Happy Tuesday, Future Party. Well, the numbers are in, and it turns out Spider-Man: Brand New Day had the biggest domestic opening of all time, topping $360 million. Combined with The Odyssey’s $51 million haul (and solid grosses from everything else in theaters), it added up to the biggest domestic box office weekend ever — roughly $430 million. Wow. And with Spider-Man taking over half of IMAX screens this weekend, the good moviegoing vibes should keep rolling all summer.

Side note: Tom Holland and Zendaya are now easily the biggest movie stars in the world under 35.

DAILY TOP TRENDS

Country Music Rules The Charts

Chart toppers // Illustration by Kate Walker

Country songs have claimed the top five spots of the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time ever.

Why It Hits: For the past decade, pop and hip-hop have dominated the singles charts. But a new wave of country has been quietly on the rise for years, culminating in a cultural takeover that now spans multiple mediums.

Behind The Music: Country’s Billboard accomplishment is, in fact, the genre’s first rodeo.

Here’s what the chart looks like:

  1. “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley — the biggest single of the year, holding the No. 1 spot for 16 consecutive weeks (tied for the fourth-longest run atop the chart).

  2. “Been By Now” by Morgan Wallen — the latest single from the country hitmaker.

  3. “I Knew It, I Knew You” by Taylor Swift — Swift’s return to her first genre, paired with Toy Story 5, is a winning combination.

  4. “I Can’t Love You Anymore” by Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen — Langley is cornering the market on heartbreak anthems.

  5. “Boston” by Stella Lefty — a breakout hit signaling the arrival of a major new talent.

Final Chorus: The country tidal wave has been years in the making — the growing popularity of Stagecoach, the Nielsen dominance of the Taylor Sheridan universe, and the expansion of Western wear are just a few of the clearest signals. Maybe, in a rapidly changing technological environment, people are yearning to reconnect with something that feels a little more grounded and classic.

Encore: The upcoming Grammys could be country’s biggest awards showcase yet.

Together with Hubspot

Grow Better With HubSpot

If you’re growing a business, HubSpot’s free CRM is built to help you do it.

Designed for startups and small businesses, it gives you the same powerful tools enterprise teams rely on:

  • Manage contacts

  • Track deals

  • Schedule meetings

  • Chat with website visitors in real time

  • Get AI-powered help drafting emails and researching prospects

It’s everything you need to find customers, win them over, and keep them coming back.

It connects with the tools you already use, so there’s no disruption and no learning curve — just better results, faster.

Outernet Wants To Organize Your Offline Life

Courtesy of Outernet

A new app called Outernet wants to make it easier for people to discover, keep track of, and attend events and places in their area.

The Big Picture: People are itching to get outside, be more social, and help reverse America’s loneliness epidemic. It turns out there are a lot of ways to do that, which can be overwhelming — and a little self-defeating. By organizing those options, apps like Outernet could meaningfully help people spend less time on their smartphones and more time out in the world.

Between The Events: Outernet co-founder Danielle Egan told TechCrunch that she considers the app a “motivation engine for IRL.”

  • The app lets you save social media posts, URLs, or photos of things like flyers. Its AI then parses key details like the date, time, and location. It can also save places you want to visit — like restaurants or museums — in a separate tab.

  • The app organizes events and places in both a calendar view and an interactive map. Events can also be saved to a third-party calendar, while push notifications remind users when events are coming up and encourage them to attend.

  • Outernet is currently available by invite only on iOS (with an Android waitlist), but it already has roughly 18,000 users.

  • The app is already profitable thanks to a paid premium subscription, but the company is considering outside investment to fuel its expansion.

Final RSVP: Egan and co-founder Athena Leong have become known for their ability to make IRL events go viral, including a citywide scavenger hunt in San Francisco. That’s where the idea for Outernet was born, and the founders hope to keep building features that get people excited to go outside. For example, users can currently “stamp” places they’ve visited, and the company is exploring turning those into physical passports that document their adventures.

Sounds like it could become the new scrapbook.

The Future: Expect ticketing companies like Live Nation and Eventbrite to partner with Outernet to boost event discoverability.

Together with ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs Puts The Power Of AI In Creators’ Hands

With ElevenLabs, editing takes minutes, not hours. That’s the power of AI.

See why more than 1,000,000 creators — including Andrew Huberman and Arianna Huffington — use ElevenLabs to create content.

DEEP DIVES

  • Listen: Decoder chats with new Bluesky CEO Toni Schneider about the platform’s new direction.

  • Read: THR profiles actress Sophie Thatcher, who has quickly become one of Hollywood’s most distinctive performers.

  • Explore: Variety explores the fun nooks and crannies of today’s most popular screensaver: Roku City.

57.9% of you voted No, I prefer to write those messages myself in yesterday’s poll: Have you ever used AI to help write a personal message?

“My boss has me run disciplinary documents through AI to make them concise and clear. It strips every bit of personality from it, which can be fine for that type of document, but it results in a bland block of text. Why would you want to do that to a personal message?”

“I can always tell if a message is artificially created, if I know the person sending/creating it. It just doesn’t sound authentic.”

“I have a friend whom I suspect uses it to write the notes in his holiday cards, and I find it unsettling. I’ve been trying for a few years to find a way to broach the subject without offending him, but I’ve never been able to figure out a polite way of saying, ‘Stop it!’ Maybe I should ask Claude for help??? ; )”

“It is a handy tool, and if used as just a tool and not a crutch (or prosthetic), it can be a good one. Especially for awkward messages about the loss of a loved one or a wedding for a friend that you really should be closer to.”

“I could definitely see using it to help craft personal messages like the toast for my brother’s wedding or to broach a difficult conversation with my mom about her mental health. I wouldn’t just hand over the keys to AI, but I would certainly use it to help organize my thoughts and make sure I’m communicating clearly and effectively.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Entertainment / Media

🍿 The Devil Wears Prada 2 scored Disney+/Hulu’s biggest live-action premiere since Deadpool & Wolverine, notching 15.2 million views in its first five days.

🎧 Spotify users can now turn playlists into mixtapes with a new feature called “User Notes.”

🖥️ Microsoft is making Xbox 360 games available to play on PC.

→ Fashion / E-commerce

🧥 Designer John Galliano will be the theme of next year’s Met Gala.

🛒 Whatnot is preparing a new funding round at a $20 billion valuation — double what it was valued at last year.

👀 Phoebe Gates’ Phia is in hot water after allegedly claiming commissions on sales it didn’t facilitate.

→ Creator Economy

📱 Reddit is rolling out a video-first version of the platform that will also let people listen to posts.

🤖 Snapchat has banned fully AI-generated videos from its Spotlight feature.

🎥 The Tonight Show and The Daily Show are producing microdrama parodies… that aren’t all that different from actual microdramas.

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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.

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