The big name in horror for today’s Hollywood isn’t Freddy or Jason or even M3GAN. It’s “contraction.” That’s the word striking terror in the hearts of Hollywood creatives now that streaming has upended the screen-trade economy, the boom-years bubble has burst, and production deals are harder to come by. Not that you’ll necessarily notice at the multiplex this summer, as the industry has so far continued to spend big on colorful baubles to get you and yours into theater seats.
The summer movie season creeps in early these days, and we’ve already seen would-be summer-style blockbusters in “The Fall Guy,” “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” and “IF.” But the season traditionally kicks off with Memorial Day Weekend, which brings George Miller’s hotly anticipated “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and probable kiddie catnip in “Garfield the Movie,” with Chris Pratt voicing a younger, more energetic version of the Monday-hating, lasagna-loving tabby Persian cat.
Around the corner on June 7, Will Smith hopes you’ll forget “the slap” and get on board another “suns out, guns out” cops-versus-drug-dealers action sequel with wisecracking partner Martin Lawrence: “Bad Boys: Ride or Die.” That day, Ishana Shyamalan throws her hat in the creature-feature ring with “The Watchers,” while Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”) drops on Netflix a new true-ish crime dramedy in the “Bernie”-esque “Hit Man,” starring Linklater’s co-screenwriter Glen Powell (“Anyone But You”). Powell’s big summer revs up again July 19 with the release of action reboot “Twisters,” surprisingly helmed by the celebrated indie filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”).
Summer always promises plenty of franchise fodder. This season, we get a pair of CGI-animated sequels in Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” (June 14), which takes us inside the emotionally chaotic brain of a now-teenage Riley, and “Despicable Me 4” (July 3), with Steve Carell’s Gru facing an antagonist voiced by Will Ferrell. Netflix brings back Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” (July 3), and technically, another big legacy comedy sequel arrives this summer, albeit in the dog days: “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Sept. 6) reunites director Tim Burton with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara.
Genre fans will be counting the days until the alien-invasion prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” (June 28) with Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave,” “Us”) and Joseph Quinn (“Stranger Things”); Ti West’s horror sequel “MaXXXine” (July 5), capping a trilogy starring Mia Goth (“X,” “Pearl”); and “Alien: Romulus” (Aug. 16) with Fede Álvarez (“Don’t Breathe”) claiming directorial duties from producer Ridley Scott.
In recent years, it’s been all about the superheroes, but this summer marks the industry’s acknowledgement of “superhero fatigue.” Marvel has one surefire hit in “Deadpool & Wolverine” (July 26), a buzzy multiverse game-changer that brings Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine out of retirement to join Ryan Reynolds’ mouthy, gun-toting mercenary Deadpool. There is one more comic-book movie this summer — a reboot of ultraviolent goth(ic) thriller “The Crow,” with Bill Skarsgård stepping into Brandon Lee’s boots — but that’s it: capes will be in short supply.
That’s good news for cineastes who’d prefer more original content in theaters. Now, admittedly, one such fresh offering is a video-game adaptation that looks suspiciously like a “Guardians of the Galaxy” rip-off: the Cate Blanchett-led “Borderlands” (Aug. 9). However, the (considerably cheaper) original dramas, comedies, and horror films “counter-programmed” to steal adults away from blockbusters each week paint a picture of a surprisingly eclectic summer ahead. Consider Sundance favorite “Dìdi” (July 26), the coming-of-age tale of a 13-year-old Taiwanese American misfit (Izaac Wang) and his bemused mother (Joan Chen), and the mother-daughter drama “Janet Planet,” which in late June marks the directorial debut of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker.
Of course, not every original summer movie is humble in scope or domestic in subject matter. Kevin Costner, late of “Yellowstone,” brings out the first two installments of his epic passion-project Western “Horizon: An American Saga”: “Chapter 1” on June 28 and “Chapter 2” on Aug. 16, with the director-star promising two more installments to come. Several other established directors have projects lined up for you: Yorgos Lanthimos reteams with Emma Stone for their follow-up to “Poor Things,” the “triptych fable” “Kinds of Kindness” (June 21); Jeff Nichols has “The Bikeriders” (June 21) with Austin Butler and Tom Hardy; and serial-killer thriller “Trap” (Aug. 9) comes from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan.
Book clubbers may want to mark their calendars for the Blake Lively romantic drama “It Ends with Us” (Aug. 9), based on the Colleen Hoover novel, and smalltown friendship drama “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” (Aug. 23 on Hulu), from the Edward Kelsey Moore novel. Or maybe it’s your favorite stars that entice you to the multiplex. Perhaps you’d like to see what Zoe Kravitz is up to with her directorial debut, the ensemble thriller “Blink Twice” (Aug. 23), headlined by Channing Tatum. Tatum also plays opposite Scarlett Johansson in Space-Race rom com “Fly Me to the Moon” (July 12). Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry team for action-adventure “The Union” (Netflix, Aug. 16) while Matt Damon lends his star power to crime drama “The Instigators” (AppleTV+, Aug. 9).
And it wouldn’t be a movie season without at least one Nicolas Cage movie — in this case, the horror thriller “Longlegs” (July 12) with Maika Monroe pursuing Cage’s serial killer into uncharted territory. Or maybe your speed of movie star is 93-year-old June Squibb (a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for “Nebraska”), who finally gets her first leading movie role in revenge comedy “Thelma” (June 21). Even with looming Hollywood downsizing, a summer movie season with everything from Minions to a nonagenarian action star truly offers something for everyone.