5 Burning Questions - Scott Mendelson's 2024 Summer Movie Box Office Preview 2

Will adults show up for adult movies? Can horror films make a comeback? Which franchises have audiences grown tired of? Why can't I keep these under 2,500 words?

On Wednesday, I shared an extensive summer movie box office preview, brimming with tension and horror about whether the overall slate could match the highs of 2023. This was a macro-examination filled with thrilling observations, unthinkable analysis and ghoulish guestimates. Yes, I may be making fun of Grammarly’s (presumably AI?) prose suggestions. However, it didn’t delve deeply into the individual films themselves. That’s what this is for, broken up into key key questions that will (presumably) be answered between now and August. As I’ve noted here and there, I didn’t really care about the overall box office in the before-times. After all, the only way to maintain sky-high figures was to put even more of an emphasis on near-weekly tentpole scheduling.

As such, in a sane world where the mere existence of a thriving theatrical marketplace was a given, it mattered more to me whether each film performed to par in terms of budget, expectations and related variables. So, with that mentality in mind, this hopefully shorter, more streamlined sequel (think Quantum of Solace after Casino Royale) will deal with the individual releases themselves. Without further ado, here is a… uh… DLC (?) for yesterday’s mammoth summer movie preview, in the form of a handful of big questions, chilling challenges and existential melodramas. And now – to quote one of the very best summer kick-off movies ever - I go to pray… for the strength to endure what is to come.