Movie theaters are making a comeback in 2026, and it's easy to see why

In 2020, the world was racked by a global pandemic that forced hundreds of millions of people indoors. MIllions lost their lives and many more got sick, and their suffering is obviously the thing that should most be remembered…but have you considered that movie theaters were also having a hard time? With everyone social distancing, few were willing to see movies in public, which was to be expected. But after COVID restrictions started to lift, it became clear that they weren’t coming back. Some pundits predicted that we were watching the death of the movie theater in real time.

But now, in 2026, the data shows that the industry may finally be recovering, thanks to saviors both expected and surprising.

2026 is the biggest year for movie theaters since before the pandemic

The numbers don’t lie

Bolstered by blockbusters like Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, 2019 was one of the best years for the box office on record, with domestic totals alone topping $11 billion. Revenues plummeted during the thick of the pandemic and have never fully returned. They’ve hovered around $9 billion for the past couple years, even as movie theater owners do everything they can to lure people back to cinemas.

In 2026, their efforts finally started to work. As of April 8, domestic box office revenues came in at $2.113 billion, a 23.5% spike over where they were at this point in 2025. That’s been driven by sci-fi blockbusters like Super Mario Galaxy and Project Hail Mary, but also smaller films like The Drama and Reminders of Him, both romantic dramas that have made back their modest budgets and then some. That’s important, because while major brand-name films like Mario Galaxy are all but guaranteed to draw families out of the house, a movie theater should ideally be able to lure in people with a range of offerings for every taste, even if the movies themselves aren’t as well-marketed. The animated hit Hoppers, the literary adaptation Wuthering Heights, and the horror sequel Scream 7 (which has the highest revenue of any movie in the Scream franchise) have also helped buoy theaters this year.

That doesn’t mean the domestic box office will reach the highs of 2019, but it could at least come close. After all, there are a lot of potential mega-hits coming out this year, including the Michael Jackson biopic Michael (April 24), The Mandalorian & Grogu (May 22), Masters of the Universe (June 5), Toy Story 5 (June 19), Supergirl (June 26), Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey (July 17), Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31), The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (November 20), and then the climax of Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three, which are both scheduled to come out on December 18.

In a 2025 Civic Science study of why people don’t go to the theater as much as they used to, the most common answer wasn’t about the convenience of streaming or the high price of tickets; it was lack of interest in movies being shown. If that’s true, then Hollywood seems like it’s finally addressing what ails it.

Youngs to the rescue

Gen Z sees movies at higher rates than older generations

Before these signs of recovery, conventional wisdom held that the declining fortunes of movie theaters were due mostly to younger people who prefer watching everything on their phones to seeing it on a big screen. But it ends up that this crotchety old man take is wrong. According to a Fandango study (per Variety), 87% of Gen Zers saw at least one movie at the theater in the year prior, compared to 82% of millennials, 70% of Gen Xers and 58% of baby boomers. Gen Zers and millennials also saw more movers per year on average: around seven, higher than Gen X at 6.1 and baby boomers at 5.7.

So younger viewers will be the people who save movie theaters, not doom them. According to the study, Gen Zers tend to see moviegoing as a social experience. You can see evidence of that in, for instance, clips of younger audiences collectively freaking out during showings of A Minecraft Movie last year. That’s an extreme example, but it could point a way forward for Hollywood studios in choosing what kinds of movies they make.

And those studios do seem to be picking things more in line with what younger viewers might be interested in. Once upon a time, video game movies were seen as groan-inducing cash-ins, but video games are hugely popular (moreso than movies), so it’s a good idea to try and cater to that market. Enter a film like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which was clearly more than a quick cash grab and which has been rewarded accordingly. I’d also expect great returns for The Legend of Zelda movie when it comes out in 2027.

We’re also seeing more homegrown influencers getting involved in filmmaking, a shift away from the old model of celebrity into something that younger viewers might be more familiar with. The gaming YouTuber Jacksepticeye, who has over 31 million subscribers, will be helping Sony make a new movie based on the popular video game Bloodborne. Earlier this year, the gaming YouTuber Markipliar (over 38 million subscribers) had a hit with Iron Lung, a movie based on an indie video game that he self-financed. Backrooms, a new movie about a piece of obscure internet lore coming out in May, is being directed by a filmmaker who blew up on YouTube. Hollywood is meeting newer audiences where they live, which is very smart.

Foreign films finish first

It’s a group effort

We’ve been talking about the market in the United States and Canada, but there’s a whole world of movies out there, and it’s more important than ever. In fact, four of the highest grossing movies of 2026 so far were made outside Hollywood. The single highest grossing film of the year up to this point is Pegasus 3, a Chinese sports comedy about race car drivers (and not a fantasy film about winged horses as I initially assumed).

The increasing prominence of foreign films may not be good news for Hollywood per se, but it’s potentially great news for movie theater owners around the world. After all, Hollywood movies have raked in cash from movie theaters outside the United States for decades, so why shouldn’t the reverse happen?

YouTube’s new strategy will help it get closer to its goal of replacing all TV

YouTube has long disrupted the traditional TV market. Now it’s trying to replace it.

Creeping back to normal

Also, there are just more movies coming out these days, now that Hollywood has ramped production back up after the duel whammy of COVID and the 2023 writers and actors strikes set things back. Plus, major studios like Universal are pledging to keep movies in theaters for longer, theatrical windows having shrunk during COVID. Overall, it’s hard to shake the feeling that theaters are on their way back in a big way.