A Week Without a Blockbuster, and Six Releases That Still Matter
Film thaïlandais
By the TrendingShows editorial team, using TMDB popularity data. Our methodology
Between 20 and 26 July 2026, no major American production was released. The ranking filled up differently: a Thai action film, a Portuguese-language thriller, a Spanish-language feature, an independent comedy and two series. This quiet week is the ideal moment to look at what circulates when the major studios leave the field open.
20 July: The Week’s Strongest Entry
The Debt Collector
Film thaïlandais
Released on 20 July, this Thai action film reaches 83.30 popularity, far ahead of every other new title this week. Its rating of 7 rests on just 11 votes and means little for now. The action-thriller-crime combination remains the most exportable format in Asian cinema, because it requires no prior cultural reference.
22 July: A News Story Brought to Screen
Elize: Shadows of a Woman
Thriller lusophone
The week’s second new entry at 45.28 popularity, this Portuguese-language thriller scores 6.237 from 19 votes. It is the only rating in the group beginning to resemble a judgement, even on a still-small sample. Its blend of thriller, crime and drama places it squarely in the week’s dominant register.
23 July: The Best Rating and the Smallest Sample
Stuart Fails to Save the Universe
Comédie de science-fiction
This science-fiction comedy shows a 9 out of 10 built on five votes, making it both the highest rating in the series chart and the least reliable. Its 9.97 popularity confirms limited exposure. Worth revisiting in two weeks: that is the usual delay before we know whether such a score survives the arrival of a few hundred viewers.
23 July: The Quiet Comedy
The Dink
Comédie
At 5.26 popularity and 6.3 from 7 votes, The Dink is the most obscure release in the group. It still enters the ranking, which would not happen in a busy week. This is precisely the kind of title quiet periods make visible, with no guarantee the visibility lasts beyond a few days.
24 July: Conspiracy Culture as Subject
The Truthers
Film hispanophone
This Spanish-language thriller mixes drama and mystery, with 2.52 popularity and a rating of 7 from 3 votes. Exposure is close to zero, yet its subject makes it the week’s most contemporary release. Films dealing with the circulation of false information are rare, and for a long time they were confined to documentary.
24 July: The Return of a Teen Cult Series
Soy Luna: Let's Roll Again
Série jeunesse
Soy Luna’s return scores 7.643 from 7 votes with 3.68 popularity. The popularity figure is misleading: this kind of show is watched by a young audience that rates rarely and comments elsewhere. Since the franchise marked an entire generation in Latin America, its comeback deserves to be tracked over several weeks rather than judged on release day.
Six releases, four production languages, and one lesson that returns with every quiet week: diversity is not created by supply, it is revealed by absence. These films and series existed before 20 July, but they would not have reached the ranking against a major release. The second lesson concerns ratings. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe scores 9 from 5 votes, The Truthers 7 from 3, Soy Luna 7.643 from 7: none of those averages carries statistical weight yet. They only indicate that a first audience has arrived and is satisfied. The third lesson is the most practical for viewers. Three of these six titles — the Thai film, the Portuguese-language thriller and the Spanish-language feature — belong to the same crime register. A week without a blockbuster is therefore, almost mechanically, a good week for international crime cinema.
