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Before the pandemic, movie theaters were a hot spot. Everyone couldn’t wait to head to the cinema, pay for overpriced popcorn, and watch a new film on the big screen. Then the dreaded quarantine descended, and the way films were released changed forever. Movies were now sold to streaming services, and their mixture with the over-saturated content market left something to be desired. Box office ratings took an 80% drop in 2020, and moviegoers thought there was no coming back from that.
Sure, there were streaming hits, but they all lacked the big magical buzz that movies used to give viewers. Until an '80s heartthrob by the name of Tom Cruise came around. Cruise’s long-awaited sequel to Top Gun -- a film that cemented his place in the movie legend world -- was scheduled for a 2020 summer release. However, the film’s release was pushed back twice as the health crisis continued.
It would have been easy to take the sequel and put it on Paramount+, the production company’s streaming service, but according to Cruise, “I make movies for the big screen.” So the film held out in order to have a release for the silver screen and quite the release it had. The film debuted on Memorial Day weekend and has since grossed over $300 million at the box office. This makes Top Gun: Maverick Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing movie to date. Many have said that the new film surpasses the original in all the best ways, and Cruise has proven that the summer blockbuster is back and here to stay.
A Jam-Packed Summer
Maverick has taken its place as the first monster hit of the season, but that seat could be taken due to the impressive summer 2022 lineup. Another sequel by the name of Jurassic World: Dominion is slated to be a phenomenal contender for a summer blockbuster, and many can see why. The film serves as a bookend for the Jurassic World franchise, showcasing the new crew from the franchise (Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard) with the original trio from Jurassic Park (Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum).
However, it’s not just franchises that have a crack at being the film of the summer. Elvis, which hits theaters on June 24th, is also receiving widespread acclaim among critics. The film is led by Austin Butler (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) in the title role, and since its showing at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, it has been on the fast track to success. The film has also garnered acclaim from Presley’s family. Lisa Marie Presley praised the movie in a post on Instagram, stating that the film was “nothing short of spectacular” and that “you can feel [director, Baz Luhrmann’s] pure love, care, and respect for [her] father throughout this beautiful film.” Priscilla Presley also took to social media, stating that the film was a “true story told brilliantly and creatively that only Baz, in his unique artistic way, could have delivered.”
Superheroes are also taking to the theatres this summer, with Lightyear, an animated film serving as the origin story for Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear, debuting June 17th and the newest Marvel film Thor: Love and Thunder making its way to theatres in July. Variety Magazine Senior Editor Marc Malkin commented on the rise in theatre sales, stating, “Right now, there is something for everyone [and] there’s a lot of family entertainment [which], of course, brings people to the theatres.”
To Stream or Not to Stream
While the resurgence of the summer blockbuster has come full swing, it is still contending with the streaming dominants. Many have taken to working with the services and doing a limited theatrical release before also putting the films on streaming platforms. Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at media analytics firm Comscore, states that this works for most movies as “the prestige and exclusivity of having the movie first in the theatre has a halo effect on the movie itself [and] by the time it gets on a streaming platform, it’s going to be much more coveted.”
However, take a look at Top Gun: Maverick. The film waited until it could release to theatres and is sticking to theatres exclusively, leading to sky-rocketing box office sales. Many have even said that the film has brought magic back to the movies! For now, though, the cinema world is in a new place: theatres are back, and it seems that streaming services are back to taking claim over the series circuit with releases like Stranger Things on Netflix and The Boys on Amazon Prime.
Dergarabedian commented on this new era stating that “the big lesson [now] is that big-screen movies have to go theatrical first with some sort of window…What streamers are learning is that if you want to get in on the power and prestige of the movie theatre experience, you somehow have to figure out the formula to are that all work.”