After what was an excellent year for films, 2022 is now drawing to a close. But looking forward into 2023, there is even more greatness to fill the big screens. Filmhounds take a closer look at all the films we know that are currently set to arrive on our screens in the UK in 2023.
January 6th, the first Friday of the new year sees A Man Called Otto, the American adaptation of A Man Called Ove as well as Chinonye Chukwu's devastating Till, which tells the true story of Mamie Till, the mother of Emmet Till. On Netflix, you can catch Christian Bale in The Pale Blue Eye that same weekend. Only a few days later on Monday January 9th sees Sam Mendes' latest film Empire of Light on the big screen. And the big screen definitely seems to be the best place to see Roger Deakins' masterful cinematography.
Friday January 13th is the day everyone's waiting for. Not only do we get Mark Jenkin's latest film Enys Men, we also finally get to see Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár and Blumhouse's scary new doll M3GAN. I'm sorry Blanchett but M3GAN is our priority for the 13th.
Fast forward a week to the 20th and we get Babylon, Damien Chazelle's first film since First Man which sees Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie transition from silent to sound films in the late 1920s.
January 27th is another big week with Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical coming of age drama The Fabelmans finally arriving in the UK as well as Venice Golden Lion winning documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. But what's clearly the highlight this week is Gerard Butler's action film Plane which promises to be a fun trip to the movies.
Next up on films the US got months before the UK are Brendan Fraser's stunning comeback film The Whale and Shrek spinoff sequel Puss in Boots: The Last Wish on the first Friday in February. That same day also sees M. Night Shyamalan back on our screens with his latest mystery Knock at the Cabin starring Dave Bautista Jonathan Groff and Rupert Grint. The award winning EO, a documentary told through the eyes of a donkey travelling around Europe is also released in cinemas this weekend as well.
February 10th sees Magic Mike's Last Dance, Florian Zeller's follow up to The Father named The Son starring Hugh Jackman, a re-release of The Titanic as well as Sarah Polley's drama Women Talking based on the 2018 novel of the same name.
A week later on February 17th is the first superhero outing of the year with Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania bringing Jonathan Majors' Kang The Conqueror to the big screen for the first time, with the film teasing at even more Marvel multiversal madness. But that very same day also sees the UK release of the charming Marcel the Shell With Shoes On which hopefully will still be on in many screens despite Marvel being a bit more popular than Marcel. Festival favourite The Inspection starring Jeremy Pope releases on the 17th too providing yet another option for your cinema outing this week.
Rounding out February is Missing, a sequel to 2018's incredible Searching and whilst it sees a new cast of characters, it follows the same concept of being entirely set on computer screens. That same weekend is the release of Broker starring Parasite's Song Kang-ho as well as Cocaine Bear a film about yep, you guessed it, an American black bear who ingested a 175-pound duffel bag full of cocaine. It sounds crazy but it's actually inspired by a true story and promises to be one worth watching.
The first big release in March is Creed III on the third of the month which sees the first film in the franchise without Sylvester Stallone, but it sees Jonathan Majors joining the cast with Michael B. Jordan stepping up to directing duties as well as playing the lead role. On March 10th is 65, a brand new sci-fi thriller directed by the writers of A Quiet Place and starring Adam Driver. Oh, and did I mention that there were dinosaurs too?
After what feels like years of waiting, Ti West's X prequel Pearl starring Mia Goth is finally arriving in UK cinemas on March 17th along with Shazam! Fury of the Gods on the same day. The long awaited action sequel John Wick: Chapter 4 is set to shoot back onto our screens on Friday March 24th but that's not all in March. Rounding off the month on Friday 31st March 2023 sees Warner Bros.' animated adventure Mummies released. That same day is also the return of Ghostface as the much more appropriately titled Scream VI arrives a little over a year after 2022's Scream.
Moving into April, Chris Pine, Hugh Grant and Rege-Jean Page kick off the month on Monday 3rd April with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie with Chris Pratt voicing the eponymous Italian plumber comes out on that same week on the Friday. On April 14th see Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula in Renfield, a horror-comedy about Dracula's henchman Renfield played by Nicholas Hoult. Return to Sam Raimi's iconic horror series on April 21st as Evil Dead Rise, directed by Lee Cronin, releases in cinemas. Before the end of April you can expect to see Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, the film adaptation of the 1970 novel.
Moving into May, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 begins the month with what promises to be an epic new Marvel film on the 5th. Fasten your seatbelts as the tenth (yes, they're up to ten now) instalment of the Fast & Furious series, titled Fast X is released on May 19th and sees Jason Momoa and Brie Larson joining the fast family. Also in May is Disney's live action adaptation of The Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey and Jacob Tremblay.
In June, we finally get the very highly anticipated sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The trailer and post hints at even more Spider-men and women as we venture even further across the spider-verse and looks to be like an excellent sequel. Also in June is Elemental, Pixar's new film about the bond between fire and water elements. June also sees another instalment into the Transformers franchise with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts adding Anthony Ramos, Peter Dinklage and Pete Davidson to the cast. 16th June is the current release date, at the time of writing, for Ezra Miller's The Flash but who knows when this will actually end up on our screens or if I'll be writing about this film yet again when rounding up 2024's new films in a year's time. But before June ends, whip out your fedora for Harrison Ford's return in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
July looks set to be the biggest month in all of 2023. Begin the month with the fifth Insidious film and the third Equalizer film releasing on July 7th but the following week is Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part One, an action film that seems to be bigger than any other action film before it. Tom Cruise has risked his life over and over again in the latest Mission film and this looks set to be a cinematic experience like no other. And the next week on Friday 21st July comes two more cinematic experiences like no other. Greta Gerwig's Barbie starring Margot Robbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer starring Cillian Murphy makes for the perfect triple bill with your Mission: Impossible rewatch. If you thought that was it for July then you're wrong because a week after Barbie and Oppenheimer is yet another Marvel film, this time being The Marvels which includes Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau as our leading heroes and has Nia DaCosta at the helm.
Whilst not quite as stacked as July, August will be another big month with The Meg 2: The Trench, directed by Ben Wheatley and Neill Blomkamp's Gran Turismo as well as Disney's Haunted Mansion movie. Also in August is DC's Blue Beetle which is set to be the 14th film in the DCEU and one of the last before James Gunn and Peter Safran completely reboot it.
Poirot is back in September with A Haunting in Venice boasting an all-star cast including Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey and Michelle Yeoh. Talking of all-star casts, The Expendables 4 starring Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Megan Fox, Iko Uwais and a whole host of other action stars can be seen on the big screen from Friday 22nd September.
Before the end of the year you can expect to see an Exorcist film, Spider-man villain Kraven the Hunter played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Trolls 3, another Saw film starring Tobin Bell as John Kramer as well as Hunger Games prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The biggest hitter in November will likely be Dune Part II which adds Austin Butler and Florence Pugh to an already stacked cast.
As the year draws to a close we can expect musicals galore with Disney's Wish featuring the voices of Ariana DeBose and Alan Tudyk, Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet and The Colour Purple. The last big releases of 2023 include the currently untitled Ghostbusters sequel on December 20th and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on Friday 29th December 2023.
Whilst we can probably expect many of the release dates mentioned above to change throughout the year, and maybe some of these films will even get pushed back into 2024, the year looks like it's full of fantastic new films to fill our screens. July looks to be a particular highlight with Mission: Impossible and Barbie releasing within two weeks of a new Marvel film and a new Christopher Nolan film but there's plenty of everything so as Tom Cruise would say, we'll see you at the movies in 2023.
