Lionsgate was among those that eked out
some breathing room. Along with its August
successes (“Angel Has Fallen,” “Scary Stories
to Tell in the Dark”), the studio’s “John Wick:
Chapter 3 — Parabellum” was, with
$170.9 million, one of the summer’s
biggest successes.
“For me it’s important to dispel that audiences
are only going to see Marvel and Pixar and the
big tentpole,” said David Spitz, president of
domestic distribution for Lionsgate. “Movies
like ‘Scary Stories’ and ‘Good Boys’ and ‘Angel
Has Fallen’ prove that there is an audience
for that. ‘Good Boys’ was very encouraging
because prior to that it was: ‘Comedies are
dead. They’re just for streaming.’ And that’s
not the case.”
Universal’s “Good Boys,” the first R-rated
comedy to land No. 1 in more than three years,
proved that conventional wisdom is sometimes
wrong. But other acclaimed comedies that
were expected to pop — such as Amazon’s
“Late Night,” United Artists’ “Booksmart” and
Lionsgate’s “Long Shot” — didn’t.
Counterprogramming often simply didn’t
work. And neither did gloomy-looking critically
panned movies such as “Godzilla: King of
the Monsters” and “Dark Phoenix.” They were
among the season’s biggest flops.
Music continued to fuel modest hits, including
Paramount’s “Rocketman” and Universal’s
“Yesterday.” But by the end of summer, as the
lackluster performance of Warner Bros.’ Bruce
Springsteen-inspired “Blinded by the Light”
showed, that trend may be waning, too.