Blockbuster Season - upcoming releases

Cinemas have reel revival
Shannon Harvey
March 3, 2016, 10:47 am

MARCH: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice


APRIL: Captain America: Civil War, The Huntsman, Allegiant


MAY: X-Men: Apocalypse, Bad Neighbours 2


JUNE: Independence Day: Resurgence, Warcraft, The Legend of Tarzan


JULY: Jason Bourne, Star Trek Beyond, Ghostbusters


AUGUST: Suicide Squad


SEPTEMBER: The Magnificent Seven, Bridget Jones' Baby


OCTOBER: Doctor Strange, Jack Reacher 2, Inferno


DECEMBER: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Red Dog: True Blue, Assassin’s Creed
Superman v Batman and Kung Fu Panda 3 kick off blockbuster season - The West Australian

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Video Batman v Superman sneak peek
It’s official. Last year was a record breaker at the global box office, as an unprecedented number of big franchise blockbusters forged a perfect celluloid storm bigger than a runaway T-Rex and louder than Vin Diesel’s screeching tyres.


According to box-office analyst Rentrak, cinemas banked a whopping $53 billion worldwide in 2015, breaking the previous record of $51.1 billion in 2014. Ka-ching!


Not surprisingly, the force was strongest with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which took the top spot — and number three of all time worldwide — with $2.85 billion (so far). Three more 2015 films took more than $1 billion each and entered the all-time top 10 worldwide; Jurassic World (at number four), Furious 7 (at six) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (at seven).


If that butters your popcorn, don’t choke on the fact that the US alone has broken its box-office record each year since 2012, pointing to a general upswing in movie-going, while the Australian box office also broke the bank with a record $1.22 billion haul last year. Even homemade hits such as Mad Max: Fury Road and The Dressmaker pushed the local box office to a record $88 million.



With all those records tumbling, only a fool would predict that 2016 could be as big. It couldn’t be. Could it?


While most experts predict a 3-5 per cent box-office decrease globally, a third consecutive record year may not sound as strange as it seems thanks to more blockbusters than ever before.


In terms of sheer numbers, there are more blockbusters in 2016 than in 2015 — more superheroes, sci-fis, fantasies and family films — than you could poke a stick of kryptonite at.


Speaking of kryptonite, the barrage of blockbusters starts this month with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to launch DC Comics’ new shared universe, which it hopes will rival Marvel’s extended universe.


Zack Snyder’s highly green- screened smackdown sees Ben Affleck take the cape from Christian Bale and battle Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel.


It also introduces the new Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and The Flash (Ezra Miller), who will all get recurring roles in future DC blockbusters.


There are new superhero instalments of Captain America and X-Men in April and May, while the likes of Suicide Squad and Doctor Strange hope to birth new super-franchises of their own.


And while Will Smith is not returning for the sequel to Independence Day in June, Matt Damon makes a welcome return as Jason Bourne in July.


Interestingly, two entirely new blockbusters in 2016 mark the first of several video-game adaptations to come. The world’s largest ongoing online game, World of Warcraft, hits the screen in June. And Michael Fassbender stars as Aguilar in the first part of the popular fantasy game Assassin’s Creed in December.

Video Suicide Squad


Given they come with such a massive fan base, their box office could be anything.


Yet as in 2015, the biggest blockbuster may also come last in 2016, with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story out in December.


The spin-off is set before Episode IV: A New Hope and centres on the rebel squadron that stole the plans to the original Death Star. Could it have a similar impact to The Force Awakens and push 2016 over the edge and into global record-breaking territory for the third year running?


The good news is that the string of year-on-year records proves that cinema is enjoying something of a renaissance despite the doomsayers’ predictions of its end at the hands of rampant illegal downloads, new home- streaming services and a worrying trend towards the so-called Golden Age of television.


And that keeps cinemas going. The bad news is that the quantity of quality movies is heading south, while the quantity of effects-driven spectacles is heading north.


In short, if you’re not a big flashy blockbuster or a niche indie darling, you don’t stand a chance.


According to Variety, the top 20 films accounted for 50 per cent of sales in the US last year. Bigger, yet fewer, films are providing the bulk of the profits, with franchise brands such as Bond, Bourne, Star Wars, Marvel and DC mopping up the megaplexes.


While that’s fine for the big boys, quality mid-level films are dropping like flies. According to leading financial services and brokerage firm Stifel, 2015 was “a very top-heavy year with the top 10 films and particularly the top five contributing a very high share of box office, while the film performance below that mark was relatively weak”.


“(2015) saw a number of high-profile non-blockbuster titles materially underperform despite high-profile stars and festival acclaim, such as Steve Jobs, Burnt and Our Brand Is Crisis,” Stifel reported on its Industry Update online.


“Underperforming titles are hardly new but, at the same time, the number and concentration of high-profile missteps . . . indicates a box office which is increasingly shifting towards blockbusters.”


Other analysts are more upbeat. Rentrak senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said the important point was people were still going out to watch movies in theatres.


“Going to the movies is a beloved pastime that is enjoyed throughout the world, with moviegoers from a wide array of backgrounds and cultures all coming together for the shared in-theatre experience.


“The theatrical industry has taken on all-comers for the last 50 years. It is part of the entertainment diet and it’s not going anywhere.”