Hit or Miss? A Way Too Early Look at the 2027 Movie Slate

Movies are a fickle thing. Sometimes, films meant to be hits do it, like The Odyssey or Toy Story 5. Other times, movies far outperform their predicted success, like Obsession and even Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with the latter becoming the second fastest movie of all time to gross $2 billion at the worldwide box office. And then there are movies that, well, flop. Movies that people expect to be good or successful that end up being neither. 

With 2027 on the horizon, it’s time to predict (way too early, I might add) which films next year will be a hit or a miss.

Miss: Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew (February 12, 2027)

The very first film to receive a global wide theatrical release from Netflix, Greta Gerwig’s Narnia has already undergone some behind-the-scenes drama. It was originally slated to release exclusively on 1,000 IMAX screens on November 26, 2026, but was bumped to February of 2027 after The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth stole its release window. The budget is rumored to be somewhere north of $280 million, which caused a falling-out between Gerwig and former Netflix film chief Dan Lin. With all of these factors at play, not to mention the very interesting sole trailer for the film, I find it hard to believe this movie will be a success, either financially or culturally.

Hit: The Thomas Crown Affair (March 5, 2027)

Fresh off his Best Actor Oscar win, Michael B. Jordan is delivering his sophomore directorial effort with a revamped Thomas Crown Affair. This movie has already been remade once, with the original released in 1968 and the 1999 version starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, so it’s not necessarily exciting new territory for the director/actor, but it’s a smart next move. With an early March release window and no real theatrical competition, this could easily become a breakout hit early into the year. One big caveat, though. The movie has to be sexy enough. And we all know that’s a big question mark for new movies.

Miss: The Legend of Zelda (April 20, 2027)

Video game movies are perhaps the most inconsistent genre, with even the most highly anticipated ones failing to be successful. I don’t think The Legend of Zelda will be any different. With a cast comprised of non-movie stars and mostly TV actors and a script written by creatives who produced The Adam Project (2022) and Deep Cover (2025), things aren’t entirely promising on the creative end. You could argue that Wes Ball, the director, had a good box office outing with his last film, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which grossed twice its projected budget. To me, all of these pieces seem haphazardly put together for one of the biggest video game IPs of all time, and I don’t think the final product will be anything of note.

Hit: Anything But Ghosts (May 7, 2027)

Director Curry Barker’s follow-up to his hit sensation Obsession will be a smash. There’s no way around it. Whether it’ll actually be good is a different conversation for a different time, but with Anything But Ghosts releasing almost exactly one year after his previous film, the hype behind Barker is going to result in box office dollars, and a lot of them. It’ll be a bigger budget and bigger actors, like Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas Howard, so we’ll see how he can manage the scale upgrade. If Focus can replicate even a modicum of hype that the Obsession run-up generated, this movie will do just fine.

Miss: Star Wars: Starfighter (May 28, 2027)

The state of Star Wars is still in disarray. The Mandalorian & Grogu was the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie ever, and the next project doesn’t look like it’s got the galactic chops to do much better. Sure, Ryan Gosling is a true movie star who is leading a new adventure, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said that the movie is “awesome.” However, so much of the future of, quite literally, the most valuable IP ever rests on the shoulders of this movie being a success, and it just feels sure to crumble under the weight. I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong! But with the recent track record of Star Wars, I don’t have any new hope.

Hit: Untitled Ocean’s Eleven Prequel (June 25, 2027)

We don’t know much about this movie outside of a few facts: Bradley Cooper is directing and writing it, Margot Robbie is starring in it, and it takes place in the 1960s with a plot revolving around a heist at the Monaco Grand Prix. To me, that has all the makings to be a summer sensation, especially with that coveted final-weekend-in-June release window. Can Robbie and Cooper both overcome their rather rocky track record at the box office? That’ll be the biggest question to answer as soon as we get the first trailer.

Miss: The Great Beyond (October 1, 2027)

This is a movie you might not have even heard of, and that is exactly why I think it’ll flop. Originally slated to open November 13, 2026, it got pushed back by almost an entire year, which set off a chain reaction at the former Warner Bros., pushing The Batman Part II and other films. The new J.J. Abrams sci-fi fantasy movie starring Glen Powell and Jenna Ortega marks Abrams’ first return to directing since one of the biggest movie disappointments of the 21st century: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The cinematographer, James Friend, did win an Academy Award for his work on All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), so that could indicate positive vibes, but I don’t think it’ll be enough to counteract the other aspects, leading me to believe this movie will be one of the biggest flops of 2027.

Hit: Untitled Daniels Film (November 19, 2027)

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, otherwise known as The Daniels, will finally return to filmmaking after their historic Oscar run with Everything Everywhere All at Once back in 2022 with a new untitled film in November of 2027. Matt Damon and Sandra Oh will be leading it, and while we don’t know much about the film, we don’t really need to know much to predict that this will be a big hit. Instead of A24, Universal will be releasing this, and we know they know how to market event blockbusters. My guess is that they’ll pour a lot of resources into this one, and it’ll inevitably end up being a big Academy Awards contender, so it being a hit is nearly a given.

List Courtesy of Ethan Simmie