The Biggest Movies Coming to Theaters in February

February marks the tail end of the winter season, Valentine's Day and the Super Bowl weekend. It's not exactly the best time to try to launch a blockbuster, and while the next month's crop of new movies is looking slim, there are a few hits scattered around.

Leading the hype train is this month's Marvel Cinematic Universe entry, "Black Panther." As a Marvel movie, it's a series of firsts. Aside from the first feature that could potentially launch a "Black Panther" franchise, it's also a first Marvel superhero movie with a black leading star in Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa. It serves as director Ryan Coogler's debut in a Marvel film, as well.

The film is also the first solo movie featuring the Black Panther, wherein the newly-crowned king of Wakanda first sets out to learn more about his powers and secrets only the Wakandan royalty has access to, as Cinema Blend sums up the plot.

"Black Panther" has already done a red carpet premiere, and it officially comes out on Feb. 16.

Speaking of weapons, Helen Mirren is about to grace the big screen on Feb. 2 as Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester gun fortune. She is haunted by the ghosts of those who died by the firearms her company made, and to keep them away, she commissions an ever-growing, seven-story mansion complex in an attempt to lock them away.

For sci-fi buffs, there's "Annihilation," a story from Alex Garland of "Ex Machina" starring Natalie Portman. A soldier (played by Oscar Isaac) barely gets out of a hazard zone where nothing has made it out before. His wife (Portman) takes a team (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson) inside to investigate the mysterious area to get answers, as summarized by Esquire.

"Annihilation" comes out to theaters on Feb. 23.