August is typically a slow month at the box office. This year is different.
According to The Wrap, domestic grosses in August have reached an all-time monthly record of $1.1 billion through Sunday, August 24. That breaks the previous record of $1.019 billion set in August 2016.
The driving force is Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Excluding its opening day total of $169.8 million on July 31, the Sony and Marvel Studios blockbuster has contributed $685 million to overall domestic grosses this month alone. That figure accounts for approximately 62 percent of all ticket sales in the United States and Canada in August.
This is only the third time that the August box office has cleared $1 billion domestically. The previous two times also featured major superhero films. In 2016, DC's Suicide Squad led the month with $286.4 million. In 2014, Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy topped August with $275 million.
What separates this August from those earlier records is how concentrated the grosses are at the top. Behind Spider-Man, the next highest grossing film this month is Universal's The Odyssey with $180.5 million through Saturday. The film below that, Warner Bros.' The End of Oak Street, has earned just $38 million.
Together, Spider-Man and The Odyssey account for 78 percent of all August business. In 2014, the top two films combined for 43 percent of that month's total. In 2016, the top two films combined for 37 percent.
Brand New Day is now chasing the all-time domestic gross record of $936 million held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The Odyssey currently stands as the highest grossing R-rated film ever made. Theaters are riding what The Wrap described as the strongest summer they have seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The numbers also reflect shifting habits in how studios release films and how audiences choose which movies to see. Fewer mid-budget films are making it into theaters, and the ones that do face a harder path competing against the largest tentpoles, even when reviews are strong.
