The summer 2026 theatrical slate begins May 1 with Marvel's Thunderbolts*, opening on roughly 4,150 screens domestically, and runs through Labor Day weekend with the Disney live action Moana hitting theaters August 28. Box office analysts at Comscore and Boxoffice Pro project domestic summer revenue between $4.1 billion and $4.4 billion, which would be the strongest summer since 2019's $4.6 billion and the first full summer since the 2023 strikes that operated without major disruption from labor or pandemic effects. Studios released their final summer marketing budgets in February, with Warner Bros, Disney, Universal, and Sony each committing more than $700 million in collective domestic spending.
Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning, the eighth and reportedly last film in the franchise, opens Friday May 22 against the Disney live action Lilo and Stitch the same weekend. Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie have promoted the film as a true conclusion to Ethan Hunt's arc, with the production budget reportedly exceeding $400 million when reshoots and marketing are included. Pre sale data from Atom Tickets and Fandango shows the film tracking for an opening weekend between $84 million and $112 million domestic, with international opening between $145 million and $185 million. The Cruise franchise has averaged $235 million domestic and $545 million international across the last three entries.
The Lilo and Stitch live action remake from Disney has the broadest family appeal of the summer slate. The original 2002 animated film grossed $273 million worldwide on a $80 million budget, and the live action treatment carries a reported $135 million production cost. Director Dean Fleischer Camp, whose 2022 Marcel the Shell with Shoes On earned A24 a wide platform success, brings a different sensibility than typical Disney remakes. The film opens against Mission Impossible May 22 in a head to head weekend that studio executives at both companies expect to expand the overall market rather than cannibalize.
How to Train Your Dragon, the live action remake of the 2010 DreamWorks animated film, opens Friday June 13 from Universal. Director Dean DeBlois, who directed the original animated trilogy, returns for the live action treatment. Pre tracking shows the film opening between $58 million and $78 million, well behind the May tentpoles. Universal also has Jurassic World Rebirth on July 2, the seventh entry in the Jurassic franchise and Scarlett Johansson's first lead role in a Universal franchise.
Pixar's Elio, originally scheduled for June 2024 before being pushed twice, finally arrives June 27. The film follows a young boy who accidentally becomes Earth's intergalactic ambassador. Pixar has not had a $300 million domestic opening since Inside Out 2 in summer 2024, with Elemental, Lightyear, and Onward all underperforming theatrical projections.
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey opens July 18 from Universal, the director's first feature since 2023's Oppenheimer won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. Matt Damon plays Odysseus, with Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Robert Pattinson rounding out the cast. Nolan filmed across Greece, Morocco, and Italy through 2024 and 2025 in IMAX 65mm, which is the format the director has worked exclusively in since 2008. The film is tracking for an opening weekend between $48 million and $72 million domestic, which would be modest for a Nolan film but consistent with the trajectory of mid summer prestige releases.
Original films in the slate include Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme on May 30 from Focus Features, Ari Aster's Eddington from A24 on July 25, and Spike Lee's High and Low remake from Apple in late August. The Phoenician Scheme reunites Anderson with Benicio del Toro, Tom Hanks, and Bryan Cranston after their work on Asteroid City. Eddington, a contemporary western set during the early pandemic, marks Aster's third feature for A24 after Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau Is Afraid.
Theater chains AMC, Regal, and Cinemark have been more vocal about the importance of the summer slate to their post pandemic recovery. AMC's CEO Adam Aron told investors on the Q1 earnings call April 24 that summer theatrical reservations through Memorial Day weekend were tracking 18 percent ahead of the same period in 2025. The chain expects 78 to 84 percent of pre 2020 attendance levels for the summer, the strongest figure since the pandemic. The summer slate ends with the Disney live action Moana on August 28, which will likely set the tone for the holiday slate that begins with Avatar: Fire and Ash on December 18.