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Take a moment and pull out you day planner (old school) or fire up your iCal (or similar) or even yank your monthly calendar down from the wall (watch the pushpins), and refer to the months of May through August, 2016. How do they look? Free? Probably. They shouldn’t be, at least if Hollywood has any bearing on your scheduling choices.
The 2014 summer movie season – which now, apparently, starts in May – hasn’t even kicked off yet, but Hollywood is already looking ahead two years to the bounty of (hopeful) riches that will await movie fans in 2016. From superheroes to, well, more superheroes to long-awaited sequels to even something for the kiddos, the 2016 summer movie season looks like it’s going to have it all. And now it’s going to have the first of a planned six-part series about the adventures of King Arthur, because why the hell not?
THR reports that Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur will hit theaters on July 22, 2016. The film, which will be in 3D because of course it will be, is reportedly the first in a six-part film series, so basically we should all just brace ourselves for a decade or so of Knights of the Round Table adventures – it’s not like we’re attached to any other long-running franchises or anything. Oh, wait.
The rest of 2016 is rounded out by a staggering number of big name features, and we’re here to help you remember them, mark them down on whatever kind of calendar application you so choose, and essentially forget about a pair of things called “the 2014 summer movie season” and “the 2015 summer movie season.” So passé, all those things that haven’t even happened yet.
The main event of the summer of 2016, however, is the much-buzzed-about showdown between Batman vs. Superman (or whatever the film will eventually be titled) and Captain America 3, which are both currently slated for release on May 6. Yet, as /Film notes, with the dating of King Arthur (which is a Warner Bros. picture, just like the next Superman film), it seems that Batman vs. Superman will not move off the date into a later position, “as Warner Bros. wouldn’t want two of their own movies to cannibalize each other.” That’s fine speculation with some logic behind it, but we’re guessing that all this release date brouhaha will keep going for entire months until it comes to something resembling a resolution. And maybe they will just battle it out anyway.
May also brings the release of a pair of big-time sequels – with Alice in Wonderland 2 arriving on May 27, the same day X-Men: Apocalypse (the third film in the most recent franchise) hits theaters. Why is no one talking about that showdown, huh?
In June of 2016, we’ll get The Amazing Spider-Man 3 on June 10 (presumably the last Spidey film before Sony starts in on their Venom and Sinister Six spin-offs, which will drive the action toward The Amazing Spider-Man 4) and yet another big showdown between a pair of much-hyped animated sequels. Both Finding Dory and How to Train Your Dragon 3 will hit theaters on June 17, making it the third apparent release date battle of the year. Think of the box office bloodshed, you guys.
July brings its own mess of sequels, from Independence Day 2 on July 1 (appropriate), the untitled and unnamed Marvel film on July 8, Ice Age 5 (five? There have been five of these?) on July 15, and the next film in the Planet of the Apes franchise arriving on July 29 (the second film in the new series, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, will hit on July 11 of this year).
Exhausted yet? Good, because as of now, August doesn’t have any set releases. Perhaps a few of those release date battlers can find a place there.
Which 2016 films are you most excited to see? Or are you still busy thinking about films releasing this year?
Related Topics: Sequels
