Almost instantly after school got out for the summer of 2026, Hollywood did what it always ought to do: gave us a reason to leave our couches and go out to the multiplex. The season opened with Curry Barker, a Gen Z YouTube comedian, making his theatrical directorial debut with “Obsession.” Bolstered by an Oscar-worthy performance from the equally young Inde Navarrette as the lead, the film dives into the complexity and anxieties of modern love through the lens of a possession trope. Refusing to give easy answers and keeping you on the edge of your seat, “Obsession” greatly impressed me and, evidently, tons of other people. Made for less than $1 million, it has currently grossed over $500 million, making it one of the most profitable films ever made.
Original ideas and filmmaking continued to dominate the box office with “Backrooms,” made by the independent studio A24. Based on an internet “copypasta” and directed by Kane Parsons—a director younger than some of the undergrads reading this—“Backrooms” made around $400 million. It accomplished this despite its competition being the first Star Wars theatrical film since 2019’s dreadful “The Rise of Skywalker.”
I personally did not catch “Backrooms” due to my studying abroad, but couldn’t escape the buzz. It drew praise from its internet fandom and casual watchers alike. Though A24’s film did not reach the critical or financial highs of “Obsession,” both films show audiences’ new preference for authentic, director-driven filmmaking, rather than the “sequel slop” of the last decade or so.
The summer’s true event films arrived in July. Three years ago, Christopher Nolan released his masterpiece “Oppenheimer,” which rode tense science, a magical performance by Cillian Murphy and Nolan’s virtuosic directing to seven Oscars and nearly $1 billion. Rather than rest on his laurels, Nolan decided to prove he owns the director’s chair by adapting the original Western myth, Homer’s “The Odyssey,” into a three-hour blockbuster. Choosing to shoot as much on location and in-camera as possible, as well as entirely in IMAX, Nolan intentionally stacked the cards against himself, his cast and his crew as they sought to make a great film.
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They succeeded. Nolan adopts the role of the bard for his “Odyssey,” reinterpreting the tale as immediately relevant for his current audience, rather than as a museum piece for preservation. In Nolan’s hands, Matt Damon’s Odysseus becomes not only a meditation on cleverness, guile and loyalty, but also on grief, guilt and humility. While imperfect, there is no denying the film is truly great and an achievement in every sense of the word. Of the all-star cast, Robert Pattinson, Himesh Patel and Anne Hathaway stand out, but no bad performance draws the eye. The production design, score and special effects immerse one fully in Nolan’s Ancient Greece, and his take on the myths, far from dumbing down the supernatural, makes the poem’s fantastical pieces immediate and real.
Audiences agree: Nolan crafted in “The Odyssey” a fantastic cinematic experience that deserves your attention, in IMAX film if possible. Barely a month after release, it is the highest-grossing R-rated film ever made. Even my hard-of-hearing grandfather got his friends to go see this loud adaptation of a poem older than democracy. (For the record, he liked it, even though he “doesn’t like Matt Damon.”) The film’s impact on the next generation will be profound, and I would keep an eye on it for awards season.
However, Nolan would not win the overall box office. That honor would go to two of his stars, Zendaya and her husband Tom Holland. Their new film, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” starring Holland as the web-slinger, has grossed over $2.2 billion in its first month in theaters. Grounding Holland’s Peter Parker and introducing Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, “Brand New Day” marks the return of MCU Spider-Man after five years, only a few months before the new “Avengers” installment in December.
I’ve considered Holland my favorite Spider-Man for years, but I don’t really like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” very much. Others and I have our critiques of that and Holland’s other films; Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton clearly heard them. “Brand New Day” looks as good as any MCU film, and features kinetic action, solid character moments and a clear thematic throughline. It depicts Spider-Man as a Gen-Z hero, complete with loneliness, yearning and uncertainty about how to use his power for good. While the script muddles its villain and some ideas don’t completely land, the combination of MCU joy with authentic, timely filmmaking clearly resonated with audiences.
After the muck of the great franchises of the 2010s, the streaming slop of the early 2020s and the constant remakes, sequels and reboots of these last two decades, Hollywood has a chance to learn a lesson here. Three of the summer’s biggest films came from directors and writers exerting their vision and giving audiences the best thing a filmmaker can—something they didn’t know they wanted in the best possible way. The fourth, and biggest film, was a sequel to an established franchise, but wasn’t afraid to say something, mix up its hero and push the artistry of said franchise forward.
Hollywood rarely learns the right lessons. But if it can learn the right ones from 2026, we should be in for some great movies soon.
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