Hollywood just had its best summer ever, at least as far as domestic box office ticket sales go.
North American sales are estimated to be $4.761 billion to $4.762 billion, with the final Labor Day weekend numbers expected to be reported later today. That would just beat the established record of $4.756 billion set in 2013, according to Rentrak.
The year's biggest movie by far remains Sony Pictures' Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which was the top-selling movie for its sixth straight weekend and is quickly approaching a domestic total of $1 billion at the box office. It has sold more than $2.4 billion worldwide, making it the third-highest selling movie of all time, according to Sony.
Spider-Man's worldwide box office sales includes more than $227.4 million in ticket sales in China; $125.2 million in the United Kingdom; $88.2 million in Mexico; and $81.6 million in France.
Even bigger than the final summer ticket sales, "this was a uniquely important and potentially pivotal summer for moviegoing," Rentrak's head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian said.
Hollywood has been trying to climb back to prepandemic times but has had to battle streaming platforms and two devastating strikes that disrupted production and release timelines. Now, it seems, people are willing to return to the theater. "For many people, it may have been the season that reminded them just how much fun it is to go to the movies" and spur even more moviegoing," Dergarabedian said.
The momentum for a record has been building all summer. May ticket sales topping $1 billion was an important early signal, "but the real story was the consistency that followed," Dergarabedian noted. June, July, and August domestic box office all topped $1 billion, too.
The summer movie season runs from the first Friday in May through Labor Day Monday. This summer's totals include an extra week, 130 days versus the usual 123 days, because of how Labor Day fell on the calendar.
August's ticket sales were especially scorching at $1.28 billion, the best August ever for movie ticket revenue and higher than the monthly totals for the three previous months.
That kind of run hasn't happened before, Dergarabedian said. In comparison, August 2013 ticket sales in were only $929 million.
Moviegoers in North America bought an estimated $117.8 million to $118.2 million in tickets over the four-day Labor Day weekend, up 15.6% from the previous three-day weekend.
Studios and movie theaters have raked in an estimated $7.38 billion since Jan. 1, up 20.8% compared with the $6.11 billion sold over the same period last year, Rentrak said.
In addition to Spider Man, the summer's other blockbuster was Universal Pictures' The Odyssey, which has reached $589.1 million at the domestic box office and more than $1.63 billion in global ticket sales.
The Odyssey helped give IMAX Corp. its highest-grossing Labor Day weekend of all time, with an estimated $27.2 million in global box office through Monday. The Odyssey has now sold 30% of its $486 million global total on IMAX screens and it remains the highest-grossing IMAX film ever in 69 countries, according to Rentrak. The world's 41 IMAX theaters in 70mm format have grossed $73 million.
Universal became the first studio this year to cross $3 billion at the international box office, powered by global hits including The Odyssey, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Michael. Each has grossed more than $500 million in international ticket sales and more than $1 billion worldwide.
For studios and movie theaters, the summer performance gives the industry a much stronger foundation heading into the fall and holiday season, Dergarabedian said. He won't project where this year's total might finish, but said "the trajectory is unquestionably more encouraging than it looked earlier in 2026."
The current full-year domestic box office record is $11.896 billion in 2018.
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