Dinosaurs vs Spider-Man: Two New Releases Enter a Record-Breaking Summer Box Office
Warner Bros. unleashes a suburban dinosaur thriller and Paramount sends the PAW Patrol back to cinemas this weekend, but neither is expected to dethrone Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which arrives in its third frame chasing a third straight weekend at the top of the chart (The Hollywood Reporter).
The End of Oak Street, directed by David Robert Mitchell and produced by Bad Robot, opens August 14, 2026 across 3,400 North American theatres. Warner Bros. projects a domestic opening — the United States and Canada combined — between $18 million and $23 million, with another $20 million to $25 million from international markets (The Hollywood Reporter). Variety's own tracking puts the debut target slightly higher, at $25 million (Variety). The film carries an $80 million production budget and an 82 percent critics' approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (The Hollywood Reporter).
The premise is a cosmic time swap: a family in the early 1980s discovers their suburban neighbourhood has been transported to a wilderness full of prehistoric predators. Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella and Christian Convery lead the cast (The Hollywood Reporter). Deadline, which published its review on August 12, described the film as a story of an American suburb caught in a cosmic time swap where dinosaurs suddenly appear (Deadline).
Paramount counters with PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, landing in more than 3,500 North American locations. The studio projects a domestic opening in the mid-to-high teens in millions of dollars. The third feature in Spin Master Entertainment's animated franchise carries a $39.5 million production budget and has already collected more than $27 million across 30 international markets before its domestic debut. Critics have given it an 85 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes (The Hollywood Reporter).
The voice cast includes Carter Young, Mckenna Grace, Terry Crews, Jennifer Hudson and Snoop Dogg, with Cal Brunker directing (The Hollywood Reporter). The franchise's last instalment, PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, opened to $22.7 million domestically in late September 2023 and went on to a $205 million global run — a benchmark this third entry will be measured against (The Hollywood Reporter).
Above both new releases looms Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Deadline reported on August 12 that the film was expected to pass $700 million in U.S. grosses by midweek and would likely catch The End of Oak Street at the domestic box office even as the dinosaur film opens (Deadline). Comscore estimated the Spider-Man film grossed $381 million globally over the weekend of August 7, well ahead of The Odyssey at $110.7 million and PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie at $23 million in its early international rollout (Comscore, date unknown).
The broader picture is one for the record books. Deadline reported on August 10 that the summer domestic box office has crossed $4 billion, driven by Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey (Deadline). Comscore had earlier projected the 2026 summer on a path to that $4 billion benchmark, with domestic takings at $3.8 billion by August 20 — a 17 percent increase year-on-year (Comscore).
For audiences, the weekend offers a choice between dinosaurs in the suburbs and animated rescue pups facing prehistoric creatures of their own, all under the long shadow of a Spider-Man that refuses to leave the top of the chart.
