The Best Summer Movies of 2026

We’ll see what happens in the fall and beyond, but right now the summer of 2026 feels like the moment than Da Movies™ came back. I can tell you from personal experience: Movie theaters are full right now, and the people in them are pretty happy to be there.

As they should be; most of this summer’s movies delivered exactly what they promised: Big action, epic adventures, charming animation, spine-tingling horror, and even a couple compelling smaller stories as well. Oh sure, a few titles didn’t quite worked out as everyone hoped. But generally by the end of August, I am jonesing for fall movie season to begin, and the unofficial launch of the year’s films with intelligence and class and very famous people pretending to be other very famous people while using big accents and possibly wearing fake hair of some kind. This year, the summer movie season has been so good I’d honestly be cool if it kept right on going into September or October.

As we gear up for the fall, let’s take a final look back at the best films of the last threeish months. (“Summer” at the movies is more of a state of mind than an actual season, so I threw in a couple of titles that came out in May.) I’m pretty confident at least a couple of these movies will hang around and wind up on my top ten list for the entirety of 2026. And if you missed any of them, most are still playing at Da Movies™.