25 Most Hotly Anticipated Movies Of Summer 2016 - Ranked
Get ready to eat A LOT of popcorn.
You could be forgiven for thinking we now live in a perpetual Hollywood summer. The lines of distinction that once separated blockbuster season from the awards window, the late winter graveyard and the festive season are getting increasingly blurry.
As part of that evolution, the summer season - once the stronghold of the brainless popcorn movie - is now a breeding ground for all levels of creativity. So alongside giant comic book movies, we get an increasing number of intriguing true stories and smaller comedies and dramas.
The star is still king and spectacle is the biggest currency, but this years summer slate is a far more varied affair than previously.
Such is the number of quality of films released between the last couple of weeks of May until the end of August, some films as big as the latest Ice Age, the illogical remake of Ben Hur (no matter how it's dressed up, it's entirely redundant) and the third Purge don't break the top 25.
So what does make the cut?
25. Hands Of Stone
Release Date: August 26th
Billed As: The anti-Rocky Balboa movie, following heroic real world champion Roberto Duran who beat Sugar Ray Leonard at The Brawl In Montreal" and then shocked the world by giving up in the rematch.
Hype: It's a hell of a story. Duran's rise to glory is your typical Rocky story: raised in a slum in Panama, he started fighting at 8, made his professional debut at 16 and retired at the grand old age of 50, having been declared one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Casting Edgar Ramirez as Duran is a great move - he's intense, passionate and incredibly likeable - and the supporting cast of Robert De Niro, Usher, Ellen Barkin and John Turturro as mafia enforcer and boxing promoter Frankie Carbo looks great.
Everyone loves a good boxing movie - this might be 2016's great hope.