“Toy Story 5,” “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “Spider-Man Brand New Day.”
Disney | Universal Pictures | Sony
Billion-dollar films are back in Hollywood.
The theatrical industry welcomed its fourth billion-dollar film of 2026 this week as Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” surpassed the coveted benchmark. It joins the three-comma ranks alongside Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” Lionsgate’s “Michael” and Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5.” The group should soon be joined by Universal’s “The Odyssey,” which has tallied $912 million globally through Sunday and is set to play in theaters through at least mid-September.
Box office analysts expect Warner Bros.‘ “Dune: Part Three” and Disney and Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday” to also reach the billion-dollar figure later this year.
As it stands, this is the highest number of billion-dollar film releases in a single year since the Covid pandemic shuttered movie theaters and halted production six years ago.
In 2019, nine films pulled in at least $1 billion at the box office. Seven of those films were Disney titles. Its co-production of “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” in partnership with Sony, and Warner Bros.’ “Joker” completed the list.
On Wednesday, Disney touted the success of “Toy Story 5” as helping to propel its studios division during its most recent quarter even as the live-action “Moana” and “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” films fell short of expectations.
Of course, modern blockbusters are benefitting more from higher-priced tickets both for standard screenings and premium large format showings. Imax, Dolby Cinemas, ScreenX and 4DX have all reported record ticket sales because of films like “The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”
In 2025, more than 16% of tickets sold for domestic showtimes were for these PLFs, according to data from EntTelligence. That’s up from 15% in 2024 and 13.8% in 2023. These premium tickets can cost upward of $25 or more in places like New York City or Los Angeles, but average around $18.22 a piece nationally, EntTelligence reports. That’s up 8% from 2023.
Standard movie tickets, too, are getting pricier. In 2019, the average movie ticket cost a little more than $9, according to data from Cinema United. Now, the average is closer to $13.50, EntTelligence reports.
Still, the hauls are a promising signal for a film industry that’s still chasing 2019 levels, even with the benefit of higher prices.
The domestic annual box office is currently on pace to cross $10 billion for the first time in seven years. Through Monday, the year-to-date haul stands at $6.2 billion, down 11% from 2019.
“The billion-dollar club has always been treated as a special box office milestone,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory. “It’s also one that’s become more challenging to achieve since the pandemic.”
“The sheer number of films crossing this threshold can be a good indicator of a banner year,” he added.
Unlike 2019, the 2026 class of billion-dollar films are spread across multiple studios and include not just sequels and franchise films but a musical biopic and a cinematic retelling of a 2,700-year-old epic poem.
The broad success signals to Hollywood that it can take more risks on genre films and spread the wealth among more players.
The resurgence in the number of billion-dollar films has been fueled in part by younger demographics that Hollywood and Wall Street previously worried would abandon cinemas in favor of their phones.
“The demise of the theatrical experience has once again been greatly exaggerated,” said Mike Polydoros, CEO at cinema marketing firm PaperAirplane Media. “Driving much of this resurgence is the growing influence of Gen Z, which accounted for 49% of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day”s opening-day audience and 30% of ‘The Odyssey”s opening-day crowd.”
Generation Z, whose members range from around 14 to 29 years old, is one of the most active moviegoing demographics, and Gen Zers attend more films per year than some of their older peers. It also accounted for nearly 40% of all movie audiences in North America in 2025, Rentrak reported.
And the return to movie theaters isn’t just happening domestically, but internationally, too. The foreign market is vitally important to Hollywood.
Among the the four films that have generated at least $1 billion globally this year, more than 50% of box office receipts have come from outside the U.S. and Canada.
“Notably, there has never been a film released domestically that has ever earned over a billion dollars in North America alone,” Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, told CNBC. “Only ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ has even come close, with $936.7 million.”
Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.
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