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 for Call Me by Your Name, Sony/Columbia is getting audiences hyped for 2018 and 2019's biggest blockbusters.
Indeed, THR reported last night that Sony has dated or moved over a half-dozen major projects on their to-do list. Leading that list would be Silver & Black, a spinoff of Spider-Man: Homecoming set to focus on longtime Spidey villains Silver Sable and Black Cat. The movie, directed by Beyond the Lights helmer Gina Prince-Bythewood, will hit theaters on February 8th, 2019, which would put it in the same slot as The Lego Batman Movie. Ironically, this release date will put it in direct competition with another potential box office monster: Warner Bros.'s The Lego Movie 2.
Something in closer range would be Sicario 2: Soldado, which will be hitting theaters on June 29th, 2018. The surprise sequel to Denis Villeneuve's excellent original will be directed by Stefano Sollima, who has made a name for himself for dark Italian crime features ranging from All Cops Are Bastards to Suburra to the quite good Gomorrah TV 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 after Jurassic 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 moved Alethea Jones' Barbie, which will star Anne Hathaway in the title role, away from that same date to an August 8th release. The company has also completely removed Bad Boys for Life, the purposed third film in the Will Smith-fronted franchise, which was aiming for a November 2018 release at last we heard. Whereas Barbie might seem like the less reliable summer release, things with the Bad Boys sequel 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 from Breaking Bad helmer Michelle MacLaren, will arrive on January 25th, 2019, while Holmes & Watson, the latest pairing of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, will take Bad Boys for Life's original release date of November 9th, 2018. All of these -- yes, even Barbie -- 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.
