5. Suicide Squad (dir. David Ayer)
Starring Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Cara Delevinge, Will Smith, Jai Courtney, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jay Hernandez
Just beating out Hail, Caesar! by three points, Suicide Squad takes its place as our fifth most anticipated movie of 2016. The DC Extended Universe truly kicks off this year with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but Suicide Squad is the one that is coming with the most interest. There has been a lot of hype around the movie, and most of that is focused on Margot Robbie bringing fan-favourite Harley Quinn to the big screen for the first time, and Jared Leto taking on the infamous Joker role (or is he really Robin?!). Not to mention big names like Will Smith and Jai Courtney taking on villainous roles, and the tremendous Viola Davis playing the Puppet Master. The first trailer for the movie shown at SDCC was very well-received, and a second trailer is on its way shortly. Expect the hype train to go into overdrive once Dawn of Justice is out of the way. Speaking of which…
4. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (dir. Zack Snyder)
Starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Jesse Eisenberg, Gal Gadot, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons, Jason Momoa, Jena Malone, Ezra Miller, Laurence Fishburne, Holly Hunter
Funny story: This movie was announced when Flickering Myth was partaking in our annual Golden Mile pub crawl around Camden. I was shown a phone screen with the film’s logo, and I drunkenly shouted: “I’ll believe it when I see it”. Well, the joke is now on me, because here it is. After several attempts to bring The World’s Finest to the big screen, Zack Snyder has finally achieved it with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It feels like the movie has been in production forever, following the casting of Ben Affleck as The Dark Knight back in 2014, and now we’ll finally see these two square off alongside the likes of Wonder Woman, Aquaman and The Flash – not to mention Lex Luthor and Doomsday. Sounds like there’s a lot to get through in the movie, let’s see how Snyder pulls it off. Despite coming fourth on our list, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice topped four of our writer’s lists, which is the same amount as the number one movie. Which means that we have writers who are really excited for the film, but it would seem not a lot care at all.
3. Deadpool (dir. Tim Miller)
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, Gina Corano, T.J. Miller, Stefan Kapicic, Brianna Hilderbrand
Deadpool is a very popular character within the Geek Community, due to his fourth-wall breaking, foul language and pop culture references, and now he’s finally making his way to the silver screen. He’s not a popular character with Flickering Myth TV (see here and here), but he’s clearly beloved by the rest of our writing staff. Deadpool also topped four of our writer’s lists, but he was present in almost every other list which is how he made it into the top three. Kevin Smith recently said that Deadpool could be the greatest movie ever made – we’ll see about that. The movie hits cinemas this Valentine’s Day, so we’ll know soon enough.
2. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (dir. Gareth Edwards)
Starring Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was never going to meet the hype that surrounded it (how could it), but because of that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has an easier act to follow. Set in the time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Rogue One sees the Rebels steal the plans for the Death Star that would become the pivotal plot point of our very first adventure into a galaxy far, far away back in ’77. This is also the first time that we’re stepping into the Star Wars universe and not following the central line of characters, and as such will be our first example of what these “Anthology” movies have in stall for us. Amazingly, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story only topped two of our writer’s lists, but it was present on virtually every single list – hence how it climbed its way into second place. Seems like the magic of Star Wars never dies, even if there are more movies released this year we’re interested in.
1. Captain America: Civil War (dir. Anthony & Joe Russo)
Starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Sebastian Stan, Keremy Renner, Martin Freeman, Tom Holland, Paul Bettany, Emily VanCamp, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, Anthony Mackie, Chadwick Boseman, Don Cheadle, William Hurt
And topping four of our writer’s lists (including my own), the first part of Phase Three of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is Flickering Myth’s most anticipated movie of 2016. The film won by some margin, and it seems as though the prospect of Cap and Iron Man throwing down is more intriguing than Bats and Supes going at it – at least by our votes. The film features a whopping cast of characters including Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, The Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Vision, Baron Zemo, Crossbones, Falcon, Black Panther, War Machine and – of course – Spider-Man, so it will be interesting to see how they all share screentime against Captain America and Ol’ Shell Head. The first trailer got a good reaction from our writers, and it will be very likely that Captain America: Civil War is high on our Top 10 of 2016 list at the end of the year.
We mentioned the idea of Superhero Fatigue setting in, but with Captain America: Civil War, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Deadpool taking up four of our top five spots, maybe the comic book train is still on the tracks. But with six films released this year (one of which didn’t make it into our Top 10), will it soon become derailed?
Click the button below to see what missed out on the Top 10, and our own personal picks…
MikeDK says
“Perhaps superhero fatigue really is setting in for some viewers. You only have to look at how Ant-Man performed last year, a solo movie in the MCU with no prior releases.” – care to elaborate on that statement?
It made the same (or more) money that the early solo films in the MCU did.
Domestic it made the same as Thor and Captain America, and worldwide it made more than both those movies (like $150 million and $70 million more). Pretty impressive for a superhero with no following or awareness whatsoever.
I’m pretty sure Marvel would be very pleased to have Doctor Strange meet that “same fate” with this film.
They can’t all be ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ size hits, which, by the way, no one (sane) expects them to be.
Luke Owen says
Well, you could argue that Ant-Man having the second-lowest opening weekend in the studio’s history – beating only The Incredible Hulk – was not a “win”.
Ant-Man did make money and was not a failure, but it didn’t earn the sort of money Marvel are expecting to make with the brand they’ve built. It’s the same argument with Age of Ultron. The film did over $1 billion, but it was seen as a disappointment because it didn’t make more than the previous Avengers movie.
Doctor Strange will perform well, and it will make its money back. But at this stage of the game, Marvel want to be exceeding the money they’re putting in. If they’re spending $150 million to the make each movie, they’re going to want to make $500 million domestically. And with the traction and build they’ve created since Iron Man in 2008, that should be expected.
You are right in that every solo-movie/non-sequel can’t be Guardians of the Galaxy hits, but the point I was making is that the studio will expect each movie to be a Guardians hit.
MikeDK says
Allright, I get it.
I guess we just have differing views on what we think Marvel’s expectations are.
I don’t think they expect Guardian sized hits with every new introductory film. That would be insane.
They only spent $130 million on Ant-Man, which I think is an early indication that they knew full well this was going to be a hard sell.
And the fact that it was able to generate as much income as Thor and Captain America, with the lower opening weekend you so rightly mention it had, is impressing in itself.
I think the intro films comming up (Strange, Black Panther) are expected to hit $500 million worldwide, and that everything more than that will be impressive, even by Marvel standards.
The sequels are where their expectations are. If Ant-Man 2 makes the same or less than Ant-Man then it’s a flop (by Marvel standards).