Sci Fi Movies This Week: Weekly column tracking what is coming in the current week in the way of sci fi, fantasy, and horror releases as well as news and updates on genre films, streaming and theatrical.
Premiering This Week:
This week brings the premiere of one of the first blockbuster sci fi entries of the year with Project Hail Mary hitting theaters in wide release on Friday. In limited release, the horror/action film Vampires of the Velvet Lounge will be showing up in select theaters. And available On Demand is the post-apocalyptic The Well. Hitting streaming this weekend is Mercy (which played in theaters earlier in the year) having its premiere on Prime Video on Friday. You can see highlights for the week below, and you can watch trailers and get info for all the current upcoming sci fi and fantasy films at this link.
Project Hail Mary (In Theaters, Mar 20): Ryland Grace is a school-teacher-turned-astronaut who wakes up from a coma, alone, on a space station with no memory of who he is or his mission. His memory returns in bursts and he pieces together that he was sent to the Tau Ceti solar system, 12 light-years from Earth, to reverse the impact of a space event that had already hurled our planet into the early stages of an Ice Age. As details of the mission unravel, Grace must call on all of his scientific training and sheer ingenuity, but he might not have to do it alone…
Directed by: Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Drew Goddard, Nikki Baida, Milana Vayntrub, Lucy Kitada, Ken Kao
Vampires of the Velvet Lounge (In Theaters, Mar 20): A coven of vampires is hunting on dating apps where they meet vampire hunters and schedule dates. The nights that unfold are action-packed modern horror madness.
Directed by: Adam Sherman
Starring: Tom Berenger, Rosa Salazar, Stephen Dorff, India Eisley, Mena Suvari, Tyrese Gibson
The Well (On Demand, Mar 20): In a world where environmental collapse has left survivors to fight over the precious remaining resources, a young woman’s loyalties are tested by the arrival of a wounded man who discovers her family has a secret supply of freshwater.
Directed by: Hubert Davis
Starring: Joanne Boland, Noah Lamanna, Sheila McCarthy, Steven McCarthy, Shailyn Pierre-Dixon
Sci Fi Movie News of Note
The sci fi/action film War Machine–which stars Alan Ritchson and Dennis Quaid–has proven a success on Netflix so far, topping that streamer’s movie charts for the first two weeks of its release, and now it appears that a sequel is on the way. It has not been officially announced by the streamer yet, but word is that pre-production has already begun. Director Patrick Hughes had the following to say about a potential continuation of the film:
If I ever got the opportunity to take it further, I know exactly where it’s going, and I’ve sketched it out…It’s impossible not to, as a writer, to think about. I fell in love with the character of 81, and the universe of sort of everything he’s going through. So look, if that call comes in, then yes, I’m ready to pull the trigger.
With War Machine pulling in over 150 million hours of viewing across its first two weeks, it sure seems like Netflix will want more for this one, potentially turning it into a franchise. Stay tuned for an official announcement.
The horror entry Sinners had a record number of nominations for this year’s Academy Awards, and it took home four statues on Sunday night. That Ryan Coogler film won Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Best Original Screenplay for Coogler, Best Cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw, and Best Original Score for Ludwig Goransson. Other genre winners in major categories for the night were KPop Demon Hunters for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Production Design, and Avatar: Fire and Ash for Best Visual Effects. You can see all the winners at this link.
A fourth installment in the Quiet Place franchise is currently in the works, and writer/director John Krasinski has revealed the main cast. Returning for A Quiet Place III are Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmons, Noah Jupe, and Cillian Murphy, and they will be joined by Jack O’Connell (Sinners), Jason Clarke (Terminator Genisys), and Katy O’Brian (The Mandalorian). That one is scheduled for a July 30, 2027 release.
You can see the Box Office results for sci fi and fantasy films from this previous weekend at this link.
Recent Trailers
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (In Theaters, July 31, 2026): After the record-breaking global success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Brand New Day marks an entirely new chapter for Peter Parker and Spider-Man. Four years have passed since the events of No Way Home, and Peter is now an adult living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves. Crime-fighting in a New York that no longer knows his name, he’s devoted himself entirely to protecting his city — a full-time Spider-Man — but as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he has ever faced.
Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Mark Ruffalo
Be sure to follow our Sci Fi Movie Schedule page to keep up with all the upcoming genre releases.
