The holiday movie season officially gets off with a bang, as “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1” lays waste to the competition. Katniss Everdeen will have her way, at least for a while.
But looking at the list of movies to come, the average film fan might feel just a bit of a letdown. Yes, there’s the final installment of Peter Jackson’s mammoth “Hobbit” trilogy.
And yes, there’s the glittery suggestion that the musical might really be back, as two Broadway biggies (“Into the Woods” and “Annie”) hit the screen.
Other than that, we’ve got some ho-hum-sounding comedies, a couple of question-mark epics, and awards-season serious stuff. And unless you’re living in New York or Los Angeles, some of the coolest-sounding releases won’t be available until January.
Why is that? These are the kind of movies that might not be able to compete with a “Night at the Museum” sequel at 4,000 theaters, but need reviews and awards to build interest. So they open in NY and LA to qualify for awards season, including the Oscars, and then open slowly around the country. We’ll include some of those titles in our list, too.
At this point, though, you never know. Christian Bale as Moses? Reese Witherspoon walking from Mexico to Washington? Angelina Jolie directing a story in a WWII POW camp? It could all work.
Maybe so, because traditionally this is when some of the best movies of the year come out. At this moment last year, we were about to see “Nebraska,” “Frozen,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Her,” and “American Hustle” — a dizzying list. Good luck topping that one, 2014 — but here’s hoping.
See premiere dates, photos, videos and Robert Horton’s take on all the upcoming holiday movies.
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