Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a gold-rush!
After 18 months of stalled productions and multi-delayed releases (due to you-know-what), it seems the studio’s have amassed an impressive little cache of movies that, from the end of July, will be unceremoniously dished out to the world via the various streaming platforms. And maybe a rinky-dink screening or two.
What makes this so unusual and kind of scary is that many of these releases are big-ticket properties that will be fighting it out for our attention over a 5 month window. The last time something like this happened was the infamous “Summer of ’82” where audiences were subjected to “ET”, “The Road Warrior”, “Poltergeist”, “Tron”, “The Thing”, “Blade Runner”, “Rocky III”, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, “Conan the Barbarian” and “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” among others.
It was a Summer of winners and losers, with ET claiming the crown, while the likes of Blade Runner and The Thing dying a cheap death at the box office. So, with a massive movie back-log being cleared in less than half a year, are we now poised for another cinematic tyre-fire this coming Autumn / Winter?
Let’s see what’s coming out:
The Green Knight – July 30th
The Suicide Squad – Aug 6th
Dont Breathe 2 – Aug 13th
Candyman – Aug 27th
Marvel’s Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings – Sep 3rd
Cry Macho – Sep 17th
Venom: Let There Be Carnage – Sep 24th
The Many Saints of Newark – Oct 1st
No Time To Die – Oct 8th
Halloween Kills – Oct 15th
The Last Duel – Oct 15th
Dune – Oct 22nd
The French Dispatch – Oct 22nd
Jackass Forever – Oct 22nd
Antlers – Oct 29th
Marvel’s Eternals – Nov 5th
Ghostbusters Afterlife – Nov 11th
Top Gun Maverick – Nov 19th
Resident Evil Welcome To Racoon City – Nov 24th
West Side Story – Dec 10th
Spiderman No Way Home – Dec 17th
The Matrix 4 – Dec 22nd
The King’s Man – Dec 22nd
Sherlock Holmes 3 – Dec 22nd
Don’t Look Up – Dec ??
Assuming these actually get released at their respective dates it seems like a lot for 5 months, and these are just the mainstream live-action titles. I didn’t even bother listing Disney’s Cinderella, or the half-dozen Pixar / animated movies on the way.
The phrase “Less is More” comes to mind, but then again the term “Box Office” is now a quaint and dated term to chart how audiences would have spent their money in the theatres were they not getting it all piped into their Tv’s instantaneously.
So, will we have another “Summer of ’82”? Will there be winners and losers? Does it even matter anymore how and when the studios release content? Is the “Summer Blockbuster” gone?
