Key Takeaway
Four films have already crossed $100 million domestically. Project Hail Mary opened bigger than anything except Oppenheimer for a non-franchise movie in the last decade. And Q1, traditionally Hollywood's dumping ground, turned out to be one of the strongest first quarters in years. Here's what's actually worth your time and money.
Something strange happened at the movies in early 2026. The first three months of the year, which studios have historically treated as a graveyard for contractual obligations and projects nobody believed in, were genuinely good. Time Out's film editors put it bluntly: "In how many other years have we gotten a killer horror sequel, a sharp, gross Sam Raimi return-to-form, a Gus Van Sant thriller and one of the best actor-to-director transitions in recent memory, all before April?" The domestic box office is up 23% over the same point in 2025, with four films already hitting $100 million. Ryan Gosling's Project Hail Mary opened to $80.6 million, the largest debut for a non-franchise film since Oppenheimer.
2026 also happens to have one of the most stacked second halves in recent memory: Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day arrives in June, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey in July, Toy Story 5 in June, and Dune: Part Three on Christmas Day. But you don't need to wait for those. Here are the films that have already earned their place on a year-end list, plus the upcoming releases worth planning around.
The best movies already in theaters (or just leaving them)
Project Hail Mary is the movie of the year so far, and it's not particularly close. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (the Spider-Verse films, The Lego Movie) adapted Andy Weir's novel about a schoolteacher (Ryan Gosling) who wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of how he got there, then slowly pieces together that he's humanity's last hope for saving the Sun. The film opened to $80.6 million domestically and $140.9 million worldwide, making it Amazon MGM Studios' biggest debut ever. By its second weekend, it had already passed $164 million domestic, tracking ahead of Dune: Part Two at the same point. Josh Gad called it "the first masterpiece of 2026," and while that's hyperbolic, the audience scores back him up: this is a genuine crowd-pleaser that works for families, sci-fi fans, and people who just want to feel something at the movies. PG-13, 2 hours 36 minutes, currently in theaters.
Send Help is Sam Raimi's best film in years, and maybe the most fun horror-comedy since the Evil Dead franchise. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien play an employee and her boss who become stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. The setup sounds like a workplace comedy. It is not a workplace comedy. Raimi uses the premise to build something genuinely unhinged: a survival thriller that keeps twisting into darker, funnier, more grotesque territory with every act. The New York Times praised its "cheeky score by Danny Elfman, darkly humorous tone and playfully yucky special effects," calling it "Raimi at his most gleeful and twisted." Deadline called it "the first movie gem of 2026." Rotten Tomatoes: 93% from 274 reviews. It grossed $94 million worldwide on a $40 million budget. If you liked Drag Me to Hell or the Evil Dead films, this is essential. R, in theaters.
Wuthering Heights is the most polarizing film of the year and arguably the most interesting for that reason. Emerald Fennell (Saltburn, Promising Young Woman) adapted Emily Bronte's novel with Margot Robbie as Catherine and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. Critics are divided: it's Fennell's lowest Rotten Tomatoes score, with some reviewers calling it a fever dream that loses the novel's structure and others arguing that's exactly the point. GamesRadar wrote that it "works because it's like a half-remembered dream." The audience didn't care about the critical debate. It opened to $32.8 million, became the first film of 2026 to cross $100 million worldwide, and recouped its $80 million budget in under a week. Fennell said she wanted it to be "this generation's Titanic," which it isn't, but it's the rare literary adaptation that provokes genuine arguments rather than polite indifference. Heading to digital on March 31.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is the wildest entry in the franchise. Nia DaCosta took over directing duties from Danny Boyle (who directed the first sequel, 28 Years Later, released last year), with Alex Garland returning to write. Ralph Fiennes anchors the film with what Time Out called "a remarkably layered performance." The reviews were strong (92% on Rotten Tomatoes), though the box office underperformed relative to its predecessor, opening $17 million below the first sequel's debut. Still, if you're invested in the franchise, this is a smarter, weirder, and funnier installment than anyone expected from a middle chapter.
Scream 7 did exactly what it needed to do: deliver a competent slasher sequel that didn't embarrass the franchise. It earned $118.9 million domestically (a new franchise record, surpassing Scream 6), accounted for more than a third of Q1's total horror revenue, and reminded studios that brand-driven horror remains commercially reliable. It's not the best Scream movie, but it's a perfectly solid one, which in a franchise on its seventh installment is an accomplishment.
The smaller films you probably missed
No Other Choice (Gus Van Sant) is a tragicomic true-crime film about a strung-out Indianapolis man (Bill Skarsgard) who took his mortgage broker (Dacre Montgomery) hostage in 1977 using a rigged shotgun. Time Out placed it on their best-of-2026 list, calling it firmly in Van Sant's wheelhouse alongside To Die For and Elephant. It's the kind of mid-budget character study that barely gets made anymore, and Van Sant wrings genuine tension and dark comedy from material that could have been a grim true-crime slog.
Pillion is a debut from director Harry Lighton that Rotten Tomatoes' consensus describes as "an unconventional romance that soars thanks to its nonjudgmental perspective and knockout performances." Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling star in a story about a timid man swept into the world of a charismatic biker. It's strange, tender, and completely unlike anything else released this year.
Little Amelie, or the Character of Rain is a French animated film (co-produced by Natalie Portman) that the Washington Post included on their best-of-2026 list. It's based on an Amelie Nothomb novel about a toddler who believes herself to be God, and it sounds absurd, but multiple critics have called it one of the most profound animated films in recent memory. Greater Good called it "thoroughly charming and surprisingly profound." If you have access to art-house theaters or a streaming platform carrying it, it's worth the effort.
Redux Redux earned Rotten Tomatoes' Certified Fresh with a consensus calling it "a fiercely imaginative, nerve-shredding multiverse thriller." Michaela McManus stars as a woman who travels through parallel universes to repeatedly kill her daughter's murderer. The premise sounds derivative of Everything Everywhere All at Once, but reviewers insist it finds its own emotional register: grief weaponized into obsession.
What's coming that actually matters
The rest of 2026's calendar is absurdly loaded. Here's what deserves your attention, sorted by when you can see it:
April: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (April 1) will dominate the box office the way its predecessor did. The Mummy (April 17), a Lee Cronin reimagining of the franchise, is the horror bet of the month. Charlize Theron stars in the Netflix action thriller Against (April 24). Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic starring his nephew Jaafar Jackson, arrives April 24 with Antoine Fuqua directing and Colman Domingo in the cast.
May: Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (already in theaters) features Samara Weaving returning alongside Kathryn Newton and, bizarrely, David Cronenberg. Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man hit Netflix in late March and debuted to 25.3 million views, Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby apparently still commands an audience.
June: Disclosure Day (June 12) is Steven Spielberg reuniting with Jurassic Park writer David Koepp for an original sci-fi film about a UFO, starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, and Colman Domingo. This is the prestige event of the summer. Toy Story 5 (June 19) brings back Andrew Stanton (Wall-E, Finding Nemo) to direct. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (June 26) is the next chapter of James Gunn's DC Universe, starring Milly Alcock. Jackass 5 (June 26) is also happening, because the universe has a sense of humor.
July: Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. That's all you need to know.
December: Dune: Part Three, Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune Messiah, closes the year on Christmas Day with Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Florence Pugh.
The state of the box office in 2026
The numbers tell a story that contradicts the "movies are dying" narrative. The domestic box office has already crossed $1.7 billion through late March, up 23% from the same point in 2025. Amazon MGM leads all distributors with $241.5 million (Project Hail Mary contributing 68% of that total). Disney and 20th Century Studios, combined, sit at $450.8 million.
Four films have reached $100 million domestically: Project Hail Mary ($164 million and climbing), Hoppers ($138 million), Scream 7 ($118 million), and Sony's animated GOAT ($100 million). Last year, only Captain America: Brave New World had hit that mark by the end of March.
The trends worth watching: PG and PG-13 films are dramatically outperforming R-rated releases at the box office, continuing a pattern from 2025 when Zootopia 2, Lilo & Stitch, and A Minecraft Movie dominated globally. Horror remains commercially reliable year-round (studios are finally treating it as a four-season genre rather than a Halloween novelty). And original, non-franchise films can still open huge when the material is right: Project Hail Mary proved that a $150 million-budget adaptation of a novel with no built-in franchise can compete with sequels and reboots.
The biggest flop so far: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple earned strong reviews but underperformed commercially, proving that critical acclaim and franchise recognition don't always translate into opening-weekend dominance, especially when the film is a middle chapter released in January. Markiplier's Iron Lung ($17.8 million opening) was the wildcard success, proving that YouTube-to-movie pipelines can work when the creator has a genuine vision rather than just a following.
What to skip
Not everything in Q1 was a winner. Return to Silent Hill is, in IndieWire's words, "every bit the slog you feared." Video game adaptations remain a coin flip, and this one landed tails. Mercy, Amazon MGM's January release starring Chris Hemsworth, opened to a modest $10.8 million and faded quickly; it's competent but forgettable in a way that mid-budget thrillers often are when they prioritize star power over script. And while Iron Lung proved that a YouTuber can make a real movie, the sub-$1 million budget shows: it's a fascinating curiosity for Markiplier's audience and a patience test for everyone else.
The broader pattern holds true from 2025: films that exist primarily because an algorithm or franchise obligation demanded them continue to underperform relative to films where a specific person had a specific vision. Audiences can smell the difference, and they're voting with their wallets accordingly.
What to watch this weekend
If you have time for one movie: Project Hail Mary. It's the kind of film that makes you want to call someone afterward to talk about it, and that experience is better in a theater.
If you've already seen it: Send Help, which is still playing in some theaters and will hit streaming soon. Sam Raimi's particular brand of controlled chaos doesn't age or calm down; it gets more entertaining the more unhinged it becomes.
If you want to see something nobody else has seen: track down Little Amelie, or the Character of Rain, or Pillion, or the Palestinian drama All That's Left of You, which Rotten Tomatoes called "a moving chronicle of generational trauma and perseverance." The small films of early 2026 are as good as the big ones, which is the kind of sentence you don't get to write very often.
And if you're planning ahead: Disclosure Day is the film to circle on your calendar. Spielberg, original sci-fi, Emily Blunt, June. If that doesn't get you to a theater, nothing will.
We ranked every streaming service earlier this year (we wrote about that), so if you'd rather stay home, you know which subscriptions are worth keeping. But some of these films earn the drive, the overpriced popcorn, and the two hours in the dark. The first three months of 2026 have been good enough to remind you why.
