Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The Odyssey. Obsession. These are just some of the movies that dominated the record-breaking domestic box office this summer– which brought in an all-time high of $4.76 billion.
All in all, the summer of 2026 was a great year for the international and domestic box office alike– but how did the local Regina scene respond to these record-breaking films?
Led by Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Regina’s Kramer IMAX Theatre saw its biggest summer yet.
“The Odyssey was the biggest movie ever for IMAX Corporation,” said Ryan Holota, Chief Operating Office at the Saskatchewan Science Centre, “but it was also the best attended movie, Hollywood movie at the Saskatchewan Science Centre ever. So definitely for us over the summer it was very, very busy, much busier than it would usually be,” he adds.
And with the Regina IMAX being one of only 41 locations in the world, “That’s become quite, I’m gonna say, an international draw for us because we do get a lot of people from outside of Saskatchewan that have been coming,” said Holota.
During COVID-19, and for a few years after, attendance at the movie theatres across the world, and here in Regina, dropped dramatically. After the closing of Regina’s discount theatre Rainbow Cinemas in 2022, rising ticket and snack prices, and overall cinema experience in a possible decline, movie-goers didn’t rush back to the theatres right away.
Although the attendances were down, and it seemed as though cinema-going experience was a lost art, audiences did return.
In late 2023, Moonlight Movies, a new local discount theatre, opened their doors and amassed a large following on social media. On August 20th of this year, Moonlight Movies boasted online about their recent success with their drive-in theatre in Pilot Butte;
“It is official. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the busiest movie we have ever had at our Pilot Butte drive-in. Last weekend was our third in a row playing it and Saturday was the busiest day yet! Usually things start to taper off, but not this one.”
For local movie-goers Tyler and Brianna Shoe, “Actually, it might be more convenient really,” said Brianna. “Convenience, in the past with our lives, it’s been harder to make it to the theatre. But recently we’re able to go more often,” Brianna adds.
Many other histories were written by the movies of the summer– The Odyssey became the highest grossing IMAX movie ever, actor Tom Holland became the highest-grossing actor of all time with a groundbreaking $15.5 billion revenue worldwide, and Obsession became the highest-grossing movie in history with a budget under $1 million.
With the success of Moonlight Movie’s Drive-In location, and the ever elusive IMAX theatre in Regina showing never before done full length feature-film The Odyssey, it seems that this record-breaking summer was indeed a win for local theatres and for Regina audiences who choose to see the movies on the big screen this summer.
