OBSESSION | IN THE GREY | IS GOD IS movie openings | May 15 to 17, 2026 weekend

The current weekend: May 15 to 17, 2026 This is a quiet weekend in the run-up to the Memorial Day holiday, with another original horror film over-performing at the box office... 1) Obsession opening - Another weekend, another well-made, low-budget horror film over-performing at the box office. This opening is excellent. Critics' reviews are sensational and the audience score is outstanding for a horror movie (a rare A- CinemaScore). The film cost an est. $750,000 to make. The story is about a fantasy-come-true relationship that becomes obsessive... and then horrific. Focus Features saw it at the Toronto Film Festival and bought it for a reported $15 million. Pending final numbers, the picture is opening to around 20 times its production cost. Dollar for dollar, is there another genre as consistently profitable as horror? We can't find one: - Currently there are 28 horror wide releases on the calendar through the end of 2026. These titles appear out of nowhere and we expect the final count to be similar to last year's 36. Last year, the genre finished with $2.78 billion worldwide, with the help of two big sequels, The Conjuring and Final Destination, and two outstanding originals, Sinners and Weapons (all from Warner Bros.; they had a great year). This year we expect total horror business to drop to around $2.1 billion worldwide. Still, these movies are brimming with new talent telling original stories on low budgets - it's impressive. 2) In the Grey opening - This is a weak opening for an action thriller. Writer/director Guy Ritchie is an experienced and successful action filmmaker - this start is well below average for the genre and for the filmmaker. Critics' reviews are lukewarm but the audience score is very good (a B CinemaScore): - Mr. Ritchie's films often do well overseas with their British source material and characters (for example, Sherlock Holmes and King Arthur). This cast is led by British and American talent (Henry Cavill, Jake Gyllenhaal and Eiza González), but we don't see particularly strong foreign business here. The movie's cost of production was north of $50 million. It's not going to recoup close to that number plus its marketing costs, even with solid ancillary business. 3) Is God Is opening - This is a limited national opening. It's a suspense drama based on Aleshea Harris's award-winning play; she wrote and directed the film as well. Amazon MGM is distributing for their Orion specialty label. The storyline is: Twin sisters with disfiguring burn scars are ordered by their bedridden mother to kill their abusive father who caused their injuries. They must decide whether to seek vengeance or find mercy. The opening is below average for the genre. Critics' reviews are sensational. The audience score is very good although not quite as glowing as reviews (a B+ CinemaScore), which is not surprising with this kind of challenging material: Amazon MGM - So far this year, Amazon MGM has released Crime 101, Mercy, Melania, Project Hail Mary, The Sheep Detectives, and Is God Is. With the exception of Melania, that's a well put-together half-a-year film slate made with A+ talent. Project Hail Mary is heading for $680 million worldwide, and the lineup this year is on track to contribute $1.1 billion to Hollywood's total BO. Not everything is going to work - it never does. But this is new studio revenue and very good for the industry. Masters of the Universe is the studio's next release in three weeks on June 5. Current projections are for a $30 to $40 million opening weekend. The rest of Amazon MGM's 2026 lineup is here. 4) Where we are now - This weekend's total box office is even with the same weekend last year, but it's -34.1% below the pre-pandemic average of 2019, 2018 and 2017. Those years had several big openings at this time, including Deadpool 2 and John Wick 3: - The Mandalorian & Grogu opens next weekend over the Memorial Day holiday. Most students finish their school year a week or two later. Tracking projections continue to be in the $80 to $100 million range for the Friday to Sunday frame. An $80m to $90m 3-day start would be similar to the last Star Wars spinoff (Solo, $84.8m in 2018), but not in the league of the last Star Wars story (The Rise of Skywalker, $177.4m in 2019). Our last two posts were: MORTAL KOMBAT II | THE SHEEP DETECTIVES | BILLIE EILISH - HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR openings | Where we are now | May 8 to 10, 2026 weekend here THE WEDNESDAY CHARTS: April and the first four months of 2026 at the box office | May preview | May 6, 2026 here To see all of our work, be sure to upgrade: Upgrade Source: https://franchisere.substack.com/p/obsession-michael-johnston-inde-navarrette-in-the-grey-jake-gyllenhaal-henry-cavill-is-god-is-aleshea-harris-movie-openings