Universal Pictures Announces Release Dates for a Bunch of Untitled Movies

Universal Studios is staking out release dates for a number of its planned upcoming blockbusters — but they aren’t ready to let the rest of the world know what movies are going to be released when. There are some educated guesses that can be made about three of the five — Dreamworks animation and Blumhouse event pictures that are planned, which limits the number of possibilities a little — but as for the generic Universal event movies planned for 2021 and 2022, it’s anybody’s guess. The popular movie-industry Twitter account Exhibitor Relations has passed the information, intended for theatrical exhibitors, along to the rest of the public.

You can see the post below, which pegs an as-yet-untitled Dreamworks movie for a September 2022 release, two Blumhouse events coming in May of 2022 and October of the same year, and then two untitled event films — one in April of 2021 and one in August of 2022. Dreamworks, obviously, is going to have an animated film, likely aimed at a broad family audience, while Blumhouse is almost exclusive R-rated action and horror.

The easy guess — and one already mentioned by one or two comments on the Exhibitor Relations thread — is that Shrek 5 might be the Dreamworks movie. A continuation of the long-running franchise has been rumored for some time, and in late 2018, a report emerged that Chris Meladandri, best known for his work on the Despicable Me films, was developing a new Shrek for Universal that would be a kinda/sorta reboot of the property.

The Blumhouse movies are a little more of a question mark. While the studio has had a few hits using highly visible brands, they mostly have created their own movies. With The Purge supposedly wrapping up its run after its 2020 installment, one of the studio’s most reliable franchises will be off the board. Still, Blumhouse has made a name in the “smart horror” space with Jordan Peele’s movies, and still has a number of other franchises like Insidious, Paranormal Activity, and Sinister. While not huge hits, Blumhouse Tilt’s The Beko Experiment and Upgrade were both warmly received, and had some talk of sequels and spinoffs.

As far as Universal event pictures — well, that could be anything at all. They have a number of franchises that are either currently ongoing or recently-enough-concluded that they might get a spinoff, including Jurassic Park, Barbie, Fast & Furious, and Fever Pitch. But we’re hoping for that grim-n-gritty Beethoven reboot that the world needs.