Disclosure Day First Reviews: Is Steven Spielberg Back to Rule The Box-Office?

Finally, the long-awaited return to alien cinema by Steven Spielberg is upon us, and critics are mostly giving it a thumbs up. Disclosure Day, the director’s stand-alone original sci-fi mystery, debuted worldwide at Le Grand Rex in Paris on June 2, 2026, and holds a 90% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes as of June 9, 2026. Written by David Koepp and based on a story by Spielberg, the film stars Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo. It has been described as a government-conspiracy thriller centered on the most momentous event in human history: the public revelation of alien life. FandomWire’s Joshua Ryan gave the film a 7 out of 10. Disclosure Day will be released in U.S. theaters on June 12.

What Critics Are Saying About Spielberg’s Disclosure Day

The reviews on Rotten Tomatoes describe Disclosure Day as a confident, wonder-driven return to form from the director who single-handedly rewrote the alien-invasion formula with Close Encounters of the Third Kind so many years ago. Danielle Solzman of Solzy at the Movies rated it 5/5, calling it the director’s “triumphant return to science fiction.”

Caralynn Matassa of CBR rated it 7/10, describing it as a reminder of what Spielberg still does best: “build wonder, suspense, and spectacle on a scale that feels both enormous and deeply human.” Jordan Farley of GamesRadar was even more positive, rating it 4.5/5. Dallas King of Flick Feast also rated it 4/5, calling it “pure cinematic poetry in motion” and positioning it as a fitting end to Spielberg’s love affair with the alien.

Critical success and financial success are two very different cocktails, and Disclosure Day has some tough financial rowing to do. With a production budget of $115 million, plus another $80 million for advertising, its cumulative worldwide total will likely need to hit at least $300 million.

Most of today’s tracking models from Boxoffice Pro estimate a domestic opening in the range of $40 million to $50 million. That’s a respectable number, but not huge, given that we’re in the middle of summer blockbuster season.