The summer of Tom Holland has been quite lucrative for both studios and exhibitors, as it looks like 2026 is going to end up tallying in the range of $4.76 billion domestically, with Sony/Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” dominating the global box office for weeks.
If Deadline’s impressive numbers (via Rentrak) are accurate, this would push the 2026 summer box office to a new all-time record, surpassing 2013’s record-setting earnings of $4.756 billion. A clear sign that theaters still have something to offer moviegoers, and when there is compelling appointment viewing, people are going to be willing to leave their homes to seek out a traditional movie experience (even premium formats like IMAX and IMAX 70mm are becoming more popular than ever).
Universal Pictures took the top spot at the domestic box office from May 1 to September 7 with an impressive $1.23 billion, and we’ll have to wait until January to see who ended up making the most money for the year.
For more context on the box office rebounding, here is a breakdown of global totals of many movies released since May:
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” – $2.408B
“The Odyssey” – $1.631B
“Toy Story 5” – $1.337B
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” – $692.8M
“Minions & Monsters” – $518M
“Obsession” – $509.8M
“Backrooms” – $394M
“Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu” – $345.3M
“Moana” – $315.4M
“Disclosure Day” – $241M
“Scary Movie” – $231.8M
“The Sheep Detectives” – $132.8M
“Supergirl” – $126.3M
“Masters of the Universe” – $113.7M
This good news comes after theaters had been struggling after COVID-19 to get attendance numbers back to pre-pandemic volumes, which this year has certainly made the case that the medium isn’t dead and the future is looking bright toward the end of the year as well, with “Dune: Part Three” and “Avengers: Doomsday” yet to make their bow in December.
2026 is shaping up to be one of the most successful years at the box office in recent memory; we’ll have to wait to see if more box office records are smashed.
