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Hollywood is raking in billions, but don't celebrate just yet
Báo Tuổi Trẻ
27/08/2026
16:15
Hollywood is enjoying a vibrant summer at the box office, but the accompanying figures raise several surprising questions.
The Odyssey hiện đã vượt 1,4 tỉ USD doanh thu phòng vé toàn cầu - Ảnh: Universal
Summer blockbusters - including major hits like Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey - have been breaking box office records one after another this year. U.S. cinema chains are on track to generate higher revenue than at any point in the last decade. This is a welcome result after years of audiences gradually leaving theaters for streaming platforms.
With Spider-Man: Brand New Day captivating superhero fans, the Michael Jackson biopic attracting pop music lovers, The Odyssey catering to epic genre enthusiasts, The Devil Wears Prada 2 for fashionistas, and Toy Story 5 aimed at children, Hollywood seems to have found a film for every audience demographic this summer.
The industry even made room for two surprise low-budget horror films created by YouTube content creators - Obsession and Backrooms - which together contributed 460 million USD to the total North American box office revenue.
All of this has theater owners excited, while Hollywood trade publications are constantly discussing a summer projected to bring in 4.5 billion USD. This figure easily surpasses not only the "Barbenheimer" summer (a term referring to Barbie and Oppenheimer) of 2023 but also the summer of The Lion King and Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
This is good news for the film industry, which seemed to have lost its way when the pandemic accelerated the growth of streaming services six years ago. For several months in 2020, when cinemas were completely shut down, studios became reluctant but active participants in shifting audience viewing habits from theaters to the home.
It took some time, but in terms of revenue, the U.S. film industry has now recovered. Five films in 2026 - Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Odyssey, Toy Story 5, Michael, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - have all grossed over 1 billion USD globally, more than any year since the pandemic began.
And that is not even counting the Christmas season, which is expected to be explosive, with fans jokingly calling it "DunesDay" - the moment two blockbusters, Dune 3 and Avengers: Doomsday, go head-to-head in theaters on December 18.
Cú "đánh đôi" này được kỳ vọng sẽ khép lại năm thành công nhất của các rạp chiếu phim Mỹ kể từ thời kỳ doanh thu 10 tỉ USD trở thành điều quen thuộc trong thập niên 2010 - Ảnh: FW
However, there are currently some notable differences. Cinemas are crowded partly because the pandemic caused a sharp decline in the number of theaters in the industry. According to research firm Omdia, North America had 44,283 screens at the end of 2019. By the end of last year, more than 7,000 of those screens had closed permanently.
Recovering box office revenue also masks another issue: revenue is up, but attendance is down. Data and analytics company S&P Global stated that as of mid-August of the pre-pandemic year, cinemas had sold 795.9 million tickets. In the same period in 2026, although ticket sales increased compared to recent years, the figure only reached 547.1 million - a decrease of nearly 250 million admissions.
Such a massive decline would have been a disaster if ticket prices had not risen. Seven years ago, the trade association Cinema United recorded an average ticket price of about 9 USD. Today, audience preference for expensive premium formats like IMAX has pushed the average adult ticket price above 13 USD, according to research firm EntTelligence. Data shows that audiences are paying an average of 18.46 USD for premium formats and 12.87 USD for standard tickets.
And there is one more difference: in the summer of 2019, about 400 films were shown in North American theaters. This year, that number has just barely reached 300.
This means that, on average, each film is performing better, but audiences do not have as many choices as before. Especially for those who have just had an enjoyable experience at the theater and want to return, this shortage could become a problem - as multiplexes were designed to serve that very group of moviegoers.
Therefore, as Hollywood closes out its most successful summer in years, what the industry is witnessing is more money, but fewer theaters, fewer audience members, and fewer films - or as Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada might say, this is not necessarily a "good look" for an industry on the road to recovery.
Studios and theater chains will have to face the question of whether the current business model is truly sustainable.
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