Only three months late, with one film already having opened and two more debuting theatrically this weekend. Anyway, I did this, picking through each studio’s annual slate to anoint a “most critical release” on a whim last year. I got backed up on this year’s version and almost scrapped it before deciding to jump back into it long after the fact. After all, I’ll also note that the one that already came and went is now even more important to its respective studio in light of a seemingly inescapable corporate consolidation. In other words, the success of (spoiler, but it’s not exactly a riddle) matters now more than ever.
Anyway, this will be in studio alphabetical order and will be focused on domestic distribution, since at least one of the offerings will be distributed overseas by a different studio. Not that this is an artistic ranking or even a commercial prediction, but as always, this list isn’t your list because what fun would that be? And now, using math, science and dark magic, here are the most important theatrical releases of the year for each major studio, with a section at the end for the smaller players and small-scale newbies. I’ll do my best to have the 2027 version of this out before, I dunno, Amazon MGM’s The Beekeeper 2?