What Does Star Wars: Episode VIII Date Mean for LEGO Movie 2, 2017 Schedule?

With Disney’s announcement of release dates for the first spin-off standalone film, Star Wars: Rogue One on December 16, 2016 and Star Wars: Episode VIII on May 26, 2017 (written and directed by Rian Johnson), comes the inevitable question: what will they be up against, and what are the box office implications?

Rogue One, as of right now, is all alone on 12/16/16, and nearly all alone for that month, as far as major releases go. The oft-delayed Assassin’s Creed film from Fox and starring Michael Fassbender is due out the following Wednesday, getting a jump on the long Christmas weekend, followed by another Fox release, a musical called The Greatest Showman on Earth starring their Wolverine, Hugh Jackman out on Christmas Day. Neither film will likely threaten Rogue One‘s pull much, and with an early date, it’s likely no one will try to challenge it, making it easy to predict that the first spin-off, barring any disaster, will close out the year with 2 weeks atop the charts, and could easily kick off 2017 as well.

The “Summer blockbuster season” sees perhaps its earliest start yet in 2017, with big budget flicks Wolverine 3, Kong: Skull Island, and Divergent: Allegiant pt 2 all scheduled for March. Buena Vista, Disney’s film distribution arm, as of press time enters the film year on April 14, 2017 with Ghost in the Shell.

That kicks off Buena Vista’s every-three-weeks strategy for the opening three months of the Summer. They have, after Shell, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on May 5, Star Wars: Ep VIII on May 26, Toy Story 4 on June 16, and finally Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales on July 7. The every three weeks model gives them the potential for box office domination across nearly three entire months that kick off the biggest movie-going period of the year, and Episode VIII was the missing anchor to that model.

The competition, however, needs to be noted as well – believe it or not, Disney isn’t the only company making movies these days! May 26, 2017 was also the announced date of Warner Bros’ LEGO Movie 2 (not official title), the sequel to 2014’s hit. The last time Disney directly challenged WB like this was when they put Captain America: Civil War onto the announced date for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a move the prompted WB to bump up their film by about a month and a half. Does this mean LEGO 2 will soon make a move? It doesn’t have to, as animated films don’t typically consider big-budget live-action fare direct competition. However, the cross-generational appeal of both franchises may prompt WB to shift things around a bit.

The other tough spot to be in right now is Fox’s Fantastic Four 2, dated for June 2, 2017, just one week after Episode VIII. Despite Disney’s newfound friendly relationship with Sony (which they’ve always at least somewhat kept going, sharing the opening weekend of May with the company’s Spider-Man franchise), the same, it appears, cannot be said for Fox. Warner Bros chimes in on June 2017 with what is presumed to be Wonder Woman a week after Toy Story 4 (and four weeks past Ep VIII), as well, as non-threatened a date as it can have in what’s already looking like a crowded 2017 Summer.