26 massive movies you need to see in 2026

After edging the pop mainstream for years, the dam finally burst for Charli XCX in 2024, as her sixth album, Brat, laid claim to an entire summer. In this reality-blurring mock doc, the British singer-songwriter satirises her own rise to ubiquity with what looks like a mix of Madonna’s Truth or Dare and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping – an ideal film debut for the Queen of Letterboxd.

In US theaters Jan 30. In UK cinemas Feb 20

After a decade and a half of IP work, Sam Raimi returns to his horror-comedy niche, this time with a survival-thriller twist. Rachel McAdams is a meek corporate employee who finds herself stranded on a deserted island with her dickhead boss (Dylan O’Brien) following a plane crash, where the power dynamic quickly flips. It looks broad and bloody – exactly what you want from the Evil Dead guy.

In cinemas worldwide Jan 30

Are you ready for some discourrrrrrrrsssssseeee?! There might not be a more divisive director right now than Emerald Fennell, and her detractors began stretching their Twitter fingers the moment the trailer for her adaptation of Emily Brontë’s beloved 1847 novel dropped. Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are the toxic lovers at the story’s center, but it’s the soundtrack by Charli XCX that indicates this won’t be your mother’s tale of love, class and vengeance. Will it be any good, though? Expect to hear some very strong opinions on the matter.

In cinemas Feb 13 

Pixar has a proud tradition of promoting from within and Inside Out storyboard artist Daniel Chong is the latest off the Emeryville production line. His Disney debut is another high-concept affair from the studio: a girl called Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) has her consciousness transferred, Avatar-style, into a robot beaver and embarks on a quest to save an ecosystem threatened by a construction company’s bulldozers.

In cinemas worldwide Mar 6

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s sophomore directorial effort should tap into some of the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein fever, albeit while telling a different kind of story. First off, it’s technically a reimagining of the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein, itself a spinoff of the Shelley novel. Secondly, it’s set in 1930s Chicago, with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale as a sort of revivified Bonnie and Clyde. Thirdly, it’s… a musical? It looks certain to earn that exclamation mark in the title. 

In cinemas worldwide Mar 6

Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby and his gang of Brummie n’er-do-wells are back in an unexpected feature-length Peaky Blinders film. The involvement of the show’s creator Stephen Knight gives hope that The Immortal Man, set during Birmingham Blitz of World War II, will be superior to middling movie spinoffs like Breaking Bad’s El Camino. The addition of champion thesps like Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth and Barry Keoghan should guarantee it.

In cinemas Mar 6. On Netflix Mar 20

Ryan Gosling is lost in space! Into the Spider-Verse producers Chris Miller and Phil Lord return to the director chairs for an adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2021 sci-fi novel about a regular guy who wakes up on a spaceship drifting through a distant galaxy with no memory of who he is or what he’s doing there. With a screenplay by Drew Goddard, who previously adapted Weir’s The Martian for Ridley Scott, it’s shaping up to be the biggest event picture of the spring.

In cinemas worldwide Mar 20

Simon Farnaby is more than just Paddington cult hero Barry the Security Guard and the funniest man on Horrible Histories. He co-wrote Paddington 2 and now he’s adapting Enid Blyton’s bonkers arboreal adventure into one of 2026’s big family hopefuls. Directed by first-timer Ben Gregor, it takes Blyton’s tale into a modern setting and reunites Breathe’s Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy as parents to a clan of tree-scaling scamps. 

In UK cinemas Mar 27

The 2023 movie made enough money for Bowser to refurbish all of his castles several times over, so a sequel for Nintendo’s Italian stallion comes with hefty box-office and audience expectations. With the big boss and his Koopa army freshly vanquished, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) must tackle his son, Bowser Jr. Entertainingly, the little monster is voiced by Benny Safdie, delivering a different kind of smashing machine here. 

In cinemas worldwide Apr 3

A decade ago, the principal cast members of 2006’s beloved fashionista comedy expressed no desire in doing a sequel, but apparently something changed, as everyone is coming back for round 2 – including Anne Hathaway as upwardly mobile journalist Andy Sachs and Meryl Streep as her nemesis-mentor, Miranda Priestly. Twenty years on, both are still in the magazine business, but fighting over the scraps of what’s left of the print media world. Lady Gaga and Sydney Sweeney are also onboard in undisclosed roles.

In cinemas May 1

With Sorry to Bother You and I’m a Virgo, Boots Riley has established himself as one of the most idiosyncratic filmmakers working, blending playful surrealism with political agitprop. His sophomore feature reunites him with LaKeith Stanfield and casts Demi Moore, in another bold choice post-The Substance, for a story about a gang of shoplifters trying to take down a CEO. Knowing Riley, it won’t end up nearly that simple.

In cinemas worldwide May 22

Remember Star Wars? The semi-dormant franchise is back in business with Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and Dave Feloni teaming up for a feature-length outing for Mando and his little green pal Grogu. They’ve shared some small-screen adventures and they’ll be scaling up to take on Imperial warlords. Sigourney Weaver is a Rebel leader and Jeremy Allen White plays Jabba’s son Rotta the Hutt. Yes chef! 

In cinemas worldwide May 22

Fifty years into his career as Hollywood’s greatest hitmaker, a new Steven Spielberg movie is no longer an automatic event. A Spielberg-directed sci-fi thriller, though? We’re already seated. Emily Blunt, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Josh O’Connor are in the cast, the screenplay is from Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp and the trailer makes it looks like he’s back working at a massive scale. Oh, and it’s about UFOs – a subject that’s worked well for Spielberg in the past. 

In cinemas June 12

At this point, the Toy Story gang are basically the Muppets: pop-culture evergreens who reappear every few years, and you’re always happy to see them, even if the material isn’t as sharp as it used to be. In the the fifth instalment of Pixar’s flagship franchise, Bonnie’s analogue playthings face an existential threat in the form of a digital tablet. Will it reach the emotional heights of the first three films? Probably not. But with Conan O’Brien and Anna Faris joining the voice cast, it should still be funnier than the average kids movie. 

In cinemas worldwide June 19

Wait, there’s only been three Minion movies so far? Somehow it feels like triple that number, which speaks to the omnipresence of those nattering anthropomorphic Twinkies since they were first unleashed in Despicable Me 16 whole years ago. An online rumor suggests the movie is set in Golden Age Hollywood, though that’s unconfirmed – but really, as long as the little guys are making funny noises and punching each other or whatever they do, what do plot details matter to the target demo?

In cinemas worldwide Jul 1

Yes, another live-action remake of a beloved animated movie that’s wholly unnecessary yet will likely make a bajillion dollars and justify the next one. At least in this case, the characters are already Pacific Islanders, so we don’t have to suffer through another round of fake outrage over the ‘wokeification’ of Disney. Newcomer Catherine Laga’aia stars as the titular Polynesian princess called to save her island home, while Dwayne Johnson reprises his role as the demigod Maui – which, in cartoon form, is legitimately one of the best performances of his career. 

In cinemas worldwide Jul 10

Five years after being charged with ‘saving cinema’ with Tenet, Christopher Nolan is back to take the strain again – this time with his most epic undertaking yet. Homer’s great homecoming tale remains a foundational text for big-screen storytelling and Nolan’s boundless ambition will celebrate it in IMAX-enhanced style. Matt Damon plays wandering hero Odysseus, with Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong'o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Jon Bernthal joining Nolan’s pantheon of gods and humans.

In cinemas Jul 17

Is Tom Cruise ready to be an actor again? Yes, he’s arguably still the biggest movie star in the world, but he’s basically only played Ethan Hunt for the last 20 years. Teaming up with Birdman director Alejandro Iňarritu is a good way to reaffirm his thespian bona fides. Described as a ‘dark comedy’, it’s the somewhat polarising Mexican’s first English-language film since The Revenant. And the cast is stacked: Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Sophie Wilde and Riz Ahmed are also attached.

In cinemas worldwide Oct 2

The second Hunger Games prequel zeroes in on the origins of Haymitch Abernathy – the Woody Harrelson character – as he steps into the Hunger Games 25 years before Katniss. Aussie newcomer Joseph Zada is the young Haymitch, and there’s canny (re)casting across the board: Elle Fanning is Effie Trinket, Jesse Plemons is Plutarch Heavensbee, Ralph Fiennes is Coriolanus Snow, and, most intriguingly of all, Kieran Culkin plays the younger Caesar Flickerman.

In cinemas worldwide Nov 20

After Barbie, it would’ve been great to see Greta Gerwig deliver an original story. Instead, she signed a deal with Netflix to adapt two films based on books from the CS Lewis fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. Not ideal for one of Hollywood’s most exciting young voices, but then, who could’ve guessed what she’d end up doing with a movie about a toy doll? Ella McCay herself, Emma Mackey, stars as the White Witch, with Carey Mulligan also in the cast. 

In cinemas worldwide Nov 26

After his experience making The Smashing Machine, Dwayne Johnson professed his desire to take on more artistically satisfying projects – but apparently not before closing the book on the Jumanji franchise. He’s back as archeologist Dr ‘Smolder’ Blackstone, along with series vets Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Awkwafina and basically everyone else. Brittany O’Grady of The White Lotus and Game of Thrones alum Burn Gorman are among the new names, the latter playing an as-yet-unidentified villain.  

In cinemas worldwide Dec 11

The week before Christmas gives us the year’s Barbenheimer as Dune 3 and Avengers: Doomsday going head-to-head. ‘Dunesday’ will be a less flamboyant affair, with Denis Villeneuve wrapping up his sandy trilogy by wrestling James Herbert’s mind-bending 1969 novel Dune Messiah into something that won’t reduce people’s brains to cabbage. Timothée Chalamet is back as the megalomaniac Paul Atreides and Robert Pattinson joins the fray, as Villeneuve and screenwriter Jon Spaihts explore the dark side of power. 

In cinemas worldwide Dec 18

Joe and Anthony Russo are the MCU’s safest pair of hands and, boy, does the MCU need a safe pair of hands now. Unlike Infinity War and Endgame, which benefitted from a series of warm-up films, they’ll be trying to get Doomsday airborne off the shortest runway, introducing a new Avengers line-up and a superbad so far only glimpsed in a Fantastic Four post-credit sting. Instead of the planned villain Kang, it’s Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom who’ll be throwing down the gauntlet to our newest heroes. 

In cinemas worldwide Dec 18

It looks like Robert Eggers monster movies are becoming a new yuletide tradition. On the heels of Nosferatu, the director is getting most of the gang back together – Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson – for a folk-horror werewolf tale set in the 13th century English countryside. Eggers claims the script, which he wrote with The Northman co-writer Sigurjón Birgir ‘Sjón’ Sigurðsson, is the ‘darkest’ of his career, which is saying something.

Out in US theatres Dec 25

Anne Hathaway is a pop star in need of a new tour outfit, bringing her back into contact with a fashion designer (Michaela Coel) with whom she has a, let’s say, complicated past. If that doesn’t sound terribly thrilling on the surface, the trippy, enigmatic trailer shows traces of Vox Lux, Black Swan and maybe even a bit of The Craft. David Lowery, one of the more underrated current filmmakers, writes and directs, while Jack Antonoff and (who else?) Charli XCX provide the songs.

Out in the spring