New Movies in Theaters This Week: What’s Worth Seeing

If you only buy one ticket this week, make it “Project Hail Mary” on the biggest screen you can reach, and book it now because IMAX showings in Manhattan sell out on opening weekend. Below that, Pixar’s “Hoppers” is the family pick, “The Bride!” is the one to argue about afterward, and “Scream 7” is still hanging on for anyone who wants a crowd that screams back. This piece covers what’s new in movie theaters across Brooklyn and Manhattan as of the weekend of March 20, 2026, plus where to see each film and how to avoid paying $35 for a seat.

Key Takeaways
– Best new release: “Project Hail Mary” (Amazon MGM, opened March 20, 2026). See it in IMAX at AMC Lincoln Square or Regal Sheepshead Bay.
– Best for kids: “Hoppers” (Pixar, opened March 6). Regal Court Street and AMC Kings Plaza have the most matinee options.
– Best for a date: “The Bride!” (Warner Bros., opened March 6). Catch it with dinner at Nitehawk or Alamo Drafthouse.
– Cheapest way in: Discount Tuesdays at AMC and Regal, or a subscription if you go more than twice a month.
– Coming up: “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” (April 3), “The Mummy” (April 17), “Michael” (April 24).
– Release dates below are the studios’ announced dates. Check your theater’s listing before you buy, because they shift.

The One to See This Weekend: “Project Hail Mary”

Ryan Gosling wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of how he got there. That’s the whole setup, and it’s enough.

“Project Hail Mary” is the adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2021 novel, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“The Lego Movie,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”) from a script by Drew Goddard, who also adapted Weir’s “The Martian.” Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who turns out to be humanity’s last shot at stopping a microbe that’s dimming the sun. Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”) plays Eva Stratt, the woman who put him on the ship.

The film’s secret weapon is Rocky, an alien engineer who communicates in musical tones. The friendship between Grace and Rocky is the heart of the book, and the movie protects it. Lord and Miller keep the tone light without cheapening the stakes.

Who it’s for: anyone who liked “The Martian,” anyone who likes Gosling in comic mode, and anyone with a kid old enough for a long runtime and some space peril. It’s rated PG-13.

Where to watch: this is a true IMAX release, so Manhattan’s AMC Lincoln Square 13 and Brooklyn’s Regal Sheepshead Bay are the two local screens that matter. Regal Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn has it in RPX, which is a solid step up from a standard auditorium. If you want it with a burger, Nitehawk Williamsburg and Alamo Drafthouse at City Point both booked it. For a full rundown of Brooklyn screens and times, see our Project Hail Mary showtimes piece, which we update through the run.

Still Worth a Ticket: Holdovers Playing Now

New movies in movie theaters don’t vanish after their first weekend, and a few of this month’s earlier openers deserve a look before they lose screens.

“Hoppers” (Pixar, opened March 6)

A kid named Mabel gets her mind transferred into a robotic beaver so she can talk to animals. Jon Hamm voices a small-town mayor whose development plans are about to flatten the beavers’ pond. Daniel Chong, who created “We Bare Bears,” directs.

It’s Pixar in crowd-pleaser mode rather than “Inside Out” mode, and that’s fine. The animal politics are funny, the animation of water and fur is the best thing on screen this month, and it runs short enough for a six-year-old.

Where to watch: Regal Court Street, AMC Kings Plaza, Cobble Hill Cinemas and Williamsburg Cinemas all have morning and early afternoon shows on weekends. If the kids have already worn out KPop Demon Hunters rewatches on Netflix, this is the easy swap.

“The Bride!” (Warner Bros., opened March 6)

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second film as director is loud, strange and fully committed. Christian Bale is Frankenstein’s creature, wandering 1930s Chicago and asking a scientist (Annette Bening) to build him a companion. Jessie Buckley is the companion, and the movie is hers from the moment she opens her eyes.

Buckley plays the Bride as something between a punk singer and a wounded animal, and the film follows her into a crime spree and a very strange romance. Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard and Jake Gyllenhaal fill out the cast.

What works: Buckley, the production design, the musical sequences nobody warned you about. What doesn’t: the last half hour, which runs out of ideas before it runs out of plot. It’s still the most interesting big studio movie in release right now, and a sharp contrast to Guillermo del Toro’s more classical “Frankenstein” that went to Netflix last November.

Where to watch: Alamo Drafthouse at City Point, Nitehawk Prospect Park, Angelika Film Center and AMC Lincoln Square. Rated R.

“Scream 7” (Paramount, opened February 27)

Neve Campbell is back as Sidney Prescott, and Kevin Williamson, who wrote the 1996 original, directs for the first time. Courteney Cox returns too. The plot puts Sidney’s daughter in Ghostface’s sights, and the kills are meaner than the last two entries.

It’s a fan-service movie, but it’s a confident one. See it with a packed house. Regal Union Square and the Kent Theater on Coney Island Avenue both still had late shows this week, and the Kent’s tickets are the cheapest you’ll find in the borough.

“Wuthering Heights” (Warner Bros., opened February 13)

Emerald Fennell’s version of the Emily Brontë novel casts Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and treats the book as a fever rather than a classic. Reviews split hard, and so will your group.

It’s nearly gone from multiplexes, but Village East by Angelika on Second Avenue still had evening shows. Worth a trip east if you missed it and want to form your own opinion before it hits digital.

New Movies by Genre

Theater sites sort everything into genre buckets, so here’s the same idea with actual opinions attached.

Family and Kids Movies

“Hoppers” is the pick, full stop. If you’ve already seen it, “Project Hail Mary” works for kids around ten and up who can sit for a long film.

Two practical notes. Regal Court Street tends to have the most kids’ matinees on weekend mornings, and the tickets are cheaper before noon. Alamo Drafthouse runs “Alamo for All” screenings with the lights up and the sound down, which is the only sane way to bring a toddler. Nitehawk’s Prospect Park location also programs kid-friendly brunch screenings on weekends, often with a classic like “Labyrinth” (1986) rather than a new release.

Horror Movies

“Scream 7” is the only wide-release horror still drawing. The next real one is “The Mummy” on April 17, directed by Lee Cronin, who made “Evil Dead Rise.” Early word is that it’s a straight horror film rather than an adventure movie, which is the right call.

In the meantime, Nitehawk’s midnight programming and Alamo’s late shows are where the genre lives in Brooklyn. Both run older horror on 35mm more weeks than not, and both post lineups about a month out.

Drama Movies

“The Bride!” is the adult drama in wide release, if you squint. For something quieter, the smaller houses carry the load. Film Forum, IFC Center and Metrograph each open two or three new titles a week, mostly foreign and independent films that never reach a multiplex. Check their sites Thursday night when the new week’s schedule goes up.

Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars,” with Jacob Elordi as a pilot in a post-pandemic America, is scheduled for March 27. That’s the next major drama on the calendar.

Anime Movies

Nothing new and wide this week. Anime in New York is mostly event programming: GKIDS and Crunchyroll releases that play for one or two weeks, plus restorations. Mamoru Oshii’s “Angel’s Egg” (1985), restored for its 40th anniversary last year, is the kind of title that keeps turning up at Metrograph and IFC Center on weekends. Nitehawk’s Prospect Park location and Alamo also program anime nights, and those tickets go fast because the auditoriums are small.

Where to See New Movies in Brooklyn and NYC

Pick the theater before the showtime. The same film plays very differently at a dine-in house than it does in an IMAX auditorium, and NYC gives you every version within a subway ride.

Brooklyn

Nitehawk and Alamo both serve full menus and drinks to your seat, and both have age rules that vary by screening, so read the listing before you bring kids. Alamo will also throw you out for texting, which is a feature. For specifics on seating and ordering at the original location, our “nitehawk williamsburg” guide covers it.

BAM is the house to know if you want new releases that aren’t franchise movies. It regularly gets the same A24 and Neon titles as the Manhattan art houses, with far shorter lines.

Manhattan

AMC Lincoln Square 13 on the Upper West Side has the city’s main IMAX screen, which is why every big release lists it first. Regal Union Square and AMC Empire 25 in Times Square have the most showtimes per day if you need a specific hour.

For something other than a blockbuster, the downtown cluster is the move: Film Forum on West Houston, IFC Center on Sixth Avenue, Angelika on Houston and Metrograph on Ludlow. Village East by Angelika on Second Avenue often holds onto studio films a week or two longer than the chains. Alamo Drafthouse also has a Lower Manhattan location at 28 Liberty with the same food and rules as the Brooklyn one.

Queens

Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria is the best screening room in the city for sound and sightlines, and it books new releases alongside its retrospectives. Kew Gardens Cinemas is the neighborhood art house, and Regal UA Kaufman Astoria covers the mainstream.

Tickets: Prices, Discounts and When to Book

Expect a standard evening ticket in Manhattan or Brooklyn to run from the high teens into the low twenties before fees. IMAX and other premium formats push past $25, and a Lincoln Square IMAX seat on a Saturday night is the most expensive movie ticket in the city. Neighborhood houses like the Kent and Cobble Hill Cinemas are the clear exceptions and often come in under $15.

A few ways to pay less:

• Discount Tuesdays. AMC and Regal both cut prices on Tuesdays for members of their free loyalty programs. Signing up takes two minutes and the discount is real.
• Matinees. Shows before about 4 p.m. are cheaper at almost every chain, and weekday matinees are nearly empty.
• Subscriptions. AMC Stubs A-List and Regal Unlimited are monthly plans that pay for themselves at two movies a month in New York. Alamo and Nitehawk have their own membership tiers with discounted tickets and food perks. MoviePass is back as well and works at some independent theaters.
• Buy direct. Fandango and Atom add a per-ticket convenience fee. The theater’s own app or site usually charges less or nothing.
• Skip the premium screen when it doesn’t matter. “Hoppers” looks great in a standard auditorium. Save the IMAX money for “Project Hail Mary” or July’s “The Odyssey.”

On booking ahead: for IMAX and dine-in theaters, yes, and do it the day listings post, which is usually Monday or Tuesday for the coming weekend. For a Tuesday night show of a three-week-old movie, walk up.

One more practical thing. Nitehawk and Alamo run a longer pre-show than the chains, and the food ordering happens during it, so arriving at the listed time is fine. At AMC and Regal, the listed time is the start of 20 to 25 minutes of trailers and ads. You can show up late and miss nothing.

Coming Soon: The Next Six Weeks

Dates are what the studios have announced. They move.

• March 27: “The Dog Stars” (Ridley Scott, Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley). A quiet survival drama from a director who hasn’t made a quiet film in years.
• April 3: “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” (Universal). The 2023 original made over a billion dollars, so expect every screen at Regal Court Street to carry it. Book opening weekend early if you have kids who care.
• April 10: “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.” Samara Weaving returns for the sequel to the 2019 horror comedy.
• April 17: “The Mummy” (New Line). Lee Cronin’s take, with Jack Reynor. No connection to the Brendan Fraser films, which is a shame and also the point.
• April 24: “Michael” (Lionsgate). Antoine Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic, with Jaafar Jackson playing his uncle. This one will be enormous and divisive in roughly equal measure.
• May 1: “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt, twenty years later, with Stanley Tucci back as well.

Further out, the summer is stacked: “The Mandalorian & Grogu” (May 22), “Masters of the Universe” (June 5), Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” (June 12), “Toy Story 5” (June 19), “Supergirl” (June 26), Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” (July 17), and “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” on July 31. Then October brings “The Social Reckoning,” Aaron Sorkin’s follow-up to “The Social Network” with Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg and Mikey Madison as whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams. December stacks “Dune: Part Three” and “Avengers: Doomsday” on the same weekend.

If you’re planning IMAX trips, “The Odyssey” is the one. Nolan shot the entire film with IMAM cameras, and Lincoln Square is scheduled to run it on 70mm film. Those tickets will go on sale months ahead and disappear within hours.

Beyond New Releases: Repertory Picks This Week

This is the angle the chain websites never give you, and it’s where New York beats every other movie city. On any given week, you can see a 35mm print of something made before you were born, and the ticket costs the same as a multiplex.

Film Forum runs a rotating classics calendar that leans on restorations and director series; a title like “Gone with the Wind” (1939) or a Hitchcock run will show up there a couple of times a year. Metrograph programs by theme and often pairs a new release with its influences. BAM’s repertory side is where you’ll find the festival retrospectives and the occasional once-in-a-decade print.

In Brooklyn specifically, Nitehawk’s midnight and brunch slots are the reliable weekly fix, and the lineup usually blends a cult title with something seasonal. Alamo’s repertory nights at City Point lean toward crowd pleasers and sing-alongs. The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria is worth the 7 train for restorations that play nowhere else.

The practical advice: if you’re on the fence between a middling new release and a rep screening of something great, pick the rep screening. The new movie will be on streaming in six weeks. The print won’t.

How to Actually Choose

Three questions settle it most weeks.

First, does the film need a big screen? Space movies, musicals and anything shot for IMAX, yes. A comedy or a small drama, not really, and you’ll be happier at a neighborhood house with a shorter walk.

Second, do you want to eat? Dine-in theaters are a different night out. They cost more once you add food, and the service in the dark is a little distracting during a quiet movie. They’re perfect for a horror film or a loud comedy and a bad fit for a subtitled drama.

Third, when are you going? Friday and Saturday nights at Alamo or Lincoln Square require planning. Sunday mornings and weekday afternoons at Cobble Hill or the Kent require nothing but showing up.

Apply that to this week and you get the same answer the top of the page gave you. “Project Hail Mary” in IMAX, “Hoppers” at a cheap matinee with the kids, “The Bride!” with dinner, and whatever Film Forum or BAM has on a print for the night you don’t feel like a franchise.

FAQ

What should I wear to the movie theater?

Whatever you’d wear to dinner at a casual restaurant, plus a layer. Theaters in New York run cold year-round, and the dine-in houses are the coldest because the kitchens heat up the rest of the building. No theater in the city has a dress code, including Nitehawk and Alamo. Skip strong perfume and loud jewelry, and leave the big hat home if you’re sitting in front of anyone.

What’s the highest grossing movie ever?

“Avatar” (2009) holds the record with roughly $2.92 billion worldwide, a total that includes its 2022 re-release. “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) is second at about $2.8 billion, and “Avatar: The Way of Water” (2022) is third. Adjusted for inflation, “Gone with the Wind” (1939) is generally considered the biggest of all time, which is part of why it still gets repertory bookings every year.

What are 10 new movies?

Ten new or upcoming 2026 releases in theaters, in date order: “Wuthering Heights” (February 13), “Scream 7” (February 27), “Hoppers” (March 6), “The Bride!” (March 6), “Project Hail Mary” (March 20), “The Dog Stars” (March 27), “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” (April 3), “The Mummy” (April 17), “Michael” (April 24) and “The Devil Wears Prada 2” (May 1). The first five are playing now in NYC; the rest are scheduled.

What movie has the highest rating?

On IMDb, “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) has held the top user rating for years at 9.3 out of 10, with “The Godfather” (1972) right behind it. Rotten Tomatoes is a different measure: a 100% score only means every counted review was positive, and plenty of small films hit it. Treat any single score as a starting point. A 9.3 on IMDb and a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes are telling you two different things, and neither is telling you whether you’ll like it.

Do I need to book ahead for new movies in NYC theaters?

For opening weekend of a big release in IMAX or at a dine-in theater, yes, and ideally the day showtimes post early in the week. For most other screenings, walking up works, especially weekday matinees and anything in its third week. Alamo and Nitehawk assign seats at purchase, so even when a show isn’t sold out, booking early gets you a better spot.

Can I bring kids to Nitehawk or Alamo Drafthouse?

Sometimes. Both theaters serve alcohol and both set age rules per screening rather than per building. Alamo’s “Alamo for All” shows are designed for families and small children, and Nitehawk Prospect Park programs kid-friendly weekend brunch screenings. For a regular evening showing of an R-rated film, assume no. The listing on each theater’s site states the age policy, so check it before you buy.