New year, tons of new movies coming our way! What 2023 films are you most looking forward to?
Caveats: Most of the films currently scheduled for release and beginning to get some promotion are, of course, big tentpoles: action movies, animated stuff, sci-fi’s, comic-book adventures, and the like. There will be lots more movies not yet on the pop-culture radar to get excited about once they start screening at festivals. And the movies we do already know about could get postponed (in some cases, again) if the pandemic flares up badly again.
That said, here’s a list of some of the big 2023 titles we know about so far to get you started salivating. (Release months simultaneous in US and UK unless otherwise noted.)
JANUARY
Plane
These are “officially” 2022 movies, but not opening in the UK till this month:
A Man Called Otto
Till
Empire of Light
Tár
Babylon
The Fabelmans
FEBRUARY
Knock at the Cabin (new M. Night Shyamalan)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Cocaine Bear [top far right]
Magic Mike’s Last Dance
These are “officially” 2022 movies, but not opening in the UK till February:
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
The Whale
Women Talking
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
MARCH
Creed III
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
65 [top middle left]
John Wick: Chapter 4
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
APRIL
The Super Mario Bros Movie
Renfield
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret
MAY
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
Fast X
The Little Mermaid
JUNE
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
The Flash
Asteroid City (new Wes Anderson)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny [top far left]
JULY
Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Barbie [top middle right]
Oppenheimer
The Marvels
AUGUST
The Meg 2: The Trench
Haunted Mansion
Challengers (new Luca Guadagnino)
Blue Beetle
SEPTEMBER
A Haunting in Venice
The Expendables 4
Next Goal Wins (UK Apr)
OCTOBER
Kraven the Hunter
NOVEMBER
Dune: Part Two [opening moved to March 2024]
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Wish
DECEMBER
Wonka
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
EXPECTED IN 2023
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
Killers of the Flower Moon (new Martin Scorsese)
Me, I am most looking forward to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, because Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorite and one of my formative films, and Barbie, because I know Greta Gerwig is gonna have a blast with it.
Your turn…
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I’ve been sheltering in place long since it went out of fashion, so most of the movies I want to see in 2023 came out in 2022. I’ve been making a superhuman effort to avoid spoilers for that new Black Panther movie all the kids are talking about, but I suspect I’ll know most of the big plot twists long before I watch it.
I did manage to watch The Fabelmans. I was thoroughly spoiled on just about every plot twist, but I loved it so much that I didn’t care. Some of the scenes had extra meaning because I knew what was coming next. A few of the events even started to feel inevitable. I kept watching people’s facial expressions and thinking: Maybe they know what’s coming, too, and they just don’t want to admit it.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
The Marvels
I’m unapologetically and totally a fan of everything Marvel Studios has done, and these in particular look great to me.
Fast X: Kinda related to the above – this will be the first Fast and Furious movie I’ve seen, and only because Brie Larson is in it.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Because the first one was so great
The Meg 2: The Trench: Ditto (albeit in a “we know we’re making a big, dumb, goofy movie, but we know that’s what we’re doing and hope you’ll come along and enjoy the ride with us” version of greatness.)
Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One: I love seeing big action movies built around old-fashioned stuntwork in this day and age, and these always deliver. Also, I need to see what the in-story justification will be for building a huge motorcycle ramp on a mountain in Middle-of-Nowhere, Norway.
Renfield: Nicolas Cage as Dracula? It’s either going to be spectacularly good or a spectacular trainwreck, and I’m there for either.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: It’s Indiana Jones! I don’t care if it’s not as good as I might want it to be, or violates whatever the latest fanboy fatwas are. It’s a chance to spend a few hours with a dear old friend, one last time.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: Looks like the first D&D adaptation by people who might have actually played D&D, as opposed to taking a random fantasy script and slapping the D&D name on it. (It’s got an Owlbear!)
I try not to get too enthused for a film beforehand, because that alone can make me enjoy it less. That said, Tár looks promising if a bit problematic; the trailer for Magic Mike’s Last Dance amazed me by actually engaging my interest; and The Meg was more fun than it had any right to be, even if they didn’t have the sense to get Li Bingbing back for the sequel (indeed she appears not to have had an acting role since then).
I don’t want to harsh anyone else’s buzz; superheroes do nothing for me, and I’ve had D&D films in my head since I started playing D&D 40+ years ago.
Looking forward to taking my folks to see A Man Called Otto in a couple weeks here. I think super highly of Sarah Polley, so looking forward to Women Talking, even though I know I’m going to need to emotionally prepare for the subject matter. I’m a bit excited about Dungeons & Dragons : Honour Among Thieves in spite of myself, but mostly because of how much Chris Pine seemed to enjoy it. Saw the first trailer for Renfield today and while it may be too bloody for me, even in a tongue-in-cheek tone, it looks so fun. Anything Wes Anderson does I look forward to, so Asteroid City is also on the list. Intrigued by both Barbie and Oppenheimer for very different reasons. Taika’s Next Goal Wins is of course on the to-see list. And I am, not quite looking forward to, but interested at least, in Killers of the Flower Moon.
Its weird. I no longer look forward to any particular film like I used to. I know certain ones are coming that I MAY be interested in, but dont invest anything in it until right before it comes out. and even then I wait to see what the reviews say. If its supposed to be great THEN I’ll get excited about Dune 2 or John Wick 4. Only then.