Curling up on the couch with a quiet indie drama on my laptop was the right move during the height of the pandemic last year, and it suited my somber mood. Now that I'm fully vaccinated and pumped to head out into the world, however, I'm itching to watch some big, loud, exciting movies, preferably on the biggest screen possible.
The movie business is working hard to bring more people like me back to theaters, in large part by betting on big franchises. After getting pushed back a year, F9: The Fast Saga took in $70 million during its theaters-only opening weekend after coming out June 25, the most for any film since 2019's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. F9 was projected to rake in $500 million by yesterday, which would make it the highest grossing film of the year so far. A Quiet Place II, which had a theaters-only debut in May and made $267.9 million worldwide, sits in second place over the last year.
However, it would be hasty to say that these box office wins are a sign that the movie industry is back to a pre-pandemic "normal." During the outbreak, audiences have grown even more accustomed to streaming the latest films at home, and box office titans like Disney see streaming as central to the industry's financial future. Many of the biggest new movies are still getting released simultaneously in theaters and on streaming, as my colleague Eliana Dockterman recently reported, including Marvel Studios' Black Widow (debuting this week) and science fiction flick Dune (set for October). This past holiday weekend, animated movie Boss Baby: Family Business, which took in $20 million at the box office, also debuted simultaneously on NBC streaming service Peacock; In The Heights and Disney's Cruella likewise had simultaneous streaming and theater debuts.
Big tests for the industry lie ahead. After Black Widow, a slew of Marvel's biggest movies are set for theater-only releases, including The Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home. But those big-budget superhero flicks are almost guaranteed to be box office hits. The real question may be whether smaller films, like A24's The Green Knight (out July 30, only in theaters), can still draw niche audiences, or whether big-budget blockbusters will forever dominate neighborhood movie theaters. Personally, I've been waiting for TheGreen Knight since I first saw the trailer back in February 2020—so I'm ready to watch it just about anywhere.
About 383 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of July 4, of which nearly 330.6 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 47.4% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
Nearly 184.2 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and nearly 4 million people have died. On July 5, there were 367,099 new cases and 7,422 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 3 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 33.7 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. Almost 606,000 people have died. On July 5, there were 5,528 new cases and 41 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of July 6, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
As U.S. vaccine uptake remains mostly stagnant while the more transmissible Delta variant thrives, President Joe Biden said today that his administration will increasingly emphasize small-scale, targeted efforts to vaccinate groups that have thus far gone under-inoculated. In part, that will involve shipping more doses to family doctors and pediatricians, as well as working with employers to vaccinate workers. "Now we need to go community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood...literally knocking on doors to get help to the remaining people," Biden said during a coronavirus update.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced yesterday that England is still on track to lift most of its COVID-19 restrictions on July 16, despite worrying signs in the data. Johnson pushed back the planned reopening last month to give residents more time to get their shots, but now says there's enough evidence that vaccination has been successful to warrant the move. More than half of England's population is fully vaccinated, though its positivity rate climbed to about 6% during the week of June 21-27, up from 3% the week before. Johnson acknowledged the pandemic isn't over, but said it's time to let people judge what's safe and what's not for themselves. "We must reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths from COVID," he added.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine seems to be getting less effective among recipients in Israel, per the country's health ministry. Since June 6, the vaccine is preventing 64% of infection and symptomatic disease, compared to 95% in May. However, it's still preventing 93% of serious illness and hospitalizations. These latest data come as the Delta variant has spread around Israel and much of the rest of the world; Israel has also relaxed social distancing measures.
Israel and South Korea announced a plan today to swap vaccine doses over the next few months, according to the Jerusalem Post. Israel agreed to immediately send South Korea 700,000 doses sitting in warehouses that expire at the end of the month, while South Korea will send the same number of vaccines back in the fall. The doses had originally been set aside for a similar plan with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which cancelled the deal after the PA said the vaccines would expire sooner than promised in the original agreement, according to Reuters. The doses are sorely needed in South Korea, where only about 10% of the population is fully vaccinated. At the same time, less than 8% of Palestines are fully vaccinated, while nearly 60% of Israelis are fully vaccinated.
Cases are surging in U.S. migrant detention centers, per a New York Times analysis, while their overall populations are nearly back at pre-pandemic levels. Over 7,500 new cases have been reported in such centers in the last few months, making up more than 40% of all cases reported in detention centers since the start of the outbreak. However, only one in five detained migrants have been vaccinated while in detention as of May. Public health officials have raised concerns that the facilities may be helping to spread the virus—detainees may transmit the disease when bussed together, for instance.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was hospitalized Sunday with low blood oxygen levels, a common COVID-19 symptom, the Associated Press reports. As of yesterday, the 48-year-old PM was in "serious but stable" condition, per government officials; he is expected to be hospitalized for several more days for observation. Bettel received his first dose of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine in May, and was scheduled to receive his second on July 1.
More than 125 campers and adults tested positive after attending a Texas church camp for sixth to twelfth graders in June, CNN reports. The camp, which was led by the interdenominational Clear Creek Community Church in League City, Texas, was attended by more than 400 people.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Tara Law and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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