April 3rd
Fast and Furious 7; the Fast and Furious series of films opening have dramatically increased over the 14 year lifetime of the series
The Fast and the Furious opened September with £1.76ms
2 Fast 2 Furious opened June 2003 with £2.74m
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift opened June 2006 with £1.81m
Fast & Furious opened April 2009 with £4.92m
Fast & Furious 5 opened April 2011 with £5.33m (including £1.3m in previews)
Fast & Furious 6 opened in May 2013 with £8.72m
The seventh part of what Universal Picture previously said could go 10+ film series opens over the 4 day Easter weekend and the school holidays a week after the female focus Cinderella and two weeks after Divergent: Insurgent. It has the benefit unlike most other summer releases of two weeks before the next mega-release.
April 23rd
The Avengers: Age of Ultron exactly three years after the first Avengers film the sequel opens.
Avengers Assemble opened with £15.78m (including £2.55m from Thursday previews) which was the biggest opening of superhero film of all time ahead of The Dark Knight Rises of £14.36m.
From the trailers the sequel is much darker than the original with the rumours of the death of an Avenger. With sequels including many of the Avengers there are few possibilities of the possible death.
Expectations for the sequel are high with many expecting it to beat the originals £51.9m which will be the biggest film since Skyfall. It will have the benefit of having the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens attached to it. But the darkness of the sequel might not make it hold as well.
But it does have the benefit like Fast and Furious 7 of having 3 week window before the release of the next summer mega-release.
May 15th
Mad Max: Fury Road. 30 years after the last film the long in the works sequel is an unknown quantity, the trailers got fans very excited but will the children of the fans of the original films be so interested.
Opening against is Pitch Perfect 2 the first film was a surprise hit in the US but didn’t do so well in the UK; opening with £952k in December 2012; has since been a DVD success since but will UK audiences come out for it this time?
May 22nd
Tomorrowland: A World Beyond again like Fury Road fans were blown away by the trailers but it’s an unknown quantity? Opening against it is the Poltergeist remake 20th Century Fox recently brought forward. 27 years after Poltergeist 3 horrors have changed a lot in the years since and the remake is meant to play to a younger audience than the original films?
May 29th
Earthquake disaster movie San Andreas is another unknown quantity its 41 years ago since Earthquake movie destroyed Los Angeles this looks similar to The Day After Tomorrow opening exactly 11 years later opening with £7.32m.
Opening against it is the Simon Pegg comedy Man Up. Studiocanal have had mixed success with the British rom-com with I Give It A Year and Cuban Fury both not crossing over to wide audiences even after getting good reviews. Its release has moved several times which is never a good sign.
June 5th
Insidious: Chapter 3 open the second part opened with a strong £2.9m in September 2013 and Part 3 is likely to open similarly.
Opening again is action comedy Spy 20th Century Fox have shifted the release of this around several times due to changes with other release date changes but the trailer was good and the Melissa McCarthy and Jason Statham film is likely to perform well.
June 12th
Sees the summer big guns 22 years after the first Jurassic Park film opened in the US Jurassic World opens in the UK (original film opened 16th July in the UK); Its 14 years after the last Jurassic Park film expectations are very big for the reboot with Universal already having plans for a sequel. The first film took £44m in the UK in 1993 ran for almost a year in cinemas. But can the reboot get close?
June 19th
Entourage is an unknown quantity the TV series ran from 2004-11 but was only broadcast on smaller channels in the UK so the fan-base is much smaller than is in the US and films about the film industry might interest people working within it but might not be so interesting to others.
The Longest Ride latest Nicholas Sparks’ film adaptation which have had mixed success in the UK; This is the first of three YA adaptations 20th Century Fox this summer followed by Paper Towns and Me & Earl & the Dying Girl that should all attract a similar audience John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars received last year.
June 26th
The Despicable Me prequel Minions opens. Despicable Me 2 opened in July 2013 with £14.8m and was the biggest film of the year taking £47.5m. The loveable Minions in the Despicable Me films were what many loved so much about the films so the prequel could do similar?
July 3rd
Terminator: Genisys is another unknown 6 years after the last film Terminator Salvation Genisys first trailer confused many with it going back to Terminator 2. Terminator Salvation received poor reviews in 2009 but opened strongly with £6.94m (including previews). Terminator Rise of the Machines in 2003 opened with £6.08m and Terminator 2 opened in 1991 with £2.58m.
Paramount will be hoping for strong opening as already have plans for two more films before James Cameron takes back ownership of Terminator.
July 10th
Ted 2 opens 3 years after the first film which opened with £9.32m; went on to take £30.4m at the UK box office. Interesting if the sequel can open as strongly as not many comedy sequels have opened as strongly except Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason £10.44m and The Hangover: Part II £10.41m.
July 17th
Sees the first mega-movie face/off Ant Man after the many Marvel successes many called last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy a surprise but with the Marvel branding it couldn’t be. Guardians opened last August with £6.36m.
Opening against is Pan a Peter Pan re-imagining there have been several Peter Pan films in recent years most notably Steven Spielberg’s 1991 Hook and 2003’s Peter Pan opened with £1.31m.
July 24th
Disney release Inside Out their first original Pixar animated film since 2012 Brave hard to compare its opening as it opened on Monday after opening in Scotland the previous weekend taking £5.2m for the 7 day week £2.6m of that over its official opening weekend.
Monsters University opened in July 2013 with a disappointing £3.4m but went on to take £30.6m playing through the summer holidays. While Up opened in October 2009 with £6.4m
July 31st
Paramount recently brought Mission Impossible 5 to this date last week the director said they are just completing the end scene after a story wrongly announced that the film was being shut down for the ending to be re-written. The first trailer will also be released soon far later than most other summer releases, likely to be attached with Fast and the Furious 7 in April. The previous Mission Impossible films performed strongly Ghost Protocol in 2011 with £8.2m (including £5.4m from previews). The first film opened in 1996 with £4.2m, second £4.6m in 2000, and third £5.37m in 2006.
Opening against is Magic Mike XXL the sequel to the 2012 film which was a surprise hit opening with £2.6m and performed well on DVD since.
Boxing drama Southpaw is an unknown quantity it has been in development since 2010 with Eminem originality attached for Dreamworks, then moved to MSM and Sony before moving to The Weinstein Company.
August 6th
20th Century Fox’s reboot of Fantastic Four only 10 years after the previous reboot that opened in July 2005 with £3.54m followed by the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer opened with £4.1m in June 2007 both were poorly received by critics and fans. The trailer for the reboot was well received featuring a strong cast and directed by Josh Trank who directed 2012’s Chronicle and is to direct first Star Wars spin off Rogue One opening December 2016.
Also opening is heist comedy Masterminds starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis.
Comedy drama Ricki and the Flash written by written by Diablo Cody, directed by Jonathan Demme starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline; first film from Tom Rothman’s rebooted Tristar who recently replaced Amy Pascal at Sony Pictures.
August 14th
3D sci-fi comedy Pixels looks very similar to Wreck-It-Ralph opened February 2013 with £4.5m and went on to take £23.7m. Featuring many classic arcade games crossing over into reality; starring Adam Sandler and friends could go either way.
The long in development The Man from U.N.C.L.E starring Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer and directed by Guy Ritchie the trailer was very cool and stylish opening months after box office hit Kingsman: The Secret Service could help this? It is Guy Ritchie’s first film since Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opened in December 2011 with £3.82m and Sherlock Holmes opened in December 2009 with £3.83m.
August 21st
The latest John Green adaption Paper Towns not as well know as The Fault in Our Stars opened with £4.43m last June. The first trailer is released next week and 20th Century Fox will be aggressively marketing it again on social media.
Action film Criminal and horror sequel Sinister 2, the first film opened in October 2012 with £1.43m. Also open as does the British comedy Bill a family adventure from the makers of TV series Horrible Histories and Yonderland. Was set for release originally in February moved to March and now end of August after most summer blockbusters are released.
August 28th
Summer ends with four films that are unlikely to excite thriller Regression starring Emma Watson and Ethan Hawke. Hitman: 47 remake of the 2007 US action film Hitman original film opened with £1.2m. Trainwreck the new comedy from director Judd Apatow featuring an ensemble cast. His films perform well in the US but not so well in the UK his last film This is 40 opened with £1.22 in February 2013, Funny People opened August 2009 with £1m, Knocked Up opened August 2007 with £1.58m and 40 Year Old Virgin opened with £1.75m in September 2005. Also Strange Magic animation film from Lucasfilm; had the worst opening for a film opening on 3,000 screens in the US in January.