Well, there’s no denying it—the summer movie season is in full swing. Traditionally, the summer movie season used to start on the second weekend of May, but that thinking was turned on its head back in 2011, when Universal opted to open Fast Five on April 29th. Since then, studios have followed suit.
This year, The Devil Wears Prada 2 was officially the first summer movie out of the gate, but you could argue the season actually started the weekend before with the release of Michael, with the last few weekends in April suddenly becoming massive (Sinners opened on April 18th last year).
Either way, multiplexes will be loaded with big, four-quadrant movies aiming for your box office dollars until pretty much the last two weeks of August, which are largely seen as a dumping ground, before the post–Labor Day weekend, which has suddenly become huge thanks to the release of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
Between now and then, pretty much every weekend has a movie that could explode at the box office, although some weekends have been left strategically quiet following the release of some of the summer’s bigger films, like The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It will be interesting to see what performs and what doesn’t, with some movies—such as The Mandalorian and Grogu—remaining huge question marks for distributors (just because people watch something on streaming doesn’t mean they’ll see it in a theater). Masters of the Universe is another one that no one can quite figure out, with it potentially being a smash or a franchise-sinking disaster. Also worth keeping an eye on are some of the smaller gems, with Focus’ Obsession getting a lot of buzz (read our review), as well as Lionsgate’s The Furious (read our review).
What are you most excited to see? Take the poll and let us know in the comments!
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