A fine example of this would be Avengers: Infinity War. Who would have thought, this late in the game, that it would move up a week from 5/4/2018 to 4/27/2018? Of course, not that it really mattered, because the film has crossed $2 billion worldwide. Of course, it would have made that amount at any time of the year, so Disney probably figured that the fans would be hype if they knew that one of their most-anticipated films of the year was opening a week earlier than planned.
And when you have a force like The Avengers in your way, you can bet your bippy that studios will scatter their films around. Boy, did they! Some films even took that 5/4/2018 slot! Dwayne Johnson's Rampage movie even moved from 4/20/2018 to 4/13/2018. Again, with Infinity War's massive success, don't be shocked if within the next big Disney slate update, you see something like this:
Avengers 4 moves from 5/3/19 to 4/26/19
UNTITLED MARVEL moves from 5/1/20 to 4/24/20
UNTITLED MARVEL moves from 5/7/21 to 4/30/21
UNTITLED MARVEL moves from 5/6/22 to 4/29/22
But wait, we have a problem! If Avengers 4 moves up a week, that'll place it a little too close to Captain Marvel (opening 3/8/2019). Where does that move to? I'll say they move it up a whole month to 2/8/2019. With Disney's plans to release untitled live-action films in February from 2020 to 2023, I wouldn't be surprised. That could really hold Disney over until Dumbo on 3/29/2019.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is also set to open on 2/8/2019. I say that moves up a week to 2/1/2019. That should give it enough time to breathe. I'm predicting Black Panther numbers for Captain Marvel, since both films tackle a type of superhero that you don't see very often (African Americans and females, respectively).
Set to open the week afterward is X-Men: Dark Phoenix, one of Fox's Marvel properties. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the film got delayed yet again. 7/26/2019 is currently vacant, so I think they should take advantage. Only problem is that now it's sandwiched between Gambit and New Mutants(opening 6/7/2019 and 8/2/2019 respectively). I suspect the former will move to the 11/22/2019 slot that Fox has reserved for one of their Marvel movies. The latter may or may not happen at this rate, but if it does, I reckon it will get the 3/13/2020 slot (Friday the 13th, haha).
So now that we have established the chain reaction that might occur if Avengers 4 moves, why not look at 2019's other movies?
First off, I think one of the two Lionsgate films scheduled for 3/1/2019 will move. Those movies would be Chaos Walking and A Madea Family Funeral. I think it will be the former. Since Captain Marvel would be leaving 3/8/2019 vacant, why not move it there? The film is based off a series of science fiction novels that only a few people would be familiar with, while the Madea franchise is quite profitable for Lionsgate, so that could probably hold its own against DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. That'll be Universal's first film for the studio, and given how their marketing department handles sister studio Illumination's films (both Minions and Despicable Me 3 reached $1 billion), we might be looking at DreamWorks' first box office monster in a long while.
The only movie currently scheduled for 4/26/2019 is Fox Searchlight's The Aftermath. With the practical inevitability that Avengers 4 will move there, I say they move that film to the current 5/3/2019 date. I also suspect that one of the two family-friendly pictures opening on 5/10/2019 will move up to that date as well. I suspect it will be STX's animated Uglydolls film, whereas Universal/Legendary's live-action Detective Pikachu movie will stay where it is.
5/24/2019 also contains two family movies, both live-action this time: Disney's Aladdin remake and WB's Minecraft adaptation. I suspect that the latter will trade places with Godzilla: King of the Monsters and land on 5/31/2019.
I know I've said this ad nauseum on my regular Predictions posts, but I think Fox/Blue Sky should move Spies in Disguise out of that terrible 9/13/2019 release date(where it's placed one week after The Angry Birds Movie 2). How about 7/3/2019? Illumination left it vacant, and its only competition is an untitled Conjuring spin-off. Plus, animated fare normally does well during the 4th of July. What's also funny is that another Tom Holland movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home, would open two days later. It reminds me of how Fox released DreamWorks' animated film Turbo on 7/17/2013, two days before Universal's live-action tentpole R.I.P.D. Both movies had Ryan Reynolds playing the main character.
Lastly, I think there's no way that Sony will release Masters of the Universe on 12/18/2019, especially with Star Wars: Episode IX opening two days afterward. What struck me as odd is that it didn't move when Sony announced that 12/13/2019 date for Jumanji 3. I expect other films opening that weekend to find new dates, such as Wicked and Death on the Nile.
My prediction is this: Wicked will move to 12/25/2019, ditto Death on the Nile. However, the latter will be facing another Fox film, the animated Call of the Wild. While they could pull an Alien: Covenant/Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul with it(both films were released by Fox on 5/19/2017), I think they'll put Wild in the 12/20/2019 slot against Episode IX. Fox seems to have a knack for placing their family movies right next to Star Wars(Road Chip went up against The Force Awakens; Ferdinand went up against The Last Jedi), so I wouldn't rule it out. As for Masters of the Universe, I can see that replacing The Crow as Sony's 10/11/2019 release. That film is reportedly in so much trouble to the point where it won't be making its planned release date, so I think He-Man and friends should take advantage.
So, with that said...
02/01/2019-The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
02/08/2019-Captain Marvel
03/01/2019-A Madea Family Funeral
03/08/2019-Chaos Walking
04/26/2019-Avengers 4
05/03/2019-The Aftermath
05/03/2019-Uglydolls
05/10/2019-Detective Pikachu
05/24/2019-Godzilla: King of the Monsters
05/31/2019-Minecraft
07/03/2019-Spies in Disguise
07/26/2019-X-Men: Dark Phoenix
09/06/2019-The Angry Birds Movie 2
10/11/2019-Masters of the Universe
11/22/2019-Gambit
12/20/2019-Star Wars: Episode IX
12/20/2019-The Call of the Wild
12/25/2019-Death on the Nile
12/25/2019-Wicked
03/13/2020-New Mutants
Side note: Disregard the fact that BOM even lists a Sony Animation movie for 12/25/2019. Kristine Belson said at Annecy 2017 that "we will make no movies in 2019", and before a certain someone tells me about Wish Dragon (you might know who it is if you follow me on Twitter), that's supposed to be a 2019 release in China. As I've said before, it could very well be a 2020 release in America. You may say that it could leak online, but so did Arthur Christmas, The Pirates!: Band of Misfits, and (for the UK, at least) Peter Rabbit. The same will likely happen to the latter film's sequel (opens 2/7/2020 in the US, 3/27/2020 in the UK). Also, disregard anything saying it will open 7/26/2019. If it were, I think BOM would have put it on their schedule instead of removing the untitled Sony Animation film that was once set to open that day.
Okay, TED talk over. What say you? Do you think of any of these films will move? Or do you say otherwise?
