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11. Self/less (July 10th)

A different take on the body swap film, Self/less catches Ryan Reynolds coming off of the decent historical drama Woman in Gold and preceding next year's Deadpool, his re-entry into the ever-expanding comic book cinematic universe. The director, Tarsem Singh, usually delivers visually lively films that receive some just criticism for their narrative insolvency (see Immortals and Mirror, Mirror, or his superior The Cell). Ben Kingsley has a nice showy role here, along with actors like Michelle Dockery, Victor Garber, and Matthew Goode, but there's not a lot of buzz about Self/less at the moment, and it might be hard to get it to stand out from the more renowned action and special effects brands adorning the marquees this month. We'll see.

Opening weekend: $12 million / Total gross: $33 million

12. The Gallows (July 10th)

The first of two low-budget horror films given a perhaps-no-longer-surprising wide release this July, and one with very familiar credits: it's from Blumhouse Productions, also responsible for Paranormal Activity, Oculus, Unfriended, and many, many, more, and it's in "found footage" style, like some of the above (who keeps finding all of this footage?). There must be some strong marketing behind this one (I have to assume), but it's tough to say if ghost film The Gallows will have much draw in a year not particularly brimming with large box office scores for horror films. In fact, it will probably help cement 2015's horror average - a number that is, to be fair, still pretty solid for such a relatively inexpensive production.

Opening weekend: $9 million / Total gross: $23 million

13. The Vatican Tapes (July 24th)

It's the month's other horror film! (how odd, we were just talking about you). This one eschews uncontrolled ghost hauntings for the other horror sub-genre of the day, the unpleasant exorcism picture (and could it be that, in the last 50 years, more exorcisms have been performed on film than in real life?). There's a decent collection of actors here (Michael Peña, yet again, and Djimon Hounsou), and, as hinted above, some studios' marketing departments have managed to take the kind of numbers I'm predicting below and triple them. Still, The Vatican Tapes doesn't have the buzz of The Gallows, and it's easy for a film like this to get lost in such a big, busy month (just look at how far you had to read to get to it).

Opening weekend: $5 million / Total gross: $15 million

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