What movie will rule the box office for each month in 2019? The answers may… okay, there aren’t a lot of surprises here.
Marvel Studios’ AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.. Thanos (Josh Brolin).. Photo: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2018
As I’ve done on January 1 for the last four previous years, my first post of the new year will be a rundown of what I believe will likely be the biggest grossers of the upcoming year. The twist, as always, is that it’ll be a list of the biggest grossers for each of the next 12 months. Now obviously every year has surprises galore (and last year had a bunch), so this is not a set-in-stone list nor am I responsible for date changes, but rather an approximation of what the year ahead might look like. These are not ironclad predictions. In fact, I sincerely hope that I’m wrong on one or two of these as that would (hopefully) mean something else surprised us over the next twelve months and over-performed at the box office accordingly (Why’d you have to do me like that, Venom?). And without further ado, and with an obligatory “Happy New Year!” here we go…
‘Glass’ Jessica Kourkounis – © Universal Pictures
Glass (January 18)
M. Night Shyamalan’s dessert topping/floor wax is a follow-up to both Split and Unbreakable. It’s both a horror movie and a superhero melodrama. It’s courtesy of both Universal/Comcast (domestic) and Walt Disney (overseas), which indeed sounds like the bad guys teaming up. It’s a fascinating experiment, essentially combining two seemingly stand-alone movies into one cumulative chapter. I have no idea if Shyamalan pulled it off, but I am beyond excited to find out. It is also the only really “big” movie opening this month. So, by default, it’s going to be the event movie of the month. It’ll also have the advantage of being both the first biggie of the year and the first biggie since Aquaman, Mary Poppins Revenge and Bumblebee which will be entering their fifth weekends. We’re talking about a $20 million-to-$25m genre flick, so the only question is how much of a head start Samuel L. Jackson gets toward topping $16 billion by the end of the year (yes, I’m assuming Nick Fury pops up in Avengers: Endgame).
‘How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’ DreamWorks Animation and Comcast
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (February 22)
I would love to be wrong about this one, because I would love to see Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel be both a new sci-fi fantasy classic and meet a better fate than the likes of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Jupiter Ascending and Mortal Engines. But being realistic, it’ll be a battle between Warner Bros.’ The LEGO Movie 2 on February 8 and DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s How to Train Your Dragon 3 on February 22. The first Chris Miller/Phil Lord flick earning a whopping $257 million domestic and “just” $469m worldwide in 2014. So the trick is, like frankly most sequels in this day-and-age, will be in keeping the domestic drop in check while boosting the overseas total accordingly. While How To Train Your Dragon 2 earned “just” $179m domestic (compared to the first HTTYD ’s $220m cume), it earned $619m worldwide five years ago. So, in all likelihood, LEGO Movie 2 may win domestically while the trilogy caper (which will be banking hard on generational nostalgia) will win the day worldwide.
Captain Marvel Disney
Captain Marvel (March 8)
Yes, Jordan Peele’s Us is going to be a sensation when it opens a week later. And it’s entirely possible that the MCU’s first female-fronted solo superhero flick will play closer to Doctor Strange ($677 million… horrors!) than Wonder Woman ($821m) or Black Panther ($1.346 billion). But as long as we don’t have too many in the media crowing about Marvel’s newest “billion-dollar baby” to the point where an under-$700m finish is sold as a miss, this Brie Larson sci-fi actioner is presumably going to be just fine. And, yeah, Marvel’s newest superhero origin story is going to be a relative box office monster when it opens on International Woman’s Day. After what Black Panther did to the competition last year, it’s little wonder that Doctor Dolittle and Godzilla: King of the Monsters fled to safer waters. The MCU is as hot as ever, the prologue gimmick (it’s set in the 1990’s) and the whole “first MCU female superhero with her own movie” pitch is going to be its core hook.
‘Avengers: Endgame’ Walt Disney
Avengers: Endgame (April 26)
Marvel and Disney are releasing the fourth Avengers movie (fifth if you count Captain America: Civil War) around the world almost simultaneously because it worked out quite well for them last time. Who are we kidding? Whether or not it matches/exceeds the $677 million domestic and $2 billion global cumes of Avengers: Infinity War, it’s probably going to be the biggest movie of the summer in a walk (or a snap) and, give or take a few other Disney flicks, the year.
