Please note: This article is related to the Variety VIP+ special report “Film Industry Hurdles 2024”, available to subscribers only.
BEST UPCOMING MOVIES IN MAY 2024 (Trailers)
The summer movie season kicked off last weekend with Universal's "The Fall Guy," a big-budget action comedy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, following their respective supporting roles in "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer."
However, there was no sign of the magic of “Barbenheimer,” which puts enormous pressure on “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” to make a splash at the box office this weekend.
“The Fall Guy” opened to just under $28 million in the U.S., starting the summer with a fizzle despite critical acclaim at SXSW. The April-May weekend is historically the launch window for the summer’s biggest blockbusters — often Marvel films — and resumed that reputation in 2022 after the COVID-19 shutdowns, making Gosling and Blunt’s outing a sobering reminder of the box office’s susceptibility to unusual breaks from the routine.