With two wars, a tumultuous presidential campaign and the Paris Summer Olympics, Hollywood had fierce competition for Americans’ attention. Would they be glued to their home screens, or venture into the local cineplex?
But surprise – after a disastrous start in May, the movies are doing fine, led by Disney/Pixar’s billion-dollar blockbuster “Inside Out 2” that easily lands as this season’s Top 10 Movie.
Another Disney release, 20th Century Studio’s superhero action comedy “Deadpool & Wolverine,” takes 2nd place.
If “Inside Out 2” is perfect family fare, what’s surprising about the Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman teaming is its hearty embrace of an R rating. Who knew four-letter words would make for family fun?
What else can we learn from consumer choices in 2024?
Surprises are always welcome. There’s a desperate desire to have something fresh – as long as it’s slightly familiar. That helps account for the return of sequels and franchises that had long been moribund.
“Despicable Me 4” might seem to be running on empty – with little inspiration and a barely-there plot. Yet it is 3rd in summer’s Top 10 simply because families need very little urging to take the kids out of the house. For the young, there were plenty of thrills, laughs and spectacle.
“Twisters” is the tornado movie that would have seemed inevitable three years after the 1996 original. But arriving nearly 30 years on as a novelty, a disaster epic with low-key romance and state of the art F/X, “Twisters” proved to be a humdinger.
Research suggests the heartland audience, where tornadoes have done so much damage, has been its biggest fans. We also learned that to be a really successful disaster movie: Avoid politics! Climate change is never ever mentioned in “Twisters” – and that’s intentional.
“Bad Boys” is another franchise long thought dead. Its return was calculated not by a theoretical audience desire but Will Smith’s need to find a vehicle that would restore his box-office appeal after The Slap had exiled him not only from the Oscars but the A list. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” did the job – and then some.
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” takes the 6th spot as it too revived a franchise. Unlike early summer misfires “The Fall Guy” and “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “Apes” engaged its audience with its view of an ape civilization sadly like our own.
“A Quiet Place: Day One,” the third installment in the menacing aliens horror show, similarly gave moviegoers what they came for – thrills, chills and a sense that cataclysmic events, like a nuclear attack or alien invasion, are all too possible.
Bestselling romance author Colleen Hoover became a Hollywood titan overnight with the rousing reception her “It Ends with Us” received. Hoover’s most popular book did what “Barbie” managed a year ago — wooing women. The film put domestic abuse into a spotlight’s glare, framed by a glam intersection of sexual heat and horror. More Hoover is sure to come.
