Hollywood’s summer box office season is officially here, but so far, it pales in comparison to last year, when Barbie and Oppenheimer led Tinseltown to a $4 billion bonanza. Last weekend, Fall Guy — Ryan Gosling’s follow-up to Barbie — brought in a mere $28 million during its opening weekend. Plus, in spite of rave reviews, steamy tennis flick Challengers brought in just $15 million.
This is the first summer box office season that hasn’t started with a superhero or sequel flick in nearly two decades, making it an unusual moment, says Ryan Faughnder, senior editor of the LA Times “Company Town” team. It also spells financial trouble for theaters, which make about 40% of their annual revenue during the summer.
“It's really a reflection of where Hollywood is at right now. We had six months of strikes that crippled production, at least in the U.S.,” he tells KCRW. “That meant that people couldn't make movies, people couldn't star in movies, people couldn't promote movies. So studios delayed, delayed, delayed, and you're seeing the results of that with a much thinner movie slate than the businesses used to.”
Meanwhile, some films are debuting on streaming platforms instead of the big screen. That includes the Anne Hathaway-led The Idea of You, which dropped on Amazon Prime last week.
“From Amazon's calculus, you could make the argument that a lot of people are going to watch a movie this way. And in fact, we've seen with audience behavior that it is tough to make a romantic movie that's not a big superhero, action, tentpole franchise really pop with audiences, even if it does have a huge star like Anne Hathaway.”
A few productions on the horizon could bring more dollars to the box office this summer, including Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Deadpool & Wolverine, Despicable Me 4, and Inside Out 2.
Additionally, Faughner says some films could gain traction over time. He points to Disney’s Elemental, which at release, appeared to be a bomb: “When it first opened, it did very poor opening weekend … and it ended up trucking along, partly, because there was no competition, and the movie was actually good. It ended up doing pretty well through word of mouth. So that can happen, especially when the movie slate is pretty thin. But it's an exception, not the rule, and the movie really has to deliver.”