Four decades later, that may still be true. However, one thing Hollywood has learned from releasing movies during the pandemic and strikes is how to change course quickly.
The summer of 2023 brought a new enthusiasm for going to the movies, with the fortuitous scheduling of Barbie y Oppenheimer on the same release date, and surprise hits like Sound of Freedom (sound of freedom), which helped the season’s box office surpass $4 billion for the first time since 2019. But before the industry could take a victory lap, another crisis loomed with the Hollywood strikes, which halted production. most productions per month.
Release dates included are from the United States.
The path after the strike
Cinemas lost big summer titles like Mission: Impossible 8, Captain America: Brave New World y Thunderbolts that were postponed to 2025. But they won a gem with The Bikeriders (Bikeriders. The law of the asphalt) by Jeff Nichols out June 21, about a 1960s Midwestern motorcycle club, as studios moved movies on the summer checkerboard. Deadpool & Wolverineoriginally set to begin the summer movie season on May 3 like many Marvel movies before it, but will now be released on July 26, waiting patiently to dominate the charts.
“I love being there in the middle of summer,” said director Shawn Levy. It’s a juicy moment.
Now opening weekend belongs to an original movie about a different kind of superhero. The Fall Guy (The specialist), starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, is part romantic comedy, part action comedy, and is a love letter to the stuntmen who make movies spectacular. It’s a real crowd pleaser that could jump-start a season that feels, in some ways, like a throwback, with full-speed shows like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Furiosa: From the Mad Max saga) y Twisters (Tornados), comedies like Babes, IMAX wonders like The Blue Angels and even a Kevin Costner western.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer has seen the ups and downs of summer movies over the decades, with box office hits like Top Gun: Maverick and the movies Pirates of the Caribbean (Pirates of the Caribbean).
The season has three very different offerings on the calendar, two of which are fourth installments of popular franchises: Beverly Hills Cop (Super detective and Hollywood: Axel F.) that Netflix arrives on July 3 and Bad Boys in theaters on June 7, and one was planned for streaming, but it turned out so good that it will be released on the big screen, Young Woman and the Sea May 31.
People just want to be entertainedBruckheimer said. It’s really up to us to make the right movies that they want to go see.
Collection goal
The season lasts 123 days, from the first Friday in May to Labor Day (celebrated in the United States on the first Monday in September). Before the pandemic, $4 billion was a normal summer gross and theaters could count on between 37 and 42 films to be released on more than 2,000 screens. The outlier was 2017, which had only 35 films on more than 2,000 screens and reached a maximum of $3.8 billion. This makes last summer’s $4 billion gross from 32 wide releases (45% of the $9 billion domestic gross) even more impressive.
This summer should also have 32 major premieres and more than 40 films that will be released in more than 500 theaters. It should be noted that only two of them are Marvel films, Deadpool y Kraven the Hunter (Kraven the hunter) from Sony, and are the only superhero movies on the schedule until the sequel to Joker in the autumn
“People are going to see movies, not box office, and it looks like a really solid summer from a moviegoer’s perspective,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
The Bikeriders It was one of the films that had planned its premiere in the awards season, with the impetus of the stellar reviews of the Telluride Film Festival, which acclaimed the performance of Austin Butler and Jodie Comer. But as their debut approached, it became clear that the strikes were not going to be resolved in time for a press tour.
“It was like walking on frozen glass for three months,” Nichols said. “I was on tour doing press and trying to build this energy on my own. Let me tell you, it’s not the same as if I were Austin Butler.”
Later in June, after a splashy Cannes debut, Kevin Costner will begin releasing his two-part Western epic Horizon: An American Saga, set during the Civil War. And, as always, there are plenty of Sundance hits sprinkled throughout the summer, from I Saw the TV Glow y Didi from Jane Shoenbrun to Thelma y Good One.
Family content
Family films often take advantage of summer and long vacation days. This year there are many, like The Garfield Movie (Garfield: Away from home) y Despicable Me 4 (Despicable Me 4), re-releases of Studio Ghibli classics and streaming options like Thelma the Unicorn (Telma, the unicorn). But perhaps none has more anticipation behind it than Inside Out 2 (Inside Out 2), out June 14 in theaters, in which Riley enters her adolescence when a new set of emotions burst into Alegra’s party, including Anxiety, Envy, Boredom and Shame.
“That age gives us everything we need and love for a Pixar movie,” said director Kelsey Mann. “It’s full of drama, has the potential for a lot of heart, and could also make it a lot of fun.”
John Krasinski also delves into the inner world of children with his ambitious live-action hybrid IF (imaginary friends) for May 17 in theaters, about imaginary friends and two humans (Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming) who can still see them.
The allure of terror
Those seeking the adrenaline rush of horror and thrillers have many options, including MaXXXinethe conclusion to Ti West’s Accidental Mia Goth Trilogy (X y Pearl) which premieres around the 4th of July.
Goth, an aspiring actress, has arrived in Hollywood, where a killer stalks the stars during the home video boom of the 1980s.
“We recreated the seedy side of Hollywood in a charming way,” West said. “It’s definitely a pretty wild night at the movies. Big, rocking, fun movie.”
On June 26, the public will also be able to delve into the beginnings of A Quiet Place (A peaceful place) with the prequel Day One (A quiet place: Da 1) starring Luptia Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn from Stranger Things. Director Michael Sarnoski said they wanted to explore the scope and promise of a Quiet Place film set in New York. Later, Fede Álvarez brings his horror insight to Alien: Romulus (August 16), set between the first two.
M. Night Shyamalan is also back with a thriller set at a pop concert (Trap, August 9) and her daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, makes her directorial debut with the spooky The Watchers (June 14) with Dakota Fanning.
“It’s very suspenseful and unexpected,” Ishana said. “And it’s built for the experience of being in a theater.”
At home
Much to the chagrin of theater owners, big summer movies have also existed off the big screen for years. And streaming services have movie and show stars as festival favorites Hit ManAnne Hathaway’s romance The Idea of You (The idea of having you), Jerry Seinfeld’s pop movie Unfrosted (Unsweetened) and an action comedy by Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry The Union.
There are also franchises: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (July 3) was a film that had been in development since the mid-1990s, but was given new life when Paramount licensed the rights to Netflix.
“We raised our hands to make sure we got the franchise right and kept the integrity and fun of the original,” Bruckheimer said.
This installment adds an emotional component in which Axel Foley, played by Eddie Murphy, reunites with his daughter (Taylour Paige). It also sees the return of Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot and adds Kevin Bacon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
On August 9, Apple TV+ will have The Instigatorsa new action comedy starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as regular guys attempting a heist. Midnight Run It was one of his inspirations.
“The script was very funny and I really wanted to embrace it,” said Doug Liman, who directed.
Ignorance
We can pretend that we know that Barbie It would be the biggest movie of the year, but would anyone have bet that an adult drama about the father of the atomic bomb would have grossed almost three times more than Harrison Ford’s last ride as Indiana Jones? Or that a $14 million movie financed by fundraising from a new study on child trafficking with almost zero promotion would make over $250 million?
“No one knows something is right,” said the producer of The Instigators, Kevin Walsh. “The film business is very unpredictable. You never know what will work and what won’t. But you have your taste. And following your tastes and instincts in this business is essential.”
FUENTE: AP
