The Most-Watched Movies in the World: July 2026
July 2026 produced the biggest box office weekend ever recorded and a streaming chart led by a comedy nobody saw coming. Here are the month's most-watched films in cinemas and at home, with the actual numbers.
Two films turned July 2026 into the highest-grossing month cinemas have ever recorded. At home, the streaming chart told a completely different story ā one led by a comedy and a true-crime documentary.
Watching happens in two places now, and the two rankings barely overlap. Here are both.
In cinemas: the biggest weekend in box office history
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey opened on 15 July. Two weeks later, on 29 July, Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived. Together they produced a single weekend worth roughly $430 million in North America ā the largest collective weekend ever recorded.
| Film | Released | Budget | Worldwide gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spider-Man: Brand New Day | 29 July 2026 | $225,000,000 | $1,665,089,000 |
| The Odyssey | 15 July 2026 | $250,000,000 | $1,104,804,890 |
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened to roughly $360 million domestically, taking the all-time opening weekend record from Avengers: Endgame ($357 million, 2019), and around $932 million globally in three days. Its second weekend held at about $145 million ā the third-biggest second weekend ever recorded.
The Odyssey became Christopher Nolan's highest-grossing film, passing $1.1 billion worldwide. It did so with a 173-minute running time and no existing franchise behind it.
Gross figures above are as of 10 August 2026 and both films were still in release.
At home: what people actually streamed
Netflix publishes weekly global viewing hours ā the only major streamer that does. Aggregated across the five reporting weeks covering July, the English-language film chart looked like this:
| # | Film | Hours viewed | Views | Weeks in Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 72 Hours | 82,700,000 | 47,200,000 | 2 |
| 2 | Voicemails for Isabelle | 70,300,000 | 35,800,000 | 5 |
| 3 | Enola Holmes 3 | 67,300,000 | 37,400,000 | 3 |
| 4 | A Toxic Love Story | 46,800,000 | 30,900,000 | 2 |
| 5 | Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea | 30,100,000 | 20,100,000 | 2 |
| 6 | KPop Demon Hunters | 29,300,000 | 17,600,000 | 5 |
| 7 | Little Brother | 28,400,000 | 17,000,000 | 2 |
| 8 | Swapped | 16,900,000 | 10,000,000 | 3 |
| 9 | The Boss Baby | 15,800,000 | 9,700,000 | 3 |
| 10 | Ordinary Angels | 13,800,000 | 7,000,000 | 2 |
Most-watched non-English films worldwide
| # | Film | Origin | Hours viewed | Views |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Desire | Mexico / Spain | 52,100,000 | 32,000,000 |
| 2 | Elize: Shadows of a Woman | Brazil | 52,000,000 | 33,600,000 |
| 3 | The Debt Collector | Thailand | 36,700,000 | 16,500,000 |
| 4 | Ikka | India | 30,300,000 | 12,900,000 |
| 5 | Nothing to Lose | ā | 25,100,000 | 14,800,000 |
What the two charts say together
Cinema is now event-driven, streaming is habit-driven
Spider-Man earned more in three days than every film on the Netflix chart combined was watched in a month, measured in dollars. But 72 Hours reached 47.2 million completed views in two weeks without a single ticket sold. These are different businesses measured in different units, and July showed both working at once.
Longevity beats launch on streaming
Voicemails for Isabelle never topped the chart, yet finished second for the month by staying in the Top 10 for all five weeks. KPop Demon Hunters, a 2025 title, was still charting a year later.
Non-English film is genuinely global
July's top five non-English films came from Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Thailand and India. No single market dominated.
A note on the numbers
Box office figures come from TMDB and press reporting as of 10 August 2026; both cinema releases were still running, so totals have since moved. Streaming figures are Netflix's own published global data, aggregated across the reporting weeks ending 5, 12, 19 and 26 July and 2 August 2026.
These streaming numbers cover Netflix only. Disney+, Prime Video, HBO Max and Apple TV+ publish nothing equivalent, so a film that led on those services in July simply cannot appear on this chart.
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Spider-Man: Brand New DayFAQ
What was the highest-grossing movie of July 2026?
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, released 29 July 2026. It set an all-time record with an opening weekend of roughly $360 million in North America and about $932 million worldwide, and had reached $1.665 billion globally as of 10 August 2026.
What was the most-watched movie on streaming in July 2026?
72 Hours led Netflix's global English-language film chart with 82.7 million hours viewed and 47.2 million views, achieved in just two weeks on the chart.
Did July 2026 really set a box office record?
Yes. The weekend of 31 July produced roughly $430 million in combined North American ticket sales, driven by Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey ā the largest collective box office weekend ever recorded.
Is The Odyssey Christopher Nolan's biggest film?
Yes. The Odyssey passed $1.1 billion worldwide, making it Nolan's highest-grossing film, ahead of Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight Rises.
Do these streaming numbers include Disney+ and Prime Video?
No. Netflix is the only major streaming service that publishes actual global viewing hours. Disney+, Prime Video, HBO Max and Apple TV+ do not release comparable figures, so their titles cannot be ranked alongside.