
Of those, Driver’s Ed looks like the easiest recommendation if you want something lighter and more crowd-friendly. Voices Carry and An Enemy Within feel more like “pour the drink first and see where this goes” territory. So the couch menu is not elite, but it is solidly functional, which is sometimes all a weekend needs.
Weekend Drink Pairing: The Crystal Cut Cocktail
This weekend’s cocktail pick is The Crystal Cut Cocktail.
Why this one? Because this weekend’s board feels cool on the surface and sharp underneath. You have prestige power games, revenge energy, nostalgia comfort food, franchise violence, and a couple of movies that look like they could go very wrong for everybody involved. The Crystal Cut Cocktail already lives on CocktailsandMovies.com, so it gives the article a built-in internal link and an existing identity instead of some disposable one-off pairing that gets forgotten by Monday.
More importantly, it sounds like a drink for a weekend built on hard edges. Not loud, not sloppy, just elegant enough to get close before it cuts you.
Final Pour
This weekend does not have one obvious king at the top. It has options. Mortal Kombat II should still swing hard, The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Michael are not going quietly, and the newcomers feel like they are competing more for distinct tribes than universal attention. That makes for a messier chart, but usually a more interesting weekend.
And that is where the Top Gun double bill comes in. It may not be the loudest movie on the board, but it might be the one with the strongest emotional pull for a very specific crowd. Gen-X nostalgia is not a joke. It is a box office variable.
Not a bad menu for this Weekend POURcast. Prestige poison, franchise violence, comfort-food reissues, and a cockpit full of old-school movie-star velocity. 🍸🍿
