The current weekend: July 17 to 19, 2026
1) The Odyssey opening
- This is a fantastic opening for an epic action adventure. Christopher Nolan is the only filmmaker working today who could take an ancient story like this, attract a cast as sprawling and accomplished as this, and make it a pop culture event.
The opening figure is more than double the average of the writer/director’s last six films, which include three sci-fi movies and a superhero story. Critics’ reviews and audience scores are outstanding (an A CinemaScore). Overseas business is off to an excellent start.
These are exceptional numbers for a story that could just as easily have been a TV series — in fact, it was. Having directed 13 films, Mr. Nolan has become a unique and singular talent, with a loyal and enthusiastic following. This is a Christopher Nolan tour de force:
2) Original films and new stories
- 2026 is shaping up to be a terrific year for original and new stories (non-franchise/non-series movies).
The pictures are going to contribute an estimated 36% of Hollywood’s worldwide box office in 2026, up from a low of 21% in 2019, when sequels and series dominated.
Project Hail Mary earned $684 million worldwide, 49.7% of it from overseas — an original from Amazon MGM.
- 2026 should finish with approx. $8.25 billion for original and new stories, roughly the same as in 2018, and bigger than in 2023, when Barbie and Oppenheimer electrified the industry.
Several of these films will grow into interesting series from new voices, like Curry Baker’s Obsession and Kane Parsons’s Backrooms.
All of this is good news for an industry that’s regularly criticized for lacking new ideas and fresh storytelling:
3) Michael and musical biographies
- While we’re on original stories, Michael recently crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office. There’s been excellent coverage of it (here).
During the last eight years, as new musical biographies opened, we looked at Bohemian Rhapsody’s numbers and thought, “nothing is ever going to come close to $904 million.” The distance between it and the next biggest films was enormous.
All of these movies were successful, but Michael and Bohemian Rhapsody are in their own league, particularly overseas:
4) Where we are now
- The box office rebounded well this weekend, after the high-profile misfires — Supergirl, Minions and Moana. Fresh storytelling is energizing the business again, as it’s been doing since March:
- Next weekend has no new studio releases, then on July 31 Spider-Man is going to provide what the lineup has been missing for weeks: a big, popular action film.
The Odyssey is going to have a long run now, and between it and Spider-Man, late summer is set up for a strong finish.
Personal note
During my senior year at college, as part of my academic concentration, I read Homer’s “The Odyssey” from cover to cover in the ancient Greek text. Intellectually, it's been downhill ever since.
There’s a lot to say about the book and the movie, but most of it belongs in a comparative literature or semiotics course, and that’s not what this newsletter is about.
But I want to make one comment, in the form of a question…. continue here…
Our last two posts were:
MOANA live-action | EVIL DEAD BURN openings | Where we are now | July 10 to 12, 2026 weekend here
MINIONS & MONSTERS | YOUNG WASHINGTON openings | Where we are now | July 3 to 5, 2026 July 4th Independence Day weekend here
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