2026’s Final Month Already Looks Like The End Of An Era For 1 Genre
Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.
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2026's movie lineup in the final month of the year seems primed to bring about the end of an era for one genre and its current box office record thus far. While there's no genre that hasn't had some major hits in the world of film, it's also fair to say that some corners of the format have had a more generally prolific history compared to others, for better or for worse.
Generally, big-budget blockbuster film success stories tend to veer into action movie territory, oftentimes with a fantasy or sci-fi leaning depending on what kind of adventures the universe in question is offering. This is by no means a strictly bad thing, but it does mean that other genres outside of this territory can often be underrepresented in the box office records of any given year, even if this time period had some notable offerings in other regards.
Currently, 2026 breaks this rule in a sense, with its box office leaderboards having a nice range of different offerings that have reached these major milestones. With that said, though, the later releases of the year do strongly suggest that one notable box office record for 2026 is set to be slashed before we reach its end.
2026's December Lineup Looks Like It Will Bring Major Change For The Horror Genre's Box Office Record
2026's top 10 movie roster is currently comprised of a range of genres, including one exciting addition: a horror movie, in the form of Obsession.
Unlike the likes of superhero movies, action movies or sci-fi films, horror tends to remain outside of a year's highest grossing films, even when it has strong grossing showings like It. Indeed, most of the past years in recent history have not had a horror film remain in the year's top 10 highest grossing movies, with 2007's I Am Legend being the last real exception to this rule.
Though Obsession's box office currently changes this, the horror genre's current status as being in 2026's top 10 biggest box office hits looks as though it will likely not be maintained by the end of the year. Obsession is currently the 10th highest-grossing 2026 film thanks to its $522 million box office, meaning that if either Avengers: Doomsday or Dune: Part Three outgross it - or both - the horror genre will once again be absent from this leaderboard, despite having a seriously strong showing in 2026 overall.
2026 Will Still Be A Huge Year For Horror, Whatever Happens To Its Top 10 Movie Lineup
Even if 2026 ends without a single horror movie in its box office top 10 - once again underlining the genre's status as an often underappreciated corner of the world of cinema - this doesn't diminish the impressive results the genre has garnered over the course of the year overall.
Between Obsession, Backrooms, and Resident Evil's impressive box office totals - which are all within the year's top 15 box office hits - and the positive reception of these films as well as releases like Iron Lung and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, 2026 has repeatedly proven that the horror genre is still a heavy-hitter in terms of narrative potential and infinite excitement. As such, the genre is still one primed for success, even if 2026 may close with the genre losing one box office record by the end of the year.
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