Big budgets, an avalanche of advertising and beautiful stars are among the key elements of producing a successful summer blockbuster.
Even with the warmer, sunnier weather coming, there will still be some cold, rainy days over the next couple of months, and the movie theater is the perfect place to be with family and friends during those days.
From superheroes to race tracks, post-apocalyptic England to dinosaur-inhabited islands, here are some of the biggest blockbusters to hit theaters in the coming months.
June 6 – ‘Ballerina’ starring Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves
A misleading title without its marketing tagline, “From the World of John Wick,” this movie isn’t so much about a ballet company performing “The Nutcracker” but a bunch of attractive people kicking and punching and firing off weapons in a snowy eastern European town.
Taking place between the events of John Wick’s “Chapter 3” and “Chapter 4” installments, Eve Macarro (de Armas), a ballerina-assassin, begins to train in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma and sets out to exact revenge for her father’s death.
What started as a fairly grounded series, the Wick stories and their spinoffs continue to become more bombastic and over-the-top, but the fight choreography and stunt work keep getting better and better, a promising sign for this mostly unnecessary side quest.
June 20 – ‘28 Years Later’ starring Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Just when you thought the zombie apocalypse trend had died off, it’s coming back to life once again. The third installment in the “28 Days Later” series, this one marks the return of director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, who did not work on the second film.
Set nearly three decades after the Rage virus caused a zombie outbreak, a group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When a father (Taylor-Johnson) and his son leave on a mission into the mainland, they discover the secrets and horrors of the outside world.
It’s usually safe to bet on Boyle and Garland, and returning to this world all these years later is expected to be one of the most terrifying films of the summer. But don’t get too comfortable — two more sequels are in the works following the same characters.
June 27 – ‘F1’ starring Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem
A universal truth for humanity is that we like it when things go fast, and nothing is more exhilarating than watching a race car zip by a camera at 200 mph. Just ask director Joseph Kosinski, the man behind the 2022 airplane-go-fast movie “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Sonny Hayes (Pitt) is a retired Formula One driver who had a horrible crash in the 1990s. But when F1 team owner and friend Ruben (Bardem) asks him to come out of retirement to mentor a rookie prodigy for the Apex Grand Prix team, Hayes must face his demons and get back behind the wheel.
With Kosinski looking to bring back some of his signature camera moves from “Maverick” — such as mounting cameras all over the car to truly show off the speed of these machines — “F1” could be the most thrilling movie of the summer.
July 2 – ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ starring Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali
If I had a nickel for every time a group of people in the world of “Jurassic Park” went on a mission to an island full of dinosaurs, even after that first park was a disaster, I’d have far too many nickels. Against all odds, they’re doing it again.
Covert operative Zora Bennett (Johansson) is recruited by a pharmaceutical company to collaborate with paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and team leader Duncan Kincaid (Ali) on a top-secret mission to a forbidden island — once the original research facility for Jurassic Park — and locate the three largest remaining prehistoric species from land, sea and air and get samples of their DNA for revolutionary drug capabilities.
The last thing we need is more of these movies, but big, dumb dinosaur action can still be fun. And with David Koepp as writer and Gareth Edwards in the director’s chair, this one has a good chance of at least being better than the last couple of disappointing sequels.
July 11 – ‘Superman’ starring David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan
The first film in the rebooted DC Universe under James Gunn is a return to form for possibly the most iconic superhero of all time. And although what exactly the film will be about has yet to be released, it’s safe to say Clark Kent (Corenswet) will face off against Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), interact with other DC heroes like Green Lantern and Hawkgirl — and even Krypto the Superdog —and develop his relationship with Daily Planet report Lois Lane (Brosnahan).
Making big splashes in the MCU with his “Guardians of the Galaxy” series and first showing DC how it’s done in “The Suicide Squad” in 2025, Gunn is expected to be the right guy to turn the series around with the most anticipated superhero film of the year.
