What is the last summer blockbuster that you can truly remember? I’m talking about a movie where you were like, “Yep, that was DEFINITELY the movie of the summer.”?
For me, it was Avengers: Endgame, which made over $2 billion, but also came out SEVEN YEARS AGO. Yeesh. However, you don’t have to go all the way back to 2019 to find a summer blockbuster, as some might go back to as recently as 2023 when we got the double whammy of Oppenheimer/Barbie, better known as Barbenheimer. Or, you could even point out 2022 with Top Gun: Maverick, which people adored.
Here’s the weird thing. On paper, 2026 seems like it would be the biggest summer of all time with this current slate of films, and yet…it doesn’t feel like that at all. Here’s why I think that is.
Big Budget IPS Have Come And Gone With Little Fanfare
Notice how the last summer blockbuster that comes to my mind was Avengers: Endgame, and I think that’s pretty telling. There used to be a time when the big, tentpole movie of the summer was obvious to pretty much everyone. That has grown murkier every year.
Take, for example, The Mandalorian & Grogu, which kickstarted this summer season when it came out on May 14th. Sure, I liked it, but articles were written about how it was the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie of all time. And, when Star Wars underperforms, you know that the very notion of “the summer blockbuster” is put into question.
Next up was Masters of the Universe on June 5th. Now, granted, some might argue that MotU was doomed from the start, given that it was based on an IP that was at its zenith back in the ‘80s. That said, making a paltry $111 million worldwide on a $170 million production budget is a box office bomb any way you slice it.
Lastly, we have Supergirl, which had a 73% drop in its second weekend, after having a tepid box office total in its first. Yes, Supergirl isn’t Superman, so of course it would have lower box office numbers than DC’s poster boy, but it fell out of the conversation before it even got started. That said, it’s not just tentpoles that have come and gone with little fanfare…
Disclosure Day Had A Big Debut, But The Talk Has Quickly Died Down
Most cinephiles can tell you that Steven Spielberg pretty much invented the “summer blockbuster” with his 1975 classic, Jaws. In fact, Spielberg is often synonymous with the summer season, as some of his biggest hits - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, War of the Worlds - all came out in the summertime.
Spielberg’s latest movie, Disclosure Day, looked to be on a similar trajectory. It had a domestic total of $44 million, and $93 million worldwide on its opening weekend. However, in the following week, all talk turned to Toy Story 5, and Disclosure Day felt all but forgotten.
Now, to date, Disclosure Day has made upwards of $200 million worldwide on an estimated $115 million budget, which is…okay. The main issue I see here is that Disclosure Day has completely left the conversation, and everybody has pretty much moved on. This is Steven Spielberg we’re talking about here…with an ALIEN MOVIE.
Sure, Disclosure Day isn’t your “typical” Spielberg alien flick, but it’s just another reason why this summer feels both big but also small at the same time, as even a summer Spielberg film has been forgotten.
The Biggest, Most Talked About Movies Of The Summer Thus Far Have Been Low Budget Horror Movies
Ask anybody what the movie of the summer is, and they’ll likely tell you: Obsession. The little indie that could, Obsession cost less than a million to make, and has now made 200 times that amount, and for good reason! Melding both humor and horror, Obsession is by far the most memed movie of the summer, with people who haven’t seen it still likely able to identify what it is.
Quite frankly, that shouldn’t be. The last time we saw an indie horror movie dominate the summer box office was in 1999 with The Blair Witch Project, and Obsession is even bigger than that movie, which didn’t seem possible.
It doesn’t stop there, as the other major movie of the summer is Backrooms, which is now A24’s biggest movie to date, which again, doesn't make sense when it comes to what a summer blockbuster USED to be. I think that’s an important distinction. The summer blockbusters that used to be big tentpole pictures seem to be flopping, and smaller, Gen-Z coded movies are supplanting them.
Don’t misconstrue me! I don’t think this is a bad thing at all. It's just…different. Which is why this summer might feel underwhelming to many, despite also being massive. The meek have somehow inherited the box office.
There Seems To Be Something Every Week, But Excitement Feels Minimal
From May 1st to now, we’ve pretty much gotten a “big” movie every single week, but excitement just seems so muted. Again, let me list some of the movies that we’ve already gotten: The Devil Wears Prada 2 (Which was big, don’t get me wrong - May 1st), Mortal Kombat II (Here and gone - May 8th), Obsession (surprisingly massive - May 15th), The Mandalorian & Grogu (Quickly forgotten - May 22nd), Backrooms (surprisingly massive - May 29th).
Then, we had June: Scary Movie (surprisingly big…but forgotten - June 5th), Masters of the Universe (Made less on opening weekend than Scary Movie - June 5th), Disclosure Day (June 12th), Toy Story 5 (Big, but probably the least loved in the series - June 19th), Supergirl (flop - June 26th, as well as Jackass: Best and Last, which didn’t make a huge splash, June 26th).
July kickstarted with Monsters & Minions, which barely made more than the weeks-old Toy Story 5 in its first week. Then came Evil Dead Burn and Moana on July 10th (with Moana doing particularly poorly at the box office, given its budget).
We’re pretty deep into July now, and I don’t quite see a clear movie of the summer just yet (Unless we’re counting Obsession, which again, just feels weird that one of the cheapest movies is the biggest). Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey or Spider-Man: Brand New Day could change everything, and either could be THE MOVIE OF THE SUMMER. However, even if one of them is, I still think this summer will have felt underwhelming, given what we’ve gotten thus far.
In The End, I Guess Maybe There’s Just Too Much This Summer To Get Excited About, Which Still Feels Bizarre To Me
In conclusion, we’ve gotten a ton of films this summer, and many of them are ostensibly huge, but they just don’t FEEL huge, which has been very strange for me.
It’s not that movies haven’t made money, as Toy Story 5, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and, of course, Obsession and Backrooms were notable box office successes. When Obsession is still the most talked-about movie of the summer, things just seem…off.
I don’t think I’m alone. Talk to most people, and they'll likely tell you that they're way more excited about the World Cup than Spielberg, Star Wars, or superheroes.
So, in that way, this summer FEELS big, but also underwhelming at the same time. Quite the paradox, is it not?
