Today I have quite the double-bill. It begins at noon with a screening of Noah Baumbach‘s much-talked-about Frances Ha, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and, along with playing the Seattle Film Festival, will hit limited theaters on May 17. Then, this evening my Summer Movie Season begins with Iron Man 3, which half the world has already seen to the tune of $195.3 million and reviews have been through the roof.
My 2013 Summer Movie Season continues tomorrow night with Star Trek Into Darkness (5/17) and next Monday I’ll be screening The Great Gatsby (5/10). I’ve already seen Before Midnight (5/24) and while in Cannes I’ll see The Bling Ring (7/14), Only God Forgives (7/19), Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (8/16) and Fruitvale Station (7/26).
I mention all of this because I was considering writing up a Top Ten Most Anticipated 2013 Summer Movies feature, or even a Too 15, but when I will have seen nearly my entire list before the first month of Summer 2013 is over what is really the point?
If you’re curious, here are the films I was likely to work with for my Top 15:
Top 15 Most Anticipated 2013 Summer Movies
- Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
- Before Midnight
- The Bling Ring
- Blue Jasmine
- The Conjuring
- The East
- Elysium
- Fast & Furious 6
- Frances Ha
- Fruitvale Station
- The Great Gatsby
- Man of Steel
- Only God Forgives
- Star Trek Into Darkness
- The World’s End
By the end of May, I will have already seen Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Before Midnight, The Bling Ring, The East, Fast & Furious 6, Frances Ha, Fruitvale Station, The Great Gatsby, Only God Forgives and Star Trek Into Darkness, which leaves five films on the list to look forward to, but is Summer 2013 really that front-loaded?
Let’s take a look as I bring you my official 2013 Summer Movie Preview and we’ll just go down the list on a month-by-month basis.
May
May has some big titles, beginning with Iron Man 3 on May 3 followed by The Great Gatsby on the 10th and Star Trek Into Darkness on the 17th (though it opens on the 9th in select territories including the UK, Germany and Australia). The following weekend is sure to hold some serious fireworks.
On May 24 not only will Fox release the first major animated film of the summer with Epic, but Universal and Warner Bros. will release two of the biggest, non-superhero franchises in recent memory with Fast & Furious 6 and The Hangover Part III respectively.
With five films under its belt, the Fast and Furious franchise has amassed $1.5 billion worldwide with Fast Five accounting for $626.1 million of that number. Fast 6 is expected to certainly top $700 million, but going up against the third film in the Hangover franchise makes for an interesting battle.
Comparatively, the first two films in The Hangover franchise have made over $1 billion worldwide with The Hangover Part II bringing in $586.8 million despite a lackluster response from audiences and critics. It would seem the Fast series is more of an audience favorite, but I can’t believe support for the Wolf Pack has dwindled by any measure.
Domestically, Fast Five opened with $86.1 million in 2011 and Hangover 2 opened with $85.9 million the same year. Are we looking at a weekend where the top two films will combine for a total of more than $180 million?
That same weekend Before Midnight opens in limited theaters in New York and Los Angeles and may create quite a stir itself in limited release.
May concludes with the release of M. Night Shyamalan‘s After Earth starring Will and Jaden Smith. I think Men in Black III showed Will Smith’s star hasn’t dwindled in the slightest, but Shyamalan’s certainly has, how will the conflicting stardom play out on the film rumored to be budgeted at $130 million?
The final weekend of May also introduces Sundance standouts The East and The Kings of Summer into theaters along with the magician version of Robin Hood, Now You See Me and the second Ethan Hawke movie in a row, The Purge, co-starring Lena Headey.
June
June begins with comedy, which actually could help Shyamalan’s After Earth make a little extra dough. The month kicks off with the Wedding Crashers reunion of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in The Internship along with Joss Whedon‘s micro-budget backyard adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
Comedy continues to be the June motto five days later with the Wednesday, June 12 release of This is the End as it hopes to get a jump start on its box office take before Superman hits the scene two days later with Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel.
Competing for audience eyeballs on June 12 will be Sofia Coppola‘s The Bling Ring, which is already getting some unintentional support from real-life Bling Ring-er Alexis Neiers who commented on Twitter with…
it’s trashy and inaccurate. Based on Detective Goodkin and Nancy Joe Sales inaccurate information. 2 people who are everything they accused us of being. Celebrity status obsessed, fame & money hungry…The detective who has been caught in multiple lies and who played himself in this film and a woman who is an irresponsible,inaccurate and a dishonest journalist who is currently writing a book based on inaccurate facts. The truth will come out soon enough and I have no intention of seeing this film.
I’ll be catching The Bling Ring at the Cannes Film Festival and I can’t wait.
June 21 sees the release of the latest Pixar sequel, Monsters University, which I have had multiple sources tell me they caught an early screening and enjoyed what they saw, along with the much-troubled production of World War Z starring Brad Pitt.
Also releasing on the 21st in limited theaters is Franck Khalfoun‘s first-person serial killer remake Maniac starring Elijah Wood, which looks intriguingly gruesome and one I want to see.
The month of comedy concludes with The Heat, an R-rated comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, and what may end up being an unintentional comedy, Roland Emmerich‘s White House Down with Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx. Yes, the White House is in trouble for the second time this year and Magic Mike must help protect Django from the chaos.
