Without a doubt, 2026 has been a legendary year for cinema. It’s fitting, in a way: 2024 was a legendary year for music, 2025 was a legendary year for video games (even if GTA VI didn’t come out), but this year, it’s all about the movies. From thrilling superhero adventures to bold indie risk takers, low-budget masterpieces to box-office breakers, adaptations of digital media to adaptations of thousand year old texts, film this year has done anything but disappoint.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man series, has inarguably been the most successful movie of the year. As of August 25, 2026, the film has made $2.2 billion globally and $858.4 million domestically (Gajewski, The Hollywood Reporter). That domestic number is higher than Avengers: Endgame, and only second to The Force Awakens. It could be argued that Endgame was the more popular movie, and that Brand New Day’s higher earnings are due to rising ticket prices, but Spidey’s popularity should never be underestimated.
Tom Holland, as he has done for nearly a decade now, brings a pure, earnest energy to his role as Spider-Man. Also worth noting are excellent appearances from Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk and John Bernthal as the Punisher, who help the movie exude that special comic book crossover joy. Brand New Day serves as a refreshing break from multiverse maximalism, instead focusing on street-level crime and Peter Parker’s personal struggles. Sadie Sink stuns as a vengeful Jean Grey, cementing her in the public eye as more than just Max from Stranger Things.
Another feat of this year in cinema is the success of low-budget, independent films— specifically indie horror. Iron Lung, an adaptation of the 2022 horror video game of the same name, made $51 million worldwide on a $3 million budget. Curry Barker’s Obsession made $501 million worldwide on a $1 million budget. Backrooms, directed by 20 year old Kane Parsons, made $393 million on a $10 million budget (The Numbers).
Not only do these films share genre similarities, they also all have strong connections to YouTube. Iron Lung and Obsession were both directed by YouTubers (Markiplier and Curry Barker respectively), and Backrooms is the finale to Kane Parsons’ YouTube series of the same name. This has been a revolutionary year in proving that stars of internet media can make their way into the mainstream film industry with great success. Young people love YouTubers partially because of the independent, do-it-yourself nature of making YouTube videos. In a world growing sick of corporate Hollywood rehashing old ideas— another Disney remake, anyone?— independent filmmakers with great ideas and pre-existing internet fanbases are sure to bring new life and new viewers to the artform.
2026 has also been notable for the success of cinema showings that aren’t even traditional movies. The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act, a 95 minute compilation of the final two episodes of the Glitch Studios indie animated series, made $36 million worldwide (The Numbers). That may not seem particularly high, but it’s certainly not bad when you consider that so many fans were dedicated enough to pay to see the finale in theatres instead of waiting to watch it online for free, where it was released a few weeks later. Likewise, the proshot of Tony Award-winning Hadestown: The Musical, featuring the show’s original Broadway cast, made $20 million. This makes it the highest grossing live theater capture ever, beating out Hamilton (Lang, IndieWire).
Hadestown wasn’t the only Greek mythological epic in cinemas this year. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, based on Homer’s epic poem and starring the likes of Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland, made nearly $1.5 billion worldwide on a $250 million budget (The Numbers). One aspect that makes the Odyssey stand out over other big-budget adventures in recent years is Nolan’s prioritization of practical effects over computer-generated imagery. The Cyclops, for example, was a “60 foot contraption,” his sheep were real sheep, and the whole scene was shot in a cave in Greece (Travis, Empire). Choices like these help Odyssey feel real and immersive. Audiences loved it, critics loved it, and the film is almost certainly going to be in the running for Best Picture at the next Oscars.
Summer has faded into fall, but winter is still yet to come— bringing with it highly anticipated films like A24’s Chris Hansen biopic Primetime, James Gunn’s DC Universe leaning fully into horror with Clayface, the sure-to-be-blockbuster Avengers: Doomsday, an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune: Messiah in the form of Dune: Part Three, and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, an adaptation of the bestselling 2025 novel. I, for one, am proud of the year in film so far, and will surely be heading back into the movie theatre plenty of times in the upcoming months.