2021 witnessed the return of movies to the big screen with the release of the most anticipated movies that were delayed by the pandemic.
Hollywood had an active year with a variety of films released, such as sci-fi flicks, Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, musicals, character dramas, thrillers, and animations. The audience were quick to re-embrace cinema as their favourite cultural activity.
As we are nearing the end of 2021, let us look back at some of the highlights from the year 2021 that helped bring movies back to the big screen.
UAE:
KSA:
Egypt:
Oman:
Kuwait:
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Qatar:
Lebanon:
(based on Box Office)
10 blockbuster ads (in no particular order) that lit up the big screen in 2021, as featured in Campaign Middle East :
Brand: Cartier
Title: Expo 2020 Women’s Pavilion
Agency: MediaCom MENA
Brand: Yas Island Abu Dhabi
Title: Stayin’ On Yas
Agency: Starcom
Brand: stc
Title: Our Culture is Our Future
Agency: Universal Media KSA
Brand: Etisalat
Title: #TogetherMeans
Agency: Initiative Abu Dhabi
Brand: Hermès
Title: The Legend of Hermès Della Cavalleria
Agency: Havas Media ME
Brand: NEOM
Title: Made to Change
Agency: Starcom
Brand: Mercedes
Title: The New Mercedes-Maybach S-Class
Agency: OMD
Brand: TRA Bahrain
Title: Digital Theft
Brand: Gulf Bank
Title: AlDanah
Agency: Wavemaker MENA
Brand: Porsche
Title: Macan – Your Sidekick,Everywhere
Agency: BPG Kuwait
There are a dizzying amount of exciting new movies coming to theaters in 2022. These are the top 10 movies you should be looking forward to in the coming year:
For more on the movies coming out in 2022, be sure to check out our sizzle reel, which launches towards the end of January 2022
Souces : Vox Cinemas, IMDB, Box Office Mojo
A Quiet Place was one of 2018’s surprise hits – a tense thriller featuring a young family trying to survive in a world where terrifying blind but noise-sensitive creatures hunt anything that makes a sound.
A Quiet Place Part 2 – releasing 19th March 2020, brings back director and screenwriter John Krasinski behind the camera, and picks up where the first film left off.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures, the second installment will witness the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe) tackle terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence.
Here’s what you should know about A Quiet Place Part 2:
Rating
Due to depiction of terror and bloody images, it can be presumed that the movie’s rating in the Middle East will end up being PG-15.
Director
John Krasinski is back in the director’s chair. Krasinski successfully shook his public persona as The Office’s Jim Halpert with A Quiet Place (2018), and is now respected as a masterful horror filmmaker of suspense that few directors working in the genre today seem to have.
This time around, Krasinski is not just the director, but also the sole credited writer on the sequel’s screenplay with Bryan Woods and Scott Beck credited only as the creators of the characters from the original film. This adds yet another level of control for Krasinski.
Returning Cast
While John Krasinski isn’t reprising his role from the first movie, due to his character’s shocking death, the other three leads from the original – Emily Blunt returns as Evelyn Abbott, Millicent Simmonds as Regan Abbott and Noah Jupe as Marcus Abbott.
New Cast Members
Actors Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou will be joining the cast.
Murphy is well known for his starring role as Tommy Shelby in the crime drama series Peaky Blinders, while he’s been seen on the big screen in Christopher Nolan movies such as Dunkirk (2017), Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight trilogy. Hounsou has appeared in both Marvel and DC movies such as Captain Marvel (2019), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and as the Wizard in Shazam! (2019).
Check out the trailer which featured during the Super Bowl 2020:
Box Office Statistics for A Quiet Place (2018):
Worldwide Box Office – $336,157,526
UAE Admissions – Ran for 13 weeks and did approximately 162K admissions.
Contact a member of our sales team to advertise alongside this blockbuster.
Sources: Looper, Box Office Pro, The Numbers and MVM Analysis.
Scary movie junkies, rejoice! The year ahead is packed with fright fests that will have you peeking over your shoulder and checking to make sure all the doors are locked — as all good horror movies should.
From modern adaptations of literary classics – Hansel and Gretel and The Turn of the Screw, to new installments in fan-favorite franchises – The Grudge and The Conjuring, and intriguing original tales, the slate of upcoming horror movies offers something for fear seekers from all walks of life.
Here’s a list of the most anticipated upcoming horror movies with release dates set over the course of next year:
The Grudge (January 02, 2020)
Andrea Riseborough will star in this reboot of The Grudge franchise, releasing early next year as a detective investigating the case of a young mother who murdered her entire family.
She later discovers that the mother was influenced by an angry ghost seeking revenge, as is the M.O. of the franchise. Nicolas Pesce, who recently made his directorial debut with the black-and-white horror film The Eyes of My Mother (2016) has been hired to direct the movie as well as rework a draft of the script that the studio has been working from.
Underwater (January 09, 2020)
Underwater hasn’t had the easiest road to theaters. Shot back in the spring of 2017, it’ll be almost three years later when the Kristen Stewart-fronted horror film makes its way into theaters on January 9th, 2020.
The movie follows a crew of underwater researchers who must scramble to safety after an earthquake devastates their subterranean laboratory. Trapped and running out of oxygen, they have to navigate through two miles in the dangerous depths of the ocean floor to make it to safety. Think of it as Armageddon (1998) meets The Abyss (1989).
The film is written and directed by William Eubank who also directed The Signal (2014). It stars Kristen Stewart as Norah Price, Jessica Henwick as Emily, T.J. Miller as Paul, Vincent Cassel as the Captain, and John Gallagher Jr.
The Turning (January 23, 2020)
Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw is one of the most popular and influential ghost stories ever written, and it’s been adapted for the screen numerous times. In 2020, the classic tale will get a new, modern take from the director of The Runaways (2010) – Floria Sigismondi with The Turning.
This version of the story will be set in modern Maine, but will still tell the story of a governess (Mackenzie Davis) tasked with caring for two young children (Finn Wolfhard and Brooklynn Prince) after the deaths of their parents. As she settles in for the job, she begins to suspect the mysterious estate where the family is living may be harboring a number of dark secrets, and may in fact be haunted.
Gretel & Hansel (January 30, 2020)
Starring IT franchise alum Sophia Lillis as Gretel and Silent Hill‘s Alice Krige as the child-eating witch, this twisted retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm story is rife with established horror talent. Journey into the dark wood alongside director Osgood Perkins – I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016) for a flipped take on the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale in which Gretel takes the lead and there’s isn’t a gingerbread house in sight.
Fantasy Island (February 13, 2020)
Based on the classic 1970s TV series, Fantasy Island will rely on the same basic premise as the show: People from all over the world travel to a mysterious island where guests can live out their wildest fantasies — for a price. Except this time, there will also be a killer on the loose. Michael Peña will star as the island’s enigmatic host Mr. Roarke, a role originated by Ricardo Montalban.
The Invisible Man (February 27, 2020)
This new take on H.G. Wells’ classic novel will take a curious approach to the source material, which follows Elisabeth Moss as a woman who rebuilds her life after her invisible ex-boyfriend commits suicide, before discovering that her partner might not be dead. It’s a fresh take on the popular story, and one that hopefully provides an interesting spin on the familiar story. It’s also benefitted by being Leigh Whannell’s follow-up to his exceptional sophomore feature, last year’s Upgrade.
A Quiet Place: Part II (March 19, 2020)
After the first film exceeded expectations at the box office, A Quiet Place (2018) screenwriters and director John Krasinski decided to return to the silent but deadly world.
Krasinski is back to direct and Emily Blunt is also returning to reprise her role as Evelyn Abbott, a mother trying to protect her family in a world overrun by large creatures with hypersensitive hearing.
Others reportedly joining the cast include Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou.
The New Mutants (March 19, 2020)
This long-delayed, horror-centric X-Men spin-off has undergone extensive reshoots — reportedly to at least somewhat better integrate it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe — since Disney acquired 21st Century Fox in March 2019. But its underlying storyline has seemingly stayed the same. The film, starring Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy and Antonio Banderas, centers on a group of young mutants who are being held against their will inside a secret facility that’s running horrific tests on them.
Candyman (June 11, 2020)
Jordan Peele, the mastermind behind Get Out (2017) and Us (2019) continues his foray into the world of horror with a “spiritual sequel” to Bernard Rose’s 1992 cult classic Candyman, which explores issues of race and class in America. The original movie stars Tony Todd as the titular hook-handed bogeyman, who, according to urban legend, is the undead son of a slave who has haunted Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project since being lynched for having a love affair with a white woman in the late 1800s.
This time around, Todd will return alongside Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who, despite reports to the contrary, director Nia DaCosta – Little Woods (2018) says isn’t taking over Todd’s original role.
The reboot was co-written by Peele and Win Rosenfeld, whose joint production company, Monkeypaw Productions, is producing alongside MGM Pictures.
The Purge (July 09, 2020)
Prepare yourself for yet another government-sanctioned night of lawless violence in The Purge 5, the fifth installment in the horror franchise set in a near-future United States where any and all crime is legal for one 12-hour period per year.
It’s still unclear whether the Everado Gout-directed Purge 5 will be another prequel like 2018’s The First Purge, or explore the fallout from the election in 2016’s The Purge: Election Year.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (September 10, 2020)
The third official installment of The Conjuring series and the eighth movie in the Conjuring universe won’t have series architect James Wan in the director’s chair. Those duties are being handled by Michael Chaves, the director of The Curse of La Llorona (2019).
The movie stars Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are reprising their roles as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The plot centers around the trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, who stabbed his landlord to death in the middle of a drunken struggle and claimed in court that he was possessed by a demon.
*Please Note – Movies release dates are subject to change
Which horror movies are you most looking forward to watch in the coming year?
Sources: Looper and Screenrant
