Summer Movie Season: 5 Burning Questions as Superheroes, ‘Star Wars’ and Spielberg Are Put to the Test

Odyssey gonna make 1 bil easily. Nolan post oscars and oppenheimer hype is gonna be unbeatable (aside from spidey).

I wonder if Disclosure Day will be Spielberg’s first box office hit as a comeback since his last movie The Fabelmans flopped

>Superhero movies, once a Teflon genre, have become worryingly earthbound at the box office. So studios are desperate to know: Do audiences want more of the same, or are they willing to embrace a new generation of heroes?

Has it not been made clear by now that they aren’t?

Some scattered thoughts:

– I know there are lots of reasons why this hasn’t happened, but it’s crazy that no attempt at a shared DC universe started off with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lanter/Aquaman, etc. movies coming out in pairs of two over the course of 3-5 years leading up to a Justice League movie. Audiences know and love (most) of those characters! Supergirl could be good, but almost feels too close to a movie we got last summer.

– Spider-Man will do big business, probably not as much as No Way Home for obvious reasons, but I’m most curious how much The Odyssey impacts it.

– I really want Disclosure Day to be a respectable hit. It’s Spielberg’s first proper summer blockbuster in almost twenty years, Koepp has a few pretty great scripts recently with Soderbergh, and Spielberg tends to bring out the best in him. But it feels like it’s missing that extra gear shift in the marketing (A bigger star? More exciting set pieces or revelations?).

– The Odyssey will be fine. All the hand-wringing over historical accuracy and accents won’t matter if Nolan delivers the goods on IMAX. But I am curious what the line of success for this is and what will be seen by some as hitting the mark or over/under performing (if it makes over $900 million but settles right below Oppenheimer, does it matter?).

– I am not saying Moana won’t be a success, but I am curious how the “live-action remake of a movie that’s a decade old and *just* got a cartoon sequel” plays as opposed to “live-action remake of an animated movie from 25 years that you can take your kids to.”

– Mando is not the real test for Star Wars. It’s Starfighter. I suspect Mando was greenlit less as a “Star Wars back on the big screen!” event picture and more of an attempt to shake the rust off. It’ll either do “fine” or better than people expect, but we will all spend months debating where the line of success is drawn and what it means.

– Backrooms breaking out seemingly confirmed through projections and further proof that the health of the box office going forward is based on diversity of product and catering towards the interests of younger audiences. Enough with 80s nostalgia! (Will be curious to see how Masters of the Universe plays)