Thanks to the breakout success of Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary” and the holdover grosses of Disney/20th Century’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the first quarter of the 2026 domestic box office just inched past 2023 to give theaters the best start to the calendar year since the COVID pandemic.
According to data from Comscore, overall domestic grosses for the year through the end of March reached $1.77 billion, just topping the first quarter total for 2023 by approximately $20 million. It is also 22% ahead of the anemic $1.45 billion first quarter of 2025, which suffered the lowest grossing non-pandemic March in 30 years.
With $177 million grossed in just 11 days, “Project Hail Mary” was the top-grossing film of the quarter, becoming Amazon’s highest-grossing film in studio history. Disney had the next two highest-grossing films of the quarter, with “Avatar: Fire and Ash” grossing $153.8 million since New Year’s Day — good for a $404.2 million domestic total dating back to its December 2025 release — followed by Pixar’s March original “Hoppers,” with $141.6 million.
Two more $100 million-plus contributors were released this past quarter: Paramount/Spyglass’ “Scream 7,” with $119.2 million, and Sony Pictures Animation’s “Goat,” with $101 million. Hollywood animation record-breaker “Zootopia 2” contributed $90 million, while Warner Bros.’ “Wuthering Heights” made just under $84 million.
Between this quarter and the coming Easter weekend — which is expected to be driven by the $175 million-plus extended opening of Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” — the box office is on pace for a $9 billion-plus year, with a puncher’s chance of reaching $10 billion if several films overperform this summer and holiday season.
But 2026 is not expected to get anywhere near the $11 billion-plus totals the domestic box office posted before the pandemic, thanks to a mix of fewer films being released and changing audience habits. The year’s quarterly total is down 27% from the $2.41 billion posted in the first three months of 2019.
While five films grossed over $100 million this year, seven crossed that mark in 2019, including Marvel Studios’ “Captain Marvel,” which grossed $353.9 million that quarter.
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