EDITORIAL: Box Office Predictions For The Summer

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Release Date - April 16th (UK), May 2nd (USA)
Production Budget - $200 Million
Opening Weekend - $120--$135 Million
Worldwide Gross - $840--$880 Million

No matter what, I will inevitably see this movie, but I agree that the original reboot had way too many trailers and advertisements that gradually lead to an online video predicting the entire plot of the film that as far as I remember wasn't too far off. With each 'final' trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I get a vibe that this movie's gonna be good and nothing more but sometimes less (it really says something when I'm more excited for a Spider-Man movie because of an Evian water advert than any of the studio-released trailers)... The first film made over $752 million because of controversial buzz about it being made just so Sony can possess the rights to the character, it being a reboot, and the obvious one of it being a freakin' Spider-Man movie. I think with even more buzz made about this one and more 3D, villains, and maybe a possible (cop-out of a) death; it looks like Sony's wallet is about to get heavier.

Godzilla

Release Date - May 15th (UK), May 16th (USA)
Production Budget - $160 Million
Opening Weekend - $40--$62 Million
Worldwide Gross - $480--$550 Million

 When thinking about if it was a smart choice to give all the previews a very horrific, dare-I-say-it realistic feel instead of the easier to do fun "monster movie" approach; I think it paid off because of the simple fact that it sets itself apart from over upcoming entires in the Summer of cinema. If you take a look at the YouTube views for each trailer on the official Godzilla channel, then the teaser clocks in at over 14 million (at the time of writing), the main being the highest at over 21 million, and the latest extended look nearing the end of over 3 million.  I don't know much about the classic Toho Godzilla, but I've read that the director (Gareth Edwards) is drawing huge inspiration from it and even paying homage, so I'll assume that this version is close enough to how the King of Monsters was portrayed in the Japanese film production... Long time fans of Godzilla will see this movie with 2014 marking 60 years of the film franchise, Breaking Bad fans will see this because of Bryan Cranston marking a big supporting role and in some cases stealing the spotlight in most of the trailers, young audiences will want to see this movie, and it can be watched in IMAX 2D, IMAX 3D, normal 2D, and normal 3D. I think Warner Bros. have got a success on their hands after they managed to double their production budget on their last Kaiju outing: Pacific Rim. And we all know what successes produce... sequels. Unfortunately the only problem for this is in the shape of our next film.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Release Date - May 22nd (UK), May 23rd (USA)
Production Budget - Unknown (At Time Of Writing)
Opening Weekend - $70--$95 Million
Worldwide Gross - $650--$690 Million

This is quite an interesting film to predict with the two trailers on the official X-Men Movies YouTube channel gaining over 26 and 12 million views, some genuinely intriguing viral marketing and posters, a cool and unique premise for a comic-book film and especially X-Men movie all topped off with a humongous cast on display so you may ask 'what's the catch?' The catch is that not one X-Men movie has ever crossed $500 million. As worldwide performances, 2000's X-Men grossed over $296 million, 2003's X2 won over $407 million, 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand tops the entire franchise with over $459 million, due to mostly negative reviews and reactions as well as a pirated copy of the film leaking online; 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine grossed over $373 million, 2011's X-Men: First Class gained favourable reviews with some calling it the best of the franchise but only just managed to double its budget with over $353 million, and finally last year (2013)'s The Wolverine brought a return to form making more than three times its budget with over $414 million... This is released a week after Godzilla and even if that film gets incredible reviews, X-Men: DOFP will own that weekend, but what worries me is also what's bothered me about recent live-action Disney flicks. 2012's John Carter is a remarkable flop in the industry making only $30 million more than its $250 million production budget, and without learning their lesson, the following year we got The Lone Ranger which grossed over $260 million after Disney spent a whopping $225--$250 million on its production. If word is to be believed, then this is Fox's biggest production behind AVATAR, so naturally they have a lot riding on this movie with the complicated time-travel, balance of characters, set-up for sequels and so on. It's the first X-Men to be in 3D and it now has the acclaimed, Oscar winning, popular star power of Jennifer Lawrence, so lets keep our fingers crossed.

Edge Of Tomorrow

Release Date - May 30th (UK), June 6th (USA)
Production Budget - $110 Million
Opening Weekend - $30--$45 Million
Worldwide Gross - $295--$325 Million

Despite opening on the same British weekend, I don't have that much of an interest in Disney's Maleficent. Don't get me wrong; it doesn't look bad, and if a friend asked, I'd probably go to see it but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it and think it's going to do pretty well because it's Disney and finally a live action film of their's that has a good, fair, solid budget of $130 million. Even though "All You Need Is Kill" is a far more entertaining title, I'm pretty sure anyone who doesn't have any preconceived thoughts on this movie would've heard that title and assumed either it's a crime drama, western or foreign film (maybe all three). But nevertheless, I'm intrigued by Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt's sci-fi, Source Code-esque epic that could either be a missed opportunity or incredible. I like Tom Cruise, but think he's now more of a Hollywood icon than a box office draw as proven by Oblivion which still went over doubling its budget, but was by no means the biggest monument in 2013. This is Emily Blunt's first real turn in action unless you count The Adjustment Bureau and she is pretty hot, so who knows; that might attract a young and old audience who want to eat pop corn and watch stuff blow up. The film looks cool, and my type of action-er, but still I think it'll just be a mild success.

Transformers: Age Of Extinction

Release Date - July 10th (UK), June 27th (USA)
Production Budget - $165 Million
Opening Weekend - $105--$130 Million
Worldwide Gross - $1--$1.5 Billion

Say what you will about Michael Bay, but his name sure as hell pulls in an audience and no disrespect to Jonathan Liebesman, but he might as well say that Bay's directing the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film because every piece of news or anything attached with that film even in the trailer points to Michael being the main man in charge. People like Mark Wahlberg, many people like Transformers, so far the trilogy has grossed over $2 billion, and there's the added bonuses of IMAX 2D & 3D, normal 2D & 3D, and the addition in this outing of DINOBOTS!!! I think we're looking at the highest grossing movie of 2014, ladies and gentlemen.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

Release Date - July 17th (UK), July 11th (USA)
Production Budget - $120 Million
Opening Weekend - $65--$75 Million
Worldwide Gross - $490--$550

The first movie was one of the big surprises in 2011 grossing over $481 million worldwide and critics and audiences alike applauded the film for a simple narrative, good script, amazing effects, solid performances with the best being Andy Serkis' portrayal of the main ape: Caesar, and some nice themes about Humans bringing on their own corruption, controlling things that shouldn't be controlled, being tamed, and all that good stuff. This time around we have the added ingredients of Gary Oldman looking and feeling like a Commissioner Gordon in his prime, (apparently) Caesar having two sons, Caesar having war paint, Caesar being a leader, Caesar riding a horse, Caesar talking more, Caesar- I'm getting too into this... 3D. I've been waiting for this movie for three years. Bring it!

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Release Date - August 1st (UK), August 1st (USA)
Production Budget - Unknown (At Time Of Writing)
Opening Weekend - $50--$75 Million
Worldwide Gross - $460--$510 Million

The more I see of the Guardians Of The Galaxy through stills, posters, and previews just proves to me how this could be Marvel's greatest triumph. This film has the potential to be the new Star Wars a whole year before the sequel to that franchise makes its debut and I'll say why... As far as I understand; we have an American kid zapped into space among alien smugglers and criminals, he then grows up to think of himself as this badass 'Star Lord' and on one of his procedures gets caught and trapped in a prison with Zoe Saldana as a green assassin called Gamora, a WWE wrestler who's wife was murdered and he then went on a killing rampage throughout the galaxy, a tall sentient tree voiced by no-other-than Vin Diesel, and a mutated talking Raccoon voiced by Oscar nominee: Bradley Cooper. Through most of the stills there's little to no blue or green screen and is only being used for space backgrounds and all the sets look really interesting and were actually built and are actually practical.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Release Date - October 17th (UK), August 8th (USA)
Production Budget - $125 Million
Opening Weekend - $60--$65 Million
Worldwide Gross - $580--$650 Million

[Even though this is released in the UK during October, I'm still gonna talk about it] I've already said that Bay's name being attached to everything linked with this movie is a disappointment and I can't help but feel sympathetic with Liebesman that his name is just there now to remind people that he's the one sitting behind the camera guiding the performances, not the producer. But this isn't all bad as the teaser trailer for a property that hasn't been projected on the big screen for 7 years got over 31 million views on YouTube and Bay's name wasn't anywhere to be seen so who knows. It's the Ninja Turtles, kids will see this movie, most younger ones will want to see it in 3D, the parents will end up paying for their child and themselves in either format of the second or third dimension, so with a modest budget of $125 million; Paramount will be loaded by the end of the year with this and Transformers: AOE​.
 

So those are my thoughts and predictions for the Summer of movies. I apologise if I missed any, so why don't you make you predictions for those flicks and the ones I talked about in my article. Peace...