Boxoffice Predictions for Summer 2026

Looking ahead for the summer movie season at the 2026 boxoffice, here are the boxoffice projections for the opening weekend and total worldwide gross.

MAY

1st - The Devil Wears Prada 2

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $70.0M – $80.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $250 - $300.0M

International Total Projection: $350 - $400.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $600 - $700 M

Thoughts: The previous film made over $300 M worldwide, the star power of all of the cast has grown since and so has the lvoe for the original film. There are aren't a huge amount of film coming out around the same time that are geared towards this audience which is mostly female, so the film should be able to capitalise on that. The film comes 20 years after the release of the original, this may give the film some nostaligia which seems to be a good things these days for films. If the reviews turned out at least fairly good, I think that this could reacher the higher end of my predictions.

8th - The Sheep Detectives

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $15 - £22 M

Domestic Total Projection: $75 M

International Total Projection:  $90 M

Worldwide Total Projection: $165 M

Thoughts: A quirky murder mystery with a twist, this is film is more geared towards an older more mature audience which just might be the perfect things, there isn't much like this at the box office these days, especially when the film is relased. This may potentially allow the niche audience to carry this film and make this a sleeper hit.

8th - Mortal Kombat 2

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $45.0M – $55.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $120.0M

International Total Projection: $180.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $300.0M

Thoughts: The first film did suprisingly well considering it was released in the kidst of the covid era, and it also had strong numbers in streaming and in the digital purchases. The response to the Cinemacon fotage was luke warm, not a great sign for this, however these type of film are normally a guilty pleasure and I don't think bad reviews will make much of adifference to the audience. As long as it is at least fairly good, it has a solid chance of becoming a hit.

15th - In The Grey

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $18 million – $24 million

Domestic Total Projection: $62 Million

International Total Projection: $85 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $147 Million

Thoughts: Both Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal and even Guy Ritchie have not had a good track record in the last 5 years. If this film flops that would be 4 flops in a row for Guy Richie and that is excluding the Apple TV film which was considered toi be a streaming flop. The film looks like a generic Guy Richie action film, it is hard to even tell it apart from some of his recent film. The film doesn't really have any unique selling points, but it looks like a fun action adventure movie, it just doesn't seem to be gaining much buzz.

22nd - The Mandalorian and Grogu

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $50.0M – $70.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $2250M

International Total Projection: $300.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $525.0M

Thoughts: Star Wars has struggled ever since The Last Jedi, the negative responce, backlash, and toxic fandom seems to have plagued the franchise ever since. To make things worse there has been a luke warm reception at best to vertually every film and Disney+ show since. The Mandalorian has enjoyed some success on Disney+ and the early footage from Cinemacon has received a warm reception. Hopefully with some early strong reviews and last minute promotion material it can build some more momentum.

22nd - Passenger

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $14 million – $19 million

Domestic Total Projection: $45 M

International Total Projection: $32 M

Worldwide Total Projection: $77 M

Thoughts: Low-budget high-concept horror seems to be very popular these days at the box office, the trailer has been making a huge splash on audiences for several months now. With little-known about the plot the trailer was able to play more like a short film, which has got many people hooked as to what the exact threat is. F

29th - Backrooms

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $28.0M – $35.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $85.0M

International Total Projection: $40.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $125.0M

Thoughts: Based on a series of scary online video which turned into an internet sensation, the feature-length adaption of the "Backrooms" craze it let by Chiwetel Ejiofor and is the directorial debut of Kane Parsons. With a small-budget, interesting concept and a good release date the film has a good shot of becoming a hit.

JUNE

5th - Masters of the Universe

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $50 Million – $65 Million

Domestic Total Projection: $145 Million

International Total Projection: $190 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $335 Million

Thoughts: Films of this calibre have a history of under-performing and these days feel a bit out of date, a few years back we had a similar film with a similar budget which was Dungeons and Dragons. For some reason the old school type fantasy films just don't seem to draw in an audience, this will likely fall into the same category, it will possibly break-even but I think that is as far as this goes. To top it all of the biggest star of the film Jared Leto will not even be recognisable for most if not all of his scenes.

5th - Scary Movie

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $35 Million – $45 Million

Domestic Total Projection: $90 - 120 Million

International Total Projection: $70 - 80 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $160 - 200 Million

Thoughts: After years a bad spoof movies, it is hard to imagine this film becoming a big success, however the brand name does carry some weight, and it is now back in the hands of the original creators the Waynes family. The franchise was built on spoofing the Scream franchise, now that is back, maybe they cam recapture some of that original magic that made the first movie a huge success. The response to the trailer was generally good, so maybe there is still some life still left in this franchise, but I can't see it passing $200 Million.

12th - Disclosure Day

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $60.0M – $75.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $240.0M

International Total Projection: $310.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $550.0M

Thoughts: There is only one big-budget sci-fi epic coming out this summer, and who better to deliver that than Steven Spielberg. The film features a great cast including Josh O'Connor and Emily Blunt in the lead roles. The trailer highlight a traditional and fun action adventure, perhaps this can capture the wonder of the earlier sci-fi films from Speilberg.

19th - Toy Story 5

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $125.0M – $150.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $440.0M

International Total Projection: $610.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $1.05B

Thoughts: Judging this film was difficult, the third and forth entries in the franchise felt like very definitive endings, yet the story continues. The brand of Toy Story is so strong that this will likely be a huge hit regardless, but for some people this might be one film to many.

19th - The Death of Robin Hood

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $14 million – $18 million

Domestic Total Projection: $55 Million

International Total Projection: $40 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $95 Million

Thoughts: For big-budget action-adventure film with the classic character this is a much darker and emotional take on the character. For a summer movie, this might be a little too downbeat for most mainstream audiences. At this point in the summer movie season there will be a lot of competition, before during and after this weekend. Hopefully if the film is strong word-of-mouth can carry this above and beyond my estimates.

26th - Supergirl

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $85.0M – $105.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $260.0M

International Total Projection: $350.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $610.0M

Thoughts: The next step in the James Gunn DCU, this focuses on Superman's cousin, and take on a Guardians of the Galaxy like space-opera vibe. It proved successful for Marvel, maybe now it can work for DC. After the success of Superman, Warner Brothers is hoping that the audience still wants more from this universe. This character is nowhere near as popular as Superman, so this will be James Gunn's first big test in his new cinematic universe.

26th - Jackass: Best and Last

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $26 Million – $33 Million

Domestic Total Projection: $78 Million

International Total Projection: $35 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $113 Million

Thoughts: These films have always been up and down at the box office, but overall they have always been successful, and provide a huge return on investment for the studio. We may be long past the MTV glory days of Jackass, but every new film keeps on bringing in more money.

26th - The Invite

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America:  $12 million – $18 million

Domestic Total Projection: $55 Million

International Total Projection: $30 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $85 Million

Thoughts: There isn't much coming out in the summer movie season that is like this, a simple straight-forward moving abut regular people. In a season full of action, aliens, superheros and so on, this film has a short of being a solid alternative for the older audience, looking for something more mature.

JULY

1st - Minions & Monsters

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $115.0M – $130.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $390.0M

International Total Projection: $580.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $970.0M

Thoughts: The Minions franchise is the franchise that seems to keep on giving, every film has been a massive success. The franchise has been huge outside of the films as well, with lot of merchandice, clearly this is big for younger audience, and the parents seem to enjoy the humour too. With a release date close to the school summer holidays, this will likely be a must-see film for all families.

10th - Moana

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $90.0M – $110.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $330.0M

International Total Projection: $520.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $850.0M

Thoughts: Live-action remakes of recent animated films seem to be popular, as we saw last year with How to Train Your Dragon. Disney is clearly banking on a similar type of return on their investment for Moana. The previous Moana 2 which was animated made over a billion worldwide despiute average reviews. This film should carry a lot of that same momentum.

10th - Evil Dead Burn

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $18 - $22 m

Domestic Total Projection: $60 - $70M

International Total Projection: $40 - $50M

Worldwide Total Projection: $100 - $120M

Thoughts: This franchise is beloved by a small group of horror fans who showed up to the last one which gained strong reviews, hopefully that will carry some strong momentum into this sequel. There aren't many strong horror films either side of this films relase date, so hopefully it can have most of the horror audience to itself.

17th - The Odyssey

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $80.0M – $100.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $290.0M

International Total Projection: $450.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $740.0M

Thoughts: Christopher Nolan's name is enough to sell a film these days, especially after Oppenheimer, which swept the Oscars and made almost a billion dollars worldwide. This is his second collaboration with Universal, a big-budget adaption of the classic greek poem. The cast for this film is huge, including Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, and Robert Pattinson. The film has already sold out on the early IMAX screening, which is a very strong indicator that this film will do well.

31st - Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $160.0M – $190.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $520.0M

International Total Projection: $710.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $1.23B

Thoughts: The trailer for this became the most viewed trailer of all time, that is a massive achievement and more than any Avengers movie, this shows how popular Spider-Man still is after so many movies. The last film made nearly 2 billion dollars worldwide, dueing the Covid era. This film has characters such as Hulk and The Punisher which will peak the interest of long time fans of the movies and the Netflix shows. In addition we have 2 villains that we have not seen on film before, the Scorpian and Tombstone.

AUGUST

7th - Super Troopers 3

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $16 million – $22 million

Domestic Total Projection: $48 Million

International Total Projection: $12 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $60 Million

Thoughts: This franchise has a very niche dedicated audience, the first film spawned a new life on home media and several years back the long awaited sequel arrived. The film has weak review and a mediocre box office including an over 70% decline from week one to week two. It was a shock to me that a sequel was greenlit, hopefully the filmmakers took some notes from the previous installment.

7th - Fall 2

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $22.0M – $28.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $65.0M

International Total Projection: $45.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $110.0M

Thoughts: The first film was a surprise hit, in particular on the streaming services. Hopefully the tension and suspense from the first film can be found in this sequel, and it cam become a late-summer thriller.

7th - Ice Cream Man

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $16 million – $22 million

Domestic Total Projection: $44 Million

International Total Projection: $26 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $70 Million

Thoughts: The latest horror film from Eli Roth, his movies don't have the best track record, in fact more often than not they lose money, or rely on home media to finally break-even. For most people his film are too violent and gimmicky, which alienates a lot of the audience straight-away.

14th - The End of Oak Street

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $24 Million – $32 Million

Domestic Total Projection: $88 Million

International Total Projection: $115 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $203 Million

Thoughts: The latest effort from David Robert Mitchell coming off films such as "It Follows" and "Under The Silver Lake". This time the plot is more science-fiction and focuses on a family whose street appears to move either to a new planet or back-in-time where there are dinosaurs. From producer J.J Abrams expect this to be the mystery box of the summer.

14th - Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $25 Million – $32 Million

Domestic Total Projection: $85 Million

International Total Projection: $135 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $220 Million

Thoughts: This franchise has proven to be a big hit with the younger audience, as it is for the very young, I don't think it has any shot of being a huge megahit. However I think the brand recognition will draw in a lot of the younger kids to the cinema with their parents, since the summer holiday will be in full swing, the film will likely capitalise on this.

21st - Insidious: Out of the Further

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $35.0M – $42.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $95.0M

International Total Projection: $105.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $200.0M

Thoughts: The last Insidious film was the highest grossing one, although not the best by any means. There is still of lot of interest in supernatural horror films, even last year the lastest conjuring film came out of the gate storming. The name Insidious at this point is easily recognisable to audiences and generally seems to deliver what the audience wants, for this reason, I can see it being a success.

21st - The Magic Faraway Tree

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $8 Million – $12 Million

Domestic Total Projection: $35 Million

International Total Projection: $45 Million

Worldwide Total Projection: $80 Million

Thoughts: It has been a while since we had a family film like this, a live-action big-budget almost Terry Gilliam style adventure. The film has had strong reviews in the UK where it has already been released, but these type of films tend to struggle at the North American box office. Not to mention Andrew Garfield and Clare Foy don't carry much box office power either. The film may well break-even but I can't see it going any further than that.

28th - Coyote vs. Acme

Opening Weekend Estimate in North America: $25.0M – $35.0M

Domestic Total Projection: $90.0M

International Total Projection: $60.0M

Worldwide Total Projection: $150.0M

Thoughts: After many delays trying to get the film released, the film is finally set for a late-summer release. The trailers have been generally well-received and showcase a unique plot and characters that are universally well-known, the issue is that the "Looney Tunes" haven't brought in money at the box office for a long time. I can see this film breaking-even but no more than that, even if the reviews are strong I just don't think these characters are as popular as they once were.