NEW YORK—Hollywood’s summer, which kicks off with the fittingly combative “Captain America: Civil War,” will be a season of struggle: for box office, for originality and for opportunity.
More than ever, the big tent of summer moviegoing is held up by a forest of tentpoles stretching from May to August. The swelling size of the summer movie has turned the season into a game of survival. The possibility of bombing lurks as an ever-present threat, testosterone often dominates in front of and (especially) behind the camera, and few non-sequel, non-reboot films dare to compete.
Box office and stress levels run high in equal measure.
