Super Bowl XLVI Will Resemble A Trailer Park When Movie Previews Reach the Screen

Movie studios traditionally buy numerous spots during the Super Bowl – usually between four (2007) and ten. But Super Bowl XLV this past February turned into a mecca for movies with more than 20 Hollywood ads turning the air waves on Fox into a virtual movie trailer park.

Although there has been no indication yet as to which movies will get a Super Bowl XLVI push on NBC, such studios as Disney, Columbia, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox are all releasing big-budget films between March and August. And we’re talking not just heroes, but mega-heroes: Batman, Spider-Man, G.I. Joe, Abraham Lincoln and even Moe, Larry and Curly.
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Here are 18 movie trailers most likely to see the light of day on Feb. 5 (listed by scheduled release date):

• JOHN CARTER

Walt Disney Studios (March 9)

Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe

Classic sci-fi adventure from the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan), this live-action movie from Disney and Pixar comes with an estimated $250M budget and is set on Mars, where Carter becomes an unwitting – and ultimately heroic – savior.

• 21 JUMP STREET

Columbia Pictures/MGM (March 16)

Jonah Hill, Ice Cube, Channing Tatum

This was a TV show back in the 1980s, which included Johnny Depp among its cast. Depp has a cameo in this 2012 update about a group of young cops who go undercover in high schools to fight crime.

• THE THREE STOOGES

Twentieth Century Fox (April 6)

Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes and Will Sasso as Moe, Larry and Curly, who take on the world via slapstick comedy – they solve a murder and star in a reality show en route – and bring Larry David, Jennifer Hudson and Jersey Shore‘s Snooki and The Situation along for the ride.

• THE COLD LIGHT OF DAY

Summit Entertainment (April 6)

Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver, Henry Cavill

While on vacation in Spain, Cavill’s family is kidnapped and he uncovers a political conspiracy while trying to rescue them.

• BULLET TO THE HEAD

Warner Bros. (April 13)

Sylvester Stallone, Christian Slater

A cop and a hit-man join forces to take down the man responsible for the murder of their respective partners.

• LOCKOUT

FilmDistrict/Europa (April 13)

Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace

The overdone plot line of a man who must prove that he was falsely accused of espionage against the U.S. gets a twist when his freedom hinges on saving the daughter of the President of the United States from a prison located in outer space.

• THE AVENGERS

Walt Disney/Marvel (May 4)

Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson (pictured above), Chris Evans

Directed by Joss Weldon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, X-Men), this Marvel all-star film unites Captain America (Evans), Iron Man (Downey Jr.), Black Widow (Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and plenty of other heroes, mutants and villains.

• DARK SHADOWS

Warner Bros./Tim Burton Productions (May 11)

Directed by Tim Burton, based on the TV show (1966-71) that aired during the day as a gothic soap opera. Werewolves, ghosts, witches and Johnny Depp as master vampire Barnabas Collins. Everyone wanted in on this, including Christopher Lee, Alice Cooper, Michelle Pfeiffer and even Jonathan Frid, the original Barnabas.

• BATTLESHIP

Universal/Hasbro Studios (May 18)

Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch, Brooklyn Decker, Rihanna

Based on the Hasbro game of the same name, a fleet of ships must battle an unknown enemy to save Earth.

• MEN IN BLACK III

Columbia/Amblin (May 25)

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Rip Torn

Ten years after MIB II, Agents K (Jones) and J (Smith) travel back in time to enlist the help of J’s younger self.

• SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN

Universal (June 1)

Krisen Stewart, Charlize Theron

Dueling dark revisits of the Snow White story could put pressure on NBC ad planners to place this trailer in a different part of the Super Bowl than Mirror Mirror, being released March 16 (with Lily Colllns as Snow White and Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen), which may also get a Big Game trailer.

• PROMETHEUS

Twentieth Century Fox (June 8

Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson

Directed by Ridley Scott, who evokes the spirit of his Alien and Blade Runner movies and throws in some 2001: A Space Odyssey, with a crew of space explorers who discover clues to the origin of the human race, then must fight an enemy seeking to wipe it out.

• JACK THE GIANT KILLER

Warner Bros. (June 15)

Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy

Directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns), who helms a revisited version of Jack and the Bean Stalk, this time with a Jack leading a rescue mission in the land of the giants to save a princess.

• ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER

Twentieth Century/Tim Burton Productions (June 22)

Benjamin Walker, Rufus Sewell

This might be the most eclectic film of the year except for the fact that Tim Burton is involved. Abraham Lincoln’s mother has been slain by one of the undead, the the future president sets out on a quest to defeat vampires and the slave owners who control them.

• G.I. JOE 2: RETALIATION

Paramount/Hasbro (June 29)

Bruce Willis, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Channing Tatum

If you can’t wait for Willis as John McLane in 2013′s A Good Day To Die Hard, here he is with The Rock fighting the foes of truth, justice and the American way.

• THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Columbia/Marvel (July 3)

Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Denis Leary

Not Spider-Man 4, but a reboot of Spider-Man, tracing how Peter Parker got his great powers and discovered that it came with great responsibility.

• THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Warner Bros. (July 20)

Christian Vale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Anne Hathaway, Lian Neeson

Batman takes on Ra’s Al Ghul (Neeson) with the aid of Alfred (Caine) and Commissioner Gordon (Oldman) and must also contend with Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Hathaway), who follows in the paw prints of Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry, Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether and Eartha Kitt.

• TOTAL RECALL

Columbia (August 3)

Colin Farrell, Bryan Cranston, Kate Beckinsdale

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone did it in 1990; Farrell and Beckinsdale do it in 2012. As future uber-nations fight for total dominance, one man begins to recall that he is a spy. The glitch: He doesn’t recall for which side he works.