This summer at the movies,
But though the pandemic lingers on, there is optimism in the air.
“We’re still waiting for older audiences to come back. But it really feels like we’ve turned a corner,” said
Last week, studio executives and movie stars schmoozed with theater owners and exhibitors at a convention in
Expectations are particularly high for “Top Gun: Maverick,” which Paramount Pictures will release on
“It’s the kind of movie that embraces the experience of going to the theater. It takes you away. It transports you. We always say: We’re in the transportation business. We transport you from one place to another, and that’s what ‘Top Gun’ does," Bruckheimer said. “There’s a lot of built-up demand for some movies and hopefully we’re one of them.”
The movie industry has already had several notable hits in the past six months too, including “ Spider-Man: No Way Home,” now the third highest grossing film of all time, “ The Batman,” “ The Lost City ” and, though smaller, “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” The hope is that the momentum will only pick up in the coming months.
Before the pandemic, the summer movie season could reliably produce over
Now everyone is refocusing on theatrical, though slates are slimmer. The ticketing service Fandango surveyed more than 6,000 ticket-buyers recently and 83% said they planned to see three or more movies on the big screen this summer. And, not insignificantly,
“Finally, it is movie time, with blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster,” said
“It’s a bold statement, but this summer could potentially be on par with 2019, which would be monumental for the movie industry," said
Analysts are predicting “Doctor Strange 2” could open to
“Thor is just trying to figure out his purpose, trying to figure out exactly who he is and why he’s a hero or whether he should be a hero,” said director Taika Waititi. “I guess you could call it a midlife crisis.”
The film brings back Portman’s
“It’s a great, really fun, weird little group of heroes, a new team for Thor with Korg, Valkyrie and The Mighty Thor,” Waititi said. “And, in my humble opinion, we have probably the best villain that Marvel’s ever had in
But superhero movies alone don’t make for a healthy or particularly compelling cinematic landscape. There have to be options for theaters to survive.
“Our business can’t devolve into just tentpoles and branded IP. We really need to continue to serve up as broad a slate as we possibly can,” Orr said. “We have something for every audience segment. Audiences are craving that and exhibitors are craving that.”
Universal is proud of their diverse summer slate that includes a certain dinosaur tentpole, family animation, thrillers and horrors, comedies like “Easter Sunday” (
There's more coming to theaters than just franchises. There are literary adaptations, like “Where the Crawdads Sing,” with
“Annihilation” writer-director
As someone who makes challenging, original films for the big screen, Garland is a little worried about the movie industry and the seismic shifts that are happening under the surface that are “partly cultural and partly economic.”
“Every time an interesting film comes out and underperforms, I get a kind of gnawing anxiety about it,” Garland said. “If the only films that make money are for younger audiences, something cultural changes. Something changes about the sorts of films that get financed, why they get financed."
“It almost feels old fashioned or actually rather boring, but I do think there’s a value in cinema," he added. "A film like ‘Men’ functions differently in a cinema. Not being able to stop it until it’s ended means that it has a qualitatively different effect.”
Streaming companies, meanwhile, are still going strong.
Some of the most interesting titles from this year's
“Streaming has a place in the world, but it’s not the only thing in the world,” said Blum, who is convinced that there is still an appetite for going to theaters. “There were people out there saying the movies were over. I never thought that, but I was concerned about how much demand was left. But it appears that that part of our world is not going to disappear anytime soon."
For Bruckheimer, the equation is perhaps even more simple.
“It all depends on the movies. It’s always about the movies. If there’s stuff people want to see, they’re going to show up," Bruckheimer said. “I always use the analogy: You have a kitchen in your apartment or home, but you like to go out to eat. You want a different meal.”
AP Film Writer
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