The $100 million Frankenstein movie starring Christian Bale is fleeing its ideal place on the schedule for 2025. Bale, who has been acting in major movies since he was 13 years old, first appeared in titles such as Steven Spielberg's 1987 war movie Empire of the Sun and Kenny Ortega's 1992 historical musical Newsies. As an adult, he has blossomed into a decorated performer, earning four Academy Award nominations for his performances in Vice, The Big Short, American Hustle, and The Fighter (the title for which he won).

Christian Bale movies have taken on a variety of genres, including sci-fi (Terminator Salvation), Western (3:10 to Yuma), superhero (the Dark Knight trilogy), and more, but he has rarely dabbled in horror in spite of the fact that his 2000 movie American Psycho was a critical and commercial success. His only other horror-adjacent title has been 2022's The Pale Blue Eye, which is more of a historical crime drama, though it does feature Edgar Allan Poe as a character. His Frankenstein movie is his first real entry in the genre in decades, but it is not being received well.

The Bride! Has Been Delayed Amid Negative Reactions

It Stars Jessie Buckley Alongside Christian Bale

The Bride!, an Frankenstein movie starring Christian Bale and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, has had its release date pushed back and will now come out in 2026 rather than 2025. The movie The Bride! will be set in 1930s Chicago and will follow Frankenstein as he seeks out Dr. Euphronius to make him a companion. In addition to Bale, the cast of the film includes Jessie Buckley, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jake Gyllenhaal. This news comes not long after the reveal that reactions to the film's early test screenings were negative.

Warner Bros. reveals that The Bride!'s release date has been changed from September 26, 2025 to March 6, 2026. Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another has now taken The Bride!'s previous release date, which is more ideal than an early 2026 release, as movies released later in the year tend to be stronger awards contenders. These moves come alongside a flurry of schedule changes from the studio, which are as follows:

What This Release Date Change Means For The Bride!

Warner Bros. Doesn't Seem Confident In The Bride!

This delay suggests that Warner Bros. isn't very happy with Gyllenhaal's movie. A September release date is undoubtedly seen as more ideal than March within the industry, which suggests that the studio isn't confident that The Bride! will perform well at the box office. This change shouldn't necessarily be surprising, as early test screenings for The Bride! reportedly led to a slew of negative reactions. In a recent report from Puck, the head of one production company even said, "to give [Gyllenhaal] anything more than $15 million to make the movie is irresponsible, as far as I’m concerned."

Since The Bride!'s budget is reportedly over $100 million, it could lose a lot of money for Warner Bros.

While Maggie Gyllenhaal is a well-known actor, she has only directed one movie prior. Her 2021 directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, has a fantastic 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for several Academy Awards. However, it doesn't seem like Gyllenhaal's follow-up film will be as successful. Since The Bride!'s budget is reportedly over $100 million, it could lose a lot of money for Warner Bros.

Movies typically need to earn back two and a half times their budgets, which could place The Bride!'s break-even point around $250 million.

There is precedent for this because Mickey 17, another Warner Bros. genre movie with a $100+ million budget and a March release date, is losing a significant amount of money for the studio. A new report suggests that the science fiction project, which cost $118 million without factoring in advertising, could lose up to $80 million, even though it stars The Batman's Robert Pattinson and was directed by Bong Joon Ho, whose most recent release before Mickey 17 was the 2019 Best Picture winner Parasite.

Our Take On The Bride!'s Release Date Change

The Bride! Could Be A Box Office Disappointment

The Bride! will reportedly not directly adapt the plot of the critically acclaimed 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein. It has been promised that Gyllenhaal's take on the story will be an entirely new vision. Regardless of the release date change, it will be exciting to see Christian Bale play Frankenstein and Jessie Buckley play The Bride. The rest of the cast of the movie is also fantastic. However, because of this change, I now think that The Bride! may end up being a disappointment, and could even be a major box office flop.

There is now only one major horror release now set to grace theaters from late September through the end of October...

Additionally, the removal of The Bride! from its September release has resulted in a particularly horror-deficient lead-up to Halloween 2025. Originally, that weekend was meant to feature both the Christian Bale movie and the sequel Saw XI, but on top of the former's delay, the latter has reportedly been scrapped entirely. This means that there is now only one major horror release now set to grace theaters from late September through the end of October, namely Blumhouse's The Black Phone 2, which arrives on October 17. Hopefully, other studios will take advantage of the void and fill that space.

Source: Warner Bros.