Even though mid-June is when the summer season truly starts, the summer movie season begins as soon as school lets out in the late spring. Film executives are generally playing the probability game: if less people have time consuming commitments throughout the week, that means more people are looking for ways to kill time. Of course, what better way to kill time than watching a great action-packed movie with friends or family!
The summer of 2014 promises to feature a ton of movies fitting that description, and the race for box office dollars is sure to get very intense. Much like in recent years, this summer will give the general audience superhero movies and sequels galore and these movies will most likely see the biggest hauls from the box office. In between, there are a few tear-jerkers in the mix, like The Fault in Our Stars (starring Shailene Woody), as well as a few biopics like Jimi: All Is By My Side (starring Andre Benjamin of Outkast) and the Clint Eastwood directed Jersey Boys. However, while these films may take in respectable dollars (and possible Oscar nods), their totals won’t come near that of these potential blockbusters:
New movie, new villains…same pitfall? (Image Credit: Sony Pictures)
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Releases: May 2 | Official Website
The summer season kicks-off with one of the most highly-anticipated comic book movies of the year. The sequel to Sony’s very successful 2012 reboot of the popular millennium franchise adds Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, and Paul Giammati as three formidable foes for Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man to face off against. While it promises to have more action than its predecessor, hopefully director Marc Webb will not fall down the same trap as that of Sony’s 2007 Spider-Man 3, where a myriad of villains mixed with a tangled love story severely watered down the plot development (leading to the subsequent reboot). But as I said in my last article, good or bad, this movie has the real potential to dethrone Captain America: The Winter Soldier on its debut.
Godzilla
Releases: May 16 | Official Website
Who doesn’t love a good monster movie? Take in the fabled history and Hollywood’s generation-spanning love affair with the mighty Godzilla, and you have a movie that is sure to make a strong push for #1 at the box office. Bryan Cranston, of Breaking Bad fame, stars alongside future Avengers 2 newbies, Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron-Taylor Johnson in a movie that is more of a continuation than a reboot. The trailer for the movie was pretty heavy and 2014’s version of Godzilla promises to be more edgy (and probably better developed) than the Matthew Broderick version from the 90s. Out of the quadruplet of hyped movies coming this May, this is probably the one that will probably be reviewed the best.
You do have to feel bad for Seth Rogen’s Neighbors (May 9) – being sandwiched between the two aforementioned movies will surely drop what could have been a pretty good take for a summer comedy.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Releases: May 23 | Official Website
Don’t look now, but Bryan Singer is back at the helm of the X-Men. After such a great start to the franchise, with both X-Men and X-Men 2 being very well received, Singer left to pursue his version of Superman. Unfortunately, his departure and the subsequent mess that was X-Men: The Last Stand ruined the momentum that Fox had with its then Golden Goose. They decided to restart in a way by creating X-Men: First Class which was pretty well received, but only made back $333 million on a $160 million budget. With this movie, the old franchise stars (Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan) will meet up with the stars of First Class (James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence) in a race against time (pun slightly intended) action drama. Will it be better than any of the six previous installments? Fox has to hope so, or else the already planned X-Men: Apocolypse sequel will meet its own end very soon.
Maleficent
Releases: May 30 | Official Website
Angie’s back! (Image Credit: Walt Disney Studios)
This is an unusual bet, but with this being Angelina Jolie’s first live-action movie in 4 years (not counting her voice work for the Kung Fu Panda collection), there may be a bit of extra push for the general audience to see this movie. For those who don’t recognize the name, the movie is about the infamous baddie from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. But this won’t be a live-action version of the 1959 classic, instead it will focus on the back story of the apparently-sympathetic future villain. While it may appear reminiscent of Snow White and the Huntsman, I don’t think that Maleficent will be as violent–it is a PG film after all. It will be intriguing to see if the unique take on this fairy-tale will bring in enough of the general audience to top the box office, or put a dent to X-Men:DOFP‘s earnings. However, with A Million Ways to Die in the West (starring Charlize Theron and Liam Neeson) opening on the same weekend, it would be asking for a lot.
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Releases: June 13 | Official Website
Animated films usually destroy anything they touch at the box office. I even thought Rio 2 was going to at least take the #1 spot away from Captain America: The Winter Soldier (of course, the Disney/Marvel card seems to trump all). With the popularity of Dreamworks’ first installment, it would be a surprise if Hiccup and Toothless don’t dominate for a couple of weeks. In a summer full of crazy action and predictably expensive special effects, I think this movie will come at just the right time to give families a break from it all.
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Releases: June 27 | Official Website
With Dark of the Moon earning over $1 billion, it’s not hard to see why this movie is being made – from a monetary stand point. Make no mistake, that movie was beyond terrible and if it had not been the then-supposed end to the trilogy, it wouldn’t have made back its production budget. However, Age of Extinction already looks set to right the wrongs of the last two installments. They replaced the growingly ineffective Shia Lebouf with Mark Wahlberg, who more than looks the part of an action hero. Add in Dinobots and it may strike box office gold. Out of all of the sequels set to debut in the summer, this one will probably make the most.
It will face some stiff competition from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (July 11), and possibly Jupiter Ascending (July 18), but I still think part four of Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise will attract most of the general audience it’s looking for.
Hercules
Releases: July 25 | Official Website
The Rock looks to make amends for the bomb that was The Scorpion King. (Image Credit: Paramount Pictures)
Cometh ‘The Rock‘, cometh the dollars. Dwayne Johnson has made a very good career for himself in Hollywood, especially after he joined the Fast and Furious franchise. He may be even one of the most marketable action stars in the game right now, much like a Stallone, Willis or Schwarzenegger were back in the day. While you have to be wary of anything coming from Brett Ratner (see X-Men: The Last Stand), this movie might just catch people off guard.
If this take on the ancient Greek hero is a success, then it will be in large part to the former WWE superstar. The only pull from its opening weekend might be the same-day release of the Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz comedy Sex Tape (July 25).
Guardians of the Galaxy
Releases: August 1 | Official Website
Cosmic heroes fighting to save the universe – that is the most basic way to explain this movie. There aren’t a lot of people in the general audience who know who Chris Pratt’s Star Lord is. There are probably even fewer that would recognize the rest of the colorful characters from Marvel’s most adventurous movie. However, with the inter-connectivity of ALL the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus Disney marketing machine behind it, it’s hard not to see this movie making some money. In a very congested August for movie releases, it’ll take a very well-developed plot and enough fun for the word of mouth to pull in the rest of the general audience. Fortunately, that is something that Marvel/Disney do very well.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Releases: August 7 | Official Website
How many people will be lining up for this? Well, that all depends on the next series of trailers. There was a huge uproar as to the early reports of the Turtles being from outer space, however, cooler heads prevailed (i.e. the studio had that scrapped to save the potential of the movie). The TMNT reboot will pair director Michael Bay and Megan Fox once again in a seemingly grittier and more visually stunning version of the 90s turtle movies. However, fans of those will either love it or absolutely hate it; no middle ground.
Harrison Ford joins the always accepting cast of The Expendables (Image Credit: Lionsgate)
The Expendables 3
Releases: August 15 | Official Website
Never before has the world seen a movie with a flurry of action stars as this ‘threequel’ (except in the first two, of course). While part 1 made more domestically, part 2 made a little more cumulatively. Neither really dazzled at the box office, but their relatively low budget made them relatively successful. So just imagine what will happen when you add Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes to the cast. Speaking of which, bonus points if you can name the former 80s and 90s action stars who are not featured in this film…besides Steven Segal.
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With the amount of movies coming out this summer, it’s really hard to guess which one will make the most. However, with competition being so abundant, one can only hope that the quality of the movies is as great for the audiences as the race to the top is for the film studios. Also, there is no guarantee that any of these movies will be the #1 summer movie in 2014. Perhaps one of the other movies I mentioned could sneak up like a dark horse and take the gold. Either way, happy viewing!
The Hudsucker 
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