RESULTS: 2018 Summer Box Office Predictions

While I'm happy to have my best summer box office prediction year on record, it's depressing that there is not a single non-sequel film on the top ten! The only big shocker this year - in my opinion - is how Solo: A Star Wars Story under-performed. Its relatively low opening for the franchise is interesting to consider. Are people getting sick of Star Wars? Were people turned off by a different actor playing Han Solo? Or was it released in too crowded a season, between The Avengers and Deadpool? Besides that the usual suspects (Marvel, Pixar, Dinosaurs) all made out great, making this a particularly unsurprising year!

Here are my final results:

Mission Impossible: Fallout, Christopher Robin, Mamma Mia 2, Blindspotting Reviews

Mission Impossible: Fallout
Dir. Christopher McQuarrie
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At this point, the Mission Impossible series is less about its main protagonist, Ethan Hunt, and more about its star, Tom Cruise. With each film, the line between character and actor is blurred, with Cruise doing his own stunts, constantly one-upping himself by dangling from the highest building in the world in Ghost Protocol, or holding onto a plane during takeoff in Rogue Nation. For over 20 years(!), Cruise has put his body on the line for our entertainment, and in that respect, even at the ripe age of 56, Mission: Impossible - Fallout totally delivers on the running, jumping, ass-kicking, death-defying madman that is expected with the name "Tom Cruise" on the marquee!

Ant-Man and the Wasp, The First Purge, Sorry to Bother You, Whitney Reviews

Ant-Man and the Wasp
Dir. Peyton Reed
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Coming off of the epic crossover event Avengers: Infinity War where the fate of the universe was in the balance, Ant-Man and the Wasp is a refreshingly smaller adventure, in more ways than one! It's light and funny and takes everything that worked about the first Ant-Man and expands the world and characters in fun new ways. Although the movie nerd world will forever question what Edgar Wright's Ant-Man would have looked like had he not been given the boot - Peyton Reed more than stepped up to the plate!

Jurassic World 2, Sicario 2, Tag, Gotti Reviews

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Dir. J. A. Bayona
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At this point in the Jurassic franchise, the movies have no choice but to be insanely idiotic. By this fifth movie, the fact that the humans still haven't learned their lesson not to EFF with nature, I have to say I'm siding more with the dinosaurs at this point! While there's room in my heart for stupid-fun action movies (I will continue, against logic, to sing the praises of xXx: Return of Xander Cage), this movie feels like a group of Hollywood moguls collectively pissing on Michael Crichton's grave.

Incredibles 2, Hotel Artemis, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Nancy Reviews

The Incredibles 2
Dir. Brad Bird
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In 2004, when The Incredibles was released, we were just at the beginning of the superhero movie tidal wave - with only Spider-Man 2 also hitting it big that year. We're now in a completely different cinema landscape, one where superhero movies seemingly come out every week (Marvel alone has FIVE properties being adapted in 2018), which means that Incredibles 2 has a much more difficult job to set itself out from the rest of the pack. The way in which Brad Bird accomplished this was by making his heroes not gods fighting for the fate of the universe - but instead a typical nuclear family concerned about paying bills, getting homework done, and trying to keep the baby in its crib. The juxtaposition of the mundane and the fantastic is what makes The Incredibles 2 so hilarious and relatable. It's by far the best superhero movie this year!

Ocean's 8, Hereditary, RBG, The Gospel According to André Reviews

Ocean's 8
Dir. Gary Ross
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Heists are almost inherently cinematic. You get to watch a group of criminals play against the rules and plan an elaborate scheme in which there's a high probably of being caught. There are obviously a lot of stakes involved, and usually the more creative the plan and its execution, the more fun there is to be had. Steven Soderbergh understood this with his rat pack remake Ocean's Eleven, but this gender-swapped sequel, despite featuring a great, star-studded cast, misses the mark when it comes to the heist itself, which is as bland and rote as a plain donut with nothing on it.

Action Point, Upgrade, First Reformed, Filmworker Reviews

Action Point
Dir. Tim Kirkby
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Since the inception of the MTV show Jackass in the early 2000s, Johnny Knoxville and his team of "stuntmen" have come under fire for encouraging dangerous behavior. I always felt, as a fan of the show and films, that the Jackass crew never promoted their own behavior, they simply put themselves on display like human crash test dummies. However, at this point, as the guys get older, these reckless stunts have started to lose their charm. Action Point seems like a desperate attempt by an aging Knoxville to hold onto his youth - which in this case comes in the form of excessive, 80's-style binge-drinking and point blank shots to the groin.