EVENT: Summer blockbusters to attract biggest crowds ever
Posted June 7, 2013 8:54 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
This summer’s sequels and blockbusters are expected to attract the biggest crowds ever with BoxOfficeMojo.com expecting them to top $4.33 billion at the box office.
“Get ready for a summer where you’ve seen everything you’ve already seen before — except different,” Maclean’s film critic Brian D. Johnson says.
The first megahit of the season was Iron Man 3, featuring Robert Downey Jr. as the wealthy industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man who fights the terrorist, the Mandarin.
Another was the rebooted franchise, Star Trek Into Darkness, which opened the Victoria Day long weekend.
But one of the most anticipated superhero films of the summer will be Man of Steel, a darker, grittier version of Superman by director Zack Snyder of 300 and Watchmen fame. It opens June 14 and stars Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman and Amy Adams as Lois Lane, as well as veterans Kevin Costner and Diane Lane who play Superman’s parents on Earth.
“If the stars are aligned … Man of Steel will be the big movie of the summer — if not the biggest movie of the year,” Johnson says.
Johnson says it’s one of the films he’s most looking forward to this season, and “Like any self-respected super human in this day in age he’s probably got an existential crisis.”
Other highly anticipated superhero flicks include The Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman, whose X-Men character now has a franchise of his own and finds himself in modern Japan fighting ninjas. The film, which opens July 26, is directed by James Mangold who also did Walk the Line and Girl, Interrupted.
If you haven’t tired of the sequels, there’s also Fast and Furious 6, The Hangover Part III, The Lone Ranger (July 3) and Kick-Ass 2 (Aug. 16), Johnson says.
Original blockbusters
Several noteworthy original blockbusters worth seeing include After Earth, Elysium (Aug. 9) and World War Z (June 21) — all set in post-apocalyptic landscapes.
There’s also the comedy This Is The End written by Seth Rogen of Knocked Up fame and also stars Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill and Paul Rudd all playing Hollywood stars who must face the apocalypse during a party.
For the kids, there’s the animated sequels Despicable Me 2 (July 3), The Smurfs 2 (July 31) and Monsters University (June 21), the prequel to Monsters Inc.
With so many summer sequels squeezed into the 12-week season, you have to wonder why so many all at once?
“Hollywood is basically in the money business not the movie business,” Johnson says. “Their conventional wisdom is that people want to see something that’s a proven quantity.”
Still, there are some fine smaller budget films that shouldn’t be missed, including Louis Leterrier’s comedy caper Now You See Me and Baz Luhrmann’s version of The Great Gatsby.
Johnson is also looking forward to seeing Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring (June 14) about a gang of teen burglars from the L.A. burbs who steal from Hollywood celebrities, including Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Olando Bloom.
Watch some of the trailers:
