Warner Bros. is getting its ducks in a row before it presents its upcoming slate to theater owners at this year’s CinemaCon, which gets underway March 31 in Las Vegas.
Wednesday evening, the studio announced a number of high-profile changes to its release calendar, led by news that director Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s Frankenstein pic The Bride is relocating from Sept. 26, 2025, to March 6, 2026. The film stars Christian Bale opposite Jessie Buckley. The Bride has had a challenging post-production period, according to sources.
The studio says the movie is the sort of event film that will benefit from hitting theaters timed to the beginning of spring holidays and school breaks. Nor does it preclude the film from being an awards contender despite such an early release date.
In another notable move, the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another — starring Leonardo DiCaprio — is being pushed from Aug. 8 of this year to The Bride‘s old date of Sept. 16, 2025. This will allow the movie to have a global release in Imax theaters, as well as give the studio time to install projections systems that will allow the pic to be seen in VISTA VISION.
Sources say this likely means that the director’s new film won’t make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, but the late September release date is well-timed to the fall film festivals.
Sporting a budget north of $130 million, the film is Anderson’s most expensive to date and comes as Warners’ film studio faces scrutiny following a string of box office disappointments. The movie is said to be a riff on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, and the Leonardo DiCaprio-led cast includes Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Alana Haim, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro and others.
Fans of filmmaker Barbarian filmmaker Zach Cregger will be happy to know that his film Weapons is moving up its release from Jan. 11, 2026, to Aug. 8, 2025. The multi-story horror epic stars Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Amy Madigan, Benedict Wong and Cary Christopher.
The other two big changes announced Wednesday: Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s The Cat in the Hat is moving up its release date from March 6, 2026 to February 27, 2026, while David Robert Mitchell’s Flowervale Street is being pushed from March 13, 2026, to Aug. 14, 2026
Flowervale Street‘s high-profile cast includes Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, Christian Convery, Jordan Alexa Davis and P.J. Byrne
More to come.