We’re a little over halfway through 2017, even if certain political and social happenings have made it feel like the last six months have gone on for approximately seven years. That means that while studios are revving up there marketing and promotions departments for the awards season, they are also starting to date major productions for next year and the year after. So, while Sony Classics is putting together a campaign forCall Me by Your Name, Sony/Columbia is getting audiences hyped for 2018 and 2019’s biggest blockbusters.
Indeed,THRreported last night that Sony has dated or moved over a half-dozen major projects on their to-do list. Leading that list would beSilver & Black, a spinoff ofSpider-Man: Homecomingset to focus on longtime Spidey villains Silver Sable and Black Cat. The movie, directed byBeyond the LightshelmerGina Prince-Bythewood, will hit theaters on February 8th, 2019, which would put it in the same slot asThe Lego Batman Movie. Ironically, this release date will put it in direct competition with another potential box office monster: Warner Bros.‘sThe Lego Movie 2.
Something in closer range would beSicario 2: Soldado, which will be hitting theaters on June 29th, 2018. The surprise sequel toDenis Villeneuve’s excellent original will be directed byStefano Sollima, who has made a name for himself for dark Italian crime features ranging fromAll Cops Are BastardstoSuburrato the quite goodGomorrahTV series. Though the date does not have many same-day openers that would prove formidable competitors to the sequel, it is being released the weekend afterJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the sequel to a movie that now sits in the top ten of the highest grossing movies of all time.
It’s not surprising, then, that Sony has movedAlethea Jones’Barbie, which will starAnne Hathawayin the title role, away from that same date to an August 8th release. The company has also completely removedBad Boys for Life, the purposed third film in theWill Smith-fronted franchise, which was aiming for a November 2018 release at last we heard. WhereasBarbiemight seem like the less reliable summer release, things with theBad Boyssequel have been disjointed from the very beginning and its becoming harder and harder to envision this movie actually getting released anytime soon.
Otherwise, the release date news is for generally smaller features.The Nightingale, the feature debut fromBreaking BadhelmerMichelle MacLaren, will arrive on January 25th, 2019, whileHolmes & Watson, the latest pairing ofWill FerrellandJohn C. Reilly, will takeBad Boys for Life’s original release date of November 9th, 2018. All of these – yes, evenBarbie– have the potential to be genuinely entertaining and well-made, and Sony has strategized enough to ensure that they will all at least have the chance to make their mark on the box office as well.
