Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leads weekend as Prada and Michael hit global milestones

WASHINGTON: Steven Spielberg’s new science-fiction thriller Disclosure Day opened at the top of the North American box office with an estimated $44 million, capping a weekend that also saw major global milestones for The Devil Wears Prada franchise and the Michael Jackson biopic Michael.

Released across the United States and Canada, the film marked a strong commercial start for Spielberg’s return to large-scale sci-fi. Starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor, Disclosure Day centres on an inquiry into a decades-old cover-up involving extraterrestrial visits, updated through a contemporary setting shaped by artificial intelligence and social media.

Industry analyst David A Gross said the debut was a "very good start for an original sci-fi thriller," while cautioning that the film’s longer run would depend on how well it held audiences in the coming weeks. He added: "Reception is very good, but with Steven Spielberg, many people want great," underscoring the expectations attached to the director’s return to a genre associated with films including Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T..

Global benchmarks for Prada and Michael

Beyond the North American chart, the weekend drew attention for the continued box office strength of two other titles. The Devil Wears Prada 2 has pushed the franchise’s combined earnings beyond $1 billion worldwide when added to the total of the original 2006 film. Reported figures showed the sequel alone had reached $676 million after seven weeks in theatres.

Directed by David Frankel and featuring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, the sequel has performed strongly in international markets, with the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany among the leading territories. Its run has added to Disney’s strong position at the 2026 global box office and highlighted the sustained draw of long-running franchise properties.

Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jaafar Jackson as Michael Jackson, has climbed to $932 million worldwide and moved closer to the $1 billion mark. The film traces Jackson’s rise from his Jackson 5 beginnings to international superstardom. According to the reported figures, it has earned $358.6 million in North America and $553.3 million overseas.

The film has already overtaken Bohemian Rhapsody to become the highest-grossing music biopic globally. It also stands as the second-biggest biopic overall behind Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Its momentum has been supported by strong audience response across several international markets, with further video-on-demand expansion expected to help carry it past the billion-dollar threshold.

Other films on the chart

Focus Features’ horror title Obsession remained in second place in North America with $19 million. That lifted its domestic total to $188.3 million and its worldwide haul to $286 million. Made for less than $1 million, it has become the studio’s highest-grossing release to date.

Paramount’s reboot of Scary Movie ranked third with $14.5 million, followed by A24’s Backrooms with $11.3 million. Backrooms has now taken its domestic total to $160 million and its global earnings to more than $262 million.

Lower down the top 10, MGM’s Masters of the Universe fell 70 per cent in its second weekend and collected $8.7 million, despite a production budget of more than $200 million, raising questions about its box office prospects. Further down the chart, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu earned $4.7 million, while Michael added another $4.1 million domestically. BTS World Tour Arirang in Busan, The Furious and Stop! That! Train completed the ranking.

The weekend results reflected a split marketplace in which established franchises and legacy properties continued to dominate globally, even as original genre titles such as Disclosure Day and Obsession drew strong audience interest.