Universal Film just won the $5 billion race at the 2026 box office.
The studio announced Friday that it generated $1.788 billion domestically and $3.218 billion internationally, making it the first company to cross the $5 billion-threshold at the global box office. This marks the first time Universal has generated such a sum since 2017 — and only the third time ever after first doing so in 2015.
This haul was aided in large part by a trio of box office heavy hitters: Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” (currently the year’s No. 2 film at the global box office and Universal’s biggest film of all time), Antoine Fuqua’s “Michael” (No. 4 film at the global box office) and Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” (No. 5). These three IP-fueled adaptations (if you want to call “The Odyssey” IP) each made $1 billion hauls on their own, with “The Odyssey” (still in theaters) earning roughly $1.73 billion, “Michael” making around $1.03 billion and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” raking in $1.01 billion.
Universal Film also had a handful of heavy hitters that were outside the $1 billion club. Pierre Coffin’s “Minions & Monsters,” the third film to star the iconic babbling yellow creatures and the seventh “Despicable Me” movie overall, has made $523 million globally to date. Curry Barker’s “Obsession” stood out as a sleeper phenomenon, grossing $519 million worldwide. This makes it both the highest-grossing film festival acquisition of all time and the highest-grossing film with a budget below $1 million in history.
The studio, which has thus far topped the global box office 11 weekends this year, still has a handful of other features that could push this total even further. This weekend saw the release of Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado’s singular animated feature “Forgotten Island.” In October, Universal Film will have the counter-programming of Rob Savage’s “Other Mommy” (with a trailer that’s been giving audiences some killer Jessica Chastain jump scares) and Georgia Oakley’s “Sense & Sensibility.” Down the way, they’ll have the Ben Stiller/Robert DeNiro/Ariana Grande-led comedy “Focker-in-Law” and Robert Eggers’ “Werwulf” (the follow-up to his $182 million-grossing horror feature “Nosferatu”) among their holiday slate.
After the highest-grossing summer in box office history, this total is another sign that the movies are, indeed, so back.
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