Summer Movie Season's Biggest Questions
Is 'Killers' as bad as Carl Ichan says? Does 'Shrek' have any gas left? Is 'Predator's the surprise hit?
Can sequels, 80's nostalgia and 3-D lure moviegoers?
The summer of 2010 will be an even more intriguing prospect than usual for every studio in Hollywood. More films will be presented in 3-D and IMAX than every before and the competition on some weekends will be like a warzone. By Monday morning some potential hits will already be dead and buried. A lot of familiar faces will be back this season from Shrek to iron Man to Woody and Buzz Lightyear from "Toy Story," but you'll also get a flashback to the 80s with remakes of "The A-Team," "The Karate Kid" and, shoot, even "MacGruber" is just a "MacGyver" parody gone wild. But the most important questions about this movie season affect the longtime career prospects of some of your favorite actors, the fate of some gutsy smaller studios and just how much 3-D is going to change the box office record book.
Click on the tabs above to review this summer's main talking points and feel free to share your overall thoughts below.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupBilly Dakota
March 29, 2010 at 8:00PM EST Reply to CommentBox Office success or not, "The Prestige" was a fantastic film and I will gladly add to the Christopher Nolan pot with my box office donation of $12-$30 (depending on how much ticket prices skyrocket and if it is DBox enhanced)on another "Brainy" project.
Buscemi
March 30, 2010 at 2:10AM EST Reply to CommentAnswers to your questions:
2. Killers looks like DOA in a crowded weekend. Marmaduke, Get Him To The Greek and even Splice could outopen it.
3. Thor wins the buzz battle.
4. I'm betting on Knight and Day to be the big surprise. When I saw the trailer before Avatar, it got a pretty positive reaction.
5. Eclipse will gross less than New Moon. New Moon had worse buzz than Twilight and dropped quicker. Also, the move to summer doesn't help.
6. Iron Man 2 won't break The Dark Knight's record but it will be close.
7. Iron Man 2 will be bigger than Toy Story 3.
8. No, indie films will not make a comeback. Cyrus looks awful.
9. Sex and the City 2 will outopen Prince Of Persia. I honestly don't know why Disney spent $200 million on a sub-genre that's only had one film reach $100 million.
10. No. Beastly is nothing more than a cash-in of Twilight and to date, all of the Twilight cash-ins have failed. And Vanessa Hudgens's last non-High School Musical project didn't even hit $10 million.
11. Too early to tell.
12. Overture survives. The asking price is much cheaper (Liberty Media wants $300 million) and the CEO (a former MGM head, oddly enough) has proven to be good with finances. It's a safer bet.
13. Shrek Forever After makes less than Shrek The Third.
14. Probably. But that won't keep it from success (see Shutter Island).
15. The trailer has gotten positive reaction but I see Oceans being the next breakout documentary.
lazygarfield
March 30, 2010 at 4:39AM EST Reply to CommentI don't get this sentence - top all time opening weekends of all time don't occur over Thanksgiving, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day or Christmas? They belong to "Spider-Man," "Spider-Man 3" and IRON MAN
How does Iron Man figure into that list? Yes, it opened in the 1st week of May and yes, it grossed an outstanding $98million on opening weekend, but it didn't break any records, nor did it TOP any list. Spider-Man 3 held the record for that weekend since an year.
Can someone please explain this?
kelly
March 31, 2010 at 9:55PM EST Reply to Commenti think eclipse will hold its own. summit wouldnt have to put out anything and the masses will still flock. whats going to hurt it is if they moved away from the book to focus more on the newborn war and less about edward and bell. because whether people like it or not....the females who are obsessed with twilight love edward and bella not violence.