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Summer 2016 is super-sized - literally! While Captain America The Winter Soldier and Furious
7 expanded the summer movie season into April, in 2016 the party kicks off with one of - well
- the most anticipated movies of all time, Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice! Sure, it
had to chart new territory because it played chicken with Marvel for the first weekend
of May and lost, but hey! March is Snyder Country! The director is three for four for
the month, and is obviously looking for another win here. Plus Disney has also found success
in March with Alice in Wonderland and Oz The Great and Powerful, so now the month is fully
in play - and is where our coverage for 2016 begins. The month kicks off with Tim Burton
going up against his old employer, the Mouse House, as Peregrine’s Home for Peculiars
and Zootopia open opposite each other. Then Jesus gets the Anne Rice treatment as her
take on his younger years is adapted for the big screen in Christ the Lord, which will
need a miracle to withstand Legendary and Duncan Jones’ Warcraft! The next weekend
Divergent returns with the first half of its final installment, Allegiant, opposite Kung
Fu Panda 3 which will finally be hitting theaters. Let’s hope Dreamworks Animation is still
in business by then! Then of course the month closes with Batman v Superman which is of
course expected to dominate - unless Beverly Hills Cop 4, where Axel Foley returns to his
Detroit roots, turns out to be stronger than expected competition. Hey Batman, better check
the Batmobile’s tailpipe for bananas!
Things cool down a bit in April, probably because Hollywood expects March’s entries
to still be burning up the box office. The first half of the month sees Mean Girls director
Mark Waters try to repair his reputation post Vampire Academy with Catfight, while Melissa
McCarthy hopes to create another memorable character with Michelle Darnell. McCarthy
plays a titan of industry who’s sent off to prison for insider trading, then tries
to repair her public image when released. Peter Dinklage and Kristen Bell co-star. Michelle
Darnell will compete with the Jesse Owens bio race, starring unknown Stephan James as
Owens and Jason Sudeikis in a rare dramatic turn. Then the second half of the month gets
a bit more competitive, with Disney’s live action Jungle Book taking on The Best Man
Wedding. Both are part of very strong brands at this point - live action fairy tales vs
Malcolm D Lee’s now trilogy. Finally April is set to close with another live action fairy
tale, this time from Universal, as The Huntsman hits theaters. This prequel drops Kristen
Stewart’s Snow White to focus on Chris Hemsworth’s Huntsman, Charlize Theron’s Ravenna, and
new additions Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain. Hmm, there hasn’t been that kind of wattage
in a movie about witches since Eastwick...and maybe Hocus Pocus...
Ah, May, when the summer movie season USED to kick-off. Is Marvel’s Captain America
Civil War now late to the party? We’ll see, as well as if Kevin Feige’s deal with Sony
was a spectacularly good idea - or bad idea - as Spider-Man finally joins the Marvel Cinematic
Universe. Next, Friday the 13th will try to rebrand once again - while Neighbors gets
a sequel!? Whaat?! There’s an unexpected yet welcome surprise, kind of like Zac Efron’s
comedic ability. But you know what’s not going to be a surprise? The success of the
Angry Birds movie, which hits theaters the very next weekend. Then May closes out with
a genuine clash of the titans - Disney’s Alice in Wonderland sequel, where Sacha Baron
Cohen joins the original cast, versus X-Men Apocalypse! Will it be the end of one of these
franchises, or is there enough room at the box office for both to prosper?
If you’re hoping to catch your breath, or save your money, in June - you’re out of
luck. While Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot did solid business in
August 2014, its sequel is being moved up to June where it will kick off the month.
But it better make its money fast as opening the very next weekend are a trio of hotly
anticipated movies. There’s The Conjuring 2 where James Wan, Patrick Wilson and Vera
Farmiga all return. Now You See Me 2, which not only keeps its original cast but adds
Daniel Radcliffe to the mix. And top video game Uncharted finally makes it to the silver
screen! Who will play Nathan Drake...? Then the very next weekend, Pixar delivers yet
another sequel with Finding Dory, which should get a major boost from Ellen DeGeneres ever
growing star power. But it will have some interesting competition from Shane Black,
who looks to cash-in the blank check he got directing Iron Man 3. The 1990s staple is
spending his Hollywood capital on a 1970s *** mystery centered around a fading ***
star starring Ryan Gosling, Matt Bomer and - reunited after LA Confidential - Russell
Crowe and Kim Basinger. Finally Independence Day 2 opens a week ahead of the Fourth of
July, as the Will Smith-less sequel can’t compete with the movies already opening for
the holiday. It’ll also find stiff competition in Universal’s third reboot of The Mummy,
this time re-imagined as a genuine action horror film with Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman
and Mama’s Andres Muschietti teaming up to direct. That means it’ll either be scary
good...or scary bad...
So what scared off ID4 2? That would be Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s
The Big Friendly Giant, Warner Bros Tarzan remake with Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie,
Samuel L Jackson and Christoph Waltz - plus, The Purge 3! Will audience celebrate America
by seeing a film that has a sardonic view of that celebration? Next up, Zac Efron has
his second comedy of the summer starring opposite Workaholics’ Adam DeVine in the adaptation
of the book Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Is Seth Rogen so easily replaceable? The flick
hopes to act as counter-programming to Star Trek 3, although that might be pretty fun
itself with Simon Pegg scripting. After that, Ice Age 5 has an entire weekend to itself
before three more movies crowd into the same weekend! The all-female Ghostbusters reboot
squares off against Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur and the Power Rangers movie - which hopes
that by late June 2016 you’ll have forgotten all about that fan film on the internets...
And speaking of forgetting, Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass hope you haven’t forgotten
how awesome they are when it comes to Jason Bourne movies, as the duo returns for another
entry at the end of the month. Does Jeremy Renner at least get a free movie ticket?
Finally we reach August, wild card month. This is where Marvel’s gamble Guardians
of the Galaxy paid off handsomely, and obviously Warner Bros is hoping the same will happen
with the surprisingly similar Suicide Squad. But while Star-Lord and company will joke
about killing you, or at least kicking you in the groin or giving you the finger, this
line-up will actually kill you - or worse. And in an interesting bit of counter-programming,
if you don’t want to see Suicide Squad, then how about The Smurfs 3? After that, ANOTHER
Zac Efron comedy, this time opposite Robert DeNiro in Dirty Grandpa! Has Seth Rogen created
a monster, or a gift to audiences? Or maybe his own worst enemy, as Rogen debuts his first
animated film the same weekend, Sausage Party. Disney’s live action Pete’s Dragon also
opens, as does the 3D supernatural actioner Spectral which stars James Badge Dale, Emily
Mortimer and Bruce Greenwood. Expect Spectral to move to another release date. Then Laika
returns with their next stop motion entry, Kubo and the Two Strings. Set in Japan, it
will feature the voices of Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes
and Art Parkinson as Kubo. In other words, nobody Japanese. Or even Asian. So, that’s
the summer line-up for 2016! What are you must sees, your maybe sees and your heck no-sees?!
Be sure to write your thoughts down below. I’m Grace Randolph and this has been a Movie
Byte! You can watch more, right now...