After Memorial Day madness: Summer films are out!
Studios and moviegoers are looking forward to a BIG season
By Nikolai Hogan
Knightly News Film Correspondent
Nikolai.HadleyHogan@CentralPenn.Edu
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since the SAG-AFTRA strikes began. The strike, one of the defining pop-culture moments of 2023, set several upcoming films, both blockbuster and smaller, back by several months. Some of the anticipated projects were set back a couple of years, including “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spiderverse,” the highly anticipated sequel to the 2023 hit “Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse.”
Now that the strikes have been resolved and a new deal has been met, we are seeing more films released at once than ever before. Even though it’s due to unfortunate circumstances, it is a net benefit for people looking for cinematic variety in their viewing experience.
Photo by Michael Lear-Olimpi
It’s that season!
Photo by Michael Lear-Olimpi
Now that Memorial Day has come and gone, it’s officially the Summer Blockbuster season. This is seen by many people as the most important season for films, and many films from the season make appearances at awards shows throughout the next year. Now that this season has begun, I’ve decided to highlight a few of the highly anticipated films coming out soon. While it has already been released, “The Garfield Movie” recently hit theater screens and is a hit with people of all ages. People who grew up with the character and younger children alike have taken interest in the orange cat’s feature-length adventure. Because it was released so recently, the film will stick around in theaters for the next couple of months.
Disney Pixar fans looking toward a big one
Looking at the future, Disney Pixar fans have a big one to look forward to. “Inside Out 2,” the highly anticipated sequel to the 2015 film, is expected to be a box office hit. The film expands on several of the ideas introduced in the original. While Disney and Pixar have notoriously been struggling recently with box office disasters like “Wish,” “Lightyear” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” this movie may very well help Disney start to get out of the proverbial hole they’ve dug themselves into when it is released on June 14.
Shifting into the more mature horror genre, the prequel to “A Quiet Place,” named “A Quiet Place: The First Day,” seeks to fill gaps from the flashback sequences of “A Quiet Place: Part II”and the first film. This movie is the first in the series to introduce a brand-new cast, moving toward a different set of characters as opposed to the first two in the franchise. Because of the iconic name it built for itself, “A Quiet Place: Day One,” seems as though it will a great box office success when it is released on June 28. Horror films do very well at the box office, and this one looks to be no exception.
Fans have been waiting for a year
Finally, one of the most anticipated films of not only the summer but the entire year is Marvel Studios’ “Deadpool & Wolverine.” The film is seen as a standalone release and the director, Shawn Levy, has gone out of his way to specify that this movie will not function as “Deadpool 3,” and that is still an upcoming movie. Marvel movies have been flopping at the box office a lot recently, but the more mature meta and comedic approach that the Deadpool films take, and also originally not being a part of the Marvel comic universe, means this film may restore faith in the status of the Marvel universe. The film is set for a July 26 release and will most certainly be a box office hit.
While 2024’s summer blockbuster season may be seen as a quieter year in terms of the franchises getting new releases, it seems that many more of the films this summer will be a success at the box office compared to the myriad of failures that made up the spring and summer 2023 blockbuster season. While these films almost certainly won’t be as big of a hit as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were, it’s great to have a season of films that can appeal to people of all demographics and what seems to be a great time to visit the theater.
Hogan is also secretary of The Knightly News Media Club @ Central Penn College and reports on the CPC Film Series.
Comment or story idea? Contact KnightlyEditors@CentralPenn.Edu.
Edited by media-club co-adviser and blog editor Professor Michael Lear-Olimpi.
