Star Wars 7
mania is already at a record high. Abrams is doing his best to keep plot details secret, despite a barrage of leaks and rumours.
Officially, we know that Daisy Ridley and John Boyega - who appeared in the trailer in a Star Wars costume - will star as characters named Rey and Finn, with a cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Adam Driver, Gwendoline Christie and a rather adorable new roller-ball droid.
Avid Star Wars geeks can also look forward to a revamped Millennium Falcon, a mysterious villain wielding a new triple-pronged crossguard light sabre, and the return of three key actors from the original trilogy: Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill. Most fans are probably just hoping it'll be better than The Phantom Menace.
2. Avengers: Age of Ultron
Joss Whedon's Avengers Assemble was one of Marvel's most enjoyable recent films, combining pitch-perfect Whedon-esque humour with the sheer exhilaration of watching superheroes such as Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) unite to take down a common enemy.
Sequel Age of Ultron (also scripted and directed by Whedon) opens on April 23 this year, and will see several new additions to the existing ensemble cast, including Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Quicksilver and James Spader's antagonist Ultron, a robot with a God complex, described by Whedon as "genuinely disturbed". The ongoing war against arch-villain Thanos will then continue with two further films - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Avengers: Infinity War Part 2 - which are scheduled for release in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
3. The Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part Two
Last year,
Mockingjay - Part One
topped the Fandango poll as the most awaited movie of 2014. Part 2, the final instalment in the dystopian teen franchise, opens on November 19 and will see Jennifer Lawrence return as troubled heroine Katniss Everdeen, reluctant face of the rebellion against President Snow (Donald Sutherland).
Fans of the source material, Suzanne Collins' best-selling young adult trilogy, will know that a dramatic final twist is in store. As conclusions of big franchises tend to do quite well at the box office, director Francis Lawrence's film is guaranteed to be a hit.
4. Fifty Shades of Grey
While book adaptation
Fifty Shades
is the only film in the top five that isn't part of an existing movie franchise, that's not to say it doesn't have a huge pre-existing fan base: EL James' erotic novel has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide (even if a high proportion seem to end up at car boot sales and charity shops).
The film tells the story of billionaire entrepreneur and S&M aficionado Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) and his lover, naive young student Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson). The film's trailer was recently named the most-watched movie trailer of 2014, ahead of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Fifty Shades of Grey opens on February 12, just in time for Valentine's Day.
5. Jurassic World
Set 22 years after the original film,
Jurassic World
, the fourth instalment in the
Jurassic Park
franchise will treat fans to a dinosaur theme park: John Hammond's vision finally realised. While two lacklustre sequels left fans of the first film disappointed, hopes are high for the next instalment, which stars Chris Pratt of
Guardians of the Galaxy
as the park's velociraptor handler, and Bryce Dallas Howard as a genetic engineer.
The trailer, which debuted online in November, featured a dramatic Sea World-style mosasaurus feeding show, and dropped hints as to the film's main threat: a mysterious, highly intelligent hybrid dinosaur. Jurassic World is scheduled to be released on June 11.
