The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day Ruled Labor Day Box Office

The final holiday frame of the 2026 summer showed two different kinds of box-office endurance. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey returned to the top of the worldwide chart in its eighth weekend, while Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day remained the No. 1 film in North America for a sixth consecutive weekend. Their combined performance helped define a summer in which theatrical ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada reached $4.6 billion through August 30. 21526

The Labor Day results at a glance

For the September 4–6 weekend worldwide, The Odyssey led with $46 million, including $33 million internationally. Its worldwide cumulative gross rose to $1.63 billion, with $1.04 billion coming from international markets across 85 territories. 2

Spider-Man: Brand New Day ranked second globally with $44.1 million for the three-day frame, including $26.1 million internationally. Its worldwide total reached $2.40 billion, including $1.48 billion internationally, across 68 territories. 2

The North American order was reversed:

Rank	Film	Three-day gross	Four-day Labor Day gross	Domestic total
No. 1	Spider-Man: Brand New Day	$18 million	$23.3 million	$923 million
No. 2	The Odyssey	$13 million	$17.2 million	$588.9 million

The three-day and four-day figures reflect different holiday-frame measurements, so they should not be treated as competing estimates. 7

Why the two films held so strongly

Brand New Day had the broadest domestic hold. In its sixth weekend, it played in 3,520 theaters and declined 20% from the prior three-day weekend, an unusually durable run for a major summer release. Its $923 million four-day domestic total put it within $18.9 million of the then-record domestic gross cited by The Numbers. 714

The film is the fourth standalone Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland; Zendaya co-stars with him. Holland also appears in The Odyssey, making him a conspicuous link between the holiday weekend’s top two domestic releases. 89

The Odyssey was especially resilient for an eighth-weekend release. Its domestic three-day gross fell only 9% to $13 million, despite its theater count dropping to 2,312. That performance moved it from third to second on the North American chart while it reclaimed the global lead. 152

Records and the IMAX advantage for The Odyssey

Premium-format exhibition was central to The Odyssey’s run from the beginning: the film opened to $124.5 million domestically and $264.1 million worldwide, with large-format screenings contributing significantly to the launch. 34

By early September, it had become Christopher Nolan’s highest-grossing film and Universal’s second-highest-grossing release, behind Jurassic World, according to Deadline. Its IMAX 70mm engagement was extended through September 30 at 39 venues worldwide, taking the format run to 11 weeks. 1829

The film was also reported as the highest-grossing IMAX release ever, with $457 million globally from IMAX screens. Reuters reported that The Odyssey helped renew interest in 70mm exhibition during the summer. 2226

Its overseas runway was still expanding: earlier reporting said the film was scheduled to open in Japan on September 11. The supplied reporting does not provide a verified Japan-preview gross, so that figure cannot be assessed here. 39

A summer-box-office recovery, with limits to the conclusion

Rentrak data reported by Reuters put U.S. and Canadian summer ticket sales at $4.6 billion from the first weekend of May through August 30—26% above the previous summer. Theater owners and analysts characterized the season as the strongest post-pandemic summer, with analysts projecting that the full-year domestic market could exceed $10 billion. 26

That does not mean these two releases alone caused the recovery. But their late-summer staying power illustrates the value of two complementary theatrical propositions: a globally scalable franchise release in Brand New Day, and a premium-format event film in The Odyssey.

The rest of the Labor Day chart

Coyote vs. Acme finished third both domestically and worldwide. It earned $11.3 million over the domestic three-day weekend and $14.5 million over four days, reaching roughly $37 million domestically. Globally, it took in $20.8 million for the weekend and reached $57.3 million cumulatively. 72

Paramount’s new release By Any Means opened fourth domestically with $7.4 million over three days and $9.1 million over four days from 2,903 theaters. 715

The next major test was Practical Magic 2, scheduled for a September 10 theatrical debut. It was projected to open above $40 million, while The Odyssey retained additional IMAX screens through September—an important advantage in the premium-format marketplace. 2518

The bottom line

The two leaders did not dominate in exactly the same way. Spider-Man: Brand New Day owned the North American weekend for a sixth consecutive frame and was nearing the domestic all-time record, while The Odyssey used international demand and IMAX strength to lead the world in its eighth weekend. Together, they supplied the clearest late-summer proof that audiences were still turning out for theatrical events at scale. 2726