Movie Preview: August 2026

Welcome to the final month of the summer! Or, well… welcome to nearly halfway through the final month of the summer, that is. Apologies for a delayed post. Real summer got in the way with family, friends, and all that fun stuff. That said, the first weekend of the month (July 31-August 2) I actually covered in my July preview because the weekend started on the final weekend of July, while the first full weekend of August (August 7-9) was dominated by the same headlines that dominated most of July: “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey.” So let’s recap what happened here…

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” not only exceeded expectations, but soared past them, breaking the opening weekend record previously set by “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, leaving many pondering on how a solo Spider-Man film toppled the culmination of the Infinity Saga. The official opening weekend total for “Brand New Day” was $360.1 million, which was $3 million ahead of the $357.1 million total of “Endgame.” And now as of this post’s publication on August 13, it is encroaching on the $2 billion mark globally, as well as nearly $700 million domestically, leaving some wondering if it can top the overall domestic record of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which stands at $936.7 million. Meanwhile in the world of Christopher Nolan, “The Odyssey” was the highest opening weekend domestically for an R-rated film not named Deadpool, while also being the highest opening weekend for Nolan not named Batman. Its total global earnings are now over $1.1 billion, becoming Nolan’s highest grossing film ever, Batman or not, shattering all sorts of IMAX records in the process.

So yeah, you can say it’s been an excellent few weeks at the box office. This led July to hit the billion-dollar mark at the domestic box office, making it the third month in a row. “Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” are currently carrying August to hit the same mark as well, especially since Spider-Man only had one day in July. If they succeed at this, it will be the first summer ever where all four summer months hit the $1 billion mark. It’s also the first summer with three different summer movies that have earned at least $400 million domestically, with “Toy Story 5” being the other one. The final historical mark is that the best overall summer at the domestic box office is the summer of 2013, with $4.754 billion. Currently we are at $4.013 billion as of me publishing this, with four weekends left – the final three weekends of August and the first weekend of September, because Box Office Mojo, which tracks these records, counts through Labor Day weekend, not just through the end of August.

With all this historical context in mind, we now track the remainder of August, while recapping that first full weekend. Even though the biggest blockbusters of the summer are in the rearview mirror, there are a lot of titles to talk about in August for those looking for additional theatrical trips. Are any of these movies sleeper hits waiting to happen? Can any of them knock Spider-Man off its perch at the weekend box office? Let’s dive in and check it out!

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. With both sites having their own challenges this year, which I’ve mentioned often, I do my best to look at other sources as well in order to provide the most accurate information. All this said, the movies listed in this post are the movies currently slated for a wide release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change.

August 7 – 9

Universal's "One Night Only"

As mentioned in the intro, this first full weekend of August was again dominated by “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey.” To put things in perspective, the weekend as a whole earned $202.3 million domestically, with 56 movies reported. Of that, “Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” combined for $175.9 million, which was 86.9 percent of the weekend total. “Brand New Day” specifically earned $144.3 million, a 59.9 percent drop from its opening weekend, nearly identical to the 58.7 percent drop of “Avengers: Endgame” in its second weekend, which means it should remain a good comparison as we move through this preview to see what the bar for the No. 1 spot is each weekend.

There were three new movies that opened in wide release this weekend. Collectively they only made $11.5 million, which was just 5.7 percent of the weekend total. But hey, sometimes the fun of a smaller month like this is to search for the hidden gems that exist in the movie world. The leader of this trio was One Night Only, which earned $5.5 million from 3,012 theaters, good enough for third place on the weekend. This comes from Will Gluck, director of “Anyone But You,” “Easy A” and “Friends with Benefits,” and is a movie that some have referred to as “the sex Purge,” given that the premise involves a futuristic New York City where premarital sex is outlawed, except for one night a year, much like the Purge franchise where all crime is legal for one night a year. A premise of this nature has naturally led to various levels of conversation from a variety of different fronts. A clever premise for a rom-com? A terrible premise? Too political? Too many questions and not enough answers? A premise directly centered around sex, but most of the sex and nudity were edited out of the movie… and is that good or bad? Sometimes controversy leads to curiosity. And August has been a good month for rom-coms recently, as “It Ends With Us” opened to $50 million back in August 2024. But that was not the case with this one. This time, controversy led to very mixed reviews and most audience members didn’t show up.

Coming in just behind “One Night Only” is a trilogy capper of a franchise that you may not have known is now a trilogy, and that is Super Troopers 3. The original “Super Troopers” is an absurdist comedy following a group of goofy cops who spend more time playing pranks and goofing off than enforcing the law. This until they get forced into an actual murder investigation that forces them to actually do their job, which is easier said than done when they’re not taken seriously. The movie was not a huge financial success when it opened back in 2002. It opened to $6.2 million and finished with $18.5 million domestically. It only had a production budget of $1.2 million, so despite not being a huge success, it was profitable based on its budget and became a cult classic following its theatrical run. It took 16 years, but a sequel in 2018 was finally released. Similar story. A production budget of $13.5 million and a final domestic total of $30.6 million, after an opening weekend of $15.2 million. A financial profit, but it didn’t break the bank. Evidence that cult classics that get belated sequels don’t always lead to an increase in box office. And now “Super Troopers 3” had the lowest opening of all of them, with just over $4 million. And that’s with 24 years of ticket price inflation. But hey, fans of this particular police squad now have a whole trilogy of films to enjoy, so that’s a win in its own right.

Speaking of a movie drenched in controversy, the final movie in our trilogy of openers was Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man. Eli Roth has always been a controversial filmmaker. Controversy is basically his middle name. He’s most known for movies like “Cabin Fever,” “Hostel,” and “The Green Inferno,” which are movies that helped coin the term “torture porn,” which is a subgenre of horror focusing heavily on sadistic violence, bodily mutilation, and slow, agonizing pain. The point of the horror in these movies is to show an explicit display of suffering, all of which is present in most of Eli Roth’s films. His recent film, though, was a PG-13 adaptation of the video game “Borderlands,” a movie that wound up as a major flop in 2024. After that disaster, Eli Roth claimed he’s not following any studio notes and is doing things his way. And thus we get “Ice Cream Man,” which is *not* a remake of the 1995 film of the same name, but is basically a movie where kids in a suburban town turn into homicidal maniacs after eating some ice cream from a mysterious ice cream truck, and result in them murdering many of the adults in the town in a very Eli Roth fashion, while the other kids have to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it. Outside of being a naturally controversial Eli Roth torture porn flick, Roth also confirmed that he used generative AI in certain sequences, which added an additional layer of controversy. All of this resulted in an opening just over $2 million from 1,682 theaters.

While those were the only wide releases of the weekend, here’s a quick run through of a decent number of limited release films. The annual cat video festival, titled CatVideoFest 2026, managed to crack the top 10, earning $568,414 from 255 theaters. The Sundance documentary Cookie Queens also had a decent showing, earning $354,262 from 446 theaters. This follows four young girls striving to be a top-seller of Girl Scout Cookies, showcasing the joys and pains of the cookie selling season. It received very high remarks from Sundance viewers. Released in 6 theaters, the biopic Tony opened with a very strong per-theater average of $58,166, totaling $358,995 on the weekend. It’s a biopic about Anthony Bourdain, focusing on his early years of wanting to be a writer, but instead finding a summer job at a Cape Cod restaurant. The movie is directed by Matt Johnson and stars Dominic Sessa as Tony, with Antonio Banderas in a highly acclaimed supporting role. Not far behind “Tony” was Teenage Sex and Death and Camp Miasma, opening in 5 theaters for a total of $249,606, a per-theater average of $49,921. This comes from director Jane Schoenbrun, who recently found huge critical success with “I Saw the TV Glow.” The movie is a satirical slasher film following a filmmaker who is hired to direct a new installment in the Camp Miasma franchise. Schoenbrun talked about how the film would engage with the concept of gender deviance seen in such horror classics as “Psycho” and “Silence of the Lambs,” intending on honoring and critiquing those films, while also likening the concept to “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” set in a “Friday the 13th” sequel. Both “Tony” and “Camp Miasma” received high critical acclaim and will be expanded over the course of the month.

August 14 – 16

Warner Bros.' "The End of Oak Street"

It’s a dino showdown in the second full weekend of August as two new dinosaur-themed movies go head to head, battling it out for… second place. After a second weekend total of $144.3 million, Spider-Man is looking at a third weekend in the range of $60-65 million if it continues to follow the trajectory of “Avengers: Endgame,” which earned $63.3 million in its third weekend. As popular as dinosaurs are, the new dino movies aren’t projected to get quite that high.

The first of these two dino movies is Warner Bros. live-action thriller The End of Oak Street. Starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as a struggling couple, they wake up one day to find that their entire neighborhood has seemingly been transported into a prehistoric era. Initial teasers were vague at first in regards to what the danger was going to be, which is par for the course given that the producer here is J.J. Abrams and he loves his mystery boxes. But you can’t make a dinosaur movie without revealing to audiences that you made a dinosaur movie, so the full-length trailers pulled back the curtain and revealed that, yes, they are running from dinosaurs. This seemingly calls back to the initial “Jurassic Park” film that portrayed the dinosaurs as scary monsters in a horror movie setting before the franchise devolved into brainless action. As such, the actual writer and director of this movie is David Robert Mitchell, who hasn’t done a whole lot, but did write and direct the widely acclaimed 2014 horror film “It Follows,” so suspense is certainly a thing he is more than capable of pulling off. “The End of Oak Street” has been projected to open in the $15-20 million range, but this has always seemed like something with the potential to break out, even if it’s a notch or two higher at $25-30 million. It beat out the kids movie we’ll talk about here in a second on Thursday and Friday, but Saturday will be key in seeing who wins the full weekend race.

While teens and adults will be out seeing Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor run away from dinosaurs, the kids have their own dinosaur adventure to explore as the PAW Patrol crew takes on dinosaurs in PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie. The title itself here is more or less self-explanatory, but the PAW Patrol lands on a mysterious island that happens to be inhabited by dinosaurs. Although this movie looks like it’s less about them running from dinosaurs and more about them aiming to protect the dinosaurs from the evil humans who are trying to mine the island for its resources. Because dinosaurs are our friends, not our enemies! And not that your kids care about the voice cast in PAW Patrol, but this does feature voice work from the likes of Mckenna Grace, Terry Crews, Jennifer Hudson, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, and even Bill Nye. And as a bonus for the parents, the trailer also advertises that the movie features new music by Backstreet Boys. PAW Patrol has been around as a series for quite some time, initially debuting in August 2013, and currently has 14 seasons and 311 episodes. This current movie will be their third theatrically released movie. “PAW Patrol: The Movie” opened to $13.1 million in August 2021, while “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” nearly doubled that with $22.8 million in September 2023. A $20-25 million opener is thus a fair expectation for this third movie.

There’s actually a lot more coming this weekend than just our dino movie showdown, and I’ll make an attempt to cover it in a readable fashion, but the final theatrically released movie opening in wide release this weekend is Angel Studios’ The Brink of War. Earlier this summer, Angel Studios had some good luck with “Young Washington,” which opened to $19.4 million around the 4th of July weekend and has made $46.9 million domestically so far. And now they’re trying their luck again with another U.S. President, this time Ronald Reagan in the 80s as he meets with Mikhail Gorbachev of Russia. The specific year is 1986 and the event depicted in the movie is the Reykjavik Summit, where Reagan and Gorbachev met in Iceland to discuss arms control, a meeting that eventually led to the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. In this movie, Jeff Daniels plays Reagan, while Jared Harris plays Gorbachev, in a movie directed by Michael Russell Gunn in his feature directorial debut. The obvious thing here is that Reagan is not George Washington and Cold War politics is not going to draw in the same crowd as 1700s U.S. history prior to the Revolutionary War, so the prognosis on this one is not as high as “Young Washington” as it looks to slip into the more traditional opening range of $3-5 million for Angel Studios releases.

In the previous paragraph, I mentioned that “The Brink of War” is the final theatrically released movie opening in wide release this weekend. And I use that specific wording because opening in 1,461 theaters this weekend is SIX: The Musical Live!, which is a theatrically released filmed stage production. “SIX” is a British musical that is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of Henry VIII, presented in the form of a singing competition and pop concert where the six wives take turns telling their stories to determine who suffered the most, ultimately seeking to reclaim their individual identities and rewrite their stories. The musical initially premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017, performed by studios from Cambridge University. Two years later, it premiered in West End in January 2019, then later on Broadway in February 2020, quickly taking a hiatus due to COVID before coming back in October 2021. In 2022, it was nominated for 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and won Best Original Score and Best Costume Design. There have been a few of these filmed stage productions that have hit theaters, but most recently “Hadestown: The Musical” released in July in between the releases of “The Odyssey” and “Brand New Day,” earning a surprising $10.3 million that weekend, beating out all the other smaller releases that weekend.

While that’s it for wide releases on the weekend, there’s also a whole bunch of moderate releases. We’ll do a speed round through those. In 510 theaters, NEON will be releasing the stoner comedy The Wrong Girls, about two codependent best friends, living paycheck to paycheck and bong road trip to bong road trip, who get caught in a case of mistaken identity. This stars Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat as the two girls, with LaKeith Stanfield, Tony Hale, Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani, Kate McKinnon, and Cate Blanchett in various supporting roles. Paired along with that will be The Rivals of Amziah King, a neo-Western crime thriller starring Matthew McConaughey and Kurt Russell, while introducing Angelina LookingGlass as a woman named Kateri who loses her mother and leaves foster care, reuniting with her former foster parent Amziah King (McConaughey), a beekeeper, musician, and anchor of his community as he fends off threats to his honey business. We also have Nimrods, a coming-of-age road-trip comedy about a group of teenagers who believe their band is opening for Green Day on New Year’s Eve. This movie is based on Green Day’s early limited success as a band before the release of their breakout album “Dookie.” The final moderate release I’ll mention is Your Letter, a South Korean animated film about a bullied girl who transfers schools hoping for peace, but is isolated due to her past trauma until she discovers a series of secret letters around the school, sending her on a mysterious quest to uncover their sender’s true intent. This movie had a festival release as early as 2024 before then opening in South Korea and several other countries in late 2025. It is just now getting a release in the United States by Crunchyroll.

And if none of these eight movies catches your interest, a whole slew of re-releases enter theaters as well. Opening on Friday was Wet Hot American Summer, Your Name, and Train to Busan. On Sunday we’ll see La La Land and Point Break hit theaters again. In between this weekend and next, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that being the original 1974 film, will return to theaters on Wednesday, August 18.

August 21 – 23

Sony's "Insidious: Out of the Further"

This third full weekend of August is the first weekend where we might have a competition for that No. 1 spot at the weekend box office. The fourth weekend of “Avengers: Endgame” came in at $29.9 million. If Spider-Man continues to follow that trajectory, and does indeed hit the $60-65 million range in the previous weekend, that puts it anywhere in the range of $27-35 million. If it happens to start holding a bit better, it could wind up higher in the range of $37-41 million. Either way, we have a franchise horror film coming out this weekend that’s projected as the top opener of the month and those numbers are within striking distance.

That franchise horror film is Insidious: Out of the Further. The Insidious franchise began in 2010, with the first movie being directed by James Wan, written by Leigh Whannell, and produced by Jason Blum, a powerhouse trio in the horror realm. The premise has centered around a purgatory realm called the Further, a place inhabited by the tortured spirits of the deceased. The first film centers around a boy, named Dalton Lambert, who was born with the ability to astral project his consciousness and had been unknowingly doing so in his sleep, which resulted in him being captured in the Further. This then resulted in the spirits in the Further using his body to re-enter the physical realm. Each of the ensuing chapters have centered around this general concept of the Further. “Out of the Further” is the sixth film in the franchise, but the first movie without the Lambert family, the central family in the first, second, and fifth movie – with the third and fourth movies being prequels following Elise Rainer, the psychic in the first movie. Elise Rainer is the lone character returning in “Out of the Further,” with her role as a spirit guide within the Further, guiding our new cast of characters, led by Amelia Eve as Gemma. The contrast here is that, while Dalton’s ability is to project outward into the world of the Further, Gemma’s ability is that she accidentally pulls the entities inward into ours. Box office wise, the franchise’s peak was in 2013, when “Chapter 2” opened to $40.3 million. The two prequels dipped a bit, opening in the $20 million range, while “The Red Door” in 2023 jumped up to $33 million after bringing back the original characters. A new cast of characters could create another dip, but the idea of the spirits coming into our world could also give another boost. Either way, the $25-35 million predicted range is also in the same range as Spider-Man, which could result in a close race.

It wouldn’t be one of these quieter months without a Jason Statham action flick. Whether it be January, April, or August, this is the window he thrives in and he’s got another one for us here with Mutiny. From Jean-François Richet, director of the 2023 Gerard Butler film “Plane,” “Mutiny” has Statham playing Cole Reed, a former marine who is framed for the murder of his billionaire industrialist boss. Now forced to go on the run, Cole works to uncover an international conspiracy and find the people responsible in order to prove his innocence. Classic premise for some punching, kicking, and gunplay from Statham, providing some comfort food in late August for Statham fans or action fans in general. These movies often land in the $5-8 million range, with some like “The Beekeeper” and “A Working Man” hitting the mid-teens. His high for one of these solo action flicks, so not counting franchise films like Fast & Furious or The Expendables, is “The Meg” in August 2018, which was a massive breakout with a $45.4 million opening. With no prehistoric shark for him to battle, this will likely land in his more traditional range.

While “Insidious: Out of the Further” and “Mutiny” are the main attractions this weekend, we’ll do another speed run of a trio of moderate releases. No official theater count estimates for these movies, but I would guess they’re likely to be somewhere in the realm of 500-1,500 theaters, fighting for a spot in the top 10. The first is Black Bear Pictures releasing the comedy Spa Weekend, about a group of four female friends, played by Isla Fisher, Leslie Mann, Anna Faris, and Michelle Buteau, who decide they are burned out and need a break. They all decide to go on a… wait for it… spa weekend. This is from the director of “Bad Moms” and writers of “The Hangover,” so that style of comedy is what they’re going for here. And speaking of four friends, NEON will be releasing the horror thriller It Ends, also about a group of four friends who decide to leave on a trip. Except their trip isn’t so happy as a wrong turn causes them to be trapped on a never-ending backroad. Their choices are either figure out a way to escape or accept their fate. This movie was released at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2025, was briefly available on the Letterboxd Video Store at the end of 2025, before NEON eventually acquired the rights and got it into general theaters this weekend. The final movie of this weekend sees the future arrive with the sci-fi thriller Hot Spot. Directed by Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska, and distributed by Focus Features, this movie is set in a near future society ruled by sentient A.I. In this realm, a private detective investigates a murder case, only to discover a rebel group capable of undermining the digital overlord, later causing his identity to slowly unravel, sending him into a hypnotic meltdown.

August 28 – 30

Ketchup Entertainment's "Coyote vs. Acme"

The final weekend of August is historically one of the year’s lowest grossing weekends. The summer is over. School has begun. And the box office enters a bit of an awkward phase before the fall movie seasons slowly ramp back up. Movies *can* do good here. But studios mostly prefer not to schedule their main releases. From a forecasting standpoint, that does lead to an interesting race. Our final Spider-Man tracker has it potentially landing in the $17-25 million range. The fifth weekend of “Avengers: Endgame” that we’ve been comparing to was $17.2 million. If it managed to sneak out a win against the latest Insidious movie, it could pull off the full sweep of August by winning a fifth weekend in a row. If it lost the previous weekend, it could retake the top spot as horror sequels almost always have a massive dip in their second weekend. But there’s also two movies this weekend that are forecast to open in this similar range. A four movie race to finish the month? Sounds fun to me!

The first new movie I’ll bring up here is a movie that, quite honestly, is simply happy to exist. This is Ketchup Entertainment’s release of Coyote vs. Acme. On the surface, this is a simple movie with a simple premise. Wile E. Coyote has been around for a very long time, first appearing in 1949, with a long-standing rivalry with the Road Runner. This new movie brings Wile E. back in a live-action/animated hybrid film where he enlists a billboard attorney to sue the Acme Corporation for repeatedly selling him alleged faulty products. This based on the 1990 magazine article from The New Yorker titled “Coyote v. Acme,” by Ian Frazier. It’s a movie that could be a fun introduction of the character to a new generation of kids while also being a healthy dose of nostalgia for adults who grew up watching these characters. For many casual movie fans, this might be where the conversation ends. But for those in the loop, this was a movie previously owned by Warner Bros. before they tossed it in the trash in November 2023 in order to get a tax write-off, like they also did with the likes of “Batgirl” and “Scoob! Holiday Haunt.” Warner Bros. received heavy backlash for these decisions. And while the other two have still not seen the light of day, they reversed course with “Coyote vs. Acme” and opened discussions with other distributors, where Ketchup Entertainment won the rights for $50 million and are now giving it a chance to see the light of day. Box Office Pro has the movie projected to open in the $12-18 million range. That could be boosted by people following this story who want to go support the movie Warner Bros. tried to cancel, hoping to show the studio a lesson to not cancel movies for tax write-offs. But again, regardless of box office, the real win here is that the filmmakers get the opportunity to showcase their movie to the world, which they almost didn’t get.

The other movie in competition this weekend is Ridley Scott’s latest film, The Dog Stars. Given the aforementioned history behind this particular weekend, it’s a little odd to see a new Ridley Scott film dumped into late August. Usually when he has a new movie out, it’s showcased in a prime release spot or being pushed for awards at the end of the season, not quietly dumped into the worst weekend of the year. On the flip side, though, if we’re still in contention to break the all-time summer box office record at this point, having a Ridley Scott film at the end help push us over the finish line is certainly a benefit. The movie stars an all-star cast of Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Guy Pearce, and Benedict Wong and is based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Peter Heller. The premise of the film is set in the aftermath of a devastating flu pandemic that has almost wiped out humanity. The story is centered around Hig (Elordi), a civilian pilot living with his dog, and Bangley (Brolin), a hardened former Marine, as they confront outside threats and hold onto the possibility of a better life beyond where they currently live. This does provide an interesting contrast to the book vs. the movie, with the book being released eight years before COVID and the movie being released six years after, but the premise of a world-ending pandemic is nothing new and the question that audiences get to answer is what does this movie bring to the table that perhaps other versions of this premise haven’t. Box Office Pro is projecting this to open in the $18-23 million range, which would put it in a similar range of some of his previous films, notably “House of Gucci” in 2021 ($14.4 million), and “Napoleon” in 2023 ($20.6 million). “Gladiator II” opened much higher in 2024, with $55 million, but that was a big-budgeted sequel to a very popular film opening in the holiday season, so the other two are likely the better comparisons.

Similar to the last two weekends, we’ll finish this with a speed round of potential moderate releases fighting for a spot in the top 10. We’ll begin here with Finding Emily, a British romantic comedy about a lovesick musician who is given the wrong number for his dream girl, so he teams up with another female psychology student to go find her. This was released back in its home country of the U.K. back in May and finally arrives in America here in August. The type of rom-com that in decades past would be a major hit, but in today’s world often ends up on Netflix. Luckily here, “Finding Emily” at least gets a chance in theaters first, even if it’s not likely to be a major hit. The same could be send about this next movie, the dark comedy Idiots. This stars Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as two rock-bottom drivers who are supposed to be completing the simple task of transporting a wealthy teen to rehab, but their passenger derails their plans and instead leads to a chaotic journey of drugs, danger, and crime. This movie actually came out at Sundance this year, and was under a different title. I’ll let you look that up because the previous title included a curse word that I don’t want to type up, but it’s probably a smart idea to change that for the general public. IFC Entertainment bought the rights out of Sundance and has it scheduled here in August. And finally, we get the horror film from Roadside Attractions, Buddy, which was also a Sundance release this year. This is about a group of children stuck in a 90s style children’s TV show that’s obviously trying to emulate Barney. Instead of a big purple dinosaur, it’s a friendly, cuddly orange unicorn. And all is happy and well until some of them realize they can’t get out or remember their past and suddenly the facade starts to crack and maybe Buddy isn’t so friendly and cuddly after all. Both of these Sundance films received positive remarks, as has “Finding Emily” after already being released overseas, so they will provide good, late August options.

Last but not least, one of the all-time classic films will be hitting theaters again, that being Terminator 2: Judgment Day. So if any of these films doesn’t spark any curiosity, there’s also the option of enjoying “T2” in theaters. And on the note of re-releases, Fathom Entertainment will also be re-releasing Castle in the Sky on August 22. And as mentioned towards the beginning of this post, both “Tony” and “Teenage Sex and Death and Camp Miasma” will be getting wide expansions as the month goes on. Either this weekend or the previous weekend, those will likely be options to check out as well.

Movie Preview: July 2026

Welcome to the hottest month of the year! At least in certain parts of the world, that is. In addition to temperatures being scorching hot with the summer being in full force, July is about to light the box office on fire. Historically speaking, July is almost always the highest-grossing month of the year. Even in years where a Star Wars or a Spider-Man film shows up in a different month, July is at least in the top two or three. Current prognostications indicate that this trend is highly likely to continue this month.

In regards to what happened in June, after a surprisingly strong May at the domestic box office, June’s numbers were nearly identical, following up May’s $1.063 billion with $1.057 billion. This happened despite some contrasting headlines. While May’s story was led by the breakout hits of “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” the narrative in June was led heavily by the massive disappointments of “Masters of the Universe” and “Supergirl.” The saving grace for June was, of course, “Toy Story 5,” which had the best opening ever for a Toy Story film by a large margin, as well as the second best ever for any Pixar release. The aforementioned May breakouts also contributed significantly, coming in second and third place overall for the month, helping the month sneak past the billion dollar mark. As we head into July, the number of releases on the calendar each week might not be very high, but the releases that are there will certainly give us plenty to talk about in this preview, as there’s several high-profile films that have already sparked considerable chatter, so let’s jump in and sort through it all!

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. As I’ve chronicled for much of this current year, both of those sites continue to have their struggles, which results in me bringing in the likes of Box Office Mojo, IMDb, and others to make sure I’ve got the information correct. The movies listed in this post are the movies currently slated for a wide release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change.

July 3 – 5

Universal's "Minions & Monsters"

In the United States, this past weekend was Independence Day. With the holiday landing on a Saturday, that made for a slightly unconventional weekend, with parades, fireworks, and family barbecues dominating on Saturday while Friday and Sunday were the bigger movie days. Coming out on top, in a much closer race than most expected, was Minions & Monsters, the seventh movie in the Despicable Me franchise, as well as the third in the current Minions trilogy. These little yellow creatures have dominated homes and social media memes ever since they were introduced in 2010. They’ve also become the face of Illumination themselves. And yes, it is 2015’s “Minions” that is the highest grossing movie in the Despicable Me franchise, with $1.157 billion worldwide. Not any of the main saga Despicable Me movies. And not that story, plot, or characters need to be talked about too much when it comes to the Minions. Non-stop Minion gags is more or less the point, making it fairly easy to entertain young audiences with not much effort. But the adventure this time around sends audiences to Old Hollywood, with the Minions having a goal of making their own monster movie, resulting in them running into a number of real monsters themselves. This premise managed to strike a chord with critics as it is the highest reviewed movie in the seven-movie franchise, scoring a 91 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. But did the actual target audience respond in the same way?

“Minions and Monsters” got a head start on the weekend, opening on Wednesday, July 1. Instantly the story became the surprise underperformance of the movie. The previous six entries have averaged a 3-day opening weekend of $85.1 million. Both Minions movies are at the top of that, opening to $115.7 and $107.0 million, respectively. Just two years ago, “Despicable Me 4” had this exact release strategy, opening the Wednesday before Independence Day. It opened to $75.0 million on the 3-day and $122.6 million on the 5-day. With all that in context, it was rather surprising to see “Minions & Monsters” open with only $37.0 million over the 3-day and $62.0 million over the 5-day. The best explanation for this is likely a combination of factors rather than one particular reason, but it could probably be summed up best by simply stating that franchise fatigue has finally set in. The excitement just wasn’t there, making this entry feel less like a must-see event film and more like something that can be caught up on later when it hits streaming.

Opening in third place on the weekend, with “Toy Story 5” coming in second place, was our other new wide release of the weekend, Young Washington. This is the movie that, for obvious reasons, benefited the most from the holiday weekend. While every other movie in the top 10 averaged a Friday to Saturday drop of 36 percent, followed by a Saturday to Sunday increase of 16 percent, “Young Washington” did the opposite, increasing 1 percent from Friday to Saturday, while then dropping 47 percent on Sunday. If there was a movie to see amidst the festivities, “Young Washington” became the popular choice. The movie was released by Angel Studios and was directed by popular Christian director Jon Erwin (“I Can Only Imagine,” “I Still Believe,” “Jesus Revolution”). The plot focuses mainly on George Washington’s experiences and command in the French and Indian War from 1753 to 1755. Unsurprisingly, the movie was well received by its target audience, scoring a 93 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an “A” on CinemaScore. Christian audiences are among the most forgiving out there when it comes to Christian movies. But it also scored a 60 percent from critics, which is actually a bit higher than one might expect, especially since this movie’s heavy usage of AI has a heavy topic of debate, being defended by Erwin himself. The typical opening for an Angel Studios release is often around $3-5 million. However, with the holiday theme, it made sense for this to hit the higher range for Angel Studios, matching the likes of “David” ($22.0 million) and “The King of Kings” ($19.371 million). I list three decimal points for “The King of Kings” because “Young Washington” had a near identical $19.372 million when final numbers came out. “Young Washington” opened to just $920 more. That movie was also holiday themed and fell 76 percent in its third weekend when Easter was over, so I wouldn’t be surprised if “Young Washington” was similarly frontloaded.

July 10 – 12

Disney's "Moana"

How soon is too soon for a live-action remake? This weekend, Disney will be testing to see how audiences react to just 10 years prior with their latest remake, Moana. Having mined the Disney Renaissance Era pretty thoroughly, while coming up empty in the Classic Era with the failure of “Snow White,” Disney struck gold last year by encroaching on the 2000s with “Lilo & Stitch,” a movie that joined the billion-dollar box office club. And when Disney finds that level of success, you know they aren’t going to be done. Now they will see how the 2010s will fare for them. And this is an era where DreamWorks already had major success as “How to Train Your Dragon” last year outgrossed every entry from the animated trilogy. Why “Moana” for Disney, as opposed to either “Frozen” or “Tangled”? Well, there could be a few answers to that, but at least part of the equation might be understood by realizing that, since the launch of Disney+, “Moana” has been the highest streamed movie on the platform and it’s not been particularly close. I certainly don’t need to tell you what this is or that Dwayne Johnson is returning to play the same character that he voiced. You already know. I can add that the trailers have not been met very well and much of the internet is ready to pounce on this and make fun of it in similar ways as they did “Snow White,” but if you’re a parent with a young daughter who has been watching “Moana” on repeat for months or years, you’ll probably be well aware that your daughter doesn’t care about what the internet has to say about all of this. And you probably don’t either. And they’re the ones that will determine how this does. Current tracking is pegging this in the $60-70 million range for its opening, which is far less than the $146 million that “Lilo & Stitch” opened to, but not too far off from the $84.6 million opening of “How to Train Your Dragon.”

Adults not wanting to venture out to “Moana” certainly have quite the pair of counter-programming options to go to instead. Leading the way will be Evil Dead Burn, the latest entry the long running horror franchise that began all the way back in 1981 and launched the career of a then very young Sam Raimi, who celebrated his 22nd birthday eight days after the movie’s world premiere. The initial movie in 1981 was extremely influential in regards to 80s horror as it certainly helped popularize the “cabin in the woods” trope, as well as doing a number for the undead or evil dead horror movies. I’d say zombies, but these movies’ villains are ancient Sumerian demons, called “Deadites,” that are accidentally unleashed when a group of young people read from a cursed book they find. Sam Raimi helmed each chapter in the original trilogy. The franchise was rebooted in 2013 with “Evil Dead,” continued on TV with three seasons of “Ash vs. Evil Dead” from 2015-2018, but then returned to theaters in 2023 with “Evil Dead Rise.” Each of the now three modern films, 2013’s “Evil Dead,” “Evil Dead Rise,” and now “Evil Dead Burn” can be watched as stand-alone horror films with completely separate casts and different stories, but there is certain connective tissue that ties them together as canonical entries in the same universe, with future potential to bring all the characters together. “Evil Dead Burn” specifically follows a family coming together for a family reunion after a death of one of the family members, resulting in what of course becomes a “family reunion from hell.” Raimi is on board as producer of the film, while it’s directed by Sébastien Vaniček, director of the 2023 spider horror film “Infested.” In 2023, “Evil Dead Rise” opened to $24.5 million, which is the range this one is aiming for.

The other bit of counter-programming this weekend is a movie that’s likely on the exact opposite side of the spectrum from a family-friendly Disney film and that’s the Sundance comedy Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. Played by Zoey Deutch, Gail Daughtry is a hairdresser in rural Kansas and is two weeks away from her wedding. Gail and her fiancé discuss their “celebrity sex pass,” the one celebrity they could have sex with without violating their relationship. Initially assuming it was a joke, Gail gets mad when her fiancé actually uses his pass, which results in her traveling to Los Angeles to find Jon Hamm. Along this wacky journey is a whole host of celebrities playing versions of themselves. The movie was released at Sundance in January, coming out of that with a modest critics score of 83 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps not glowing reviews that can result from a generous festival crowd, but nevertheless most who saw it considered it a fun time as a lighthearted comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Some even noted a structural framework that resembled a satirical reimagining of “The Wizard of Oz.” If Hollywood is Oz and Jon Hamm is the wizard, then both stories feature a Kansas girl in a new land in search of a powerful man that can help her achieve her goals, while new friends get added along the way. Sundance movies don’t usually translate into significant box office numbers, but this at the very least poses as an available alternative to the present blockbuster landscape.

July 17 – 19

Universal's "The Odyssey"

There’s only one new wide release this weekend, but it’s a big one as Christopher Nolan will be holding the entire industry hostage with his adaptation of The Odyssey. It’s a tale as old as time and one of the greatest stories ever told. “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” are estimated to have been written by Homer between 800 and 700 BCE, meaning we’ve had nearly 3,000 years of these stories being passed on from generation to generation, being a major influence on just about every genre of storytelling ever since. In regards to film and television, Homer has 72 writing credits on IMDb and that only includes official instances of “based on the epic poem by” in the end credits, not every last movie or show that was inspired or influenced by either story. Yet despite all this, when it comes to “The Odyssey” specifically, is there one cinematic version where people can unanimously declare as the quintessential adaptation of the story? Debatable, I suppose, but Christopher Nolan is aiming to do just that. And he has just about everyone on board to help him out, which includes Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Calypso, and many more. Fresh off winning best picture and best director for “Oppenheimer” in 2024, it appears Nolan can do no wrong. “Oppenheimer” earned $976.8 million worldwide, and that was essentially a three-hour, dialogue-heavy biopic. It’s very plausible that “The Odyssey,” which is inherently more broadly appealing, could do even better and perhaps be the latest movie to join the billion-dollar club.

It would be irresponsible to leave this post without acknowledging the flip side of the coin here. And since we don’t have any other movies to talk about this weekend, we certainly have the room to fit it in. While I’d contend the general consensus is that of extreme excitement, and the director of other movies such as “The Dark Knight,” “Inception,” “Memento,” “Interstellar,” and the aforementioned “Oppenheimer” hasn’t given many reasons to doubt him, there is a large contingent of online folks that have latched onto this movie with extreme anger, resulting in the latest trailer to be one of the most heavily disliked trailers ever. Concerns have mostly stemmed from casting choices such as Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page, as well as purported historical inaccuracies or not doing the mythology justice. While I’ll not address those opinions here directly, I will pose the question of… will the internet mobs be successful in taking this movie down? The answer is that this seems highly unlikely. Not only has Nolan built up a very strong reputation over the years, but the movie’s world premiere happened while I was typing this post. The online reaction has thus far been aggressively positive, some calling this Nolan’s magnum opus and one of the must-see movies of the year. Pre-sales have also been very strong, especially for IMAX and other premium formats, which this movie was specifically filmed for. Box Office Pro in their long range forecast projected this to open in the range of $100-120 million, and that was before the world premiere was held. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I’m sure there will be some degree of mixed reaction from more casual audiences, but this does not seem like a battle that the angry internet mobs are going to win.

July 24 – 26

Viva Pictures' "Pinocchio Unstrung"

The summer season moves on, but this particular weekend in July is one where most major studios smartly took the weekend off, as being smashed between Nolan and Spider-Man is not the best release strategy. There are a handful of smaller releases to talk about in the meantime and I’ll start with what might be the most recognizable title, Pinocchio Unstrung. Yes, this technically means that there are not one, but two live-action Disney remakes coming out this month. But this is not the one parents will be taking their kids to. This one belongs in what’s been labeled as the Twisted Child Universe, a series of dark horror reimaginings of characters and stories from children’s literature that are now in the public domain. This universe was conceived and created by Rhys Frake-Waterfield, and produced by his Jagged Edge Productions film studio. This dates back to 2022 when Winnie the Pooh entered public domain, which resulted in the 2023 release of “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey.” That was followed up by a sequel to that movie in 2024 as well as two movies last year, “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” and “Bambi: The Reckoning.” And now Pinocchio is coming to haunt your dreams, a movie directed by Frake-Waterfield himself. And if you think this is going to end anytime soon, that’s likely not the case. These are micro-budgeted movies that need barely anything to make a profit, yet have reportedly made nearly $20 million worldwide, although specific numbers are a bit disputed. Opening weekend prospects? “Blood and Honey” made $1.4 million in its first five days. “Bambi” did $105,642 from just 300 theaters. So there’s a bit of a range. But any one of these could suddenly pop off and fund their next 10 movies, so any attention is good attention for them.

If you’re in the mood for horror, but a murderous Pinocchio doesn’t seem like your vibe, this next movie may or may not be your vibe either, but it’s at least another option. That’s the return of Nicolas Winding Refn with his latest film, Her Private Hell. Nicolas Winding Refn is a director who seemingly has no interest in making a film directed at the masses, resulting in movies that are highly unconventional and thus have understandably produced polarizing results. That’s why I mention that this “may or may not be your vibe.” Previous movies of his include “Drive,” “Only God Forgives,” and “The Neon Demon.” This latest movie of his is actually his first theatrically released movie since “The Neon Demon,” which was back in 2016. To be perfectly honest, I watched the trailer for “Her Private Hell” and came out of that having no idea how to describe what I saw. There’s neon lighting, hypnotic moments, and trippy sequences. Wikipedia labels it as a “science fiction horror thriller,” which almost says that they’re not sure how to classify it. IMDb’s description calls it “A hypnotic, unhinged thriller with an original story promising plenty of glamour, sex, and violence.” That tells me what’s in it, but not what the plot is. Even though I have no idea what this is, and neither does anyone else, apparently, one thing I can say is this definitely feels like a Nicolas Winding Refn film. Again, Refn hasn’t released anything in theaters in a decade and when he did, “The Neon Demon” made $589,014 in its opening weekend. So there’s no guarantee of this hitting anything beyond a niche appeal, but it does have the highest viewed trailer of these four movies, for what it’s worth.

Veering away from horror and onto action, the third movie of this weekend is Motor City. This movie appears to be a very stylized action film that initially premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. IFC Entertainment purchased the U.S. distribution rights for about $3-4 million, so they would love to get that back in its theatrical release, although the actual reported production budget was about $30 million. The movie is set in the 1970s and stars Alan Ritchson as a Vietnam war veteran who is just coming off of probation and falls in love with a girl, who is played by Shailene Woodley. Her ex-boyfriend, played by Ben Foster, is a mobster with connections who wants her back, so he sets him up and gets him thrown back in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. All of this leads to a prison break and a revenge quest to win his girl back. The catch? There’s apparently very little dialogue in this film, hence me calling it a stylized action film. I normally don’t turn to IMDb reviews and scores in previews like this, but there’s currently two IMDb reviews posted – one being a 9/10 calling it a unique and visceral revenge story, while the other is a 1/10 calling it pretentious slop. The review curve also looks like a section of the Golden Gate Bridge. A lot of 1s. A lot of 10s. And a curved dip in between. Letterboxd reactions were a bit more nice to it, but what this tells me is that general audiences who do give it a chance will likely find this very polarizing. If you’re not vibing with it, it might have the strong potential to drive you crazy.

And finally, the movie that I’m guessing will end up at the bottom of the totem pole is the Christian comedy Bad Counselors, which stars two fraternity brothers posing as Christian camp counselors in order to complete a court-ordered community service. By the looks of the trailers, it would appear that over the course of the movie they go from faking Christianity to having the experience move them in an honest way, genuinely changing their lives and attitude. As the tagline of the trailer says, sometimes you gotta fake it to find something real. Now the reason I predict this may end up on the bottom of the totem pole is not due to the premise or the genre. Christian films can definitely breakthrough and find an audience. But this one is a Fathom Events release and they’re framing it as a July 22-27 theatrical event only. Short theatrical event windows like this from Fathom are usually paired with less of a marketing push and limited awareness. The window usually only gets extended when they get a genuine grassroots breakout. If not, this often ends up as more of a PVOD and streaming play rather than a big theatrical push.

July 31 – August 2

Sony's "Spider-Man: Brand New Day"

The final weekend of July is only one day in July and two days in August, but I always include these hybrid weekends in the month where the weekend begins. For a programming note, this means my August Preview will begin with the weekend of August 7-9. But anyways, this is where we’ll see what’s not only poised as the biggest release of the month, but perhaps the entire year. And that’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after “Avengers: Endgame” has been quite the rocky ride, with some very high highs and some tragic lows, with reaction being a lot more mixed in comparison to the previous Infinity Saga. But the biggest high by far was the December 2021 release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which was not only the third highest-grossing movie in the MCU, behind only “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” but with $1.921 billion is one of the biggest box office stories ever. Making this more impressive is that this came in the midst of COVID recovery, proving to the whole world that cinema wasn’t dead. It was just waiting for the right moment to return. Spoiler warning for that movie, because this new movie is hard to describe without it, but that was a movie that united all three previous live-action Spider-Man characters – Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland. And it ended with Tom Holland having to make everyone forget he exists. “Brand New Day” is the first movie in this new world of his where everyone has forgotten who he is. By the looks of things, he’s doing what he can to help the others remember. At least when it comes to MJ and Ned. In the meantime, he’s having webbing issues, has a face-off with the villain Scorpion – played by “Better Call Saul” actor Michael Mando, and also appears to have to deal with the red-costumed ninjas of The Hand. He’s also joined by Hulk and Punisher at some point, as well as Sadie Sink playing some unannounced, mysterious character that not even she was aware of when she was first cast. Gwen Stacy? Jean Grey? Spider-Girl? Angelica Jones? I don’t know. No one does. Those are just guesses. Gwen Stacy would make the most sense to me if they want to give Peter a new love interest instead of undoing the events of the last film, but I have zero sources on that.

As far as box office prognostications, I have nothing to go by as Box Office Pro has not released their long range forecast for this yet. And the MCU itself has been on quite the roller-coaster lately. All I can say is general buzz seems quite high at the moment. “No Way Home” opened to $260.1 million. Considering that was a special event film featuring the multiverse of Spider-Man characters, I would not expect it to reach those heights. But other highs in this post-Endgame world have included “Deadpool & Wolverine” at $211.4 million, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” at $187.4 million, and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” at $181.3 million, and “Thor: Love and Thunder” at $144.2 million. A few others have landed in the $100-120 million range, while some disappointed and broke Marvel’s $100+ million opening streak, but given the popularity of Spider-Man and the goodwill from the last one, I would guess this hits the higher end of the $180-200 million openers.

One final movie to discuss and that is again on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from a family-friendly Spider-Man adventure, but Magnolia hopes that a few people walk into theaters during the Spider-Man weekend and wind up buying a ticket for I Want Your Sex. This movie is another Sundance Film from the beginning of this year, while also making an appearance at quite a number of smaller film festivals afterwards in hopes to build buzz and word of mouth. It’s worked so far as the movie has a positive 88 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes with 43 reviews counted. The movie stars Cooper Hoffman as Elliot, who lands a job for renowned and provocative artist Erika Tracy, played by Olivia Wilde, who uses him as her sexual muse. The movie is described by some as a very sex-positive comedy. But it’s also much more than just that. In fact, comedy/thriller might be the two categories to place this in as the description states that Erika takes Elliot on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined, into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal, and murder. Whether or not this appeals to a broad audience is questionable. Many Sundance releases remain fairly niche. But positive word of mouth and a recognizable cast should make it a popular choice among some film connoisseurs, especially those who have grown weary of the superhero genre and might not be interested in rushing out to Spider-Man right away.