Every Studio Thinks 2026 Is Their Year… But Is It? | Kinolime Podcast Ep 35

like let's just chat about some of the things you're optimistic for in this upcoming year. Yeah. I think kind of just talking about what, you know, you just alluded to, which is so many of my favorite directors are making new movies and I don't know anything about them. And every new movie just theoretically sounds great. I just know the title. I'm not even reading log lines. I'm so excited for everything. Nothing is going to bomb this year. It's perfect. Okay. So I'm going to push back immediately and say that I feel

that I think that so you're so you're going to fight here you correctly. You think this is going to be the big year for the box office. I think that this year has to be the best year since COVID. Right. There's a big tent pole release from seemingly every franchise you could ever think of. Right. We have like the culmination of the dunes. We have a new Avengers. I can't wait for the news. Yeah. Sorry. But yeah, I hear you. And when you look at the slate of films that coming out, I mean, it is it's pretty massive. Like there's a lot of big.

Kids coming like, you know, super married brothers movie Avengers Spider-Man, like it's it's every month. There seems to be like really like a big punch that's going to like hopefully take over. But I got to be honest. I'm not that optimistic for the year now. I think it's going to be a correction, maybe of the market, but I don't see this being the year, the box office comes back. I really feel that. The Netflix, you know, all the streaming services were, and we're not going to see true blockbuster. It's sending. We're like, we're going to be

like we're kind of used to.

I still think you're gonna have the 10 pole films

that save the business and the animated movies,

but I think we're gonna see those 40 to 80 million

dollar movies, the drama's like really disappear

from theatrical.

I don't know if we're gonna have another one year,

one battle after another type of hit this year.

I don't know.

I mean, I think it's just kind of,

I'm calling it a hit.

I don't know if it's a hit.

It's gonna be kind of just a meh year,

but you think it's gonna be great.

Yeah, well, tell me why.

I think you're right in a lot of what you said,

where what we've kind of seen the studios do is like,

they've stratified films to the point where

pretty much every big release this year

is like what you said, 80, 90 million dollar plus movie.

Right, so like the studios have in a lot of ways

kind of given up that mid budget,

that low budget film that might play in theaters,

and there's a lot of good reasons for that, right?

I understand.

And I get, yeah, we get it, go.

So tell us why, sorry.

Yeah, so like, you know, I kind of think what you're saying,

where, you know, because of this merger,

what's gonna kind of come from this,

what's gonna come from the theatrical experience,

barring like unforeseen, just lack of regulatory approval

window that you usually see, it's like 12 to 18 months

most of the time, we're gonna have something that I think is,

you know, while the studios kind of give up on mid budget

and low budget films for theatrical plays,

we're seeing a lot of these kind of new buyers

and distributors the last couple years,

we have a row K, we have Black Bear,

came out of nowhere at TIFF,

and a lot of smaller boutique specialty distributors.

I think while kind of the Neons and the A24s

and the movies of the world start to mature,

we see their movies start to pick up into like,

you know, the, like all the films are releasing now

are for the most part, 10 million dollar plus movies.

I think there's gonna be a real window

while that merger is taking place

for a groundswell of new independent,

just from your lips to God's ears, I hope that happens.

I just have a gut feeling like this is gonna be, you know,

Reaganomics top-down capitalism, it's gonna be very top-heavy

for the bulk of the, you know, box office draw.

I still think we're gonna see attendance per capita,

flat, if not down this year, which is kind of an indicator

for me.

But again, like, what do we know?

We're just two, you know, guys talking about films,

let's get into the nitty gritty of the actual films

themselves, right?

Whatever, we can play this out this exercise all day,

but let's talk about the movies that are gonna make 2026.

I wanna know, Danny, five of the films

you're most excited for this year.

Yeah, I mean, I have a little list here.

I think like for me, because again, like something

we had kind of been referring to, like there is a lot

of inhibitors right now to being able to see

these type of movies, right?

We have the strikes, we don't know it's gonna come

from the merger, we don't know what's gonna come from,

AI and all these other things, which we'll get into.

However, what we do have right now that's really exciting

is we have a window where these great low and mid-budget

movies are still being made, and we don't really know how.

Tell you what.

So excited you are, right?

They're great.

And like, I think the movie I'm most excited for,

because I loved her second feature so much,

it's gonna be Jane Schubren's follow up,

I saw the TV glow, it's called Teenage Sex and Death,

it can't be Osma.

All right.

I don't know anything about it, it's gonna rock.

I think the lead from Texas in it.

Great title.

It's gonna be off the rails, I'm gonna love it.

I would be so surprised if this isn't one

of my favorites of the year.

All right, I'm gonna go with, and I'm not

to the obvious picks, which we'll get into the Odyssey

of Spider-Man, which those are two of my most anticipated

films, but I'm really excited for Michael,

the Michael Jackson film.

I knew you were gonna do it.

I gotta be honest, I don't know if it's his nephew

or whoever, first of all, looks, looks incredible.

The day, I mean, he looks kind of like Michael Jackson.

I think with Anton Fouquat, it's gonna be a fun movie.

Look, it will be a little bit of fluff.

I don't know if they're gonna go deep into.

Do you think they're gonna talk about it?

I mean, I don't know, I don't know if they can talk about it.

But I think, I think, besides that stuff,

I still say, Michael Jackson was the greatest pop star

ever that ever lived, right?

What he did culturally, philanthropically, musically.

No, I think he had the Guinness Book of World Records,

at some point for the most philanthropic celebrity.

And you could fact check me on that,

but I'm pretty sure he did, give away a lot of money.

We're not gonna get into that or stuff.

But I think the film's gonna be great,

because just musically his music journey

isn't, was incredible.

And unmatched.

So I'm excited for Michael.

It's funny that it's one of my leads.

I think that is gonna.

And I hate buy-ups, I really don't.

I hate them, I really don't.

Some reason I'm really excited for Michael.

Fight me.

Okay, Fair enough.

And we got next.

What are you excited for?

Next, one of my favorite filmmakers, he's made one movie.

He has a great TV show.

Hasn't made a feature in 10 years.

Boots Riley is coming up with a,

followed, sorry to bother you.

Called I Love Boosters.

It's about this group of like retail workers

that are trying to take down some sort of fashion maven.

So I know about it.

Naomi Aki, I love her.

LeKis Stamfield's one of my favorite actors.

Kiki Palmer.

Kiki Sinner.

Was in one of them days and amazing.

It's gonna be great.

It's gonna be so great.

It's gonna be fun for sure.

Again, another movie that, if I don't see it,

like at least three times in theaters,

I'm gonna be extremely appalled.

I cannot wait for that.

I'm gonna go big budget, 10 poll film for my next one.

I'm gonna say disclosure day.

That's my number.

That's my number.

I don't know, for some reason I'm getting the feels

that this is like returned to form.

Not that I ever really left,

but it's like, I feel like we're gonna get maybe vintage

Spielberg.

We're gonna get that look, you know, close encounters.

I don't know, I've just had something about this.

I think I only watched the trailer once.

I'm really not trying to watch the trailer that one,

but I don't know, the dude's still hitting them.

He's like, he's like, he's like, he's just like,

every movie they touch, is not bad.

Especially because he just did the Fable Men's

and he did his big personal film.

Yeah, yeah, he's personal.

But he's like, time to make a $300 million movie

about space and humanity's purpose and God.

It's gonna be so amazing.

I'm so positive today.

I cannot wait.

You know, we're gonna stick to three

because we've got a lot to talk about.

What's your last most excited anticipated film on the...

When Mike Lee makes a new movie,

you don't know anything about it.

You don't know who's in it, what the plot is,

until he wants you to.

Okay.

So I am really excited for Mike Lee's new movie,

Untitled Mike Lee movie, 2026.

Who gets what's better title than that?

There's no director that knows how to work with cast

and like truly evoke the spirit of a character

on screen more than this guy.

Watch secrets and lies, watch hard truths,

watch any of his movies.

They will blow you away.

I cannot wait.

I'm excited because he's great.

Can't wait for that one.

But my last film of 2026, I'm excited for it's

and I'll go less expected.

I saw the trailer recently.

I actually don't think the movie's gonna be good,

but I'm really hoping that it is.

I'm excited for Death of Robin Hood with Hugh Jackman

as like an aged Robin Hood graph.

It's like Wolverine but like Robin Hood.

I don't know, it kinda looks dope.

He is a fantastic actor.

It's A24 so we don't know what we're gonna get out of that.

But I feel like that's a film.

Like if done well, could be super, super dope.

Yeah.

It's weird that like in the last couple years, right?

A24 went for making like their massive swing

would be like a $20 million movie.

And now they're just doing like Hugh Jackman Eppix,

which is great.

Everything in the world at once really I think changed.

Oh yeah.

And then Civil War even more.

All right, let's talk about three movies

we're not excited for.

I think we're definitely gonna land on one of these.

Oh my God, that we're not excited for.

Not excited for.

Can I go first?

Sure.

Michael.

All right, not excited for Michael.

They're gonna split into two parts

and they've been editing it for and there's been

so many production issues.

It's not excited for folks, we get it.

And like the immediate backlash,

because I mean, you just see where that one's going.

Right?

I hate the musical biopic.

I don't care.

Stop making them please.

Don't give anyone an Oscar for this movie.

I don't care how good it is.

You should be disqualified from awards

if you're in a musical biopic.

So lame.

Sorry John.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's quite aggressive.

What I am not excited for, and this is a tough one

for someone to hear named Mira.

I am not excited for doing three.

Part three.

I'm not excited for any of you.

I'm not excited.

No, I gotta be honest.

The first dude is kind of excited for him.

Sure.

Really did not like the second film.

I'm not excited for this whatsoever.

I'll probably have to watch it, because I have to watch it.

It'll be visually gray, the score will be whatever.

It's gonna have the Deneville new, like no emotional touch.

It's just gonna be, I mean, you know, I think we've,

we're pretty lined up.

We're pretty lined up.

Sorry, Dune fans, not excited for Dune 3.

Dave, what's your second one?

I'm just, it's not even that I'm not excited for,

but I'm more so just terrified about, which is Doomsday.

Like, they're not even gonna get IMAX screens.

Dune has the IMAX formats.

Like, they're coming out on the same day,

and I really think that if this thing is not a sort of

epic end game level box office smash, like,

I don't know what Marvel's going to do.

Sure.

Right.

Yeah.

I know a lot of ways I'm kind of terrified

and not very excited for it, but I will go see it.

I am not excited for the bride.

Brim.

No, I don't know.

I feel like it's, I feel like it's gonna be a bomb,

and we'll get into the predictions later.

I don't know.

I mean, for what I've seen so far, nothing's really striking me.

It's super funky and weird, but I just saw

a really great Frankenstein movie, which by the way,

was super underrated.

And I'm just not excited for the bride, but, you know,

again, one of those things I'll have to say.

I did your last pick.

Man, that I'm not excited for it.

You know what, I hate to say it.

I know.

I'm not that excited for once upon a time in Hollywood too.

Ventures Cliff Booth.

I'm really, I don't know.

It's not, I wasn't huge on Fincher's last one.

And like, no, Fincher is directing this.

He directing this?

Yeah, yeah.

Cause, you know, Quentin Tarantino is like 10 movies.

That's it.

So he's just kind of petrified of making anything.

I'm pretty interested.

It sounds really, it's gonna be cool.

It's Fincher and Tarantino, but I think like,

if this would have come out,

it's this other thing.

I'm just, I'm not that excited about it.

And I know it's still like original film, all that.

But like, I would like those guys to be working

on films that are not sequels.

I'm sorry.

Like, you are two blank check directors.

I know.

Please go make something else.

The last thing that I'm not excited for is the Mandalorian film.

I don't know.

Like, years later, they should have done this,

like at the height of its, you know, popularity,

but I just am not, nothing in that trailer excited me.

There was one shot of him jumping up in the air

and like, it was looked really cool, but the Fabaro,

I don't know, does he have the energy to do it?

We'll see.

I'm not really excited for it.

I feel like that's fatigued, you know.

I thought our tongues got really disappointed.

That's what we, I'm taking a ton.

But you know, enough of being glib.

What we're gonna do now is we're gonna go through

the upcoming slate of films for 2026.

We're gonna go, I'm gonna name a film.

We're gonna talk about whether we think it's gonna be good or not.

And then if, guys, if anyone at home disagrees without a list,

hit us up, go in the comments, you know,

really debate with us politely.

We wanna hear from you.

We wanna see what you think of our takes,

what you think the film is gonna do.

We really love to hear from you,

because we don't know everything.

We just, you know, we have to rely on our input and data.

All right, but let's go through it.

And then also quickly, there's something important about this.

As we kind of talk through these films,

we're gonna just identify it quickly.

It's a hit or a bomb.

The bomb, Twin Peaks, the return episode eight,

we have our nuclear strike way better than Oppenheimer's.

This means it's a bomb.

And if it's a hit, we got our boy

and an old vintage black and white portrait of James Cameron.

Kind of looks like Jim Henson.

When you first printed that, you know.

Jim Henson.

Yeah, this is James Cameron.

All right, so we already know what came out.

It's Top of January we've had Greenland too,

which did not do well.

So I don't know, I wasn't really excited for that one.

I was excited for the first one,

but did some business have sequel?

28 years later, the bone temple.

Again, didn't really the previous film,

I think came out last year, did not do so well.

No, it did well.

It did well and it rocked and Neade Acosta is doing this one.

And she just did Hado, which was pretty interesting.

And people are just saying this one rocks too.

Okay.

So you're excited for it.

I'm excited for, I love this world building

that they're doing.

Who doesn't love Ray Fines like Super Jack.

Yeah.

So pumped for that.

All right, so we're going to do a hit or miss here on the,

at the end on January 16th from Joe Carnahan,

we have a Matt Damon Ben Affleck film called The Rip.

Kind of feels like the town, kind of feels like

what Joe Carnahan does in every movie.

But so on the count of three, Danny,

we're going to say James Cameron,

we're going to do hit or bomb.

Gotcha.

All right, you ready?

I'm ready.

You don't feel pumped for it.

Well, it's a fascinating one.

So it's probably not the best one to start with,

but we'll, we'll do it.

Okay, well, just because it's you notable,

Ailes actors and Joe Carnahan.

So the count of three, one, two, three.

It's a Netflix movie.

Like that's the thing.

You know, it's, it's fine.

It won't be a different one.

We won't be able to know the numbers.

He's right.

I don't, I don't think, oh, you're right.

You know what?

Yeah, how do we even know that?

What that's going to happen?

Look, they're going to say like,

I mean, I feel, yeah, I mean, hopefully it's cool.

You know, they're doing a fascinating thing

where Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's production company

is like giving pretty much every crew member in the film.

Some sort of like net profit, you know, like,

I don't know.

Yeah, they're getting back.

And sweet.

So again, I hope it's successful.

I, you know, Netflix is kind of profits and been

a lot less ambiguous than they used to,

but for everyone that worked on that movie's sake,

I hope it does well.

The last film of January, we have sent help by,

you know, dude, the author coming back, Sam Raimi.

Yeah, the original guy Adam is Dylan O'Brien.

I don't know.

We'll see.

It kind of looks interesting.

I mean, I mean, I'm sorry, I can't see how many theaters

it even gets.

Yeah, it's a, he's the type of filmmaker

that if he's not doing a massive tent pole,

like I, I am fascinated to see what kind of release

he gets in this, in this market.

We're into February now.

The next film on February 13th

that I'm like really, really excited for, like very exciting.

Cause I think it's going to be like, it's going to be

Riscay is Wuthering Heights with your boy, Jacob Allordy,

and Norgor Robby.

Like, by the way, Jacob, like,

Crushed in Frankenstein loved him.

This movie's going to be hot and steamy.

I think this is going to be, this is going to be

an interesting take on the story.

I think this is going to do very, very well.

I'm excited for it.

I don't know about you.

It's going to be one of the biggest hits of the year.

All right.

So this is not, I guess it's considered a movie.

It's got a release, but I'm like so pumped for Baz Lerman's

epic Elvis concert film, like with the lost footage

from his residency in Vegas.

It looks awesome.

I feel like we're going to be behind the scenes look at

the king like we've ever seen before.

So you and my grandpa both men, I know.

I know.

I'm not really a big Elvis fan, but I had for some reason,

like, I think it's going to, I think it's going to be

interesting.

Uh, and then to round out the month we have screen seven,

which, you know, it'll be, it'll do business.

Probably like, I was going with the bombs.

It's going to, I mean, it, um, be thrown a bomb up.

I don't know.

The, the, the screen for Antiraz kind of feels like it's in,

like much like the rest of Paramount Slade and profound

disarray.

I don't think it's going to do the next one.

I want us to go to, to see what's the bribe which we mentioned

before with Maggie Jill and Hall.

Uh, we got Christian Bale.

I think Jake Jill and holes in it.

You got Peter Skarrow's guard.

It'll help you cruise apparently.

And it's so I don't know.

Like what are we thinking here?

It's, uh, March 6th directed by Maggie Jill and Hall.

Um, you know, in the count of three, one, two, three, it's going

to be all, I think it's going to be awesome,

but it has a massive budget and like for kind of a wonky original

movie where like Jesse Buckley's the lead like, I hope it is awesome.

It does well, but it, it, it seems like almost an insurmountable

budget to make a profit on.

All right.

We're in some march.

We got hoppers.

The animated film was kind of looks funny about you have the ability to

like inhibit a, um, animals body and it looks kind of fun.

I think that'll be interesting.

I think audiences will go see that.

Hopefully it's great.

I kind of fear it's going to be a L.O. 2.0 where it's like,

how big of an appetite is there for like original animated kids movies

right now.

I hope a lot.

But the opposite of kids movies is a calling Hoover adaptation, calling

reminders of him.

Uh, I don't know if you've seen or read or any of her stuff.

They did.

It ends with us, which was mega successful.

But yeah, I think like, I think when Danny says you make movies for

female audiences, they show up.

So we got, I'm going to put throw up the camera into that movie's going to be

hit.

It's got the Lord Haran song, you know,

putting up, I mean, I'm all about it.

And another big march.

We have project Hail Mary with God.

I was the Gosling.

I mean, he's really a Cameron.

I really hope it's a bagging for us.

I haven't seen anything yet in the trail that like really brings me in.

But again, you can't discount.

Gosling is so good at picking his films.

He's really script blitter it.

Uh, I mean, high hopes to save humanity in a product.

Hail Mary.

All right.

We're into April.

So, uh, one of my favorite voice actors, um, who's also an amazing live action

actor.

It's Chris Pratt and the Super Mario Brothers new film coming out on April

3rd.

That's going to be a massive hit.

The first one was so fun.

Uh, the Super Mario Galaxy movie.

Oh, so you think it's going to be him, but it's going to be bad.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah.

Well, uh, you have no soul.

So we then we have, uh, what is another interesting thing coming up?

We're going to have the Michael movie, which we talked about on April 20th.

It's going to be a disaster.

We're going to be a disaster.

Okay.

We're into May now.

Probably this is my dark horse biggest hit of the year, maybe in terms of

profitability.

Devil wears Prada to it's going to make like 800.

It's going to make so much audience.

Like who's not going to go see that movie?

Who does not want to see Mel's dream show up and go back to her, you know,

famous character in Annatham.

It's going to be great.

It comes back to it.

Like, uh, if you go to the theater for the most part, it's just like, uh,

a lot of different iterations of like dudes with guns, um, shooting people or

like high smoothies or horror movies, uh, which are all great.

But again, you really, I think this might be the year where so many of the big

surprise box office heads are going to be movies made for female audiences.

Sure.

Another group that's not made for female audiences mortal combat to with,

uh, unfortunately, he just so weathered Carl Urban, who I love just the trail.

And it looks real bad.

Looks real bad.

Um, I don't know if that doesn't look super great.

Uh, it's coming out in May 22nd, which we talked about.

John Favreau is the Mandalorian and the Grogo felt Grogu.

I don't know.

Grogu, uh, again, probably something we'll say, but not super pumped for.

Uh, another surprise hit that the release day looks like it's June 5th.

Um, we have a master's of the universe film.

Did you know that?

Even though I'm not referring to him.

Are you familiar with him and yeah, okay.

So it looks like we have a human movie coming out, uh, did not know about this.

I'm pumped.

I mean, I was, yeah, you don't even know.

I mean, it's fine.

Okay.

Amazing.

Um, we talked about disclosure day.

That's June 12th.

That's going to be a massive Cameron.

Uh, we've scary movie six.

Dude, they're on six.

Good for them.

Yeah.

I mean, sure.

Yeah.

I mean, by the way, the way in Brothers don't age.

Have you looked at more on the way?

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, I saw him in him.

Uh, dude, doesn't it?

It isn't or a few months ago.

He was great.

He doesn't age.

Yeah.

Looks the same.

Actually, it's pretty much backwards.

Then we have toy story five, June 19th.

Um, this is the one that I think this is going to be IP fatigue.

I think you can't top four.

You ended on such an emotional note.

How are we going to do five?

Um, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, it'll have a bomb.

What is it going to do?

No, I mean, it'll make a billion dollars.

And, but I mean, we'll see.

I, I guess, um, I don't think that like kid oriented, bring the family, massive

tent pole animated movies are going anywhere.

Um, and yeah, I, I think I'll do really well.

And people will like, we have two more temples to round out, June.

The next movie is Supergirl.

Um, one, two, three.

Yeah, I don't see a world where we don't really disagree.

I'm not sure.

That's a bummer.

Well, I think with that one, um, yeah, it's not.

Yeah.

It, it seems like it's all already kind of being marketed to potentially not do very well.

Like the last piece behind the camera.

Oh, yeah.

This is another hit.

I slated for June 20th, 26.

I'm a beyond pumped for this, like a really pumped.

It should have been on my top five movies.

I'm excited for Jack.

Yes.

Five.

They're back.

They're back.

Okay.

Yeah.

Frickets.

No, I mean, it would be cool.

I guess like, uh, yeah, I guess that's cool.

Then July, we have minions, Moana live action.

And then obviously we can't talk.

We, you know, we haven't even brought this up yet.

But the, probably the maybe the biggest film of the year is coming out on July 17th.

It's the Odyssey.

Uh, every piece.

There's been advanced ticket sales for this.

People are pumped.

It is what it is.

Uh, I think it's going to be epic.

Like, epic.

And I think it's the first movie to shot entirely on iMacs, the what I read.

I got that.

I thought I read that somewhere years ago, but apparently this is the one.

Yeah.

I mean, the, the Odyssey, I think like the question we like does a crack a billion dollars, um, in week two.

No, I mean, we'll see.

I, I think again, I don't really know what to say about it because there isn't really much

information to be had.

There was not really cool like five or so minutes scene that they reviewed before.

I think it was Marty's supreme.

That was really cool.

Um, but it's going to have some competition because two weeks later, we got Spider-Man brand new day.

That's going to be fun.

Summer brawl.

It's going to be barbenheimer ish.

Um, that's going to be interesting to see.

It's only got two weeks with it being sort of the soul film out, the Odyssey.

And then Spider-Man's going to come in.

Then we're into August.

We have Paw Patrol.

Uh, looks like there's an insidious film September.

Not much that I see right here.

And then an October film by, uh, Alejandro, I don't even know how to pronounce this last thing.

In your eat through, I do.

We got Tom Cruise, like doing some drama.

It's going to be cool.

Yeah.

Did you see this real?

Yeah.

It's like that.

Um, I don't even know what it's about.

No, I mean, it should be really cool.

Comedy of catastrophic proportions.

They're saying.

Yeah.

I'm excited to see Tom Cruise play, you know, a, a, a dramatic real role again in an original film.

Um, I've been waiting for that for, you know, then October.

We got last airbender.

We got a street fighter movie November.

We got Kat Mahat Godzilla minus zero.

That's going to be fun in November.

Sure.

That last Godzilla film was fantastic or minus one.

And then we got Hunger Games in November and December, Violin Night 2 by my, my good buddy, Tommy

Ricola.

That should be fun.

Jumanji 3.

We got, and then we can't, the last two films of the year.

This is, this is the big one.

And I think they're a week apart.

We got Avengers, June, stay on December 18th.

Then we got to do three after on December 25th.

So there's 2026 in a rap for you.

If there's any movies that we missed, I know there's a Tom Ford movie coming out.

I think it's called Cry 2 Heaven.

Um, any movies that you're excited to see that we didn't talk about.

Hit us up in the comments, emails, whatever you want to do.

We want to hear from you.

We're going to talk about it in one of our upcoming videos about some of the other films that we're excited for.

Uh, but Danny, that's 2026.

It's going to be an interesting year.

I know Paramount's slate does not look great.

Um, I know you are a huge fan of that company.

Yeah.

The, the, the, the, the awesome.

It's, it's going to be interesting here.

Danny, what are some final thoughts on 2026?

Yeah.

I mean, full predictions hot takes.

I, look, I, I think the year will in a lot of ways.

It, at least the, the films coming out this year are mostly characterized by like

pretty massive tent pole films.

Um, I think usually when that happens, um, again, like there's a lot of room.

I think this year specifically for really cool Indies to emerge.

Like I'm very, very excited about kind of like some of these really cool indie directors,

kind of maturing into, um, like a new space this year.

Like the guy that did dream scenario is, you know, has like a pretty big film called The Drama

with Robert Paterson and with Zendaya coming out.

I'm really excited for that.

I'm really excited for, again, just kind of seeing potentially new movements of independent film

emerge with all of the sensitivity in the industry.

Uh, and then overall, yeah, I'm hoping for a fruitful year at the box office where people are

excited to go to movies.

Yeah.

We kind of, um, again, like the thing that I'm really scared about when it comes to movies is that,

uh, it, it slowly starts to become a thing that is for people that are really into art and

movies.

Yeah.

That's not the point of it.

The point of movies is that the theater specifically is supposed to be a place where everyone

goes and everyone has something to watch, uh, and can be kind of engrossed in culture.

Um, I am hoping that we, we bring a lot more people back and retain a lot of young audiences.

It's a really uphill battle, but that's like my big hope for the year.

Uh, every time you say the word battle like cringe,

but I think that, uh, yes.

So I hope that people come back.

I'd be curious to see attendance in 2026 compared to 2025.

I feel like we're going to be probably close to even.

I don't know if we're going to be bringing a lot of people back.

Uh, I think that now with streaming really have taken over, we're going to see

opening weekend to me doesn't really matter much anymore.

Um, it used to be a real big indicator of a film.

I think you have, we've seen over the last few years of films on opening weekend shoot up.

They have no legs and drop.

The Fantastic Four was a, it was a perfect example of that.

Um, I think with streaming has permanently changed how we, we view success.

I think now movies can underperform theatrically.

But the beauty of streaming is that it will look,

it could explode three to six months later once it finds a home.

You know, with the audience when people can, you know, can watch it from their home.

Um, they'll be, they could be culturally relevant after sort of a dormant box office,

which I think is a good thing for the business.

I really do.

You know, I think the facts are the facts.

I looked at all the different sectors of business from COVID that were affected.

Theatrical attendance has now rebounded.

Actually, it's gone backwards.

Mm-hmm.

So, um, where most businesses have, you know, got their pre-COVID levels.

So, I don't think people are coming back the way we want them to.

That's unfortunate.

But I don't think that means the death of films.

I really do think movies are so culturally important and relevant today.

Um, and people just view them differently now.

It's just the way the world.

And you've got to really make a great film to kind of punch your way into the theaters,

which I think is, which is good.

And I have every film deserves theatrical release, you know?

So, I'm kind of optimistic for the year.

I'm going to, what we went through seems like some really interesting films,

some, some big bombs.

But I, what, what does feel positive for the upcoming year is that,

it seems like the studios are like really trying to make a bunch of films.

So, uh, or interesting film.

So, that's all we can hope for.

What are your predictions for 2026?

We want to hear from you.

Are we dead on or we dead raw?

We'd love to know.

Hit us up.

And thank you so much for always watching.

I'm John Tram.

Denimert.

We'll see you at the theaters.

Our previous two competition winners, the Wafe in year one,

and Mob mentality year two, are going into production this year.

Yes, in 2026, we are making two movies, The Wafe and Mob mentality.

You, you win this year.

You're next.

We're making your film next.

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Sharper in your pencils.

Get the keyboards going.

Get your screenplay submitted to keenalime.com.

Create an account.

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And we cannot wait to get this competition rolling.