Paramount Animation sends its band of rescue pups back to cinemas on August 14, 2026, with PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie — the third theatrical installment in a franchise that began life as a pre-school television series and has since become a steady earner for the studio. The film held its global premiere at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles on August 2, 2026.

Variety reviewed the film on August 7 and described it as a step up in ambition for the franchise, whose earlier big-screen outings, PAW Patrol: The Movie (2021) and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023), each cleared US$200 million at the worldwide box office. The new film sends the team — a brigade of six or seven anthropomorphic puppies in colour-coded outfits, each with gadgets and vehicles — patrolling the high seas with their ten-year-old handler, Ryder. A storm blows them off course to an island where dinosaurs still roam free.

That island is not empty. Rex, a paraplegic dog voiced by Hayden Chamberlain, has been stranded there for two years and has befriended the dinosaurs in the meantime. Meanwhile Mayor Humdinger, the franchise's recurring villain, learns the island sits on reserves of natural diamonds and arrives with accomplices and a truckload of dynamite to mine them.

The cast mixes franchise regulars with a marquee name. Carter Young voices Marshall, a firefighting Dalmatian who takes on main-character duties this time out. Rain Janjua returns as Chase, the blue-wearing German Shepherd. William Desrosiers voices Rocky, a mixed-breed pup in green. Henry Bolan plays Ryder. Ron Pardo reprises Mayor Humdinger. Snoop Dogg, announced as a cast addition in May 2025, rounds out the ensemble.

For Paramount Animation, The Dino Movie arrives as one of several titles the studio has slotted into its 2026 release calendar, alongside a Friday the 13th film and an animated Survivor adaptation. The PAW Patrol franchise has been a reliable property for the studio since the first film's pandemic-era release, when it debuted simultaneously in cinemas and on Paramount+ — a streaming service, Paramount's subscription platform — and still drew families back to theatres.

The August 14 slot places The Dino Movie in the late-summer corridor, when studios typically position family films to capture the final weeks of school holidays before the autumn schedule shifts toward adult-oriented awards fare. The first two PAW Patrol films opened in similar windows.

Whether the dinosaur premise and expanded ambition translate to a larger box-office footprint is a question for the opening-weekend grosses, which Paramount will report as studio estimates on the Sunday. Until then, the pups have a date with the island — and with audiences.