So we were originally going to write a post about the slaughter that has been the summer box office with some films doing really well and everything else flopping. However, we decided to retool that into a conversation on the fact that we are in July 2026 and have already had 3 billion dollar films, with more likely to come meaning that from a box office perspective we have had a much better year than we have had in post-pandemic history. However, within that there is a caveat.
As of right now Michael, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Toy Story 4 are all sitting at 1 billion, with the Odyssey, and likely Spider-Man Brand New Day set to join it. Whilst on paper this is great news for the box office it is also painting a picture of instability, as whilst there are more high profile hits there are also a lot more high profile misses.
As the summer season has shown films like Minions 3 have struggled to connect and films like Supergirl and Moana have outright flopped, this is showing that cinema is becoming an all or nothing bloodsport. There are far fewer films that do middling, and the remaining strength of the box office is being channeled into a few specific types of film, directors, or franchises this makes the box office lob sided and reduces chances taken on projects.
This seems to be the new reality people either come out in force and a film makes lots of money or no one goes and it dies on the vine. People may say it has always been this way but that is not true there were often middling cases and a middle ground between hits and flops but increasingly that has withered away.
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