In the summer after Barbenheimer and the strikes, Hollywood charts a new course

“Barbenheimer” is a difficult act to follow. But as Hollywood enters another summer movie season, armed with fewer superheroes and a landscape greatly altered by strikes, it’s worth remembering William Goldman’s classic quote about what works: “No one knows anything. ”.

Four decades later, that may still be true. However, one thing Hollywood has learned from releasing films during the pandemic and strikes is how to act quickly.

The summer of 2023 brought new enthusiasm for moviegoing, with fortuitous counterprogramming of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” and surprise hits like “Sound of Freedom,” helping the season’s box office gross $4 billion for the first time since 2019. But before the industry could take a victory lap, there was another looming crisis with the two Hollywood strikes, which shut down most productions for months.

With the consequences, cinemas lost big summer titles like “Mission: Impossible 8”, “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts” for 2025. But they gained a gem in “The Bikeriders” by Jeff Nichols (June 21 ), about a 1960s Midwestern motorcycle club as studios moved films around on the summer chessboard. “Dead Pool & Wolverine,” which was once supposed to kick off the summer movie season on May 3, like many Marvel films before it, is now happily sitting on July 26, patiently waiting to dominate the summer charts.

“I love being there in the height of summer,” said director Shawn Levy. “This is a juicy moment.”

The opening weekend belongs to an original film about a different kind of superhero. “The Fall Guy,” starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, is part romantic comedy, part action comedy and a love letter to the stuntmen who make movies great. It’s a real pleasure for the public that can start a season that seems, in some ways, a step backwards, with shows in full swing (“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”, “Twisters”), comedies (“Babes”) , wonderful IMAX (“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 blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies.

This season, he has three very different offerings on the calendar, two are fourth installments of popular franchises — “Beverly Hills Cop” (July 3, Netflix) and “Bad Boys” (June 7, theaters) — and one is planned for streaming. but it tested so well that it is being released in theaters (“Young Woman and the Sea,” May 31).

“People just want to have fun,” Bruckheimer said. “It’s really up to us to make the right movies they want to see.”

Hollywood summer lasts 123 days, from the first Friday in May until Labor Day Monday in September. Before the pandemic, $4 billion was a normal summer ticket and theaters could count on between 37 and 42 films to open on more than 2,000 screens. The outlier was 2017, which had just 35 films on more than 2,000 screens and grossed $3.8 billion. That makes last summer’s $4 billion gross from 32 wide releases (45% of the $9 billion domestic gross) even more impressive.

This summer is also expected to see 32 wide releases and more than 40 films debuting in more than 500 theaters. Notably, only two of them are Marvel films (“Deadpool” and Sony’s “Kraven the Hunter”) and they are the only superhero films on the calendar until the “Joker” sequel in the fall.

“People are going to see movies, not box office, and it looks like a really solid summer from a viewer perspective,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

“The Bikeriders” was timed for an awards season launch, with a turbo boost from stellar reviews from the Telluride Film Festival, saluting stars Austin Butler and Jodie Comer. But as the release date approached, it became clear that the strikes would not 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 that energy on my own. Let me tell you, it’s not the same as Austin Butler.”

In late June, after a spectacular premiere at Cannes, Kevin Costner will begin releasing his two-part Western epic, “Horizon: An American Saga,” set during the Civil War. And as always, there’s a slew of new releases at Sundance all summer long, from Jane Shoenbrun’s “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Didi” to “Thelma” and “Good One.”

Family movies often kick into high gear in the summer, taking advantage of the long days out of school. This year there are many, such as “The Garfield Movie” and “Despicable Me 4”, re-releases of Studio Ghibli classics and streaming options (“Thelma, the Unicorn”). But perhaps no one has more anticipation behind it than “Inside Out 2” (June 14, in theaters), which finds Riley as she enters adolescence, when a new set of emotions invade Joy’s party, including Anxiety. , Envy, Boredom and Embarrassment. .

“This age gives us everything we need and love in a Pixar film,” said director Kelsey Mann. “It’s full of drama, it has the potential for a lot of heart, and I could also make it really funny.”

John Krasinski is also delving into the inner world of children with his ambitious live-action hybrid “IF” (May 17, in theaters) about imaginary friends left behind and two humans (Ryan Reynolds and Cailey Fleming) who can still see them. .

Audiences looking for the adrenaline of horrors and thrillers have many options, including “MaXXXine”, the conclusion of the accidental Mia Goth (“X” and “Pearl”) trilogy by Ti West, which premieres around July 4th.

The aspiring goth actress has gone to Hollywood, where a killer is stalking Hollywood stars at the time of the home video boom of the 1980s.

“We recreate the sleazy side of Hollywood in a hopefully charming way,” said West. “It’s definitely a wild night at the movies. A big, rocking and fun film.”

On June 26, audiences can also delve into the beginning of “A Quiet Place” with a prequel set in “Day One” starring Luptia Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn from “Stranger Things.” Director Michael Sarnoski said he wanted to explore the “scope and promise” of a Quiet Place New York film. Later, Fede Álvarez brings his horror acumen 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,” Aug. 9) and his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan, makes her directorial debut with the spooky Irish-set “The Watchers” (June 14 ) with Dakota Fanning.

“It’s very suspenseful and unexpected,” said Ishana. “And it’s very much built to the experience of being in a theater.”

Much to the chagrin of theater owners, big summer movies have also existed off the big screen for years. And the streamers have movie stars and spectacles with festival favorite “Hit Man,” the Anne Hathaway novel “The Idea of ​​You,” the star-studded Jerry Seinfeld pop-tart film “Unfrosted” and an action comedy by Mark Wahlberg/Halle Berry “The Union.” .”

They also have franchises: “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” (July 3) was a film that had been in and out of development since the mid-1990s, but got new life when Paramount licensed the rights to Netflix.

“We raised our hands to make sure we got the franchise right and maintained the integrity and fun of the original,” Bruckheimer said.

This issue adds an emotional component in which Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley reunites with his estranged 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 also have “The Instigators,” a new action comedy starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as regular guys trying a heist. “Midnight Run” was one of his touchstones.

“The script was so funny and I wanted to really embrace that,” said Doug Liman, who directed.

Remember, anything can happen with summer movies.

We can pretend we knew “Barbie” would be the biggest movie of the year, but would anyone bet that an R-rated drama about the father of the atomic bomb would have made nearly three times as much as Harrison Ford’s Last Trip? Indiana Jones? Or that a new studio’s crowdfunded $14 million film about child trafficking with almost no promotion would make more than $250 million?

“No one knows anything is right,” said “The Instigators” producer Kevin Walsh. “The movie business is so unpredictable. You never know what will work and what won’t. But you have your taste. And following your taste and instincts in this business is fundamental.”

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