The billion-dollar blockbuster era is officially making a comeback in Hollywood. Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has crossed the $1 billion mark globally this week, becoming the fourth film of 2026 to reach that milestone. It joins Universal’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” Lionsgate’s “Michael,” and Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” in this year’s billion-dollar lineup.
A fifth title is expected to join soon: Universal’s “The Odyssey” has already pulled in $912 million worldwide as of Sunday and is set to keep playing in theaters through at least mid-September. Analysts are also predicting that Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part Three” and Disney and Marvel’s “Avengers: Doomsday” will cross the billion-dollar threshold before the year is out.
The Best Year for Blockbusters Since Before COVID
This marks the strongest year for billion-dollar releases since the pandemic brought theaters to a standstill six years ago. For comparison, 2019 saw nine films cross the $1 billion mark — seven of them from Disney, plus its Sony co-production “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and Warner Bros.’ “Joker.”
Disney highlighted the strength of “Toy Story 5” this week as a key driver behind its studio division’s performance in its latest quarterly earnings, even as titles like the live-action “Moana” and “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” underperformed expectations.
Higher Ticket Prices Are Fueling the Numbers
Part of what’s pushing these totals higher is the growing popularity — and cost — of premium formats. Imax, Dolby Cinema, ScreenX, and 4DX have all reported record ticket sales this year, driven largely by films like “The Odyssey” and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”
Premium large-format tickets made up more than 16% of domestic ticket sales in 2025, up from 15% in 2024 and 13.8% in 2023, according to EntTelligence. These tickets can run $25 or more in cities like New York and Los Angeles, though they average closer to $18.22 nationally — an 8% increase since 2023.
Standard movie tickets have climbed too. The average ticket cost just over $9 in 2019; today it’s closer to $13.50.
Still Catching Up to Pre-Pandemic Levels
Even with these strong numbers, the industry is still working to fully recover. Domestic box office revenue is on pace to top $10 billion for the first time in seven years, but the year-to-date total through Monday sits at $6.2 billion — still about 11% below where it stood in 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. He noted that hitting this benchmark has grown harder since the pandemic, and that a strong showing of billion-dollar films “can be a good indicator of a banner year.”
A More Diverse Group of Hits
Unlike 2019’s lineup, which leaned heavily on franchise sequels, this year’s billion-dollar films span multiple studios and genres — including a musical biopic and a big-screen adaptation of a 2,700-year-old epic poem. That variety is seen as a sign the industry may be willing to take more creative risks and spread box office success across a wider range of films and studios.
Gen Z Is Showing Up at Theaters
A big part of the resurgence comes down to younger audiences defying expectations that they’d rather stream than head to the multiplex. “The demise of the theatrical experience has once again been greatly exaggerated,” said Mike Polydoros, CEO of cinema marketing firm PaperAirplane Media. He pointed out that Gen Z made up 49% of the opening-day audience for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and 30% of opening-day moviegoers for “The Odyssey.”
