TWISTERS, WILL SMITH AND WOLVERINE

The summer movie season is here

According to the 2024 calendar, summer begins June 20. h According to the movie industry, however, summer begins next weekend. h “The summer movie seasons begins May 3 with ‘The Fall Guy,’” said Jeff Kaufman, senior vice president for film and marketing at Malco Theatres Inc., the Memphis-based cinema chain that operates 34 theaters in seven Southern states. h Kaufman, who books the movies that appear on the multiplicity of screens inside Malco’s multiplexes, spoke with the confidence of an astronomer calculating the date of the summer solstice. What’s more, he said May 3 can’t get here soon enough. Despite a handful of hits, both expected (“Dune: Part 2”) and unexpected (“Bob Marley: One Love”), “the first four months of the year were not so great,” Kaufman acknowledged. He said box-office receipts are “down about 24 percent over the same time frame in 2023.” h But starting May 3, “we’ve got some great titles coming up that will hopefully rejuvenate audience interest and moviegoing habits,” Kaufman said.

Traditionally, the so-called summer movie season — which more or less coincides with the months when kids and young people are able to attend movies because they aren’t in school — is when Hollywood loads its release schedule with likely blockbusters, in the form of sequels, superhero sagas, action epics, cartoons and crazy comedies.

“The Fall Guy” checks several of those boxes. It’s a stunt-packed romantic comedy, inspired by a 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors. That series may be little remembered, but the new movie has a couple of major (if not Majors) draws: It stars Ryan Gosling, hot on the heels of

his scene-stealing “Ken” role in last year’s biggest hit, “Barbie”; and it was directed by stunt coordinator-turned-filmmaker David Leitch, a skilled crowdpleaser whose credits include “John Wick” and “Deadpool 2.”

And after Gosling comes a deluge of attractions: Apes, twisters, Minions, Will Smith and Wolverine will all be back on the big screen.

So here’s the roll call — a chronological listing of some of the summer’s more anticipated feature films, based on their Memphis release dates (which, of course, are subject to change).

PICTURES WARNER BROS. Anya Taylor-joy takes on the title role in George Miller's action-packed prequel "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."

PIXAR In the mind of freshly minted teenager Riley, Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler, left) welcomes new emotion Anxiety (Maya Hawke) in the animated Pixar sequel "Inside Out 2."

UNIVERSAL PICTURES Ryan Gosling is stunt guy Colt Seavers and Emily Blunt is filmmaker Judy Moreno in Universal Pictures' "The Fall Guy."

JAY MAIDMENT Ryan Reynolds (left) and Hugh Jackman team up as the title characters in "Deadpool & Wolverine."