Tom Holland & Zendaya Star In Christopher Nolans Next Film, Which Releases 1 Week Before Spider-Man 4, So Did They Just Barbenheimer Themselves?

With Zendaya now being cast alongside Tom Holland in Christopher Nolan‘s newest project, set to release one week before Spider-Man 4, it appears the young actor couple could be setting themselves up for another Barbenheimer-stye event. Zendaya joined the new Nolan movie alongside Anne Hathaway, the pair added to a cast that already included Matt Damon and Tom Holland. In a move that should surprise no one familiar with the director, Christopher Nolan is set to use new IMAX technology for the project.

It’s an exciting opportunity for Holland to work with Christopher Nolan, as the actor has yet to work with a director of Nolan’s pedigree. And, while Zendaya has experience working with Denis Villeneuve, another big-budget director with arthouse vision, it’s still a huge opportunity for her, as well, especially as the two will be working with a director coming off multiple Oscar wins with Oppenheimer. Interestingly, it will be the second project the pair is involved in together in the same year, and it sets up a chance for another juggernaut pop culture event.

Spider-Man 4 & Christopher Nolan’s New Movie Will Be Released A Week Apart

The Timing For Holland & Zendaya Is Uncanny

Though not much is known about Christopher Nolan’s new movie yet, what is known is that it’s aiming for a release date of July 17, 2026. That puts it a week before the planned release of Spider-Man 4, which will also see Tom Holland and Zendaya returning to reprise their roles of Peter Parker/Spider-Man and MJ, on July 24, 2026. While the scenarios are different, it’s hard not to immediately think of the Barbenheimer phenomenon and how this feels like a potential repeat, but with the added twist of two actors competing against their own projects.

For starters, there’s the obvious similarity Holland’s Spider-Man 4 and the Nolan movie share with Barbenheimer: one of the movies is a Christopher Nolan drama. Again, nothing is really known about the plot, but there are unverified reports that it will not be set in the modern era (though whether the past or the future is unknown) and, interestingly, be about vampires. That it is so different from an MCU Spider-Man movie creates another scenario where the fun of the comparisons isn’t that they are such similar movies, but that they are so different, just as it was when Barbie and Oppenheimer came out last year. Studios certainly need it.

2024 Has Been A Bad Year For Big-Budget Tentpoles

There Have Been Some Hits, But Just As Many Huge Misses

There’s no other way to frame it: 2024 has not been a great year for big-budget studio releases. That’s not to say there have been no hits: Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2 crossed the billion-dollar threshold, while Despicable Me 4 came close, and other big tentpoles like Dune: Part Two and Godzilla x Kong crossed the half-billion-dollar mark at the box office. Looking ahead to the last two months of the year, it seems likely that Moana 2 and Wicked will join their ranks in November, as well as Gladiator II, and Mufasa: The Lion King, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and potentially The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim in December.

However, an alarming number of big-budget movies have also badly bombed this year, cratering the box office return for studios, including Madame Web, Argylle, Horizon: An American Saga, Borderlands, the Crow remake, Furiosa, and, perhaps most infamously, Joker: Folie à Deux. And, with the largely derisive fan reaction so far, it seems Kraven the Hunter is destined to be grouped with these failures when it releases in December. Consider that The Crow has the smallest budget of the above movies, and it was still a hefty $50 million not including marketing, and it paints a very troubling trend for studios.

Another Barbenheimer-Style Event Could Be What Studios Need

Studios Have To Understand They Can No Longer Reply On Lazy IP Grabs

If Universal and Marvel were smart, they’d capitalize on the potential pre-release buzz built right into the quirky timing of Holland and Zendaya having two movies releasing one week apart. There’s been an argument for the past few years that studios have become too reliant on IP and have started churning out any movie, regardless of quality or whether there is any actual interest in it from audiences, simply because it has a brand name attached. Studios assuming audiences will turn out for IP has become an even greater problem in the post-pandemic era.

2024 has proven that is no longer a viable strategy; after a pandemic and economic upheaval, moviegoers will no longer automatically see a movie simply because it has a big budget or a franchise tag attached. Those days are over, especially for movies that can’t find a way to successfully market themselves beyond generic banner ads and TV/online trailer packages. Audiences are savvier than that now, which is why the Barbenheimer Part 2 scenario of a Christopher Nolan movie and Spider-Man 4 dropping one week apart is the perfect opportunity for studios to remind audiences that event movies are still worth it.

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Oppenheimer Star Reflects On Barbenheimer’s Viral Success: “We Have To Make It Happen Again”

Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt reflects on the massive success of Barbenheimer and argues Hollywood has to make a phenomenon like it happen again.