Warner Bros. Box Office Cold Streak Continues

What’s up with Warner Bros.’ cold streak? After a red-hot 2025 that saw the studio net $4.38 billion at the box office and win 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, this year’s slate has been miss after miss.

The latest is “The End of Oak Street,” filmmaker David Robert Mitchell’s dinosaur adventure starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. The Bad Robot film grossed just $21 million this weekend, which makes the road to profitability at the box office difficult against a budget north of $80 million. But at least the film scored mostly positive reviews, which isn’t the case for all of WB’s 2026 slate.

The year kicked off with Emerald Fennell’s divisive “Wuthering Heights,” which ended up being a soft hit at $242 million worldwide. And then…

• “The Bride!” – $24 million worldwide, $80 million budget
• “They Will Kill You” – $19.4 million worldwide, $20 million budget
• “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy” – $90 million worldwide, $22 million budget
• “Mortal Kombat II” – $129 million worldwide, $80 million budget
• “Supergirl” – $126 million worldwide, $180 million budget
• “Evil Dead Burn” – $71 million worldwide, $20 million budget

Aside from a couple of cheap New Line horror films, the results aren’t pretty. And the slate is devoid of the kind of big creative swings that gave Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy a lot of clout last year.

The studio will have a megahit later this year in “Dune 3,” and September’s “Practical Magic 2” has the potential to be a sleeper while the Bill Hader-led “The Cat in the Hat” could mark a welcome animated hit in November as Warner Bros. Animation gets rebooted. There’s also a big creative swing in Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Tom Cruise’s “Digger” in October. But overall, that’s a pretty rough follow-up to what was one of the most impressive studio runs in recent memory in 2025. All under the specter of the looming Paramount acquisition.

Is 2027 better? Box office-wise, it should be pretty hefty with the “Minecraft” sequel, “Superman” sequel and a Bradley Cooper/Margot Robbie-fronted “Ocean’s” prequel. And we’ll find out if “Lord of the Rings” still has juice in the tank next December with “The Hunt for Gollum.”

For now, though, the “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” afterglow is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Now, on to the rest of this week’s Reel to Real column as we tackle David Ellison’s California threat, Disney’s slew of D23 announcements, the return of a lauded filmmaker and more. If you want this directly in your inbox every Monday as a newsletter, go to “Newsletters” in your WrapPRO account settings.

Box Office: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Joins the $2 Billion Club

After three weekends in theaters, Sony/Marvel Studios’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has made history as the eighth film to gross $2 billion at the global box office.

The milestone was assured after its $360 million domestic/$927 million global launch at the end of July, as the film enjoyed excellent reception from critics and audiences alike. With a $70 million domestic third weekend, the movie is well on course to keep on rolling past post-COVID shutdown megahits like “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Ne Zha 2” to become the third film to reach $2.5 billion before inflation adjustment, joining “Avatar” and “Avengers: Endgame” in that elite club.

Domestically, the film is also pushing to become the highest-grossing release of all time by passing the $936 million record set in 2016 by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” “Brand New Day” is on pace to reach that mark with $785 million after three weekends, 5.6% ahead of the pace set by “Force Awakens,” though its mid-week grosses have been lower compared to that film’s holiday season run.

Theatrical sources tell TheWrap that “Brand New Day” is falling off the pace to become the first movie to gross $1 billion from domestic receipts alone but could still pass “The Force Awakens” with an estimated final total of around $960 million.

In second on the charts once again is Universal/Syncopy’s “The Odyssey” with $23.2 million in its fifth weekend, pushing Christopher Nolan’s film past $500 million in domestic grosses as it continues to show remarkable legs. For comparison, Nolan’s previous film “Oppenheimer,” once the highest-grossing biopic of all time, had a fifth weekend total of $10.7 million.

In a narrow race for third are two dinosaur-focused new releases: Warner Bros./Bad Robot’s “The End of Oak Street” and Paramount/Spin Master’s “Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie.” “The End of Oak Street” has the edge with a $21 million domestic/$47 million global opening weekend.

Directed by David Robert Mitchell, the thriller about an emotionally distant family whose neighborhood gets dropped into a prehistoric world faces an uphill battle to theatrical profitability against its $80 million budget. To get there, it will need to get some solid word-of-mouth, particularly among Gen Xers and older millennials nostalgic for movies like “Jurassic Park” and “Jumanji.”

The film has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 85% from critics and 78% from audiences to go with a B on CinemaScore and 3.5/5 on PostTrak, scores relatively consistent with last year’s “Jurassic World: Rebirth.” With kids going back to school in the U.S., it may be up to general audiences to carry this end-of-summer title.

“Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie” opened to $20.5 million from 3,545 locations. That’s just a couple steps below the $22.7 million opening of “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” in 2023. The titles have long legs as rewatchability makes them lucrative licensed films for Paramount once they hit streaming. – Jeremy Fuster

The Spotlight

Would David Ellison really move Paramount out of California? That’s the question all of Hollywood asked last week when word broke that he told his top lieutenants that he’s ready to move the company — either standalone or combined with Warner Bros. Discovery — out of state if the state AGs led by Rob Bonta don’t come to the negotiating table. Lucas Manfredi and I broke down how real this threat is, and why in the world Paramount would consider moving to Nashville, Atlanta or Austin in the first place. Read the full story

New Releases

The Return of a Filmmaker Darling: What happened to the guy who made 2021’s acclaimed “The Vast of Night?” Drew Taylor sat down with filmmaker Andrew Patterson to find out why it took half a decade for his second movie to materialize.

Josh D’Amaro’s Vision: Drew Taylor was onhand for Josh D’Amaro’s first D23 as Disney CEO. Here’s how it went.

Theater Execs on Paramount: Jeremy Fuster surveyed the theatrical exhibitor landscape to find out why there’s a divide over supporting or blocking Paramount’s WBD acquisition.

Dunesday Box Office: Presales for both “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune 3,” which open on the same day in December, are strong. Get ready for a huge box office.

D23 News Galore: Marvel revealed its “X-Men” cast, “Star Wars: Starfighter” footage wowed and “Frozen III” got a first look. Catch up on all our newsbreaks.

More Globes Drama: The Golden Globes Foundation fired CEO Gregory Goeckner after he was named in a lawsuit from the HFPA.

Will Lionsgate Be Sold?: TheWrap’s Jon Lafayette surveys an activist investor’s demand for the movie studio to sell itself.

RIP Hayden Panettiere: Awful news.

Concession Stand

Netflix is giving its animated “Charlie vs. the Chocolate Factory” a theatrical release and a 45-day window next year.

The next “Backrooms?” A Jeff the Killer movie is in the works from TikTok creator Savanah Moss and Tongal.

Johnny Depp is in talks to return for a new “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, but the question is how big of a role would it be?

“Zootopia 3” is officially happening — and they’re adding birds!

The first “Bluey Movie” teaser revealed the highly anticipated feature film was made using 3D animation, as opposed to the show’s 2D style.

Walt Disney Imagineering is going ham on all the new updates in the Disney Parks.

Alden Ehrenreich has joined Joseph Kosinski’s “Miami Vice ’85,” starring Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler.

Streaming Corner

• What movies did people most watch on streaming this summer? Interestingly enough, theatrical releases did great — “Hoppers,” “Project Hail Mary” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” were among the top-streamed movies this summer. Longer theatrical windows put no damper whatsoever on the films’ streaming performance, which is why Universal is extending its theatrical windows starting next year. See Loree Seitz’s full report here.
• Ben Affleck just keeps pumping out Netflix thrillers. Next up, “Animals.”

What I’m Watching

While this year’s big DC movie was a flop, at least their TV effort is a home run. “Lanterns,” which debuted on HBO on Sunday, is a terrific spin on the Green Lantern hero. More “True Detective” than superhero show (I mean that as a compliment), Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are terrific as the mismatched duo trying to solve a mystery, all with a superpowered ring in their possession. It’s smart, funny and tremendously compelling.