Quick updates on four massive 2015 films

Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2014 at 4:13 PM Central
Last updated Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 9:32 AM Central

by John Couture

It's been a hot minute since we took a look at the massive box office year that is going to be 2015. In fact, this article probably needs a proper refreshing as many of the films (as predicted) have moved out of 2015 altogether, while other massive films, such as The Fast and the Furious 7, have slipped into the year that was already loaded.

While 2015 is still looking to be the highest box office year that we have ever seen, the number of big franchises have gone down a bit as delays have wreaked havoc on the year. And yet, there are still too many films to talk about with any regularity. Some things just slip through the cracks.

But, we are aiming to do a better job of covering the massive year that will be 2015. Some of that will be on display later in the week as our long-distance coverage of the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) shifts into high gear. One other idea we have is what you will see below.

Often, there is just so much information that hits at the same time that we have to prioritize, or the information isn't strong enough to warrant its own stand alone news story. Previously, we've taken these poster or trailer drops and slipped them into the MM or posted then to Twitter or Facebook, but now we will start adding these digest type of articles that will showcase a bunch of stuff that we think you'd want to see, but didn't have time to get to them.

First up, I have updates on four 2015 movies that are just under the Star Wars: Episode VIIs and Avengers 2s of the world. While we tend to report all of the minutiae on those huge films, these films tend to get overlooked.

One film that Tim is really high on for 2015 is Pixels. The concept sounds amazing. Aliens misinterpret old arcade-style video games as a declaration of war and use them as the means of planning their attack. The President of the United States has no choice but to turn to his old best friend, who happens to be an expert at 1980s arcade-style video games, and his band of merry misfits as Earth's last resort.

Now, if you stop right there and that's all I knew about this film, I would be so stoked. This would probably be in my top three must-see flicks of 2015, but it doesn't stop there. The problem (for me) comes with the casting of Kevin James as the President and Adam Sandler as his best friend.

Thankfully, the supporting cast is solid with Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage set as gamers and Michelle Monaghan as their Department of Defense attaché. They released the title treatment above and the first still below and I'm cautiously optimistic. Tim is panting and reloading Fandango every 10 seconds looking to score the first tickets for the flick.

Look at that glorious mullet on Dinklage. Pixels is set for release on May 15.

Another film that is opening up on May 15, 2015 is Mad Max: Fury Road, the long-gestating fourth film in the Mad Max series. Mel Gibson is out and Tom Hardy is in as the titular Max and that's quite an upgrade if you ask us. Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult are along for the ride and if the images below are any indication, the wasteland is still a dirty mess.

Speaking of long-gestating sequels, Jurassic Park IV is finally seeing the glow of megaplexes across the country in 2015. Jurassic World is set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park and Isla Nublar is now a fully functional theme park as envisioned in the first film. After attendance starts to decline a new attraction predictably backfires and chaos runs rampant yet again.

We like both the lead (Chris Pratt) and the director (Colin Trevorrow), but I'm still a bit skeptical after the fiasco that was Jurassic Park III. Still, I'm hopeful that people will still be moved by those pesky dinos one more time.

The film recently released the two SDCC-exclusive posters below. Jurassic World will hit theaters on June 16.

Finally today, comes new images from The Fast and the Furious 7. This film was pushed back into 2015 following the tragic and untimely death of actor Paul Walker. It's not known what effect this tragedy and the delay will have on the franchise that was just starting to get into its box office groove, but I'm willing to bet that FF7 will be the highest grossing film in the franchise.

I really don't know where they are going to find enough screens to satiate the demand for all of these films.

As you can see above, The Fast and the Furious 7 will get a jump start on the Summer blockbuster season with an April 3 debut in theaters.

We will continue to do these digest a couple of times a month or as content allows. Let us know what you think.