A-May-zing! Diverse Roster of Hits Drives Global Box Office Above Pre-Pandemic Heights!

Jun 7, 2026

Summer Season Sensations! In May the global box office escalated the positive developments of the year so far grossing a massive $3.2 billion globally, the highest box office of 2026. It also meant that Global results topped the May pre-pandemic three-year average (2017-2019) by +3%. The benchmark was overtaken for only the fourth time this decade. The last time Global box office surpassed the 2017-2019 averages in a month was in February 2025, when China and NE ZHA 2 drove a narrow success.

This time the success was global, foremost outside China, led by a phalanx of diverse global releases. The International (excluding China) and Domestic markets-combined performed +10% above the month’s three-year average. This is the best of the decade! It even came in ahead of July 2023, lifted by the BARBENHEIMER phenomenon, which was +8% above.

The total Global box office at the end of May is estimated at $13.8 billion. This is currently tracking on par with 2025 and marginally above 2023 (+1%), but more clearly ahead (+13%) of 2024. The Global box office is further -18% (or $3.1 billion) below the average of the last three pre-pandemic years (2017-2019) at current exchange rates. Excluding China, the global year to date would be the best since 2019 (-12%), up on all years (2025: +17%; 2024: +27%; 2023: +9%, 2022: +43%).

GBOT May 2026

Top Titles

In May a wide variety of movies contributed to the exceptional performance. This month eight globally released movies grossed over $100 million. Six of them were new releases. Combined they grossed $2.05 billion, which represents two third of the month’s global total. In all its variety, still two movies stood out within that group grossing a combined $1.2 billion on their own. More than half of the top group’s total (57%). The clearly highest grossing global release in May was Disney’s THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 adding $621 million to a fabulous $642 million cume! The sequel has already nearly doubled the original ($327m) from 20 years ago. The second stand out movie in May, as in April, was Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic. MICHAEL, which is distributed internationally by Universal, added an impressive $549 million for an $846 million total.

The third highest grossing movie in May was Disney’s release of STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU with $247 million. At number #4 this month comes the first of two horror break-outs: Universal and Focus Features’ OBSESSION, grossing a phenomenal $148 million in May. OBSESSION was followed by April’s #1 THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE, from Universal, as the fifth highest grossing global release in May, adding $136 million for a cume of $991 million. The sixth highest grossing global release in May was Warner Bros’ MORTAL KOMBAT II, earning $126 million and easily outgrossing the pandemic-hit first part ($84m) from 2021.

On the final weekend of May the second horror break-out arrived with BACKROOMS, getting the seventh highest grossing global release of the month. The A24 title recorded $118 million within a few days, immediately making it the fifth highest A24 release globally so far. The final globally-released title that exceeded $100 million in May was THE SHEEP DETECTIVES from Amazon MGM. The family crime comedy grossed $102 million within the month.

International box office (excluding China)

In a strong year May marks an exceptional period for the International box office (excluding China). It performed +12% above the pre-pandemic benchmark for the month! That is the first time this decade the level has been exceeded in double digits and only the third at all! The prior high was July 2023 with +7%. It’s the highest grossing April since 2019 (-0.1%), noticeably up (+14%) on the same month in 2023. It is also a significant +22% ahead of the same period last year. It’s the sixth month in a row that records a year-on-year growth, the fifth in double digits (Jan: +15%, Feb: +16%, Mar: +23%, Apr: +24%). Further, eight of the past 9 months have performed better than the same month in the prior year!

Grossing a total of $1.75 billion made May the sixth highest-grossing month of the decade for the International box office (excluding China). After five months the cume is at $7.8 billion. This is +20% above last year, and +10% ahead of 2023, the prior peak of the decade. The gap to three-year average is only -8%! Remarkably ahead of the -15% gap at the end of last year.

Domestic

May in the Domestic market was nearly as magnificent as for the International box office. For the first time this year more than $1 billion was grossed within a month. The $1.05 billion is the fifth highest grossing month of the decade. The market was performing +6% above the pre-pandemic benchmark. This is the fourth narrowest gap to the three-year average of the decade. Further the narrowest since August 2024 (+15%). May box office was up +8% year-on-year, making it the highest grossing May since 2019 (-3%). It was the fourth time this year that an individual month grossed more than the same month year-on-year in the Domestic market.

The exceptional result in May was achieved by a wide variety of titles. In a neck-and-neck race, MICHAEL was number #1 in May adding $210 million for a $340 million cume, while THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 added $209 million. It’s the first time since July last year that two titles were able to surpass $200 million within a month and only the fifth time is has happened since 2019. The titles had a combined market share of 40%. Two more titles surpassed $100 million with STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU grossing $137 million and OBSESSION contributing $106 million. Having four titles above that level was the first time since July last year as well. An additional three titles grossed more than $50 million: BACKROOMS ($81m), MORTAL KOMBAT II ($78m) and THE SHEEP DETECTIVES ($55m). Having 7 movies above that mark hasn’t happened since July 2023 and only three times this decade! As THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE added $37 million for a $427 million cume and PROJECT HAIL MARY $33 million for a cume of $342 Million, a total of nine movies grossed $30 million within May. That was achieved for the third time in the past twelve months, but had only previously happened once since 2019, illustrating that more titles are regularly grossing above a certain floor. A positive record after April saw a very top-heavy performance with only seven movies grossing more than $10 million in the month overall (the lowest number since December 2022!).

After five months, the Domestic cume for the running year is at $3.7 billion. Due to the excellent May result the gap to the three-year average has narrowed to -21% at the end of May, down from -28% a month earlier. The cume runs +12% ahead of last year at the same time and +7% above the period in 2023, the prior peak of this decade.

China

For China coming off a disastrous April, which was the lowest grossing month in 3.5 years, this May was a relief. A total of $404 million was the second highest grossing month this year after the Chinese New Year-fuelled February. This May grew a significant +60% year-on-year. Nevertheless, this highlights more the struggles of the Chinese market. Three times this decade May performed higher than this year (2024: -5%, 2023: -18%, 2021: -42%). The gap to the pre-pandemic three-year average was -28% in May.

Finally, the first proper post Chinese New Year hit opened. The local family drama DEAR YOU grossed $206 million within the month, contributing half of the market’s May total. The surprise hit grew on the second and third weekends of its run, reflecting strong word of mouth. DEAR YOU became the second highest grossing title this year during the first days of June, surpassing BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS ($209m) and only behind blockbuster PEGASUS 3 ($639m). Behind DEAR YOU two May Day releases added significant box office. Local thriller VANISHING POINT grossed $71 million and Hong Kong police title COLD WAR 1994 earned $43 million. The latter is a prequel to the movie COLD WAR ($43m) from 2012, which it already outgrossed, but it will stay at less than half of the more successful sequel COLD WAR 2 ($96m) from 2016.

Despite the improving May results China’s year-to-date total of $2.3 billion is the lowest of the decade with the exceptions of the main cinema shut down year 2020 and 2022 (+3%). It’s down in double digits on the other years at the same point in time (2025: -42%; 2024: -28%; 2023: -28%, 2021: -38%). The gap to the pre-pandemic benchmark is -38%, while the year-on-year drop is by far the steepest of these territories.

Outlook

This start of the summer season couldn’t have been much better in prospect of box office and positive implications for the future of the theatrical industry. The month performed at the top end of this decade and even surpassed pre-pandemic box office levels for this season.

The first encouraging aspect is the fact the growth was driven by a majority of markets. The second is that it was a wide range of movies the success is based on. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 is a far too rare female-skewing blockbuster. OBSESSION and BACKROOMS are two horror originals by young first-time filmmakers emerging from a digital ecosystem. THE SHEEP DETECTIVES is a family murder mystery based on a book. MORTAL KOMBAT II and STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU are two male-skewing franchise instalments. Rounded up by strong holdover business of the blockbuster musical bio-pic MICHAEL and animated super franchise THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE. Last, but not least, the strengthening of a wider group of distributors is also encouraging. AMAZON MGM had its second $100 million plus release this year with THE SHEEP DETECTIVES and A24 is on a record streak with three already.

This diversification of sources of success and their nature is key for the further growth of the theatrical industry. June has already some of it on offer.