UPDATE: Only minutes after posting this article Fox bumped Roland Emmerich‘s Independence Day 2 from July 2015 to July 1, 2016.
UPDATE #2 Focus has set a February 13, 2015 release date for Fifty Shades of Grey.
UPDATE #3 Paramount has now set a Christmas Day release for Mission: Impossible 5.
UPDATE #4 FilmDistrict has set an April 3, 2015 release for Insidious: Chapter 3.
UPDATE #5 Warner Bros. has set an May 15, 2015 release for Mad Max: Fury Road.
Back in July I took a look at the mess of franchises and sequels hitting theaters in 2015 (find that Finding Dory have moved out of the 12 month timeframe, but the studios have found plenty to fill in. I felt it was worth a little update as Fox recently shuffled their deck and moved their Fantastic Four reboot back three months and it’s always good to make sure our 36 month calendars are up to date.
2015 won’t waste anytime getting into familiar territory when Fox releases yet another adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein starring Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy on January 16 and in February we have our first sequel scheduled to hit theaters with SpongeBob SquarePants 2 on the 13th. March brings Kenneth Branagh‘s live action Cinderella on the 13th with the Madagascar spin-off The Penguins of Madagascar dated for the 27th.
April is still without anything of note, though Guillermo del Toro‘s Crimson Peak has been rumored for the month, but by the time we hit May things are truly underway.
Summer 2015 begins with The Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 1 and June kicks it up a notch with the new Jurassic Park film, Jurassic World, on June 12, Josh Trank‘s Fantastic Four reboot was just moved to June 19 and Seth MacFarlane and Mark Wahlberg reteam for Ted 2 on June 26.
July is even busier with Thor: The Dark World helmer Alan Taylor taking on Terminator and rebooting that franchise, the Despicable Me franchise continues with the Minions spin-off on July 10 and July 17 brings Batman vs. Superman. But no, that’s not all, Marvel looks at DC and says, “Batman vs. Superman?” and continue their Avengers franchise with Ant-Man two weeks later on July 31.
What? No. That’s not all. Video games jump to the big screen again with the Michael Fassbender-led Assassin’s Creed on August 7 and The Smurfs 3 will hit theaters on August 14 while Sony brings Hotel Transylvania 2 to theaters a little over a month later on September 25.
October offers a little breathing room, for now, considering Paranormal Activity 7 has not yet been announced, though rumors of a Saw 8 may also come to fruition two years from now, but we’re back at it in November with Sam Mendes following up Skyfall with James Bond 24 on November 6, the same weekend Charlie Brown and the gang hit the big screen with a feature animated version of Peanuts. Two weeks later, the Hunger Games franchise comes to a close with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, which takes us right into December where I think you know what evil lurks.
No, not Alvin and the Chipmunks 4, though that is evil and does release on December 11, but Star Wars: Episode VII, which is currently slated for December 18 along with the third Dan Brown adaptation for Tom Hanks and Ron Howard, Inferno, as well as another video game property to feature film, Warcraft from Moon and Source Code helmer, Duncan Jones.
No, dammit! That’s not all. Don’t forget about Kung Fu Panda 3 on December 23 and Paramount has yet to announce an official date for Mission: Impossible 5.
Obviously more will be added, but this is the franchisification, universitotalitarian, cinematic wonderland we can expect from here on out. See anything you like? Or, I should say, think you’ll like?
