Top Ten Movies of 2026... So Far

Despite a lot of controversy, Michael (2026), the biopic about the so-called "King of Pop," Michael Jackson is now the highest-grossing biographical film of all-time, having crossed the billion-dollar mark, beating Christopher Nolan's Oscar-winner Oppenheimer (2023), which came close to a billion but didn't quite make it. It'll be interesting to see if Universal Pictures re-releases Oppenheimer to try to take back the crown. In the meantime, Michael is also the highest-grossing film from Lionsgate, its theatrical distributor, and it's the second-highest grossing film of 2026, behind The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) at $1.009 billion. Michael is essentially a jukebox musical where it just plays Jackson's songs, often in full, and you sit and listen to them with a thin story stringing them together. Because Jackson's songs are unquestionably good, there's not much to complain in terms of its entertainment value. In terms of dramatic storytelling, it's thin, which is why it doesn't make my list.

The financial successes of films, such as Project Hail Mary (2026) and Backrooms (2026), are notable. Project Hail Mary has beaten another Nolan film, that of Interstellar (2014), in its original theatrical run. Backrooms has broken a lot of records for A24 specifically. In general, its director Kane Parsons, at age 20, is now the youngest filmmaker to have a number-one film in the United States box office. He beat Josh Trank who at 27 achieved success with Chronicle (2012). Yet, like Michael, the dramatic storytelling or characterizations for both Project Hail Mary and Backrooms were too thin to make it to my list.

A lot of talk has formed around the film Obsession (2026). Curry Barker's film opened to $17.1 million, landing in third place. Its second weekend, it earned $23.9 million, which is an increase of nearly 40-percent, which is rare for a wide-release film to increase the amount of money it made from the weekend before. This film nearly doubled its intake. Its third weekend, it earned $26.4 million, which is an increase of 10-percent. A third weekend increase is even rarer. The fourth weekend had the smallest decrease in recent history. It's the first horror film to do this. It's the highest-grossing film for Focus Features. It's clear that this film is a hit, now standing at $426 million globally, making it one of the most profitable since its budget was under $1 million. Its success has also been compared to The Blair Witch Project (1999) and last year's Sinners (2025). I'm not the biggest fan of horror, but this film didn't capture me as it did others.

Just outside my list is Disney-Pixar's Hoppers (2026), which is the only film that I enjoyed that's currently in the top ten, worldwide, box office of the year. Stop! That! Train! (2026) is probably the second-funniest film that I've seen. I really enjoyed Halle Berry's performance in Crime 101 (2026). Finally, there were two martial arts films that I saw this spring that impressed me. The first was Mortal Kombat II (2026), which was buttressed by the performance of Karl Urban. The second was The Furious (2026), which was a Hong Kong action film that feels catered to English-speaking audiences. Interestingly, both films feature Joe Taslim, the Indonesian actor who I hope gets more work in Hollywood.

Here's my current, personal, top ten.