It doesn’t feel like there’s much interest in any movies coming out for the rest of the year. 2023 started out incredible in terms of big and great releases from the likes of John Wick 4, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The summer blockbusters were pretty stacked, too, with Barbie and Oppenheimer. But fall and the start of winter is just lacking compared to the rest of the year. While there are films coming out, I feel like these blockbusters don’t have the same hype surrounding them as the previous movies mentioned.
October is filled with plenty of horror flicks from a new Exorcist film, directed by the same man who brought back the Halloween series in 2018, to Dark Harvest, a new horror / fantasy film. But the biggest eyecatcher is the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie based on the video game series of the same name. Are these enough to get people back in the theaters? None of these to me seem like day one showings or really pique my interest all that much.
November has an interesting mix of movies to say the least. There’s a new slasher film called Thanksgiving, probably in similar style to the Halloween series. The Marvels is also coming out this month. This is a crossover featuring three of Marvel Studio’s female heroes: Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau. I have a very strong feeling that this movie is going to struggle in the box office mainly because of how much Marvel fans are getting sick of the brand making horrible projects. For example, Ant Man 3 and Secret Invasion, both of which came out this year were hit with extreme backlash. It doesn’t help that Marvel appeals to a very specific audience. The next Hunger Games film is also releasing based on the book The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes which is about President Snow when he was younger. The biggest problem this film could face is if it has a big audience, as the whole ‘teen dystopian’ trend died out 10 years ago, before the Hunger Games films ended. Napoleon is the final film worth mentioning for November. It’s a biopic directed by Ridley Scott, who also did the first Alien and Blade Runner.
December 2023 seems to be really lacking in terms of big releases this year. The only ones worth mentioning are Aquaman 2 and Rebel Moon (which isn’t even going to be in theaters). Aquaman 2 is a sequel to the 2018 film Aquaman. That first movie was the first of the DCEU films to have made a billion dollars in the theater. Unfortunately, the sequel isn’t even going to come close. The main reason for this is that the film just does not matter. Aquaman 2, just like Blue Beetle and Shazam 2, is a victim of Warner Bros. terrible management as James Gunn, the new man in charge, has announced a full reboot in the next few years. This reboot will feature brand new actors for most of the DC heroes and villains, including Jason Momoa (Aquaman) as he is going to recast and no longer play Aquaman, but rather the Superman villain Lobo. It’s a giant mess and fans, including myself, are very confused and frustrated. It also doesn’t help that Amber Heard is still in the movie.
Rebel Moon is a Netflix Original directed by Zack Snyder, who is also famous for his works on Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and his cut of Justice League. This movie is going to be a big two-parter and in a way his version of Star Wars, as it was pitched to Lucasfilm.
Nothing too crazy for the rest of this year, just a lot of drama, particularly in the Marvel and DC department. I really feel like none of these movies are ones that you have to watch on day one. Which kind of stinks because the first half of this year was jammed packed with hyped releases. Hopefully next year will be better!
