Hollywood's summer box office is tracking toward $4.5 billion, surpassing 2023's Barbenheimer summer and 2019's Lion King/Avengers: Endgame season, boosted by blockbusters including Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and Toy Story 5. However, the surge masks structural challenges: theaters are showing fewer films on fewer screens to fewer moviegoers than before the COVID-19 pandemic, with audiences paying premium prices for IMAX and other formats to inflate revenue totals. Five 2026 films have each crossed $1 billion worldwide, a pandemic-era high.
Quwwaa is your AI news butler — a personalized brief and assistant for the stories you care about.
See more on Quwwaa — create a free account