Avengers: Age of Ultron has hit theaters and is already tearing up the international box office, and you know what that means. The 2015 Summer Movie season is officially UNDERWAY and it's time to start talking about it!
Summer movie topics are a tradition around these parts; here are the links to all our previous seasons in case you'd like to take a look back:
The Summer of 2007 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=1418* An incredible May lineup of Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3, and Pirates 3 kicked off what became the #1 Summer of all-time at the box office (though it wouldn't have gotten there without strong returns from Ratatouille, Harry Potter 5, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Simpson Movie, plus the surprising successes of Transformers, Knocked Up, and Superbad).
The Summer of 2008 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=13628* While not a record breaking season, '08 DID feature one of the most incredible runs in box office history by The Dark Knight, along with some very respectable showings by Iron Man, Indy 4, Hancock, Get Smart, and Wall*E.
The Summer of 2009 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=14599* Transformers 2, Harry Potter 6, and Up delivered the goods, and we were blindsided by the success of Star Trek and The Hangover, but weaker than expected returns from pretty much the whole rest of the slate resulted in a somewhat disappointing season at the box office.
The Summer of 2010 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=15297* Toy Story 3, Inception, Twilight 2, and Iron Man 2 got the job done, and Karate Kid/Despicable Me turned into surprise hits, but nearly everything else embarrassed itself (Shrek 4, Prince of Persia, The A-Team). The result was consecutive disappointing Summer seasons.
The Summer of 2011 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=15779* Harry Potter 8 was huge, Bridesmaids and Rise of the Planet of the Apes were unexpectedly major hits, and most of the other big releases performed reasonably well (Thor, Captain America, Transformers 3, Hangover 2), making 2011 one of the biggest Summers ever. The only especially notable bombs were The Green Lantern and Conan the Barbarian.
The Summer of 2012 -
http://elite.speedrunwiki.com/forum/index.php?topic=17011* Dark Knight Rises, Amazing Spiderman, and Brave put up blockbuster numbers as we had expected, and there were some pleasant surprises like Ted and Magic Mike coming out of nowhere to make a ton of money. Battleship was the only real bomb... but the story of the season was obviously The Avengers destroying the opening weekend record and racking up the 3rd largest box office total in history. In the end my prediction was correct- it was the highest grossing Summer season we've seen and helped make 2012 overall the biggest year for movies in history! (With a notable assist from an incredible holiday season where Hunger Games/Skyfall/Hobbit/Twilight and the Oscar films all did very well.)
The Summer of 2013 -
http://forums.the-elite.net/forum/index.php?topic=18876* Well, I got it half right. I predicted the '13 Summer season would start out hot before tailing off and coming up a little short of record numbers, and that's just what happened: Iron Man 3, Despicable Me 3, Man of Steel, Monsters U, Fast 6, Star Trek Into Darkness, and World War Z were huge hits (all grossed over $200 million), but a few flops like After Earth, The Internship, and The Lone Ranger held the season back. However I went on to guess that a somewhat weaker than usual Holiday slate would likewise hold the full year to below-record numbers... whoops! Turns out the box office exploded from October on to earn a full $11 billion for the year, smashing the old record. You've got Catching Fire/Gravity/Desolation of Smaug/Lone Survivor to thank for that, though of course the real #1 story was Frozen coming out of nowhere to make $400 million.
The Summer of 2014 -
http://forums.the-elite.net/forum/index.php?topic=19569* For the first time an August release was the #1 story- Guardians of the Galaxy surpassed all expectations to headline the Summer. There were some other huge opening weekends as well, from X-Men: Days of Future Past, Godzilla, Amazing Spiderman 2, and Transformers: Age of Extinction, but all four films collapsed in their second week and contributed to what was overall a pretty disappointing season. Fortunately the year ended with one of the strongest holiday seasons ever: Big Hero 6, Interstellar, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies and Hunger Games: Mockingjay were all very successful. However even with American Sniper turning into a totally unexpected runaway phenomenon in December, the year couldn't quite match up to 2013's record total.
---
2015 Summer MoviesMAY 1ST
Avengers: Age of UltronThree years ago Avengers debuted with a record-shattering $207 million opening weekend on its way to a $623 million final tally, making it the #3 movie in US history (behind only Avatar and Titanic). Normally I'd say that lightning can't strike twice, because surely Marvel's "connected universe" has lost some steam since in the past 36 months... but honestly that's not the case! Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man all had strong showings in their last outings and the somewhat-connected Guardians of the Galaxy shocked the world by becoming the breakout hit of last Summer. I'm expecting Ultron to come up a little short of its predecessor domestically but more than make up for it with a huge total overseas to end up ahead of the original's $1.5 billion worldwide total.
MAY 8TH
Hot PursuitSandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy's The Heat was one of the big winners of Summer '13 (with $160 million)- surely Reese Witherspoon and Sophia Vergara can repeat the magic,
right? It's a nice thought, but despite being in headlines recently for her Best Actress-nominated turn in last year's Wild, it's now been over seven years since Reese made any kind of dent at the box office. The trailer shows some promise, but even if the movie turns out better than expected I still have to question the thought process behind launching a female buddy comedy the week before you lose your entire under-30 female audience to...
MAY 15TH
Pitch Perfect 2That's right, the Bellas are back! Three years ago Pitch Perfect had a respectable showing in theaters (finishing at $65 million) but grew a much wider audience on streaming services afterwards- even turning Anna Kendrick's "Cups" into a #1 single in the process. Anna's star is on the rise after headlining last holiday's very successful Into the Woods and with great viewership numbers on these trailers, the sky's the limit for this sequel. Well, except that audiences will be 75% female across the country; luckily for the other gender this sequel's being counter-programmed by
Mad Max: Fury RoadMel Gibson's out but original director George Miller is back for this reboot of the cult classic from 1980. Tom Hardy steps into the lead role and will apparently be assisting Charlize Theron in rescuing a minivan of the last girls in the entire post-apocalypse, or something? In any case the storyline doesn't matter when you've got this many spikey-dressed maniacs flipping cars off each other in the desert. The whole production looks like an insane mess from start to finish- count me in!
MAY 22ND
TomorrowlandIn the past ten years Disney's made big budget live action movies out of action figures and board games and cartoons and somehow turned them all into hits. Now it's on to, uhhhh, sections of their theme parks! I'm actually not sure how much this film will have in common with the original Tomorrowland Walt Disney launched back in 1955 and even after watching the trailer I frankly still don't have much of an idea as to what's going on. People are getting blown up right and left but it's okay because I guess they're secretly robots? Ah well, Clooney's always great and director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille) has been working on this for three years and lead actress Britt Robertson was literally the only somewhat redeeming quality of Under the Dome so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
SpyDisney can have all the family audiences they want this weekend, Melissa McCarthy's betting enough adults decide to leave the kids at home and turn out for her latest comedy. And she probably won't be wrong; she's been on one of the hottest streaks we've ever seen out of a comedian, turning Bridesmaids and Identity Thief ($135 million) and The Heat and even last year's awful-looking Tammy into big success stories. Based on this trailer it looks like Spy will be one of her funnier efforts thus far so I'd expect a pretty decent audience will turn out to get their spy fix between now and Spectre in November.
MAY 29TH
AlohaCameron Crowe hopes he's found this year's Silver Linings Playbook ($132 million), and he just might have, at least as far as the box office is concerned. You certainly wouldn't want to bet against the man coming in hot off the #1 movie of 2014, Bradley Cooper! Here he apparently screws something up by crashing a billion dollar plane or something and as punishment finds himself shipped off to Hawaii and forced into the middle of a love triangle with Rachel McAdams and Emma Stone. Which,
I must say, takes the phrase "first world problems" to a whole new level. Anyway Bill Murray and Danny McBride are hanging around cracking jokes and shesh I'm sold already, give me three tickets!
San AndreasIt wouldn't be the Summer movie season without an epic disaster movie, and it most CERTAINLY wouldn't be the Summer without The Rock staring in two attempted blockbusters, so heeeeeere we go! (This year his first was the box office-destroying Furious 7, it's going to end well over $350 million despite being released 3 weeks too early to technically count as a summer action flick.) Just as we always suspected, California snaps off the continent along the San Andreas fault and floats away into the Pacific, but not before Rock can helicopter-rescue his daughter a half dozen times. I have to say the special effects do look pretty impressive in this trailer, but we'll have to wait and see how the rest of the film holds up.
JUNE 5TH
EntourageThe gang is back, but does anyone really need to see more of them after 8 straight years on HBO?
Really? Ah well, it worked for Sex and the City ($153 million back in 2008) so I guess someone thought a second time might be the charm. Can't imagine this would break out beyond the 2-3 million people who watched the show every week a few years back, and the trailer didn't do anything to win me over, but we'll see if I end up being mistaken.
JUNE 12TH
Jurassic WorldJurassic Park was not only a worldwide box office sensation ($402 mil in the US and one of the first movies to ever crack $1 billion WW), it was also
the perfect movie. Trust me, I was an 8 year old boy who loved dinosaurs so I'm sure I was the most impartial judge imaginable! Sadly everything since then has been diminishing returns for the franchise, and I'm not entirely convinced this new film will be able to reverse the trend. The dinosaurs look fantastic in the trailer and Chris Pratt is an excellent choice as leading man, but I'm not sure Jurassic World will be able to top his last two blockbusters (Guardian of the Galaxy's $333 and Lego Movie's $258 million). Hopefully the storyline holds up better than this trailer would indicate and I'm proven wrong. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
JUNE 19TH
Inside OutSpeaking of Parks & Recreation alums, here's Amy Poehler as *Chris Traeger voice* literally the personification of joy in Pixar's latest effort (maybe the best casting decision in the entire world). The studio has been pumping the breaks a bit since taking the world by storm with Toy Story 3 ($415) and they've seen themselves somewhat overshadowed by Frozen and the Despicable Me series as a result. Much as I'd love to see them back on top of the world, I fear this film might be a little too "high concept" to get them there. Then again, spending 90 minutes running around inside someone's head worked out for Inception so maybe I'm not giving audiences enough credit!
JUNE 26TH
Ted 2Seth MacFarlane's potty mouthed talking teddy bear comedy looked like a disaster waiting to happen back in 2012, but it shocked everyone by going for a crazy $219 million domestically and doing even better overseas. Even so I don't think this sequel is a sure thing- MacFarlane's follow up A Million Ways to Die in the West tanked badly last Summer... so maybe audiences are starting to tire of his humor? I doubt Ted 2 will totally bomb, but I can't see it coming close to repeating 2012's magic either.
JULY 3RD
Terminator: GenisysThe Terminator timeline has been screwed up beyond any hope of recognition at this point so instead of having any idea what's going on let's just sit back and enjoy the first staring role for Emilia Clarke (aka Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones) and one million cars exploding during high speed highway chases and the return of Arnold one-liners as he shotgun-blasts 1984 versions of himself. Here's hoping Genisys can at least improve on the largely forgettable Rise of the Machines ($150) and Salvation ($125 million).
Magic Mike XXLChalk up another big win for counter programming! While men are watching explosive high speed chases and robot's heads exploding, every woman in America will be organizing a Girl's Night Out for the sequel to 2012's most surprising smash hit (Magic Mike finished at $114 million). Star Channing Tatum hasn't lost any momentum since his last twirl around a stripper pole; he had some respectable showings with GI Joe Retaliation and White House Down and even pulled off the rare feat of improving with a sequel (22 Jump Street made $192 million, up significantly versus the first movie). That level of performance is probably unrealistic for XXL, but another great run to 100+ certainly doesn't seem out of the question.
JULY 10TH
MinionsThe Despicable Me series has been perfectly fine as far as non-Pixar animation goes, but WOW do I ever hate these annoying little yellow minions, and here they are getting their own movie! It's a prequel to the first two films, showing what the minions were doing in the 1960s before they met Steve Carell's mad scientist character. Apparently every kid in America just looooooooves these bumbling dimwits to death but you know what, everyone said the same thing about the penguins from Madagascar too and look how that turned out! (Their solo movie last year bombed with only $83 million, down from Madagascar 3's $217.)
Self/LessBen Kingsley was the world's greatest architect but now he's dying. Luckily science has a new solution for eternal life...
but at what cost? Usually sci-fi is only allowed during the Summer when the fate of at least 5 billion lives are at stake and a building gets blown up every 10 minutes, good to see someone make room for a smaller movie as well. Can't see it making of ton of money but might still be a good watch.
JULY 17TH
Ant-ManWith Ant-Man Marvel continues its approach of releasing one more serious Avengers-tie-in plus one more light hearted/disconnected movie per year. Normally we'd expect the fun little side project be overshadowed as a result but as we've already talked about, Guardians of the Galaxy completely flipped the script in 2014. Can Ant-Man follow suit? Well, no, of course not- it's about a 5 centimeter tall superhero for goodness sakes! Still though, Paul Rudd's the most likable guy in Hollywood and this looks to be a pretty funny storyline so I could see it doing okay for itself.
TrainwreckComedy Central comedian Amy Schumer gets her first chance at stardom in this (very untraditional) romantic comedy alongside Bill Hader, who I guess is a surgeon to the biggest names in sports. That's nice and all but mostly I just can't believe how much screen time LeBron James apparently gets in this movie. Anyways, really funny trailer, could see big things in this movie's future!
JULY 24TH
PixelsIn what is easily the strangest concept I've heard for a Summer movie in quite some time, an advanced alien race was threatened by a time capsule we blasted out of orbit in the early 1980s. So now they're going to kill us... with holograms of our own video games? Normally I'd be all for people trying to jump on the Wreck-It Ralph ($189 million) retro gaming bandwagon but this just looks like a nonsensical mess through and through. Bomb city here we come!
SouthpawHot off what
should have been a Best Actor-nominated turn in Nightcrawler (and on the heels of really good performances in Prisoners and End of Watch and Zodiac as well), Jake Gyllenhaal again shows his range by bulking up to play the heavyweight champion of the world. Like all movie boxers he's got some emotional baggage to deal with and something awful happens and he has to get back in shape to win the big fight... don't know how original the story will be but still, this looks pretty good and I'll have to check it out. Not expecting it to make a killing at the box office, but then again I've had said the same thing about The Fighter ($94 million) a few years back.
JULY 31ST
Mission: Impossible - Rogue NationTom Cruise had an unprecedented run as the most bankable star in the world from 1986 to 2006, and of course he's never going to be able to regain that status. Even so, he's actually done quite well for himself in recent years; Jack Reacher and Oblivion were mild hits, last Summer's insanely enjoyable Edge of Tomorrow did even better ($100 million), and his last Mission Impossible outing was actually one of 2011's biggest success stories ($209 million). Based on the trailer it looks like Rogue Nation will be more of the same over the top action that audiences love to see out of Cruise, which should make this one of the safest bets of the season.
The GiftAfter Arrested Development and 10 years of comedies it's a little difficult to see Jason Bateman's face without expecting a punchline a few seconds later... but once you get over that, this new mystery/thriller looks pretty interesting! Granted it's not going to make any money but even so, good to see a studio willing to take a risk on an adult drama in the midst of the two dozen explosion-heavy action adventures that make up every Summer season.
AUGUST 7TH
Fantastic FourWhaa? It feels like Jessica Alba and Chris Evans were suiting up for this franchise just yesterday, but it's actually been 8 years since the last movie (Rise of the Silver Surfer, which finished at an okay $132 million). That's a millennium in Hollywood time, so time for a dark, gritty reboot! The lead role has been taken over by Miles Teller, who you may remember from last year's excellent Oscar winner Whiplash, with Kate Mara (from House of Cards) stepping into Alba's role. Pretty decent trailer, though I would be surprised if this became a breakout hit.
MastermindsHere's my vote for funniest trailer of the season! There's always one R-rated comedy that surprises people with a respectable run at the box office in August or late July and this year it looks to be Masterminds. This is the true story of one of the biggest bank robberies in American history and with Kristen Wiig and Zach Galifianakis and Jason Sudeikis involved, I'll happily go along for the ride.
(just grazed my biscuits right there betwixt them...)AUGUST 14TH
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.Guy Ritchie (of Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels fame) returns to bring the classic 1960s television show back to life. The year is 1963 (just as in the show), and super-spy Superman (aka Henry Cavill) has to work with Russian operative Armie Hammer to keep some very dangerous people from getting their hands on nuclear weapons. I'm not entirely sure we need yet another spy thriller to bridge the gap between Kingsman and Spectre, and it will be hard to stand out against the crowd and reach blockbuster status, but after watching this slick stylish trailer I'm on board regardless!
AUGUST 21ST
Sinister 2These days it's incredibly expensive to promote a movie and roll it out internationally. That's why the only things in theaters outside of awards season are either $250 million franchise blockbuster-wannabes or little 85 minute flicks that can be made for dirt cheap. Horror movies are the latter and as a result there's a million of 'em- Insidious 3 and Poltergeist will also be arriving earlier in the Summer but thankfully there were other movies coming out on their opening weekends so I didn't have to cover them. Regardless, could Sinister 2 be a sleeper hit? NO, the first one only made $48 million so it shouldn't have even gotten a sequel! Yesh, let's talk about literally anything else, even if it's...
AUGUST 28TH
Hitman: Agent 47Again, weird to see this sequel getting the greenlight considering the first movie came out a whole eight years ago and didn't exactly set the world on fire (topped out at $40 million). Apparently they've changed 47 to being the villain rather than the hero this time out, with Zachary Quinto (aka the new Spock) trying to hunt him down. In any case, could be an okay action film but looks more like something you'd stream or catch on TV rather than rush out to the theater to see.
