Summer Movie Preview 2014: Which Blockbuster Will Reign During the Summer?
On May 2, the summer movie season begins with studios releasing blockbuster movies and franchise films.
The season begins with "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Jaime Foxx. The film continues the series where the 2012 film left off and Sony has been promoting the film for the past few months.
On May 9, Clarius Entertainment will release "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return." The movie is unlikely to be a huge threat for "Neighbors," which opens that same weekend. After a successful premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, the Zac Efron/Seth Rogan starrer should easily become a big surprise this season.
"Godzilla" will also be a huge film during the summer. The film stars Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen and Juliette Binoche and will be released on May 16.
On May 23, fans will get a chance to see the the original cast of "X-Men" unite with the new generation cast for "X-Men: Days of Future Past." The movie is among the most exciting as it is being directed by Bryan Singer, who did the first two "X-Men" films; both were huge hits.
On May 30 Universal will release "A Million Ways to Die in the West" against Disney's "Maleficent." The Universal film comes out on the heels of "Ted," which was directed by Seth Macfarlane and was a box office success. Meanwhile, Disney will try to relive the success of its past two live action films, "Oz: the Great and Powerful" and "Alice in Wonderland."
Tom Cruise will try to regain his position as box office king with "The Edge of Tomorrow" on June 6. However, his movie will face competition by Shailene Woodley's love story "The Fault in our Stars."
Sony's second bid for blockbuster success will be "22 Jump Street." The movie will try to relive the success of the original film but could face a tricky situation, especially with Fox's "How to Train Your Dragon 2" coming out on the same weekend. Both films could wind up making the June 13 weekend one of the biggest of the summer.
On June 20, the musical will return to the summer with Clint Eastwood's "Jersey Boys," The film has a big audience and could repeat the box office magic that "Hairspray" had back in 2007 when it was released in the summer.
The biggest film of the summer will undoubtedly be "Transformers: Age of Extinction." After the success of the past three films, Paramount could be the box office winner of the summer.
July opens with Sony's "Deliver From Evil" and Warner Bros' "Tammy." Neither film is likely to generate a huge box office but anything can happen especially after last year when "The Conjuring" surprised.
On July 11 "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" will open. Fox has high hopes for the sequel to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" which was a critical and box office success. With no competition on that weekend, it should easily open at number one.
Lana and Andy Wachowski will return to the silver screen with "Jupiter Ascending." The new film, starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, will be released by Warner Bros and is the film the studio has high hopes for. However after the box office flop "Cloud Atlas" (also directed by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer), Warner Bros will have to start its marketing campaign very soon. Additionally the film will have competition from Disney's animated film "Planes: Fire and Rescue" and the sequel "The Purge."
On July 25, Paramount's "Hercules," Sony's "Sex Tape," and Lionsgate's "Step Up All In" will all open but these are unlikely to generate much buzz.
The month of August, which known for being slow and having smaller blockbusters, will open on the first with "Guardians of the Galaxy." Marvel has high hopes in creating a new franchise out of it as it is speculated that the movie will be connected to the third "Avengers" movie.
Four films will open on Aug. 8, including Paramount's reboot of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and Universal's "Lucy" starring Scarlet Johansson. Meanwhile Warner Bros will compete that weekend with "Into the Storm" as well as Buena Vista's "The Hundred Foot Journey."
Aug. 15 will see Universal's "As Above, So Below" as well as the Weinstein Company's adaptation of "The Giver," which stars Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges. Lionsgate will release the third "Expendables" and will unite Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Kellan Lutz, Victor Ortiz, and Jason Statham.
"Frank Miller's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" will finally be released by the Weinstein Company on Aug. 22 after a number of delays. The movie will open alongside Warner Bros' "If I Stay" and Tristar's "When the Games Stands Tall."
The final weekend of the summer will see Relativity's "Jane Got a Gun" compete against Universal's "The Loft." The Weinstein Company's "Underdogs," Relativity's "November man" and Lionsgate's "Jessabelle" will also open that weekend.
Which film do you think is going to be the box office king/queen of the summer?