The summer 2026 box office took $4.76 billion in the U.S. and Canada from May 1 through Labor Day, according to Rentrak, narrowly passing the record set in 2013. Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey led a season that also produced breakout hits from YouTube creators and a handful of expensive misses.
The short version: Rentrak, Variety and Deadline call it the biggest summer ever, ahead of 2013’s $4.755 billion. Box Office Mojo’s season chart, checked October 11, has a slightly lower figure for 2026 that still trails 2013 by roughly twenty million dollars. Either way it was up 31.6% on summer 2025, and Deadline reports admissions rose too, not just prices.
How much did the summer 2026 box office make?
Variety reported on September 7, the holiday itself, that the season’s domestic grosses had reached $4.76 billion, according to Rentrak. That beat the record of $4.755 billion set in 2013, when Iron Man 3, Man of Steel and Despicable Me 2 carried the season.
Rentrak also noted a first: every one of the four core months topped $1 billion, with May at $1.07 billion, June at $1.08 billion, July at $1.18 billion and August at $1.27 billion. Summer matters this much because, as Variety notes, those months account for 40% of the annual box office.
Was summer 2026 really a record?
It depends whose ledger you use, and both caveats are worth knowing.
The trackers disagree by a hair. Box Office Mojo defines summer the same way (the first Friday in May through Labor Day weekend) but its season chart lists 2026 at $4,734,168,731 and 2013 at $4,754,082,341. On those numbers 2013 is still ahead, by about twenty million dollars by our count. The Rentrak figures quoted by the trades have 2026 on top. With a gap this thin, 2026 and 2013 are effectively tied in unadjusted dollars; comparing grosses with ticket sales shows why raw dollars are a shaky basis for records anyway.
The calendar and inflation helped. Variety flagged both: 2013’s grosses are not adjusted for inflation, and this year’s season ran 130 days against 123 in 2013 because of where Labor Day fell. One more wrinkle: The Hollywood Reporter later described the $4.765 billion total as a global record, but Variety and Deadline both describe the same total as domestic ticket sales.
Rentrak’s Paul Dergarabedian argued the number matters less than the habit it may have rebuilt: for many people, he told Variety, “it may have been the season that reminded them just how much fun it is to go to the movies.”
What is not in doubt is attendance. Deadline, citing EntTelligence, reported admissions of more than 322 million, against 275 million for summer 2025.
The top 10 films of summer 2026
These are Box Office Mojo’s domestic grosses earned inside the May 1-September 7 window. Michael opened on April 24, so only the in-season portion of its gross counts here; its full domestic total is $372.3M, Deadline reports, making it Lionsgate’s highest-grossing film ever.
| # | Film (distributor, opening) | Summer domestic gross |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Sony, Jul 31) | $923,466,178 |
| 2 | The Odyssey (Universal, Jul 17) | $588,986,925 |
| 3 | Toy Story 5 (Disney, Jun 19) | $480,019,594 |
| 4 | Obsession (Focus Features, May 15) | $263,451,715 |
| 5 | Michael (Lionsgate, Apr 24) | $242,499,556 |
| 6 | The Devil Wears Prada 2 (Disney, opened May 1) | $220,556,651 |
| 7 | Backrooms (A24, May 29) | $197,523,513 |
| 8 | Minions & Monsters (Universal, Jul 1) | $183,154,015 |
| 9 | Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (Disney, May 22) | $177,730,060 |
| 10 | Moana (Disney, Jul 10) | $126,207,609 |
Brand New Day alone took 19.5% of the season’s domestic gross on Box Office Mojo’s count. Two of the top seven came from filmmakers who built audiences on YouTube, Curry Barker with Focus Features’ Obsession and Kane Parsons with A24’s Backrooms, which Deadline says became A24’s biggest opening ($81.4M U.S.) and its highest-grossing title. Toy Story 5 and The Devil Wears Prada 2 did what big sequels are meant to; see our Toy Story 5 box office and Devil Wears Prada 2 box office pages for their full runs.
By studio, Deadline’s summer table had Universal on top with $1.23 billion, up 63% on summer 2025, followed by Disney at $1.034 billion (down 2%) and Sony at $1 billion, up 459%.
The summer’s biggest disappointments
A record season still had casualties. Variety singled out three major bombs: the live-action Moana from Disney, Supergirl from Warner Bros. and DC, and Amazon MGM’s Masters of the Universe. Deadline put Supergirl at $72.3M domestic against a $186M production cost and Moana at $126.2M against $250M. It also described The Mandalorian and Grogu as the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars film, and Minions & Monsters as the lowest in the Gru and Minions franchise at $183M domestic. Our Masters of the Universe box office page covers that one.
Deadline’s sources also pointed to an unusual competitor for films released in late June and early July: the World Cup, played in North American time zones and drawing crowds to bars and stadiums. Several of the summer’s weaker performers opened in exactly that stretch, including Minions & Monsters on July 1 and Moana on July 10. The lesson the trade drew from the misses was consistent: a returning audience was choosy, and films that looked like copies of earlier tentpoles struggled even in a booming market.
Summer 2026 vs summer 2025 and earlier years
| Summer | Domestic total (Box Office Mojo) | No. 1 film |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $4,734,168,731 | Spider-Man: Brand New Day |
| 2025 | $3,598,538,000 | Lilo & Stitch |
| 2023 | $4,039,647,939 | Barbie |
| 2019 | $4,320,749,661 | The Lion King |
| 2013 | $4,754,082,341 | Iron Man 3 |
On Box Office Mojo’s figures, summer 2025 grossed $3,598,538,000 with Lilo & Stitch as its top film, so 2026 is up 31.6%. It also beat the last pre-pandemic summer, 2019, and the Barbie-led 2023 season. Variety’s Rentrak-based figures for those years ($4.3 billion and $4.09 billion) differ slightly from Box Office Mojo’s, another reminder to name the tracker whenever a total is quoted.
Ticket prices are part of the story, though less of it than skeptics assumed. Deadline, citing EntTelligence, gave the summer’s average general adult ticket as $13.46, a child’s ticket as $11.51 and an adult premium-format ticket as $18.39.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did the summer 2026 box office make?
About $4.76 billion domestically from May 1 through Labor Day on September 7, according to Rentrak as reported by Variety and Deadline. Box Office Mojo lists $4,734,168,731 for the same window.
Was summer 2026 the biggest summer box office ever?
By Rentrak’s count, yes: $4.76 billion against the 2013 record of $4.755 billion, not adjusted for inflation. Box Office Mojo’s season chart still shows 2013 slightly higher.
What was the highest grossing movie of summer 2026?
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with $923,466,178 in domestic summer grosses on Box Office Mojo, followed by The Odyssey and Toy Story 5.
How did summer 2026 compare with summer 2025?
Box Office Mojo shows a 31.6% increase, from $3,598,538,000 in 2025. Deadline, citing EntTelligence, reported attendance above 322 million versus 275 million in 2025.
When does the summer box office season start and end?
Box Office Mojo counts summer from the first Friday in May through Labor Day weekend. In 2026 that was May 1 to September 7.
Sources
- Summer Box Office Breaks All-Time Record — Rebecca Rubin, Variety, September 7, 2026
- Box Office: How Summer 2026 Hit a Record $4.76 Billion in U.S. — Anthony D’Alessandro, Deadline, September 7, 2026
- Summer Box Office (by year) — Box Office Mojo (IMDbPro), data as of October 11, 2026
- Domestic Box Office For Summer 2026 — Box Office Mojo (IMDbPro), accessed October 11, 2026
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day Beats Force Awakens at Domestic Box Office — Ryan Gajewski, The Hollywood Reporter, September 16, 2026