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.’’
