This week is shaped by one wide release doing the heavy lifting for theaters, with a horror counterprogrammer filling the other lane.
Disney's live-action Moana opens nationwide on July 10, positioned ahead of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey on July 17 and Sony's Spider-Man: Brand New Day later in the month. New Line's Evil Dead Burn opens the same day, giving audiences an alternative if the family-adventure slot isn't what they're after.
Moana matters this week because it is Disney's clearest test yet of whether a Lin-Manuel Miranda musical can survive the jump from animation to live action: Miranda returns to write new material, and theater director Thomas Kail, best known for Hamilton, takes over from the animation team. Catherine Laga'aia takes the title role, with Dwayne Johnson reprising Maui in the flesh rather than motion capture. Evil Dead Burn earns its slot differently: director Sébastien Vaniček was given full creative control by Sam Raimi to build a new Evil Dead story with no direct tie to the earlier films, starring Souheila Yacoub.
This is a cinema week rather than a streaming or television one. Both headline titles are theatrical-only through July 12, with no confirmed streaming date yet for either. Anyone wanting a related watch at home this week is better served revisiting the 2016 animated Moana or 2024's Moana 2 on Disney+, both still there for direct comparison.
For families or anyone wanting a big, tested singalong, Moana is the obvious pick and the one built for a communal cinema trip. For horror audiences who want something free of prequel or sequel baggage, Evil Dead Burn is the more interesting bet precisely because Vaniček was handed a blank slate rather than a legacy plot to service. Anyone unsure about either new release loses nothing by using the week to revisit the animated Moana at home instead.
