The summer of '23 was undeniably the summer of Barbenheimer. The simultaneous release of Barbie and Oppenheimer was not only the cultural event of the summertime — so perfectly counter-programmed that they inspired the double feature of all double features — but both went on to become the biggest films of the entire year: Barbie made history as the highest-grossing film of the year, while Oppenheimer went on to win seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Directing.
It was also sneakily the summer of Ayo Edebiri, who had back-to-back-to-back releases with Theater Camp, Bottoms and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, to name but a few. Which begs the question: Who will take up the mantle and reign over this summer's movie season?
Perhaps it will be Ryan Reynolds, who kicks off the summer with one for the kids (he's the star of John Krasinski's family film IF) and then pivots to one that is decidedly not for children. (Marvel's R-rated superhero team-up Deadpool & Wolverine.) Or maybe it will be Glen Powell, who you can watch from the comfort of your own home (in Netflix's Hit Man) or opening weekend at the megaplex (in Universal's Twisters). And then there's Hunter Schafer, who is poised to break out on the big screen this year with back-to-back releases of Kinds of Kindness and Cuckoo. (Not for nothing, Edebiri herself also makes a reappearance this summer in Inside Out 2.)
All that said, keep your eyes on Channing Tatum. Arguably, Tatum hasn't toplined a proper Big Summer Movie since 2015's Magic Mike XXL, but this year is shaping up to be something of a Tatumaissance: In July, he adds another rom-com to his resume with Fly Me to the Moon, which co-stars Scarlett Johansson, and the next month, does the exact opposite with his starring role in Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut, the thriller Blink Twice. He's also heavily rumored to make a sure-to-be-buzzed about appearance in another movie on this list.
If you're basing the start of the season off the solstice, summer doesn't officially arrive until June 20; however, if you are going off of Ryan Gosling, then the summer movie season kicks off this week. Below, A.frame has your week-by-week guide to this summer's movie season.
May
May 3: 'The Fall Guy'
David Leitch has become one of summer's most reliable popcorn auteurs — he's the stuntman-turned-director behind Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train, amongst others — and his newest blockbuster is both a love letter to stunt performers and a swoon-worthy rom-com starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Following up his Oscar-nominated turn as Ken in last summer's beloved blockbuster Barbie, Gosling stars as a down-and-out stuntman attempting to win back the love of his life by tracking down a missing movie star and, thus, saving her movie from going off the rails. The Fall Guy's cast also includes Winston Duke, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham, and Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu.
May 10: 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'
The big twist of the original Planet of the Apes revealed that the titular planet, where apes ruled and humans were enslaved, was Earth all along. In 2011, the franchise was rebooted with Rise of the Planet of the Apes and, continuing in 2014's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes, revealed how apes came to conquer mankind. Director Wes Ball is at the helm for another entry set years after that trilogy, when apes reign as the dominant species and humans are their slaves.
May 17: 'IF'
Who could have predicted that John Krasinski's directorial breakthrough would be — of all things — a monster movie? A Quiet Place spawned its own horror franchise, with a third entry arriving this summer; meanwhile, Krasinski is trying his hand at a totally new genre with this family-friendly fantasy comedy about a young girl and her kindly neighbor (played by Ryan Reynolds) who set out to reconnect forgotten imaginary friends (the titular IFs) with their children. The colorful cast of IFs are voiced by the likes of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Steve Carell, Awkwafina, Matt Damon, Blake Lively, George Clooney, and the late Louis Gossett Jr.
May 24: 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga'
Arriving 45 years after his original Mad Max movie, visionary director George Miller returns with the latest installment in his post-apocalyptic epic — and the first to not revolve around Max himself. Furiosa reveals the origin story of Imperator Furiosa, the breakout character played by Charlize Theron in 2015's Oscar-winning Mad Max: Fury Road. Anya Taylor-Joy steps into the role of Furiosa here, opposite Chris Hemsworth as the villainous Warlord Dementus. (Watch the trailer.)
May 31: 'Robot Dreams'
Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger adapts Sara Varon's beloved graphic novel into the summer's most wistful animated offering. Set in 1980s New York City, the film revolves around the friendship between Dog (all of the characters are anthropomorphized animals) and his robot companion. Bring tissues. At the 96th Oscars, Robot Dreams was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film.
Also out in May:
The Idea of You (on Prime Video May 2), Turtles All the Way Down (on Max May 2), Evil Does Not Exist (in select theaters May 3), I Saw the TV Glow (in theaters May 3), Lost Soulz (in theaters May 3), Tarot (in theaters May 3), Unfrosted (on Netflix May 3), Wildcat (in select theaters May 3), Mother of the Bride (on Netflix May 9), Gasoline Rainbow (in select theaters May 10), The Image of You (in theaters May 10), The Last Stop in Yuma County (in theaters May 10), Poolman (in theaters May 10), Power (in theaters May 10, on Netflix May 17), We Grown Now (in theaters May 10), Babes (in theaters May 17), Back to Black (in theaters May 17), The Blue Angels (in theaters May 17, on Prime Video May 23), The Strangers: Chapter 1 (in theaters May 17), Thelma the Unicorn (on Netflix May 17), Atlas (on Netflix May 24), The Beach Boys (on Disney+ May 24), The Garfield Movie (in theaters May 24), Queen of the Deuce (in theaters May 24), Solo (in select theaters May 24), Backspot (in theaters May 31), The Dead Don't Hurt (in theaters May 31), Ezra (in theaters May 31), In A Violent Nature (in theaters May 31), Jim Henson Idea Man (on Disney+ May 31), Summer Camp (in theaters May 31), What You Wish For (in theaters May 31), Young Woman and the Sea (in theaters May 31)
June
June 7: 'Hit Man'
Think back before Anyone But You and Top Gun: Maverick and Set It Up, and the movie that first put Glen Powell on our radars was Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!!. The two link up again for this genre-bending comedy about a strait-laced professor (Powell) who moonlights playing a hit man in undercover police stings. But when he falls for his newest client (Adria Arjona), things get very real. In addition to starring, Powell makes his screenwriting debut — he co-wrote the script with Linklater — and he also produces alongside the five-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker.
June 14: 'Inside Out 2'
Headquarters is getting a bit crowded in the sequel to Inside Out (2016's Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature Film). When newly-teenage Riley hits puberty, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust are joined by new emotions: Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). And you thought you'd already felt all the feels. (Watch the trailer.)
June 21: 'Kinds of Kindness'
Before he'd even completed Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos went ahead and shot another movie with Emma Stone, which arrives in theaters mere months after Poor Things took home four Oscars. Billed as a "triptych fable," Kinds of Kindness tells the stories of "a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader," with an ensemble cast comprising Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, and Hunter Schafer. (Watch the trailer.)
June 28: 'A Quiet Place: Day One'
Audiences got a glimpse of the day that aliens arrived on earth in the opening sequences of 2020's A Quiet Place Part II, but the majority of that movie, like its predecessor, was set one year after monsters forced humanity into silence. After helming the first two films, John Krasinski passes the torch to writer-director Michael Sarnoski for Day One. Part prequel and part spinoff, the third installment in the Quiet Place cinematic universe introduces new characters played by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn — with Djimon Hounsou reprising his role from Part II — and reveals what actually happened on day one of the invasion.
Also out in June:
Bad Boys: Ride Or Die (in theaters June 7), I Used to Be Funny (in select theaters June 7), Cora Bora (in theaters June 14), Firebrand (in select theaters June 14), The Grab (in theaters and on demand June 14), Latency (in theaters June 14), Summer Solstice (in select theaters June 14), Treasure (in theaters June 14), Tuesday (in theaters June 14), The Watchers (in theaters June 14), Crossing (in select theaters July 19, on Mubi Aug. 30), The Bikeriders (in theaters June 21), Bread & Roses (on Apple TV+ June 21), The Exorcism (in theaters June 21), Fancy Dance (in select theaters June 21, on Apple TV+ June 28), Green Border (in select theaters June 21), Janet Planet (in theaters June 21), Thelma (in theaters June 21), Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge (on Hulu June 25), I Am: Celine Dion (on Prime Video June 25), Daddio (in theaters June 28), A Family Affair (on Netflix June 28), Gassed Up (in theaters June 28), Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 (in theaters June 28), June Zero (in select theaters June 28)
July
July 5: 'MaXXXine'
The surprise horror trilogy that began with 2022's X comes to its bloody end in MaXXXine. Writer-director Ti West leaves the chain saw-less massacres of Texas behind for 1980s Hollywood, where the newly-reinvented Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is about to get her big break. That is, if she survives The Night Stalker, a serial killer targeting young starlets. The slasher also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon.
July 12: 'Fly Me to the Moon'
Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum star in the Space Race rom-com you never knew you needed. He is a straight-laced NASA director in charge of the Apollo 11 launch, she's the marketing specialist hired to stage a fake moon landing — just in case the United States doesn't make it into orbit first. Fly Me to the Moon is Greg Berlanti's first directorial effort since 2018's Love, Simon and promises to raise the romantic stakes from a Ferris wheel to the stratosphere.
July 19: 'Twisters'
Nearly three decades after Twister followed Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton into the eye of the storm — earning two Oscar nominations (for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects) in the process — it is time to return to Oklahoma for tornado season. Helmed by Minari director Lee Isaac Chung, Twisters introduces a new generation of storm chasers (played by Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos) who set out to tame Mother Nature. Brace for cows.
July 26: 'Deadpool & Wolverine'
Ryan Reynolds' Merc with a Mouth is (finally) joining the MCU, and he's bringing everybody's favorite adamantium-clawed mutant along for the ride. Directed by Reynolds' Free Guy and The Adam Project director Shawn Levy, Deadpool & Wolverine sees Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool) and Logan (aka Hugh Jackman's Wolverine) reluctantly team up to save the world. Matthew Macfadyen and Emma Corrin co-star as TVA agent Mr. Paradox and Cassandra Nova, respectively, which is to say nothing of all of the movie's — ahem — marvel-ous cameos. (Watch the trailer.)
Also out in July:
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (on Netflix July 3), Despicable Me 4 (in theaters July 3), Kill (in theaters July 4), Space Cadet (on Prime Video July 4), Skywalkers: A Love Story (on Netflix July 10), Tyler Perry's Divorce in the Black (on Prime Video July 11), Longlegs (in theaters on July 12), Sing Sing (in theaters July 12), Touch (in theaters July 12), My Spy: The Eternal City (on Prime Video July 18), Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net (on Prime Video July 28), Dìdi (弟弟) (in theaters July 26)
August
Aug. 2: 'Cuckoo'
The Euphoria to scream queen pipeline continues: First, Sydney Sweeney did... all that in the "nunsploitation" flick Immaculate; now, Hunter Schafer takes the lead in a splatter film of her own: The twisty horror trip, Cuckoo, from German writer-director Tilman Singer and co-starring Dan Stevens and Jessica Henwick. Schafer plays a teenager who moves with her family to the German Alps, a tranquil vacation paradise where things quickly get, well, cuckoo. (Watch the trailer.)
Aug. 9: 'Borderlands'
If you hear "infamous intergalactic bounty hunter with a mysterious past" and immediately think of two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, then have we got the movie for you! Horror maestro Eli Roth is behind this adaptation of the popular video game series, which casts Blanchett as Lilith, the (that's right) infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past and the leader of a crew comprising Kevin Hart, Barbie's Ariana Greenblatt, boxer-turned-actor Florian "Big Nasty" Munteanu, and Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis. Jack Black lends his voice to a robot named Claptrap.
Aug. 16: 'Alien: Romulus'
Ridley Scott and James Cameron have already given their seal of approval to Evil Dead and Don't Breath filmmaker Fede Alvarez's newest entry in the Alien franchise. Set between Scott's Alien (1979) and Cameron's Aliens (1986), Romulus centers on a group of young space colonizers (played by Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced and Aileen Wu) who cross paths with a Xenomorph while scavenging an abandoned space station. Place your bets now on whose chest will burst first.
Aug. 23: 'Blink Twice'
Previously known as Pussy Island, Zoë Kravitz's directorial debut now boasts the title Blink Twice. The thriller, which she co-wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum, follows a cocktail waitress, Frida (Naomi Ackie), who meets tech mogul Slater King (Channing Tatum) and is whisked away to his private island. Before she knows it, her dream vacation turns into a total nightmare. The film's cast also includes Alia Shawkat, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, Kyle MacLachlan, and Oscar winner Geena Davis. (Watch the trailer.)
Also out in August:
Harold and the Purple Crayon (in theaters Aug. 2), Kneecap (in theaters Aug. 2), One Fast Move (on Prime Video Aug. 8), The Fire Inside (in theaters Aug. 9), It Ends With Us (in theaters Aug. 9), Trap (in theaters Aug. 9), Jackpot (on Prime Video Aug. 15), The Union (on Netflix Aug. 16), Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2 (in theaters Aug. 16), Between the Temples (in theaters Aug. 23), The Crow (in theaters Aug. 23)