Aaron Barrow
Summer is a time of relaxation and relief for many tired students and professors, and three months of freedom allow for a variety of activities. One of the most beloved seasonal traditions is the summer moviegoing experience.
Marvel Studios kicked things off in early May with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” The latest and alleged final installment in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series provided many fans with an exciting, yet emotionally charged conclusion for the ragtag group of heroes. Satisfaction was also felt on Marvel’s end, as the film garnered more than $800 million at the box office, making it 2023’s second-highest-grossing film yet.
Marvel continued to do major numbers with “Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse,” which was released in early June. While not a property of Disney or Marvel Studios, this sequel to Sony’s surprise hit, “Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse,” swung its way to the top of the box office with ease. So far, the critically acclaimed film has made well over $600 million and shows no sign of slowing down.
While the summer started off strong, the month of June was a fairly lackluster showcase of films. The Transformers franchise, while riddled with bad filmmaking, has been historically successful financially — with a couple of films even joining the billion-dollar club. The franchise’s latest, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” was in no way a failure critically or financially, but it fell far short of what previous installments have accomplished.
Meanwhile, many conversations have surrounded what some consider to be one of the biggest films of the year.
Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” has been long in the making, as it has faced various obstacles throughout its production, most glaringly the multiple arrests of lead actor Ezra Miller. The filmmaking effort does not seem to have paid off, considering that “The Flash” failed to live up to Warner Bros.’ expectations. DC seems to have overestimated the film’s impact, as it proved to be a financial bust. As they typically do, DC and Warner Bros. put too many eggs in one basket and failed to break even.
On the opposite end of that double-edged sword of disappointment, Disney and Pixar’s “Elemental” left little to no impact critically or financially, and their lack of appropriate marketing led to one of the worst box office performances for the studio.
Perhaps the most shocking failure of the summer is the most recent release by Disney and Lucasfilm. No one could have anticipated that an Indiana Jones film would be left flailing at the box office, regardless of the divisive response from critics and fans alike. Yet the film opened to a surprisingly low $60 million haul. Even the widely disliked previous installment, “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” managed to rope in nearly $800 million, which is a series high financially.
In short, the lows outweigh the highs so far this year, but the future looks promising. With “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” on the horizon, the future of 2023’s summer movie season is sure to be one for the books.
