Paramount has moved Heart Eyes 2 forward. Josh Ruben’s sequel to the 2025 Valentine’s Day slasher now opens February 4, 2028, one week ahead of the February 11 date it had held since the studio slotted it earlier this year.
A one-week shift is not usually news. This one is, because of where it lands.
Back to the Original’s Playbook
February 14, 2028 falls on a Monday, which made February 11 the Valentine’s weekend slot. Moving to February 4 hands the film two full weekends of holiday runway instead of one, and it puts the sequel in roughly the position the first movie actually used. Heart Eyes opened February 7, 2025, a week ahead of a Valentine’s Day that landed on a Friday, and it held unusually well into its second weekend rather than collapsing the way a holiday-pegged slasher normally does. Made for about $18 million, it finished with $33.1 million worldwide.
That second weekend is a large part of why a sequel exists. Critics were mostly on board, at 78 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences graded it a B-minus on CinemaScore, which is a familiar split for a picture that spends half its runtime being a romantic comedy and the other half killing people. Our review of the original came down on the friendly side.
Who Is Making It
Josh Ruben returns to direct and co-writes with Darcy Fowler, working from a story by Christopher Landon and Michael Kennedy — two thirds of the original’s writing team, which also included Phillip Murphy. Landon produces.
Distribution has consolidated in the gap. Screen Gems released the first film in North America while Paramount handled it overseas; Paramount now has the sequel worldwide, with Spyglass Media Group producing.
The Cast Question
Paramount has not announced a cast. Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding led the original, with Devon Sawa, Jordana Brewster, Gigi Zumbado and Michaela Watkins around them. Dread Central reports that Holt and Gooding are both back; the studio has not confirmed that, and Bloody Disgusting’s write-up treats both as open questions.
If Gooding does return, he will be working Paramount’s calendar twice over. The same studio has him in the Crawl sequel it dated for July 2027, which would put him in two of its horror releases inside eight months. Sawa, meanwhile, is not waiting around either: he turns up in Coven Academy next month.
February 2028 is a long way off, and dates this far out move again. For everything with a firmer hold on the schedule, our 2026 and 2027 release calendar has the full slate.