Universal has just pulled off something no other Hollywood studio has managed yet in 2026, becoming the first major to cross the $4 billion mark worldwide for the year, and in doing so, overtaking Disney in this year's box office race.

The milestone comes just weeks after Disney became the first studio to hit $3 billion back in late June, a mark Disney has yet to build past, while Universal has now surged ahead with a full billion-dollar cushion. It's a striking shift given how dominant Disney's early-year run once looked, and it puts Universal in rare company this year.

Universal's tally breaks down to roughly $1.53 billion domestically and $2.48 billion internationally, and a huge part of the push has come from Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, a film that landed at Universal only after Nolan's long partnership with Warner Bros. quietly fell apart in the years following Tenet. Three weekends into release, the film is closing in on the $1 billion mark worldwide, with its global running total now sitting at $911 million.

Its third weekend alone brought in $136.2 million globally, powered by a massive $68 million from IMAX screens, marking the format's second-highest-grossing weekend ever. Notably, The Odyssey pulled that number while still missing three major markets, China, Japan, and Korea, where the film has yet to launch.

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This marks the first time since 2023 that Universal has crossed the $4 billion threshold, and only the fifth time in the studio's history overall. It is also a bit of a reversal from last year, when Warner Bros. was the first studio to hit $4 billion, even though Disney ultimately finished the year on top.

Universal's strength in 2026 goes well beyond a single milestone. Only three films have crossed $1 billion worldwide so far this year, and Universal is behind two of them, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Michael. The studio has also led the global weekend box office ten separate times so far in 2026, an unusually dominant stretch for any single studio.

Universal and its Focus Features division also account for five of the year's ten highest-grossing films worldwide, including three of the top five: Michael at No. 2, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie at No. 3, and The Odyssey at No. 4, with Obsession landing at No. 9 and Minions & Monsters at No. 10. Three of those top five films are also distributed internationally by Universal. Obsession, meanwhile, has quietly become both Focus Features' highest-grossing film ever worldwide and Blumhouse/Atomic Monster's biggest hit to date, pulling in $475 million globally.

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Which of Universal's 2026 releases has impressed you the most? Let us know in the comments!