Deadpool, 'Mad Max' & Will Smith are back: A look at summer's most anticipated movies
According to the 2024 calendar, summer begins June 20.
According to the movie industry, however, summer begins next weekend.
"The summer movie seasons begins May 3 with 'The Fall Guy,'" said Jeff Kaufman, senior vice president for film and marketing at Malco Theatres Inc., the Memphis-based cinema chain that operates 34 theaters in seven Southern states.
Kaufman, who books the movies that appear on the multiplicity of screens inside Malco's multiplexes, spoke with the confidence of an astronomer calculating the date of the summer solstice. What's more, he said May 3 can't get here soon enough.
Despite a handful of hits, both expected (“Dune: Part 2”) and unexpected (“Bob Marley: One Love”), “the first four months of the year were not so great,” Kaufman acknowledged. He said box-office receipts are “down about 24 percent over the same time frame in 2023."
But starting May 3, "we've got some great titles coming up that will hopefully rejuvenate audience interest and moviegoing habits," Kaufman said.
Traditionally, the so-called summer movie season — which more or less coincides with the months when kids and young people are able to attend movies because they aren't in school — is when Hollywood loads its release schedule with likely blockbusters, in the form of sequels, superhero sagas, action epics, cartoons and crazy comedies.
"The Fall Guy" checks several of those boxes. It's a stunt-packed romantic comedy, inspired by a 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors. That series may be little remembered, but the new movie has a couple of major (if not Majors) draws: It stars Ryan Gosling, hot on the heels of his scene-stealing "Ken" role in last year's biggest hit, "Barbie"; and it was directed by stunt coordinator-turned-filmmaker David Leitch, a skilled crowdpleaser whose credits include "John Wick" and "Deadpool 2."
And after Gosling comes a deluge of attractions: Apes, twisters, Minions, Will Smith and Wolverine will all be back on the big screen.
So here's the roll call — a chronological listing of some of the summer's more anticipated feature films, based on their Memphis release dates (which, of course, are subject to change).
Movies coming out in May 2024
"The Fall Guy": A stunt man (Ryan Gosling) finds that love hurts and so do explosions when he falls for a movie director (Emily Blunt). May 3.
"Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes": Enslaved humans unite with progressive anthropoids in this fourth installment in what Wikipedia calls "the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise." The movie takes place 300 years after 2017's "War for the Planet of the Apes." May 10.
"Back to Black": Marissa Abela stars (and does much of her own singing) as ill-fated pop-soul vocalist Amy Winehouse in this biopic from director Sam Taylor-Johnson, whose filmography includes "Nowhere Boy" (2009), another movie about a fabled English musical artist, John Lennon. May 17.
"IF": Ryan Reynolds' big summer (see "Deadpool & Wolverine," below) begins with this "Monsters, Inc."-esque family-oriented fantasy-comedy about a man (Reynolds) and little girl (Cailey Fleming) who can see other people's IF's — imaginary friends. May 17.
"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga": Anya Taylor-Joy stars in this origin story for Furiosa, the warrior of the wasteland played by Charlize Theron in "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015), the previous film in the saga of post-apocalyptic vehicular mayhem that director George Miller launched all the way back in 1979. Three of Miller's four previous "Mad Max" films have been supercharged pedal-to-the-metal masterpieces, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one maintains the director's hot streak. (Also keeping them crossed so they aren't amputated by a boomerang, as happened to one unfortunate desert creep in 1981's "Mad Max 2.") May 24.
Movie news: Godzilla x Kong x Memphis: How a local filmmaker contributed to monster success
"The Garfield Movie": Cartoonist Jim Davis' lazy, lasagna-craving housecat leaps (or waddles) from the funny pages to the theater screen, with Chris Pratt (in lieu of ex-Garfield, Bill Murray) providing the vocals for the computer-animated feline. May 24.
Movies coming out in June 2024
"Bad Boys: Ride or Die": In his first major movie since the infamous Oscar Slap of 2022, Will Smith reunites with Martin Lawrence for a fourth "Bad Boys" cop comedy. June 7.
"Inside Out 2": Veteran emotions Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) are challenged by puberty newcomers Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri) and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) as the animation team at Pixar invites us inside the mind of newly adolescent Riley. June 14.
"The Watchers": The poisoned apple apparently doesn't fall far from the scary tree, as Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, makes her writing-directing feature-film debut with a horror-mystery in the tradition of such Daddy Shyamalan hits as "The Village" and "Knock at the Cabin." June 14.
"The Bikeriders": Been a while since an outlaw motorcycle gang busted up the multiplex, so let's give a warm welcome and a sheriff's warning to uneasy riders Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Michael Shannon, the latter actor being a fixture in films directed by Arkansas-born Jeff Nichols (brother of Lucero's Ben Nichols). June 21.
"Horizon: Chapter 1": What Kaufman calls "the best dad movies of the summer" will arrive in two installments, with "Chapter 1" debuting on June 28, and "Chapter Two" following on Aug. 16. Returning to the genre that earned him two Academy Awards for "Dances with Wolves" in 1991, Kevin Costner directed, co-wrote and stars in this pair of epic Westerns, set during the Civil War.
Movies coming out in July 2024
"Despicable Me 4": Can reformed supervillain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) reclaim the computer-animated spotlight from his scene-stealing Minions? July 3.
"MaXXXine": Actress Mia Goth's tour de force concludes as writer-director Ti West wraps up his cunning horror trilogy (see also: "X" and "Pearl") with a sequel set in 1985 Los Angeles, during the reign of terror attributed to the serial killer known as "The Night Stalker." July 5.
"Fly Me to the Moon": Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum star in a NASA-set "Space Race" romcom that unfolds against the backdrop of the Apollo 11 launch. July 12.
"Twisters": Digital technology hasn't improved every special effect, but it definitely is useful for depicting natural disasters. That's why this almost 30-years-later followup to "Twister" and welcome-to-the-big-leagues opportunity for "Minari" director Lee Isaac Chung should be a treat for the eyeballs — or at least for those eyeballs that enjoy big-screen destruction and devastation. July 19.
"Deadpool & Wolverine": If the box office has been suffering of late from superhero fatigue, this teaming of two of Marvel's most irascible and irreverent costumed characters should function like a shot of adrenaline to the heart. Once again, Ryan Reynolds is the scar-faced mercenary with the razor wit, Deadpool, while Hugh Jackman is the mutant with the retractable claws, Wolverine. July 26.
Movies coming out in August 2024
"Harold and the Purple Crayon": Prized by children's book aficionados, Crockett Johnson's whimsical 1955 story about a 4-year-old boy with a magical crayon appears to have become a special effects-stuffed action comedy with a very different Harold, played by 43-year-old Zachary Levi. Aug. 2.
MEMPHIS MOVIE LOCATIONS: 10 spots film fans should visit, from The Arcade to the Pyramid
"Trap": Hey, 78-year-old former British teen star Hayley Mills has a supporting role in this new M. Night Shyamalan thriller, about a serial killer stalked by police at a pop concert. (See also "The Watchers," above). Aug. 9.
"Alien: Romulus": After a couple of ambitious sidebar films from original "Alien" director Ridley Scott, the series goes for the grindhouse gusto with a spin-off from goremeister Fede álvarez, who previously resurrected the "Evil Dead" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" franchises. Expect facehuggers and chestbursters aplenty. Aug. 16.
"The Crow": Bill Skarsg?rd trades the white killer clown greasepaint of the "It" diptych for black kohl and other dark accouterments to play the Goth-y supernatural hero known as "the Crow," who was introduced in a 1989 comic book series. If that's not hip enough for ya, electronic-pop singer FKA Twigs co-stars as the Crow's fiancée. Aug. 23.
"Reagan": Dennis Quaid is the 40th president of the United States while Penelope Ann Miller is First Lady Nancy in this movie biography from "faith" filmmaker Sean McNamara. Aug. 30.
"Kraven the Hunter": Aaron Taylor-Johnson is the big-game hunter turned Spider-Man adversary in yet another Marvel production. Aug. 30.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: 'The Fall Guy' to 'Bad Boys': List of the best summer movies of 2024
