2026: The Year Movies Became Fun Again?
'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' continues a trend of fun, excellent crowd-pleasers that looks to continue throughout the year
Hollywood has had a long road back after the COVID pandemic: even when rules and regulations surrounding social distancing and mask-wearing started to ease, massive strikes, a shrinking industry in L.A., and overt political messaging across the board were making it harder and harder for filmmakers to both sustain themselves and make the movies they wanted to make. Some of my favorite movies of the past couple years have been made outside Hollywood entirely (Godzilla Minus One, Perfect Days) or made through a streaming service (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Wake Up Dead Man). Often it was a better bet to see what was streaming than to either take a risk on a wide-released new theatrical film or to drive an hour or two away to the small theater that was playing some excellent but obscure independent film.
This has proven to be a boon for studios like Angel Studios, A24, and Neon: when studios like Paramount and Warner Bros are too busy either selling themselves or acquiring each other, talented directors, producers, and writers are going to take their productions to smaller studios that they feel will better protect their creative vision. When no studio would touch Andy Serkis’ long-gestating adaptation of Animal Farm, Angel Studios swooped in, and likewise for all the films that Neon gave distribution to that ended up getting nominated for Best Picture, including Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent.
So with independent studios clearly getting the best of the best when it comes to talent, how will the big studios stay relevant?
Aside from simply getting increasingly consolidated, they will have to do something they were hoping wouldn’t have to until the most dire of times:
They Will Have to Make Good Movies that People Want to See in Theaters
This seems stupidly simple, but it gets more complicated after reflection. Let me explain using a scientific term:
The Top Gun: Maverick Effect
In 2023, Steven Spielberg approached Tom Cruise at a luncheon for Oscar nominees, and candidly told him:
You saved Hollywood’s a** and you might have saved the entire theatrical industry (Source)
You might think, this is hyperbolic, but it’s not. Top Gun: Maverick was shot from 2018-2019, before the pandemic. When theaters became a risky option during COVID, Cruise ended up being the sole person standing in the way of Paramount, who wanted to dump the film onto the then-new Paramount+.
As it turned out, the film not only grossed $1 billion dollars but became the highest-grossing movie in Paramount’s entire history!1
What fueled this massive box-office success? In fact, it was fueled by the most under-served demographic in America when it comes to movies: Middle America. Maverick overperformed particularly in the South and the Midwest, where older, more conservative audiences felt comfortable taking their families to watch a patriotic, well-made, and FUN movie that they didn’t just see once, but over and over. This same effect launched Angel Studios with a surprising bang with Sound of Freedom, which outperformed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny on the Fourth of July in 2023, a seemingly insignificant but prophetic milestone.
Aside from Indiana Jones, Disney ended up having some of the biggest box-office and critical bombs of the year, including Wish, The Marvels, and The Haunted Mansion. Disney had reached a point (especially after 2022’s Strange World as well) where their name was no longer synonymous with quality family entertainment, but the kind of entertainment that subtly corrupts and is just- simply put- no good.
(Excellent thread on this above if you’d like a Hollywood director’s perspective)
So in 2026, what does it take to make a hit film?
Obviously, known IP is still super-important (Disney’s highest-grossing films of last year were- in order- Zootopia 2, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and Lilo & Stitch), but increasingly audiences are shifting towards movies like F1: original movies that demand the big-screen experience with a big star while also not containing any sort of political agenda.
We’re seeing it again this year with the success of Project Hail Mary and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the latter being from Illumination Animation, which has owed a lot of its success to making fun family movies that are just that- fun family movies! Even smaller films like Nirvanna The Band the Show the Movie benefited from strong word-of-mouth and smart marketing- also when there is a dearth of quality comedies in the market, movies like Nirvanna or last year’s reboot of The Naked Gun are going to clean up at the box office.
I’ve only seen four movies this year thus far: Iron Lung, Nirvanna The Band the Show the Movie, Project Hail Mary, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and I would’ve happily rewatched any of those if given the chance (in the case of Project Hail Mary, I did!).
Looking ahead, movies that I am definitely going to check out in the coming months include, Michael, Backrooms, Disclosure Day, and The Odyssey, all non-sequel films that are not made to start any sort of cinematic universe (although with Michael, it is the beginning of a two-parter depending on if this one is a success). I hope to see all of these with friends and/or family in a packed theater on the biggest screen possible, just like I recently did with my family this past Saturday with the new Mario movie.
This year, to this longtime cinephile, is shaping up to possibly be the best year for movies since 2017! I remain optimistic about this year’s slate, and am looking forward to the Moana remake’s eventual bombing at the box office (seriously, if you don’t want to see a Tangled or Frozen live-action remake, boycott Moana at all costs! They only make these movies because people keep seeing them!!).
To quote Robert Altman’s excellent 1992 satire of Hollywood, The Player:
Movies, now more than ever!
I wrote a long time ago about the rise and fall of Paramount, particularly with their meteoric, Michael Bay-fueled rise in the late 2000s and their subsequent fall after terrible mismanagement (resulting in them being acquired by David Ellison, whose company produced Maverick).
Thanks for the article! I would say one Disney live-action remake that is worthwhile is Cinderella; other than that, I have no interest in seeing any of them. Disney remakes (movies, stage shows, shows on ice) are mostly just a way to squeeze as much $$ as possible out of the same idea. Pitiful.
Hollywood just needs to go back to making mid budget films that try to reach as broad an audience as possible. Not every film needs to be a spectacle.