What is powering the return of US ‘originals’ at the global box office?

It is shaping up to be a very good year for non-sequel, non-franchise US films. As of mid-­August, these films from US studios and independents occupied four of the top 10 spots on the year’s global box office chart, according to box­officemojo.com. By comparison, only one managed to crack the global top 10 for 2025.

Many in the industry are using the term ‘originals’ as shorthand to refer to these films, which include The Odyssey, Michael and Project Hail Mary. While these three are indeed based on existing IP - Homer’s epic poem, the early life of a musical superstar and a best-selling book by Andy Weir, the author of the book on which the film The Martian was based- the fact is they are neither sequels nor franchise films, and many in the distribution and exhibition sector are happy to embrace them as ‘originals’. 

These US originals will gross $8.25bn worldwide for 2026 as a whole, estimates the FranchiseRe box office newsletter, representing 37% of the total box office for Hollywood films. This would be the biggest share attributable to originals since the ‘Barbenheimer’ bonanza year of 2023. The strong showing has been put down to the growing influence of social media-savvy Gen Z cinema­goers and the much-discussed franchise fatigue blamed for disappointing performances from the likes of Supergirl, Masters Of The Universe and Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu.

Added to that, some US non-franchise, non-sequel titles have been given an extra boost by the international marketplace, where emerging and otherwise challenging territories offer fresh opportunities and, in some regions, higher concentrations of the youthful audiences that can generate word of mouth vital to the success of an original release. FranchiseRe estimates 43% of this year’s box-office haul for US originals will come from international markets, the highest percentage since before the pandemic.

“An original Hollywood story that also provides an entry point of relatability and pedigree is a powerful combination internationally,” says Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of distribution for Universal Pictures International (UPI), which released three of the year’s top-­ranking originals outside North America.

Two of this year’s billion-­dollar box-office smashes show what originals can achieve in their global rollouts. By mid-August, after its first six weekends in cinemas, UPI’s The Odyssey had grossed 61% of its global $1.29bn from international territories.

Christopher Nolan’s take on the ancient Greek tale — considered original since most ticket buyers will have been only vaguely familiar with Homer’s epic poem — gave the UK filmmaker his biggest-ever openings in markets including France, Spain and Brazil, and in its second weekend dropped only 3% in international markets. Italy, which has a cultural connection to the story and provided some of the film’s locations, was a particular hotspot.

From Asia, South Korea and India (where The Odyssey stands as the biggest US original of the year so far) both rank among the film’s top 10 markets. And in China, where Nolan and his starry cast went on an extensive publicity tour, the film appears to have found an audience of educated middle-class cinema­goers with a proven taste for mythological stories, opening with $36.3m.

Vandenberg credits the film’s global strength to the fact Nolan is “a singular filmmaker with a strong international fanbase, applying his craft to interpret one of the most influential works of all time”.

Jackson pops

Michael, Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic distributed by UPI in most international markets, began its rollout in late April and ended up taking $655.3m (64% of its $1.03bn global gross) in the international marketplace. Built around some of the late superstar’s best-known songs, and ending its story before the surfacing of child abuse allegations against Jackson, the film rode its subject’s border-crossing fame to score the biggest openings for a musical biopic in more than 60 markets, including the UK & Ireland, France, Mexico and Brazil.

In Japan, where musicals are traditionally a big draw and where Kino Films distributed in association with Lionsgate, Michael over-indexed with an impressive $49.1m, ranking the territory third among the film’s top 10 markets. In Russia, where Volga distributed, Michael moonwalked to $33.1m, making it that market’s highest-­grossing release of 2026 so far (according to box­officemojo.com).

Family-oriented originals have also been connecting with audiences in the international marketplace. Hoppers, the Disney/Pixar animation about an idealistic teen and a cute crew of endangered woodland animals, began its run in March with the biggest global opening for an animated original since 2017’s Coco. Its international tally of $223.7m (57% of its global $398.7m) nearly tripled the figure achieved by summer 2025’s misfiring Pixar original Elio.

Besides opening and holding well in traditional animation-friendly markets like the UK and Germany, Hoppers over-indexed in Latin America and notched $26.9m in China, the film’s biggest international market by a considerable margin. Key to the China performance was marketing the film on the back of Disney’s late-2025 blockbuster Zootopia 2 and getting positive reactions on audience score apps such as Maoyan and Douban.

“Part of the trick with an original is just getting the word out and getting influencers to see it as early as possible,” says Walt Disney Studios head of global distribution Andrew Cripps.

Project Hail Mary, Amazon MGM Studios’ upbeat space adventure starring Ryan Gosling and Germany’s Sandra Hüller, also launched in March, with Sony Pictures Entertainment distributing in most major international markets. The UK, Australia and Germany made big contributions to the $340.1m international haul (representing 50% of the worldwide $684.1m), but so did South Korea, Japan and India, all of which rank in the film’s top 10.

China was Project Hail Mary’s second-­biggest market, with $40.8m, and it was this year’s biggest non-­franchise Hollywood film in the country until The Odyssey. Amazon MGM Studios head of international theatrical distribution Helen Moss says Project Hail Mary held up internationally because it found an audience beyond its sci-fi core — and far beyond the readers of Andy Weir’s source novel — allowing the film to be considered an original.

“It went from the sci-fi audience to a wider audience, including females, and then even wider,” reports Moss, adding that the film “arrived at a time when people wanted to believe in something positive”.

Building ‘Obsession’

Even relatively niche US originals aimed at younger audiences have found success in the evolving international arena. Obsession, the buzzy low-budget horror film from YouTube creator Curry Barker, was acquired by NBCUniversal’s Focus Features and launched in the US in May; it rolled out in stages internationally, through independent distributors and UPI.

“We gave it a staggered release internationally so it could be discovered, allowing buzz to build and the movie to grow over time,” says Vandenberg, noting the film offered “a great story, brilliantly executed, with a universally sticky concept”.

Strong holds and repeat viewing by twentysomething film­goers helped Obsession to an eventual international take of $232.2m (47% of the overall $495.7m). Notable contributions came from Australia, where the film became the highest-­grossing horror release in a decade, India, the Middle East and China, its top international market with $26.8m.

A24’s edgy comedy The Drama, with Norway’s Kristoffer Borgli directing Robert Pattinson and Zendaya, opened in April through independents in most markets, and gleaned an impressive $84.4m — 64% of its global total — internationally. Helped by the appeal of its stars, and perhaps by what some see as its European sensibility, The Drama connected in markets such as the UK, France and Italy, and, more surprisingly, in Russia-CIS, the film’s second-biggest market with a $9.2m gross.

Community spirit

A24’s own social media-derived horror offering Backrooms, meanwhile, followed its sensational North American take of $197.5m with an equally impressive $196.4m internationally. Adding to a big opening in the UK and a record take from Australia-­New Zealand (both territories where A24 itself distributed), Kane Parsons’ breakout scored $12.1m from Russia-­CIS and $27.2m from China, making the territory its biggest individual market total.

“When stories resonate with something already alive in the culture, the community does the work,” says a source close to the film of Backrooms’ success. “Audiences have been living with this IP for years across YouTube, Reddit and TikTok, building mythology, creating content and developing community. And that opens the door for even broader audiences who want to experience something original.”

Distributing Backrooms itself in the UK and Australia, and launching the film in those countries day-and-date with the US, allowed A24 to implement “a consistent international marketing push that let us build momentum across markets at the same time the film was breaking out”, adds the source.

Making the most of emerging as well as long-established international markets has been a significant factor in the success of several of this year’s standout US originals. Distributors cite India and the Middle East as markets where young, digitally savvy audiences are available but are influenced more by online chat than reviews and can increasingly choose between local and imported content for their entertainment.

“India continues to be a growing market, but a confusing market,” says Amazon MGM’s Moss. “There’s a voracious appetite for Hollywood content, as there is for local content.”

Less than five years ago, Russia-­CIS was a top 10 market for US films. But the major US studios stopped releasing their pictures in the region when Russia invaded Ukraine, and have maintained that policy over the four-and-a-half years since. Independent companies, though, continue to sell their films to local distributors in the territory, taking advantage of the lack of competition from studio franchises and originals. As a result, this year’s top 20 chart for Russia-CIS (from boxofficemojo.com) includes not just Michael, but also Lionsgate’s The Housemaid, A24’s Backrooms, The Drama and Marty Supreme, and Focus Features’ Obsession.

“Piracy aside, Russia is starved of Hollywood content,” notes Robert Mitchell, director, theatrical insights at Gower Street Analytics.

With a population of 1.4 billion, China perhaps represents the most enticing opportunity for US studio and independent distributors of both originals and franchise-­based films. Before the pandemic, Chinese authorities seemed keen to bring US films into the country to feed theatres created by a building boom. Since the pandemic, however, an increase in the number of local productions on release has made it difficult for incoming films to break through. When the US and China were tussling over tariffs last year, there were fears authorities would cut back on imports even further.

The current temperature of the market is hard to gauge. Hollywood franchise films such as Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Zootopia 2 have recently cleaned up in the territory, but China remains an expensive and unpredictable proposition for other types of films.

Among this year’s crop of US originals, horror hits Obsession and Backrooms are “the sort of films that pre-pandemic wouldn’t even have got released in China”, suggests Mitchell. “[But in recent years], we’ve seen more of these sorts of films getting in and becoming successful. It feels like there is an audience there that has been underserved.”

For Moss, China remains “a tricky market”. But, citing the performance of Project Hail Mary, she says: “When you’ve got the right film and you put it out, it will work.”

Missing the mark

Not all of this year’s US ‘originals’ have succeeded, of course, either internationally or in North America. The Bride!, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ambitious spin on the Frankenstein story, failed to click with young audiences and managed just $11.2m internationally for Warner Bros. Mercy, an Amazon MGM Studios sci-fi crime drama starring Chris Pratt that Sony Pictures Releasing International handled internationally, struggled to a $30.3m total outside North America. Even Steven Spielberg’s aliens-among-us thriller Disclosure Day, with $124.1m internationally, was seen by some to have missed out by failing to secure the kind of young filmgoers who flocked to Obsession and Backrooms.

But judging by the recent performances of Toy Story 5 (with $639.7m internationally) and Spider-­Man: Brand New Day (with $1.4bn internationally, after four weeks), franchise fatigue could yet turn out to be a fleeting malaise.

Still, the global success of this year’s original hits bodes well for some of the films lined up for release in the second half of 2026. Among those projects are Digger, Alejandro G Iñarritu’s comedy drama for Warner Bros, with Tom Cruise’s considerable box-office pull; Universal’s DreamWorks Animation adventure Forgotten Island; Amazon MGM’s Colleen Hoover romantic thriller adaptation Verity; Disney’s animated Hexed; and independent Sylvester Stallone biodrama I Play Rocky.

Success for at least some of those titles will be of crucial importance for distributors and exhibitors who this year are finally seeing their industry begin to recover after a nearly disastrous post-pandemic slump. Sequels and spin-offs may seem like safer bets at the box office, but originals are what make franchises possible in the first place, as some of this year’s original hits are hoping to prove — the second part of Michael is expected to arrive early next year, Barker has talked about a sequel to Obsession and, continuing what A24 calls a “new model of franchise development”, Parsons is reportedly seeking a writing partner for a Backrooms follow-up.

Disney’s Cripps puts it simply: “We’re not going to have sequels tomorrow if we don’t have originals today. There has to be a mix.”

Worldwide box office numbers: by film title

Source: Universal, A24, Amazon MGM Studios, Disney; box-office grosses to August 16 

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