Movie theaters across America raked in $4.61 billion in ticket sales over the summer of 2026, Hollywood’s best season in over a decade, yet the numbers show a rebound driven by fresh faces, Gen Z crowds, and high-end screens, not a simple return to business as usual. After years of pandemic-era closures and lackluster box […] The post Hollywood’s summer box office surges as audiences return, but the numbers reveal a more complicated comeback appeared first on American Almanac .
Movie theaters across America raked in $4.61 billion in ticket sales over the summer of 2026, Hollywood’s best season in over a decade, yet the numbers show a rebound driven by fresh faces, Gen Z crowds, and high-end screens, not a simple return to business as usual. After years of pandemic-era closures and lackluster box office takes, the U.S. movie industry recorded its strongest summer performance since 2013, with a 26.1% jump in domestic ticket sales compared to 2025. The surge, tracked from May 1 through August 31, was confirmed by Rentrak and cited by The Associated Press . But beneath the headline, the recovery reflects changing tastes, new industry players, and a younger audience taking the lead. Filmmakers and executives are…Open
Disney poured a reported $250 million into its live-action "Moana" remake, and the return so far is not encouraging. The film opened at No. 1 domestically over the weekend of July 11, 13 with an estimated $43 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, a figure that, for a quarter-billion-dollar production anchored by Dwayne Johnson, […] The post Disney's live-action 'Moana' remake lands at No. 1 but delivers a weak $43 million opening appeared first on American Almanac .
Disney poured a reported $250 million into its live-action "Moana" remake, and the return so far is not encouraging. The film opened at No. 1 domestically over the weekend of July 11, 13 with an estimated $43 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, a figure that, for a quarter-billion-dollar production anchored by Dwayne Johnson, lands well below the kind of blockbuster territory the studio needed. Add in $52 million from 50 international markets and the global opening weekend comes to $95 million. That sounds like a lot of money until you measure it against what Disney spent to make the picture, and what the animated franchise pulled in not long ago. The animated sequel "Moana 2" opened to $225 million domestically over Thanksgiving…Open
Johnson joins fellow stars Auli'i Cravalho and Catherine Laga'aia to take viewers behind the scenes of the live-action adaptation of the classic animated film.
Dwayne Johnson and Catherine Laga‘aia launched the live-action "Moana" press tour as new song "Along The Way," written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, debuts ahead of the June 26 soundtrack release.
BURBANK, CA — Due to some clever thinking by producers of Walt Disney Pictures' live-action Moana remake, the $150 million film was able to save big on its budget by just getting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson an $8 wig from Spirit Halloween.