Movie Preview: September 2026

 

The summer movie season has come to a close and it did so in very impressive fashion as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” propelled August 2026 to the highest grossing August ever with $1.267 billion. After opening on the final day of July, Spider-Man contributed a total of $723.9 million in August alone, while “The Odyssey” added another $207.1 million. That means the two movies together combined for $931 million in August, while everything else contributed a total of $336.1 million. The “everything else” was led by the trio of “The End of Oak Street,” “Insidious: Out of the Further,” and “PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie,” all three of which contributed between $43–47 million each in August.

With August simply passing $1 billion, this summer achieved the fun mark of being the first summer movie season ever where all four summer months hit $1 billion at the domestic box office. This had never happened because August itself had only hit the mark twice before (2014 and 2016) and in both of those years, one other month fell just short. Perhaps a bigger headline that you might see in various trades is that we are on record watch. Box Office Mojo, which tracks the seasonal box office totals, defines the summer season as the first Friday in May through the end of Labor Day. Given that Labor Day is September 7 this year, we still have a few more days left of the summer. The current total, going into Thursday, September 3, is $4.594 billion, which is second all-time for any summer box office, and just $159.7 million behind the all-time summer box office set in 2013 with $4.754 billion. Thursday should bring in $8-10 million, which means if the four-day holiday weekend can bring in around $150 million, a new record could be set. Challenge is, this past three-day weekend brought in just $98.6 million and the newcomers this weekend aren’t providing a lot of promise. So it appears we might fall just short, but even if that holds true it’s still impressive that we got this close.

After a fantastic, nearly historical summer, the end of the year should finish 2026 with some fireworks as well, with the likes of “Avengers: Doomsday,” “Dune: Part Three,” “Jumanji: Open World,” and “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” set to open. But first we have to make it through the fall movie season of September and October, which historically often takes a huge dip before the big titles come back. This September has a few notable titles, but as a whole is looking pretty quiet. That said, these smaller months often provide the most interesting journeys with these movie previews as we search for potential hidden gems that might not have widespread interest, but still might be worth your time. So let’s dive in and explore!

As always, release date information for this post is courtesy of the-numbers.com and boxofficepro.com. With both sites having their struggles this year, I’ve done my best to cross-check with other sites as well in order to provide the most accurate information possible. 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.

September 4 – 7

Paramount's "By Any Means"

As mentioned in the intro, this first weekend of the month, which is the four-day Labor Day weekend in the United States, needs to deliver around $150 million to give 2026 the record of the highest-grossing summer movie season of all-time. It looks like we might fall just short of that, but the fact that it is within striking distance is impressive in its own right. The likely champion over Labor Day will be “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” looking for its sixth straight weekend at No. 1 after successfully completing the clean sweep of August. Next on its target list is the all-time domestic box office record, currently held by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” with $936.6 million, which it’s less than $40 million away from at the time of me typing this. It’s looking to chop that deficit in half this holiday weekend with another potential $15-20 million. It’s biggest threat for the box office crown over the weekend might not actually be any of the new releases, but could be “The Odyssey,” which has made the weekday totals rather close and even took the crown at the Wednesday box office.

Despite not being much of a threat in regards to the box office totals, there will be a decent number of options for people this holiday weekend. Leading the way for the new releases will be Paramount’s By Any Means opening in around 2,500 theaters nationwide. Directed by Elegance Bratton, the movie stars Mark Wahlberg as Greg Scarpa, a notorious mafia hitman and FBI informant. According to his long-time girlfriend, Scarpa was recruited by the FBI in 1964 to help them find a trio of civil rights workers, who the FBI was convinced were murdered, but couldn’t find their bodies. The FBI agents thought that Scarpa could utilize some interrogation techniques that they as the FBI could not legally do. Scarpa was recruited again in 1966 to help with the murder case of Vernon Dahmer, who had been killed in a fire set by the Ku Klux Klan. This 1966 case appears to be what this particular movie is based around. Of course none of this was ever confirmed by the FBI and Scarpa’s status as an informant wasn’t revealed until 1995, which was a year after his death. But that doesn’t stop Hollywood from taking a premise like this and running with it. True or not, it makes for good cinema. It’s projected to earn around $5-8 million for the weekend, which will have it fighting for a spot in the top five.

Set to open in around 1,700 theaters this weekend is a sequel to a movie you may have forgotten existed, and that’s Fall 2: Deadpoint. The first film, “Fall,” was released in August 2022 and was about two friends who climb to the top of a 2,000 foot tall television broadcasting tower, only to become stranded at the top. They climbed up there in the first place to spread the ashes of one of their husbands, who had previously died in a mountain climbing accident. The movie only made $7.2 million domestically and $21.8 million total worldwide, but when the budget was only $3 million, and Lionsgate reportedly only spent $4 million on advertising, that’s enough of a profit to justify a Round 2, especially given that it got quite popular on streaming afterwards. In fact, the first movie’s director, Scott Mann mentioned that two sequels were in development with a plan to build a whole franchise around this concept. We’ll see how far they get into that, but “Fall 2: Deadpoint” follows the sister of one of the characters from the first film, who is tackling a dangerous mountain in Thailand with a friend. And, of course, in climbing this mountain they also get stuck. My advice to this fictional family is to simply stay away from heights. But, hey, then we wouldn’t have any movies. This movie actually got a head start on the weekend by opening on Wednesday, but it only made $310,927 on that opening day, which doesn’t bode too well for the rest of the holiday weekend. But again, low budget means a lower bar for financial profitability.

The final movie in our trio of moderately wide releases this holiday weekend is the action horror film Onslaught. Released by A24, this movie is directed by Adam Wingard and is about an Army sniper living in a trailer park who is struggling to protect her family from a trio of super soldiers who have escaped from a secret military facility. The movie is considered to be a spiritual sequel to Wingard’s 2014 film “The Guest,” which is also about an escaped genetically modified super soldier who shows up to a family’s house claiming to be the best friend of their son who died in action. Wingard confirmed that the super soldiers from both of these movies are a part of the same organization. Wingard also confirmed that his 2011 film “You’re Next,” a movie about a group of masked assassins launching an attack on a home, only to realize that the person they’re attacking has a hyper-competent survivalist background, is also in this same universe. In between this, Wingard directed “Godzilla vs. Kong” in 2021 and its 2024 sequel, “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire,” but did not return for next year’s “Godzilla X Kong: Supernova” because he was busy in production with “Onslaught.” The movie isn’t expected to make much of an impact, but fans of Wingard and his previous movies will likely have their curiosity piqued.

That’s it for the main slate of releases, but that’s not all that’s going on this weekend. First up, we have a pair of foreign animated films hitting some theaters nationwide. The first of those two is Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass, which, yes, is a Chinese production of the classic characters. Written and directed by Zhang Gang, it’s a co-production by China Film Co., Ltd., Origin Animation, and Warner Bros, and is about Tom and Jerry discovering a mysterious compass that transports them into a fantastical world inspired by Chinese mythology. It was theatrically released in China last summer. The other foreign animated film of the weekend comes from Japan and is Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood. This is based on the manga “Cocoon” and is about two girls, San and Mayu, who attend an all-girls school on a warm and tranquil island, who, when war comes their way, are then ordered to nurse wounded soldiers in a secret military hospital hidden away in a cave. The manga is based on the real life group called the Himeyuri students, a group of 222 students and 18 teachers deployed to work in these cave hospitals. They were told they were going to be safe as Japan would easily win the war, but 211 students and 16 teachers ended up getting killed. According to GKIDS, who is distributing the film, this is the debut feature from Yukimitsu Ina and animation studio Sasayuri, founded by former Studio Ghibli animator Hitomi Tateno, which also brings in several other Studio Ghibli animators to work on this. The movie was also released last year in Japan.

Finally, in regards to a few other events happening this weekend, Katy Perry is coming to theaters with Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour – Live from Paris, which is exactly what is sounds like from that title. A concert film recorded during her Paris shows of her Lifetimes Tour. Many from Gen Z will also get to experience the emotional phenomenon of feeling old as Pixar will be re-releasing their animated feature Cars in celebration of its 20th anniversary. Meanwhile, many from the older generation will get the opportunity to see The Nutty Professor, which appears to be coming to about 500 theaters in honor of its 30th anniversary. All of The Hunger Games movies will also be coming to theaters in preparation for the new one, which will be released around Thanksgiving, this following the release of all the Harry Potter movies, which took place over the course of the last few weeks. So plenty of options for those wanting to spend part of the holidays at the cinema.

September 11 – 13

Warner Bros.' "Practical Magic 2"

It’s been an excellent run for Spider-Man at the top of the weekend box office, but this weekend is where that officially comes to an end, if there wasn’t already a Labor Day weekend upset. This is because Warner Bros. will be conjuring up a spell to hopefully bring in some magic at the box office with their release of Practical Magic 2. The first movie was released nearly 30 years ago in 1998 and was a romantic fantasy film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as two sisters who are descended from a long line of witches. Raised by their aunts after their parents’ death from a family curse, the sisters are taught the uses of “practical magic,” which they later use to destroy the evil spirit of an abusive boyfriend before it kills them. The movie initially was met with mixed reviews due to the mish-mash of genres and ideas, but has become a cult hit in the years since. Both Bullock and Kidman are returning for the sequel, and, impressively, neither appears to have aged much since, despite Bullock being 62 and Kidman being 59, but you wouldn’t be able to guess that if you didn’t know. They both must’ve found some real-world magic. Back to the movie, Joey King and Maisie Williams join the cast as the next generation of witches, with more romance and magic being promised. “Practical Magic” opened to $13.1 million in 1998 and finished with $46.9 million domestically. Adjust that opening for 28 years of ticket price inflation and that adjusts to about $33.5 million, which would seem about the proper range for this sequel, although Box Office Pro in their long range forecast has it a notch or two higher than that, with a projected $40-50 million opening. Notably, earlier this summer “The Devil Wears Prada 2” scored a $76.7 million after the first movie opened to just $27.5 million in 2006, so don’t underestimate the power that sequel nostalgia can bring.

Below “Practical Magic 2” there will be quite the handful of moderate releases hitting theaters – four to be exact. Of those four, we’ll begin by noting the release of The Uprising, directed by Paul Greengrass with Andrew Garfield in the lead role. In regards to the truth of what this movie actually is, it’s a movie that tells the story of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt, with Andrew Garfield starring as the leader of the rebellion against the tyranny of Richard II of England. With that, there’s been an interesting amount of drama surrounding the movie’s marketing. On August 20, Focus Features released a new trailer that changed the title to “The Uprising: The Rise of Robin Hood” and features clips of Garfield’s character dressed in green, wearing a mask, and wielding a bow, with a new synopsis that stated “Set against the true events of the Uprising that helped inspire the legend of Robin Hood.” Problem is, Focus Features is only taking care of the U.S. distribution. The U.K.’s film distributor, Entertainment Film Distributors, issued a statement against that, basically clarifying that this is about the actual historical events surrounding the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, NOT Robin Hood. It’s not too terribly often where you get two distributors for the same film using vastly different approaches as to how to advertise the same film, which in turn has led to an online discussion about whether or not making a faulty Robin Hood connection would help the film, anyways, given that several recent Robin Hood projects have failed financially. Regardless of all of that, the movie will be hitting about 1,500 theaters this weekend. Box Office Pro did not provide a prediction in their long range forecast, but this will likely be fighting for a spot somewhere in the top five.

Next up we see Angel Studios seemingly attempting to increase their market footprint with their action thriller Runner. The movie stars Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson working together to deliver a new healthy liver to a sick girl, while avoiding a group of mercenaries who plan on taking the liver for their benefit. On the surface this seems very much like your latest run-of-the-mill action thriller with two notable stars and many might not think any different. And perhaps that’s the main point here from Angel Studios, to widen their audience instead locking themselves into a specific type of movie. Obviously the faith-based film or inspirational family drama is their bread and butter, but when they’re not doing that, it’s been historical dramas or other adult-targeted dramas. Action movie is not something they’ve done yet. And if you’re taking Grandma to the latest Angel Studios movie, she might be a bit surprised at what she’s watching. But maybe Angel Studios wants to please grandson every once in a while, too. In which case, good for them. In regards to box office potential, I almost religiously peg Angel Studios releases at a $3-5 million range and most of the time I’m at least pretty close, unless it’s something like “The King of Kings” or “Young Washington” that obviously has a more broad appeal. Box Office Pro has this one pegged in the $5-7 million range, so maybe the uniqueness of it all gets it a notch or two higher. But at the same time, there’s also competition with the next entry on the list.

Said next entry providing that competition is the latest Liam Neeson action thriller The Fix. Liam Neeson has basically been doing non-stop action films ever since “Taken” in 2008. In the 2010s he had a bit of variety mixed in with his action flicks, but in the 2020s it’s been almost all that – most being low-budget action thrillers like “Honest Thief,” “The Marksman,” “The Ice Road,” “Blacklight,” “Memory,” “Marlowe” and the list goes on. Some might want Neeson to go chase an Oscar by being in more prestigious films or join another franchise like he did with Star Wars and Batman, but honestly… you have one life to live and one should live it like they want to. And it seems like this is what he enjoys, so power to him. All that said, this particular action film has a bit of a different flavor than the others I mentioned in that it’s based in the realm real-world military conflicts. The movie follows a group of war-torn CIA operators who head into the heart of Tehran to pull off a daring rescue in order to earn redemption after their previous mission in Afghanistan went terribly. Liam Neeson plays a character who is mentoring the team as they head out on their mission, while Zachary Levi plays the character who is the actual leader of the group. The specifics don’t appear to be based on actual real-life events, but is based on an original idea by Bazzel Baz, a real-life CIA Intelligence Special Operations Group Officer, and utilizes a production team packed with ex-special forces and government intelligence operatives in order to coordinate the action sequences and give the movie an authentic feel. In short, you can say it’s heavily inspired by real-world events even if the characters in the movie and the mission they go on are technically fictional. And it does have the anniversary release date of September 11, meaning if some adult crowds are eager for an action flick, that might direct them this way.

Rounding out our group of moderate releases from this weekend is a movie that hails from South Korea, Na Hong-jin’s Hope. This is a movie centered on a village police chief and his rookie deputy who must defend the local community from a mysterious creature after wildfires sever all communications. It’s a movie that competed in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year and got mostly positive remarks out of the festival, even though it didn’t win the coveted prize of the Palme d’Or. Some people did criticize the movie’s length at 160 minutes, some of the visual effects work, as well as various twists that happened partway through. But it might also be fair to note that a sci-fi monster flick that’s nearly three hours long is not exactly the type of film the festival crowd is looking for. General audiences might have a more favorable view of the movie, especially the niche crowd of moviegoers that are into Korean cinema. In addition to premiering at Cannes in May, it was also released in its home country back in July. NEON is handling its U.S. release and has it in around 1,500 theaters this weekend, getting a head start from the others on Wednesday, September 9, while Mubi, Focus Features, and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions are all taking various shares of the international release. It’s already earned $35 million worldwide, most of that from South Korea, so it’s U.S. run might be a less important footnote, but it is nevertheless being made available for those interested.

As for the rest of the weekend’s activities, we do have more music events and re-releases as well. Namely we have the music documentary Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger being released in about 1,200 theaters that chronicles the band’s journey from Manchester streets to global rock stardom as they reunite for Oasis Live ‘25. In the re-release realm, The Passion of the Christ will be hitting theaters starting Thursday, September 10 by Fathom Events, which will then be followed the Thursday after, September 17, by The Transformers: The Movie, which will likely have an increase in attention due to the unfortunate passing of Peter Cullen back on August 26.

September 18 – 20

Sony's "Resident Evil"

Outside “Practical Magic 2,” the other major film coming out in September is Zach Cregger’s adaptation of Resident Evil. This is a franchise with a long and successful history, both in the video game and movie realm. The original game was released in 1996 and has spawned a long list of sequels and follow-ups since, with the most recent being this year with “Resident Evil Requiem,” along with a remake of “Resident Evil: Veronica” scheduled for release next year. In the film world, Paul W.S. Anderson helmed the ship with his series of six films, released from 2002 to 2017, following the character of Alice, played by Milla Jovovich. Despite them receiving mostly negative reviews, they still performed well at the box office, as the six movies impressively totaled $1.229 billion at the worldwide box office. Worthy of noting, 77.9 percent of that total came at the overseas box office, with the final film earning 91.5 percent of its totals overseas – it was both the biggest film worldwide ($314.1 million) and the lowest domestically ($26.8 million). A 2021 reboot film was attempted, “Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City,” but that was dead on arrival, domestically and internationally. A Netflix series the following year lasted just one season before getting canceled. And now Sony is trying the reboot route again, this time with Zach Cregger leading the way. Fresh off his success with “Barbarian” and “Weapons,” Sony is hoping to strike gold with a movie adaptation that is both financially successful and pleases the fans. Cregger’s stated goal is to build a movie that more closely follows the video game franchise, honoring the vibe and pacing of the games, while not being a specific adaptation of one game in particular. The projection from Box Office Pro is $40-50 million, which would easily top the franchise high opening of $26.7 million domestically held by 2010’s “Resident Evil: Afterlife.”

Speaking of franchises, while horror fans set out to see what Cregger has conjured up with “Resident Evil,” family audiences will have an option of their own with Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. Shaun the Sheep is a stop motion animation franchise from Aardman Animations, with the character first appearing in the 1995 Wallace & Gromit short film, “A Close Shave.” Shaun’s own series began in 2007 and has so far produced 190 episodes over seven series, making it one of the longest-running animated series in British television history. The idea here is short-form slapstick comedy with no spoken dialogue, only animal noises, grunts, and other sound effects as we follow the shenanigans of all the sheep. In 2015, Shaun got his first feature-length movie, simply titled “Shaun the Sheep Movie,” which was followed up in 2019 by “Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.” Like with “Hope” the previous weekend, the domestic release is more of a footnote here. An available option for those interested. The first movie made $101.9 million worldwide, but only $19.4 million of that came from the United States, after a mere $4 million opening. “Farmageddon” made $47.9 million worldwide, but didn’t even get a theatrical release domestically. The fact that this third movie is coming here at all is a nice bonus, while the main event will be over in the U.K. Regardless of what country you live in, though, Shaun the Sheep fans will get treated to a Halloween adventure where a giant monster accidentally gets unleashed on the town after Shaun turns mad scientist in order to try to save Halloween when the clumsy farmer trashes the flock’s pumpkin patch.

A trio of smaller releases will also be hitting some theaters nationwide this weekend. Exact theater counts aren’t known this far in advance, so these could be in just 300-500 theaters or possibly sneaking into around 1,000. Regardless of specifics there, the first of these is The Weight, which hails from the Sundance Film Festival this year. The biggest draw here is lead stars Russell Crowe and Ethan Hawke, while the movie itself is a historical drama set in Oregon in 1933. Hawke plays a man torn from his daughter and sent to a brutal work camp, where he gets tempted with an early release if he smuggles gold through a deadly wilderness. The second film is the dark comedy Bad Apples, where many YouTube commenters on the trailer joked about this being every teacher’s secret dream. Saoirse Ronan plays an Elementary School teacher with one incredibly rude, borderline monstrous kid. How does she handle this kid? The movie’s summary simply says that she makes some “questionable” decisions. The trailer makes it seem like she… kidnaps the kid? Trap him in her basement, or some other place, while still forcing him to do his school work? This was another festival release, premiering at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival to positive reaction. The final movie of this trio is Daniel and the Fiery Furnace, which is a live-action telling of the biblical story of Daniel from small Christian studio Unveil Studios, founded by Daniel and Matthew Koomon, who wrote and directed this feature, and will be theatrically distributed by EKKL Entertainment. The movie stars Mena Massoud as Daniel, who played Aladdin in Disney’s 2019 live-action remake, and Elijah Alexander as King Nebuchadnezzar, who played Atticus in “The Chosen.”

Last but not least, we continue the tradition of weekly re-releases of older films. In addition to The Transformers: The Movie, which I briefly mentioned at the end of the previous weekend’s preview in talking about Fathom Events scheduled releases this month, audiences will also get the chance to see the original 1995 anime Ghost in the Shell. In its initial theatrical run, the movie actually didn’t perform very well. Exact numbers are hard to find, but The Numbers claims it only made $443,579 domestically in its initial run, while other reports claim it made around $10 million worldwide. But to say it became a cult classic might be a severe underestimate as it’s one of the most influential animes ever made, including being a direct influence to “The Matrix” a few years later. It did get a re-release back in 2021 as well, where it about doubled its domestic total. Now it has the chance to do that again.

September 25 – 27

DreamWorks' "Forgotten Island"

Wrapping up the final weekend of September will be another decent handful of films, led by DreamWorks Animation with their latest original film Forgotten Island. This is a movie inspired by Philippine mythology and is about two friends trying to retain their bond when one of them is about to head off to college, only for both of them to suddenly get transported through a portal to a fantastical world of the forgotten island of Nakali, where memories gradually fade the longer one remains. In years past there was a time where the idea of a new animated film from DreamWorks would be an immediate box office draw. And while those times have passed, leading to a very wide range of box office results, they’ve nevertheless done a good job of being financially responsible with the budgets of their films, leading movies like “The Bad Guys,” “The Wild Robot,” “Dog Man,” and “Puss and Boots: The Last Wish” to be solid success stories. Earning $200-300 million worldwide can be a great outing when your budget is only $50-80 million. Compare that to the likes of Disney who has given many of their animated films a budget of $200+ million. A similar outing would not be considered good in that realm. All that said, DreamWorks has often enjoyed this late September slot, with “Abominable” and “The Wild Robot” being two recent examples. Other non-DreamWorks animated movies have also opened around here, such as “Storks,” “The LEGO Ninjago Movie,” “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” and “Transformers One.” Box Office Pro reports that the tracking for “Forgotten Island” has it opening at $20-30 million, which is the exact range that most of these mentioned have hit.

Opening alongside “Forgotten Island” will be a movie about Brad Pitt and his dog, titled Heart of the Beast. And for many people that might be all they need to be convinced to buy a ticket. For those curious to know a little more information, this is a Paramount release that’s directed by David Ayer. The movie has Brad Pitt playing a Special Forces officer named James Belmont whose plane crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. Him and his dog Odin were both on the plane and survived the crash, but now have to figure out how to survive together in the wilderness. This was a movie written by Cameron Alexander and was featured on the 2017 “Black List,” which is an annual list of the most-liked unproduced. David Ayer signed on as director in March 2024, with principal photography beginning the next year. In regards to box office comparisons, the easy one is perhaps the movie about Channing Tatum and his dog in 2022, simply titled “Dog.” That movie opened with $14.9 million and finished with $61.8 million, which feels like a fair goal for this one.

The next film opening this weekend is one that is drenched in controversy, which was likely the whole point from the beginning, and that is A24’s release of Primetime. This is a movie that casts Robert Pattinson as a fictionalized version of Chris Hansen, the host of the reality series “To Catch a Predator.” The movie is based on the 2007 Esquire article “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” which recounted the suicide of Bill Conradt, whose family sued NBC for over $100 million, alleging that the network’s aggressive made-for-TV tactics violated journalistic ethics and directly contributed to his death, a suit that was later settled out of court. Beyond just that one case, Chris Hansen and “To Catch a Predator” have faced a lot of backlash over blurring the lines between hard-hitting journalism and exploitative entertainment, which is more or less the ultimate motive behind the movie “Primetime,” putting all of that into the spotlight. The challenge, of course, is that Chris Hansen is very much still around and does not like the way he is portrayed and calls the movie a Hollywood fantasy version of the true events. Which makes sense, given that the goal wasn’t to put him in a good light, so collaborating with him personally in order to make him happy would be contradictory to the movie’s goals. The movie premiered to positive reviews at the Venice Film Festival at the beginning of September, but general audiences will naturally be more divided, depending on one’s stance toward Chris Hansen. Controversy often sparks curiosity, though, and the desire to add one’s voice to the conversation has the chance of making this a decent hit.

Along with those, two other smaller releases hit theaters. As mentioned in the previous weekend’s section, theater count this far in advance is unknown, meaning these two films could be anywhere from 500 to 1,000 theaters. The first of these two movies is Charlie Harper, a romance film that premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. It stars Nick Robinson as Charlie and Emilia Jones as Harper, and the two are doing their best to make it as a couple. Harper is working on building a career as a chef, while Charlie is trying to get himself back on track. The movie received mixed reviews out of the festival, many calling it unmemorable, while others being uninspired by its non-linear narrative. Row K Entertainment picked it up out of the festival, and they’re a new distribution company formed in August 2025. Their first release was Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire,” which earned $2.2 million total domestically back in January of this year. The second smaller film is IFC Entertainment’s The Stunt Driver. This is also a movie from the Toronto International Film Festival, but this year’s festival as opposed to last year’s. As of me typing this, this year’s festival has yet to begin. Start date is September 10, going through September 20. That means “The Stunt Driver” will look to build positive buzz in the weeks just before its main theatrical release. The movie is directed by Michael Dowse and stars Jay Baruchel as Ken Carter, a stuntman in the 1970s known as “The Mad Canadian,” who, in the film, plans to drive a rocket car across the Sainte-Laurent river from a 90-foot-high ramp.

We finish this September preview with one final re-release. Although this one is a big one, with Avengers: Endgame returning to theaters. If you haven’t heard the news, a movie called “Avengers: Doomsday” is planning on releasing at the end of the year. In preparation for that, Marvel is putting “Avengers: Endgame” back in theaters. According to directors Joe and Anthony Russo, this isn’t just a casual re-release of “Endgame,” but rather is required viewing before “Doomsday,” as this new re-release will feature new footage, a custom introduction, and a new-post credits scene that will be critical in following the story in “Doomsday.” With that in mind, the question here will be if Marvel fans will actually take that seriously and head back to theaters one more time to see “Endgame” just for four more minutes and an end credits scene or if they will simply read about it online later or assume “Doomsday” will catch them up to speed. Regardless of that aspect, some might simply want to head back to theaters just for the experience of seeing the movie in theaters one more time. And all of this leads to the interesting note that “Endgame” is just $124.3 million behind “Avatar” for the all-time worldwide box office crown. Disney would love for “Endgame” to take that record back so that they can in turn re-release “Avatar” again in the future and continue this potentially never-ending competition between both of those movies that they own.

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.