Movies

About two months ago, on a day when I was in no way questioning my career path and life choices, I asked a question: “Is 2016 the worst summer movie season ever?” In early July, it was probably a little premature to raise that issue, but with theaters were filled with dreck like Independence Day: Resurgence, The Legend of Tarzan, and Alice Through the Looking Glass, it was hard not to wonder. At that time, I looked at the Rotten Tomatoes ratings from hundreds of wide releases from the last decade, and found that while the overall scores from 2016 were basically in line with those from ones from each of the last five years, the scores for just the biggest movies, the ones like Tarzan or Independence Day with budgets in excess of $100 million, were way lower this year.

Fans who are looking forward to the upcoming movie about departed Joey + Rory singer Joey Feek can now get a sneak peek at the film via a newly-released trailer.

In a summer filled with misfires and box office disappointments, the horror genre has kept its head above the water. The Conjuring 2 crossed the $100 million mark. Lights Out was a gigantic sleeper hit. And now, Don’t Breathe has closed out August with a surprising bang, dethroning Suicide Squad with a very strong opening weekend.

Trace Adkins will play Nathaniel Reed in 'Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story'.

Okay, so it was one of the worst summer movie seasons in recent memory. Trying to find the good blockbusters amongst the last four months releases sometimes felt like trying to find a needle in a stack of s---. But even this year there were diamonds in the rough. Today we’re celebrating the ten best, the summer movies of 2016 that didn’t make us weep for the future of cinema — and note that this list is just movies that got wide releases in at least 500 theaters. We’ll have a separate piece on under-the-radar summer films you might have missed next week on ScreenCrush. In the meantime, let’s celebrate the highlights from a depressing summer before we clear the decks and get ready for the fall.

The highly anticipated film "Suicide Squad" opens August 5th, and a local theater is celebrating by highlighting fan art made by six local artists.

It’s a little later than usual, but Netflix has finally announced their upcoming streaming releases for August — which is next week, by the way. Among this month’s offerings are new Netflix Original titles, like Baz Luhrmann’s series The Get Down and the animated adaptation of The Little Prince. As usual, there are several new films hitting the streaming library, including contemporary favorites like Blue Is the Warmest Color and No Country for Old Men. Read on for our full guide to August’s new Netflix Instant Releases.

This has been one of the strangest summers in recent memory when it comes to box office analysis, not because so many high profile movies have disappointed (although that has certainly been interesting), but because so many new releases are hanging out in the grey zone between hit and misfire. In an era where the success of so many movies is determined purely by opening weekend numbers, we’ve spent the past few months watching as movies has defied expectations after a weak opening or rode a solid opening into oblivion. The cut-and-dried successes can be counted on one hand.

How much does the new Ghostbusters need to make if it wants to be a bonafide, genuine hit? The opening weekend for director Paul Feig’s reboot of the beloved franchise raises more questions than answers and the second and third weekend will ultimately prove more telling. However, here’s what we can say right now: it opened with solid numbers in second place behind last week’s massive champion, The Secret Life of Pets.

After a pretty disappointing summer, our hopes are high (but not, like, too high) for August to swoop in and deliver at least one or two entertaining blockbusters before the season ends. Fueling that optimism is the release of Suicide Squad, David Ayer’s comic book villain team-up that promises to inject a little fun in the DC movie universe. Next month also brings a new stop-motion adventure from Laika, an R-rated animated movie about talking food (you know, for the grown-ups) and Meryl Streep’s latest Oscars power play. Read on for our complete guide to next month’s new movie releases.

If you've ever seen a Fast And Furious movie, XXX, Grease, or even ChiPs, then you know about Eddie Paul even if you don't know his name.

Just because you can do something, it doesn't always mean that you should.