Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow topped Fandango's list of most anticipated movies for 2020. 2019 was quite the busy year at the movies when it came to tentpoles. Between the Infinity Saga concluding with Avengers: Endgame, the Skywalker saga ending with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and Disney scoring 80% of the year's box office hits between those two and films like Frozen 2 and The Lion King, there were a whole lot of cinematic events this year. Things will be different in 2020, though, and arguably for the better.
With Star Wars going on hiatus until 2022 and no MCU team-ups scheduled, 2020 is expected to be dominated by sequels and relatively smaller shared universe releases instead. There will even be some originality sprinkled into the mix, between the release of two non-sequels from Pixar Animation and movie versions of never-before-adapted comic book IPs and musicals. All the same, it comes as no surprise to learn the two most anticipated films of the year are of the Marvel and DC superhero variety.
Fandango has revealed the results for their Most Anticipated Movies Survey for 2020, with Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow taking the top two spots, followed by Marvel's Eternals and Disney's live-action Mulan in third and fourth place. The Wonder Woman sequel also snagged the top spot in a Most Anticipated of 2020 survey conducted by Atom Tickets, so it's fair to say interest and awareness are high for that one. You can see Fandango's list of the top 10 most anticipated movies of 2020 below.
1. Wonder Woman 1984
2. Black Widow
3. Marvel’s Eternals
4. Mulan
5. No Time to Die
6. A Quiet Place Part II
7. Birds of Prey
8. In the Heights
9. Soul
10. Fast & Furious 9
In a refreshing change of pace, the top 4 most anticipated movies in Fandango's survey were directed by women; namely, Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman 1984), Cate Shortland (Black Widow), Chloé Zhao (Marvel's Eternals), and Niki Caro (Mulan). That also means half of the top ten most anticipated films of 2020 were helmed by women, when you include Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) in the #7 spot. Of course, the vast majority of sequels and tentpoles opening next year were still directed by men, and only a small percentage of those movies were made by people of color. Still, it's nice to see projects from so many women (including, two Asian-American filmmakers) making the top ten, along with other projects that feature people of color in prominent roles on both sides of the camera (like In the Heights).
It might go without saying, but these results in no way guarantee all of the listed movies will be huge box office hits in 2020. Last year, for example, Fandango's top ten most anticipated films ranked Dumbo at the #9 spot ahead of Joker and, well, everyone saw how that played out. Similarly, Ghostbusters: Afterlife failed to make Fandango's top ten despite being ranked as the most anticipated action-comedy of 2020 (followed by Bill & Ted Face the Music), so it may well end up outperforming some of the films that made the cut for most anticipated overall. That being said, between Wonder Woman 1984 and everything else listed here, 2020 has a lot to offer despite being "slower" as a whole.
Source: Fandango
