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The film industry is on a roll. Global box office are expected to reach $35bn in 2026, according to experts from UK-based film data and insights specialist Gower Street Analytics. It's the highest grossing global year since 2019.

“We predict 2026 will be the highest grossing global year since 2019 ($42.3bn), topping the current high of 2023 ($33.9bn),” said Gower Street’s chief analyst Thomas Beranek. “Especially in the markets driven by Hollywood product, we expect the most significant growth.”

Meanwhile, Gower Street’s Director of Theatrical Insights, Rob Mitchell adds that there's a lot on the calendar this year, with franchise-led releases leading the way.

2026 sees several new installments in popular film series including Avengers, Spider-Man, Toy Story, Dune, Star Wars, Super Mario Bros., Minions, Jumanji, Scream, The Fockers and Hunger Games.

"But there are also many potentially huge hits among non-sequels, including musical biopic Michael; the live action version of Moana; and new titles from legendary blockbuster directors Christopher Nolan (The Odyssey) and Steven Spielberg (Disclosure Day); among many others," Mitchell reveals. "Audiences will be spoilt for choice.”

The projection is welcome news for the global film industry, which has been on shaky territory since the Covid pandemic.

"The past five years have been defined by moving targets," explains film industry expert Stephen Follows. "Release plans kept changing, audience behaviour kept wobbling, and the assumptions underpinning financial models failed to hold long enough to be useful."

But the writer, producer, and storytelling consultant believes that things are finally more stable and it's now possible to "know what the market is."

That's not to say the film industry isn't still a risky business, says Follows.

"The film industry has always been risky, but in recent years, those levels of risk (and the deleterious attempts to mitigate them) have made it much worse," notes the expert. "The underlying mechanics have shifted in ways that make it harder to finance films, harder to market them, and harder to predict what success even looks like."

Follows believes that we have entered a "new normal." Six years since the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the industry and it still hasn't returned to how it used to be. He says that those in the industry are starting to accept that things are not ‘bouncing back’ and have instead begun to adapt.

One major shift is that people are no longer routinely going to the cinema. Nowadays, it's considered more of a treat.

"The pandemic, the rise of streaming, and the massive increase in the cost of living have reframed cinema-going in people’s minds," Follows explains. "Rather than a low-friction, cheap night out, it has moved into the category of a ‘big night out’, such as big music gigs or theatre."

A 2025 survey backs this up. The US Kagan Consumer Insights survey found that the percentage of adults attending the cinema at least once a month has declined by more than half since 2019. The figured stood at 39% in 2019 and is now at 17%.

A separate poll saw three quarters of participants saying they would rather stream a movie at home than of watch it in the theater.

"Still, a majority of Americans, 65%, have gone to see a movie at the theater at least once [in 2025]", reveals the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. "Few people are regularly watching new movies – just 16% go to a movie theater at least monthly and 32% stream a new movie monthly."

In a bid to save money, cinema audiences are now building “when can I watch this at home?” into the decision of whether or not to buy a ticket, says Follows.

"A recent Cineworld/Regal consumer survey found that a third of consumers believe that a film will be available to stream at home within 30 days of release," he explains, adding that his own research shows that the average movie arrives in US homes from US cinemas in around 37 days.

While it may seem like a win for the general public, these short theatrical windows are hurting cinemas and costing domestic theatres about $100 million a year

All is not lost, says Nathan Roberts, a hardcore cinephile who is also a filmmaker, professor, and head instructor at Harvard Extension School.

"Every time you go to sit down and see a film with a group of people or by yourself, there’s always something that is going to be moving in a new and different way. That is what gives me hope in filmgoing: There isn’t a preset way of how movies move us," the expert told the Harvard Gazette.

"There are always possibilities for new forms and new ways of being moved, and new ways of forming collectivities, whether it’s seeing films in the theater, gallery, or seeing films at home," adds Roberts. "The lack of predictability, or the lack of predictable response, is a beautiful thing."

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