August 2026 at the movie box office | The pre-pandemic box office average

THE WEDNESDAY CHARTS: August 2026 at the box office | The pre-pandemic average | September preview | September 1, 2026 With the close of August, the domestic box office is now down -7.2% from the pre-pandemic average. It's a breakthrough and significant news. It's Tuesday! We're posting our Wednesday Charts today because the numbers are in and we want you to have them ASAP. We're making this available to all subscribers - please share. 1) August 2026 - Historically, August is the No. 10 ranking month; it's generally a cool-down period following the busy summer calendar. But with Spider-Man breaking records and The Odyssey holding sensationally well, August surged. Business was fantastic. Year-to-date, the BO is now down -7.2% from pre-pandemic levels. We were impressed one month ago when the deficit fell to -17.2% at the end of July - it hadn't been below -20% since the pandemic. But -7.2%? Great. The summer period finished +9.4% ahead of the pre-pandemic average, and +26.6% ahead last year. Magnificent. Below are the numbers. Bear in mind, for domestic moviegoing, summer runs from May through August: 2) Why the "pre-pandemic average of 2019/2018/2017" is the gold standard for box office performance - Our preferred standard for measuring the BO is the pre-pandemic average of 2019/2018/2017. Moviegoing fluctuates from week-to-week and season-to-season, often dramatically, so averaging the last three years before the catastrophic meltdown in early 2020 smooths the volatility and static. Comparing the BO to 2025 is valuable too - we want to see business improve year-over-year. But what we really want is to get back to pre-pandemic moviegoing levels. If business stays close to the YTD pace, below is where we think 2026 will finish. Yes that's a big if, but the 1st quarter, which has given the industry so much trouble since 2023, is in the rearview mirror, and the year-end is strong (see below): 3) September preview - September is the slowest moviegoing month of the year, but before the pandemic, there were big September films - they're listed below. This September, the keys dates are: Sept 2 (tomorrow): Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour - Live from Paris, an immersive concert film, from Trafalgar Releasing; Sept 4 (this weekend): By Any Means, a mafia hitman crime thriller with Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, from Paramount; Sept 11: Practical Magic 2, starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. #1 was a hit in 1998 with $94.4 million worldwide. #2 is tracking to open to $40m to $50m+ - audiences are waiting for this movie, from Warner Bros.; Sept 11: Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger, a documentary and concert film, from Disney; Sept 18: Resident Evil 8, the video game-based horror action series started in 2002. Earlier sequels before the pandemic reach $300m, with as much as 80% from overseas (big in Asia). Directed by Zach Cregger (Weapons), from Sony/Screen Gems. - The September lineup does not look as strong as past years. We'd like to get through the fall without a major setback, but some kind of softening looks inevitable, and it'll be noticeable after the record-breaking run: - The BO will do well to stay reasonably close to the pre-pandemic average through the fall, like down -10% to -15%. Then Thanksgiving and the year-end holidays are going to finish the year with a powerful lineup: Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat (Nov 6), Ebenezer: A Christmas Carol (Nov 13), The Hunger Games (Nov 20 ), I Play Rocky (Nov 20), Focker-In-Law (Nov 25), Hexed (Disney animation, Nov 25), Avengers: Doomsday (Dec 18), Dune: Messiah (Dec 18), Angry Birds 3 (Dec 23), and Jumanji 3 (Dec 25). Our last two posts were: COYOTE VS. ACME | THE DOG STARS | BUDDY openings | Where we are now | August 28 to 30, 2026 weekend here INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER | MUTINY | TONY and SPA WEEKEND openings | Horror films update | Where we are now | August 21 to 23, 2026 weekend here To see all of our work, be sure to upgrade: Upgrade [Methodology Note: For our monthly BO calculations, we take the complete weeks of each period (each week runs Friday to Thursday) and we line up the same weeks across the years, so we are comparing the same days/weeks/and day-mix, like apples-to-apples. There are different ways to do this and you might see slightly different figures - this is how we like to do it.] Source: https://franchisere.substack.com/p/august-2026-at-the-box-office-compared-with-the-prepandemic-average-september-moviegoing-preview-spider-man-the-odyssey