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It doesn\u2019t have a catchy portmanteau name and the dates don\u2019t quite align, but there are distinct echoes of the Barbenheimer phenomenon<\/a> (when Barbie and Oppenheimer were released in the same week in July 2023) about the near-synchronous release of Christopher Nolan\u2019s latest opus<\/a> and the new Spider-Man film \u2013 not least in their extraordinary performance at the box office, and the hope it has inspired that cinema might not be dead after all.<\/p>\n Two weekends after opening with an impressive $13.46 million, Nolan\u2019s The Odyssey<\/a> took another $6.2 million locally, bringing its haul to $42 million in three weeks.<\/p>\n But Spider-Man: Brand New Day<\/a> has very nearly eclipsed that total already, taking $30.43 million on its opening weekend (and $38.4 million for the full week) \u2013 the second-best result ever, behind only Avengers Endgame\u2019s $34.1 million in 2019. Combined, those two blockbusters \u2013 each of which counts real-life couple Tom Holland and Zendaya among its stars \u2013 accounted for the bulk of last weekend\u2019s total box office haul of $39.2 million.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the biggest non-holiday weekend of all time,\u201d says Palace Cinemas boss Benjamin Zeccola. \u201cBarbenheimer was $39.9 million, but that included a public holiday, so it\u2019s not quite like for like. If it weren\u2019t for the public holiday in 2019 this weekend was the biggest on record.\u201d<\/p>\n The story has been repeated around the world \u2013 in North America, Spidey opened to an astonishing $US360 million in its first weekend, and its global tally is already at $US1.155 billion, while The Odyssey sits at $US931 million globally.<\/p>\n And locally, it firms up a perception that has slowly been building throughout the year: cinema is back, baby.<\/p>\n To be sure, it\u2019s had a lot of ground to make up. According to Screen Australia data<\/a>, box office takings declined from $1.229 billion in 2019, the last year before the COVID pandemic upended everything, to $970 million last year.<\/p>\n To put that in perspective, for 11 years from 2009 to 2019, Australian cinema box office topped $1 billion annually (it peaked at $1.259 billion in 2016), a figure it has yet to reach in the post-COVID era (2020 was the nadir, with just $401.2 million).<\/p>\n Perhaps more significantly, attendances \u2013 which frequently hovered around 90 million a year in the noughties \u2013 have not come close to those levels since 2020. Last year, Australians bought 54.2 million movie tickets, fewer even than in each of the three preceding years.<\/p>\n That all suggested the cinema as an entertainment option was in structural decline. Now, though, there are signs things may be on the up.<\/p>\n Australian box office for the year to date stands at $659 million. \u201cThe fact that figure is 67 per cent of 2025\u2019s full-year result, with only 59 per cent of the calendar year elapsed, shows cinema-going this year is ahead of last year,\u201d Zeccola says.<\/p>\n Cynics might argue all it really proves is that tickets are getting more expensive, and theatre owners more adept at extracting more money from customers. While there is some truth in that, Zeccola claims the average ticket price (as distinct from the standard advertised price) for his chain in the 2025-26 financial year was $15.90 \u2013 \u201cup just 45\u00a2 on a year prior\u201d, or 2.9 per cent, an increase less than CPI (3.8 per cent).<\/p>\n Premium formats certainly have a role to play in the resurgent box office, and IMAX is leading the charge<\/a>. In 2022, there was just one IMAX screen in the country (at Melbourne Museum, which is still home to the largest traditional format IMAX screen in the world). Now there are 10 (with more to come).<\/p>\n IMAX tickets come with a significant price impost, which is why the Canada-based company claims a 3.7 per cent share of global box office with less than 1 per cent of screens<\/a>.<\/p>\n No one loves IMAX more than Nolan, who has shot his movies at least in part with IMAX cameras dating back to The Dark Knight (2008), and with The Odyssey, became the first filmmaker to shoot a feature entirely in the format. And no one loves Nolan movies more than IMAX audiences: globally, 20 per cent of the film\u2019s opening weekend revenue went to IMAX screens.<\/p>\n In Australia, The Odyssey was released on 689 screens, but the single screen at IMAX Melbourne \u2013 where a general admission ticket to a 70mm session costs $47 \u2013 has taken 3.65 per cent of the total box office in the movie\u2019s first three weeks. Presales take the tally of tickets sold there to 89,000, and revenue to $3.99 million; every session until September 23 is already sold out.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just Spidey and Homer leading the charge, though. For the first time since 2019, there\u2019s a solid pipeline of big movies across the year, helping build sustained appetite and anticipation. (One of the best ways to bolster the chances of people going to see an upcoming release is to expose them to a trailer for it when they\u2019re already in the chair.)<\/p>\n \u201cThe industry recovery following COVID was compromised by the 2023 Hollywood writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes<\/a>, which delayed film production and reduced the number of major theatrical releases,\u201d says Stephanie Mills, managing director of Hoyts. \u201cThe overall slate isn\u2019t back to the levels we had pre-COVID, but it is certainly rebounding.\u201d<\/p>\n Mills says that to this point last year, six of the top 10 titles locally were family films (A Minecraft Movie, Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Mufasa: The Lion King and Paddington in Peru). \u201cBy comparison, the 2026 slate is considerably more diverse\u201d \u2013 she points to the likes of Michael, Obsession, Project Hail Mary and The Devil Wears Prada 2 as well as the two chart toppers of the moment \u2013 \u201cand that broader mix is attracting a wider range of audiences than we\u2019ve seen in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article They\u2019re coming in bigger numbers, too. Zeccola reports a 19 per cent spike in attendances at Palace cinemas year on year; Mills says it\u2019s about 22 per cent at Hoyts, and about 16 per cent across the industry as a whole.<\/p>\n Last year, attendances finished at 64 per cent of 2019 levels. If current trends continue, admissions should reach around 75 per cent of pre-COVID levels by year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n So, more people spending more money is part of the equation. But there\u2019s another significant shift under way, and it is one more reason for hope in the cinema business: the audience base is diversifying.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are seeing a wave of youth coming through our doors, people aged 18 to 35,\u201d says Benji Tamir, programming manager for the Classic, Lido and Cameo cinemas in Melbourne and the Ritz in Sydney. \u201cThis started with Marty Supreme in January, then Wuthering Heights in February, The Drama in April and then of course the Obsession\/Backrooms phenomenon in May. These audiences have been coming throughout the year, which has built to this crescendo of The Odyssey and Spider-Man.\u201d<\/p>\n Tamir suggests these younger viewers \u2013 at least some of whom would not have seen many movies on the big screen before COVID \u2013 \u201care discovering cinema and sharing their experiences amongst their communities, and [the fan review site] Letterboxd is big for this\u201d.<\/p>\n Before the pandemic, audiences aged 55 and above had become one of the mainstays of the cinema business. Now, Tamir says, \u201cthere has been a huge decline in this area, but that\u2019s OK\u201d. It simply means \u201cit\u2019s even more important to foster these younger audiences, as they are the future\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Real-life](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786143131_626_9abdeaab0ce7b89cd92eec6f7c59bd21f7186b37.jpeg\")
Real-life couple Tom Holland and Zendaya appear in both Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey.Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/faaca03512e5909a3142df392abf6c77b35063207bd6d6516ba62a1b1d999948.jpeg\")
The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, as well as The Devil Wears Prada 2 (left) and Project Hail Mary (right), have boosted this year\u2019s box office receipts.<\/p>\n![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/04fec319b8be8c9cd388774f1c152d1c890aed13.jpeg\")
Christopher Nolan\u2019s rendering of Homer\u2019s epic poem has been a massive success, especially on IMAX.Universal Pictures<\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a6ad1bc377ba33236b36e7850b5c0c57bef9d107.jpeg\")
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