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.

Movie Preview: June 2026

One month into the summer movie season and we’re off to a hot start! Now we enter June, where the actual summer begins. The kids are out of school and the official summer solstice is right around the corner. And the prognosis looks very positive!

When I did my May Movie Preview, I theorized that May would start the summer off a bit soft before things got going in June and July. That being based on “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Mortal Kombat II,” and “The Mandalorian and Grogu” being the headline acts of May. Those movies performed about on par with expectations. No huge surprises or disappointments. What I did not anticipate were the historic runs of both “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” which have both crossed $100 million domestically going into the first weekend of June. “Obsession” was a massive word of mouth hit. It started with a solid $17.2 million opening, but then increased in each of its next two weekends, which is extremely rare for a movie that opens in wide release. That was followed up by “Backrooms” opening to $81.4 million, more than tripling the previous opening weekend record for an A24 release. It’s already their highest grossing film domestically going into its second weekend. That led May to finish with $1.063 billion domestically, the first time in the post-COVID era that May hit the billion dollar mark. And the first month of 2021 to do so as well.

Now the question is, can June keep the momentum going? Based on the likes of “Toy Story 5,” “Supergirl,” and “Disclosure Day” being on the schedule, I’d say the probability is quite high! Are there any other under-the-radar releases that could surprise? Could there be bigger blockbusters headed for disappointment? Let’s dive in and figure that out!

I always finish this intro by giving credit to the sources in my monthly posts. If you’ve been following recently, we’ve had some drama in that regard lately with my main two sources, the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. The Numbers is up and running with their schedule, so I have that to work with, but they’re still a bare-bones site right now. They claim on social media that they’re still working on getting the rest of the site up, but it’s been three months now, so who knows. And Box Office Pro has fallen behind again on their Long Range Forecasts that I often rely on for projections. So I’m somewhat on my own to a degree, but that means more double-checking with other sites like Box Office Mojo and IMDb. I do my best with what I have. That means release dates are even more subject to change and more surprises are possible, so just keep that in mind as we go!

June 5 – 7

Paramount's "Scary Movie"

Heading into this weekend, the bar to clear in order to get No. 1 was to defeat the second weekend total of “Backrooms,” which, as mentioned in the intro, opened to a very surprising $81.4 million. This put it in line with “Five Nights at Freddy’s” ($80.0 million) and “The Conjuring: Last Rites” ($84.0 million). In my own prognosis to determine the bar, I would’ve naturally looked at those two movies’ second weekend drops (76 percent and 69 percent, respectively) and pegged “Backrooms” at $20-25 million, an easy mark for both our new movies to clear. However, given the unpredictable nature of both it and “Obsession” right now, I was mostly playing the game of wait and see. If it only dropped 50 percent and wound up around $40 million, I wouldn’t have been surprised. That would’ve made for a more competitive weekend, too. The final result was on the more predictable, frontloaded range, though, as it fell 68 percent to make $26.2 million.

That means the “competition” this weekend wound up not being much of a competition at all as Scary Movie soared past that mark with a franchise best $54.3 million opening. This is the sixth movie in the Scary Movie franchise. Much like the main target of its parody this time around (the Scream franchise), they have simply decided to name it “Scary Movie” instead of “Scary Movie 6,” which “Scream,” “Halloween,” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer” all did with their recent “rebootquels.” Each Scary Movie has targeted a different set of horror movies to parody. “Scream” was the primary target of the original and returns as the primary target of this new movie, specifically the reboot films – the fifth and sixth movies. But they’ve managed to sprinkle in a decent handful of other recent horror movies, too. There’s a lot of returns in this movie, rather than just Ghostface. The Wayans family are back guiding the ship as writers and producers after initially leaving following the second movie. The movie also returns to being rated R after the third through fifth movie were PG-13. And, biggest of all, the franchise itself returns after the last entry was back in 2013. This all explains why the hype behind the movie led it to the franchise record opening, which was previously held by “Scary Movie 3” in 2003 with $48.1 million. That would all change drastically when you adjust for 20 years of ticket price inflation, but given the $30 million production budget, studio execs likely aren’t looking too closely at that. The only thing that didn’t return was a positive response as “Scary Movie” currently sits at a measly 24 percent from critics. This isn’t the lowest score in the franchise – the second and fifth movies are much lower. But it’s also far from the best, so the long waited return was met with mixed reaction at best.

The other major release of the weekend presented a story that was in stark contrast to “Scary Movie,” this being the recent live action adaptation of Masters of the Universe. From the animated show to various books, comics, video games, and toys, He-Man was a major staple of many people’s childhood who grew up in the 80s and 90s. The original animated series began in 1983 and spawned quite the large, successful franchise. This is not even the first time a live action movie has been made as, in 1987, Dolph Lundgren took on a title of He-Man. But in the year 2026, is there the same level of excitement for this franchise as there once was? That’s been my question this entire year leading up to this movie as it seems like a movie that is 20 years too late. That fear presented itself as justifiable as the movie narrowly edged out “Backrooms” for second place, making just $29.4 million. Narrowly edging out “Backrooms” and falling just short of $30 million is definitely not the result Amazon MGM was hoping for, given the $170 million production budget that’s been reported. The contrast to “Scary Movie” here is that “Scary Movie” was widely anticipated, delivered a franchise best opening, and easily cleared a low budget in just one weekend, yet was not received well. “Masters of the Universe” was not anticipated, is poised as a major financial disaster for the studio considering the opening and the budget, yet those who saw it, general speaking, were fairly pleased. Director Travis Knight, CEO of Laika Studios and director of the Transformers spin-off “Bumblebee,” clearly has a love for this genre of 80s franchise and knows how to make a movie that can please the target audience. While it’s not likely to ever be considered a financial success, that might lead to decent word of mouth that gives the movie a longer post-theatrical life than one might otherwise expect.

Bubbling just under all the major headlines this weekend was The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, which snuck into the top five at No. 5 with an opening of $12.4 million. It did open on Thursday, though, so through four days it made a total of $20.2 million. Like “Backrooms,” this movie has its origins in the YouTube realm as “The Amazing Digital Circus” is an 8-episode web series that first premiered in October 2023 on the Glitch Productions YouTube channel. Each episode is about 25-30 minutes long, with the first episode having 439 million views. Seven of the eight episodes have at least 100 million views, with the lowest being Episode 7 at 85 million views, which is still currently more than the 84 million views that Kane Parsons’ initial “Backrooms” YouTube short has. All episodes are also currently available on Netflix. The general idea behind this series follows a cast of six humans who are trapped in the titular circus, a cartoonish virtual reality simulation. This current movie, “The Last Act,” combines Episode 8 with the hour-long series finale, which will later release on Netflix and YouTube on June 19. Despite having a far larger YouTube view total than “Backrooms,” this remained a more niche appeal theatrically. Although that might be because it was a limited event from Fathom Events as opposed to a major A24 release, so less of a marketing push. It’s also available for free in just over a week, so that’s another reason.

In other theatrical news from across the weekend, “Obsession” had its first decline, weekend over weekend. Although it dropped a mere 7 percent to make another $25.4 million, for a domestic total of $151.9 million. And no signs of slowing down. John Carney’s Power Ballad also expanded into wide release after opening in limited release the weekend prior. It stars Paul Rudd as Rick, a past-his-prime wedding singer, meeting fading boy-band star Danny, played by Nick Jonas, and bonding over music. But when Danny turns Rick’s song idea into his next big hit, without giving Rick recognition, Rick sets out to reclaim this recognition he claims he deserves. John Carney has also directed other musically themed movies such as “Once,” “Begin Again,” “Sing Street,” and “Flora and Son,” so this hits right in his lane as another feel-good musical drama that fans of Carney have seemed to enjoy. It didn’t make a huge impact at the box office with just $1.29 million, but it is in 1,265 theaters, so it should at least be available as a counter-programming option.

June 12 – 14

Universal's "Disclosure Day"

Very few filmmakers these days can sell a movie based on their name alone. One of them is Christopher Nolan, who has “The Odyssey” coming in July. Another is Steven Spielberg who has Disclosure Day coming out this weekend. While Spielberg’s very early credits come with various short films he made as a teen, his career really began in the 1970s and specifically launched into the stratosphere with “Jaws” in 1975, which is one of those cinema-changing moments as him and George Lucas, who had “Star Wars” two years later, essentially invented the summer blockbuster. And now Spielberg’s career has spanned six different decades as one of the most influential filmmakers ever. And although some might say his recent work hasn’t been as influential as his past work, he’s still managed to attract audiences with the likes of “Ready Player One” and “West Side Story,” while appeasing the awards crowds with the likes of “Lincoln,” “Bridge of Spies,” “The Post,” and “The Fabelmans.” Now he’s going back to his roots with “Disclosure Day,” which feels like a classic 80s throwback. Spielberg directing a movie about an alien invasion. Starring in this movie are Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo, among others. This is aiming to be his highest directorial movie since “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” in 2008. As disliked as that movie is, it opened massive with $100.1 million and finished with $317.1 million domestically. His highest opening since then is “Ready Player One” with $41.7 million. “Disclosure Day” is expected to open in the realm of $40-50 million. If reviews are strong, which seems like the early indication, this could seemingly push even higher.

Two smaller films will open alongside “Disclosure Day” this upcoming weekend. The first hails from the other side of the planet, that being the Hong Kong action thriller The Furious. This has no relation to anything fast and furious, or Vin Diesel related. Instead this is directed by Kenji Tanigaki, a Japanese action choreographer, stunt performer, and director who is best known for his work in Hong Kong cinema, while expanding to Japanese cinema and Hollywood. “The Furious” is about an ordinary tradesman whose daughter is kidnapped, resulting in him fighting a criminal empire on his way to rescue her. The movie premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival and was the runner up for the People’s Choice Award in the Midnight Madness category. The trailer uses pull quotes such as “One of the best action films of the decade,” and “The best brawler since The Raid films.” While you can take anything from one or two random reviews to make your movie seem like everyone loves it, this one seems like it has the overall praise to back statements like that up. With 32 reviews counted as of me typing this, all 32 are positive, resulting in an early 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes score. And when you click on that number to see the average score from those reviews, it’s an 8.8 out of 10. If you’re looking for a solid action film, it appears that this one delivers.

The other movie is one that I promise is 100 percent a real film that is being released in theaters this weekend. It’s an action comedy called Stop! That! Train! The movie is directed by Adam Shankman, director of the 2007 movie “Hairspray,” and stars RuPaul Charles from “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” along with several other drag performers, who are on a luxurious train called the Glamazonian Express that goes through a massive storm that causes it to become a runaway train. RuPaul actually plays the President of the United States and the main stars are a team of stewardesses who need to figure out how to… stop that train. But hey, the world is full of people who are begging for more original, creative ideas. In a summer movie season that is always full of sequels and franchise films, why not have a quirky, self-aware action comedy whose goal is to help the audience simply have a ton of fun? Regardless of how this turns out, you certainly can’t accuse it of lacking originality. In fact, all three of these films this weekend, despite familiar premises on paper (alien invasion, father tracking down daughter, action comedy on a train), would fall into the category of original films. If you’re among that crowd that’s been begging for that, this weekend provides!

June 19 – 21

Pixar's "Toy Story 5"

The third weekend of June will have four new wide releases. Leading the pack will be the movie that will not only dominate this weekend, but is a strong contender for one of the top movies of the summer and that’s Toy Story 5. Yep, Woody, Buzz, and the gang are back for another adventure and this time the enemy appears to be technology. Mirroring the original adventure where Buzz replaced Woody as Andy’s favorite toy, Bonnie now gets a new frog-like tablet named Lilypad. This is not just any tablet, though. It appears to be a smart tablet with all sorts of fancy features that threatens all the toys’ playtime. Why play with old-fashioned toys when you can play with the fancy new device? And yes, Woody left to go be with Bo Peep at the end of the last movie, but the trailers reveal he returns to help them solve this new conundrum. In regards to this movie’s financial potential, it’s certainly worth noting that many still hold to their idea that the original Toy Story trilogy is perfect and no more sequels are necessary. So there is potential for franchise fatigue. The counter to that is that people made that argument prior to “Toy Story 4,” yet showed up for that sequel anyway. In fact, “Toy Story 4” is the highest opener of the franchise with $120.9 million, beating the mark “Toy Story 3” set in 2010 with $110.3 million. When you adjust those numbers for ticket price inflation, “Toy Story 4” bumps up to $158 million, while “Toy Story 3” still holds the attendance record, adjusting to $167 million. If the audience shows up in similar attendance numbers, could that mean an opening in the realm of $150-175 million for “Toy Story 5”? The Pixar record for highest opening remains “Incredibles 2” in 2018 with $182.7 million, but “Inside Out 2” in 2024 wasn’t too far behind with $154.2 million. So audiences love their Pixar sequels. Even if “Toy Story 5” lands in the unadjusted range of the third and fourth movies ($110-120 million), that’s still a huge win for Disney and Pixar. Regardless, triple digits of some sort feels like a safe call at this point.

Below “Toy Story 5” is a trio of indie films from a trio of indie distributors who have done a great job of lighting a fire in the indie realm as of late, that being A24 (“Backrooms”), Focus Features (“Obsession”), and NEON (“Hokum,” “Exit 8,” “I Love Boosters”). Let’s start with A24 as they have The Death of Robin Hood releasing this weekend. As the title might suggest, this is a bit of a twist on the Robin Hood story, following a more aged Robin Hood who finds himself gravely injured in a battle he thought would be his last. However, he instead finds himself in the hands of a mysterious woman and is offered a chance at salvation. A24 is known for their more unconventional films that they find and distribute and this version of Robin Hood seems to follow suit as it appears to be less about the action and adventure that a Robin Hood movie would normally provide and more about a Robin Hood who is reflecting on his past life of crime and murder. While casual fans might not care too much about yet another Robin Hood movie, despite any unique twists, cinephiles might have their interests piqued based on the fact that this is directed by Michael Sarnoski, director of the 2021 film “Pig,” starring Nicolas Cage, which was very highly regarded. The movie stars Hugh Jackman as Robin Hood and Bill Skarsgard as Little John, with Jodie Comer and Noah Jupe also in supporting roles, so it does have decent star power in the cast. A24 certainly doesn’t *need* this movie to be a massive success considering that “Backrooms” may have funded their next five years as a studio with how much it has made, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind this one riding the coattails of that one a bit.

Next we move onto NEON. They may not have had a massive hit on the level of the other two studios previously mentioned, but they’ve been extremely consistent as of late, especially in the horror realm. And they have another one in that genre with Leviticus that they picked up out of Sundance this year. While certainly horror, this also has a touch of romance, perhaps properly placed in the month of June, as it follows two teenage boys falling for each other. However, they must also deal with a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most – each other. After premiering at Sundance, it also took a pit stop at the South by Southwest Film Festival, along with several others, before being available to general audiences this weekend. The reaction has so far been very strong with a 95 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, with reviews giving it credit for good scares, tension, and a good amount of symbolism that perhaps elevates it above your traditional scare-fest. While the horror genre certainly can’t be underestimated right now, a potential comparison to NEON themselves from last month might be “Hokum,” which scored a $6.4 million opening and has so far made $16.9 million in its domestic run. This would probably be the more traditional route with the other breakout hits being more outliers in regards to prognosis. But in a year that’s been really good for horror fans, this adds another entry to that list.

Lastly, we dive into Focus Features, who are certainly over the moon about the fact that their $15 million purchase of “Obsession” last year from the Toronto International Film Festival has resulted in over $200 million worldwide already in just a month of release. Now on every future trailer they have the opportunity to add, “From the studio that brought you ‘Obsession’…” On that note, their next release is the coming of age drama Girls Like Girls, which has had a fascinating path to theaters. It began as a song by pop singer Hayley Kiyoko, who is a strong advocate of the LGBTQ+ community, as a member of the community herself. She released the song back in 2015, while also co-directing the music video. She wasn’t done there, though. She turned that music video into her first novel, released on May 30, 2023. And now that novel has become a movie, written and directed by… yes. Herself. Co-written by Stefanie Scott and Chloe Okuno. Between this and “Leviticus,” Pride Month will be doing quite well this weekend at the cinemas. No horror here, though. Just a coming of age drama about a 17-year-old teenage girl trying to navigate intimacy after the passing of her mother. She develops a connection with another girl, who is also unfamiliar with dating girls. Just like A24 earlier in this section, Focus Features doesn’t *need* this to be huge financially. They’re doing very well at the moment. With “Obsession” as the outlier, this one seems to be a more traditional release from them as they’re very experienced with releasing low budget indie films in a moderate amount of theaters. Occasionally one will break out, but there’s often no pressure for them to.

June 26 – 28

Warner Bros.' "Supergirl"

Finishing off the month will be the next entry in James Gunn’s new DC Universe as the studio will follow-up last year’s massive hit “Superman” with Clark Kent’s cousin Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl. James Gunn has previously announced that this version of the story is an adaptation of the comic series “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” which, as Gunn said, explores a more “hardcore” version of Kara than has been previously seen on screen. If David Corenswet’s interpretation of Superman follows the more traditional route of what you’d see in a Super Person, Kara in this movie is more of the rebel cousin. Not only does this separate this 2026 “Supergirl” from last year’s “Superman” so they’re not just making the same movie twice, this also allows the character to be different from Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl, who enjoyed a six-season run on The CW from 2015-2021 as a part of the Arrowverse. Milly Alcock of “House of the Dragon” fame stars as Kara in this new movie and gives the character her own unique flair that fulfills James Gunn’s vision. And while Gunn is still the main captain steering the ship in this universe, directing duties for this chapter have been given to Craig Gillespie, who is most notable for “I, Tonya” and “Lars and the Real Girl,” but has also helped in the Disney realm with the likes of “Finest Hours,” “Million Dollar Arm,” and “Cruella.” A big superhero movie will be new for him, but he’s a well-respected director who has provided quite the variety of films. The movie’s financials are a bit of a question mark as this new DC is still very much in the early, experimental phase. It’s probably not fair to expect “Supergirl” to match the $125 million opening or its $354 million domestic total as Supergirl is not as popular of a character as Superman. And this will be her very first proper feature film. But there should be enough goodwill to carry over here for a respectable run. The main goal for DC at the moment is likely to rebuild trust with audiences rather than instantly churn out billion dollar hits.

Never believe Hollywood when they say something is the last chapter. However, another saying that pairs with that is Father Time is undefeated. At some point in life, performing a series of extremely stupid and dangerous stunts and pranks has to cease unless you want to actually wake up dead. That might be why the Jackass crew claims to be calling it quits with their sixth theatrically released film Jackass: Best and Last. This crew began in the year 2000 with a TV series that ran for three short seasons on MTV. That’s spawned into a franchise that’s still going over 25 years later because people enjoy watching others do dumb things and get hurt, which is the whole shtick here. As I mentioned, they go out and film themselves doing purposeful pain-inducing stunts and pranks. The fun on the audience side of things is that they get to watch the crew continue to not learn. Because, hey, they made a career out of it. Why stop? The first movie, “Jackass: The Movie,” was released in 2002. All five movies so far have been remarkably consistent, opening to at least $20 million every time, with “Jackass 3D” in 2010 taking the cake with a $50.4 million. Although 25 years of films changes things when you adjust for ticket price inflation. “Jackass 3D” still is on top, but that bumps up to $76.7 million, with the first two and “Bad Grandpa” opening in the $45-55 million range. The recent one from 2022 would adjust to the lowest, but still at $26.4 million. That shows us the potential of this franchise in regards to attendance. Will the promise of a final film boost attendance to the $45-55 million range? Or will this fall more in line with the 2022 film? If the latter, an opening in the range of $25 million is a safe bet that’s still pretty solid!

We finish this month’s preview off by diving into another anime, with Bleach: Thousand-Year Bloody War – The Calamity. “Bleach” is an anime series that began in 2004, with the basic premise following a high school student who can see spirits and becomes a Soul Reaper, after assuming the duties of a previous Soul Reaper. The initial series ran for a total of 366 episodes over the course of 16 seasons, ending in 2011. “Bleach: Thousand-Year Bloody War” is a sequel series that began in 2022 and will be airing its fourth and final season this upcoming July. This movie, “The Calamity,” is a compilation of the first three episodes of this final season. Given the length of this whole series, this is not a movie that’s going to attract any new viewers, but rather stands as a special reward for long-time fans who are eager to get a head start on this new season, while doing so in theaters. In regards to box office predictions, anime remains fairly unpredictable and definitely continues to grow in popularity here in the United States. The peak of the genre’s potential so far comes last fall when the most recent Demon Slayer movie opened to $70.6 million, followed by Chainsaw Man delivering a movie the next month that opened to $18.0 million. You never know when one of these is going to pop off, but likely the most realistic comparison here is to two of these movies that opened last month, both with incredibly long titles. “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea” opened to $947,325 from 837 theaters, while “Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circle” similarly opened to $820,038 from 894 theaters. This new Bleach movie feels like it will have a similar niche appeal as these two rather than a breakout hit like Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man.

Movie Preview: May 2026

Welcome to the summer movie season! Sure, it’s technically still spring on the calendar. Schools have another month left and official summer isn’t until June, but in Hollywood the first weekend of May is when summer movie season begins! Usually the tradition is to start summer off with a big Marvel movie. And at one point on the schedule, that was the plan. But “Avengers: Doomsday” moved from May to December and there wasn’t any other superhero movie that came to take its place, so instead the summer kickoff will be “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” followed by “Mortal Kombat II” the weekend after. Because, you know, it wouldn’t be the summer movie season without a bunch of random sequels.

Box office wise, my initial impression is that 2026 might follow the trajectory of 2024 where May itself was a bit softer before things really got going in June and July. Having an Avengers-sized hole on the release schedule will do that to you. The biggest events of this summer are scheduled for a bit later on. That said, April provided the box office with a good kick-start thanks to the dominance of “Mario Galaxy” and “Michael,” the latter of which did much better than even the most generous of predictions had it at. “Project Hail Mary” from March has also continued its impressive run. And there are some decent prognostications from this current crop of May films that are on the docket, so the potential is certainly there! Let’s dive in and take a closer look.

As always, release date information from this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. We do continue this ongoing saga of The Numbers’ site being under construction. They continue to promise on social media that all the features will be up again at some point, but right now it remains a bare-bones site, causing me to again double-check other sources. But they do have their release schedule up and active, so there’s at least that. Regarding said release schedule, the movies listed in this post are the ones currently scheduled for a wide release in the United States and Canada and are always subject to change.

May 1 – 3

20th Century Studios' "The Devil Wears Prada 2"

As mentioned in the intro, the summer kick-off movie is not a new Marvel movie or some sort of big superhero event, as often has been the tradition, but is rather The Devil Wears Prada 2. Is this a movie that needed a sequel or even had fans begging for one? Perhaps not. But I suppose that is personal preference. Regardless, it’s a movie that now has one. Marketing for the film has been pretty aggressive and the tracking and enthusiasm was pretty strong going into the weekend. The initial movie starred Anne Hathaway as recent graduate Andy Sachs, who lands a coveted assistant job at a high-powered fashion magazine, despite not knowing much about the industry. The movie opened to a modest $27.5 million back in 2006, but held very well and finished with $124.7 million domestically and $326.1 million worldwide. Now we’re 20 years later and the crew is back, including Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt, and they’re ready for a new adventure. If I were doing a blind prognosis, I would’ve looked at that 2026 opening, considered 20 years of ticket price inflation, and noted that adjusts to about $50 million with 2026 ticket pricing. Considering that comedy legacy sequels are very hit and miss at the box office, a $30-50 million range would’ve seemed fair. But in this particular instance, the cultural zeitgeist has clearly been quite good to this one as it scored an opening weekend of $77 million. It was actually thought of as potentially getting $90-100 million going into the weekend, so it ended up on the low end of those expectations, but that final number is still nothing to scoff at.

There were four other movies that hit wide release this opening weekend of May, but most of them wound up much further down the list on the weekend charts. Opening with the highest theater count of the bunch was Angel Studios’ Animal Farm, which debuted in 2,600 theaters. “Animal Farm” dates all the way back to 1945 as a satirical allegorical dystopian novella from George Orwell. That’s a handful of fancy words there, but the story follows a bunch of mistreated anthropomorphic farm animals rebelling against the human owners, hoping to create a society where all animals can be free and equal. That idea gets hijacked, however, due to the dictatorship of the pigs, resulting in a dystopian state nearly identical to what it was before, thus the satirical allegory. It’s had a few various adaptations over the years, but this new animated version, which was directed by Andy Serkis and includes the voices of Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Kieran Culkin, Glenn Close, Steven Buscemi, Woody Harrelson, Jim Parsons, and others, has been met with… confusion. A movie that doesn’t quite seem to understand the point of the source material, according to reviews. Currently it stands at a 24 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The general range I’ve always put for Angel Studios releases is $3-5 million. Despite the poor reviews, I thought that maybe curiosity to be part of the conversation could ironically cause it to hit the over on that, but instead it hit that window exactly with a $3.3 million opening.

We’ve had a consistent stream of mid- to low-budget horror films this year – and really the last several years. The next movie in that line is Hokum, distributed by NEON into 1,850 theaters this weekend. This movie stars Adam Scott, of “Severance” fame, as a horror writer who visits an Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, unaware the property is said to be haunted by a witch. Despite opening in less theaters than “Animal Farm,” this wound up a bit higher on the charts, winning the battle for fifth place with a $6.4 million total. Helping the movie out was a balance of healthy reviews from critics and audiences that currently stand in the 80 percent realm for both. The consensus from many is that it blends a classic haunted house story with atmospheric folklore and perfectly-timed shocks, while delivering a satisfying journey of self-discovery for the main character. A comparison to movies such as “We Bury the Dead,” “Psycho Killer,” “Forbidden Fruits,” or “Faces of Death,” which were other horror movies this year that opened in a similar theater count, suggested a potential opening in the $2-3 million range, but the positive word of mouth boosted it higher. It didn’t have the theater count necessary to match March’s “undertone” ($9.3 million) or April’s “The Mummy” ($13.5 million), but this is also a movie that is likely to stick around in the conversation following its theatrical release as more horror fans catch up with it.

The third movie that was in the running for that final spot in the top five going into the weekend was the new shark movie Deep Water. Because if you watch the new Netflix film “Thrash,” which premiered on April 10 and has done very good numbers, and you’ve decided that you want more sharks, “Deep Water” is your film. Instead of a city experiencing massive flooding from a hurricane, resulting in shark-infested streets (“Thrash”), “Deep Water” follows a group of international passengers on route from Los Angeles to Shanghai that have to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. The movie is headlined by Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley, but it does have a diverse cast of passengers working together in the wreckage to survive the sharks. The movie is directed by Renny Harling, director of the recent reboot trilogy of “The Strangers.” That might pose a red flag to some hoping for a fun time, as those movies weren’t very well received. However, a sigh of relief can be had as early critics have given the movie a 75 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Awareness, though, wasn’t quite as high as “Hokum,” which caused it to actually hit that $2-3 million range discussed there when looking at those other films, as “Deep Water” was released in 1,675 theaters. $2.2 million was the final total. Not much in terms of box office, but if it finds it way to Netflix at some point, people do love their shark films over there.

The wild card entry of the weekend came in form of a title that might come close to taking up this whole paragraph on its, and that is the anime film That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea. You can probably guess based on that title what this anime series is a bit. The titular character is named Satoru Mikami, a salaryman who is murdered and then reincarnated in a sword and sorcery world is a slime, who then goes onto gather allies to build its own nation of monsters. There’s been three seasons of the show so far, with a fourth season currently underway in Japan. This spin-off movie “Tears of the Azure Sea” was released in Japan on February 27 and acts as a bridge between the third and fourth seasons. This is the second spin-off movie from this series. “Scarlet Bond” was released in November 2022 and took place in between the second and third season. In regards to a financial comparison, “Scarlet Bond” opened in 1,473 theaters to $1.5 million. “Tears of the Azure Sea” only premiered in 837 theaters, but yet still managed to hit right around $1 million this weekend. Anime is fairly unpredictable and doesn’t always follow typical logic.

May 8 – 10

Warner Bros.' "Mortal Kombat II"

The next two weeks are when things could get a bit interesting in regards to the box office. The big release of this weekend is Mortal Kombat II, the sequel to the 2021 reboot. That movie had somewhat mixed reviews upon its release. A lot of the production value and over-the-top bloody action that was true to the game was praised. But it was a Mortal Kombat movie that didn’t really have a… Mortal Kombat. Not that plot and characters are what people are hoping for when they press play on a new Mortal Kombat movie, but the central tournament that is key to the whole game was promised for next after spending the movie setting the stage. Well, now next time is here… five years later. Perhaps this sequel will finally give what Mortal Kombat fans have been wanting. A big, bloody, over-the-top tournament to the death. Karl Urban as Johnny Cage is front and center after being teased at the end of the last movie. The movie will also include popular Mortal Kombat characters such as Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, Kitana, Raiden, Jax Briggs, Sonya Blade, Kung Lao, Shao Kahn, and plenty others. Its opening weekend at the box office might be a bit of a mystery. Box Office Pro in their long range forecast has it projected in the $45-55 million range, which would be double that of the 2021 movie, which opened to $23.3 million. However, that’s not a great comparison because April 2021 was very much in COVID recovery phase. It was only the third movie to even hit $20 million after theaters shut down. Warner Bros. also released every movie that year day-and-date on HBO Max, so that opening was pretty impressive, all things considered. Now it’ll get a real test with the sequel opening nationwide under much more normal circumstances.

Projected to open with a much more modest box office total is the family flick The Sheep Detectives. In this movie, Hugh Jackman plays a shepherd who is mysteriously found dead. His rather large flock of sheep that he read to every night put it upon themselves to go solve this mystery. This is based on the 2005 novel “Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie” by Leonie Swann. This is a movie that has the potential to be a solid bridge for family audiences as business from “Mario Galaxy” is slowing down and the next major family release isn’t until “Toy Story 5” on June 19. It comes from director Kyle Balda, who is one of the directors of “Minions” and it’s sequel, so he’s certainly part of the crew that has figured out how to make family audiences smile. Perhaps an even better hook here is that the movie itself has an early 94 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics. And if the grumpy, old critics are being charmed by this silly sheep movie, then certainly its main target audience will be delighted if they choose to check it out. The current projections from Box Office Pro have it opening in the $10-15 million range. If word of mouth gets out early, I could see that pushing higher. If nothing else, this does seem like a movie that could have decent staying power, even if it doesn’t begin super high.

The third option of the weekend is to hang out with Billie Eilish in her new concert film, Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft – The Tour Live in 3D. Billie’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft” tour was her seventh headlining concert tour, this one in support of her third studio album “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” The album was released on May 17, 2024 and the tour itself ran from September 29, 2024 to November 23, 2025. The tour had a total reported revenue of $226 million and a total attendance of 1.51 million over the course of 88 shows. This accompanying concert tour was filmed over the course of her four shows in Manchester from July 19-23. It was directed by Billie herself and co-directed by… wait for it… James Cameron. I suppose that makes the “Billie in 3D” part of this make sense. 3D filmmaking is his thing. And yes, when I say James Cameron, I do indeed mean the Avatar director. He’s spent the majority of the last 30 years working solely on various Avatar films, so this certainly seems like a random side excursion. But hey, we all need a break from our main thing at some point, right? Given the revenue of the tour itself, as well as the album being promoted, the box office of this concert film is likely irrelevant and just an extra bonus for her fans. But ever since Taylor Swift made $267 million globally with her Eras Tour concert film, it doesn’t hurt for other artists to give this a try.

May 15 – 17

Focus Features' "Obsession"

The third weekend of May has five new wide releases, so plenty of new options for people to see. However, in regards to big summer blockbuster affair, we’re taking a weekend off from that, which means “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Mortal Kombat II” get to fight it out for the top spot at the box office. In regards to our new films, there appears to be a trio of smaller films that should get the most attention, with a couple of wild cards added to the mix. In breaking down the trio first, I’ll start with the horror film Obession. Written and directed by Curry Barker, this is a horror film that explores the idea of being careful what you wish for. A music store employee named Bear comes across a mysterious “One Wish Willow,” which promises to grant him any wish he wants. He uses to wish that his childhood friend and crush Nikki will love him more than anyone else in the world. Given how this is a horror film, you can imagine how this premise could go horribly wrong as Bear quickly learns this was a bad idea and tries to get out of it, but learns that’s not really an option. This is a horror film that premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival and has made its rounds to plenty other film festivals, including South by Southwest in March and has built up quite the buzz from that. Currently it stands at a 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s also had a fairly effective marketing campaign with its trailers that has gotten a fair amount of attention. Current projection from Box Office Pro has it opening in the $7-10 million range.

Next up is the latest action film from director Guy Ritchie, In the Grey. This movie follows a covert team of elite operatives living in the shadows. When a ruthless despot steals a billion-dollar fortune, this team gets sent on a mission to steal it back. What seems like an impossible heist leads to a deadly game of strategy, deception, and survival, all of which feel like trademarks of a Guy Ritchie action heist film like this. Ritchie has been very busy as of late, working on TV shows such as “MobLand,” “The Gentlemen,” and “Young Sherlock,” releasing the movie “Fountain of Youth” to Apple TV+, and having three theatrically released films in 2023-2024, “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre,” “The Covenant,” and “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” The opening weekends for those three films totaled $3.1 million, $6.4 million, and $8.9 million, respectively, so that’s likely the appropriate range for a new Guy Ritchie film. Cast-wise, he does have some returning favorites, which includes Jake Gyllenhaal (“The Covenant”), Henry Cavill (“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”) and Eiza González (“Fountain of Youth” and “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”).

The third movie in this weekend’s trio of smaller films sees Amazon MGM releasing Is God Is, which might be a slightly more niche appeal compared to the other two. This sees playwright Aleshea Harris adapting her own play into a feature film. Other plays she’s done include “What to Send Up When it Goes Down” and “On Sugarland.” In regards to “Is God Is,” it was an Off-Broadway production that opened in February 2018 at Soho Rep in New York City. The play was well received and won 3 Obie Awards (Off-Broadway Theater Awards). The story here revolves around two sisters who are charged by their mother (referred to as “SHE” or “God”) to find and kill their father (referred to as the “Man” or the “Monster”), revealing to them that he was the one that lit the fire that burned all of them, leaving them severely scarred. So the two sisters are off on a tale of revenge. Vivica A. Fox plays the mother, Kara Young and Mallori Johnson play the two sisters, while Sterling K. Brown plays the father and Janelle Monáe plays his new wife. While Aleshea Harris has plenty of experience as a playwright, this will be her first venture into film as writer, director, and producer of the movie. The expected opening from Box Office Pro is in the $3-5 million range.

The first of the two wild card films of the weekend is the teen road trip comedy Driver’s Ed. This comedy follows a high school senior who steals the car of his driver’s ed teacher in order to track down his college freshman girlfriend. Joining him on this adventure are three of his other teenage friends. Some have noted the comparison to the 2000 comedy “Road Trip,” which similarly saw a young male protagonist enlisting three of his friends to go on a long road trip to track down his girlfriend. “Road Trip” for Gen Z, essentially, but much more tame… despite the same MPAA rating. Kumail Nanjiani plays the driver’s ed teacher and Molly Shannon plays the principal, so it does have some name recognition, even though the main group of kids are largely lesser known. The biggest potential draw is that it is directed by Bobby Farrelly, one of the Farrelly Brothers duo who directed hit comedies such as “Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary,” and “Shallow Hal.” The last movie they directed together was the sequel “Dumber and Dumber To” in 2014. Since then, Peter Farrelly wrote and directed the best picture winning drama “Green Book.” To much lesser success, he also directed “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” and “Ricky Stanicky,” while Bobby has directed “Champions” and “Dear Santa.” Distributor Vertical Entertainment had the best success this year with Luc Besson’s “Dracula,” which opened to $4.4 million, although they also opened “Desert Warrior” in April in 1,010 theaters to just $487,848. “Driver’s Ed” premiered at Toronto International Film Festival last year to mixed reviews at best and doesn’t seem to have much traction with its marketing as the official trailer has less than 10,000 views, so I personally wouldn’t bet too high on this one.

The other wild card film of the weekend is another anime, this being Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circle. The Gundam franchise dates all the way back to 1979 with the TV series “Mobile Suit Gundam,” which premiered on April 7, 1979. The franchise was very much a staple for young kids who grew up in the 80s and 90s, and enjoyed watching Saturday morning cartoons. The original series ran for 43 episodes and has since spawned a franchise with a staggering number of various films and TV shows, with a current count of well over 50. If my count is right from Wikipedia, the total number of episodes from all the TV shows is 947 and counting, with 36 different movies on top of that. If that list isn’t fully accurate or my count was off, the short and easy answer is that there’s been… a lot. “Mobile Gundam Suit: Hathaway” was the first of its own planned trilogy that was released in Japan in 2021 and made 2.23 billion yen, which is the U.S. dollars equivalent of about $15 million. “The Sorcery of Nymph Circle” is the second film in the planned trilogy. The first movie didn’t receive a theatrical release in the United States, from what I can tell, so there’s not that to directly compare to, but as part of a different Gundam series, “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-” did. That opened to $882,471 from 784 theaters. But as I said earlier in this post, anime can be hard to predict.

May 22 – 25

Disney's "The Mandalorian & Grogu"

With May 31 landing on a Sunday this year, that means that Memorial Day this year is the earliest it can possibly be – May 25. That means Memorial Day Weekend is the second to last weekend in May instead of the final one. And to celebrate the holiday, we have a Star Wars film hitting theaters, The Mandalorian & Grogu. This marks the first theatrically released Star Wars film since “The Rise of Skywalker” back in 2019. No, Lucasfilm hasn’t taken a break. They’ve just focused on all their TV stuff while they figure out what to do in the movie realm. “The Mandalorian,” of course, began as a Disney+ series, and ran for three seasons. After the constant tumultuous debate surrounding the sequel trilogy, “The Mandalorian” initially was the Star Wars show that brought everyone together. However, after two very successful seasons, they reversed the ending of Season 2 in a separate series, “The Book of Boba Fett,” which led to a bit of confusion for casual fans for Season 3. Hardcore fans weren’t exactly pleased with the third season, either, which brought all Star Wars fans back to their natural state – anger and hatred towards this franchise that they claim to love. It’s nearly impossible to please a Star Wars fan these days. The story here is Season 4 was initially planned. Jon Favreau says all the scripts for the season have been written. But with delayed production amidst the 2023 labor disputes, Lucasfilm as a whole decided to pivot away from a fourth season and focus on a movie with the characters instead. Favreau has said that the fourth season was centered around Grand Admiral Thrawn, which would then lead into the second season of “Ahsoka.” With the pivot to the movie instead, things had to be re-written, essentially making this movie its own thing without necessarily having the requirement of being caught up on the series. Instead, we have an adventure with Din Djarin and Grogu who are enlisted by the New Republic to rescue Rotta the Hutt, son of Jabba the Hutt, who initially showed up in “The Clone Wars” series.

In regards to the box office for “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” that seems to be up in the air a bit, as enthusiasm for the movie isn’t where it often is for a new Star Wars movie. Given that this is basically a spin-off to the series, it’s possible that some will choose not to pay for a movie ticket when they’re used to watching “The Mandalorian” at home with their Disney+ subscription. But yet, this is still Star Wars. Despite the constant anger and rage, Star Wars fans often show up for a new Star Wars anyway. Box Office Pro’s early projections still have this opening in the $90-100 million range for the 3-day weekend. There has been some buzz that this could wind up as the lowest opening weekend for a Star Wars movie in the Disney era. That mark currently is “Solo,” which opened on Labor Day Weekend in 2018, earning $84.4 million over the 3-day weekend and $103 million over the 4-day weekend. Even though that was far below the main saga films, those were still some pretty good numbers for an overall summer blockbuster. “Solo” was only seen as a massive failure because it had a budget of over $300 million. The reported budget for “The Mandalorian & Grogu” is just $165 million, so it doesn’t need to be a huge billion dollar film to be profitable for Disney and Lucasfilm. If it hits way low at $50-60 million, then there might be some cause for concern, but if it winds up near “Solo,” then it should be just fine.

While Star Wars is certainly the main event of the weekend, it’s not the only release. There’s three other smaller films being released as either an alternative or if another movie adventure is desired. The first of those is the horror film Passenger, which continues the trend I’ve talked about in regards to the constant stream of low-budget horror films being released. In May alone, we’ll have already had “Hokum,” “Obsession” and now “Passenger” to keep horror fans happy. This movie is about a young couple who witness a horrific accident a few weeks into their van life adventure that left the driver dead. And now because of that, they have an unwanted passenger joining them in the form of a demonic stalker that’s impossible to outrun and follows them wherever they go. “Last year over 130 million people took road trips,” the trailer claims. “15,400 of them were never seen again.” Actual fact or heavily manipulated for dramatic effect? Probably the latter. But it makes for an effective hook for a road trip horror film. This is directed by André Øvredal, who has directed other horror films such as “Troll Hunter,” “The Autopsy of Jane Doe,” and “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.” His last film, “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” in 2023, opened to $6.5 million. A similar opening would put this in the same range as “Hokum” and “Obsession.”

Boots Riley is back with this next film of the weekend, the crime comedy I Love Boosters. Boots Riley is the writer and director of the rather bizarre, mind-bending film “Sorry to Bother You” from 2018, which did indeed include a plot where people were being turned into half human, half horse creatures they called Equisapiens. Is this movie going to be as strange as that one? To be determined, I suppose. But the movie is about a group of professional shoplifters, led by Keke Palmer, who take aim at a fashion maven played by Demi Moore. The goal is to steal her stuff, then turn around a re-sell it at a discount price. The trailer seems to promise another upbeat, wild, fun ride. And given the last film, there’s likely plenty of surprises in store. In addition to Keke Palmer and Demi Moore, the movie also includes Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, and Don Cheadle. The movie premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in March, and has a current 94 percent critics score with 34 reviews counted. Boots Riley has also been doing his best job to push and promote the film, which should help boost awareness. “Sorry to Bother You” in its first weekend of wide release earned $4.2 million and held well to eventually finish with $17.5 million domestically. That would be a good goal for this movie, although it has been eight years since then.

The final film of the weekend appears to be on the smaller end of the bunch, but it is actually another horror film, that being Corporate Retreat. This is a movie about a group of corporate executives that attend a highly recommended corporate retreat that, unfortunately for them, turns into a violent and bloody trap. The trailer does have a good number of views, over 6 million, even though almost every comment is in regard to Tiktok influencer Kirby Johnson being in the movie. The red flag for me personally in regards to box office potential is that it is listed as being distributed by Western Film Services, which is a studio that doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page for me to see what else they’ve done, if anything. That combined with a mostly lesser known cast and a director in Aaron Fisher whose only previous feature-length film made just $8,140 from one theater (“Inside the Rain”) and this seems like a film that will be more of a blip on the radar for most people, unless the premise itself captures the attention of some horror fans.

May 29 – 31

A24's "Backrooms"

The post Memorial Day Weekend is poised to be another cool-down weekend before June kicks things into high gear and doesn’t let up until the summer ends. That means catch-up week for some, with whatever gas is left in the tank for the May blockbusters we’ve listed. For the new releases? Sure! Why, not? How about another May horror film! We’ll finish this off with A24 delivering the movie Backrooms, which could easily wind up as the biggest horror release of the month. The general premise is that a therapist’s patient disappears into a dimension beyond reality, causing her to venture into the unknown to save him. The movie is led by recently Oscar nominated actress Renate Reinsve (“Sentimental Value”) as the therapist, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as the patient she’s hunting down. That premise and cast on its own, with the A24 prestige, might be enough to attract general horror fans to again show up to the theaters. However, this movie is written and directed by Kane Parsons, and is based on his own YouTube web series also called “Backrooms,” which began as a short film released on his channel (Kane Pixels) in 2022 that currently, as I’m typing this, has 77 million views. That evolved into the web series that is now 23 episodes. We learned earlier this year not to underestimate YouTubers making movies as Markiplier wrote, directed, starred in, and did everything for his adaptation of “Iron Lung,” which then debuted to $18.2 million. I’m also reminded of the 2016 film “Lights Out,” which saw David F. Sandberg adapting his own short film into a feature-length film, which opened to $21.7 million. I don’t have official tracking estimates from Box Office Pro just yet, but I imagine the tracking should be pretty good. The trailer views on its own is current at 27 million.

Playing counter to this mysterious, found footage horror film is the family comedy The Breadwinner. This stars stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze in his first feature acting role. He’s likely most well known for his Saturday Night Live sketches where he appears as George Washington and mocks the American English language and measurement systems, but he’s also had a series of Netflix stand-up specials that have boosted his stand-up comedy career. He also recently hosted the Emmys last year. This first feature film of his sees him playing a dad who has to learn how to be a stay-at-home dad after his wife lands a huge deal on Shark Tank, sending her on a prolonged business trip. Turns out Nate learns how awesome his wife is as she was perfect at managing all the chaos at home with their three kids, which he learns that he’s very not good at, leading to a lot of slapstick comedy as he tries to figure this out. I mentioned family comedy at the beginning when describing this. While perhaps not necessarily directed at a young audience specifically, the movie is PG, so it’s appropriate for all ages. It was supposed to initially come out in March, but was postponed to a summer release date here. While Nate has certainly made his way in the stand-up comedy realm, this will certainly be a test to see if he can draw a crowd to the theater. Comedies are very hit and miss at the box office these days, so it’s easier said than done.

Rounding out the month will be the war drama Pressure. This stars Andrew Scott as Captain James Stagg and Brendan Fraser as Dwight D. Eisenhower and chronicles the 72 hours before D-Day. In real life history, Eisenhower had tentatively scheduled June 5 as the date of the D-Day invasion. However, on June 3, a severe storm was forecast to be approaching Europe, which led Stagg to meet with Eisenhower to discuss. Stagg convinced Eisenhower to proceed with the attack on June 6, predicting that the storm would pass by then. The next available dates with the proper tidal conditions would’ve been two weeks later from June 18-20, but postponing would’ve increased the chance that the invasion plans would be detected. Historical spoiler alert… D-Day did in fact happen on June 6. As it turned out, a major storm battered the Normandy coast from June 19-22, which would have made the beach landings impossible. This movie adaptation of these events is directed by Anthony Maras, who directed “Hotel Mumbai,” a movie that opened to $3.2 million in March 2019. In regards to recent war films, the best comparison I can come up with is last year’s “Nuremberg,” which opened to $3.9 million and made $14.5 million domestically. It’s currently available to be watched on Netflix. World War II junkies can check that one out or head out to theaters to see “Pressure,” which will have the anniversary of D-Day take place during its second weekend.