For the second year in a row, it’s looking like the early summer box office numbers will be down once again. After Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword came out the gate tripping and falling on its own massive broadsword—and the better-received Alien: Covenant crept in below expectations—this year’s revenue is already down 10 percent compared to last year and 20 percent compared to 2015. While Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues to hold strong with exceptional numbers and high-scoring reviews, the rest of the tent-pole blockbuster slate isn’t inspiring much hope.
There’s still time to turn things around, but it’s not looking good. It isn’t hard to see potential problems behind just about every forthcoming movie that isn’t released by Marvel. DC’s Wonder Woman has had reports of reshoots and even had an awkward period where the film was being noticeably under-promoted. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk obviously has potential, but will viewers be excited about a PG-13 trip to WWII after the director’s recent stints in exciting science-fiction and comic book films? Pirates of the Caribbean 5 is already starting to get some negative buzz and its unclear if tertiary installments in the Cars and Despicable Me franchises can continue to rake in substantial amounts.
The only unquestionable bright spot so far appears to be Marvel’s exciting Spider-Man reboot in Spider-Man: Homecoming and what, the raunchy, R-rated Baywatch? Maybe the eccentric-looking Baby Driver will sweep viewers away?
If 2017 ends poorly, will we see changes next year? As it stands, some are expecting a possible industry “crash” in 2018 due to an overwhelming amount of massive blockbuster films—we may be on the verge of a drastic shakeup sometime soon.
2018 will see the release of several massive films, including (via Cracked):
Avengers: Infinity War, Ready Player One, Pacific Rim 2, Aquaman, Toy Story 4, Deadpool 2, Black Panther, The Flash, How To Train Your Dragon 3, Ant-Man And The Wasp, Jurassic World 2, The Predator, Fifty Shades Freed, Jungle Book: Origins, Marry Poppins Returns, Tomb Raider, Alita: Battle Angel, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them 2, The Secret Life Of Pets 2, Hotel Transylvania 3, The Wolf Man, Madagascar 4, The Invisible Man, Venom, Uprising, Mission: Impossible 6. Wreck-It Ralph 2, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, an animated Spider-Man movie, the Star Wars Han Solo spinoff, a Transformers Bumblebee spinoff and Gigantic (Disney’s next hand-drawn animated musical).
It should be fairly easy for the average filmgoer to see each of these movies, as long as they’re willing to part with one or two kidneys.