2016 Movie Titles: Rise of the Colons – From ‘Captain America’ to ‘Rogue One’

With Hollywood drowning in a sea of sequels, mid-title punctuation has reached a record high

colon movies

There’s a punctuation party raging throughout Hollywood, which is in desperate need of a colon cleanse.

This year alone, Hollywood will release 20 films with colons in their titles, which appears to be a record. The colon proliferation is indicative of the industry’s reliance on sequels and reboots that need to distinguish themselves from their predecessors with a pair of dots and a subtitle.

And we’re not even counting all the foreign films and documentaries released in less than 100 theaters, projects like “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks,” “Cinco de Mayo: La Batalla” and “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.”

050516 colons chart

The trend has spread from wide releases at major studios to films from specialty labels such as Fox Searchlight (“Absolutely Fabulous: the Movie”), Sony Pictures Classics (“The Raid: Redemption”) and Radius-TWC (“Escobar: Paradise Lost”).

Hollywood seems to be breaking its own record this year, as last year there were 16 films that qualified. Meanwhile, of the 20 titles this year with colons, 13 are sequels, one is a reboot, one is a spinoff, one is based on a TV series, one is a concert film, one is an original comedy and two are based on books.

There’s no end in sight to the colon craziness, as films on the horizon in 2017 include “Alien: Covenant,” “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage,” “Amityville: The Awakening,” “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter,” “John Wick: Chapter Two,” “Maze Runner: The Death Cure,” “Kong: Skull Island,” “Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur,” “Smurfs: The Lost Village,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” “The Divergent Series: Ascendant” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

Heck, even Netflix has been getting in on the action of late with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny.”

Take a look at the colon epidemic below and hit the comments section if you have any suggestions on how to fix this punctuation problem.

2016: 20 Movies
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
The Divergent Series: Allegiant
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Barbershop: The Next Cut
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
Captain America: Civil War
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
X-Men: Apocalypse
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Independence Day: Resurgence
The Purge: Election Year
Ice Age: Collision Course
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie
Mechanic: Resurrection
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life
Kevin Hart: What Now?
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

2015: 16 Movies
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
Avengers: Age of Ultron
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
Escobar: Paradise Lost
Hitman: Agent 47
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
Insidious: Chapter 3
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Mad Max: Fury Road
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death

2014: 14 Movies
300: Rise of an Empire
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Exodus: Gods and Egypt
Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
Island of Lemurs: Madagascar 3D
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Planes: Fire & Rescue
The Purge: Anarchy
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Transformers: Age of Extinction
X-Men: Days of Future Past

2013: 15 Movies
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
August: Osage County
G.I. Joe: Retribution
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Insidious: Chapter 2
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
One Direction: This Is Us
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Thor: The Dark World
Tyler Perry‘s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor

2012: 13 Movies
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
Katy Perry: Part of Me
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
The Raid: Redemption
Resident Evil: Retribution
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2

2011: 15 Movies
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Battle: Los Angeles
Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Captain America: The First Avenger
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
X-Men: First Class

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