2020 looks set to be an interesting year for genre films. Whilst it might be a quieter year for the MCU (although they still have 2 releases), there are still plenty of non-MCU Marvel movies and DC will be stepping things up as they continue to repair the damage of their earlier films. If Marvel or DC aren’t your thing, there’s still plenty of others to look forward to. Let’s have a look…
THE GRUDGE (3rd January)
I’m not sure anyone really asked for another remake of Ju-On, but here we are. Directed by relative newcomer Nicolas Pesce and starring BAFTA nominee Andrea Riseborough and Star Trek / Harold & Kumar’s John Cho, the jury is out on whether this’ll be any good. But with a release of date of just one week away and with absolute zero pre-release hype, things aren’t looking good.
PREDICTION: Flop
UNDERWATER (10th January)
It’s basically Alien but underwater and it stars Kristen Stewart, who’s not much of a box office draw, as proven by this year’s Charlie’s Angels reboot. It’s one of the films that could end up being pretty decent but no one seems to care about the trailers, and January releases for horror films usually means the studio doesn’t have much confidence in what they have to offer. It probably would have faired better going straight to Netflix. I could be massively wrong, but I doubt it.
PREDICTION: Flop
DOLITTLE (17th January)
This is a really tough one to predict. The cast is insane, featuring (deep breath)… Robert Downey Jr, Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, Tom Holland, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez, Octavia Spenser, Craig Robertson and Marion Cotillard.
But… does anyone really want this? It’s Robert Downey Jr interacting with talking animals. If it had been released before Christmas, it probably would have done pretty well, but it’s coming out at a time when people generally don’t have much money left after the Christmas holidays, and… talking animals… guh.
I’m sure there are plenty of kids that will want to see it, and RDJ is perhaps the biggest movie star in the world right now which could save it, but I just can’t see it being more than a moderate success, if that.
PREDICTION: Might make it’s budget back, but that’s about all.
BAD BOYS FOR LIFE (17th January)
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence return for the third (i think?) Bad Boys movie and I honestly could not care any less. I think the time for a third (I think?) movie in this franchise has long gone and both actors star’s have faded.
PREDICTION: Flop
BIRDS OF PREY (7th February)
In an attempt to course correct Margot Robbie’s screen portrayal of Harley Quinn after 2016 disastrous Suicide Squad, we have Birds Of Prey, this time giving her a brand new team whilst basically giving her the spotlight. It’s not necessarily high up on my list of comic book movies I want to see in 2020, the trailers looked more annoying than fun, but we are getting Ewan McGregor as Black Mask. And also… it’s Margot Robbie. I doubt it’ll do quite as disappointingly as Shazam! did last year but it’s unlikely to do quite as well as Aquaman.
PREDICTION: Hit
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (14th February)
We demanded they changed the awful design of Sonic, and they did… and we all just kinda shrugged anyway. Still, there’s an audience for this. Detective Pikachu did pretty well last year and I imagine this will do about the same. There will be a lot of kids that will be excited about this no doubt, but it’s maybe not one for us original Sonic fans.
PREDICTION: Hit… but only just
A QUIET PLACE: PART II (20th March)
I thought the first film was just fine but it really made an impression on the box office, so now we’re getting a second entry with Emily Blunt returning and Peaky Blinders / Batman Begins’ Cillian Murphy joining her. I’m not sure we needed a sequel but I’m sure it’ll do just as well as the first.
PREDICTION: Hit
MULAN (27th March)
I’ve never seen the original and Disney remakes aren’t really made with people like me in mind. But judging from the box offices performances of the remakes of Jungle Book, The Lion King and Aladdin, all signs point to this being a massive hit.
PREDICTION: Hit
THE NEW MUTANTS (3rd April)
Is this thing even still getting a release? According to wikipedia it is.* This film has had one of the weirdest and most troubled productions in film history. Originally meant to set up a new X-Men trilogy over at 20th Century Fox, one that is more of a horror than your typical superhero story, the film was put back TWO YEARS so they could film reshoots to fix the many problems the it had.
Then… Disney bought 20th Century Fox, and they were unwilling to release the film in the state it was in, especially as they are set to completely reboot the X-Men franchise as part of the MCU. Then there were rumours of Marvel Studios removing all references to the word “mutant” with plans to make this an official entry in the MCU.
Who knows what’s actually going on with this movie, because neither Marvel or Disney are saying a thing and the only trailer we had was released two years ago.
I think that this film’s behind the scenes problems have been so widely documented that it’s hard to see it being anything other than a flop… if it even gets released.
*(Don’t be surprised if it ends up going straight to Disney+)
PREDICTION: Flop
NO TIME TO DIE (8th April)
It’s Daniel Craig’s final appearance as James Bond and as every single Craig 007 movie has been a huge hit, it’s pretty much a no brainer that this will be too. Will it be any good? The Craig films have had the original Star Trek movie curse wherein one was good (Casino Royale), one was bad (Quantum Of Solace), one was good (Skyfall), one was bad (ok, Spectre wasn’t actually that bad, but it was a bit disappointing) so if we go by that logic, No Time To Die should be a decent finale to the longest reigning Bond of all time.
PREDICTION: Hit
BLACK WIDOW (1st May)
Of all the upcoming movies on the MCU’s slate, this one feels like the most unnecessary and the least interesting. Natasha’s story came to a satisfying conclusion in Avengers: Endgame and it feels like her solo movie is too little, too late. That being said, who doesn’t want to see Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh fight it out in catsuits or Stranger Things’ David Harbour as Russia’s answer to Captain America aka Red Guardian?
One thing’s for sure though, if they end up resurrecting Black Widow, I think that’ll piss off a lot of fans. As popular as she was / is, we want meaningful deaths to actually mean something.
At the end of the day though, this’ll be a massive hit. If Mulan doesn’t get there before Black Widow, this could be 2020’s first $1 billion grossing movie.
PREDICTION: Hit
FAST & FURIOUS 9 (22nd May)
Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham weren’t invited back for this entry after betraying their “family” and making a spin-off, but the rest of the gang are back and this time they’ve recruited John Cena and Michael Rooker. I couldn’t care less to be honest but it’s a no brainer that this’ll be another box office smash and is likely to be the years biggest film.
PREDICTION: Hit and highest grossing movie of the year.
WONDER WOMAN 1984 (5th June)
Even though I’m more of a Marvel guy than a DC guy, this is probably the comic book movie I’m most excited for in 2020, just judging by the trailers we’ve seen so far.
The stakes aren’t particularly high, as it’s basically a prequel to Batman v Superman, but the trailer alone is so much fun and hopefully that’ll carry on into the movie. The first movie was a surprise hit, this time it’ll be less of a surprise when Wonder Woman joins Black Widow, F&F9 (and probably Mulan) in the $1 billion club.
PREDICTION: Hit
CANDYMAN (12th June)
Not so much of a remake, but a continuation of the original series, much like 2018’s Halloween. I think it’ll do OK, I suppose, but I’m not sure there’s as much of a demand for this than there was for a decent Halloween movie. Releasing this in the Summer instead of October also feels like a strange choice, as it would surely fare better at the Box Office over Halloween.
PREDICTION: Flop
TOP GUN: MAVERICK (26th June)
Pfft. I mean, this’ll be a huge hit. I don’t know why people love the original so much, but they do so they’ll no doubt go out and watch it. That being said, even I smiled when watching the trailer for Maverick and I don’t care for the original in the slightest. This’ll be huge.
PREDICTION: Hit
FREE GUY (3rd July)
“Ryan Reynolds playing an NPC in a video game directed by the guy that did Night Of The Museum… nah I’ll pass.”
That was my initial reaction. And then I saw the trailer. This looks incredibly fun, and then the reveal of Taika Waititi as the villain? Yes please.
This is easily one of the blockbusters I’m most looking forward to in 2020, and this is a surefire hit.
PREDICTION: Hit
GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (10th July)
This is the one. It looks like they’re actually doing it correctly this time. I didn’t care that the last movie starred an all-female cast (although I’m still not a Melissa McCarthy fan). It was the fact it was directed by the guy that made Spy, The Heat and Bridesmaids. I hated those films. They might be someones form of comedy, but they’re not for me.
But this time we’ve got an amazing cast including Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd and Finn Wolfhard, and it even seems to look more like a drama than an all-out comedy, which I’m fine with. The original Ghostbusters was funny, but it was downright terrifying in places, and this one seems to know what it’s doing.
It’s going to be huge, surely?
PREDICTION: Hit
THE PURGE 5 (10th July)
They’re still making these? It’s going up against Ghostbusters, Top Gun and Free Guy… it’s got no chance.
PREDICTION: Flop
TENET (17th July)
What do we know about this film? Apart from that time travel seems to be involved, absolutely fuck all. But it’s Christopher Nolan so it’ll no doubt be a smash hit.
PREDICTION: Hit
MORBIUS (31st July)
The third movie based on Marvel characters in 2020 is Morbius. It’s not part of the MCU (for now…), instead being the second entry in Sony’s Marvel Universe, following 2018’s Venom.
Venom was a massive unexpected success, but it also had the benefit of starring the incredibly popular Tom Hardy. Morbius, The Living Vampire however, isn’t as well known a character as Venom and stars Jared Leto in the title role, someone whose popularity has been on the decline ever since his disastrous portrayal of the Joker in Suicide Squad.
I don’t this film will be a complete flop, Venom made a ridiculous amount of money considering the awful reviews, but I can’t see it being a huge hit either. We’ll see.
PREDICTION: Hit… but only just.
BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC (21st August)
Unfortunately, I think people say they want this movie more than they actually do, and I think it’ll go the same way as Anchorman 2 and Dumb and Dumber To and be a box office disaster. Anyone under 30 isn’t going to care about this in the slightest, as popular as Keanu Reeves is right now. Shame, but that’s what is going to happen.
PREDICTION: Flop
MONSTER HUNTER (4th September)
Who is letting this happen? Paul W.S. Anderson (he of Resident Evil fame) and Milla Jovovich (she of Resident Evil fame) are reuniting (they’re actually husband and wife IRL) to make an adaptation of yet another video game and we all know how this will turn out.
PREDICTION: Flop
THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT (11th September)
The Conjuring II might well have been my favourite film of 2016. For once, we had a horror movie that wasn’t set in a massive American mansion, but was instead set in small council house in England, which is way more relatable to us Brits, and in turn ended up being one of the scariest films I’d seen in a long time.
James Wan isn’t returning to direct this third film, which is a shame, but the first two films made serious money and there’s no reason to doubt that this will do the same.
PREDICTION: Hit
THE KING’S MAN (18th September)
I enjoyed the first Kingsman movie for what it was, but never felt the need to watch the sequel. Do we really now need a prequel? I feel like the steam has been lost on this franchise and people are already forgetting about it.
PREDICTION: Flop
VENOM 2 (2nd October)
The first Venom movie was a massively unexpected hit despite terrible reviews and people love Tom Hardy so expect this one to be the same. Andy Serkis is directing this time, so there’s reason to believe this film could be a lot better (even if Serkis’ directing resume isn’t all that impressive). Plus, it’s rumoured that Tom Holland may show up as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in a cameo, which would mean that Venom and Morbius are a now a part of the MCU afterall. I really hope that doesn’t happen. We shall see.
PREDICTION: Hit
HALLOWEEN KILLS (16th October)
2018’s course correcting Halloween was a huge hit with critics and fans, so of course we’re getting another. Are people going to be as interested this time around? Yeah, probably.
PREDICTION: Hit
SNAKE EYES (16th October)
The third entry of the G.I. Joe series starring… Hugo Weaving’s niece? Does anyone care? Nope.
PREDICTION: Flop
THE ETERNALS (6th November)
The second actual MCU movie of 2020 (for now) see’s Game Of Thrones’ Richard Madden, Angeline Jolie, Salma Hayek and Kumail Nanjiani teaming up as The Eternals with Richard Madden’s on-screen brother, Kit Harrington appearing as The Black Knight.
The Eternals aren’t exactly a household name, but neither were the Guardians Of The Galaxy before they got their own film. There’s still not much we really know about this, other than the fact it covers thousands of years of MCU history. It’s a brand new MCU franchise which will finally give us an idea of what the future has in store, after Black Widow’s prequel, and it’s all incredibly exciting.
PREDICITION: Hit
GODZILLA vs. KONG (20th November)
This film has been put back by over half a year after the box office bomb that was 2019’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. Legendary must be terrified about how this film will perform at the box office but I can’t say people will be too interested.
They tried the Marvel approach, and to be honest it’s pretty impressive they managed to get four movies into it, but this is probably the end.
PREDICTION: Flop
DUNE (18th December)
Difficult to predict this. On one hand, you have a massive space opera starring the likes of Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem. On the other hand, it’s by director Denis Villeneuve, who is an incredible director (Arrival, Prisoners, Blade Runner 2049), but his films are very acquired tastes and don’t exactly set the box offices alight.
In Dune’s favour is the fact there is no Star Wars, Marvel, DC or Avatar to contend with and Dune is Christmas’ big sci-fi release. It’ll do pretty well, but I don’t think it’ll get anywhere near $1 billion. I’m looking forward to it either way.
PREDICTION: Hit
So there’s a huge list of films coming out in 2020, that took longer than expected. There’s probably still more to be announced, as is the way of Hollywood. Which films are you looking forward to in 2020? Do you think my predictions are correct? At the end of 2020 i’ll revisit this blog and we’ll find out if I was correct or way off the mark, either way, 2020 is going to be a very interesting year for film!
NERDFACE 