Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.

March 5, 2021

Boogie

Premise: From IMDb: “Set in contemporary New York City and follows a Chinese-American basketball phenom who struggles to balance the expectations of his immigrant family with his own dreams of becoming a player for the NBA.”
Box Office Prospects: $5 M
Expectations: Uncertain. The pandemic box office is still in full swing and as last week’s weak debut for Judas and the Black Messiah showed, films with minority characters, especially in hard-hit (pandemic) populations, aren’t willing to risk their safety for a movie.
Oscar Prospects: None.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

Chaos Walking

Premise: From IMDb: “A dystopian world where there are no women and all living creatures can hear each others’ thoughts in a stream of images, words, and sounds called Noise.”
Box Office Prospects: $10 M
Expectations: Uncertain. A weak box office will likely hurt this sci-fi feature. I suspect it may ultimately be pushed off, but for now it appears to be on the release schedule, to its own detriment.
Oscar Prospects: Uncertain. It could be a contender for Best Visual Effects next year, but early-year releases often fade by the time the nominations come out and don’t get anything.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

Raya and the Last Dragon

Premise: From IMDb: “In a realm known as Lumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.”
Box Office Prospects: $50 M
Expectations: Good. If the film releases to theaters, which is not at all likely since Disney already pushed their hotly anticipated Pixar film Soul to their streaming studio, I don’t imagine they’ll still launch this. Then again, the rules for consideration for next year’s Oscars aren’t likely to be as favorable to that decision, so it could release anyway. The Croods: A New Age is a great example of how it could perform. Not as high as Disney standards, but not too embarrassing either.
Oscar Prospects: Excellent. Disney’s films, even some of the mediocre ones, are still major Oscar contenders.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.

March 26, 2021

Godzilla vs. Kong

Premise: From IMDb: “The epic next chapter in the cinematic Monsterverse pits two of the greatest icons in motion picture history against one another – the fearsome Godzilla and the mighty Kong – with humanity caught in the balance.”
Box Office Prospects: $40 M
Expectations: Uncertain. The major monster flick could do well at a pandemic box office, especially since Godzilla: King of the Monsters did so well on its own. How low the tally will be as a result of pandemic is unknown.
Oscar Prospects: Uncertain. The last film didn’t earn any Oscar nominations. I suspect the same will happen here, but one never knows.
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.