2026 Movies: Release Dates and Box Office Results - Example Timeline | Boromlia
2026 movie release dates month by month, with verified box office totals. Two films have already passed $1 billion, and Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three share the same December 18 release date.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Opens the Year
The 2026 calendar opened with genre films rather than tentpoles. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple arrived on 16 January, with Return to Silent Hill and Mercy following on 23 January and Netflix releasing The Rip and The Big Fake across the same month. Not one January title finished among the year's ten highest grossers. The studios held their franchise releases until April, which left the first six weeks to horror, book adaptations and streaming premieres.
Wuthering Heights Opens Big Overseas and Fades at Home
Emerald Fennell's adaptation opened over Valentine's Day weekend and took $37.5 million across four days to finish first domestically. Then it collapsed. The domestic run ended at $83.9 million while overseas audiences carried it to $157.6 million, or 65.2% of the $241.6 million worldwide total. Britain alone supplied $34.3 million, with Australia at $14.5 million and Italy at $12.8 million. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi drew the crowds abroad. At home the film left the conversation within a fortnight of release.
Pegasus 3 Takes $653.9 Million from China Alone
Most readers of a 2026 box office list have never heard of the year's fifth-highest-grossing film. Pegasus 3 opened on Chinese New Year and took $653.9 million in China out of a $656.4 million worldwide total. The American gross was $1.3 million, and the racing sequel reached only five territories outside China. The first two entries made $255.5 million and $422.3 million there, so the third nearly matched both combined and handed 2026 its largest single-market result.
Scream 7 and Mortal Kombat II Set Franchise Records
Scream 7 opened on 27 February alongside Dreams and the concert film EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. Both Scream and Mortal Kombat, whose second instalment followed on 8 May, went on to post the highest worldwide grosses in their respective franchises. Neither cracked the year's top ten, which says more about where the bar sat than about the films: tenth place required $220.6 million by mid-June.
Pixar's Hoppers Opens Spring at $45.3 Million
Spring is where the 2026 box office started in earnest. Pixar's Hoppers opened on 6 March to $45.3 million, held first place in its second weekend, and finished with $166 million domestically and $372 million worldwide. International audiences supplied $206 million of that, led by Britain ($18.7 million), Germany ($16.9 million), Japan ($15.3 million) and Mexico ($15.2 million). Among Pixar originals it ranks second since Coco in 2017, behind Elemental.
Project Hail Mary Becomes Amazon MGM's Biggest Film
Ryan Gosling's adaptation of the Andy Weir novel opened to $80.5 million and then refused to drop. Not until its eleventh weekend in theatres did Project Hail Mary lose more than 42% of the previous week's business. It stands at $680.3 million worldwide with an almost even split, $343.5 million domestic against $336.8 million international. That total makes it Amazon MGM's biggest release and Gosling's second-biggest film, and it clears the other Weir adaptation, The Martian, which finished on $630.6 million.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Reaches $1 Billion
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie opened on 1 April and needed a little over two months to clear $1 billion. Illumination and Nintendo took $428.8 million domestically and $572 million abroad, with Mexico ($67.4 million), France ($53.4 million), Britain ($50.8 million) and Japan ($46 million) leading overseas. It spent three weekends at number one and avoided a drop of more than 50% across its first eight. The 2023 Super Mario Bros. Movie still holds the franchise record at $1.3 billion.
Michael Becomes the First Billion-Dollar Biopic
Antoine Fuqua's Michael opened to $97.2 million, a record for a music biopic, and kept going. Twelve weekends later it crossed $1.001 billion, splitting $629.8 million overseas against $371.8 million at home. That makes it Lionsgate's first billion-dollar release and the first biopic of any kind to reach the mark, passing Oppenheimer on the way. Jaafar Jackson, the singer's nephew, plays Michael Jackson in his first acting role, with Colman Domingo and Nia Long as Joe and Katherine Jackson.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 Starts Summer on 1 May
Summer opened a month early. Disney put The Devil Wears Prada 2 into theatres on 1 May, reviving a Fox title, and took $76.7 million in its first weekend before holding number one for a second. Overseas the sequel did the heavy lifting: $448.6 million of a $664.8 million worldwide total, with Britain ($45 million), Italy ($37.1 million), Brazil ($32.8 million), Germany ($32.3 million) and Japan ($30.4 million) at the front. Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci all returned. The domestic total stands at $216.2 million.
Obsession Earns More in Its Fourth Weekend Than Its First
Curry Barker's low-budget horror film opened on 15 May to $17.1 million, a number nobody would call a hit. Its second weekend brought $23.9 million. Its third brought $27.3 million. Its fourth, at $25.3 million, still beat the opening. Obsession reached $238.7 million worldwide, and unusually for horror the money came from home: $165.4 million domestic against $73.2 million from the rest of the world.
The Mandalorian and Grogu Posts Star Wars' Lowest Live-Action Opening
Star Wars returned to cinemas after seven years away and set a franchise record nobody wanted. The Mandalorian and Grogu took $98 million over the extended Memorial Day weekend, the lowest opening for any live-action Star Wars film, then fell 70.1% in its second weekend. The worldwide total sits at $297.2 million, split $159.4 million domestic and $137.8 million international. Disney and Lucasfilm built the film out of the Disney+ series, and it currently tracks toward the smallest box office of any live-action entry in the saga.
Backrooms Gives A24 Its Biggest Opening Weekend
Kane Parsons began The Backrooms as a series of creepypasta videos on YouTube. A24 turned it into a film, released it on 29 May, and watched it open to $81.4 million domestically, the largest opening in the studio's history. The second weekend fell 67.7%. Two weeks still brought $220.6 million worldwide, $143 million of it domestic and $77.6 million international, enough to pass Timothée Chalamet's ping pong drama Marty Supreme as A24's biggest earner.
Toy Story 5 Opens to $160 Million
Pixar's fifth Toy Story opened on 19 June to $160 million domestically, the biggest debut of 2026 to that point. It dropped 56% in weekend two and still held number one with $70 million, reaching $297.2 million domestic and roughly $585 million worldwide inside a fortnight. Disney has not announced a Disney+ date. The studio's minimum 45-day theatrical window puts the earliest possible streaming debut in early August.
Supergirl Opens to $38 Million and $68 Million Worldwide
DC Studios opened Supergirl on 26 June against a Toy Story sequel in its second weekend, and lost. Milly Alcock's debut as the character took $38 million domestically and $68 million worldwide, $30 million of that from 77 international markets. The domestic figure came in under Marvel's weakest opening, The Marvels at $46.1 million, and close to Joker: Folie à Deux at $37.6 million. Reported production cost ran between $170 million and $186 million before global marketing.
Minions & Monsters Opens the July Corridor
July is the month American exhibitors count on, and Illumination opened it. Minions & Monsters, the seventh Despicable Me film and third Minions spin-off, arrived on Wednesday 1 July. Pierre Coffin directs from a Brian Lynch screenplay, dropping the yellow henchmen into 1920 Old Hollywood where they try to make a monster movie of their own. Trey Parker, Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeff Bridges and Zoey Deutch voice the cast. The holiday corridor has paid before: Despicable Me 2 took $143 million over five days in 2013, Despicable Me 4 $122.6 million in 2024.
Disney's Live-Action Moana Sails into a Crowded Weekend
Disney's live-action Moana landed on 10 July, a decade after the animated original and opposite Warner Bros. horror sequel Evil Dead Burn. Thomas Kail directs, Catherine Laga'aia plays Moana, Dwayne Johnson returns as Maui, and Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote new songs to sit beside the ones audiences already know. The comparison points are unforgiving. The Lion King remake opened to $191.7 million in July and Lilo & Stitch to $146 million over Memorial Day, while Aladdin ($91.5 million opening, $355.5 million domestic) shows the slower route a remake can still take.
The Odyssey Gives Nolan His Biggest Global Opening
Christopher Nolan shot The Odyssey entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras, the first feature to do so, filming across Morocco, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland and Malta. It opened on 17 July to $123.5 million domestically and $263.7 million worldwide, the largest global opening of his career. IMAX supplied $51.8 million of that. The 70mm prints alone, playing on the 41 such screens that exist anywhere in the world, took around $6.1 million: 5% of all tickets sold, at an average price near $22.50. AMC reports the run as its most successful IMAX engagement ever through two weekends.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Tracks for the Year's Biggest Opening
Tom Holland's fourth solo outing opens on 31 July across roughly 4,300 North American cinemas, and the forecasters disagree with each other by more than $100 million. Boxoffice Pro's latest domestic range is $280 to $300 million. Box Office Theory puts the ceiling at $274 million. Sony's own internal number sits at $190 to $195 million. Presales are the strongest since No Way Home in 2021, whose $260 million remains the second-largest domestic opening ever. International tracking runs $275 to $300 million. Destin Daniel Cretton directs, and the film is the first major feature shot for ScreenX, with extra footage covering that format's 270-degree wrap.
Coyote vs. Acme Reaches Cinemas Three Years After Being Shelved
Warner Bros. Discovery shelved Coyote vs. Acme in November 2023 to claim a tax write-off. Public backlash reversed the decision, the filmmakers went looking for a buyer, and Ketchup Entertainment acquired the rights in March 2025 for a reported sum in the $50 million range. It opens on 28 August. Dave Green directs the live-action and animation hybrid, with John Cena, Will Forte, Lana Condor and P.J. Byrne, following an unemployed coyote who uncovers a corporate cover-up at ACME. Ketchup partnered with the crowdfunding outfit Legion M on the release, and the film screened for the public at Comic-Con in July.
Practical Magic 2 and Resident Evil Open the Autumn Slate
Autumn 2026 leans on revivals. Practical Magic 2 and a new Resident Evil both open on 18 September, a week after DC's Clayface and another Sense and Sensibility. On 25 September Disney puts Avengers: Endgame back on screens, a rerelease timed roughly three months ahead of Avengers: Doomsday. October follows with Terrifier 4 on 1 October and The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender on 9 October.
Street Fighter Anchors an October of Game Adaptations
Paramount's Street Fighter opens on 16 October with Andrew Koji in the cast, sharing the date with Whalefall. The week before brings The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender, The Social Reckoning and Other Mommy on 9 October. Video game adaptations had already proved themselves twice in 2026 by that point: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie passed $1 billion in April, and Mortal Kombat II gave its franchise the best worldwide result in the series in May.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping Returns to Panem
Francis Lawrence directs his fifth Hunger Games film, opening 20 November. Sunrise on the Reaping goes back 24 years before the first story, to the morning of the reaping for the 50th Games and the Second Quarter Quell. Joseph Zada, an Australian actor aged 20, plays young Haymitch Abernathy. Whitney Peak plays Lenore Dove Baird, a relative of Lucy Gray. Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, Elle Fanning and McKenna Grace appear alongside them. Lionsgate dropped a surprise teaser in November 2025 and a full trailer in April 2026.
Narnia Opens in IMAX Only, a Month Before Netflix
Greta Gerwig's Chronicles of Narnia adaptation, The Magician's Nephew, opens on 26 November in IMAX and nowhere else. The run covers around 1,000 screens across 90 countries for two weeks, the largest theatrical release Netflix has ever arranged, before the film moves to the service on 25 December. Gerwig had pushed for a cinema window, and the IMAX arrangement became a reference point in the wider argument between streamers and exhibitors. She is signed to write and direct at least two Narnia films.
Dunesday: Avengers Doomsday and Dune Part Three Share 18 December
Two of the year's biggest films open on the same Friday, a date the trade press now calls Dunesday. Avengers: Doomsday runs 165 minutes, the Russo brothers' first Marvel film since Endgame, moved from its original May 2026 slot. Marvel confirmed Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom at Comic-Con in July 2026, with Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal on the same panel. Dune: Part Three has booked IMAX screens for its first three weeks in the United States, which leaves Doomsday without IMAX in that window. Denis Villeneuve's film began selling 70mm tickets in April, one show a day at 19 locations, eight months ahead of release.