This summer looks like a feast for comic book fans with numerous movies directly based on comic books or having a comic book tie-in. Here’s what to expect each month and what we think is going to be the hits and the misses. And there’s a few weekends comic geeks will have to choose between movies, or go with the double feature.
May
Iron Man 3 – May 3 – easily the juggernaut of the summer movies. This is likely to be the highest grossing movie of the summer unless a certain caped hero goes huge. The second movie of the series was a bit of a let down, but with a new director and an interesting villain, here’s hoping the franchise bounces back. The expectations are high, which works a bit against the movie.
Star Trek Into Darkness – May 17 – The second entry in the rebooted Star Trek franchise has had a prequel released by IDW as well as an ongoing series based in it’s universe. The movie looks much darker than previous entries, but that might not be a bad thing.
June
After Earth – June 7 – Will Smith’s new movie also featuring his son is a futuristic sci-fi tale. It also had a comic tie-in released by Dynamite that was pretty decent.
Man of Steel – June 14 – The other possibility of the top grossing movie of the summer. It looks darker in tone, but this is a reboot of the classic character, just in time for Superman to celebrate his 75th birthday. Like a certain shellhead, there’s high expectations for this one.
Monsters University – June 21 – Pixar’s sequel to their awesome movie Monsters Inc. Maybe Disney and Marvel are smart enough to release a comic tie-in to go with it? I expect it to be a solid family movie.
World War Z – based on Max Brook’s amazing book, the trailers look horrible. But, it’s a zombie movie and Brooks writes comics. I think the movie will tank, but expect publishers to attempt to play off of the Brooks connection.
July
Despicable Me 2 – July 3 – I loved the first one. If someone is smart they’ll grab up this family movie. There’s no comic connection that I can think of, but I love the first movie so much I couldn’t not mention it.
The Lone Ranger – July 3 – the trailers to this also look horrible. There is a Dynamite series, but that has nothing to do with this movie. I expect a box office bomb.
Pacific Rim – July 12 – there’s a graphic novel tie-in that’s supposed to come out, but even if there wasn’t it’s giant robots versus giant monsters. One of the most anticipated movies of the summer for me.
Red 2 – July 19 – the first movie wasn’t all that great. There was something entertaining about it, but barely. Kind of shocked there’s a sequel. The first movie was based on a comic, no idea for any plans for this one.
R.I.P.D. – July 19 – If I’m seeing a “comic movie” this weekend, it’s this one. Starring Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds the movie is based off of the Dark Horse series.
The Wolverine – July 26 – the first movie was horrible. So bad, I refused to spend movie to see it. This sequel is looking better, but I expect it to be third when it comes to comic movie grosses for the summer.
The Smurfs 2 – July 31 – there is the Papercutz comic series that continues this classic cartoon series. The first movie was smurf, I’m expecting much of the same for this one.
August
2 Guns – August 2 – a tough weekend to open, see below, this movie is based on the BOOM! Studios series. The story is entertaining and it has a solid cast. Another under the radar summer movie I can’t wait to see.
300: Rise of an Empire – August 2 – a tough weekend to open, see above, this movie is based on the upcoming graphic novel Xerxes which is the sequel to the graphic novel 300. I’m not expecting it to match the box office dollars or awesomeness of the first one.
Elysium – August 9 – no comic tie-in that I know of, but it looks like awesome science fiction.
Kick-Ass 2 – August 16 – I hated the comic series this will likely be based on. It was violence for violence sake at times. We’ll see what they get away with for this one.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – August 23 – it was a book first, but there’s also a comic adaptation of this popular young adult novel.
Transformers: Age of Extinction ruled the 2014 box office, bringing in $1.087 billion at the box office. It was the top earning film worldwide of the year earning hundreds of millions more than the next film. It was also the most profitable. Taking away its estimated budget, the film made $877.4 million what was 4.18 times its budget, the best of the bunch for both stats.
