# 2006 in film
**2006 in film** is the year's record of cinematic releases, box office performance, and honors. It was a recovery year for theatrical exhibition after the 2005 slump: North American ticket sales rose about 5 percent over 2005, and *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest* became the year's defining hit, crossing $1 billion worldwide.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/29/1) • [2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2006/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Highest-grossing film | *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest*, $1,066,179,725 worldwide, of which $423,315,812 (39.7%) came from the US and Canada[2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2006/) |
| Domestic market | North American ticket sales reached $9.42 billion as of December 27, up 5% from $8.99 billion in 2005, on course to be the fourth biggest year in modern cinema history[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/29/1) |
| Attendance | Admissions climbed 3%, from 1.4 billion in 2005 to 1.44 billion[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/29/1) |
| Opening record | *Dead Man's Chest* grossed $135.6 million in its first three days of July, more than any other film in history at that time[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/29/1) |
| Studio record | Fox Filmed Entertainment reached $3,559,521,971 in worldwide box office for 2006, described by the studio as the biggest worldwide gross for any slate of pictures in movie history[3](https://www.awn.com/news/fox-boasts-record-356-billion-box-office-2006) |
| Academy Awards | *The Departed* won Best Picture and Martin Scorsese Best Director at the 79th Academy Awards, held February 25, 2007, honoring 2006 releases[4](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2007) |
| Critics' favorite | *Hidden* (Michael Haneke) topped the Sight and Sound critics' poll of 2006 films[5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/best-films-2006) |
## Box office recovery
After 2005, which the trade press called the Year of the Slump amid think-pieces blaming downloading and piracy, 2006 was described as the Year of the Recovery: audiences returned to theaters, especially in the United States.[6](https://archive.cyprus-mail.com/2006/12/24/2006-the-year-in-film/) Industry executives had entered the year cautiously, facing rising ticket prices, competing platforms such as DVD and digital downloads, and video games as alternative entertainment, but attendance climbed anyway.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/29/1)
The record year in modern cinema remained 2004 at $9.54 billion, when *Spider-Man 2*, *Shrek 2*, *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, and *The Incredibles* all opened; 2006's $9.42 billion placed it fourth.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/29/1) Aggregated across all reporting titles, 1,141 films released in 2006 recorded a worldwide gross of $21.2 billion, 42 percent of it from the US and Canada; one film crossed $1 billion and 59 crossed $100 million.[7](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/box-office/year/2006)
## Highest-grossing films
*Dead Man's Chest* led the year by a wide margin, followed by *The Da Vinci Code* at $760,006,945 and *Ice Age 2: The Meltdown* at $660,940,780.[2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2006/) The top ten worldwide, per [Box Office Mojo](https://www.edgepedia.org/box-office-mojo):
1. *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest* – $1,066,179,725
2. *The Da Vinci Code* – $760,006,945
3. *Ice Age 2: The Meltdown* – $660,940,780
4. *Casino Royale* – $606,001,550
5. *Night at the Museum* – $574,480,841
6. *Cars* – $461,983,149
7. *X-Men: The Last Stand* – $460,435,291
8. *Mission: Impossible III* – $398,479,497
9. *Superman Returns* – $391,081,192
10. *Happy Feet* – $384,335,608[2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2006/)
Several of these films earned most of their money abroad: *The Da Vinci Code* drew 71.4 percent of its gross outside the US and Canada, *Casino Royale* 72.4 percent, and *Ice Age 2* 70.4 percent, while *Cars* and *X-Men: The Last Stand* split close to evenly.[2](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2006/) Domestically, the year's drivers after *Dead Man's Chest* were Disney/Pixar's *Cars* ($244.1 million), Fox's *X-Men: The Last Stand* ($234.4 million), Sony's *The Da Vinci Code* ($217.5 million), and Warner Bros.' *Superman Returns* ($200.1 million).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/29/1)
Not every franchise entry met expectations. *Mission: Impossible III* opened at $47.7 million in US theaters, below the $65 million to $70 million some box office trackers had projected.[8](https://www.filmsite.org/2006-filmhistory.html)
## Awards and critical reception
The 79th Academy Awards, held at the Kodak Theatre on February 25, 2007, honored movies released in 2006. *The Departed* brought Martin Scorsese the Best Directing award; [Forest Whitaker](https://www.edgepedia.org/forest-whitaker) won Best Actor for *The Last King of Scotland*, Alan Arkin won Best Supporting Actor for *Little Miss Sunshine*, Jennifer Hudson won Best Supporting Actress for *Dreamgirls*, *The Lives of Others* won Foreign Language Film for Germany, and *An Inconvenient Truth* won Documentary Feature.[4](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2007)
Critics' groups split their honors. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named *Letters from Iwo Jima* Best Picture with *The Queen* as runner-up, gave Best Director to [Paul Greengrass](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-greengrass) for *United 93*, and tied [Sacha Baron Cohen](https://www.edgepedia.org/sacha-baron-cohen) (*Borat*) and Forest Whitaker for Best Actor; [Helen Mirren](https://www.edgepedia.org/helen-mirren) won Best Actress for *The Queen*.[9](https://www.lafca.net/Years/2006.php) The National Society of Film Critics instead named Guillermo del Toro's gothic fairy tale *Pan's Labyrinth* best picture of 2006, with no separate foreign-language award given because the film itself was foreign-language.[10](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-07-me-national7-story.html)
In the [British Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-film-institute)'s Sight and Sound poll of the year's best films, [Michael Haneke](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-haneke)'s *Hidden* ranked first, followed by [Pedro Almodóvar](https://www.edgepedia.org/pedro-almodovar)'s *Volver*, with *The Departed*, *The Queen*, Andrea Arnold's *Red Road*, and Tommy Lee Jones's *The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada* tied at third, and *Climates*, *The New World*, *United 93*, and *Pan's Labyrinth* tied at seventh.[5](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/best-films-2006) The Washington Post's critics placed *Children of Men* first, followed by *Pan's Labyrinth* and *United 93*.[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2006/12/31/from-iwo-jima-to-kazakhstan-our-critics-top-films-of-2006/7467a317-18f8-4bb7-a63e-fd8bc548bf02/)
## Festivals and industry firsts
The 2006 Cannes competition lineup included *Babel* by [Alejandro González Iñárritu](https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-gonzalez-inarritu), *Pan's Labyrinth* (El laberinto del fauno) by [Guillermo del Toro](https://www.edgepedia.org/guillermo-del-toro), *Volver* by Pedro Almodóvar, *Marie Antoinette* by [Sofia Coppola](https://www.edgepedia.org/sofia-coppola), *The Wind That Shakes the Barley* by Ken Loach, and *Red Road* by Andrea Arnold, among others.[12](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/2006/) At Sundance in January 2006, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris's *Little Miss Sunshine* became a festival darling and triggered an all-night bidding war; Fox Searchlight bought it for a then-record-setting $10.5 million.[13](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/02/sundance-film-festival-future-indie-movies/685954/)
**Distribution experiments.** The dramatic comedy *10 Items or Less*, released by [Morgan Freeman](https://www.edgepedia.org/morgan-freeman)'s broadband entertainment service ClickStar, became the first film in history to debut in theaters and then become legally and simultaneously available via broadband within two weeks of national theatrical release.[8](https://www.filmsite.org/2006-filmhistory.html)
**Studio politics.** In August 2006, Viacom chairman [Sumner Redstone](https://www.edgepedia.org/sumner-redstone) dropped [Tom Cruise](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-cruise), at 44 then the industry's most successful and best-paid actor, from [Paramount Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/paramount-pictures) after a 14-year production pact, citing his "unacceptable conduct."[8](https://www.filmsite.org/2006-filmhistory.html) The same year, David Ellison, then 23 and the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, launched Skydance Productions, whose debut feature *Flyboys* did little to raise its profile.[14](https://apnews.com/article/6e2d783a23c1012c19340b565b8f4b61)
## Looking back
Retrospective commentary treats 2006 as a major year: *The Devil Wears Prada*, the 17th highest-grossing film of 2006, became a pop culture mainstay through cable television airings and featured Emily Blunt's breakthrough performance.[15](https://www.wamc.org/commentary-opinion/2026-04-28/2006-at-the-movies-20-years-later) The year also sits at an early point in the franchise era that followed: the Best Picture awarded at the ceremony held in 2006 went to *Crash*, a film later frequently cited in discussions of the Academy's handling of movies about race.[16](https://time.com/5537269/green-book-oscars-race/)
## References
1. [US box office for 2006 defies doomsayers, The Guardian (29 December 2006)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/dec/29/1)
2. [2006 Worldwide Box Office, Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/2006/)
3. [Fox Boasts Record $3.56 Billion at the Box Office in 2006, Animation World Network](https://www.awn.com/news/fox-boasts-record-356-billion-box-office-2006)
4. [The 79th Academy Awards (2007), Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2007)
5. [The best films of 2006, Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/best-films-2006)
6. [2006: THE YEAR IN FILM, Cyprus Mail (24 December 2006)](https://archive.cyprus-mail.com/2006/12/24/2006-the-year-in-film/)
7. [2006 Box Office: Highest-Grossing Movies, What's After the Movie](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/box-office/year/2006)
8. [Film History Milestones – 2006, Filmsite.org](https://www.filmsite.org/2006-filmhistory.html)
9. [32nd Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, 2006, LAFCA](https://www.lafca.net/Years/2006.php)
10. [National film critics select 'Pan's Labyrinth' as best picture, Los Angeles Times (7 January 2007)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-07-me-national7-story.html)
11. [From Iwo Jima to Kazakhstan: Our Critics' Top Films of 2006, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2006/12/31/from-iwo-jima-to-kazakhstan-our-critics-top-films-of-2006/7467a317-18f8-4bb7-a63e-fd8bc548bf02/)
12. [Retrospective 2006, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/retrospective/2006/)
13. [The Indie-Cinema Dilemma, The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/02/sundance-film-festival-future-indie-movies/685954/)
14. [From box office bomb to media powerhouse: Skydance's 20-year rise, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/6e2d783a23c1012c19340b565b8f4b61)
15. [2006 at the movies: 20 years later, WAMC](https://www.wamc.org/commentary-opinion/2026-04-28/2006-at-the-movies-20-years-later)
16. [How Green Book Fits Into the Oscars' Complicated History With Movies About Race, TIME](https://time.com/5537269/green-book-oscars-race/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Awards and screen reference*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license