The 2027 IMAX Slate Just Dropped and It May Be the Biggest Big-Screen Year in Cinema History
The confirmed IMAX release slate for next year has landed online, and it is genuinely staggering in its ambition. Spanning franchise heavyweights, long-awaited sequels, and a galaxy-hopping new era of blockbusters, the lineup reads less like a release calendar and more like a wishlist someone forgot to edit.
Headlining the year’s biggest IMAX moment, ‘Avengers: Secret Wars‘ has secured the exclusive IMAX screens for the weekend of December 17. The film is directed by the Russo Brothers from a screenplay by Michael Waldron and Stephen McFeely, and serves as the fortieth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bringing the Multiverse Saga to its conclusion. Given the sheer scale of what ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ sets up the year prior, the expectation around ‘Secret Wars’ as an IMAX event feels entirely warranted.
Disney is not stopping there. Lucasfilm has set its return to theaters with ‘Star Wars: Starfighter‘, a brand-new standalone story directed by Shawn Levy and headlined by Ryan Gosling. Gosling is joined by Flynn Gray, Matt Smith, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Mia Goth, and Amy Adams, with the film reportedly hiding a significant cameo that could set up a potential trilogy. Also joining the Disney IMAX slate is a special theatrical re-release celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of ‘Star Wars: A New Hope‘, a genuinely emotional programming choice for lifelong fans of the saga.
Warner Bros. is bringing serious firepower to the format as well. The studio’s IMAX contributions include ‘Godzilla x Kong: Supernova‘, ‘Man of Tomorrow‘, ‘A Minecraft Movie 2‘, ‘The Batman Part II‘, and the Julia Roberts-led thriller ‘Panic Carefully‘. Robert Pattinson’s long-awaited return as the Dark Knight in ‘The Batman Part II‘ has been one of the most discussed entries on any upcoming release calendar, and seeing it confirmed for the IMAX format only raises the stakes further.
Animation fans are equally well-served by the slate. Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, and Jonathan Groff are all officially returning for ‘Frozen 3‘, ending an eight-year gap for the franchise that has already grossed over two and a half billion dollars globally. ‘Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse‘ is also locked in, with Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, and Brian Tyree Henry returning, directed by Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson.
Elsewhere on the slate, ‘The Legend of Zelda‘ is directed by Wes Ball, with Bo Bragason playing Princess Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth taking on the role of Link. The project carries enormous expectations following the massive theatrical success of ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘. Rounding things out, ‘Children of Blood and Bone‘, based on Tomi Adeyemi’s debut novel, is positioned as one of the year’s earliest IMAX entries, featuring a cast that includes Viola Davis and Idris Elba.
Other confirmed titles on the broader IMAX slate include ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2‘, ‘The Thomas Crown Affair‘, and ‘Shrek 5‘, the latter reuniting Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, and Eddie Murphy after more than fifteen years away from the franchise. If even half of these films deliver on their promise, next year could be remembered as one of the most extraordinary years in the history of theatrical exhibition.
