Bride of Frankenstein Remake Premiere Pushed Back Nearly Six Months

Warner Bros. has shifted the premiere of “The Bride!” by nearly half a year, setting its release for March 2026. This reimagining of the 1935 horror staple Bride of Frankenstein is reportedly facing turbulence, with whispers of lackluster test screenings hinting at possible reshoots.

Originally slated for a global debut on September 26, 2025, The Bride! now lands on March 6, 2026, according to Deadline. The Hollywood Reporter notes that post-production has hit rocky waters, leaving Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix-bound Frankenstein as the sole Frankenstein tale of 2025—though its exact premiere remains under wraps.

Word leaked online on March 11 that a test screening of The Bride! flopped. Puck reports suggest it leaned too heavily into arthouse territory, while its horror elements felt sloppy to viewers. With a rumored budget hovering around $100 million—a figure more suited to a blockbuster than a quiet art piece—one production company head didn’t mince words about director and screenwriter Maggie Gyllenhaal:

“Handing her over $15 million for a film feels reckless, from where I’m standing.”

Warner Bros. might be jittery about recouping costs in its current form. The studio’s keen to avoid a repeat of Mickey 17 (2025), which launched on March 7 and, by March 20, scraped together $91 million against a towering $150 million budget—dogged by its own shaky test-screening buzz. Rumors swirl that The Bride could face extra editing or even reshoots, though the studio insists it’s poised to be a cinematic event, better timed for the bustling spring-summer season. Still, Mickey 17 rolled out in spring too.

Films typically need to rake in two to two-and-a-half times their budget to break even, factoring in marketing costs. For The Bride, that’s a daunting $200–250 million haul—a tall order for an arthouse venture.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, a celebrated actress, is still carving her path as a director. The Bride! marks her second feature after The Lost Daughter (2021), a drama that snagged an Oscar nod for her screenplay. That film saw a limited release and landed on Netflix, pocketing a modest $703,000.

Drawing from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1816), The Bride unfolds in 1930s Chicago. Here, scientist Victor Frankenstein revives a dead woman who embarks on a quest for purpose, only to spark a radical social uprising. The cast dazzles with Jake Gyllenhaal (Prisoners)—Maggie’s younger brother—Christian Bale (Ford v Ferrari), Jessie Buckley (Chernobyl), Penelope Cruz (Official Competition), Annette Bening (American Beauty), and Peter Sarsgaard (Knight & Day), Gyllenhaal’s husband.