Well, this is an interesting weekend, to say the least. Some good, some bad, and some complicated news to cap off the month of August in the year 2026. Ditto good news for the juggernauts, while the slew of new releases had lukewarm (and not-so-good) news awaiting them.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has held the gold for five consecutive weekends now, taking in $22.2 million this weekend to cap off August, and has passed $891 million domestically. It should pass $900 million domestically sometime by Wednesday, and it is already the third-highest-grossing film ever with $2.33 billion, surpassing James Cameron’s Titanic. Spidey has been keeping his webbing intact and is cruising along nicely. It is wall-crawling toward The Force Awakens‘ unadjusted $936 million domestic run, so we’ll see how far it reaches ($1 billion won’t happen in North America, however).
Now, let’s get to the big (and complicated) news this weekend: the long-awaited, nearly shelved, and eventually sold-off Coyote Vs. Acme debuted to rave reviews and exactly the kind of below-expectations box office that made Warner Bros. skittish in the first place about continuing to usher it out to fans. Now, Internet conjecture didn’t exactly translate into this making the big move it should’ve, but yay for Ketchup Entertainment picking it up? Opening with $15.5 million domestically to compete with Spidey and Nolan’s adaptation isn’t an alarm to sound, but the $70-80 million acquisition will have skeptics wondering if it was the right choice. Hmm, it’s barely more than the $14.5 million debut of The Tom and Jerry Movie, which released in early 2021 as the world was “quietly” warming back up to cinemas. But it’s been roaring hot for the summer in 2026, and the variables aren’t the same. Let’s consider if it were to leg out like a DreamWorks film: that would get the Will E. Coyote suing the Acme Corporation title to around $50 million domestically. If it legs like Space Jam: A New Legacy, that would get it closer to $35 million domestically. If it’s any consolation, WB won’t have to take the heat had this opened in a similar manner under their banner, so Ketchup pops the champagne for this weekend’s results. On the other hand, it is disappointing that most kids who didn’t grow up back then got to enjoy the luxuries and IP of their favorite roadrunner or Bugs Bunny.
The Odyssey has surpassed $1.55 billion and is already gunning for The Lion King ($1.662 billion in 2019); once it does that, it will be the second-biggest original behind Avatar. Insidious: Out of the Further earned $10.1 million domestically in its second weekend and is already past $110 million worldwide; it’ll continue to do solid business for the underrated IP.
Moving on to the bad news: The Dog Stars collapsed with only a mere $8 million domestically. With poor reviews and little drawing power, the Ridley Scott feature seems to exist as if it forgot the past thirty years of theatrical and televised post-apocalyptic melodramas. This goes into his commercial disasters bucket.
Buddy earned a decent $5.36 million for opening in 1,258 theaters. The End of Oak Street has passed $105 million worldwide, while PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie will pass $125 million globally tonight. Mutiny has passed $16 million worldwide (shucks for Jason Statham), while Tony has passed $12 million worldwide.
Next weekend (Labor Day weekend) sees the release of Fall 2: Deadpoint, By Any Means, Onslaught, Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day, and American Summer.
