December 21 is going to be a busy day for Hollywood. There are five new films that will debut on the same Friday this winter, setting up some real box office competition for the holiday season. It's going to give audiences a lot of choices at the theaters, but it's also going to create difficult conditions for all five films to become box office hits. It doesn't end with those five films, either, as "Mary Poppins Returns" debuts two days earlier (December 19), adding another contender to the already busy weekend.
The five December 21 movies
The five films debuting on December 21 are "Aquaman," "Holmes and Watson," "Welcome to Marwen," "Bumblebee," and "Alita: Battle Angel." That's a full docket of films, with several of them going for the same theater-goers, which is where the choices will come into play.
"Aquaman" is self-explanatory, as this is the first stand-alone film for the character from DC Comics. "Holmes and Watson is a comedic take on the detective duo, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. They were also seen together in "Step Brothers" and "Talladega Nights." A report by Entertainment Weekly points out that a plot within the film includes killer bees. The article states that this is ironic due to "Bumblee" getting released on the same day. "Bumblebee" is a prequel to the recent Transformers films.
The other two films with the December 21 release date are "Alita: Battle Angel," which Entertainment Weekly calls a "CG-stuffed Robert Rodriguez-directed James Cameron production of the iconic manga." Then there is "Welcome to Marwen," which is a Steve Carrell-starring Robert Zemeckis film.
EW states that it is about "a recovering crime victim who creates a World War II art installation that comes to life."
'Aquaman' vs 'Mary Poppins Returns'
Though it is still a long time until any of these films makes it to theaters, the early expectations are that either "Aquaman" or "Mary Poppins Returns" is going to win the weekend.
With a two-day headstart, it would seem that "Mary Poppins 2" has the best shot, but filmgoers are going to be starved for another comic book film by the time "Aquaman" finally makes it to the big screen. A new trailer for the DC property was also just revealed at San Diego Comic-Con.
When it comes to "Mary Poppins Returns," Disney has been teasing fans about the film for a while now.
That included a teaser trailer shared during the Super Bowl. It really got people buzzing about the Emily Blunt film and that has continued in the months following the first trailer getting released. This film has a tough job, as it has to stand up to the origin with Julie Andrews, while also breathing new life into the franchise. Will a new generation of movie-goers fall in love with Mary Poppins?
December 21 might have been set up as the busiest movie day of the year, especially with so many new releases coming out right before Christmas. For audiences, it also means catching those early-December releases in their first days of release, because a lot of films are going to get pushed off of screens when the third Friday of the month rolls around. Will this all help Hollywood end the 2018 fiscal year with a bang? It sure seems possible.
