Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | June 8, 2026
Who has the power? A comedy sequel or a nostalgic IP reboot? Typically, I would bet on the latter, but if we’ve learned anything from the box office reports of 2026, it’s that things are changing. The Scary Movie franchise returned with a vengeance this Summer. Stand back, woke! The critics thought this one was terrible, but some kinds of nostalgia work better than others, and apparently the time was right for a parody of the era’s most beloved horror movies. The Wayans brothers made bank over the weekend with a $55 million gross.
That’d be impressive enough if it had no real competition for audiences’ attentions, but its victory lap included taking over He-Man, and the race wasn’t even close. Masters of the Universe debuted at number two with only $29.3 million. Oh wow, another Jared Leto flop? Who could have seen it coming? Reviews were better than that of Scary Movie but there still wasn’t a ton of enthusiasm for the film. This was meant to appeal to a demographic that didn’t grow up with the ’80s cartoon and it seems they weren’t interested. They had way more alternatives to check out in theatres.
Backrooms saw a sharp 68% drop from its opening weekend, but its $135 million domestic gross is still a very big deal. The horror is now A24’s highest-grossing title ever, taking over Marty Supreme. Right behind that is Obsession, which continues to have startlingly good word of mouth and saw a mere 6% drop in earnings from the previous week. Reported budget: $750,000 to $1 million. Current worldwide gross: $224.7 million.
The Amazing Digital Circus is an animated webseries about a group of people stuck inside a hellish circus-themed virtual reality world. Imagine if Club Penguin had the nihilistic mood of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. The movie, which provides the conclusion to the show, managed to earn an impressive $11.5 million from 2,221 theatres. Fans organised a campaign to get the film in cinemas, much as Markiplier’s fans did for his movie, Iron Lung. Gen Z’s favourites are on YouTube and they’ve used the platform to build up a fanbase and creative style that has allowed them to push open a lot of doors.
Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting turns 30, so it received a mini re-release in 374 cinemas and took in $270,783.
In limited release news: the anime movie Jinsea grossed $9,250; and Underland, a documentary based on the book by Robert Macfarlane, earned $7,256.
This coming week sees the release of the campy RuPaul comedy Stop! That! Train! and the Steven Spielberg blockbuster Disclosure Day.
You can check our the rest of the weekend box office numbers here.
