'The Fate of the Furious,' 'Free Fire,' and 16 more movies hitting theaters this April

Joey Nolfi

Updated April 28, 2017 at 1:31 PM

Though the summer movie season just around the corner, spring still has a few tricks - and blockbusters - up its sleeve in the hopes of dazzling moviegoers around the country. From The Fate of the Furious to Colossal, check out these 18 notable movies coming to theaters this April, below.

The Case for Christ

Release date: April 7 - get tickets here
Release type: Wide

This Christian drama stars Mike Vogel as journalist Lee Strobel who, in 1980, launched an investigation into the foundation for his wife’s (Erika Christensen) religious faith. In the process, he frees himself from his atheistic ways.

Going in Style

Release date: April 7 - get tickets here
Release type: Wide

Directed by Garden State helmer (and Scrubs star) Zach Braff, Going in Style follows a trio of retirees (Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Alan Arkin) who take matters into their own hands after a company restructuring puts their pensions in limbo. Hidden Figures director Theodore Melfi penned the script for this upcoming comedy.

Smurfs: The Lost Village

Release date: April 7 - get tickets here
Release type: Wide

Everyone’s favorite blue creatures are back for another big screen go-round in Smurfs: The Lost Village, which sees Smurfette (Demi Lovato) finding herself - and a mysterious village - before an evil force does. Rainn Wilson, Joe Manganiello, Julia Roberts, Mandy Patinkin, Ellie Kemper, and Jack McBrayer lend their voices to this family-friendly animated comedy.

Colossal

Release date: April 7 - get tickets here
Release type: Limited

Anne Hathaway takes an against-type turn in the dark comedy Colossal, director Nacho Vigalondo’s sharp (often hilarious) take on the giant monster movie genre - mashed with a gritty personal drama about overcoming addiction and regret, to boot. The Oscar winner gives one of her best performances to date in Vigalondo’s risky hybrid, which offers audiences one of the most comically satisfying payoffs in recent memory. “The movie’s coming from my obvious love towards monster movies, and I was always intrigued by the possibility of setting a monster movie story in a human scale,” Vigalondo told EW of the project near its TIFF debut last September. “This is a monster movie that collides with a small indie drama, which is an interesting collision.”

Gifted

Release date: April 7 - get tickets here
Release type: Limited

Chris Evans acts opposite his former girlfriend Jenny Slate in Marc Webb’s intimate drama about a young math prodigy.

The Ticket

Release date: April 7 - get tickets here
Release type: Limited

“There’s one way of telling [this] story, which is, Everything’s great, he’s got his sight back, how wonderful,’ but actually he feels like he gains his sight, but loses a huge part of his identity,” The Ticket star Dan Stevens previously told EW of the film’s intriguing premise - a married man, blind for years, miraculously regains his sight, which begins to impact his life in ways he could never have imagined. “Things fall apart in a weird way, and he struggles to rectify that.”

Your Name.

Release date: April 7 - get tickets here
Release type: Limited

Though Makoto Shinkai’s stunning animated romance Your Name. was submitted for Oscar consideration in the best animated feature category, it didn’t land a nomination - it posted massive worldwide box office numbers instead. The film has made a staggering $214.8 million in Japan to date, becoming one of the country’s biggest pop cultural phenomenons over the last year. “It was of course a very simple boy-meets-girl narrative, and I don’t think that narrative has been told in an anime medium in quite some time,” Shinkai told EW after the film won the 2016 LAFCA’s top animation prize. “Your Name.’s success told me movies still have the power to connect with society. As a medium, it still has a power that resonates.”

The Fate of the Furious

Release date: April 14 - get tickets here
Release type: Wide

F. Gary Gray directs the latest installment in one of today’s hottest blockbuster franchises, with Academy Award winners Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren joining returning actors like Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, Jason Statham, and Michelle Rodriguez for another Fast and the Furious adventure. Diesel paid tribute to the series’ former lead, Paul Walker, who died in 2013, at Fates 2017 CinemaCon premiere. “Part of Paul’s legacy lives through every frame that we shoot. You are reminded of this angel that was so integral to this concept of brotherhood for our millennium,” he said. “There’s something beautiful about that. There’s something celebratory about that.”

Spark

Release date: April 14 - get tickets here
Release type: Wide

Jace Norman, Jessica Biel, Hilary Swank, Susan Sarandon, and Patrick Stewart lend their voices to Aaron Woodley’s animated space fantasy about a band of space-traveling monkeys who work together to save a planet from an evil mastermind.

The Lost City of Z

Release date: April 14 - get tickets here
Release type: Limited

Charlie Hunnam heads to the jungle as real life explorer Percival Fawcett, who embarked on a search for a secret Amazonian city in the 1920s. During production, Hunnam went the method route, telling EW he even went as far as ignoring his girlfriend to get into character.

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