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2021 Release Schedule
Official theatrical release schedule for all upcoming films in the year 2021. We tediously check and update this list to make sure the dates are 100% accurate. We also list both wide and limited release dates to the best of our abilities. If you find any discrepancies or missing films, let us know.
• Google Calendar of Only Wide Releases: HTML | iCAL
2020 | 2021 | 2022
Bold = Nationwide Release (Non-Bold = Limited or Streaming)
Release dates subject to change. Click each title for project info / to view a trailer (if available).
January 2021
January 1 (Friday)
Shadow in the Cloud (VOD)
January 7 (Thursday)
January 8 (Friday)
Herself (Amazon)
The Reason I Jump (Theaters)
January 14 (Thursday)
Locked Down (HBO Max)
January 15 (Friday)
The Marksman
Acasa, My Home (Theaters)
American Skin (VOD)
The Dig (Theaters)
MLK/FBI (Theaters + VOD)
One Night in Miami (Amazon)
Outside the Wire (Netflix)
Some Kind of Heaven (Theaters + VOD)
January 22 (Friday)
Derek DelGaudio’s In Of Itself (Hulu)
The Human Factor (Theaters)
No Man’s Land (Theaters + VOD)
Notturno (Theaters)
Our Friend (Theaters + VOD)
True Mothers (Theaters)
The White Tiger (Netflix)
January 27 (Wednesday)
January 28 (Thursday)
Sundance Film Festival (until February 3)
January 29 (Friday)
The Little Things (Theaters + HBO Max)
Saint Maud (Theaters)
The Dig (Netflix)
A Man and His Trumpet (VOD)
The Night (Theaters + VOD)
Nomadland (IMAX Only)
Palmer (Apple TV+)
Supernova (Theaters + VOD)
February 2021
February 3 (Wednesday)
Earwig and the Witch (Theaters + HBO Max)
February 5 (Friday)
Bliss (Amazon)
Falling (Theaters + VOD)
A Glitch in the Matrix (Theaters + VOD)
Little Fish (Theaters + VOD)
Malcolm Marie (Netflix)
The Mimic (Theaters + VOD)
Rams (Theaters + VOD)
Space Sweepers (Netflix)
The Wanting Mare (Theaters + VOD)
February 12 (Friday)
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (VOD)
Judas and the Black Messiah (Theaters + HBO Max)
Land (Theaters)
The Mauritanian (Theaters)
Minari (Theaters)
Breaking News in Yuba County (Theaters + VOD)
French Exit (Theaters)
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (Amazon)
Me You Madness (VOD)
Willy’s Wonderland (VOD)
The World To Come (Theaters)
February 19 (Friday)
Nomadland (Theaters + Hulu)
Blithe Spirit (Theaters + VOD)
Body Brokers (Theaters + VOD)
I Care a Lot (Netflix)
Jumbo (Theaters)
Silk Road (Theaters + VOD)
February 26 (Friday)
Tom Jerry (Theaters + HBO Max)
The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Hulu)
Cherry (Theaters)
Crisis (Theaters)
The Father (Theaters)
My Zoe (Theaters + VOD)
Night of the Kings (Theaters)
The Vigil (Theaters + VOD)
March 2021
March 4 (Thursday)
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (VOD + paramount+)
March 5 (Friday)
Boogie (Theaters)
Chaos Walking (Theaters)
Coming 2 America (Amazon)
Raya and the Last Dragon (Disney+)
Boss Level (Hulu)
My Salinger Year (Theaters)
Pixie (Theaters + VOD)
Son (Theaters + VOD)
Stray (Theaters + VOD)
The Truffle Hunters (Theaters)
March 12 (Friday)
Cherry (Apple TV+)
Come True (Theaters + VOD)
Honeydew (Theaters)
The Human Voice (Theaters)
Long Weekend (Theaters)
Yes Day (Netflix)
March 18 (Thursday)
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (HBO Max)
March 19 (Friday)
The Courier (Theaters)
Last Call (Theaters + VOD)
March 26 (Friday)
Nobody (Theaters)
Bad Trip (Netflix)
The Father (PVOD)
Shoplifters of the World (Theaters + VOD)
Six Minutes to Midnight (Theaters)
Tina (HBO Max)
March 31 (Wednesday)
Godzilla vs. Kong (Theaters + HBO Max)
April 2021
April 2 (Friday)
French Exit (Theaters)
The Unholy (Theaters)
Concrete Cowboy (Netflix)
The Man Who Sold His Skin (Theaters)
Shiva Baby (Theaters + VOD)
April 9 (Friday)
Voyagers (Nationwide)
Held (Theaters + VOD)
Moffie (Theaters + VOD)
Thunder Force (Netflix)
The Tunnel (Theaters + VOD)
We Don’t Deserve Dogs (VOD)
April 16 (Friday)
Gunda (Theaters)
In the Earth (Theaters)
Jakob’s Wife (Theaters + VOD)
Monday (Theaters + VOD)
Trigger Point (Theaters)
We Broke Up (VOD)
April 22 (Thursday)
April 23 (Friday)
Mortal Kombat (Theaters + HBO Max)
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (Theaters)
Together Together (Theaters)
Vanquish (VOD)
April 30 (Friday)
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Netflix)
Berlin Alexanderplatz (Theaters)
Cliff Walkers (Theaters)
Limbo (Theaters)
Percy vs Goliath (Theaters)
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Re-Release)
Separation (Theaters)
Things Heard Seen (Netflix)
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse (Amazon)
Summer 2021
May 2021
May 7 (Friday)
Here Today (Theaters)
The Human Factor (Theaters)
Wrath of Man (Nationwide)
The Boy from Medellín (Amazon)
The Columnist (VOD)
Initiation (Theaters + VOD)
Mainstream (Theaters)
Monster (Netflix)
The Paper Tigers (Theaters + VOD)
Silo (Theaters)
The Water Man (Theaters)
May 12 (Wednesday)
May 14 (Friday)
Finding You (Theaters)
Spiral: From The Book of Saw (Theaters)
Those Who Wish Me Dead (Theaters + HBO Max)
The Woman in the Window (Netflix)
Army of the Dead (Theaters)
The Djinn (Theaters)
High Ground (VOD)
The Killing of Two Lovers (Theaters)
The Perfect Candidate (Theaters)
Profile (Theaters + VOD)
Riders of Justice (Theaters + VOD)
Us Kids (Theaters)
May 21 (Friday)
Army of the Dead (Netflix)
Blast Beat (Theaters)
Dream Horse (Theaters)
The Dry (Theaters)
Final Account (Theaters)
New Order (Theaters)
P!nk: All I Know So Far (Amazon)
Seance (Theaters + VOD)
May 28 (Friday)
Cruella (Theaters + Disney+)
A Quiet Place Part II (Nationwide)
Blue Miracle (Netflix)
Endangered Species (Theaters + VOD)
Moby Doc (Theaters + VOD)
Plan B (Hulu)
Port Authority (Theaters + VOD)
Shepherd: The Story of a Jewish Dog (Theaters)
Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue (Theaters)
June 2021
June 3 (Thursday)
Tove (Theaters)
June 4 (Friday)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (Theaters + HBO Max)
Spirit Untamed (Nationwide)
All Light, Everywhere (Theaters)
Edge of the World (VOD)
Super Frenchie (Theaters + VOD)
Under the Stadium Lights (Theaters + VOD)
Undine (Theaters)
June 9 (Wednesday)
June 10 (Thursday)
June 11 (Friday)
In the Heights (Theaters + HBO Max)
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway
Akilla’s Escape (Theaters + VOD)
Censor (Theaters)
Holler (Theaters + VOD)
The Misfits (Theaters)
Occupation: Rainfall (Theaters + VOD)
Queen Bees (Theaters)
Skater Girl (Netflix)
June 16 (Wednesday)
June 18 (Friday)
Fatherhood (Netflix)
Pixar’s Luca (Disney+)
Gaia (Theaters)
Miss Juneteenth (Theaters)
The Sparks Brothers (Theaters)
Sweat (Theaters)
June 23 (Wednesday)
June 25 (Friday)
F9
I Carry You with Me (Theaters)
The Ice Road (Netflix)
False Positive (Hulu)
Lansky (Theaters + VOD)
Rebel Hearts (Theaters + Discovery+)
Truman Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (Theaters)
Werewolves Within (Theaters)
June 30 (Wednesday)
America: The Motion Picture (Netflix)
Zola (Theaters)
July 2021
July 1 (Thursday)
No Sudden Move (HBO Max)
July 2 (Friday)
The Boss Baby: Family Business
The Forever Purge
The Tomorrow War (Amazon)
Fear Street Part One: 1994 (Netflix)
First Date (Theaters + VOD)
The God Committee (Theaters + VOD)
Summer of Soul (Theaters + Hulu)
Till Death (Theaters + VOD)
July 6 (Tuesday)
Cannes Film Festival (until July 17)
July 9 (Friday)
Marvel’s Black Widow (Theaters + Disney+)
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (Netflix)
The Loneliest Whale (Theaters)
Summertime (Theaters)
July 14 (Wednesday)
July 16 (Friday)
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions
Space Jam: A New Legacy (Theaters + HBO Max)
Die in a Gunfight (Theaters)
Fear Street Part Three: 1666 (Netflix)
The Hidden Life of Trees (Theaters)
Mama Weed (Theaters)
Pig (Theaters)
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (Theaters)
July 23 (Friday)
Old
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
Ailey (Theaters)
Blood Red Sky (Netflix)
Joe Bell (Theaters)
Jolt (Amazon)
The Last Letter From Your Lover (Netflix)
Mandibles (Theaters)
Playing with Sharks (Disney+)
Settlers (Theaters + VOD)
Val (Theaters)
July 30 (Friday)
The Green Knight
Jungle Cruise (Theaters + Disney+)
Stillwater
Enemies of the State (Theaters + VOD)
The Exchange (Theaters + VOD)
Never Gonna Snow Again (Theaters)
Nine Days (Theaters)
Sabaya (Theaters)
August 2021
August 6 (Friday)
The Suicide Squad
Vivo (Netflix)
Annette (Theaters)
Bring Your Own Brigade (Theaters)
John and the Hole (Theaters + VOD)
Swan Song (Theaters)
Val (Amazon)
Whirlybird (Theaters)
August 12 (Thursday)
Homeroom (Theaters + Hulu)
August 13 (Friday)
Don’t Breathe 2
Free Guy
Respect
Beckett (Netflix)
CODA (Theaters + Apple TV+)
The East (Theaters)
Ema (Theaters)
The Lost Leonardo (Theaters)
Naked Singularity (Theaters + VOD)
August 20 (Friday)
PAW Patrol: The Movie
The Protégé
Reminiscence (Theaters + HBO Max)
Annette (Amazon)
Cryptozoo (Theaters)
Demonic (Theaters)
Flag Day (Theaters)
Last Man Standing (Theaters + VOD)
The Night House (Theaters)
Sweet Girl (Netflix)
Wildland (Theaters)
August 25 (Wednesday)
Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal Greed (Netflix)
August 27 (Friday)
Candyman
The Colony (Theaters + VOD)
Together (Theaters)
September 2021
September 3 (Friday)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Cinderella (Amazon)
The Big Scary ‘S’ Word (Theaters + VOD)
The Gateway (Theaters + VOD)
Mogul Mowgli (Theaters + VOD)
We Need to Do Something (Theaters + VOD)
Wild Indian (Theaters + VOD)
Worth (Netflix)
Yakuza Princess (Theaters + VOD)
Zone 414 (Theaters + VOD)
September 10 (Friday)
Malignant
Queenpins
The Alpinist (Theaters)
The Capote Tapes (Theaters)
The Card Counter (Theaters)
Fauci (Theaters)
Kate (Netflix)
Language Lessons (Theaters)
September 15 (Wednesday)
Nightbooks (Netflix)
Schumacher (Netflix)
September 17 (Friday)
Cry Macho
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Amazon)
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Best Sellers (Theaters + VOD)
Blue Bayou (Theaters)
Copshop (Theaters)
Lady of the Manor (Theaters + VOD)
Little Girl (Theaters)
The Nowhere Inn (Theaters + VOD)
Prisoners of the Ghostland (Theaters)
September 24 (Friday)
Dear Evan Hansen
Birds of Paradise (Theaters)
The Guilty (Theaters)
I’m Your Man (Theaters)
The Starling (Theaters)
October 2021
October 1 (Friday)
The Addams Family 2
The Many Saints of Newark
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Blush (Apple TV+)
Coming Home in the Dark (Theaters)
The Guilty (Netflix)
Mayday (Theaters + VOD)
Old Henry (Theaters)
Titane (Theaters)
October 6 (Wednesday)
V/H/S/94 (Shudder)
October 8 (Friday)
No Time To Die
Detention (Theaters)
Knocking (Theaters)
Lamb (Theaters)
Mass (Theaters)
The Rescue (Theaters)
October 15 (Friday)
Halloween Kills
The Last Duel
Bergman Island (Theaters)
Hard Luck Love Song (Theaters)
Luzzu (Theaters)
Needle in a Timestack (Theaters + VOD)
Son of Monarchs (Theaters)
The Velvet Underground (Theaters + Apple TV+)
October 22 (Friday)
Dune
Ron’s Gone Wrong
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Theaters)
The French Dispatch (Theaters)
The Harder They Fall (Theaters)
October 29 (Friday)
Last Night in Soho
13 Minutes (Theaters)
Antlers (Theaters)
Army of Thieves (Netflix)
A Mouthful of Air (Theaters)
Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (paramount+)
The Souvenir: Part II (Theaters)
The Spine of Night (Theaters + VOD)
Violet (Theaters)
November 2021
November 3 (Wednesday)
The Harder They Fall (Netflix)
November 5 (Friday)
Marvel’s Eternals
The Beta Test (Theaters + VOD)
Finch (Apple TV+)
Hive (Theaters)
Mark, Mary Some Other People (VOD)
One Shot (Theaters + VOD)
Spencer (Theaters)
November 10 (Wednesday)
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Passing (Theaters + Netflix)
November 11 (Thursday)
7 Prisoners (Netflix)
Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago (Theaters)
November 12 (Friday)
Belfast
Home Sweet Home Alone (Disney+)
Red Notice (Netflix)
Julia (Theaters)
Mayor Pete (Amazon)
tick, tick…Boom! (Theaters)
November 17 (Wednesday)
The Power of the Dog (Theaters)
November 19 (Friday)
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
King Richard
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Theaters)
Boiling Point (Theaters + VOD)
C’mon C’mon (Theaters)
The Feast (Theaters + VOD)
The First Wave (Theaters)
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (Theaters + VOD)
Procession (Netflix)
The Real Charlie Chaplin (Theaters)
tick, tick…Boom! (Netflix)
Zeros and Ones (Theaters + VOD)
November 24 (Wednesday)
Encanto
House of Gucci
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City
8-Bit Christmas (HBO Max)
Bruised (Netflix)
Drive My Car (Theaters)
The Humans (Theaters)
November 25 (Thursday – Thanksgiving)
The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
DMX: Don’t Try to Understand (HBO Max)
November 26 (Friday)
A Castle for Christmas (Netflix)
Licorice Pizza (Theaters)
‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas (Apple TV+)
Writing with Fire (Theaters)
December 2021
December 1 (Wednesday)
The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
December 2 (Thursday)
Listening to Kenny G (HBO Max)
December 3 (Friday)
Wolf
Benedetta (Theaters)
Citizen Ashe (Theaters)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Disney+)
Flee (Theaters)
The Scary of Sixty-First (Theaters)
Silent Night (Theaters + AMC+)
Try Harder! (Theaters)
December 9 (Thursday)
Mr. Saturday Night (HBO Max)
December 10 (Friday)
National Champions
West Side Story
Back to the Outback (Netflix)
Being the Ricardos (Theaters)
Don’t Look Up (Theaters)
Encounter (Amazon)
France (Theaters)
The Green Knight (Re-Release)
The Last Son (Theaters)
Red Rocket (Theaters)
The Unforgivable (Netflix)
December 15 (Wednesday)
Rumble (paramount+)
The Hand of God (Netflix)
Minimata (Theaters)
December 16 (Thursday)
Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss (HBO Max)
December 17 (Friday)
Nightmare Alley
Spider-Man: No Way Home
The Lost Daughter (Theaters)
Mother/Android (Hulu)
The Novice (Theaters + VOD)
Swan Song (Theaters + Apple TV+)
December 22 (Wednesday)
The King’s Man
The Matrix Resurrections
Sing 2
The Tender Bar
December 24 (Friday)
Don’t Look Up (Netflix)
Parallel Mothers (Theaters)
December 25 (Saturday – Christmas Day)
American Underdog
A Journal for Jordan
Licorice Pizza (Expands)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (Theaters)
December 29 (Wednesday)
Jockey (Theaters)
December 31 (Friday)
‹ 2020 Release Schedule | 2022 Release Schedule ›
Encanto (2021)
Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Disney+
Apple TV
Watch Encanto with a subscription on Disney+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Apple TV
Rent Spider-Man: No Way Home on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.
The Best Movies of 2021 Ranked by Tomatometer
(Photo by Macall Polay/©Warner Bros.)
Rotten Tomatoes is collecting every new Certified Fresh movie into one list, creating our guide to the best movies of 2021. Among them you’ll find Blockbusters (Shang-Chi), documentaries (Lily Topples the World), awards contenders (The Green Knight), the cutting-edge in horror (The Night House).
Movies achieve Certified Fresh status by maintaining a steady Tomatometer score of at least 75% after a minimum number of reviews, with that number depending on how the movie was released. For wide releases (of which there were significantly fewer this year, as you can imagine), the minimum number of reviews is 80. For streaming or limited release movies, that number is 40. And finally, it’s 20 reviews for movies premiering on television. Across all release types, each movie needs at least five of its reviews to be published by Top Critics. Once a movie goes Certified Fresh, the only way to lose it is by dropping below 70%.
After the world-altering year of 2020, critics and audiences and studio heads alike are navigating 2021 with its evolving distribution models and industry standards. So far, streaming continues to deliver the goods straight to the people while theaters have now reopened in earnest, and are delivering some big hits (Free Guy, Black Widow, and yes, Shang-Chi).
Read on for the best movies of 2021, ranked by Tomatometer! (And check out the current best movies of 2022, or explore other years with our guides on 2020, 2019, and 2018.) —Alex Vo
Borderlands (2024)
Based on the best-selling videogame, this all-star action-adventure follows a ragtag team of misfits on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.Based on the best-selling videogame, this all-star action-adventure follows a ragtag team of misfits on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.Based on the best-selling videogame, this all-star action-adventure follows a ragtag team of misfits on a mission to save a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.
Awards Leaderboard: Top Movies of 2021 | Rotten Tomatoes
As we head into the final days of the 21/22awards season we can safely say that no matter what happens next Sunday chaos will likely reign. Many precursor events have left us scratching our heads (CODA wins SAG? Don’t Look Up takes the WGA over Licorice Pizza, Attica beats Summer of Soul at the DGA’s) and with The Academy membership looking vastly different than it did just five years ago we may be on the cusp of a whole new playbook in terms of prognosticating. Many of the old rules are being re-writing or even thrown out the window as the voting bodies diverge and streaming further shapes the industry. Though some may lament the unpredictability of an Oscar season like this, (Kristen Stewart’s nom, Gaga’s Snub, CODA’s rise, or the collapse of Belfast, and maybe The Power of the Dog pulling a Roma – how?) we for our part are reveling in it.
There is technically still time left in the season as AMPAS voting concludes tomorrow but we are sitting on just about as much information we expect to gleam before Sunday. Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog still tops our Awards Leaderboard by a comfortable margin but recent gaffes by the director and surprising losses at the BAFTA‘s and PGA’s are highlighting the film’s weaknesses, especially with older Academy voters. Still, with over 30 Best Picture wins it is hard to say if anyone else could top that kind of momentum. The best chance for an upset would be for Apple’s first major film acquisition the upstart sound to be frontrunner CODA. The film debuted at the Sundance and despite a rather tepid release, the feel-good family flick about an aspiring singer from a deaf family has captured the hearts of voters just at the right time. Will that be enough to win it all? We find out on Sunday. Check back here for our final Oscar predictions later this week but in the meantime, you watch our video on how to win your Oscar Ballot.
Read on to find out where your favorite movies stand, and let us know what you think in the comments.
1 win
- LVFCS: Best Action Movie
1 win
- WFCC: Best Documentary About Women
1 win
- StLCA: Best Horror Film
1 win
- IFJ: Best Actor
1 win
- LAFCA: Best Production Design
1 win
- LAFCA: Best Film in Foreign Language
1 win
- IFCS: Underrated film
1 win
- NTFCA: Best Foreign Language
1 win
- SDFCS: Best Animated Film
1 win
- GOTHAM: Best Lead Performer
1 win
- TGL: Best Indie Film
1 win
- TGL: Best Actress
Thumbnail image by 20th Century Pictures
The Best Movies of 2021 | The New Yorker
From an artistic perspective, 2021 has been an excellent cinematic vintage, yet the bounty is shadowed by an air of doom. The reopening of theatres has brought many great movies—some of which were postponed from last year—to the big screen, but fewer people to see them. The biggest successes, as usual, have been superhero and franchise films. “The French Dispatch” has done respectably in wide release, and “Licorice Pizza” is doing superbly on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, but few, if any, of the year’s best films are likely to reach high on the box-office charts. The shift toward streaming was already under way when the pandemic struck, and as the trend has accelerated it’s had a paradoxical effect on movies. On the one hand, a streaming release is a wide release, happily accessible to all (or to all subscribers). On the other, an online release usually registers as a nonevent, and many of the great movies hardly make a blip on the mediascape despite being more accessible than ever.
New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.
When tracking the fortunes of ambitious movies, it’s important to keep an eye on the spread—not, as in sports betting, the handicap of numbers but the aesthetic spread that separates the most original films of the day from prevailing commercial norms. The past two decades have been a time of peaceful revolution in the movies. Established auteurs, from Spike Lee to Martin Scorsese, have found liberation through the rise of independent producers, and ultra-low-budget outsider independents—including Greta Gerwig, Barry Jenkins, the Safdie brothers, Joe Swanberg, the late Lynn Shelton, and others in their orbits —have broken through to the mainstream and shifted the very core of commercial cinema. (Among the marks of the narrowed spread are the overwhelming success of such distinctive movies as “Moonlight,” “Us,” and “Little Women,” and the franchise stardom of Adam Driver.) But these shifts have led to an industry snapback—a reconquest and occupation of studio terrain. The hiring of Terence Nance to direct “Space Jam 2” was a welcome sign of progress; his departure from the project, in July of 2019 (reportedly because of creative differences), was a sign that the winds of Hollywood were pushing back to familiar shores. (The movie, titled “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” came out in July; it isn’t good, but it’s high on the year’s box-office chart.) The double whammy of overproduced mega-spectacles in theatres and audiovisual snackables at home is a sign that, even if theatrical viewing bounces back, movies’ place in the market is likely to be even more tenuous.
In one sense, this pattern is as old as the movies themselves: for every advance, there’s a reaction. In the earliest years of Hollywood, a century ago, a star-driven system gave way to a director-driven one, which studio executives then quickly clamped down on. What emerged was a top-down system that, ever since, has seemed, absurdly, like a natural and ineluctable state of the art. More recently, in the seventies, filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas came along to devise a new pop conservatism, rooted in television and nostalgia, that quickly pushed the most forward-looking of their New Hollywood peers toward the industry’s margins. The lesson is that there is nothing natural, inevitable, or immutable about the Hollywood way of doing things—neither the methods of production nor the dictates of style and form that result. (The absence of a unified and centralized documentary system is why nonfiction, as reflected in this year’s list, has continued its aesthetic expansion uninhibitedly.)
Even before the pandemic, it was becoming tougher for artistically ambitious, low-budget features to get any theatrical release, let alone achieve commercial viability. (Several of the best independent films that I’ve seen in recent years remain unreleased to this day.) But the economics of streaming services present their own peculiar challenges. With theatrical releases, viewers don’t pay for a ticket unless they want to see a movie. Streaming subscriptions, in effect, amount to paying in advance for movies before they are available, which means that platforms have an incentive to deliver the familiar—whether narrowly formatted star-and-genre movies or films by name-brand auteurs, who can easily draw interest. And the widening spread between the most profitable movies and the most original filmmakers risks putting pressure on directors to soften or suppress their most original inspirations, or to filter them into formats, genres, or systems that resist or counteract them.
There’s a danger worse than the studios and their overproduced, over-budgeted methods: a debilitated Hollywood that would relinquish its filmmaking dominance to an even smaller number of giant streaming services. Netflix and Amazon (and, to a lesser extent, Apple TV+) have done respectable jobs of producing and releasing artistically worthy movies, including some that are high on my list. They do it so that they can compete, as players rather than disrupters, with studios and major independent producers for prestigious artists and projects. But if theatrical viewing continues to shrink, taking with it the studios’ preëminence and turning independent producers and distributors into dependent husks, the big streaming services will have much less incentive to finance movies of any significant artistic ambition.
The economics of any individual movie are irrelevant to the progress of the art form; the pantheon of classics has no connection to the industry’s treasury. Yet the careers of filmmakers are inseparable from their ability to secure access to financing, and the history of cinema is a graveyard of unrealized projects that should serve as a cautionary tale against the squandering of worthy talent. Young filmmakers working outside the system and with scant expectations of getting in are the future of the cinema, which is an art form that doesn’t know what it needs until it gets it. The art advances through a generational takeover—which can happen only when movies seem worth taking over at all. As an avid moviegoer wary of the threat of contagion, I go to theatres cautiously, with careful attention to screenings where there are large numbers of empty seats around me. Yet each empty seat bodes ominously for the future of feature filmmaking over all. The cinema has weathered crises of many sorts, economic and political, but if movies themselves hold any lesson, a rebirth is as likely to resemble a zombie as a phoenix.
A note on this list: for last year’s picks, when releases were in flux because of the pandemic, I included movies that were available to stream through festivals and special series. Several of those films have had official releases in 2021, and I’ve included them again, to retain (or restore) adherence to the traditional calendar.
Wes Anderson’s wildly comedic, yet fiercely serious, adaptation of stories and personalities from the classic age of The New Yorker unleashes a self-surpassing torrent of dramatic and decorative complexity, philosophical power, and physical intensity. It’s an extraordinary film of the life of the mind-body connection, of history in the present tense.
What Paul Thomas Anderson lays out as a pugnaciously romantic coming-of-age story for a teen-age actor and a hectic trip of self-discovery for a twentysomething dreamer, set in the San Fernando Valley of the early seventies, turns wondrously and gleefully into his version of “Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood”—and a vastly superior one at that, owing to the wide-ranging scope of his tenderness, skepticism, humor, and insight.
2021 Movie Releases: Your Film Guide for the Year | Live Updates
Photo: 2021 Movie Releases
With the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns, the film industry has been struggling to release reliable information concerning upcoming movie premieres and where to watch them. But never fear! Hollywood Insider is here to help you get your 2021 movie calendar in order. We’ll discuss all the biggest releases of 2021, as well as where to access these films and when.
2021 Movie Releases – Schedule:
- The Little Things
- Release Date: January 29, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters/HBO Max
- Brief Summary: A detective and a deputy clash in attempts to bring down a serial killer
- Directed By: John Lee Hancock
- Starring: Jared Leto, Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, Natalie Morales
- Cinderella
- Release Date: February 5, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: A modern, musical retelling of the classic fairytale that features singer Camila Cabello in her feature film debut and Billy Porter as a genderless fairy godmother.
- Starring: Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter, and John Mulaney
- Directed By: Kay Cannon
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- Malcolm and Marie
- Release Date: February 5, 2021
- Where to Watch: Netflix
- Brief Summary: One of the first films to be entirely produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, this simple story follows a filmmaker and his lover as they return to their home following a successful premiere.
- Directed By: Sam Levinson
- Starring: Zendaya and John David Washington
- Nomadland
- Release Date: February 19, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: A woman leaves her small town to travel about the American west after losing her job at a plant.
- Directed By: Chloé Zhao
- Starring: Frances McDormand and David Straithairn
- Tom and Jerry
- Release Date: February 26, 2021
- Where to Watch: HBO Max/theaters
- Brief Summary: In this live-action, animation-hybrid film, Tom is hired to protect a wedding from Jerry’s hijinks.
- Directed By: Tim Story
- Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña, Colin Jost, and Ken Jeong
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- Coming 2 America
- Release Date: March 5, 2021
- Where to Watch: Amazon Prime
- Brief Summary: In the second installment of the series, Eddie Murphy plays Prince Akeem Joffer, who returns to America after learning he has a son living in Queens.
- Directed By: Craig Brewer
- Starring: Eddie Murphy, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, and Jermaine Fowler
Related article: ‘Coming 2 America’: Everything We Know About Eddie Murphy’s Anticipated Sequel 30 Years Later
- Raya and the Last Dragon
- Release Date: March 5, 2021
- Where to Watch: Disney+/theaters
- Brief Summary: In order to stop the return of evil forces, a lone warrior searches for the last living dragon.
- Directed By: Don Hall and Carlos López Estrada
- Starring: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina
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- No Time to Die
- Release Date: April 2, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: The twenty-fifth installment of the James Bond series featuring Daniel Craig returning from a hiatus as the infamous British spy.
- Directed By: Cary Joji Fukunaga
- Starring: Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, and Léa Seydoux
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- Bob’s Burgers: The Movie
- Release Date: April 9, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: As an extension of the television show by the same name, this musical-comedy follows the Belchers and their typical family hijinks as they continue to run their restaurant.
- Directed By: Loren Bouchard, in his directorial debut
- Starring: H. Jon Benjamin, Dan Mintz, Eugene Mirman, and Larry Murphy
- Mortal Kombat
- Release Date: April 16, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters/HBO Max
- Brief Summary: Based on the video game of the same name, this film represents the third installment of the live-action films and a reboot of the series, as the last film was released in 1997.
- Directed By: Simon McQuoid, in his directorial debut
- Starring: Ludi Lin, Joe Taslim, and Jessica McNamee
- A Quiet Place Part 2
- Release Date: April 23, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: The film takes place directly after the events of the first film, following the remaining Abott family members as they venture into the unknown.
- Directed By: John Krasinski
- Starring: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Noah Jupe, and Millicent Simmons
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- Black Widow
- Release Date: May 7, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: This film fleshes out the backstory of Marvel-favorite, Black Widow, before she joined the Avengers.
- Directed By: Cate Shortland
- Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, and David Harbour
- Godzilla vs Kong
- Release Date: May 21, 2021
- Where to Watch: HBO Max/Theaters
- Brief Summary: In a futuristic world where monsters roam the earth, Godzilla and Kong clash in a battle for the ages.
- Starring: Alexander Skårsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, and Rebecca Hall
- Cruella
- Release Date: May 28, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: The live-action backstory of one of Disney’s most iconic villains, Cruella Deville.
- Directed By: Craig Gillespie
- Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, and Joel Fry
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- The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
- Release Date: June 4, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters/HBO Max
- Brief Summary: Following a case from the files of supernatural investigators Lorraine and Ed Warren, the film portrays one of the first times that a murder supsect claims demonic possession as defense for the crime.
- Directed By: Michael Chaves
- Starring: Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson
- In the Heights
- Release Date: June 18, 2021
- Where to Watch: HBO Max/Theaters
- Brief Summary: Based on the musical of the same name, In the Heights follows a group of mostly Latino characters living in Washington Heights, New York City.
- Directed By: Jon M. Chu
- Starring: Anthony Ramos, Corey Hawkins, and Leslie Grace
- The Suicide Squad
- Release Date: August 6, 2021
- Where to Watch: HBO Max/Theaters
- Brief Summary: Instead of serving as a direct sequel to the 2016 film, ‘Suicide Squad’, this film serves to introduce new characters to the DC universe and expand on the story using the original comics for inspiration.
- Directed By: James Gunn
- Starring: Margot Robbie, John Cena, Idris Elba, and Sylvester Stallone
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- Candyman
- Release Date: August 27, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: A young painter becomes obsessed with the urban legend of a supernatural killer.
- Directed By: Nia DaCosta, written by Jordan Peele
- Starring: Colman Domingo, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Teyonah Parris
- Death on the Nile
- Release Date: September 17, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: Based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, Death on the Nile serves as a follow-up to the 2017 film Murder on the Orient Express, featuring Kenneth Branagh reprising the role of Hercule Poirot
- Directed By: Kenneth Branagh
- Starring: Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Kenneth Branagh, Gal Gadot and Armie Hammer
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- Dune
- Release Date: October 1, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters/HBO Max
- Brief Summary: Based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, the film follows Duke Leto Atreides during his search for “the spice” on the desert planet, Dune.
- Directed By: Denis Villeneuve
- Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Issac, Josh Brolin
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- Mission Impossible: Libra
- Release Date: November 19, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: The seventh installment of the Mission Impossible film franchise.
- Directed By: Christopher McQuarrie
- Starring: Tom Cruise, Haley Atwell, and Rebecca Ferguson
- West Side Story
- Release Date: December 10, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters
- Brief Summary: Based on the Broadway musical of the same name, this remake serves to provide a fresh take on the original story of two star-crossed lovers in 1950s New York City.
- Directed By: Steven Spielberg
- Starring: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, and Rita Moreno
- The Matrix 4
- Release Date: December 22, 2021
- Where to Watch: Theaters/HBOMax
- Brief Summary: The fourth installment of The Matrix series
- Directed By: Lana Wachowski
- Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Brian J. Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Priyanka Chopra Jonas
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- Don’t Look Up
- Release Date: TBD
- Where to Watch: Netflix
- Brief Summary: A pair of astronomers embark on a media tour in an attempt to warn the public of an approaching asteroid.
- Directed By: Adam McKay
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Timothée Chalamet and Jennifer Lawrence
More coming soon. Check back for live updates.
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Alec Baldwin Trial: ‘Rust’ Manslaughter Case Dismissed After Bullet …
In a dramatic turn of events, Alec Baldwin‘s involuntary manslaughter trial for the fatal 2021 shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was dismissed Friday over “critical evidence” that a New Mexico judge ruled had been concealed.
“The state has repeatedly made representations to defense and to the court that they were compliant with all their discovery obligations,” New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer said in her ruling from the bench just now. “Despite their repeated representations, they have continued to fail to disclose critical evidence to the defendant.”
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“The state is highly culpable for its failure to provide discovery to the defendant,” Sommer added in a measured tone. “Dismissal with prejudice is warranted,” she concluded.
The ruling ends any hope of the state recharging Baldwin again.
Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria embrace in a New Mexico courtroom Friday after hearing his involuntary manslaughter case has been dismissed
Ramsay de Give-Pool/Getty Images
Breaking down in tears at the defense table, the multi-Emmy-winning actor was in the courtroom when Sommer announced her ruling on the defense motion to dismiss based on concealed evidence that Baldwin’s lawyer filed late Thursday, relating to ammunition brought to police by an ex-cop.
The decision by Sommer on Friday, at the end of an evidentiary hearing over a defense motion to dismiss over bullets dropped off to Santa Fe police in recent weeks by ex-Arizona cop Troy Teske, could also mean the release of incarcerated Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed from New Mexico state prison.
With the constant chorus of local police missteps, blatant professional incompetence, DA stumbles and eccentrics that has been center stage in this matter since that terrible day almost three years ago, the dismissal of the case was simultaneously shocking and not that unexpected.
Hutchins was fatally shot, and Rust director Joel Souza was injured, on October 21, 2021 after the Colt .45 Baldwin was pointing at the cinematographer fired off a live round during a rehearsal at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe where the indie Western was filming. Facing up to 18 months in state prison if found guilty, Baldwin has always insisted that while he cocked the hammer, he did not pull the trigger and the gun somehow went off on its own. The FBI, an independent analysis and, yesterday in court the man who actual made the gun all disagreed with Baldwin’s contention — which we will likely never know definitively now.
After nervous Rust ammunition supplier Seth Kenney and a series of Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office members gave testimony Friday, including bodycam footage of Teske bringing the ammunition to the cop shop, an exasperated special prosecutor Kari Morrissey decided to roll the dice and take the stand herself.
Although Rust armorer Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to 18 months in a state prison after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, no full explanation has ever been given for how a live round got on the Rust set.
Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers plan to file a motion for her release ASAP, I hear; Sommer was also the judge in the armorer’s trial. Gutierrez-Reed had been brought to Santa Fe earlier this week from prison, where she is serving her sentence, in the assumption she would be a witness in Baldwin’s trial as soon as today.
Special Prosecutor Erlinda Johnson in court this week
Ross D. Franklin – Pool/Getty Images
Just three days into what was supposed to be a nearly two-week trial, Erlinda Johnson, one of the special prosecutors in the case, resigned. The sudden move came because Johnson, who only joined the case a couple of months ago, didn’t agree with there being a public hearing on the move by Baldwin’s Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Sullivan to see the matter tossed to the legal curb.
“I could see it was not at all similar to the live rounds on the set of Rust so I made the decision not to collect the rounds since they had never left Arizona,” Morrissey told the court on the record, as she and police officials had stated before of the ammunition brought in by Teske.
A close friend of Thell Reed, the iconic Hollywood gun coach and father of Gutierrez-Reed, Teske was never called as a witness in the armorer’s trial this spring and the defendant’s own lawyer Jason Bowles said he didn’t want them, according to Morrissey. Not long afterwards, Teske took the ammunition to the police – something the defense claims it was just informed of despite requiring all the evidence in the case.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey in court on Thursday
Ramsay De Give/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Over the months since Baldwin was recharged earlier this year, the defense had quibbled over and over about evidence, discovery and tactics with what has sometimes seen like a battle of locals versus city slickers. In that context, New York City-based defense lawyer Alex Spiro today accused Morrissey of not liking Baldwin personally. Almost spitting out the words, Spiro claimed Morrissey has called Baldwin “an arrogant prick” and a “c*cksucker” in the past.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Morrissey replied, insisting that she likes a number of Baldwin’s movies, SNL appearances and “his politics.” The special prosecutor also tried to state on the record that she offered Baldwin, a longtime Democrat, a plea deal early this year.
Before Morrissey could get far down that route, she was shut down by both Spiro and Sommer. “I never said to witnesses that I would teach him a lesson,” Morrissey added to further claims by Spiro. “Absolutely not.”
There was talk about a new possible plea deal today, sources tell me, but that never came together. On the other hand, with a TLC reality show in the works likely to pay some of those sizable legal bills and a couple of documentaries on the Rust calamity in production, Baldwin’s freedom from criminal prosecution could see the well-respected actor back on the big and small screen in scripted roles as a big draw for the first time in years.
A career resurrection that might begin with Rust itself.
As the march towards this trial and that of Gutierrez-Reed moved slowly forward, the one time Jensen Ackles co-starring film was brought back last year without the young armorer or the Supernatural actor. Rust 2.0 completed production in Montana in early 2023 with Souza was as director, and Baldwin as star and producer. The now-finished Rust hasn’t secured a buyer nor distributor. Some sources have said that was always the plan until Baldwin’s legal woes were over. Others have told Deadline that the film has been actively shopped at film markets to no success. That might change in short order now that Baldwin’s criminal trial is old news.
Having left the courtroom and likely Santa Fe in a hurry Friday after Sommer’s ruling, Baldwin hasn’t quite left his Rust legal troubles in the dust. The actor is up against several civil cases in California and New Mexico courts related to the film he conjured up with Souza and the terrible shooting on the movie’s set.