Spielberg’s ‘Disclosure Day’ Edges Past ‘E.T.’ With Audiences, But the Reception Tells a Complicated Story
Few events in modern blockbuster cinema carry the anticipation of a Steven Spielberg return to science fiction. ‘Disclosure Day’, released June 12, 2026, marks the legendary director’s first extraterrestrial outing since 2005, starring Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo in a sprawling alien conspiracy thriller. With a screenplay from longtime Spielberg collaborator David Koepp and an original score by John Williams, the Amblin Entertainment production carries every hallmark of a classic summer event.
The story follows a group of whistleblowers racing against time to leak a 78-year archive of UFO sightings and alien secrets to the global public, while corporate enforcers work to silence them at every turn. Emily Blunt plays a meteorologist drawn into the unraveling conspiracy, while Josh O’Connor portrays the cybersecurity expert whose act of defiance sets the entire chain of events in motion. The production filmed across New York, New Jersey, and Atlanta from February to May 2025.
The audience numbers are now in, and they make for striking reading. ‘Disclosure Day’ earned a 75% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes from over 1,000 verified ratings, placing it second among all of Spielberg’s alien films with audiences, just behind ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, which holds an 85%. More notably, the score edges past ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ at 72%, while ‘War of the Worlds’ trails the pack at 42%, as highlighted by ScreenRant.
Critics proved equally receptive, awarding the film an 81% on the Tomatometer, with several reviewers singling out the story’s exploration of human empathy and faith as what separates it from standard UFO spectacle.
Nicolás Delgadillo of DiscussingFilm awarded the film four and a half stars, describing its conviction that empathy remains humanity’s defining quality as its greatest strength, and arguing that ‘Disclosure Day’ ultimately becomes a story about people understanding one another rather than a conventional alien encounter.
The full picture carries some caveats, though. The film received a CinemaScore of B, one of Spielberg’s lowest, while its IMDb rating settled at a more cautious 6.9. An anti-climactic third act, uneven pacing in the middle stretch, and a handful of plot holes sparked real division among audiences who were otherwise swept up by the spectacle.
One point of near-universal agreement is the caliber of Emily Blunt’s central performance, with multiple critics flagging her portrayal as a strong awards contender and among the most emotionally layered work of her career. The actor’s enthusiasm for the project was evident long before the cameras rolled. Blunt told Entertainment Weekly that Spielberg had become like her “movie dad” and described working alongside him as “the privilege of privileges.”
‘Disclosure Day’ opened to $44 million at the domestic box office, the biggest debut of any original Spielberg film. For a director who has spent decades demonstrating that blockbusters can carry real moral complexity, it feels like a fitting chapter in a remarkable career. Now that audiences have weighed in and placed it above ‘E.T.’ but below ‘Close Encounters’, where do you think ‘Disclosure Day’ ultimately lands in Spielberg’s alien legacy?
