The previous year was shaped by record-breaking releases from Hollywood. From epic period action drama to big sequels, 2016 was packed with unlimited productions that made people look forward to 2017.
As moviegoers anticipate more record-breaking Hollywood movies, we picked eight of the biggest productions (in chronological order) that are potential megahits.
xXx: Return of Xander Cage
Release Date: Jan. 18
More than a decade after the release of the first XXX movie, Vin Diesel returns to the franchise. Thought to be long dead, Xander Cage (Diesel) comes out of self-imposed exile to race villain Xiang (Donnie Yen) to recover a powerful weapon known as “Pandora’s Box.”
The Great Wall
Release Date: Jan. 25
The $150-million film is already attracting viewers across the region after it was released in some parts of Asia last year before Christmas. The immersive U.S.-China co-production stars Matt Damon. And viewers are definitely in good hands with Zhang Yimou who directed the film.
Kung-Fu Yoga
Release Date: Feb. 1
In the action comedy, Jackie Chan is a world-renowned archaeology professor who teams up with young Indian professor and her assistant to locate India’s lost Magadha treasure in Tibet. The multi-lingual film is expected to make it big in China and India simply because it is Jackie Chan in the starring role.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Release Date: Feb. 1
The latest entry in the film series will come to theaters later next month. Milla Jovovich returns as Alice in the Paul W.S. Anderson-directed movie. It is the sixth and potentially last film in the series that started with 2002’s Resident Evil. So, expect nothing but epic action adventure.
Fifty Shades Darker
Release Date: Feb. 1
Fan base seems to be as passionate as they were for the sequel as they anticipate the continuing adventures of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. The second installment in the erotic Fifty Shades trilogy traces the deepening relationship between the college graduate and the young business magnate.
Logan
Release Date: March 1
Hugh Jackman has one last Wolverine picture in him, and that last film is coming this year. James Mangold will be reprising his directing duties after his successful tenure on The Wolverine, telling a story set in the future where mutants are all but extinct, and Logan and Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) live in hiding.
Kong: Skull Island
Release Date: March 10
The reboot of King Kong throws in Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, and Tom Hiddleston into the mix. In the movie, Godzilla just might get to meet his legendary playmate in a big-screen crossover battle as a team of explorers and soldiers are brought together to venture deep into an uncharted island in the Indian Ocean unaware that they are crossing into the domain of monsters, as well as the mythic Kong.
Beauty and the Beast
Release Date: March 15
After fans flocked to see Cinderella and The Jungle Book, Walt Disney’s Beauty And The Beast seems ready to replicate that glorious success in 2017. With its cast set and ready to go, director Bill Condon is reviving a page of our childhood in live action. Emma Watson and Dan Stevens lead a stellar cast that includes Luke Evans, Josh Gad, and Emma Thompson.
