REGINA – Welcome to another Cairns on Cinema summer movie update, with some more breaking news about the latest summer blockbuster numbers.
It has been an exceptionally busy summer season at the cinemas as I have said before. Up until this point it really has been a crowded and dog-eat-dog kind of summer, which has seen major hits including Toy Story 5 as well as some notable flops (ie. Supergirl).
But in general the box office has been booming, and two movies in particular have heightened the excitement as we head into the stretch run of the summer blockbuster season.
The first is The Odyssey, the epic from director Christopher Nolan based on Homer’s poem from Ancient Greece. The story of the journey of Odysseus back home after the Trojan War had proven to be the biggest box office opening ever for Nolan in his career, with a domestic haul of $124.5 million and over $264 million globally for the weekend of July 17-19. As of Tuesday the global haul stood at $912 million, according to Box Office Mojo numbers, and is now at $395 million mark domestically.
Helping the cause has been all the showings in IMAX cinemas across North America, with CNBC reporting on Monday that the IMAX company has generated $221 million in global box office from The Odyssey.
It really has been a great showing, but as impressive as this is, The Odyssey is not likely to become the summer box office champion of 2026. The clear winner, based on this weekend, is:
“Spider-Man, Spider-Man! Does whatever a spider can! Spins a web any size, catches thieves just like flies! Look out — here comes the Spider-Man!”
The entire cinema box office needs to look out for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It is spinning a web of a massive size right now, having opened this past weekend in absolutely record breaking fashion.
The domestic opening was reported as $360.1 million, beating the previous opening record of $357.1 million set by Avengers: Endgame in 2019. The global weekend haul is $932 million, and this flick seems poised to fly past Toy Story 5 to take the lead at the box office for the whole year.
Right now, Toy Story 5 still sits in first place at $462 million domestic and $1.067 billion worldwide. After just one weekend, Spider-Man now stands at $360 million domestic and $932 million global, which is about $20 million more than the worldwide haul for The Odyssey at the three week mark.
It is pretty obvious to me that Spidey should zoom past The Odyssey’s domestic total ($395 million) as well as the domestic and global totals for the other movies still ahead of it, including Michael and the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. It will be the top grossing movie of 2026 by the end of next weekend.
That sure didn't take long, eh? What is more, this showing clearly outperformed expectations from the studio as well as Hollywood observers. So much for all the talk that people might be getting tired of superhero movies.
Why is Spidey so dominant? Well, part of it is the resiliency and popularity of the Spider-Man franchise in general over the years, and the timing of this release is a big factor. Keep in mind that the epic Marvel blockbusters used to be released around the first weekend of May — that's when the Avengers movies came out — but in 2026 that spot on the calendar was dominated by The Devil Wears Prada sequel.
This year, by delaying the big marquee Marvel release to the end of July and early August, Sony built up a lot of pent-up interest from the superhero and comic book fans who wanted their usual fix — and then Marvel and Spidey got a further boost from the bad buzz and general "meh" response to the Supergirl effort.
People are tired of superheroes, all right — just the ones from DC. Yet again, Marvel humbles DC at the movie box office.
As for The Odyssey’s success, you have to hand it to Christopher Nolan’s personal “brand” among movie fans. It seems like just the word of his attachment to a project is enough to drive box office all by itself, and it’s based on a consistent track record. Whether it’s Oppenheimer or Dunkirk or The Dark Knight movies, the fans expect Nolan to deliver an “A” effort and an epic moviegoing experience, and that cannot be underestimated.
So that is where things stand at the cinemas as we begin the month of August. I’ll have a further box office update after the Labour Day weekend on how things ultimately shake out in this 2026 summer box office race.
