This summer, there will be no Barbenheimer to save Hollywood.
Facing a lack of buzzy blockbusters and a weak start with the disappointing opening of Universal’s The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling, the summer of 2024 looks like it will be a long, difficult slog at the box office. After three years of steady gains since the pandemic — thanks to titles like Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Top Gun: Maverick — Hollywood could experience a summer retrenchment.
The Fall Guy, a comedy about Hollywood stunt performers, debuted last weekend to $28.5 million, falling short of the expected opening of $30 million to $40 million.
Will it be harbinger of things to come?
Hollywood’s summer line-up is once again top-heavy with sequels — Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, as well as the animated Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4. The only superhero movie on the summer calendar is Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine — a crossover between the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman franchises.
While surprises do happen — Top Gun: Maverick outperformed just about all expectations in 2022 — the aforementioned sequels aren’t expected to gross more than their predecessors. None of them is generating the same kind of pre-release buzz that lifted Barbie and Oppenheimer to the stratosphere.
The scarcity of superhero movies — a good thing depending on whom you ask — is due in large part to brand fatigue and plummeting quality, with recent titles including Disney’s The Marvels, starring Brie Larson, and Sony’s Madame Web bombing badly at the box office.
So far, 2024 has been a dud for Hollywood.
The domestic box office is down more than 20 percent compared to the same point in 2023, according to a Slashfilm report.
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