July
“Minions & Monsters”
Illumination expands the “Despicable Me” universe with “Minions & Monsters,” arriving exactly where expected: the heart of summer, built for kids, global audiences, and parents who already know the yellow chaos is unavoidable. The voice cast includes Jeff Bridges, Christoph Waltz, Allison Janney, Zoey Deutch, Jesse Eisenberg, Phil LaMarr, and Pierre Coffin. The “Minions” appeal is slapstick noise engineering, and a comic anarchy that travels internationally with almost no translation required. This seems to be the same deal with monsters added for good measure.
Premiere Date: July 1, 2026, via Universal Pictures.
“Enola Holmes 3”
Millie Bobby Brown returns as Enola Holmes in the third installment of Netflix’s Sherlock Holmes-adjacent mystery franchise, with Philip Barantini taking over directing duties. This time, Enola heads to Malta for her most complicated case yet, while also preparing for her wedding to Lord Tewkesbury, played again by Louis Partridge. Henry Cavill returns as Sherlock Holmes, with Helena Bonham Carter, Himesh Patel, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster also back. If Brown arguably hasn’t hit outside of “Stranger Things,” well, the charming “Enola Holmes” franchise proves she has at least one more trick up her sleeve.
Premiere Date: July 1, 2026, via Netflix.
“Evil Dead Burn”
“Evil Dead” keeps finding new domestic spaces to violate. “Evil Dead Burn,” directed by Sébastien Vaniček and produced in the orbit of Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, centers on a woman grieving her husband who seeks solace with her in-laws in a secluded family home. Then the family gathering turns into a Deadite nightmare. “Evil Dead Rise” proved the franchise could leave the cabin and still feel vicious. “Burn” now has to find new ways to weaponize the old curse.
Premiere Date: July 10, 2026, via Warner Bros.
“Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass”
David Wain and Ken Marino reunite for “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass,” a Hollywood farce starring Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, Joe Lo Truglio, Sabrina Impacciatore, Thomas Lennon, and more. The premise follows Gail and Otto through a chaotic search involving a talent-agency assistant, a paparazzo, actor John Slattery, and a trail that leads toward Jon Hamm, with Italian assassins apparently in pursuit. Wain’s comedy has always thrived on escalation, absurd sincerity, and performers committing to ridiculous emotional stakes as though nothing could be more serious. This could be the proudly stupid and useful summer counter-programming ticket. (Read our review).
Premiere Date: July 10, 2026, via Sony Pictures Classics.
“Moana”
Disney’s live-action “Moana” arrives with Catherine Lagaʻaia as Moana and Dwayne Johnson returning as Maui, under the direction of Thomas Kail (“Hamilton”). The original animated film is not exactly ancient history, which makes this remake part of Disney’s increasingly compressed nostalgia machine. Still, “Moana” has a stronger foundation than many of the studio’s live-action retellings: a mythic quest, great songs, a strong central heroine, and a world defined by water, movement, and cultural specificity.
Premiere Date: July 10, 2026, via Walt Disney Studios.
“The Odyssey”
Christopher Nolan goes full myth with “The Odyssey,” an IMAX-scale adaptation of Homer’s epic about Odysseus’ journey home after the Trojan War. Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal lead the enormous ensemble, and the project instantly becomes one of summer’s defining theatrical events. Nolan has spent his career turning time, memory, obsession, and survival into large-format spectacle, which makes Odysseus a good fit: a strategist haunted by war, punished by gods, and desperate to return to a home that may no longer exist as he remembers it.
Premiere Date: July 17, 2026, via Universal Pictures.
“Cut Off”
“Cut Off” gives Jonah Hill a direct comedy premise to direct and star in: two rich siblings are cut off by their parents and forced to survive without the money that has insulated them from reality. Kristen Wiig, Camila Cabello, Bette Midler, Nathan Lane, and Adriana Barraza are in the cast, which suggests something broad, nasty, and ensemble-driven. The rich-kid comeuppance comedy is hardly new, but it tends to age well when entitlement is specific. Hill’s directorial work has shown a real interest in insecurity, performance, and social codes, and this could be a good delivery system for jokes and commentary on privilege.
Premiere Date: July 17, 2026, via Warner Bros.
“Rosebush Pruning”
Karim Aïnouz directs “Rosebush Pruning,” a starry, abrasive reimagining of Marco Bellocchio’s “Fists in the Pocket,” written by Efthimis Filippou, the screenwriter behind several early Yorgos Lanthimos films. Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Elle Fanning, Jamie Bell, Tracy Letts, Pamela Anderson, Lukas Gage, and Elena Anaya star in a satirical tragicomedy about a wealthy family whose perversities and resentments begin to curdle after an outsider enters their orbit. The film drew attention at Berlin for its taboo scenarios and caustic tone, and the cast alone makes it a curiosity. The draw is watching Aïnouz and Filippou take a serrated blade to inherited privilege (Read our review).
Premiere Date: July 24, 2026, via MUBI.
“I Want Your Sex”
Queer filmmaking indie icon Gregg Araki returns with “I Want Your Sex,” starring Olivia Wilde as artist Erika Tracy, who taps a young protégé as her sexual muse. Cooper Hoffman, Charli XCX, Mason Gooding, Daveed Diggs, Margaret Cho, and Johnny Knoxville also star, which is exactly the kind of cast list that makes an Araki film feel like a transmission from its own planet. Araki’s work has long fused desire, danger, pop culture, queer anxiety, and end-times absurdity, and this premise sounds right in his wheelhouse. In a summer where sexuality is usually sanded down, this one has room to misbehave (Read our review).
Premiere Date: July 31, 2026, via Magnolia Pictures.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day”
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” picks up with Peter Parker in the loneliest possible place. Four years after “No Way Home,” Peter is an adult living entirely alone, erased from the lives and memories of the people he loves. Tom Holland returns, with Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Sadie Sink, Mark Ruffalo (as Bruce Banner), Jon Bernthal (as The Punisher), and Tramell Tillman in the cast, and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton directing. The smartest move the MCU made with Peter was ending the last film by stripping him of the franchise safety net. “Brand New Day” now has to earn that reset: a full-time Spider-Man in a New York that no longer knows Peter’s name.
Premiere Date: July 31, 2026, via Sony Pictures.
July Honorable Mentions:
“Young Washington” (July 3, Angel Studios — William Franklyn-Miller, Ben Kingsley); “Barrio Triste” (July 10 — Stillz); “72 Hours” (July 24, Netflix — Kevin Hart, Marcello Hernández); “Motor City” (July 24, Independent Film Company — Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley); “The Dink” (July 24, Apple TV — Jake Johnson, Ben Stiller).
