Summer Movie Season: It’s a Game of Survival

Summer Movie Season: It’s a Game of Survival
The World Premiere of Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War" at Dolby Theatre on April 12, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney
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NEW YORK—Hollywood’s summer, which kicked 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 and few non-sequel, non-reboot films dare to compete.

Box office and stress levels run high in equal measure.

“It’s a different landscape than 2002 when the first ‘Bourne’ movie came out,'‘ says Matt Damon, who returns to the franchise in Paul Greengrass’s ”Jason Bourne’‘ (July 29). “It’s like a high-stakes poker game that I don’t want to be in. The swings are just so brutal. ... You feel less a sense of exultation when they do well and more a sense of relief because the bets are so big now.’’

Film poster for the "Ben Hur," remake, to be released in August, 2016. (Paramount Pictures)
Film poster for the "Ben Hur," remake, to be released in August, 2016. Paramount Pictures