2026 Movie Preview

We made it to the end of 2025. But before the year closes out, Avatar: Fire and Ash hopes to break the billion-dollar mark once again. Then we enter the doldrums of winter, where little of note is released beyond 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (January 16). I get it. No one wants to compete with the cultural behemoth of playoff football, plus, it gives everyone a chance to catch up with movies from the previous year.

Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. won’t take full effect for a year (if it clears regulatory hurdles), but the future of moviegoing remains—uncomfortably—no clearer in 2026 than it was this past year. Barbenheimer‘s success from 2023 looks more like an outlier than a return to former glory days. Yearly grosses from 2008-2019 regularly eclipsed $10 billion, but the film industry hasn’t surpassed $9 billion since. This appears to be the new normal. Yet there are several highly anticipated films to look forward to over the next 12 months. Dune: Part Three (December 18), Toy Story 5 (June 19), Supergirl (June 26), and Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31) could all help change the box-office narrative.

Pixar’s Hoppers (March 6) is sure to be a big hit for families. Original animation isn’t always reliable, but a story about a teen who uses tech to live amongst animals as a robotic beaver looks like fun. Anything fresh from Disney lately is a welcome surprise. We’ll find out if bringing Robert Downey Jr. back will make Avengers: Doomsday (December 18) a cultural event like Infinity War and Endgame, or if it peters out like Marvel’s more recent releases. If it does, the only things we might get from Disney in the future will be live-action remakes. Speaking of which, Moana hits theatres July 10.

But if sequels aren’t your thing, Flowervale Street (August 14) and Project Hail Mary (March 20) are on their way as well. Little is known about Flowervale Street except that it may include time-travel and dinosaurs, and Project Hail Mary comes from the writer who gave us The Martian. Whereas Matt Damon only had to save himself, Ryan Gosling has the entire world riding on his shoulders. Then April brings back The Bride (Samara Weaving) in Ready or Not: Here I Come (April 10). Then in May, blockbuster season proper begins with The Devil Wears Prada 2 (May 1), Mortal Kombat II (May 8), and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (May 22).

Disclosure Day (June 12) features Steven Spielberg’s return to the genre that made him a household name. The teaser trailer gave away very little, but when Spielberg makes a movie, it’s always an event. Saltburn made an impression on TikTokers and meme-lovers, but Amazon Prime viewership and social media trends don’t necessarily equate to people seeing your film in theatres. So Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights (February 13) rebrand will be an interesting test of Margot Robbie’s popularity and for bold reinventions of classic material. At the very least, the promotional materials will be interesting. It couldn’t be any more inflammatory than the Untitled Trey Parker/Matt Stone/Kendrick Lamar project due sometime next year.

No one knows what to make of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger yet. But one thing’s clear from the new marketing: we haven’t seen Tom Cruise dance this much since Tropic Thunder. Whatever “a comedy of catastrophic proportions” means, we are in for a fascinating reinvention of what may be the last A-list actor. That said, perhaps the most anticipated cinematic event of next year is Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (July 17). If you were lucky enough to see the prologue for The Odyssey in front of Avatar, it was amazing. Initially, it seemed like Nolan would tone down the fantastical elements of the classic story, but a short glimpse at the cyclops proved that the director is going for something truly special.

There has been no footage of Denis Villeneuve’s third Dune film released yet, but hopefully that changes soon. The capper to the global epic phenomenon is the film I’m most looking forward to in 2026. Part Three is currently set for a December 18 release, but a date shift may be in the cards given Avengers: Doomsday is set to come out that same weekend. It will likely end up being a case of which studio blinks first: Disney or Warner Bros. The former has a lot riding on the return of Chris Evans and Downey Jr., so it’s doubtful they want to take any chances with a shared audience. But who really knows? Robert Egger’s Werwulf is slated to hit theatres the next week, so there’s a chance we may be due for the biggest December in movie history. Only time will tell.

Under the radar

Send Help (January 30), Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (February 13), How to Make a Killing (February 20), The Bride (March 6), The Drama (April 3), I Love Boosters (May 22)

Sam Raimi returns to horror with Rachel McAdams in tow for Send Help. Sam Rockwell goes back in time to save the world from rogue A.I. in Gore Verbinski’s first film after nine years. How to Make a Killing will test how much audiences like Glen Powell when he plays a schemer. The Frankenstein mythos gets a new lease on life when Jesse Buckley stars as the The Bride. The Drama promises unpleasantness when Zendaya and Robert Pattinson get married. And Boots Riley brings his unique brand of social satire back to cineplexes with I Love Boosters.

More sequels

Scream 7 (February 27), The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (April 3), Scary Movie 6 (June 12), Minions 3 (July 1), Practical Magic 2 (September 18), The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (November 20), Violent Night 2 (December 4), Jumanji 3 (December 11)