Ross King: I have a stream… At home or in the cinema, 2021 will be a blockbuster year for movies

Happy New Year, everyone, here’s hoping it’ll be a cracker! Cinema bosses will certainly be praying it is.

After a disastrous year for movie theatres around the globe, big cinema chains here in the US and back home are hoping for a bumper blockbuster year.

It’s going to be a tough twelve months, from what I understand. Some of my contacts in Hollywood think it might be 2022 before things look a bit healthier; others think things may never be the same again.

Already some studios have pivoted to streaming to people in their own homes rather than tempt them to the cinema.

Warner Brothers have agreed a deal here to stream on HBO Max, a subscription channel here.

That was much to the fury of Christopher Nolan, who is a real fan of “proper” cinema. His movie, Tenet, was released during lockdowns last year and really suffered as a result.

Meanwhile, Disney have their own streaming service, and over Christmas offered Mulan for people to buy.

It sounds expensive at £25, but when you compare that to the cost of a family ticket to the movies, it’s a no-brainer.

There are plenty of movies slated to appear in cinemas next year, however.

The state of play is constantly changing, depending on what happens with vaccines and when cinemas can reopen.

Studios are constantly pulling movies from the schedule and pushing them back to a time when they think all this might, finally, be over.

Denis Villeneuve’s sumptuous sci-fi epic Dune was due for release by now, but has been kicked back to the end of the year. Will that date survive?

Next month sees the release of children’s film Peter Rabbit 2, starring my pal James Corden.

Hopefully things will be relaxed by then but would I rule it out being moved? It’s a difficult one as Peter Rabbit probably should be released around Easter at the latest. They can’t really move it, as it has a springtime vibe, doesn’t it?

In June we’re supposed to be getting Ghostbusters – another movie that was meant to be released last year.

Starring Paul Rudd and featuring original Ghostbusters Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray, this could end up being one of the biggest films of 2021 – possibly of all time – for the industry if it’s good and gets bums on seats.

Another movie which could really help comes before that.

Daniel Craig is back as Bond in No Time To Die, the hotly anticipated follow-up to Spectre.

I think people will be desperate to see this. Studio bosses seem confident things will be normal enough for people to go to their local cinema complex.

And Tom Cruise is going to be reprising the role of Maverick in Top Gun. I expect the critics will give it good reviews – well, they wouldn’t want to be on the other end of a tongue lashing from wee Tam after all!