America’s standing in the world has diminished in the last year, reflected, among other things, by sharp declines in tourism. But as Ryan Seacrest and company prepare to ring in 2026, Hollywood has seen encouraging signs that the international pipes still work with movie franchises like “Avatar” and “Zootopia,” a welcome box-office blip on a fading EKG, with implications not just for the coming year but beyond. Those Disney titles, which will join the studio’s “Lilo & Stitch” as the year’s only billion-dollar worldwide U.S. releases, are drawing more than 70% of their revenue from outside North America. And while that happened with regularity in the not-so-distant past, like so much in Hollywood, theatrical releases have broken internationally into a few haves and more have-nots—an especially fraught shift as the industry faces an increasingly unsettled future.

Source: International New York Times December 30, 2025 08:21 UTC