Happy 2016! Here’s What’s Coming to Theaters This Year

Happy new year! Here’s some of what we’re looking forward to seeing in theaters in 2016. As usual, we have sequels, remakes, superheroes, movies based on best-selling books, and movies based on real-life stories. And, as usual, what I look forward to most is knowing that a year from today I will be a fan of movies and performers and writers and directors I do not yet know anything about. Can’t wait to meet them. (All release dates subject to change)

January

Norm of the North (looks kind of like “Happy Feet” crossed with “Madagascar?”)

February

Hail Caesar! (The Coen brothers take on the golden age of Hollywood)

Zoolander 2 (Blue Steel! This time with Benedict Cumberbatch!)

Race (the story of Olympic champion and American hero Jesse Owens)

March

Knight of Cups (from Terrence Malick, so it will be beautiful and opaque)

Me Before You (based on the best-seller about a young woman who is hired to help a wealthy young man who is paralyzed following an accident)

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (Tina Fey and Margot Robbie star in this fact-based story of a war correspondent)

Zootopia (animated comedy about a city of animals)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFi57DWkLp4

Batman vs. Superman (Clash of the DC titans)

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (even Greekier and weddingier!)

April

Keeping Up with the Joneses (Jon Hamm, Isla Fisher, and Zach Galifianakis star in a comedy about suburbanites who suspect their neighbor might be a spy)

The Boss (Melissa McCarthy is a bad boss gone rogue)

Barbershop: The Next Cut (Ice Cube and the gang are back for more haircuts, trash talk, and potential apple juice theft)

Everybody Wants Some (“Boyhood” director Richard Linklater follows up his classic “Dazed and Confused” with some some dazed and confused 80’s jams — in both senses of the word)

The Jungle Book (live-action re-telling of the Rudyard Kipling classic story of a boy raised by animals)

Keanu (Key and Peele play “blerds” (“black nerds” who must save a kitten, with Method Man, Nia Long, and Will Forte)

Mother’s Day (from the same folks who brought you all-star dramedies about New Year’s Day and Valentine’s Day)

Nine Lives (Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Garner star in a story about a man who is trapped in the body of the family’s cat)

Same Kind of Different as Me (Greg Kinnear, Renee Zellwegger, and Djimon Honsou star in this real-life story based on the best-seller about a homeless man and an art dealer who become friends)

May

Captain America: Civil War (Cap is back. So is the Winter Soldier.)

Going in Style (remake of the comedy heist film about an over-the-hill mob, starring Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Christopher LLoyd — and Ann-Margret)

The Free State of Jones (Matthew McConaughey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw star in this fact-based story of a farmer married to a former slave who rebelled against the Confederacy during the Civil War)

Money Monster (Jodie Foster directs George Clooney and Julia Roberts in the story of a television investing guru held hostage on the air)

Snowden (Oliver Stone directs Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the story of the notorious former NSA contractor seen by some as a traitor and some as a heroic whistleblower)

The Angry Birds Movie (ever wonder how the birds got so angry?)

X-Men: Apocalypse (more mutants!)

June

Now You See Me 2 (that rich guy is not happy about the magicians stealing his money)

Finding Dory (Nemo and Marlin must take another journey)

July

The BFG (Roald Dahl’s classic story stars Mark Rylance from “Bridge of Spies”)

The Secret Life of Pets (what do they do all day when we’re at work?)

Ghostbusters (Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Kate McKinnon probably get slimed)

Lala Land (Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in a musical from “Whiplash” writer/director Damien Chazelle)

August

Ben-Hur (Jack Huston and Rodrigo Santoro star in this remake of the Charlton Heston classic)

Kubo and the Two Strings (the latest from LAIKA)

September

The Magnificent Seven (remake of the classic western with Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, and Matt Bomer)

Masterminds (Zach Galifianakis and Kristen Wiig star in this fact-based story of some very dumb criminals)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onOblb6W_yw

October

The Girl on the Train (Rebecca Ferguson and Emily Blunt star in this mystery based on the best-selling book)

November

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (JK Rowling’s new story stars Eddie Redmayne and takes place in New York)

Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the DC sorcerer)

December

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Tim Burton directs this fantasy based on the series by Ransom Riggs)