The October doldrums are past (where The Martian was the #1 movie for four of the past five weeks?!). Last weekend saw the double whammy of James Bond and Charlie Brown gain 76% of the weekend box office, and the total take of all movies to be 148% over the previous weekend’s cumulatives and 6% over this time last year.
But that’s nothing. Christmas will come a week early this year when the latest Star Wars movie debuts! Looking at available tickets, there are multiplexes in New York City which are screening the movie at ten-minute intervals on Thursday Night, the 17th. (7:00, 7:10, 7:20…) Will we see the round-the-clock showings like there were for The Phantom Menace (more sanely scheduled every hour, on the hour)? Will there be a movie cineplex with enough screens to outdo the initial 32-screen release in 1977? Will people line up for repeat screenings? Will Star Wars VII beat Jurassic World’s second week box office record of $103 Million? Or Avatar’s third week record of $68 Million? (If it breaks the first four weeks of box office records, it will have earned, a minimum, of $434 Million.) Has Disney already recouped every dollar spent producing and marketing this movie? YOU BETCHA!
Here’s the latest movie schedule, culled from various sources…
NOTE: My colleagues have noted the confusion over Warner Brothers’ superhero schedule.
To be clear: past Suicide Squad, Warners Brothers/DC Entertainment has not matched announced movies with opening dates.
So, you will see a listing like:
Unknown 2018 Flash and
3/23/2018 Untitled DC
That does not mean that there are two movies scheduled, only that DCE is planning movies, and has claimed dates. Other news sites have linked titles to dates. This has not been officially announced or confirmed by Warner Brothers, and until I see official confirmation, will continue to list the names and dates separately. When do I expect to see that confirmation? Either at a shareholder’s meeting, or maybe a special press conference.
Production on the Wonder Woman feature begins this month, 20 months before a possible June 2017 opening. BvS started filming in October 2014, principal photography ended in December 2014, and the movie comes out next March. That’s 15 months of post-production on BvS. The Dark Knight Rises had 8 months to get the film ready. Suicide Squad will have a year. So there’s no time to worry. Yet.
But what about the November 2016 movie, debuting five months later? No additional directors have yet to be named.
Meanwhile, Disney added a whole buncha dates to the calendar! Disney might have three nominees for Best Animated Feature in 2016. Not by their design, but because of Academy voters. This could split the vote, but Disney’s likely to push one particular title, just like they only push one song for the nomination. Disney did have three nominees in 2012, with Brave winning.
Updates are in bold. I have included links back to Box Office Mojo, which is the source of most of this data.
| Movie schedule: | ||
| 11/25/2015 | The Good Dinosaur | Pixar |
| 12/18/2015 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Disney |
| 2/12/2016 | Deadpool | Fox |
| 3/4/2016 | Zootopia | Disney |
| 3/25/2016 | Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice | DCE |
| 5/6/2016 | Captain America: Civil War | Marvel |
| 5/27/2016 | X-Men: Apocalypse | Fox |
| 6/3/2016 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 | Paramount |
| 6/17/2016 | Finding Dory | Pixar |
| 7/8/2016 | ??? (Was Doctor Strange) | Marvel |
| 7/22/2016 | Star Trek Beyond | Paramount |
| 8/5/2016 | Suicide Squad | DCE |
| 8/19/2016 | Kubo and the Two Strings | Focus/Laika |
| 9/23/2016 | Storks | Warners |
| 10/7/2016 | Gambit | Fox |
| 10/7/2016 | Monster High | Universal |
| 11/4/2016 | Doctor Strange | Marvel |
| 11/18/2016 | Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them | Warners |
| 11/23/2016 | Moana | Disney |
| 12/16/2016 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story | Disney |
| 12/25/2016 | Nation Awakes | Aamir Sajjad Ventures |
| 1/13/2017 | Power Rangers | Lionsgate |
| 2/10/2017 | The LEGO Batman Film | Warners |
| 3/3/2017 | Untitled Wolverine | Fox |
| 3/17/2017 | Beauty and the Beast (live action) | Disney |
| 3/31/2017 | Get Smurfy in 3D | Sony |
| 3/31/2017 | Ghost in the Shell | Disney |
| 4/14/2017 | Blazing Samurai | Open Road Films |
| 5/5/2017 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | Marvel |
| 5/26/2017 | Untitled LEGO Movie ? | Warners |
| 5/26/2017 | Star Wars: Episode VIII | Disney |
| 6/9/2017 | The Fantastic Four 2 | Fox |
| 6/16/2017 | Cars 3 | Pixar |
| 6/23/2017 | Untitled DC | DCE |
| 6/30/2017 | Despicable Me 3 | Universal |
| 7/7/2017 | Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales | Disney |
| 7/21/2017 | Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | EuropaCorp |
| 7/28/2017 | Unititled Spider-Man | Sony/Marvel |
| 9/22/2017 | Ninjago | Warners |
| 11/3/2017 | Thor: Ragnarok | Marvel |
| 11/17/2017 | Untitled DC | DCE |
| 11/22/2017 | Coco | Pixar |
| 12/22/2017 | Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale | Disney |
| 2/9/2018 | Untitled Warner Animation Group Project | Warners |
| 2/16/2018 | Black Panther | Marvel |
| 3/9/2018 | Gigantic | Disney |
| 3/23/2018 | Untitled DC | DCE |
| 5/4/2018 | Avengers: Infinity War, Part 1 | Marvel |
| 5/18/2018 | The LEGO Movie Sequel | Warners |
| 5/25/2018 | Untitled Han Solo Star Wars Anthology Film | Disney |
| 6/15/2018 | Toy Story 4 | Pixar |
| 7/6/2018 | Ant-Man and the Wasp | Marvel |
| 7/13/2018 | Untitled Fox / Marvel | Fox / Marvel |
| 7/20/2018 | Spider-Man (animated film) | Sony |
| 7/27/2018 | Untitled DC | DCE |
| 9/21/2018 | Scooby-Doo Animated Feature | Warners |
| 11/2/2018 | Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale | Disney |
| 11/16/2018 | Untitled WB Special Event Film | Warners |
| 11/21/2018 | Untitled Disney Animation | Disney |
| 3/8/2019 | Captain Marvel | Marvel |
| 3/29/2019 | Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale | Disney |
| 4/5/2019 | Untitled DC | DCE |
| 4/12/2019 | Untitled Disneytoons Studios | Disney |
| 5/3/2019 | Avengers: Infinity War, Part II | Marvel |
| 5/24/2019 | Untitled Warner Animated Film | Warners |
| 6/14/2019 | Untitled DC | DCE |
| 6/21/2019 | The Incredibles 2 | Pixar |
| 7/12/2019 | Inhumans | Marvel |
| 11/8/2019 | Untitled Disney Live Action Fairy Tale | Disney |
| 3/13/2020 | Untitled Pixar Animation | Pixar |
| 4/3/2020 | Untitled DC | DCE |
| 5/1/2020 | Untitled Marvel | Marvel |
| 6/19/2020 | Untitled DC | DCE |
| 6/19/2020 | Untitled Pixar Animation | Pixar |
| 7/10/2020 | Untitled Marvel | Marvel |
| 11/6/2020 | Untitled Marvel | Marvel |
| 11/20/2020 | Untitled WB Special Event Film | Warners |
| 11/25/2020 | Untitled Disney Animation | Disney |
| Unknown 2016 | Popeye | Sony |
| Unknown 2016 | Untitled Lego Movie | Warners |
| Unknown 2017 | Wonder Woman | DCE |
| Unknown 2017 | Justice League, Part One | DCE |
| Unknown 2017 | Lego Batman | Warners |
| Unknown 2017 | Captain Underpants | Dreamworks |
| Unknown 2018 | Flash | DCE |
| Unknown 2018 | Aquaman | DCE |
| Unknown 2018 | HP: Fantastic Beasts 2 | Warners |
| Unknown 2019 | Shazam | DCE |
| Unknown 2019 | Justice League Part Two | DCE |
| Unknown 2020 | Cyborg | DCE |
| Unknown 2020 | Green Lantern Corps | DCE |
| Unknown 2020 | HP: Fantastic Beasts 3 | Warners |
| UNKNOWN | The Batman | DCE |
| UNKNOWN | The Amazing Spider-Man 3 | Sony |
| UNKNOWN | The Amazing Spider-Man 4 | Sony |
| UNKNOWN | Untitled Frozen sequel | Disney |
| UNKNOWN | The Billion Brick Race (Lego) | Warners |
| UNKNOWN | Sinister Six | Sony |
I don’t think there’s a multiplex big enough to beat 32 simultaneous screenings. For some time, the largest number of screens under one roof was 20, at Grand Rapids Michigan’s Studio 28 (so-named because of it’s location on 28th Street). This was at the height of the multiplex craze in the 1990s, when more was always better, before cinema attendance started to drop off. (There was talk of expanding to 28 screens – because obvious – but it never happened… and Studio 28 is now just a really big parking lot.) There’s probably a few bigger plexes out there somewhere, but I doubt anyone’s built one that much larger.
Yes… I did some basic research, and there doesn’t seem to be a 32-plex.
AMC does have the Empire 25 in Times Square. Many of the theaters on the top floor are smaller theaters, usually used for screenings and foreign films.
With regard to the 7/8/2016 date, noted as “??? (Was Doctor Strange)”: I believe that’s now held for the Ant-Man sequel, “ANT-MAN AND THE WASP,” the addition of which pushed the BLACK PANTHER and CAPTAIN MARVEL movies to these later-than-originally-announced dates.
Oops, got that wrong!
The Ant-Man sequel is for July 2018, not 2016! To the extent that the 7/8/2016 date may be a hole to be filled in the schedule, I’m not sure if any “nerd-friendly” flick will move to fill the space vacated by DOCTOR STRANGE, or if folks will cede July to things like GHOSTBUSTERS and STAR TREK that have staked out spaces later in that month.
Comments are closed.