Development of the film began in March 2023, with Hathaway in the lead role. McGregor was cast in February 2024, and in March, Stella and Convery joined the cast. Later that month, the film's name, until this point left untitled, was given as Flowervale Street. Filming began on March 22 and ended on June 4, with location filming in Atlanta. Though scheduled for a May 16, 2025, release, this was delayed to March 13, 2026, and then delayed further. Also in March, it was revealed that the film had been renamed to The End of Oak Street and that Michael Giacchino would compose its soundtrack.
The End of Oak Street premiered at the Steven J. Ross Theater on August 9, 2026, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 14 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $122 million worldwide against a production budget of $80–92 million.
Plot
Set on July 10, 1982, aspiring novelist Denise Platt lives with her husband Greg, children Audrey and Brian, and their dog Starbuck on Oak Street, in the suburban neighborhood of Flowervale, Michigan. The couple's marriage is strained—Denise privately contemplates divorce, while Greg lies about his work. He has told his family that he does pizza deliveries on the side, but it is actually his only job after being laid off.
The following day, Denise photographs a mysterious plant that suddenly appears in her neighbor's yard. Local librarian Mrs. Valcourt identifies it as Pleuromeia, which went extinct millions of years ago. A giant pile of animal feces appears in neighbor Mel's yard. Radio broadcasts have been reporting increased solar-flare activity. During a storm, a powerful white light suddenly engulfs the Flowervale neighborhood, accompanied by a change in atmospheric pressure and a power outage.
The next morning, Denise and Greg search for Starbuck, who went missing in the storm, They discover that Flowervale is surrounded by a prehistoric landscape from which dinosaurs emerge and start hunting and killing neighborhood residents. Greg and Denise run back to their home while a vicious Coelophysis chases them. The family boards up their windows and doors, and Audrey theorizes the light flashes were wormholes that transported the neighborhood millions of years into the past.
Greg tells Denise that he read her manuscript and knows she is considering a divorce and leaving the family. He then confesses he lost his job. They witness their neighbor Mel shooting at Pterodactylus from his roof with a revolver, before being violently killed and eaten. Later, Brian and Audrey venture outside after Brian sees Starbuck in their yard. Denise and Greg follow in their car after realizing the children are missing; they crash into a house while escaping a Spinosaurus, starting a fire. Jeannette Christiansen, Brian's neighborhood crush, joins Brian and Audrey after revealing her parents were killed. Denise and Greg see a flashing light while searching for the children. They follow it to a house containing a wormhole. They refuse to travel through it without their children; it then disappears. They evade stampeding dinosaurs, reconcile, and find the children. The family heads back toward their home, but discover that the fire Denise and Greg had started now threatens to engulf the neighborhood.
When an Allosaurus attacks the group, Greg is killed while defending the others, devastating Denise and the children. After returning home, the group escapes a Titanoboa and spot another wormhole on Mrs. Valcourt's roof. They make their way to the house and observe that the wormhole appears and disappears at regular intervals. Jeannette jumps in and disappears, but Brian misses the opening and falls off the roof, injuring his leg. An Ornithocheirus grabs him, but Starbuck appears and attacks it, saving Brian. The group attempts to shelter inside the house, but are cornered by a group of Ornithosuchus; Mrs. Valcourt appears and kills one Ornithosuchus with a double-barrelled shotgun before another mauls her, giving the group time to escape back to the roof. They jump through the wormhole together.
They return to July 11, 1982, landing in a backyard swimming pool, approximately 20 minutes before Flowervale was previously teleported away. Denise calls neighborhood residents from a pay phone, telling them to immediately leave the area, while Jeannette runs off to warn her parents. Greg appears after Denise orders a pizza to their location, where he is embraced by the family. The powerful white light appears, engulfing the area before them as Flowervale disappears and is replaced by a prehistoric landscape.
Two years later, the military has contained the area while scientists study the prehistoric environment and its wildlife, attempting to investigate the wormholes. Denise's warnings to the disaster's survivors have made her a hero, and her book, titled The End of Oak Street, has made her family moderately wealthy. The film ends with the Platts and Christiansens having a barbecue with their neighbors and two identical Jeannettes.
Cast
Anne Hathaway as Denise Platt, an aspiring novelist
Ewan McGregor as Greg Platt, Denise's recently laid-off husband now working part-time delivering pizza
Maisy Stella as Audrey Platt, the daughter of Denise and Greg
Christian Convery as Brian Platt, the son of Denise and Greg
Jordan Alexa Davis as Jeannette Christiansen, a neighborhood girl whom Brian has a crush on
P. J. Byrne as Mel Jacobs, the Platts' irate neighbor
Emily Kuroda as Mrs. Valcourt, a librarian the Platts' neighbor
Hudson Meek as Kaden Tucker, a neighborhood kid who hates Brian
Anne Gee Byrd as Mrs. Huddleston, a kind, elderly neighbor to the Platts
Production
Development
In March 2023, an untitled film directed, written and co-produced by David Robert Mitchell was in development at Warner Bros. Pictures, with J. J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella producing for Bad Robot and with Matt Jackson and Tommy Harper producing for Jackson Pictures. Anne Hathaway was cast in the lead role.
By February 2024, it was revealed that Ewan McGregor had been cast, with Maisy Stella and Christian Convery joining in March. In late March, the title was revealed to be Flowervale Street. In April, Jordan Alexa Davis, P. J. Byrne and Chris Coy joined the cast.
In January 2026, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca revealed that the film would be getting a new title. In March 2026, with the release of the trailer, the official title was announced to be The End of Oak Street.
Filming
Principal photography began on March 22, 2024, in London and Atlanta, and wrapped on June 4. Filming on soundstages took place at Electric Owl Studios in DeKalb County while location filming in Atlanta was used to represent Oak Street. The production chose to film on Westwood Avenue SW, Erin Avenue SW, Dover Boulevard SW, Howell Drive SW, and Manford Road SW due to their detached houses, broad lawns and mature trees that were typical of American suburbs during the 1980s when the film is set.
Post-production
As with the Jurassic Park franchise, Industrial Light & Magic became the lead visual effects vendor and handled the creation of the dinosaurs for the film. Jay Cooper served as Production VFX Supervisor.
Music
In March 2026, it was announced that Michael Giacchino would compose the score. The soundtrack album contains 27 cues and was released on August 7, 2026.
Commercial songs from the film, but not on the soundtrack
"Hit Me with Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar
"Shake It Up" by The Cars
"Don't Let Him Know" by Prism
"Turning Japanese" by The Vapors
"Flame Of Love" by Raven
"Get Your Radio" by The Secrets
"Ain't Got You" by The Willy Waller Band
"Arie And Lee" by Juli Brace
"Hey" by Blue Shoes
"Valerie" by Steve Winwood
"More Than This" by Roxy Music
"Find Your Way Back" by Jefferson Starship
Release
Marketing
The film's marketing campaign was criticized on social media for using generative AI. In particular, a now-deleted video shared by Warner Bros. featured the dog Starbuck from the film interviewed in the AI-generated dog podcast Goldie & Frenchie, owned by DogPack, a social media platform tailored to dog owners.
Theatrical
The End of Oak Street had its world premiere at the Steven J. Ross Theater on August 9, 2026, and was released theatrically in the United States on August 14 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film's release was previously scheduled for May 16, 2025, and March 13, 2026. The postponements were due to Bad Robot head Hannah Minghella leaving her position during post-production of the film and not being replaced, causing a leadership gap that hindered the film's completion, as well as Hathaway being unavailable when additional photography was required for the film, as she was involved in filming for Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey; these factors caused the post-production of The End of Oak Street to be suspended for six months.
Home media
The End of Oak Street released on Digital HD on September 15, 2026. A DVD, Blu-ray, and Ultra HD Blu-ray release follows on November 3, 2026.
Reception
Box office
The End of Oak Street grossed $54 million in the United States and Canada, and $67 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $122 million. The film was produced on a budget of $80–92 million. Due to its high production and marketing costs, Variety estimated the film would lose Warner Bros. $25–40 million from its theatrical run.
In the U.S. and Canada, The End of Oak Street was released alongside Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie and The Brink of War, and was projected to gross $20–25 million from 3,446 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $7.9 million (including $2 million from Thursday previews) on its first day. It went on to debut to $21 million, finishing in third at the box office.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of 348 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.0/10. The website's consensus reads: "Tapping into the primal pleasures of the classic creature feature, The End of Oak Street is pulpy good fun carried off with a light touch and a sharp bite." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
Zachary Lee of RogerEbert.com awarded The End of Oak Street four out of four, praising its combination of family drama, apocalyptic imagery, and dinosaur horror. He highlighted the film's themes of family secrets and parental sacrifice, while calling it "the most thrilling dinosaur movie in ages". Jake Coyle of the Associated Press praised the film's mixture of science fiction, horror, and 1980s adventure-film influences, as well as the performances of Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent was similarly enthusiastic, describing the film as "better than any of the Jurassic World films" and praising Mitchell's use of influences from films such as Jurassic Park and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Nikki Baughan of Screen Daily gave the film a positive review, calling it a "fun, fast-paced creature feature", also noting that it "draws effectively on classic Spielbergian adventures" and that "most of the film plays little like Jurassic Park on steroids".
Some reviews were more mixed. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "high-end trash", acknowledging its entertainment value while criticizing its reliance on 1980s Amblin-style nostalgia. Likewise,
Amy Nicholson wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the Spielbergian influences would "almost satisfy our thwarted hopes for Steven Spielberg's own Disclosure Day" if Mitchell's script "wasn't such a groaner". She wrote that The End of Oak Street is emblematic of Mitchell "need[ing] to prove he can make a big-budget crowd-pleaser" while not capturing the same mood as his earlier work. Peter Bradshaw gave the film a two-star review in The Guardian, concluding that the film's Spielberg influences do not "feel like homage so much as a pastiche produced by an AI Spielbergbot". Cary Darling in the Houston Chronicle praised the film's dinosaur effects, pacing, and performances, but criticized its plot holes and occasionally illogical character decisions.
External links
Official website
The End of Oak Street at IMDb
