Barbie, Soldado & More Get New Release Dates

Screen Rant

Barbie, Sicario Sequel & More Get New Release Dates

Sony Pictures sets new release dates for the live-action Barbie movie, the Sicario sequel, Holmes & Watson, and more for 2018.

Sony Pictures has set new release dates for several upcoming movies. The studio has been suffering financially, having recently posted an $86 million loss for the year's first quarter, since they didn't have any box office hits carrying over from last year nor did they release any majorly successful movies at the start of this year. The recent news came off the heels of Sony Pictures reporting a $719 million loss for their entire movie division in 2016. To make matters worse, they had already taken a $1 billion write-down of their film division back in January.

Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Homecoming is nearing the $700 million mark globally and Edgar Wright's Baby Driver has already pulled in over $156 million at the worldwide box office against an estimated production budget of $34 million. However, many of their other movies, such as Nikolaj Arcel's The Dark Tower and Tony Leondis' The Emoji Movie, have struggled to find their footing. Although they have struggled recently, that doesn't mean they're down for the count. In fact, they're now setting release dates for their upcoming slate.

Sony Pictures has scheduled Ethan Coen's Holmes & Watson movie, starring Will Ferrell as Sherlock Holmes and John C. Reilly as John Watson for August 3, 2018. The live-action Barbie movie, which Anne Hathaway has been circling to replace Amy Schumer, has been moved from its June 2018 release date back to August 8, 2018 (interestingly making its release 8/8/18). The upcoming Sicario sequel, Soldado, directed by Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima, and featuring the return of Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin, has taken Barbie's original release date of June 29, 2018. The film's screenwriter, Taylor Sheridan, had recently said that the script he wrote for Soldado makes Sicario "look like a comedy."

Sicario Sequel Could Also Work as a Prequel

The news comes off the heels of Sony Pictures scheduling Gina Prince-Bythewood's (The Secret Life of Bees) upcoming comic book movie Silver & Black for February 2019, as part of their burgeoning Spidey spinoff universe (unrelated to the MCU). Furthermore, Sony has pulled the third Bad Boys installment, Bad Boys For Life, from their 2018 release schedule and have left the film without a release date.

It's worth noting that the aforementioned movies aren't the only ones on the studio's release schedule for 2018; they were just the ones that happened to get new release dates today. Sony Pictures also has Ruben Fleischer's Venom, starring Tom Hardy as the eponymous character, releasing next year, along with the planned animated Spider-Man movie, featuring voice work from Shameik Moore, Mahershala Ali, and Liev Schreiber, as well as Goosebumps 2, among others.