Hollywood wakes up and comes roaring back

Hollywood’s summer recovery has not belonged only to the biggest productions. The industry took in $4.6 billion through the final weekend of August, a 25% increase from the same period a year earlier, but the more striking change came from the range of films finding audiences.

A year earlier, the outlook had been far darker. The 2025 summer season ended with $3.67 billion in ticket sales, well below exhibitors’ $4 billion expectation. Even Superman and Jurassic World Rebirth could not lift the total. The result left the summer roughly level with 2024, a year badly affected by Hollywood strikes and remembered through the industry slogan, “Survive until 2025.”

The turnaround in 2026 has included the kind of blockbusters studios traditionally depend on. Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day broke records and entered the top three highest-grossing films in history. Universal’s The Odyssey became Christopher Nolan’s highest-grossing film and the most successful R-rated movie ever. Pixar’s Toy Story 5 is performing better than any previous film in the franchise.

Yet those hits do not tell the whole story. The industry’s most discussed breakthrough has been Obsession, a horror film by Curry Barker that cost only $750,000. Focus Features acquired it from the Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival, and word of mouth helped turn the film into a Hollywood phenomenon. After its May 15 release, it passed $500 million worldwide.

The success has encouraged studios to look more closely at films across the budget spectrum. The rise of Obsession, alongside Backrooms, has prompted a new question in the industry: when will the next low-cost film break through in the same way?