The 2026 box office is smashing records left and right. But with a thin movie slate until “Dune: Part Three” and “Avengers: Doomsday,” can theaters keep the momentum going?
‘The Odyssey,’ ‘Michael’ help 2026 hit pre-pandemic box office success
So far, five films have already crossed $1 billion at the global box office this year.
Video Team – USA TODAY Entertainment
What do Spider-Man, Odysseus and Buzz Lightyear all have in common?
They’re the heroes that movie theaters need, stoking the box office to pre-pandemic levels with the billion-dollar hauls of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” “The Odyssey,” “Toy Story 5,” “Michael” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”
It’s the first year since 2019 that five or more movies have crossed $1 billion at the global box office. And with more than $4.6 billion in the coffers since May domestically, 2026 is now the second-highest-grossing summer ever behind 2013, when the summer months netted nearly $4.8 billion, according to box-office tracking firm Rentrak.
“This has been an incredible year,” says Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Rentrak. He likens it to the 1970s, when summer movies including “Star Wars” and “Jaws” became inescapable pop-culture phenomena: “It’s become a really pivotal moment for Hollywood, thinking we would lose Gen Z to their small screens. But I think for younger people today, the big summer movies this year have impacted them in a very profound way.”
The top five movies at the worldwide box office in 2026 so far:
- “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” ($2.3 billion).
- “The Odyssey” ($1.6 billion).
- “Toy Story 5” ($1.1 billion).
- “Michael” ($1 billion).
- “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” ($1 billion).
Why is excitement so high around moviegoing right now?
The North American box office has already raked in $7.2 billion so far this year, meaning 2026 is on pace to be the first year since 2019 that the domestic box office surpasses $10 billion, according to Daniel Loria, senior vice president and editorial director at tracking site Boxoffice Pro.
“This has been a big recovery year for the movie theater industry,” Loria says. Even while major studio releases such as “Moana” and “Supergirl” underperformed, overperformers including “Spider-Man” and “The Odyssey” more than made up ground, fueled in part by highly coveted IMAX showings.
“Spider-Man,” in particular, has stayed at No. 1 for five consecutive weekends and is already the third-highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.3 billion worldwide, trailing “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.8 billion) and “Avatar” ($2.9 billion).
Throughout 2026, studios have put out a slew of creative, well-reviewed films with cross-generational appeal, many of which were originals rather than sequels.
“But the sneaky part of this conversation is those movies that really started shining after opening weekend,” Loria adds, pointing to continued interest in the buzzy “Project Hail Mary” ($684 million), “Obsession” ($505 million) and “Backrooms” ($394 million). “When that opening weekend crowd sees something and recommends it to their friends and family, we see the impact of those recommendations in subsequent weekends.”
In the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, many studios either shuffled their product directly to streaming or waited a mere 17 days for their films to become available to buy or rent at home. But now, most major studios have committed to showing their movies exclusively in theaters for a 45-day window.
“We have this consistency in letting the moviegoer know: ‘Hey, this isn’t going to be streaming in a couple weeks like it was in 2021 or 2022,’ ” Loria says. “That, coupled with positive word of mouth, is drawing people out of their homes to support movies beyond opening weekend. That’s the key to a year like this.”
Dergarabedian sees the excitement around moviegoing as a broader cultural sensation, in the same way that people flocked to Beyoncé and Harry Styles concerts in the past year and converged for watch parties around the Olympics, the NBA Finals and World Cup. Rather than fighting for eyeballs, these events are actually feeding into each other.
“The weekend that ‘The Odyssey’ opened was the same weekend that the World Cup finals were happening,” Dergarabedian says. “The fact that both were competing for the top of the news cycle was rather remarkable because they had more things in common than not. People are truly embracing these communal, immersive experiences and movie theaters are a big part of that.”
Meanwhile, major theater chains such as AMC, Regal and Alamo Drafthouse have continued to incentivize repeat visits by offering premium formats, novelty merchandise, alcohol service and discounts for loyalty program members. They have also adopted popular subscription plans, allowing filmgoers to see multiple movies per week for a set price ranging from $26 to $40 per month.
As a result, people are returning to their local theaters more regularly and seeking out movies that they may not otherwise pay full price for.
“Being able to tie loyalty into subscription has created a great one-two punch in really sending cinemas forward in the e-commerce era,” Loria says. “It’s all tied together in a very weird sort of trickle-down, but it’s finally here and we’re seeing the fruits.”
Will there be any surprise box-office hits later this year?
After a bevy of summer blockbusters, movie theaters will have to wait until Dec. 18 for the double whammy of “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three,” both of which are widely expected to be box-office juggernauts. Until then, most of the films opening are midbudget fare, ranging from horror reboots (“Resident Evil”) and survival thrillers (“Whalefall”) to awards hopefuls (“Digger”).
The Thanksgiving corridor is similarly unassured, with the new “Hunger Games” installment “Sunrise on the Reaping,” original Disney movie “Hexed,” and comedy sequel “Focker-in-Law” starring Ben Stiller and Ariana Grande.
“Thanksgiving is always going to be a good weekend, but it’s just not the best slate for it,” Loria says. “What we have in front of us is a stress test. Starting this weekend, it’s going to be: What can break out? What’s going to be the next word-of-mouth hit? I don’t expect us to have a huge opening weekend [for a while], but what’s going to stick around in Week 2 or 3? There are no guarantees and a lot of question marks going into September and October specifically.”
Of course, that always creates opportunities for movies to break through and shine, thanks to clever marketing. Dergarabedian says that “Other Mommy” (in theaters Oct. 9) is “one to look out for,” after through-the-roof reactions to its first trailer before “The Odyssey.” “Practical Magic 2” (in theaters Sept. 10) could also play to an underserved female audience much like last winter’s “The Housemaid,” which opened to $19 million in the United States on its way to $400 million worldwide.
“You never know when those things will happen,” Loria says. “This is the time that’s so hard to predict what’s going to do well.”