Warner Bros. Just Hit a Box Office Milestone It Hasn’t Seen in 25 Years, and Not the Good Kind

Hollywood studios live and die by their theatrical calendar, and few years have exposed that reality quite as bluntly as 2026 has for Warner Bros. After riding high through a genuinely stellar 2025 stretch, the studio’s fortunes have shifted dramatically, turning what should have been a year of momentum into one of its most challenging theatrical runs in recent memory.

That shift has played out release after release, with promising titles repeatedly falling short of expectations at the domestic box office. Even the studio’s stronger performers this year have failed to reach the kind of numbers that once felt routine for a major Hollywood player, setting up a milestone few industry watchers saw coming.

According to box office analyst Gitesh Pandya, Warner Bros. is entering September without a single film crossing the $100 million domestic mark in 2026, excluding the pandemic-disrupted year of 2020, a first for the studio in 25 years. Normally by this point in the calendar, the studio has at least one film past that threshold, if not two or three.

The numbers behind that milestone tell a stark story. Emerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ leads the pack domestically at $84 million, followed by ‘Mortal Kombat II’ at $79.8 million and ‘Supergirl’ at $72.4 million. J.J. Abrams’ ‘The End of Oak Street’ trails further behind at $51.4 million, with ‘Evil Dead Burn’ rounding out the list at $32.2 million domestically.

Pandya’s data also highlighted just how isolated Warner Bros. is among its peers this year. All four of the other major studios currently have at least two films that have crossed the century mark domestically in 2026, making Warner Bros.’ shutout even more striking by comparison. The studio hasn’t experienced a year like this since 2001.

‘Supergirl’ in particular has become emblematic of the studio’s struggles. The DC Studios release opened to just $37.1 million domestically before dropping a steep 74 percent in its second weekend, a collapse that reportedly has Warner Bros. bracing for a loss north of $100 million given the film’s roughly $170 million production budget and additional marketing costs.

Other high-profile releases fared similarly poorly. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Bride!’ managed just $24 million worldwide against a budget in the $80 to $90 million range, while ‘They Will Kill You’ pulled in only around $19 million worldwide on a $20 million budget, leaving little room for either film to turn any kind of profit.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s own quarterly report has acknowledged the rough stretch directly, with theatrical revenue reportedly down 46 percent year over year compared to prior comps that included hits like ‘A Minecraft Movie’ and ‘Sinners.’ The company’s shareholder letter reportedly conceded that the first half of the year fell short of expectations, specifically naming ‘Supergirl’ among the disappointments.

Despite the setbacks, the studio still has several major releases left on its 2026 calendar that could shift the narrative before year’s end, including Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ and further DC Studios output. Whether any of those upcoming titles can finally push Warner Bros. past the $100 million domestic threshold remains to be seen as the fall release corridor unfolds.

For a studio that just a year earlier was celebrated for delivering some of the industry’s biggest breakout hits, this kind of prolonged cold streak marks a dramatic reversal. How Warner Bros. course-corrects heading into its final months of 2026 could shape the conversation around its theatrical strategy for years to come.

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