Universal beat Disney to $4 billion at the 2026 box office
Universal crossed the mark on August 2, the first studio there this year and its first time since 2023. Disney was first past $3 billion in late June and hasn’t announced a $4 billion crossing.
Universal got to $4 billion first.
The studio confirmed it crossed the mark worldwide on Sunday, August 2, making it the first studio to reach the figure in 2026. It’s Universal’s fifth time over that threshold and its first since 2023.
Disney announced passing $3 billion globally in late June. It has not announced a $4 billion crossing.
What about Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has hit well over $1 billion. Here’s the kicker: that is a Sony film and not a Disney film. Sony has the rights to Spider-Man. Disney gets a cut of the money, but not the lion’s share.
How Universal got to $4 billion
The split says as much as the total. Universal counts $1.53 billion domestically and $2.48 billion internationally, meaning roughly 62 cents of every dollar came from outside North America.
Three films have crossed a billion worldwide this year. Universal has two of them: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie from Illumination and Nintendo, and Michael, on which Universal was the international distributor and booked $566 million.
Super Mario Galaxy was the year’s first billion-dollar film and pushed that franchise past $2 billion cumulatively. It opened at number one worldwide and stayed there three weekends running.
Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey has since crossed a billion of its own after a record-setting Nolan opening.
Universal has led the global weekend box office 10 times this year. Together with Focus Features it holds five of the year’s top ten worldwide grossers and three of the top five. Focus’s Obsession became that label’s highest-grossing release ever at $475 million.
The number Universal doesn’t have
Here’s the part that makes the milestone stranger than the press release suggests.
The biggest movie of 2026 is Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it belongs to Sony. Universal reached $4 billion without the year’s number one film on its books.
Its top title, Michael, sits at number two. Super Mario Galaxy is third, The Odyssey fourth.
That’s a portfolio result rather than a tentpole result, and it’s the opposite of how the studio year usually gets won.
What this looks like from Disney’s side
Disney’s path to $3 billion ran through Toy Story 5, the live-action Moana, and Hoppers.
Two of those went differently than planned. Moana has taken $262.7 million worldwide against a reported $250 million production budget, and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu finished near $345 million. CEO Josh D’Amaro acknowledged on the company’s August 5 earnings call that both fell short of box office expectations, arguing they still drove retail, parks, and streaming.
Toy Story 5 did clear a billion, and Disney has held it up as proof the model works.
Last year Warner Bros. was first to $4 billion and Disney still finished the year on top, which is the useful caution here. Being first to a milestone in August settles nothing about December.
Disney has Avengers: Doomsday at Christmas. Universal has the rest of its slate and a 10-week head start on the conversation.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
NBCUniversal official announcement (August 2026), the $4 billion crossing, the domestic and international split, and the studio’s own breakdown of its top performers
Deadline (August 2026), the top-ten rankings and the Warner Bros. comparison from last year
Screen Daily (August 2026), the per-title figures for The Odyssey, Super Mario Galaxy, and Michael, plus the Focus Features record
The Walt Disney Company newsroom commentary from Josh D’Amaro (August 5, 2026), the acknowledgment on the franchise films